Robert Bellarmine and His Controversies with the Reformers.

Abstract

Summary Roberto Bellarmino was the defender of Roman Catholic orthodoxy as it was re-affirmed at the Council of Trent over against the critical claims made by the various strands of the Protestant Reformation. This paper will provide a brief introduction to Bellarmine’s life, especially as far as his early engagements with Protestantism are concerned. Then it will sketch the apologetic import of his critical interaction with Protestant theology as it is presented in his magnum opus, namely the Controversies. The question will be asked if, and in which ways, articles 9 and 10 of the Apostles’ Creed are the central points of conflict between Rome and the Reformation. Until now this issue has not received sufficient attention and the present paper will try to address it. Bellarmine worked hard to achieve his objectives by way of winning the ‘war’ with theological arguments. For him it was either Rome or the Reformation (aut-aut).