CONRY (CONRIUS), FLORENT. - Franciscan theologian, b. in Ireland (Connaught) in 1560, d. at Madrid on 16 Nov. 1629. He entered the Reformed Friars Minor. Appointed by Clement VIII archbishop of Tuam (30 March 1608), in Ireland, he supported the action of the Spaniards, sent by Philip III to aid the Irish Catholics against the oppression of Queen Elizabeth. But when they were defeated at Kingsale, C. was proscribed and thereafter lived between Belgium (1609–24) and Spain, devoting himself chiefly to the study of St. Augustine, of whom he became an excellent interpreter and prolific commentator. In 1606, with the aid of the King of Spain, he had founded at Louvain the college of St. Anthony for his Irish confreres.
His writings on St. Augustine deal chiefly with the doctrine of Grace. Worthy of mention are: De s. Augustini sensu circa b. Mariae conceptionem (Antwerp 1619; C. had also promoted the cause of the Immaculate Conception at Rome); Tract. de statu parvulorum sine Baptismio decedentum (Louvain 1624), highly esteemed; Peregrinus Ierichuntinus..., that is, on fallen human nature (Paris 1641); Tract. de gratia Christi (ibid. 1646).