Henry Noris

Who was Henry Noris?

Henry Noris was an Italian church historian, theologian and Cardinal, of Irish ancestry.

Noris was born at Verona. He studied under the Jesuits at Rimini, and there entered the novitiate of the Hermits of Saint Augustine. After his probation he was sent to Rome to study theology. He taught the sacred sciences at Pesaro, Perugia, and Padua, where he held the chair of church history in the university from 1674 to 1692.

There he completed The History of Pelagianism and Dissertations on the Fifth General Council, the two works which, before and after his death, occasioned much controversy. Together with the Vindiciae Augustinianae they were printed at Padua in 1673, having been approved by a special commission at Rome. Noris himself went to Rome to give an account of his orthodoxy before this commission; and Pope Clement X named him one of the qualificators of the Holy Office, in recognition of his learning and sound doctrine.

But, after the publication of these works, further charges were made against him of teaching the errors of Jansenius and Baius.