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Alfonso ( Alphonsus) Salmerón, SJ (8 September 1515 – 13 February 1585) was a Spanish biblical scholar, a Catholic priest, and one of the first Jesuits.
In the autumn of 1541 Pope Paul III sent Salmeron and Paschase Broët as to Ireland. They landed by way of Scotland on 23 February 1542. Thirty-four days later they set sail for Dieppe and went on to Paris. For two years Salmeron preached in Rome; his exposition of the Pauline Epistle to the Ephesians thrice a week in the church of the Society effected much good (1545). After preaching during Lent at Bologna, he went with Diego Laynez to the Council of Trent (18 May 1546) as theologian to Paul III. The Dogma of Justification was under discussion.
The two Jesuits at once reportedly won the hearts and respect of all; their discourses had to be printed and distributed to the bishops. Both set out for Bologna (14 March 1547) with the council. After serious sickness at Padua, Salmeron once again took up his council work. Salmeron gave statements on issues including justification, Holy Eucharist, penance, purgatory, indulgences, the Sacrifice of the Mass, matrimony and the origin of episcopal jurisdiction.
The next two years were in great part spent in preaching at Bologna, Venice, Padua and Verona. On 4 October 1549, Salmeron and his companions, Claude Le Jay and Peter Canisius, took their doctorate at the University of Bologna, so that they might, at the urgent invitation of William IV of Bavaria, accept chairs in Ingolstadt. Salmeron undertook to interpret the Pauline Epistle to the Romans. Upon the death of Duke William, at the instigation of the Bishop of Verona, much to the chagrin of the faculty of the Academy of Ingolstadt, Salmeron was returned to Verona (24 September 1550). That year he explained the Gospel of St. Matthew.
In 1551 he was summoned to Rome to help St. Ignatius in working up the Constitutions (statutes) of the Jesuit Society. Other work was in store. He was soon (February, 1551) sent down to Naples to inaugurate the Society's first college there, but after a few months was summoned by Ignatius to go back to the Council of Trent as theologian to pope Julius III. It was during the discussions preliminary to these sessions that Diego Laynez and Salmeron, as papal theologians, gave their vota first. When the Council once again suspended its sessions, Salmeron returned to Naples (October, 1552). Pope Paul IV sent him to the Augsburg Diet (May, 1555) with nuncio Lippomanus, and thence into Poland and in April, 1556 to Belgium.
Another journey to Belgium was undertaken in the capacity of adviser to Cardinal Giovanni Pietro Caraffa (2 December 1557). Diego Laynez appointed Salmeron first Jesuit Provincial of Naples in 1558 and vicar-general in 1561 during the former's apostolic legation to France. The Council of Trent was again resumed (May, 1562) and a third pontiff, Pius IV, chose Salmeron and Diego Laynez for papal theologians. The subject to be discussed was very delicate: the Divine origin of the rights and duties of bishops. During the years 1564–82, Salmeron was engaged chiefly in preaching and writing; he preached every day during eighteen Lenten seasons; his preaching was fervent, learned and fruitful. His writings during this long period were voluminous; Saint Robert Bellarmine spent five months in Naples reviewing them; each day he pointed out to Salmeron the portions that were not up to the mark, and the next day the latter brought back those parts corrected. He died at Naples on 13 February 1585.
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