Maldonatus, Johannes

MALDONATUS, mal"do-ad'tas, JOHANNES (JUAN MALDONADO): Roman Catholic exegete; b. at Las Caws de la Reins (a village in the Spanish province of Estremadura) 1534; d. at Rome Jan. 5, 1583. He was educated at Salamanca; where he attained such distinction that on the completion of his studies in 1556 he was appointed professor, giving instruction for a short time in philosophy, and then accepting the chair of theology. He was prominently successful, but his very fame alarmed him, lest he should thus be won from the life of renunciation of the world on which he had long since determined. In 1562 accordingly he resigned his professorship and went to Italy, where on Aug. 10 he was received into the order of Jesus as a novice, and at the expiration of a year was ordained priest and appointed to a chair in the Collegium Romanum. In. 1563 he was sent by the general to Paris, where he was made professor in the College of Clermont, although the hostility manifested toward the Jesuits prevented him from beginning his lectures until the following year. He lectured at first on philosophy and attracted large audiences, but in Oct., 1565, he was appointed professor of theology, the Jesuits wishing to counteract the Gallicanism of the Sorbonne and disapproving of its too moderate opposition to Calvinism. Here again his popularity was phenomenal, but in 1570 his activity in Paris ceased for a time when he and nine companions were sent by the general of the order to Poitiers to establish a house for the instruction and conversion of young Calvinists. He met with little success, however, and on Oct. 10 resumed his lectures at Paris, interrupting his, activity only by a missionary trip of a few weeks to Sedan and Lorraine. Until Aug., 1576, he taught with ever-increasing prestige, although he was confronted with the growing jealousy of the Sorbonne. He was accused of having influenced the dying Montbrun, president of St. Andr6, to make a will in favor of the Jesuits, but was speedily acquitted, only to have a more serious charge brought against him on account of doubts concerning the Immaculate Conception. Herein he was in accord with the Council of Trent, but the Sorbonne, which had so-

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cepted the dogma in 1497 in harmony with a de cree of the Council of Basel, was impatient of such deviation from its views, and accused him of heresy in 1574. The archbishop of Paris, Pierre de Gondy, acquitted Maldonatus of the charge, whereupon the Sorbonne again accused him of heresy for having expressed the opinion, in a lecture delivered six years before, that no soul would be required to re main in purgatory more than ten years in all, whereas the usual view postulated seven years of expiation for each sin unatoned for during life. Twisting this mere opinion into a categorical statement, the Sorbonne lodged charges against Maldonatus before parliament, and the debate dragged wearily on until Pope Gregory XIII., at the request of both parties, interfered and declared Maldonatus orthodox in his teachings. The latter accordingly resumed his lectures, which he had declined to deliver during the trial, on May 6, 1576, but his reluctance to remain longer in Paris, combined with the pope's desire to reconcile the Sorbonne and Clermont, resulted in his transfer to the College of Bourgea, where he found a little leisure to devote to literary work. In the latter part of 1578 he was appointed visitor of his order in the province of France, and in this capacity devoted much en ergy to the development of the University of Pont h-Mousaon, which had been founded by Cardinal Guise in 1573 and placid under Jesuit control. Exhausted by his duties, he retired for a brief rest to Bourgea, but on Aug. 1, 1580, Everard Mercurian, the fourth general of the order, died, and Maldona tus was sent to Rome as the deputy of the province of France to attend the election fixed for Apr., 1581. He accordingly hastened to Italy, was in vited to preside at the election, and in this capacity proclaimed his compatriot, Aquaviva, the fifth gen eral of the Jesuits. His new superior detained him in Rome at the Collegium Romanum to give him leisure and materials for the completion of his com mentary on the Bible, and at the same time the pope appointed him a member of the committee for the revision of the Pentateuch, but he did not live to complete the latter task. The works of Mal donatus are as follows: Commentarii in quatluor Evangelia (2 vols., Pont-i;,.Mousson, 1596-97; new ed. by F. Sausen, 5 vols., Mainz, 1840, abridged by K. Martin in two vols., Mainz, 1850; Eng. traasl. of the commentary on Matthew by G. J. Davie, 2 vols., London, 1888-89); Comment4rii ire pro_ phetas q-uattttor Jeremiam, Baruch, Ezechielem et Ddnielem (Tours, 1G11); and Traclatus de cteri-. moniis missm (beat edited by P. Zaccaria, Biblio thecd Ritualis, iii., Rome, 1781). His Opera varua theologica were edited by two doctors of the Sorbonne, Dubois and Faure (3 vols., Paris, 1677).

(W. J. Mangold†.)

Bibliography: J. M. Prat. Maldoreat et l'univeraiti de Paris au xvi. aikte Paris, 1856 (somewhat one-aided); R. Simon, Ifiatoire crit%que des princspaus comura du N. T., DP. 818-832, Rotterdam 1893; L. E. Du pin, Nouvelle byt liolhdque des autcwa ecclesiaCti~ gvi. IZJ

Bayle Dictio a44~ Amster- dam 1710 P. . A~ gull anal Critical iv. 78-82, London, 1737 e, in TQ$, 1855 pp. 121 849.: A sad A, e Backer, BibliotALque des wins de 891cUsqq.~ Li teed. C Bommarvogel, v. 403 sqq. . Paris, 547-551. . E'8B, vi;;, bgg~pl; gL, viii.