St. Robert Bellarmine, an Italian cardinal and controversialist, was born at Montepulciano in Tuscany and died at Rome. Educated in the Jesuit order, of which he became a member, he taught philosophy and theology at the University of Louvain (1570–1576), then at the Roman (Jesuit) College, where he later served as rector. After Bellarmine was created a cardinal in 1599, much of his time was devoted to the administrative and diplomatic affairs of the Roman Catholic Church, in which he is now venerated as a saint. His chief published work is the Disputations on Controversial Matters (Disputationes de Controversiis), in which Book III (De Laicis) treats questions of political and social philosophy. Another treatise in political philosophy is the Defense of His Reply to King James I of England (Apologia Bellarmini pro Responsione Sua ad Librum Jacobi Magnae Britanniae Regis, reprinted in Giacon's Scritti...