AMICO, FRANCESCO. – Jesuit theologian, born in Cosenza on 2 April 1578, died on 31 January 1651. Admitted to the Jesuit novitiate in 1596, he soon displayed remarkable intellectual liveliness combined with amiable simplicity. He subsequently became professor of letters, philosophy, and theology, and was also a distinguished preacher. He held the chair of philosophy for only a few years; thereafter, for 24 years, the chair of theology in various cities (L’Aquila, Naples, Gratz, and Vienna, where he was also prefect of studies). Returning from Vienna to Gratz, he was there invested with the dignity of chancellor of the University.
He left the work Cursus theologici iuxta scholasticam hujus temporis S. J. methodum, corresponding to the method and order followed by s. Tommaso d’Aquino: 9 folio volumes, printed at Douai between 1640 and 1649, and reprinted at Antwerp in 1650.
Volume V was prohibited in 1651 by the Congregation of the Index on account of three propositions that were condemned by Alexander VII (prop. 17) and by Innocent XI (propp. 32 and 33): the first concerning homicide by calumny (disp. 36, de Just., n. 118), and the other two homicide as self-defense (disp. 36, nn. 31 and 132). This volume had already been censured by the theological faculty of Louvain (6 September and 8 October 1649): this censure led to the appointment of a procurator general, so that the work might be denounced
to the Holy See through the archbishop of Mechelen, Giacomo Boonen. The Congregation of the Index, by decree of 6 June 1655, permitted its reading « dummodo corrigatur ». The text was subsequently corrected, so that F. A. remains, and is classified, among serious and reliable authors.