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 BELLASIS

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BELLASIS

3ondemned in 1590 as too much of a Regalist and Id 1605 as too much of a Papalist.

Eellarmine did not live to deal with the later and more serious stage of the Gahleo case, but in 1615 he took part in its earlier stage. He had always sho-rni great interest in the discoveries of that investigator, and was on terras of friendly correspondence with him. He took up too — as is witnessed by his letter to Galileo's friend Foscarini — exactly the right at- titude towards scientifio theories in seeming contra- diction with Scripture. If, as was undoubtedly the case then with Galileo's heliocentric theory, a scien- tific theory is insufficiently proved, it should be ad- vanced only as an hj-pothesis; but if, as is the case with this theory now, it is solidly demonstrated, care must be taken'to interpret Scripture only in accord- ance with it. When the Holy Office condemned the heliocentric theory, by an excess in the opposite di- rection, it became" Beliarmine's official duty to signify the condemnation to Galileo, and receive his submis- sion. Bellarmine Hved to see one more conclave, that which elected Gregory XV (February, 1621). His health was now failing, and in the summer of the same year he was permitted to retire to Sant' Andrea and prepare for the end. His death was most edifying and was a fitting termination to a life which had been no less remarkable for its virtues than for its achieve- ments.

His spirit of prayer, his singular delicacy of con- science and freedom from sin, his spirit of humility and poverty, together with the disinterestedness which he d'isplayed as much under the cardinal's robes as under tlie Jesuit's gown, his lavish charity to the poor, and his devotedness to work, had com- bined to impress those who knew him intimately with the feeling that he was of the number of the saints. Accordingly, when he died there was a gen- eral expectation that his cause would be promptly introduced. And so it was, under Urban VIII in 1627, when he became entitled to the appellation of Venerable. But a technical obstacle, arising out of Urban VIII's own general legislation in regard to beatifications, required its prorogation at that time. Though it was reintroduced on several occasions (1675, 1714, 1752, and 1832), and though on each oc- casion the great preponderance of votes was in favour •of the beatification, a successful issue has never yet been reached. This was partly because of the in- fluential character of some of those who recorded adverse votes, Barbarigo, Casanate, and Azzolino in 1675, and Passionei in 1752, but still more for reasons of political expediency, Beliarmine's name being ■closelv associated with a doctrine of papal authority most "obnoxious to the Regalist politicians of the French Court. "We have said", vrroXe Benedict XIV to Cardinal de Tencin, "in confidence to the General ■of the Jesuits that the delay of the Cause has come not from the petty matters laid to his charge by Cardinal Passionei, but from the sad circum- stances of the times " (Etudes Religieuses, 15 April,

1896). . ., r *u

A full list of Beliarmine's WTitmgs, and of those ■directed against him, may be seen in Soinmervogcl s "Bibliotheque de la compagnie de J&us". The fol- lowing are the principal: Controversial works. Dis- putationes de Controversiis Christiana; Fidei ad- versus hujus temporis ha"reticos", of the innumerable €ditions of which the chief are those of Ingolstadt (1586-89), Venice (1596), revi.sed personally by the author, but abounding in printer's errors, Paris or "Triadelphi" (1608), Prague (1721), Rome (1832); "De Exemptione clericorum", and " De Indulgentiis et Jubila-o", published as monographs in 1.599, but afterwards incorporated in the " De Controversiis j " De Transitu Romani Imperii a Grscis ad Francos <1584); "Responsio ad prajcipua capita Apologu-e ... pro successione Henrici Navarreni" (1586);

"Judicium de Libro quem Lutherani vocant Con- cordia" (1585); four Risposte to the WTitings on behalf of the Venetian Republic of John Marsiglio and Paolo Sarpi (1606); "Responsio Matthaei Torti ad librum inscriptum Triplici nodo triplex cuneus"

1608); "Apologia Bellarmini pro responsione sua ad librum Jacobi Magna; Britannise Regis" (1609);

