The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

IV. Bellarmine Centers Attack on Year Day Principle

ROBERT BELLARMINE (15421621), Italian cardinal and ablest and most renowned of all Jesuit controversialists, was born in Tuscany, his mother being the sister of Pope Marcellus II. In 1560, when he was eighteen, he entered the novitiate of the Jesuit order, and spent three years studying philosophy at the Collegium Romanum, going from thence to Florence as a teacher of the classics. Here, at twenty two, he was authorized to preach on Sundays and holy days. By 1564 he was studying and teaching at the college of Mondovi, in Piedmont, not yet having begun the study of theology. PFF2 495.1

In 1567 he was called to Padua, and two years later to Louvain, where he completed his studies, was ordained, and began to teach theology. In 1576 Bellarmine returned to Rome, under appointment by Gregory XIII, to teach controversial theology to young clerics going forth as missionaries. In 1592 he became rector of the Roman College, and was made a cardinal in 1599, by Clement VIII, who said, “‘The Church of God had not his equal in learning.’” ²⁸ He was made archbishop of Capua in 1601, but in 1605, when appointed chief adviser of the Holy See in the theological department, he resigned his see. PFF2 495.2

Between 1576 and 1589, in addition to his teaching, Bellar mine lectured to large audiences. He insisted that the prophecies concerning Antichrist, in Daniel, Paul, and John, had no application to the papal power. This formed the third part of his Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei Adversus Huius Temporis Haereticos (Polemic Lectures Concerning the Disputed Points of the Christian Belief Against the Heretics of This Time), published between 1581 and 1593. This was the most detailed apology of the Catholic faith ever produced, and became the arsenal for all future defenders and expositors. ²⁹ It called forth a host of counterwritings from Protestant leaders, who considered him their greatest adversary. About this time the Ecclesiastical Annals of Baronius appeared as the counterpart to the Magdeburg Centuries. ³⁰ Both Bellarmine and Baronius were created cardinals for productions that filled the armory of Rome with effective weapons. Because of the importance of the man and the weight of his works, we shall carefully examine Bellarmine’s position. He greatly augmented the case for Future ism over the work of Ribera. PFF2 495.3

1. CAPITALIZES ON LUTHER’S HESITATION OVER APOCALYPSE

Bellarmine’s method was astute. As a Catholic, he held the canon of Scripture as dependent upon tradition. But Luther and certain other Reformers had at first questioned the canonicity of the Apocalypse. So Bellarmine now posed as a defender of the New Testament canon against the leader of the Reformation, who had avowedly rested his case on the Bible. Thus Luther’s best weapon was adroitly turned back upon him. ³¹ PFF2 496.1

2. MAIN ASSAULT CENTERED ON YEARDAY APPLICATION

Bellarmine’s assault on the Protestant interpretations of prophecy was centered upon the year-day principle, which, since Joachim, had risen to general notice and wide acceptance among both Catholics and Protestants. He went out of his way to do this, perhaps, says Maitland, tempted by hope of an easy victory. ³² In citing Ezekiel 4, Bellarmine contended that it could not apply, because Ezekiel did not lie on his side 390 years; and, further, that the “angelic” days of Illyricus and Chytraeus were nowhere to be found. ³³ PFF2 496.2

Determined to nullify the year-day principle, used by Protestants as the basis of the 1260year period of Antichrist’s tyranny, he sought to deprive this symbol of its Scriptural support through making Scripture dependent upon tradition. It should not be forgotten that his first argument against it is “the common opinion of the ancients,” who believed in a literal three and a half year reign of Antichrist. In this endeavor he searched not only the fathers and the Scriptures minutely, but apparently the whole field of Protestant exposition as well, citing them facilely, and telling effectively wherein they differed; he did this to neutralize their influence. ³⁴ PFF2 496.3

3. ASSIGNS SYMBOLS TO PAST AND FUTURE

Bellarmine as signed the apocalyptic symbols to the distant past and the distant future, thereby eliminating application to the long papal ascend any of the Middle Ages. Antichrist had not yet come, for he was to abolish the daily (continual) sacrifice (iuge sacrificium) of the mass, according to Daniel 12:11. ³⁵ The seventy weeks, he held, were weeks of years only because of the specific Hebrew word. He could not contravene this. But a prophetic “time,” he con tended, simply denoted a unit-such as a day, a year, or a millennium. PFF2 497.1

“For by ‘time’ ought to be signified, without a doubt, some one number; as one day, one week, one month, one year, means one lustrum, one jubilee, one century, one millennium; but if we should accept one millennium, then antichrist will reign 3500 years, which the adversaries do not admit. If we accept one century, the time of antichrist will be 350 years, which they also do not admit, and the same is plain concerning one jubilee.” ³⁶ PFF2 497.2

4. EXPLOITS VARIATIONS ON TIME OF ANTICHRIST

If the Antichrist had been reigning in the church for centuries, there should be a recognized, exact, and uniform date of beginning. But, as Bellarmine pointed out, on this Protestants differed widely. Some had dated the 666 or the 1260 years from the beginning of the fall of Rome, about A.D. 400, and others from Gregory, about 600, others from Phocas, 606 ³⁷—the dates ranging from 200 to 773, 1,000, or even 1,200. So he chided them for being asleep, instead of on the watch, because they could not agree on the definite time of Antichrist. ³⁸ This vulnerable position Bellarmine attacked as also being contrary to prophetic specification. PFF2 497.3

Furthermore, the spiritual supremacy of the Papacy had lasted more than 1260 years, and the secular domination more than 666. ³⁹ In addition, Luther’s own name yielded 666. ⁴⁰ The Protestants had said that Rome was the seat of the Beast; but Bellarmine countered with Jerusalem, “where also their Lord was crucified.” Whereas the Papacy had preserved Rome, the Antichrist is to destroy Rome. ⁴¹ Rome means Babylon, he admitted, but only in its pagan empire, and possibly again in the future, at the end of the world. ⁴² PFF2 498.1

In book 5 Bellarmine put limits to the temporal jurisdiction of the pope, claiming that he had not immediate temporal power but only spiritual power. For this reason Bellarmine’s work on the Controversies was put on the Index by Sixtus V. ⁴³ Possibly it was also in disfavor because it quoted so many arguments of opponents, such as the evidences, sometimes from Catholic sources, offered to prove that the pope is the predicted Antichrist. However, the pope died before the book was printed, and when the Index was issued, Bellarmine’s book was not mentioned. PFF2 498.2