Moral Theology: Its Method and Masters
Martin Aspilcueta
Drawn from the authors' own words; every quotation links to its place.
Canon Regular · 1493–1586
Dates differ: Prümmer 1493–1586; Haringer ?–1586.
Life
Born 13 May 1493, Barasoain, Navarre (the 1913 Encyclopedia gives 13 December 1491); died 21 June 1586, Rome. [New Catholic Encyclopedia]
- Martín de Azpilcueta, called Doctor Navarrus; a cousin of St. Francis Xavier; doctor of canon law. [New Catholic Encyclopedia]
- Taught at Toulouse, Salamanca and Coimbra (1524-1538); consultor of the Sacred Penitentiary; Pius V, Gregory XIII and Sixtus V were his friends and patrons. [New Catholic Encyclopedia]
- Defended Archbishop Bartolomé de Carranza of Toledo and asked that the case be heard in Rome, which cost him the favour of Philip II, who later stood in the way of his being made a cardinal. [New Catholic Encyclopedia]
- His Manuale sive Enchiridion confessariorum et paenitentium was long held a classic; the best edition of his works is Cologne, 1609 (5 vols.). [New Catholic Encyclopedia]
- Further reading named by the NCE: Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques 5:1368-1374; Dictionnaire de droit canonique 1:1579-1583; Hurter, Nomenclator 3:344-348. [New Catholic Encyclopedia]
Sources: 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
- “Navarrus. Thus Martinus Azpilcueta, Spanish (1493-1586), Canon Regular, is commonly called. In his time he was very well known, and for a long time he fulfilled at Rome the office of Penitentiary. All his works appeared in 5 folio volumes, Lyons 1594 and several times afterward.” — Prümmer, Catalogue of authors
- [*: learned] “Navarrus (Martinus Azpilcueta de Navarra), Spanish, canon regular, on account of great knowledge in theology and canon law was called to Rome and made penitentiary. In him, before the other virtues, liberality toward the needy especially excelled. (Commentary on Canon Law. Enchiridion or Manual, etc.) Having been born ninety-two years, died 1586.” — Haringer's index of writers (Gury-Ballerini) (p. XXV, 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.
| Probabiliorist | |
|---|---|
| “Yet certain persons continued to think otherwise, as Dr. Navarrus Azpicuelta, Ant. Corduba and Fabri from the Order of Friars Minor, Palacios, also P. Comitoli and A. Bianchi from the Society of Jesus, all probabiliorists”Merkelbach: against the probabilists of his time he was a probabiliorist | Merkelbach, Summa II, excursus on the moral systems |
Where Our Authors Discuss Him
Each read in its full passage; the words quoted are the author's own. Where several authors say the same thing, one is quoted and the others follow “in nearly the same words”; point at a name to see his words.
| “Among them stand out Martin Azpilcueta (the Navarrese Doctor, 1586), who wrote the Manual for Confessors”His Manual of confessors; first among the casuists | Vermeersch, Theologia moralis I, n. 19In nearly the same words: Tanquerey, Fundamental Moral Theology, n. 49; Koch-Preuss, Handbook I, history of moral theology |
| “Therefore Navarrus very well says that he regards as more common an opinion approved by six doctors treating the matter professedly”His rule: six or seven approved authors make an opinion common | Bucceroni, Institutiones, n. 122In nearly the same words: Slater, Short History, ¶ 82 |
| “Later authors, such as Angelus de Clavasio (1480), Sylvester Prierias (1516), and Navarrus (1560) give lists of the different rules of law”Slater names him among the later authors who listed the rules of law for doubtful cases | Slater, Short History, ¶ 82 |
| “Now he is esteemed a great theologian who possesses the greatest authority among theologians on account of his distinguished doctrine, prudence, and probity”Konings names him among the great theologians whose word that an opinion is probable makes it so | Konings, Compendium, n. 57 |
In the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)
“Martin Aspilcueta”, vol. 1, by Thomas Shahan. Public domain; transcription at New Advent (which expands some of the print's abbreviations).
(Also AZPILCOETA.)
Generally known as Navarrus, or Doctor Navarrus, a famous Spanish canonist and moral theologian; b. in the Kingdom of Navarre, 13 December, 1491; d. at Rome, 1 June, 1586. He was a relative of St. Francis Xavier, studied at Alcalá and in France, and became professor of canon law at Toulouse and Cahors. Later, he returned to Spain and occupied the same chair for fourteen years at Salamanca, and for seven years at Coimbra in Portugal. At the age of eighty he went to Rome to defend his friend Bartolomeo Carranza, Archbishop of Toledo, accused before the Tribunal of the Inquisition. Though he failed to exculpate the Archbishop, Aspilcueta was highly honoured at Rome by several popes, and was looked on as an oracle of learning and prudence. His humility, disinterestedness, and charity were proverbial. He reached the patriarchal age of 95, and is buried at Rome in the national Church of San Antonio de' Portoghesi. Among other lives of Aspilcueta there is one by his nephew, prefixed to the Roman edition of his works. His "Manuale sive Enchiridion Confessariorum et Pnitentium" (Rome, 1568) originally written in Spanish was long a classical text in the schools and in ecclesiastical practice. In his work on the revenues of benefices, first published in Spanish (Salamanca, 1566), translated into Latin (1568), and dedicated to Philip II and St. Pius V, he maintained that beneficed clergymen were free to expend the fruits of their benefices only for their own necessary support and that of the poor. He wrote numerous other works, e.g. on the Breviary, the regulars, ecclesiastical property, the jubilee year, etc. A complete edition of his works was printed at Rome in 1590 (3 vols. fol.); also at Lyons, 1590; Venice, 1602; and Cologne, 1615 (2 vols. fol.). A compendium of his writings was made by J. Dastellanus (Venice, 1598).
Sources: GIRAUD, Bibli. Sacr., II 334-336 (gives list of his writings); HURTER, Nomenclator, (1892), I, 124-127.