Gregory of Valencia

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Father Gregory of Valencia SJ

Gregory of Valencia , often also Gregor de Valencia (* March 1549 in Medina del Campo , Castile ; † April 25, 1603 in Naples ), was a Spanish Catholic priest , Jesuit and theologian who worked in Bavaria for many years .

biography

Gregory of Valencia was born in March 1549, the year when his later friar Petrus Canisius came to Germany. In 1564 he began studying philosophy, law and theology at the University of Salamanca , where he joined the Jesuit order on January 12, 1565. In 1565/66 Gregor completed his novitiate in Medina and continued his studies in Salamanca from 1566–68. After a short stay in Valladolid , he returned to Salamanca in 1571. The young cleric was strongly influenced by the Thomism that flourished there .

In the same year the order general Francisco Borgia called him to Rome , where he taught philosophy at the Jesuit college. After his ordination and Borgia's death, his successor Everard Mercurian sent him to Germany in 1573. First Gregor von Valencia continued his studies at the University of Dillingen , where he also taught at the same time. In September 1573 he received his licentiate here , followed by his doctorate in October 1575.

On October 20, 1575, Father Gregor began his lectures at the University of Ingolstadt as a professor of dogmatics and controversial theology . He held this office for 17 years and ceded the chair to his student Jakob Gretser in 1592 . But he still held lectures at times until 1597 and also acted as dean of the university.

Gregory of Valencia became a profound expert on German conditions. He was a busy controversial writer and replied to most of the Protestant publications of his day. His most important such work, a summary of all his theological statements specially tailored to Germany, is the book “Analysis of the Catholic Faith” ( “Analysis fidei catholicae” ), published in Ingolstadt in 1585. There he already represented the infallibility of the Pope at that time and his remarks were partly taken literally around 300 years later, in the First Vatican Council when defining the dogma. The book was reissued in 1932 in contemporary German, edited by the Krautheim pastor Franz Steffan. The main literary achievement of Father Gregory, however, remains the 4 volumes "Commentarii theologici in Summam S. Thomae Aquinatis" , through which he re-anchored the study of theological scholasticism on German soil.

Portrait engraving, published in 1603 in one of his works

During his time in Ingolstadt, the future elector Maximilian I, who had been studying there since 1587, chose him as his confessor and spiritual leader. His father Wilhelm V also often sought advice from the well-known theologian. For example, in the dispute as to whether, despite the canonical prohibition of interest , it may be allowed to take interest in certain cases. Regarding this, Gregory of Valencia traveled to Rome in 1581 with the order provincial Paul Hoffäus (1522-1608) in order to take part in internal consultations on the much discussed question. Father Gregor came to the conclusion that 5% interest on loan capital was permissible on the basis of a mutually terminable pension contract. This view spread quickly and was elevated to Bavarian law by Duke Wilhelm V in 1583. When the Duke put some questions about witchcraft to the University Faculty of Theology and Law in 1590, Gregory of Valencia advised in an expert opinion that the witch trials should be continued, which, however, did not show any particular commitment in this matter, but merely corresponded to the generally prevailing views at the time. His student Adam Tanner became one of the champions against the witch hunt .

Father Gregor had accompanied Emperor Rudolf II in 1582 , Duke Wilhelm V in 1591 and the Hereditary Prince Maximilian in 1593, and in 1594 he was sent to the Reichstag in Regensburg on behalf of the university .

Pope Clement VIII appointed the Jesuit, whom he held in high esteem, whom he had also referred to as “doctor doctorum”, in 1598 as prefect of studies and lecturer in theology at the Collegium Romanum . This meant an award for his person and recognition of his theology. In 1602, the pontiff put him on the examination board to investigate the complex dispute over the nature of effective grace . Here Gregory of Valencia, before the commission and the Pope, who had ordered a solemn disputation under his chairmanship for clarification, defended the views of his friar Luis de Molina .

The father did not live to see the outcome of the difficult and exhausting trial. He went to Naples to recover, where he died on April 25, 1603.

Modern appreciation

Commentarii theologici , 1603

Siegfried Hofmann, Ingolstadt's leading historian , described Gregor von Valencia as the most important German theologian in the century after the Council of Trent , as is the Biographical-Bibliographical Church Lexicon by Traugott Bautz . Martin Grabmann calls him the "restorer of theology in Germany". The historian Martin Mulsow considers Gregory of Valencia to be one of the great dogmatists of his time and he writes in this regard: "Before you had to orient yourself to Padua or Rome, now you could hear modern theology in Ingolstadt." (Biographical Lexicon of the Ludwig-Maximilians- University).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ August von Kluckhohn :  Hoffaeus, Paulus . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880, p. 565.
personal data
SURNAME Valencia, Gregory of
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Valencia, Gregor de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jesuit and theologian
DATE OF BIRTH March 1549
PLACE OF BIRTH Medina del Campo
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1603
Place of death Naples