'Tractatus de potestate Summi Pontificis in rebus temporalibus, adversus Gulielmum Barclay" (1610). Catechetical and Spiritual Works. "Dottrina Cris- tiana breve", and "Dichiarazione piii copiosa della dottrina cristiana" (1598), two catechetical works which have more than once received papal approba- tion, and have been translated into various lan- guages; "Dichiarazione del Simbolo" (1604), for the use of priests; "Admonitio ad Episcopum Theanen- sem nepotem smmi quse sint necessaria episcopo" (1612); "Exhortationes domestics", published only in 1899, by Pere van Ortroy; "Condones habitae Lovanii", the more correct edition (1615); "De As- censione mentis in Deum" (1615); "De ^Eterna felicitate sanctorum" (1616); "De gemitu columbs" (1617); "De septem verbis Christi" (1618); "De arte bene moriendi" (1620). The last five are spiritual works written during his annual retreats. Exegetical and other works. "De Scriptoribus ecclesiast."

(1615); "De Editione Latina Vulgata, quo sensu a ConcilioTridcntinodefinitumsit ut ca pro authentica habeatur", not published till 1749; "In omnes Psalmosdilucida expositio" (1611). Complete edi- tions of Beliarmine's Opera omnia have been published at Cologne (1617); Venice (1721); Naples (1856); Paris

(1870).

Ven R BeUarmini. S.R.E. Cardinalis,rxta quam rpse scnp- sit (with an Appendix), written in 1613. at the request of Fathers Euda-mon Joannis and Mutius Vitelleschi, first pub- lished among the acta of the Process of Beatification 16/5; republished in 18S7 by Dollinger and Recscb. w-ith notes many of which are useful but the general tone of which is unfair and spiteful; a multitude of unpublished documents in the archives of the Vatican, Simancas. Salamanca, the Society of Jesus, etc.; Epislola: familiares (1650); Eud.emon Joannis, De pioobihiCard. Bellarmini (1621); Flnali, Esanie fatto per me. that is by the lay brother who attended him m his last sickness. MS ; lives by Fuligati (1624; translated into Latin with addi- tions by Petra Sancta, 1626) and Bartoli. (1678); Lervini, Imago virtutum (1625). These form the chief original material. Of derived Uves the best are those by Frizon (1708), and Lot;- DERC (1893). See also le Bachelet in \acant, Du-l. de theol cath : and for Beliarmine's doctrine on papal authority, DE LA Serviere, De Jacobo Angl. Rege cum Card. R. Bellarmine . . . disputanle (1900). ^ „ „

Sydney F. Smith.

Bellasis, Edw.^rd, Serjeant-at-Law, b. 14 Octo- ber 1800; d. 24 January, 1873; was one of the most able and respected of that little band of English converts who in the later years of the Tractarian movement joined the Catholic Church from the ranks of the legal profession. The distinguished advocate, J R. Hope-Scott, who married Sir Walter Scott's granddaughter, and the conveyancer. Edward Bade- ley, to whom Cardinal (then Doctor) Newniaii in 1867 dedicated his volume of "Verses on Various Occasions", were the Serjeant's hfelong friends, and all three became Catholics about the same time. Edward Bellasis was the son of the Rev. George Bellasis, D.D., a scion of a younger branch of the Belasyse familv (see Bel.vsy.se, John), and of his second wife, I.eah Cooper Viall, the daughter and heiress of Emerj- Viall of Walsingham, Norfolk. His uncle. General John Bellasis, and his half- brothers, Joseph and George, won high militarv honours in India towards the close of the eighteenth centurv. Edward was educated at Clu-ist's Hospi- tal, aiid after making his legal studies at the Inner Temple he contrived at a relatively early age to form an excellent practice at the Chancerj' bar. It was, however, tlie period of great railway de- velopments in the United Kingdom, and Bellasis, turning his attention to the Parliamentarj' Com- mittees, was constantly retained as coimsel for the