Juan Maldonado - Life

Life

At the age of fourteen or fifteen he went to the University of Salamanca, where he studied Latin with two blind professors, who, however, were men of great erudition, Greek with Ferman Nuñez (el Pinciano), and philosophy with Toledo (afterwards a cardinal), and theology with Padre Domingo Soto. He declared, as late as the year 1574, that he had forgotten nothing he had learned in grammar and philosophy. Having finished his course of three years in the latter of these two studies, Maldonado would have devoted himself to jurisprudence with a view to the exalted offices of the magistracy; but, persuaded by one of his fellow-students, though to the disgust of those upon whom he was dependent, he turned his attention to theology—a choice of which he never repented. Having studied the sacred sciences for four years, and passed through the examination and exercises of the doctorate, he taught philosophy, theology, and Greek for some time in the University of Salamanca. The register of the Salamanca College of the Society states that he was admitted there in 1558 and sent to Rome to be received. He took the Jesuit habit in the Novitiate of San Andrea, 19 August 1562, was ordained priest in the following year, and for some months heard cases of conscience in the Roman College.

The Collège de Clermont having been opened in Paris, Maldonado was sent thither in the autumn of 1563. In February, 1564, he commenced lecturing on Aristole's De Anima. From 1565 to 1569 he lectured in theology. His health beginning to fail, a year of rest followed, during which (1570) he gave missions in Poitou, where Calvinism was prevalent, and he was so successful that the people of Poitiers petitioned for a Jesuit College. From 1570 to 1576 he again lectured in theology, also delivering conferences to the court, by royal command, and effecting the conversion of various Protestant princes. At the instance of the Duc de Montpensier, he proceeded to Sedan, to convert the Duchess de Bouillon, the duke's daughter, who had become a Calvinist. He held, in her presence some very notable disputations with Protestant preachers. During the absence of the provincial, he also acted for some months as vice-provincial, when his uprightness was vindicated in an action brought against him by the heirs of the President de Montbrun de Saint-André, and in the case of the novice Jannel, who entered the Society in opposition to his parents' wishes. The Parliament proclaimed his innocence.

In consequence of rivalries on the part of the professors of the university, the pope assigned him to teach theology at Toulouse, but this was prevented by the Calvinists, who blocked the roads leading thither and he withdrew to Bourges to write his "Commentary on the Gospels". In 1578-79 he was visitor of the French Province of the Society, and then returned to continue his labours at Bourges. The province chose him, in 1580, as elector at the fourth general congregation, at Rome, where he delivered the opening discourse. Acquaviva, having been elected general, ordered him to remain at Rome, and Pope Gregory XIII appointed him to the commission for revising the text of the Septuagint, to the excellence of which revision Maldonado largely contributed.

In 1583, fifteen days before his death, when he had not yet completed his fiftieth year, he delivered to the general his unfinished commentaries. He was a man of eminent virtue, of subtle intellect, excellent memory, immense reading and erudition, and was consulted by the most illustrious personages of France, and sought after by the King of Poland for the good of his dominions. He has been accused but upon insufficient grounds, of certain rash utterances and of inordinate attachment to his own opinions. He died in Rome on 5 January 1583, aged 49.