MO'LINISM. The name commonly applied to the doctrine of Molina (q.v.) on the relation between divine grace and the will of man. The problem which it is meant to solve is as old as the fourth century, when it led to the well-known Pelagian controversy. (See PELAGIANISM. ) In reconciling with the freedom of man's will the predestination of the elect to happiness and of the reprobate to punishment, Molina asserts that this predestination is consequent on God's foreknowl edge of the free determination of man's will, and that therefore it in no way affects the freedom of the particular actions. Accordingly, God gives to all men suHic•ient grace to enable them to live vir tuously and merit happiness; certain individuals freely correspond to this grace, while others resist it ; God foresees both courses and on them founds His decrees. This exposition was assailed in the schools first as a revival of the Pelagian heresy, inasmuch as it appears to place the efficacy of grace in the eonsent of man's will, and thus to recognize a natnn•al power ill man to perfo•un supernatural acts; secondly, as set ting aside altogether what the Scriptures repre sent as the special election of the predestined, by niakidg each individual the arbiter of his own predestination or reprobation. The Dominieans, who were never very friendly to the Jesuits. and who felt that this teaching misrepresented that of their great authority, Saint Thomas. entered fiereely into the controversy; the name of Thom ists is generally applied to them and to the other antagonists of Molina. The dispute was brought under the cognizance of the Inquisito• General of Spain, who referred it to Pope Clement VIII. In 1597 he appointed the cele
brated Congrepatio do Di (irnt to consider the entire question: the commission eon sisted of eleven members, representing different orders and schools. Before the death of Clement V111. in 1605 it had already held OS sessions, and 17 more were held under Paul V., still without leading to any very definite result. Paul V. finally dissolved it after nine years of anxious consultation, and in 1611 forbade anything to be printed on either side without license from the Inquisition. The decree was confirmed by Urban V1II. in 1625 and again in 1641, with special reference to a new outbreak of controversy occa sioned by the of the auyustious of Jansenius. The Jesuits had never committed themselves to Molina's doctrine as a whole, and they came gradually to a general support of a modified form of it known as Congrnism, taught especially by Suarez and Bellarmine.
hile, according to the supporters of this teach ing:, Molina had placed the effective power of grace altogether in the assent of the free will, Suarez found it rather in the perfect harmony (congruentie) of grace with the character, tem perament, tendencies, and habits of the indi vidual. The real congruism of Suarez is, how ever, not so much a departure from the teaching of Molina as a (dearer and more precise defini tion of it. Consult: Schneemann, llic Entstehung nod Eutu•ickluuq der thowistisch-molinistischen Kontrorerse (Freiburg, I8S0) : De Ilisgnon, Banes et Molina: histoire, doctrines, critique mc'tophysique (Paris, 1883) ; Gayraud, Tho mism," et Molinisme (Paris, 1890).