Molina, LUIS

Molina, LUIS, a celebrated Spanish Jesuit theologian, was born at Cuenca, in New Castile, in the year 1535, and, having entered the Jesuit Society in his eighteenth year, studied at Coimbra, and was appointed professor of Theology at Evora, where he continued to teach for twenty years. He died at Madrid, 12th October 1600. Molina's celebrity is mainly confined to the theological schools. His principal writings are a commentary on the Summa of St Thomas Aquinas (1593); a minute and comprehensive treatise, De Justitia et Jure (1592); and the celebrated treatise on the reconciliation of grace and free-will (Liberi Arbitrii cum Gratiae Donis . . . Concordia), which was printed at Lisbon in 1588, with an appendix, printed in the following year. The problem which the latter work is meant to resolve is almost as old as the origin of human thought itself, and had already led, in the 4th century, to the well-known Pelagian controversy (see PELAGIUS). In reconciling with the freedom of man's will the predestination of the elect to happiness, and of the reprobate to punishment, Molina asserts that the predestination is consequent on God's foreknowledge of the free determination of man's will, and, therefore, that it in no way affects the freedom of the particular actions, in requital of which man is predestined whether to punishment or to reward. God, in Molina's view, gives to all men sufficient grace whereby to live virtuously, and merit happiness. Certain individuals freely co-operate with this grace; certain others resist it. God foresees both courses, and this foreknowledge is the foundation of one or the other decree. This exposition was at once assailed in the schools on two grounds—first as a revival of the Pelagian heresy, inasmuch as it appears to place the efficacy of grace in the consent of man's will; second, as setting aside altogether what the Scriptures represent as the special election of the predestined. Hence arose the celebrated dispute between the Molinists and the Thomists—both of whom, however, maintained that, in all circumstances, the will remains free, although they may fail to explain how this freedom is secured under the action of efficacious grace. It was first brought under the cognisance of the Inquisitor-general of Spain, by whom it was referred to Pope Clement VIII. This pontiff, in 1598, appointed the celebrated congregation De Auxiliis to consider the entire question; but, notwithstanding many lengthened discussions, no decision was arrived at during the lifetime of Clement; and although the congregation was continued under Paul V., the only result was a decree in 1607, permitting both opinions to be taught by their respective advocates, and prohibiting each party from accusing the adversaries of heresy. The dispute, in some of its leading features, was revived in the Jansenist (q.v.) controversy. Molinism has been commonly taught in the Jesuit schools. See AQUINAS, SUAREZ.