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Double Justice, Diego Laynez, and the Council of Trent

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Carl E. Maxcey
Affiliation:
assistant professor of theology inLoyola University, Chicago, Illinois.

Extract

During the sixth session of the Council of Trent, Girolamo Seripando and others proposed a theory of justification which the council fathers felt leaned toward the Lutheran view of justification. The theory, known as duplex justitia or double justice, was reviewed by the various theologians, reflected upon, and finally rejected.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1979

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References

1. For other theologians espousing double justice see Pas, Paul, “La doctrine de Ia double justice au Concile de Trente,” Ephemerides Theologicae Louanienses 30 (1954): 1314, 2730.Google Scholar See also Jedin, Hubert, Papal Legate at the Council of Trent: Cardinal Seripando, trans. Eckhoff, Frederic C. (St. Louis, 1947), pp. 355357, 366370.Google Scholar Seripando's views on double justice are found in Concilium Tridentinum Actorum: Pars Altera, ed. Stephanus Ehses (Freiburg i. Br., 1964) vol. 5. 2. 332336, 371375, 666676, 821828;Google Scholar see also vol. 12: 664–671 (hereafter cited as CT).

2. New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967 ed., s.v. “Double Justice.”

3. A select number of works which treat Laynez are: Astrain, P. Antonio, Historia de la Compañia de Jésus, vol. 1, 2nd edition (Madrid, 1912), pp. 534537.Google ScholarCereceda, Feliciano S.J., Diego Lainez: En la europa religiosa de su tiempo 1512–1565, 2 vols. (Madrid, 19451946).Google Scholar Seripando is treated in vol. 1, pp. 242–248. Laynez' refutation is in vol. 1, pp. 248–253. Gutiérrez, Constancio, “Diego Lainez,” Diccionario de Historica Eclesiástica de España, Dirigído por Quintín Aldea Vaquero et al. (Madrid, 1972), vol. 2, pp. 12711272.Google Scholarde Azagra y Beladiez, Andrés Martínez, El P. Diego Laynez: Segundo Prepósito General de la Compañia de Jésus (Madrid, 1933).Google Scholar A Spanish translation of Laynez' speech on imputed justice is found on pp. 331–382. Laynez' refutation of Seripando in a condensed form is on pp. 301–306. de Ribadeneyra, Pedro S.J., Vida del Padre Maestro Diego Lainez (1st ed., Madrid, 1594),Google Scholar most current edition, Historias de la Contrarreforma by de Ribadeneyra, Pedro S.J. in Biblioteca de Autores Christianos (Madrid, 1945), pp. 433581.Google Scholar

4. Fichter, Joseph H., James Laynez: Jesuit (St. Louis, 1946), pp. 157.Google Scholar See also Monumenta Historica Societatis Jesu, 113 vols., vol. 1, Polanco, 4:150Google Scholar (hereafter MHSJ).

5. MHSJ, vol. 27, Hieronymi Nadal Epistolae, 4: 109111.Google Scholar See also MHSJ, vol. 15, Hieronymi Nadal Epistolae, 2: 197.Google Scholar

6. MHSJ, vol. 55, Monumenta Lainii, 8: 665669, 673675.Google Scholar (Paul III and Julius III had dispensed the Jesuits from choir.)

7. See MHSJ, vol. 15, Hieronymi Nadal Epistolae, 2: 8286Google Scholar and Astrain, , Historia, 1: 74.Google Scholar

8. MHSJ, Vol. 55, Monumenta Lainii, 8: 831855.Google ScholarAstrain, , Historia, 1: 74.Google Scholar

9. “… parece cosa increíble, si Dios nuestro Señor particularmente no le hubiera favorecido e infundídole gran parte de lo que sobia, para que con ello más le serviese e ilustrase la Compañia,” Ribadeneyra, , Vida (1945), p. 572.Google Scholar

