FLOREZ, ENRIQUE. - Augustinian, b. at Villadiego (Burgos) on 21 July 1702, d. at Madrid on 5 May 1773.
A man of great virtue and most extensive learning, at the age of twenty-eight he composed a Tratado de teologia in 5 volumes. Having devoted himself to historical studies, he wrote La clave historial, a chronological synthesis of popes, emperors, kings, councils, saints, heretics, and writers, arranged by centuries, conceived as an introduction to Spanish ecclesiastical geography. His major work is the España sagrada, a general history of the Church in Spain in 20 vols. (Madrid 1747-75), rich in unpublished documents, carried out with great diligence and a remarkable critical apparatus, which still makes it a fundamental work today. It was continued from vols. XXX to XLVII by the Augustinians Emm. Risco, Ant. Merino, Gius. Candel; then, up to vol. LI, by secular scholars (vol. LI, Madrid 1879, index there 1918).