Palmieri, Domenico

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PALMIERI, DOMENICO

Jesuit philosopher, theologian; b. Piacenza, Italy, July 4, 1829; d. Rome, May 29, 1909. He was ordained and entered the Society of Jesus in 1852. After teaching philosophy, theology, and Scripture at the seminary of Fermo and the college at Spoleto, he became professor of philosophy (186167) and of dogma (186778) at the Gregorian University. He espoused a kind of dynamism, claiming that hylomorphism was incompatible with the findings of natural science. His position in Rome became precarious during the Thomistic revival under Leo XIII. After transfer to Maastricht in Holland in 1878, he taught exegesis there until 1894. In that year he returned to Rome as theologian to the Sacred Penitentiary and consultor to the Holy Office and was later on the Commission for the Code of Canon Law. He was among the first to attack the Modernist error of loisy. The publication of his works extends from 1874 to 1910. Noteworthy are his Institutiones Philosophiae, his reedition of Gury's and Ballerini's moral works, and his commentary on Dante's Divina Comedia.

[j. flynn]