 Molina was born in Cuenca (Spain) in 1535, entered the Jesuit order at the age of 18, studied in Salamanca and Coimbra, taught theology in Évora (Portugal) from 1568 to 1583 and later in Lisbon. In 1591 he was sent to the Jesuit college of his home town of Cuenca and was elected in 1600 to the chair of moral theology at the Jesuit College in Madrid, where he died in the same year. In 1588 Molina published a volume entitled Liberi arbitrii cum gratiae donis, divina praescientia, providentia, praedestinatione et reprobatione concordia (Molina 1588 [1953]), usually abbreviated as Concordia, in which he tried to reconcile free will with grace, God’s pre-knowledge, providence, etc. It produced a devastating effect (see below and MacGregor 2015), a passionate debate between Dominicans and Jesuits, raising accusations of both Pelagian and Calvinist heresy, both of which were extremely dangerous for Catholic theologians. This controversy continued until a congregation De auxiliis meeting in Rome under Paul V decreed (1607) that Dominicans and Jesuits could hold their own opinions on efficacious grace. The conflict did not end, however, and in 1611 the Roman Inquisition forbade the publication of any further books on the topic—the most drastic case of ecclesiastical censorship in the seventeenth century (Knebel 2000: 170).