The Bellarmine-Jefferson Legend and the Declaration of Independence

Abstract

The Bellarmine-Jefferson legend dates from the article of Mr. Gaillard Hunt, entitled “Cardinal Bellarmine and the Virginia Bill of Rights,” which appeared in the Catholic Historical Review, October, 1917, pp. 276–289. The article sets forth that Jefferson was indebted to Cardinal Bellarmine for the principles of democratic government embodied in the Declaration of Independence, and also embodied in the Virginia Bill of Rights. The alleged discovery seems now to be accepted in Roman Catholic periodicals as a fixed fact. Mr. Hunt's article, which was also issued in separate form, demands attention from the position which Mr. Hunt occupied as chief of the Division of Manuscripts in the Congressional Library at Washington and for his Life of Madison and other works. He was a convert to the Roman Church. He died in 1924. All subsequent treatments of the Bellarmine-Jefferson theory start with Mr. Hunt's assertions.