Martin Delrio
Martin Delrio Roman Catholicism | |
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Ordained | 1589 |
Martin Anton Delrio
He studied or taught at Jesuit colleges across Catholic Europe, including
Life
Early life
Martin Delrio was born in Antwerp on 17 May 1551, Whit Sunday, to the Spanish merchant Antonio del Río (d. 17 February 1586) and his wife Eleonora López de Villanova (d. 21 April 1602). The Del Río family were part of a sizeable Spanish community in Antwerp, more than 200 merchants were active in Antwerp in 1540.[1] Young Martin studied at a Latin school in nearby Lier and soon revealed himself as a childhood prodigy. He matriculated at the Old University of Leuven on 1 December 1563, at the age of 12.[2]
There he studied under the humanist Cornelius Valerius and met a number of other young promising scholars, including
His travels during his peregrinatio academica are difficult to follow. He can be placed at the University of Paris in 1567 and 1568.[4] He also spent some time in Douai where he refused to share a bed with an unnamed famous man (cited by his 1609 Jesuit hagiography as proof of his chastity).[5] In 1572 he matriculated at the University of Salamanca on 1 December 1572 and graduated two years later. At Salamanca he would see ‘the remnant of an evil gymnasium’ where Muslims had allegedly taught magic.[6]
Political career
Martin Delrio was never destined for one of the religious orders. His family had originally destined him for a political career. His law degree from Salamanca was part of this requirement. The Spanish crown since the days of
With the onset of the
Despite Martin's appointment and rapid promotion (he would be made vice-chancellor of Brabant in July 1578), these were tragic years for the Delrio family. Luís was arrested by the rebels, later released but soon died. Martin's father Antonio evaded capture and died a penniless exile in Lisbon. Martin's career also faltered. After the death of Don John, the new governor-general
Jesuit career
On 27 December 1579 Martin Delrio wrote from
This by no means put an end to his itinerant existence. When, in 1584, it was decided that he should return to the Low Countries for mission work, he stopped in
His travels after 1586 are relatively unclear. In 1587, he was in
In Leuven he also reunited with his university friend Justus Lipsius, who credited Delrio as the "author of his conversion". Although this vastly overstates the Jesuit's actual role, it did lead to their names and reputations coming forever intertwined. Lipsius, one of the leading humanists of his day, had spent thirteen years teaching in Protestant Leiden and was a bone both Catholics and Protestants fought over. Delrio, whose orthodoxy was never in doubt, posthumously became Lipsius's guarantor.[16]
The founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola had wanted obedience to be the Society's hallmark. Its Constitutions likened the individual Jesuit to "a lifeless body".[17] Delrio's time in Leuven, however, was almost as turbulent as his time in Bordeaux, when he refused to return to the Low Countries. In letters to the Jesuit General in Rome, Claudio Acquaviva, he denounced first the rector of the college and later the provincial hierarchy.[18]
This led the Jesuit to be shipped to Graz in Austria, close to the frontier with the Ottoman Empire. Here he impressed the ultra-orthodox Archduke Ferdinand (who as Ferdinand II would plunge the Holy Roman Empire into the Thirty Years' War). After Delrio's departure for Spain Ferdinand would insistently call for his return.[19]
Delrio had never wanted to leave Spain. When in Leuven he actively lobbied to be returned there, he was sent to Graz instead. In 1604, the Long Turkish War at last provided an excuse for travel to Spain.[clarification needed] Delrio spent some time teaching at Valladolid and Salamanca, where he despaired of the quality of the students, describing them as "students for our saliva".[20] In the autumn of 1607 Delrio petitioned Rome to be allowed to return to the Low Countries, which was granted. He left Valladolid on 18 August. On 19 October 1608, three days after his return to Leuven, Delrio breathed his last, the final stop for a person who could apparently not find peace anywhere.[21]
Work
Martin Delrio's Magical Investigations (
Delrio was credited with importing the beliefs of the Malleus into the Low Countries.
Historians have also believed that the work was based on practical experience.
The Investigations was—in keeping with Delrio's other publications—a work of textual scholarship. It was based on Delrio's knowledge of the classics and familiarity with Church history. Hagiography forms a particular source of inspiration. (Delrio's student Heribert Rosweyde would play an important role in the emergence of the Acta Sanctorum, a Catholic encyclopedia of saints lives.) Delrio also drew on histories of other countries and continents, as well as Jesuit reports from the New World.[26] The textual foundation of the work made it difficult to critique and to replace.[27]
In contrast to works by Henry Boguet and Pierre de Lancre, Delrio's was not based on personal experience. His credibility could less easily be called into question.[27] It has, however, been suggested that, divorced from the real world, as a result its relevance for witchcraft persecutions was rather limited. Sceptics seized on the work's more moderate comments, to Delrio's annoyance.[28] A translation into English began appearing in 2000, making the work accessible to a wider audience.[29]
Publications
- Gaius Julius Solinus (1572). Martin Delrio (ed.). Polyhistor a Martino-Antonio Delrio emendatus. Antuerpiae: ex officina Christophori Plantini Architypographi Regii.
