[1] After its publication, Bellarmine's Disputationes was regarded as the Catholic Church's foremost defence of its doctrine, and especially the papal power.

[1] This work was the earliest attempt to systematize the various controversies of the time, and made an immense impression throughout Europe, the strength of its arguments against Protestantism so acutely felt in Germany and England that special chairs were founded in order to provide replies to it.

[5] Thomas Hobbes,[1] Theodore Beza, Conrad Vorstius[6] and John Rainolds[7] were among those who wrote counter-arguments against the work.

The entry concerning Bellarmine reads: "Roberti Bellarmini Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae fidei adversus huius temporis haereticos.

The successor of Sixtus V, Urban VII, asked for an examination and after it was done Bellarmine was exonerated and the book removed from the Index.