Bartolomé de Medina, (15271580) was a Spanish

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

born in Medina de Rioseco,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. A member of the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

and a student of

Francisco de Vitoria Francisco de Vitoria ( – 12 August 1546; also known as Francisco de Victoria) was a Spanish Roman Catholic philosopher, theologian, and jurist of Renaissance Spain. He is the founder of the tradition in philosophy known as the School of Sala ...

, he was professor of theology at the

University of Salamanca The University of Salamanca () is a public university, public research university in Salamanca, Spain. Founded in 1218 by Alfonso IX of León, King Alfonso IX, it is the oldest university in the Hispanic world and the fourth oldest in the ...

and a member of the

School of Salamanca The School of Salamanca () was an intellectual movement of 16th-century and 17th-century Iberian Scholasticism, Scholastic theology, theologians rooted in the intellectual and pedagogical work of Francisco de Vitoria. From the beginning of the ...

. He is best known as the originator of the doctrine of probabilism in moral theology, which holds that one may follow a course of action that has some probability, even if the opposite is more probable.

Biography

Medina studied theology at the University of Salamanca under the celebrated professor

. His life was devoted almost entirely to teaching theology at Salamanca, first in the chair of Durandus, afterwards as principal professor. He was appointed to the "cathedra primaria" after a successful concursus, in public, against the learned Augustinian scholar Juan de Guevara (1518-1600). He died at Salamanca in 1581. Although he was well versed in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, devoted his life almost entirely to teaching theology, and all his writings preserved are theological, being principally commentaries on the ''

Summa Theologica The ''Summa Theologiae'' or ''Summa Theologica'' (), often referred to simply as the ''Summa'', is the best-known work of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), a scholastic theologian and Doctor of the Church. It is a compendium of all of the main t ...

'' of St. Thomas.

Works

Medina's principal works are commentaries on

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...

. He was the first prominent exponent (and possibly the first exponent) of the doctrine of probabilism, which he sets out in his commentary on the ‘Prima secundae’ of Thomas Aquinas (1572). Medina's probabilist doctrine consisted of the contention that if two opinions are probable in unequal degree, the less probable may be followed (''Si est opinio probabilis, licitum est eam sequi, licet opposita probabilior sit''); in moral theology, the consequence of probabilism is that if the licitness of an action is in doubt, it is lawful to choose a probable opinion favouring liberty rather than a more probable opinion favouring the law. This doctrine was soon adopted by other Dominicans, notably Domingo Báñez, and the notion of the probable was elaborated by

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

as well as Dominicans; eventually Jesuits became the principal proponents of the doctrine and Dominicans its principal opponents.

References

* * 1527 births 1581 deaths People from Medina de Rioseco Spanish Dominicans 16th-century Spanish Roman Catholic theologians University of Salamanca alumni Academic staff of the University of Salamanca 16th-century Spanish philosophers School of Salamanca {{RC-clergy-stub