Cano (Canus), Melchior

CANO, cɑ̄´nō (Canus), MELCHIOR: A scholastic Dominican of the University of Alcala; b. at Tarancón (38 m. w. of Cuenca), Spain [Jan. 1, 1509; d. at Toledo Sept. 30, 1560]. He took part in the deliberations of the Council of Trent, especially in those concerning the doctrine of the Eucharist, opposing the efforts made at the instance of the emperor Ferdinand that the cup should be given to the laity. Having returned from Trent, Philip II. made him bishop of the Canaries, without residence there, as he became provincial of his order in Castile. His principal works are: Prælectiones de pœnitentia and De sacramentis (both Salamanca, 1550), and his Loci theologici (1563), consisting of twelve books about the sources whence doctrinal proofs may be derived; the "authoritas" has its place before the "ratio," and the principal source is of course tradition. Although an opponent of the Jesuits, Cano was a thoroughgoing papal theologian, and he was a scholastic, although he opposed "false" scholasticism. For his opposition to the Jesuits he had to suffer denunciations which caused his citation to Rome in 1556 as "perditionis filius, Melchior Canus, diabolicis motus suasionibus, non erubuit prædicare, antichristum venisse." By the exertions of the Spanish government the citation was not headed. But the Loci theologici were placed on the Lisbon index in 1624, and were much altered by the expurgator.

K. Benrath.

Bibliography: F. H. Reusch, Der Index der verbotenen Bücher, i. 303 et passim, Bonn, 1883; F. Caballero, Conquenses 381illustres. II. Melchior Cano, pp. 279, 382, Madrid, 1871.