Francis Lucas of Bruges' Gospels Commentaries and the Controversy on Predestination, Grace and Free Will

This article focuses on Francis Lucas (1548/9–1619), a Catholic theologian hailing from Bruges—a theologian never subject to a thorough study, notwithstanding the value of his exegetical work. After a brief biographical introduction, we analyse Lucas’ Commentaries on the four Gospels, published in Antwerp at the Plantin Press in four volumes, between 1606 and 1616. Our aim in this article is to investigate Lucas’ view on the relation between eternal predestination, temporal grace, and human free will—the vexata quaestio of post-Tridentine theology. Thanks to a careful selection of New Testament pericopes, this study shows a Jesuit— even a Molinist—approach to the question.