Robert Bellarmine (b. Montepulciano, Tuscany, October 4, 1542; d. Rome, September 17, 1621) was one of the best-known and most widely published Roman Catholic theologians of the post-Reformation period. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1560, began the study of theology at Padua in 1567, and in 1569 went to Louvain both as student and as professor. There he began his lectures on Roman Catholic teachings then under attack by the Reformers. In 1576 he was appointed to the chair of controversial theology at the Roman College, later the Gregorian University. His lect…