medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Judging by the expression 'pre-determination' (Latin: praedeterminatio), the reference to Catholicism and to the city of Rome, I guess what you have in mind are the so-called congregations (meetings) 'De auxiliis (gratiae)' [On the help/power of grace], which started under pope Clement VII in Rome in 1598 but were already suspended by Paul V in 1607. But even in those nine years there were over 120 meetings. The debate was on the efficacy of God's grace versus human free will.
On one side were the Dominicans, led by Domingo Banez, who defended the theory of 'physical' predetermination: God's will effectively causes everything, including the acceptance of divine grace by a person. On the other side were the Jesuits, led by Luis de Molina, who held the theory of 'middle knowledge': Before deciding to create, God already knew what each possible creature would in fact freely choose in any particular set of circumstances. Both parties claimed they interpreted Thomas Aquinas faithfully.
The controversy was so heated - Dominicans accusing the Jesuits of being Pelagians, the Jesuits calling the Dominicans Calvinists - that it weakened the unity of the Catholic Church and Paul V silenced the discussion: no more mutual accusations, all writings had to be submitted to the Inquisition for approval before publication. In the papal statement issued in 1607 the pope declared that he would "promulgate the declaration and the decision that was expected, in due time (Latin: opportune)" (Denzinger nr. 1997). Apparently, the due time hasn't come yet and we are still waiting for the papal decision.
Nonetheless, the Dominican position became more or less the commonly held view of Catholic theologians.
Harm Goris
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I am undertaking some research on the free will v destiny debate in Catholicism. A few years ago I read a couple of Calderon's plays in this area and vaguely remember that there was a Council of Rome (or something similar) during which these serious theological issues were raised.