MALDONATUS, JOHANNES

Spanish exegete and theologian, also known as Juán de Maldonado; b. Casas de la Reina, Estremadura, 1534;d. Rome, Jan. 5, 1583. After his studies at Salamanca (1547–58) and Rome (1558–62), he became a Jesuit (1562) and was ordained (1563). After having taught philosophy at the Roman College (1563) and at Paris (1564–65), he was professor of theology at Paris for nine years (1565–74). For the first five of these years he lectured in the traditional way by commenting on the Sentences of peter lombard, but in 1570 he initiated his own, original theological course. His teaching was interrupted in 1574 by the accusation of the Sorbonne professors that he denied the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Although defended by the Archbishop of Paris, Pierre de Gondi, by the papal nuncio, and by the Holy See, he withdrew to Bourges and there composed his celebrated commentaries, highly prized until modern times, on the four Gospels. Having served for a period (1578–80) as visitor of the Society of Jesus in France, he was called to Rome in 1581 by Gregory XIII to work on the critical edition of the Septuagint. Here he also collaborated on the Jesuit ratio studiorum. His more important works are the Comment. in IV Evangelia (2 v. Pont-à Mousson 1596–97, and many later editions), Traité des anges et demons (Paris 1606), Comment. in Prophetas quatuor (Lyons 1609), and the Miscellanea de Maldonado (lectures given at Paris) ed. R. Galdos (Madrid 1947).

Bibliography: j. i. tellechea, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche 6:1326, esp. bibliog. c. sommervogel, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus 5:403–412; 9:631.

[j. i. tellechea idÍgoras]