Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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DE AUXILIIS

Controversy between the Dominicans and Jesuits on the relationship of divine grace and free will. The dispute mainly revolved around the relative theological soundness of the rival theories of Bannezianism (favored by Dominicans) and Molinism (favored by Jesuits). After more than a century of heated controversy, including discourses before the popes, the Holy See finally decided that both sides could hold their respective views but without condemning the opposition. Pope Clement XII, on October 2, 1733, issued the papal bull Apostolicae Providentiae Officio, in which he declared, "We forbid these opposing schools either in writing, or speaking or disputation or on any other occasion to dare impose any theological note or censure on the opposite school of thought or to attack their rivals in offensive or insulting language" (Denzinger 2510).