# Cardinal Bellarmine — Leviathan character guide

> Cardinal Bellarmine in Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Bellarmine

**First appearance:** 0003-part-i-of-man

## Snapshot

Rome's sharpest controversialist, the theologian Hobbes spends much of Leviathan arguing against — often without naming him.

## Who they are

Bellarmine defended the papacy's claim to indirect temporal power, the position Hobbes treats as the great rival to sovereign authority. Hobbes's counter-move is to redefine the kingdom of God as a civil kingdom, restored by Christ and proclaimed by the apostles — a reading he admits 'gives too much light to Christian kings to see their right of ecclesiastical government.' Bellarmine is the shadow opponent: every time Hobbes insists the sovereign, not the pope, holds the keys, he is answering him.

## In the story

### [Of Power Ecclesiastical](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/leviathan_se/chapters/xlii-of-power-ecclesiastical)

Hobbes engages directly with Bellarmine's arguments in 'De Summo Pontifice' to refute the Pope's claim to supreme ecclesiastical power over civil sovereigns.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/leviathan_se/characters/cardinal_bellarmine
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/leviathan_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/leviathan_se/characters