Editing Robert Bellarmine (section)

==Works==
Bellarmine's books bear the stamp of their period; the effort for literary elegance (so-called ''"maraviglia"'') had given place to a desire to pile up as much material as possible, to embrace the whole field of human knowledge, and incorporate it into theology. His controversial works provoked many replies, and were studied for some decades after his death.{{Efn|''On Laymen or Secular People''; ''On the Temporal Power of the Pope. Against William Barclay''; and ''On the Primary Duty of the Supreme Pontiff'', are included in Bellarmine, [https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/on-temporal-and-spiritual-authority ''On Temporal and Spiritual Authority''], Stefania Tutino (ed.) trans., Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 2012|name=|group=}} At Leuven he made extensive studies in the [[Church Fathers]] and [[scholastic theologian]]s, which gave him the material for his book ''De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis'' (Rome, 1613). It was later revised and enlarged by [[Sirmond]], [[Labbeus]], and [[Casimir Oudin]]. Bellarmine wrote the preface to the new [[Sixto-Clementine Vulgate]].<ref name=smith/> Bellarmine also prepared for posterity his own commentary on each of the Psalms. An English translation from the Latin was published in 1866.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ecatholic2000.com/bell/psalms.shtml#_toc417747136|title=A COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS|website=www.ecatholic2000.com|access-date=22 November 2019|archive-date=8 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108231532/https://www.ecatholic2000.com/bell/psalms.shtml#_toc417747136|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Dogmatics===
{{main|Disputationes de Controversiis}}
From his research grew ''Disputationes de controversiis christianae fidei'' (also called ''Controversiae''), first published at [[Ingolstadt]] in 1581&ndash;1593. This major work was the earliest attempt to systematize the various religious disputes between Catholics and Protestants. Bellarmine reviewed the issues<ref name="rice">{{Cite web|url=http://galileo.rice.edu/chr/bellarmine.html|title=The Galileo Project {{!}} Christianity {{!}} Robert Cardinal Bellarmine|website=galileo.rice.edu|access-date=23 June 2017|archive-date=7 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180107211216/http://galileo.rice.edu/chr/bellarmine.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and devoted eleven years to it while at the Roman College. In August 1590, [[Pope Sixtus V]] decided to place the first volume of the ''Disputationes'' on the [[Index Librorum Prohibitorum|Index]] because Bellarmine argued in it that the Pope is not the temporal ruler of the whole world and that temporal rulers do not derive their authority to rule from God but from the [[consent of the governed]]. However, Sixtus died before the revised Index was published, and the next Pope, [[Pope Urban VII|Urban VII]], removed the book from the Index during his brief twelve-day reign.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Blackwell|first=Richard J.|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v1gFDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT123|title=Galileo, Bellarmine, and the Bible|date=31 January 1991|publisher=University of Notre Dame Press|isbn=978-0-268-15893-4|page=30|language=en|chapter=Chapter 2: Bellarmine's Views Before the Galileo Affair|doi=10.2307/j.ctvpg847x|quote=Bellarmine himself was not a stranger to theological condemnation. In August 1590 Pope Sixtus V decided to place the first volume of the ''Controversies'' on the ''Index'' because Bellarmine had argued that the pope is not the temporal ruler of the whole world and that temporal rulers do not derive their authority to rule from God through the pope but through the consent of the people governed. However Sixtus died before the revised ''Index'' was published, and the next pope, Urban VII, who reigned for only twelve days before his own death, removed Bellarmine’s book from the list during that brief period. The times were precarious.|access-date=4 September 2020|archive-date=20 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230220051915/https://books.google.com/books?id=v1gFDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT123|url-status=live}}</ref>[[File:Dottrina cristiana tradotta in lingua arabica.tif|thumb|Page of the short catechism of Bellarmine: ''Dottrina cristiana breve'', 1752]]

In 1597–98, he published a ''[[Catechism]]'' in two versions ({{Interlanguage link|A Short Christian Doctrine|lt=short|it|Dottrina cristiana breve|qid=}} and {{Interlanguage link|An Ample Declaration of the Christian Doctrine|lt=full|it|Dichiarazione più copiosa della dottrina cristiana|qid=}}) which has been translated into 60 languages and was the official teaching of the [[Catholic Church]] for centuries.<ref>Introduction by Bishop Athanasius Schneider to {{Cite book|title=Doctrina Christiana: The Timeless Catechism of St. Robert Bellarmine|author-last=Bellarmine|author-first=St. Robert|translator-last=Grant|translator-first=Ryan|publisher=Mediatrix Press|year=2016|pages=xiv-xv}}</ref>

===Venetian Interdict===
{{main|Venetian Interdict}}
Under [[Pope Paul V]] (reigned 1605&ndash;1621), a major conflict arose between [[Venice]] and the [[Papacy]]. [[Paolo Sarpi]], as spokesman for the Republic of Venice, protested against the papal [[Interdict (Catholic canon law)|interdict]], and reasserted the principles of the [[Council of Constance]] and of the [[Council of Basel]], denying the pope's authority in secular matters. Bellarmine wrote three rejoinders to the Venetian theologians, and may have warned Sarpi of an impending murderous attack, when in September 1607, an unfrocked friar and brigand by the name of Rotilio Orlandini planned to kill Sarpi for the sum of 8,000 crowns.<ref>''The Cambridge Modern History, Volume 4: Fra Paolo Sarpi'' (Cambridge University Press 1906), p. 671</ref> Orlandini's plot was discovered, and when he and his accomplices crossed from Papal into Venetian territory they were arrested.<ref>Robertson, Alexander (1893) ''Fra Paolo Sarpi: the Greatest of the Venetians'', London: Sampson, Low, Marston & Co. pp. 114–117</ref>

===Allegiance oath controversy and papal authority===
{{Further|Oath of Allegiance of James I of England}}
Bellarmine also became involved in controversy with King [[James I of England]]. From a point of principle for [[English Catholics]], this debate drew in figures from much of Western Europe.<ref>W. B. Patterson, ''James VI and I and the Reunion of Christendom'' (1997), pp. 76–77.</ref> It raised the profile of both protagonists, King James as a champion of his own restricted [[Calvinist]] Protestantism, and Bellarmine for [[Counter-Reformation|Tridentine Catholicism]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/bellarmine-jefferson-and-the-declaration-of-independence|title=Bellarmine, Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence|work=National Catholic Register|access-date=23 June 2017|archive-date=16 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116194004/http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/bellarmine-jefferson-and-the-declaration-of-independence|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Devotional works===
During his retirement, he wrote several short books intended to help ordinary people in their spiritual life: ''De ascensione mentis in Deum per scalas rerum creatorum opusculum'' (''The Mind's Ascent to God by the Ladder of Created Things''; 1614) which was translated into English as ''Jacob's Ladder'' (1638) without acknowledgement by {{ill|Henry Isaacson (biographer)|lt=Henry Isaacson|qid=Q18671422|s=1|v=sup}},<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A08025.0001.001?view=toc|title=Iacob's ladder consisting of fifteene degrees or ascents to the knowledge of God by the consideration of his creatures and attributes.|website=quod.lib.umich.edu|access-date=23 June 2017|archive-date=18 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418153334/http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A08025.0001.001?view=toc|url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[s:The Art of Dying Well|The Art of Dying Well]]'' (1619) (in Latin, English translation under this title by [[Edward Coffin]]),<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Edward Coffin}}</ref> and ''The Seven Words on the Cross''.