Abstract

The choice of Bellarmine as a target could be explained by the Cardinal's prominence among late Renaissance Catholic theologians. It had another advantage which was that the criticisms aimed at Bellarmine could apply to a wide range of the positions held by Anglicans. The heterodox theology defended by Thomas Hobbes had been condemned equally by Rome and Canterbury on several essential points, such as the corporeal nature of God and the soul, the mortality of the soul, the denial of Hell's eternal punishments, and the implicit rejection of the Trinity. The indirect power stigmatized by Hobbes was a central element in Bellarmine's conceptual arsenal. The critique of papalism connected Hobbes with a powerful anti‐Roman current within the Catholic Church, which remained a central target of the pope's advocates for a long time.