ROBERT, an Italian Jesuit, one of the most expert polemical writers of his time. In 1576 he read lectures at Rome on controversies, with such applause, that Sixtus V., sending a legate into France in 1590, appointed him divine to the legion, in case any dispute in religion should happen to be discussed. Bellarmin returned to Rome, and was raised successively to different offices, till at last, in 1599, he was honoured with a cardinal's hat; to force him to accept of which dignity, it is said, they were obliged to have recourse to the threat of an anathema. It is certain that no Jesuit ever did greater honour to his order, and that no author ever defended the cause of the Romish church in general, and that of the pope in particular, with greater ingenuity and skill. The Protestants have owned this sufficiently; for, during the space of fifty years, there was scarcely any considerable difference among them who did not fix upon Bellarmin as the subject of his books of controversy. But notwithstanding the zeal with which this Jesuit maintained the power of the pope over the temporality of kings, he displeased Sixtus V. in his work *De Romano Pontifice*, by not insisting that the power which Jesus Christ gave to his vicegerent was direct, instead of indirect; and he had the mortification to see it put into the index of the inquisition, though it was afterwards removed. At his death he left to the Virgin Mary one half of his soul, and to Jesus Christ the other. Bellarmin is said to have been a man of great chastity and temperance, and remarkable for his patience. His stature was low, and his mien very indifferent; but the excellence of his genius might be discovered from the traces of his countenance. He expressed himself with great perspicuity; and the words which he first made use of to explain his thoughts were generally so proper, that there appeared no erasure in his writings.