CANO, MELCHIOR Spanish theologian, born at Tarancon, New Castile, joined the Dominican order in 1523 and succeeded to the theological chair in the University of Sala manca. He violently opposed Bartolome de Carranza, also a Do minican and afterwards archbishop of Toledo, and took part in condemning him for heresy. After attending the Council of Trent in 1545, he was sent by Jesuit influence, in 1552, as bishop of the Canaries. His personal influence with Philip II., however, procured his recall and he became provincial of Castile. In 1556 he wrote his famous Consultatio tlieologica, advising the king to resist the temporal encroachments of the papacy, thus making Spain less dependent on Rome. Hence Paul IV. styled him "a son of perdition." The reputation of Cano rests on his De Louis theologicis, a work written in the humanist form and advocating, in place of scholastic subtleties in dogmatic theology, a return to patristic erudition and a scientific basis. Cano died at Toledo on Sept. 3o, 156o.
See the Dominican Mandonnet, in Dict. of Cath. Theol. (19o4)•