He was born at Montepulciano in Tuscany in 1542 and was an all-round ‘Renaissance man’: writer, poet, musician, orator. He joined the Jesuits and was ordained in 1570 at Ghent in the Low Countries. A distinguished theologian, he produced the complete synthesis of the Catholic faith called the Disputations on the Controversies of the Christian Faith. The work was so all-embracing and erudite that it was assumed to have been written by a group of scholars, rather than an individual, and it had much success in England (despite being banned). Rector of the Jesuit Roman College (1592), cardinal (1598), Archbishop of Capua [Naples] (1602), and later Prefect of the Vatican Library (1605), he lived extremely frugally and humbly, constantly giving away his possessions to the poor. He was a man of modesty and charity: he opposed some of the more extreme pretentions of Papal power, and said so. In his dealings with Protestant theologians (including King James I of England) he always exercised charity and courtesy, even when he could not agree with them. He was a moderating influence in the case of the astronomer Galileo. Many of those in the Church who opposed Galileo’s view of a heliocentric universe had their own agenda to pursue; Bellarmine realised this and acted as Galileo’s unofficial protector. He urged caution in the case, but admitted that if what Galileo taught proved to be correct, then Scripture would have to be interpreted differently, as indeed it does. He died in 1621, but was not canonised until 1930, and was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1931.