''Defensio Tridentinæ fidei'' (full title: ''Defensio Tridentinæ fidei catholicæ et integerrimæ quinque libris compræhensa aduersus hæreticorum detestabiles calumnias & præsertim Martini Kemnicij Germani'', or "A Defence of the Catholic and Most Sound Faith of the Council of Trent, in five books, against the Detestable Calumnies of Heretics, and especially those of Martin Chemnitz") is a 716 page book first published in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, in 1578, written by Diogo de Payva de Andrada in response to

Martin Chemnitz Martin Chemnitz (9 November 1522 – 8 April 1586) was an eminent second-generation German Confederation, German, Lutheranism, Evangelical Lutheran, Christian theology, Christian theologian, and a Protestant Reformers, Protestant reformer, c ...

's '' Examen Concilii Tridentini'' (1565–73). The dispute between Andrada and Chemnitz had gone back and forth since Chemnitz published ''Theologiae Jesuitarum praecipua capita'' in 1562. Andrada, then a delegate at the

Council of Trent The Council of Trent (), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation at the time, it has been described as the "most ...

, replied with the ten-volume ''Orthodoxarum explicationum libri decem'' (1564), in which he discussed and defined the chief points of doctrine attacked by the

Lutherans Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 15 ...

. Chemnitz's equally extensive reply came with the famous '' Examen Concilii Tridentini'' (1565–73) — to which Andrada replied with the ''Defensio'', published posthumously in 1578 by Andrada's brothers: regarded as his best work, it is remarkable for its learned statement of various opinions regarding the

Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Mariology, Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Debated by medieval theologians, it was not def ...

. Nevertheless, even though the ''Defensio'' was reprinted in

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(1580) and

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(1580 and 1592), it seems to have been less circulated in Europe than Chemnitz's ''Examen''.

References

{{Subject bar , portal1= Books , portal2= Catholicism 1578 books 1578 in Christianity 16th-century Christian texts 16th-century books in Latin Council of Trent