10. Jedin, Hubert, A History of the Council of Trent, trans. Graf, Dom Ernest O.S.B., vol. 2 (London, 1961), pp. 255256.Google Scholar

11. CT 5. 2. 669676.Google Scholar

12. Ibid., 12:668–671.

13. Ibid., 5. 2. 668–669. See also Jedin, , Papal Legate, p. 370.Google Scholar

14. CT 5. 2. 669; 12:668671.Google Scholar

15. Jedin, , Papal Legate, p. 336.Google Scholar

16. CT 12: 669;Google Scholar 5. 2. 827–828.

17. Jedin, , Papal Legate, p. 370.Google Scholar

18. Jedin, , History 2:253254.Google Scholar

19. One of the most important was Salmeron. See Olazarán, Jesus, “En el IV centenario de un voto tridentino del Jesuita Alfonso Salmeron sabre la doble justitia,” Estudios Eclesiasticos 20 (1946):211240.Google Scholar

20. Jedin indicated that it was approximately two hours in History 2: 256257.Google Scholar

21. Lainez, Jacobi, Disputationes Tridentinae, ed. Grisar, Hartmann, vols. 1 and 2 (Ratisbon, 1886).Google Scholar

22. CT 5. 2. 612.Google Scholar

23. CT 5. 2. 614.Google Scholar

24. Ibid.

25. Ibid.

26. Ibid., pp. 614–615.

27. Ibid., p. 615.

28. Ibid.

29. Ibid.

30. Ibid.

31. Ibid., p. 616.

32. Ibid.

33. Ibid.

34. Ibid.

35. Ibid.

36. Ibid., p. 617.

37. Ibid.

38. Ibid.

39. Ibid.

40. Ibid.

41. Fichter, , James Laynez, pp. 6566.Google Scholar

42. Jedin, , History, 2:257.Google Scholar

43. Pas, , “Doctrine,” pp. 5152.Google Scholar

44. For general information on Gropper, see Braunisch, Reinhard, Die Theologie der Rechtfertigung im Enchiridion (1538) des Johannes Gropper: sein krztischer Dialog mit Philipp Melanchthon (Muenster, Westf., 1974);Google Scholarvan Gulik, Wilhelm, Johannes Cropper(1503 bis 1559): Ein Beitrag zur Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, besonders der Rheinlande im 16 Jahrhundert (Freiburg, 1906);Google Scholar and Lipgens, Walter, Kardinal Johannes Cropper, 1503–1559, und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform in Deutschland (Muenster, Westf., 1951).Google Scholar

45. It was accepted by Contarini, Pole, and others. See Fenlon, Dermot, Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy: Cardinal Pole and the Counter Reformation (Cambridge, 1972).Google Scholar For an account of the 1541 discussions see Corpus Reformatorum, ed. Bretschneider and Bindseil (Halle, 18341860) 4: 199201.Google Scholar For GasparoContarini's doctrine of double justice see Corpus Catholicorum, vol. 7, Epistola de justificatione (Muenster, 1923), pp. 2334.Google Scholar Cf. Dittrich, Franz, Regesten und Briefe des Kardinal Gasparo Contarini (Braunsberg, 1881).Google Scholar

46. An examination of Laynez' alma mater, the University of Alcalá, indicates that the library holdings in philosophy consisted almost exclusively of texts dealing with the physics, metaphysics, logic, and ethics of Aristotle. See Urriza, Juan, La preclara Facultad de Arte y Filosofia de Ia Universidad de Alcala de Henares en el siglo de oro, 1509–1621 (Madrid, 1941), pp. 275342, 430440.Google Scholar

47. Denzinger, Henricus, ed., Enchiridion Symbolorum: Definitionurn et Declarationum de Rebus Fidei et Morum (Freiburg i. Br., 1965), no. 1528.Google Scholar

48. Ibid., no. 1529.

49. Ibid., nos. 1545–1550. It is almost certain that the council intended this merit to be meritum de condigno.