Aspilcueta, Martin (Doctor Navarrus)
ASPILCUETA, MARTIN (DOCTOR NAVARRUS)
Canonist and moral theologian; b. Barasoain, Navarre, May 13, 1493; d. Rome, June 21, 1586. A cousin of St. Francis Xavier, he became a doctor of canon law and taught at the Universities of Toulouse, Salamanca, and Coimbra (1524–38). Three popes, Pius V, Gregory XIII, and Sixtus V, honored him with their friendship and made him consultor to the Sacred Penitentiary. The high point of his juridical career was his acting as lawyer for the defense of the Dominican Archbishop of Toledo, Bartolomé de carranza. Because of Spanish prejudice, he demanded that the case be transferred to Rome and thus incurred the enmity of King Philip II, who later prevented his becoming a cardinal. His chief work, Manuale sive Enchiridion confessariorum et paenitentium (Rome 1588), was long considered a classic. The best complete edition of his numerous writings is Doctoris Navarri … opera (5 v. Cologne 1609).
Bibliography: a. lambert, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912—) 5:1368–74, with extensive bibliog.; Dictionnaire de droit canonique, ed. r. naz, 7 v. (Paris 1935–65) 1:1579–83. h. hurter, Nomenclator literarius theologiae catholicae, 5 v. (Innsbruck 1903–13) 3:344–348.
[m. j. barry]