- Martin Delrio (1576). In Senecae Tragoedias decem commentarii Martini Ant. Del Rio. Antuerpiae: ex officina Christophori Plantini Architypographi Regii.
- Martin Antonio Del Rio (1580). Ex miscellaneorum scriptoribus digestorum, codicis et institutionum iuris civilis interpretatio (in Latin). Paris: Michel Sonnius.
- Martin Delrio (1593). Martini Antonii Delrii ex Societate Iesu Syntagma tragoediae latinae: in tres partes distinctum. Antuerpiae: ex officina Plantiniana, apud Viduam, & Ioannem Moretum.
- Martin Delrio (1596). Ad Cl. Claudiani V. C. Opera Martini Antonii Del-Rio Notae. Antuerpiae: ex Officina Plantiniana.
- Martino Del Rio (1599). Disquisitionum magicarum (in Latin). Vol. 6. Louvain: G. Rivius.
- Vindiciae areopagiticae Martini Del Rio contra Josephum Scaligerum (in Latin). Antuerpiae: ex officina Plantiniana, apud Ioannem Moretum. 1607.
Notes
- ^ Machielsen (2015), pp. 25–26
- ^ a b Machielsen (2015), p. 34
- ^ Machielsen (2015), Chapter 5
- ^ Machielsen (2015), p. 30
- ^ Machielsen (2015), p. 18
- ^ Machielsen (2015), p. 219
- ^ Richard L. Kagan, Students and Society in Early Modern Spain (Baltimore, MD, 1974)
- ^ Machielsen (2015), p. 32
- ^ [1] (in Dutch)
- ^ Machielsen (2015), pp. 44–45
- ^ Martin Antoine del Rio, Mémoires de Martin Antoine del Rio sur les troubles des Pays-Bas durant l’administration de Don Juan d’Autriche, 1576–1578, trans. Adolphe Delvigne, 3 vols (Brussels, 1869–71).
- ^ Machielsen (2015), pp. 51–52
- ^ Henri Busson, "Montaigne et son cousin", Revue d’histoire littéraire de la France, 60 (1960): 481–99; Jan Machielsen, "Thinking with Montaigne: Evidence, Scepticism and Meaning in Early Modern Demonology", French History 25/4 (2011): 427–52.
- ^ Machielsen (2015), p. 124
- ^ Machielsen (2015), Chapter 12
- ^ Werner Thomas, "Martin Antonio Delrio and Justus Lipsius", in M. Laureys, ed., The World of Justus Lipsius: A Contribution towards His Intellectual Biography (Brussels/Rome, 1998), pp. 344–366; Jan Machielsen, "Friendship and Religion in the Republic of Letters: The Return of Justus Lipsius to Catholicism (1591)", Renaissance Studies 27/2 (2013): 161–82
- ^ Machielsen (2015), p. 53
- ^ Machielsen (2015), pp. 64–71
- ^ Machielsen (2015), pp. 71–72
- ^ Machielsen (2015), p. 73
- ^ Machielsen (2015), pp. 73–74
- ^ Machielsen (2015), p. 12
- ^ a b Hugh Trevor-Roper, 'The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century' (1967)[permanent dead link]
- ^ Wolfgang Behringer, Witches and Witch-Hunts: A Global History (Cambridge, 2004), p. 101
- ^ Machielsen (2015), p. 250
- S2CID 225532613.
- ^ a b Machielsen (2015), Chapter 10
- ^ Machielsen (2015), Chapter 11
- ^ Martín del Rio, Investigations into Magic, trans. P.G. Maxwell-Stuart & J.M. García Valverde (Brill: Leiden, 2022-23).
References
- Machielsen, Jan (2015). Martin Delrio: Demonology and Scholarship in the Counter-Reformation. Oxford: ISBN 978-0-19-726580-2.
External links
- The sole known depiction of Martin Delrio is currently in the Louvre. It shows him standing alongside his younger brother and father. He is about fourteen years old at the time. It can be found here
- The introduction to the Martin Delrio biography can be read free of charge here.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Martin Anton Delrio". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- Online version of the Disquisitiones Magicae, hosted by the French National Library