Giovanni Perrone (11 March 1794 – 26 August 1876) was an Italian Jesuit and renowned theologian.

Life

Perrone was born in

Chieri Chieri (; pms, Cher) is a town and '' comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont ( Italy), located about southeast of Turin, by rail and by road. It borders the following municipalities: Baldissero Torinese, Pavarolo, Montaldo ...

, Piedmont. After studying theology and obtaining a doctorate at

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. Th ...

, he entered the

Society of Jesus , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

in Rome at age 21, on 14 December 1815. The Society had been re-established by

Pope Pius VII Pope Pius VII ( it, Pio VII; born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti; 14 August 1742 – 20 August 1823), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 14 March 1800 to his death in August 1823. Chiaramonti was also a ...

only a year before, and Perrone was very soon appointed to teach theology at Orvieto. In 1824 he became professor of dogmatic theology at the

Roman College The Roman College ( la, Collegium Romanum, it, Collegio Romano) was a school established by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1551, just 11 years after he founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). It quickly grew to include classes from elementary school t ...

, where he taught the future

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-old ...

.Shea, Charles Michael. “Faith, Reason, and Ecclesiastical Authority in Giovanni Perrone’s ‘Praelectiones Theologicae.’” ''Gregorianum'', vol. 95, no. 1, 2014, pp. 159–77
Accessed 8 May 2022 In 1830 he was made rector of the Jesuit college in Ferrara, but was recalled to the Roman College in 1838. Beginning in 1847, Perrone corresponded at length with

John Henry Newman John Henry Newman (21 February 1801 – 11 August 1890) was an English theologian, academic, intellectual, philosopher, polymath, historian, writer, scholar and poet, first as an Anglican priest and later as a Catholic priest and ...

, particularly on the development of doctrine. The

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingd ...

of 1849 forced him to seek refuge in England. After an exile of three years, Perrone again took the chair of dogma in the Roman College, being made head of his former college in 1850. He taught theology till prevented by old age. An advisor to Popes

Gregory XVI Pope Gregory XVI ( la, Gregorius XVI; it, Gregorio XVI; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in 1 June 1846. He h ...

and

Pius IX Pope Pius IX ( it, Pio IX, ''Pio Nono''; born Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878, the longest verified papal reign. He was notable for convoking the First Vatican ...

, he was consultor of various congregations and was active in opposing some teachings of

George Hermes Georg Hermes (22 April 1775, Hörstel, Dreierwalde – 26 May 1831, Bonn) was a German Roman Catholic theology, theologian who advocated a rational approach to theology. During his lifetime, his theology was greatly in vogue in Germany, but declin ...

as well as the discussions which ended in 1854 in the dogmatic definition of the

Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth wh ...

. From 1869 he was prominent on the

Ultramontane Ultramontanism is a clerical political conception within the Catholic Church that places strong emphasis on the prerogatives and powers of the Pope. It contrasts with Gallicanism, the belief that popular civil authority—often represented by th ...

side at

Vatican Council I The First Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the First Vatican Council or Vatican I was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864. This, the twentieth ecu ...

.Drum, Walter. "Giovanni Perrone." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911.

Works

Of Perrone's many writings the most important is the ''Prælectiones Theologicæ'', which reached a thirty-fourth edition in nine volumes. The compendium which Perrone made of this work reached forty-seven editions in two volumes. It was one of the most widely used books on Catholic dogmatics in the 19th cent."Giovanni Perrone", ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'', 2 ed., ( E. A. Livingstone, ed.) OUP 2006, His complete theological lectures were published in French and ran through several editions; portions were translated into Spanish, Polish, German, Dutch, and other languages. His numerous dogmatic works are characteristic of the Roman theology of the time. They include ''Praelectiones theologicae, quas in Collegio Romano S.J. habebat Joannes Perrone'' (9 vols., Rome, 1835 sqq.), ''Praelectiones hierologicae in compendium redactae'' (4 vols., Rome, 1845), ''Il Hermesianismo'' (Rome, 1838), ''Il Protestantismo e la regola di fede'' (3 vols., 1853), and ''De divinitate D. N. Jesu Christi'' (3 vols., Turin, 1870).

Notes

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Perrone, Giovanni 19th-century Italian Jesuits 1794 births 1876 deaths 19th-century Italian Roman Catholic theologians Jesuit theologians People from Chieri