Un teologo irlandese nella Roma del Seicento: il francescano Luke Wadding

The essay explores the Irish Franciscan theologian Luke Wadding’s decades-long stay and activity in Rome. After having been educated in the Iberian peninsula (Portugal and Spain), Wadding was chosen in 1618 to assist, as a theological export, the Spanish prelate Antonio de Trejo in his diplomatic mission to the Holy See with the purpose of convincing Pope Paul V to proclaim the Immaculate Conception as dogma. When Trejo’s mission ended, Wadding stayed in Rome, where he remained until his death in 1657. The essay focuses, in addition to the foundation of the two Roman Irish Colleges, one of his most important achievements, on Wadding’s activity as theological advisor, initially within the context of the Immaculist mission and, later as consultant for the Holy Office and for the Congregation of the Index. What appears in this analysis is the adaptability and the opportunism of a friar who had been entrusted by Philip III to support the Spanish Monarchy’s interests and who, nevertheless, just a few years later, would be able to become a champion of Roman Catholic orthodoxy and its jurisdictional claims.