SALMERÓN, ALFONSO

Preacher, theologian, and exegete; b. Toledo, Sept. 8, 1515; d. Naples, Feb.13, 1585. A member of the first small group at Paris of the first religious companions of ignatius of loyola (1536), Salmerón played an important role throughout his life in the early history of the Society of Jesus. As a theologian, he had influence on the formulation of several of the dogmatic decrees issued by the Council of Trent. His principal publication was a 16–volume commentary on the New Testament: 11 volumes on the Gospels, one volume on the Acts, and four volumes on the Pauline Epistles (Madrid 1598–1601; Brescia 1601; Cologne 1602–04 and 1612–15; only the Cologne editions together contain all 11 Gospel volumes). These diffuse commentaries are based on Salmerón's sermons and lectures as revised with help from Bellarmine. Although very popular in their time, they are now of but little more than historical interest, showing how an erudite scholar could interpret scripture in defense of Catholic doctrine as defined by the Council of Trent.

Bibliography: c. sommervogel et al., Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus (Brussels-Paris 1890–1932) 7:478–483. h. hurter, Nomenclator literarius theologiae catholicae, 5 v. (3rd ed. Innsbruck 1903–13) 3:224–227. g. boero, Vita del servo di Dio, padre Alfonso Salmerón (Florence 1880); Span. tr. i. torres (Barcelona 1887). f. de lanversion, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al. (Paris 1903–50) 14.1:1040–47.

[l. f. hartman]