Louis, the founder of the sect of the Molinists, was born at Cuenca in New Castile in 1535. At the age of eighteen he entered the Order of Jesus. He then studied at Coimbra, and was subsequently appointed to a theological chair at the Portuguese university of Evora. During twenty years he taught there with great success, and acquired some reputation for the lively and subtle ingenuity which he displayed in his commentaries on Thomas Aquinas, and his treatise De Justitia et Jure. But the work which especially rendered him famous was his De Concordia Gratiae et Liberi Arbitrii, folio, Lisbon, 1588. It is an attempt to show, by a method somewhat new, how the doctrines of predestination and grace are consistent with free will. Assuming that man is free to perform or not to perform any action whatever,—that, in fact, he really works out his own destiny,—Molina yet affirms that this circumstance renders the bestowal of the grace of God neither impossible nor unnecessary. It does not render it impossible, for God never fails to bestow grace upon those who ask it with sincerity. It does not render it unnecessary, for grace, although not an efficient, is still a sufficient cause of salvation. Nor does it preclude the possibility of predestination. The omniscient God, by means of his scientia media, or power of knowing future contingent events, foresees how we shall employ our own free will and treat his proffered grace. Therefore, upon this foreknowledge, he can found his predestinating decrees. Such doctrines as these brought upon their author the attacks of the Dominicans, who were the faithful followers of Thomas Aquinas. The Jesuits came to the defence of one of their own order. A hot war of these then ensued, which speedily excited Spain into a ferment, and forced Clement VIII. in 1594 to impose silence upon the clamorous combatants. But the orthodox fury of the Dominicans refused to be calmed. They insisted that the grand inquisitor Cardinal de Quiroga, Philip II., of Spain, and the pope, should each interpose his authority to check this revival of Pelagian heresies. At length in 1598 Clement referred the dispute to a council consisting of a presiding cardinal, three bishops, and seven theologians of different fraternities. For several years this court continued to hold its meetings, which, as they bore reference to the aids of grace, were called Congregations de Auxilii. Its decision was given in 1601 in favour of the Dominicans. Clement therefore prepared to pass a sentence of condemnation against the Molinists; but the Jesuits prevented him, and induced him in 1602 to summon a council under his own presidency for the reconsideration of the dispute. This council was interrupted in its deliberations by the death of Clement in 1605. It resumed its sittings, however, under the following pope, Paul V., and continued to deliberate until the controversy was, by common consent, left undecided. Meanwhile Molina had died at Madrid in 1600. The dispute between his followers and the Dominicans was afterwards merged in the great controversy between the Jesuits and the Jansenists.