Melchior Cano's Treatise on Theological Method (De locis theologicis) and Humanist Methodology in the Writings of Agricola, Erasmus, and Melanchthon

Melchior Cano (1509-1560), a Dominican theology professor at the University of Alcalá and thereafter at the University of Salamanca, is known for his contributions at the Council of Trent and for his theological writings. This paper focuses on his most influential work, De locis theologicis, which was first published posthumously in the year 1563 and which was republished through and beyond the seventeenth century. This treatise makes use of logical “places” (loci) in the service of theology. Here Cano borrows from Rudolph Agricola, who considered loci as sources of arguments (sedes argumentorum) to be utilized to arrive at judgment (iudicium), a component of human reasoning. Cano developed the following ten loci for the purpose of arriving at theological judgments: Sacred Scripture, the Tradition of Christ and the Apostles, the Authority of the Catholic Church, General Church Councils, the Authority of the Roman Church, the Saints, Scholastic Theologians, Natural Reason, the Authority of Philosophers, and Human History. This paper will discuss the importance given by Cano to humanistic methodology -- in contrast to uses thereof made by Erasmus of Rotterdam and by Philipp Melanchthon -- in the context of scholastic theology.