Giovanni Perrone

Who was Giovanni Perrone?

Giovanni Perrone was an Italian theologian born in Chieri.

He studied theology at Turin and at the age of 21 went to Rome, where he joined the Society of Jesus. In 1816 he was sent as professor of theology to Orvieto, and in 1823 was appointed to a similar post in the Collegium Romanum. From Ferrara, where he was rector of the Jesuit College after 1830, he returned to his teaching work in Rome, being made head of his old college in 1850. He took a leading part in the discussions which led up to the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, and from 1869 was prominent on the Ultramontane side in the Vatican Council.

Jesuit theologian, b. at Chieri, Italy, 11 March, 1794; d. at Rome, 28 Aug., 1876. After studying theology and obtaining the doctorate at Turin, he entered the Society of Jesus on 14 December 1815. The Society had been re-established by Pius VII only a year before, and Perrone was very soon appointed to teach theology at Orvieto. A few years later he was made professor of dogmatic theology at the Roman College, and held this post until the Roman Republic of 1848 forced him to seek refuge in England. After an exile of three years, Perrone again took the chair of dogma in the Roman College, and, excepting the years of his rectorship at Ferrara, taught theology till prevented by old age. He was consultor of various congregations, and was active in opposing the errors of George Hermes, as well as the discussions which ended in the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception. Of Perrone's many writings the most important is the "Prælectines Theologicæ", which has reached a thirty-fourth edition in nine volumes. The compendium which Perrone made of this work has reached forty-seven editions in two volumes. His complete theological lectures were published in French and have run through several editions; portions have been translated into Spanish, Polish, German, Dutch, and other languages. Sommervogel mentions forty-four different works by this great fellow-professor of Passaglia and Franzelin in the Roman College. His numerous dogmatic works are characteristic of orthodox modern Roman theology. They include Praelectiones theologicae, quas in Collegio Romano S. J. habebat Joannes Perrone., Praelectiones hierologicae in compendium redactae, Il Hermesianismo, Il Protestantismo e la regola di fede, De divinitate D. N. Jesu Christi.