Reconstructing Thomist Astrology: Robert Bellarmine and the Papal Bull coeli et terrae (2020)
Tarrant, Neil (Author)
Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology
Volume: 77
Issue: 1
Pages: 26-49
Historians have portrayed the papal bull Coeli et terrae (1586) as a significant turning point in the history of the Catholic Church’s censorship of astrology. They argue that this bull was intended to prohibit the idea that the stars could naturally incline humans towards future actions, but also had the effect of preventing the discussion of other forms of natural astrology including those useful to medicine, agriculture, and navigation. The bull, therefore, threatened to overturn principles established by Thomas Aquinas, which not only justified long-standing astrological practices, but also informed the Roman Inquisition’s attitude towards this art. The promulgation of the bull has been attributed to the ‘rigour’ of the incumbent pope, Sixtus V. In this article I revise our understanding of this bull in two ways. First, I reconsider the Inquisition’s attitude towards astrology in the mid-sixteenth century, arguing that its members promoted a limited form of Thomist astrology that did not permit the doctrine of inclination. Second, using Robert Bellarmine’s unpublished lectures discussing Aquinas’s views of astrology, I suggest that this attitude was common during the sixteenth century, and may have been caused by the crisis of Renaissance astrology precipitated by the work of Giovanni Pico.
...MoreArticle Francisco Malta Romeiras (2020) The Inquisition and the Censorship of Science in Early Modern Europe: Introduction. Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology (pp. 1-9).
Similar Citations
Article
Francisco Malta Romeiras;
(2020)
Putting the Indices into Practice: Censoring Science in Early Modern Portugal
(/isis/citation/CBB223674544/)
Article
Luís Campos Ribeiro;
(2020)
The Bounded Heavens: Defining the Limits of Astrological Practice in the Iberian Indices
(/isis/citation/CBB478312733/)
Article
Tarrant, Neil;
(2014)
Censoring Science in Sixteenth-Century Italy: Recent (and Not-So-Recent) Research
(/isis/citation/CBB001420237/)
Book
Elena Brambilla;
(2006)
La giustizia intollerante. Inquisizione e tribunali confessionali in Europa (secoli IV-XVIII)
(/isis/citation/CBB422887898/)
Book
Clizia Carminati;
(2008)
Giovan Battista Marino tra inquisizione e censura
(/isis/citation/CBB099790160/)
Book
Fragnito, Gigliola;
(2001)
Church, Censorship, and Culture in Early Modern Italy
(/isis/citation/CBB000100783/)
Article
Tarrant, Neil;
(2013)
Giambattista Della Porta and the Roman Inquisition: Censorship and the Definition of Nature's Limits in Sixteenth-Century Italy
(/isis/citation/CBB001213511/)
Article
Helena Avelar de Carvalho;
(2020)
Preludes to the Inquisition: Self-Censorship in Medieval Astrological Discourse
(/isis/citation/CBB950440979/)
Article
Poppi, Antonino;
(2003)
On Trial for Astral Fatalism: Galileo Faces the Inquistion
(/isis/citation/CBB000411074/)
Article
Michel-Pierre Lerner;
(2004)
Copernic suspendu et corrigé : sur deux décrets de la Congrégation romaine de l'Index, 1616-1620
(/isis/citation/CBB583560633/)
Article
Leen Spruit;
(2016)
Roman Censorship of Science and Natural Philosophy: 16th–17th Centuries
(/isis/citation/CBB513454885/)
Article
Peter Andersen;
(2014)
De la devise de Bruno à la mort de Tycho Brahe
(/isis/citation/CBB757868142/)
Article
Pietro Redondi;
(2004)
Fede lincea e teologia tridentina
(/isis/citation/CBB841483681/)
Essay Review
Roberta Ferro;
(2010)
Novità dagli archivi: Marino e l'Inquisizione
(/isis/citation/CBB795941908/)
Article
Vincenzo Lavenia;
(2004)
"Contes des bonnes femmes". La medicina legale italiana, Naudé e la stregoneria
(/isis/citation/CBB607439909/)
Book
Dougherty, M. V.;
(2007)
Pico della Mirandola: New Essays
(/isis/citation/CBB000830114/)
Article
Tayra M. C. Lanuza-Navarro;
(2017)
Astrology in Court: The Spanish Inquisition, Authority, and Expertise
(/isis/citation/CBB916769431/)
Chapter
Franco Bacchelli;
(2012)
Appunti sulla prima fortuna basileese e francese dello "Zodiacus vitae" del Palingenio
(/isis/citation/CBB655068651/)
Article
Harries, Karsten;
(2004)
Truth and Value Today: Galileo contra Bellarmine
(/isis/citation/CBB000500058/)
Essay Review
Michele Camerota;
(2004)
Campanella e la scienza galileiana. Intorno ad una recente edizione della Apologia pro Galileo
(/isis/citation/CBB666471463/)
Be the first to comment!