Luis de Carvajal

Luis de Carvajal

Friar Minor and Tridentine theologian, b. about 1500; the time of his death is uncertain. Of the noble and wealthy family of Carvajal in the old Spanish province of Baetica, Carvajal was possessed of extraordinary gifts of mind and heart, and at an early age was sent to the University of Paris, where he completed his studies. Having entered the Franciscan Order, he taught theology at Paris, whence he was sent as legate of Cardinal Angelus to the Council of Trent. During the fifth session, in which the doctrine of original sin was discussed, Carvajal addressed the Council in favour of the Immaculate Conception, in defending which he had already won fame at Paris; it was doubtless owing to him that the Council inserted the words beginning "Declarat tamen" at the end of the fifth canon of this session. The last glimpse we get of Carvajal is at Antwerp in 1548, at which time he brought out the third edition of his "Theologicarum sententiarum liber singularis". Besides this work, he is the author of the "Declamatio expostulatoria pro immaculatâ conceptione" (Paris, 1541) and of a defence of the religious orders against Erasmus, entitled "Apologia monasticae professionis" (Antwerp, 1529).

STEPHEN M. DONOVAN