THE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF ST. ROBERT BELLARMINE

An Examination of Saint Cardinal Bellarmine’s Defense of Popular Government and the Influence of His Political Theory upon the Declaration of Independence. Contrary to the belief of modern thinkers, Democracy had its exponents and defenders in the earliest Christian age, in the Middle Ages, and long before the sixteenth century. The truth is that the ancient Church, which is often depicted as retarding modern enlightenment, liberty, and democracy, was the very agency which produced the great protagonists of democracy in the period of its greatest danger and saved out of the democracy of the Middle Ages what might be termed the seed thought for the resowing and growth of democratic principles and practices among the nations of modern times. Jesuit Cardinal Robert Bellarmine was possibly one of the most prominent defenders of democracy in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.          1926 Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur