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The Black Friar and the Catechism: A question of words and meaning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Michael E. Williams
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At the time of the Reformation the catechism began to assume a new importance. The rapid diffusion of printed works coincided with the spread of new reforming ideas. Luther had a catechism printed in 1529. This was followed by a Catholic catechism published at Augsburg in 1530. Most of the leading reformers produced similar manuals and Peter Canisius and John of Avila were in the field before the Catechism of the Council of Trent. But catechisms can tell us more than the way in which Protestant differed from Catholic. Not all correligionists agreed about the relative importance of doctrines nor indeed about method. We are reminded of this by the appearance of a new edition of the ‘Commentaries on the Christian Catechism’ by Archbishop Carranza. This work was first published in Antwerp in 1558, put on the Spanish Index of Prohibited Books in 1559 and officially condemned by Pope Gregory XIII in 1576. Four hundred years later in 1972, a new critical edition, with the Imprimatur of the Bishop of Salamanca, was published to commemorate the International Year of the Book.

Bartholomé Carranza, born 1503, was a Dominican of the Province of Castille. He was a consultor to the Inquisition at Valladolid and also censor of books, he attended the first two stages of Trent as one of Charles V’s theologians. At Trent he was a powerful advocate of episcopal residence and his experience at the council gave him first hand contact with religious controversy and the political situation outside Spain.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 56 , Issue 658 , March 1975 , pp. 121 - 129
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 Bartolomé Carranza de Miranda. Comentarios sobre el Catechismo Christiano. Edición critica y estudio historico por José Tellechea Idigoras. B.A.C. Madrid 1972 (2 vols.)‐ The account given in the first part of this article is largely drawn from Tellechea's historical introduction which also contains a full bibliography.

2 The only account, as far as I know of Carranza's stay in England is J. I. Tellechea Idigoras. Bartholomé Carranza y la restauracion catolica inglesa, 1554‐1558. Anthologia Annua 12 (1964), pp. 159‐282.

3 Tellechea. 1.e. Anth.Ann 12 (1964), esp. pp. 192‐195, ‘El problema de los bienes de la Iglesia’.

4 The epitaph reads: D. O. M. Bartholomaeo Carranza; Navarro, Dominico, Archiepiscopo Toletano, Hispaniarum Primati, Viro Doctrina, Contione atque Elemo‐synis Claro, Magnis Muneribus a Carolo V et a Philippo II Rege Catholico Sibi Commissis Egregie Functo, Animo In Prosperis Modesto et In Adversis Aequo, Obiit Anno 1576 Die Secundo Maii, Athanasio et Antonino Sacro, Aetatis Suae 73.

5 L. von. Pastor. The History of the Popes. Eng. trans. R. F. Kerr, vol. 17, p. 365. For the attitude of the Papacy to the Carranza trial useful information can be found in vol. 14, p. 315; vol. 16, pp. 327‐335 and vol. 17, pp. 344‐364.

6 Huerga, A. O.P. In M. Cani De locis theologicis opus, scholia historiam spiritualitatis spectantia. Angelicum, 1961, p. 20‐55Google Scholar.

7 Gonzales, E.. Teologia y tradition en la dotrina de Melchor Cano. Salmanticenses 10 (1963), 135‐160Google Scholar.

8 Chadwick, O.. From Bossuet to Newman (Birbeck Lectures, 1955‐56), p. 197Google Scholar n.

9 F. Caballero. Vida de Melchor Cano (Vol. ii of Conquenses ilustres), Madrid, 1871, p. 536s gives the Spanish version of the censures. J. Sanz y Sanz. Melchor Cano Cuestiones Fundamentales de critica historica sobre su vida y sus escritos, Madrid, 1959, gives the latin version.

10 J. I. Tellechea Idigoras. Censura de Frav Juan de la Pena sobre Proposiciones de Carranza (1559). Anthologia Annua (10), 1962, p. 406.

11 von Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. 17, p. 346‐7 and 355.

12 J. I. Tellechea Idigoras, Espanoles en Lovaina en 1551‐8. Primeras noticias sobre el baianismo. Revista Expanola de Teologia, vol. xxiii, 1963, p. 21‐33. Miguel Roca, El problema de los origines y evolucion del pensamiento teologica de Miguel Bayo. Anthologia Annua (5), 1957, p. 417‐492. Miguel Roca, Las censuras de las universidades de Alcalà y Salamanca a las proposiciones de Miguel Bayo y su influencia en la bula ‘ex omnibus afflictionibus’. Anthologia Annua (3), 1955, p. 711‐813.

13 ‘Quas quidem sententias stricto coram nobis examine ponderatas quanquam nonnullae aliquo pacto sustineri possent in rigore et proprio verborum sensu ab assertoribus intento haereticas erroneas suspectas temerarias scandalosas et in pias aures offensionem immittentes damnamus’.

14 Joseph Mendham M.A. An Account of the Indexes, both Prohibitory and Expurgatory of the Church of Rome. London, 1826, is still the best introduction in English to the Indexes.

15 von Pastor, Lives of the Popes, vol. 17, p. 193.

16 It is only fair to mention that the 1848 edition of Ripalda was in fact prohibited by the Bishops of Almeria and Granada because it translated the commandment as ‘no cometer adulterio’ whereas it should be ‘no fornicar’ (cf. Carbonero y Sol. Indice de los libros prohibidos, Madrid, 1873, p. 158). It is interesting to note such a concern about the right use of words in nineteenth century Andalucia. No doubt it was prompted by a fear that a too narrow interpretation of ‘ne moechaberis’ would lead to laxity.