Moral Theology: Its Method and Masters
Ledesma, Petrus de
Drawn from the authors' own words; every quotation links to its place.
Dominican · ?–1616
Life
Born Salamanca (about 1550, NCE); died 9 September 1616, Salamanca. [Hurter, vol. III, col. 391; New Catholic Encyclopedia, 'Ledesma, Pedro de']
- Dominican (professed 1563, NCE); taught for forty years at Segovia, Ávila and Salamanca, where he held the chair of Durandus from 1604 and the vespers chair of St. Thomas from 1608. [Hurter, vol. III, col. 391; New Catholic Encyclopedia, 'Ledesma, Pedro de']
- Works: De divina perfectione (1596), De divinae gratiae auxiliis (1611), De magno matrimonii sacramento (1592), and in Spanish a Summa de sacramentos (2 vols., 1598; often reprinted, part translated into Latin). [Hurter, vol. III, col. 391]
- In moral theology he held the proposition later condemned by Innocent XI (2 March 1679, no. 2): that a judge may probably judge according to an opinion even less probable (Hurter). The NCE judges it unjust to call him a forerunner of probabilism; it praises his learning, holy life and defence of the strict Thomism of Báñez. [Hurter, vol. III, col. 391; New Catholic Encyclopedia, 'Ledesma, Pedro de']
Sources: H. Hurter, S.J., Nomenclator literarius theologiae catholicae, 3rd ed. (Innsbruck, 1903-1913), read on archive.org; New Catholic Encyclopedia (2nd ed., 2003), as published on Encyclopedia.com. Each fact names where it was read; the links go to the page or entry itself.
In Prümmer's Catalogue and Haringer's Index
- “Ledesma, Petrus de, O.P., Spanish (d. 1616), a very celebrated doctor in theology, wrote among other things: De magno matrimonii sacramento, 1 volume in 4to, Venice 1595; Summa seu theologia moralis de sacramentis. The work was written in Spanish and afterward rendered into Latin, 2 folio volumes, Salamanca 1614 and Lisbon 1617.” — Prümmer, Catalogue of authors
- [**: weighty, probabilist] “Ledesma Petrus, Spanish, Dominican, died 1616.” — Haringer's index of writers (Gury-Ballerini) (p. XXII, sign read on the page)
His Moral System, as Our Authors Report It
Every report quoted in the author's own words and linked to its place; point at a name to see his words. Haringer's signs give St. Alphonsus's judgment as Haringer found it in St. Alphonsus's works (his notice, Gury-Ballerini, 1884, p. XI); a sign on a writer the 1884 editor added to the list is the editor's own, and is said to be his.
| Probabilist | |
|---|---|
| Counted among them by one of our authors | Merkelbach, Summa II, excursus on the moral systems |
| “The most famous Dominican theologians of the time, Ledesma, Bañez, Alvarez, Ildephonsus, and others were all probabilists”Slater names a “Ledesma” among the most famous Dominican theologians of the time, all probabilists. The print does not say which: Merkelbach names both Pedro and Bartolomé among the Dominican probabilists, Prümmer (n. 342) names Bartolomé; Slater’s company (Báñez, Álvarez) is that of Pedro, Báñez’s defender in the controversy on grace | Slater, Short History, ¶ 88 |
| “Ledesma Petrus, Spanish, Dominican, died 1616.”Haringer marks him **, giving St. Alphonsus's judgment of him (weighty and probabilist) | Haringer's index, Index of writers, p. XXII |
No article in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913).