FAURÉ, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. - Jesuit, theologian, b. in Rome on 25 Oct. 1702, d. in Viterbo on 5 Apr. 1779. He spent almost his entire life in the Roman College, teaching philosophy, dogmatic and polemical theology, surrounded by the constant reputation of a sharp professor and a strenuous defender of the Faith against the Jansenism and Enlightenment then raging. At the suppression of the Society of Jesus (1773), he was confined with the Father General L. Ricci and some companions in Castel Sant'Angelo, for fear of his pen in defense of the Order. Freed by Pius VI in 1775, he retired to Viterbo.
An intelligent polemicist, he could have held the first place among the theologians of his century, had his impulsive and quarrelsome temperament not led him to digress into unpleasant controversies, often exaggerated, embittered also by the circumstance that his works came out for the most part anonymously. Thus it happened in the discussion against the Dominican D. Concina and in defense of Fr. B. Benzi, regarding the question of certain cases reserved to Venice: the Solemn Retractation of all the insults... printed in various books by Fra D. Concina (Naples 1744) attributed to him, was placed on the Index on 17 June 1744. Also on the Index: Commentarium in bullum Pauli III - Licet ab initio - datum a. 1542 (a. l. 1750), where, under the pretext of writing the history of the tribunal of the Inquisition, he instead made a harsh criticism of the manner of acting of the inquisitors, predominantly Dominicans, accused of partiality and prejudices in the condemnation of books (decr. 15 July 1757) and Dissertatio dogmatica de praxi quesselliana (on the postponement of absolution), suspended in printing at p. 80 (decr. 23 Sept. 1757), which appeared posthumously and completed by a confrere of his in the In Arnaldi librum de frequenti communione (Rome 1791). Other works worthy of remembrance: Selectae dissertationes polemicae (3 vols., Rome 1771), Selectae dissertationes de Sacramentis (3 vols., ibid. 1771), Miscellanea dissertationem polemicarum (ibid. 1772); Memorie apologetiche (2 vols., Viterbo 1774-79); S. Aurelii Augustini enchiridian de fide, spe et caritate, votis theologis illustratum (Rome 1755, republished subsequently, edited by Frs. C. Passaglia and A. Ballerini [ibid. 1847] with the part of the work that had been lost and was later found), where F. appears as one of the most versed in the reading and understanding of the holy Doctor: Dubitationes theologicae de iudicio practico... super poenitentiis praecipue consuetudinarii aut recidivi dispositione... posthumous, edited by C. Passaglia and A. Ballerini (Lugano 1840; 4th ed. Louvain 1843), with biography and bibliography of the author. He appears classic, moreover, in the two works on the cult of the Sacred Heart: Digiletti confidenziali critici (Venice 1772) and Saggi teologici (Lugano 1773).
Bibliography7 works
Celestino Testore