GONZÁLEZ de SANTALLA, TIRSO. - Moralist, bitter opponent of probabilism and thirteenth General of the Society of Jesus, b. at Arganza (diocese of Astorga) on 18 Jan. 1624, d. at Rome on 27 Oct. 1705. Professor of philosophy and theology at Salamanca (1655-65 and 1676-87); in the interval (1655-1676) a highly effective and much-followed preacher of popular missions in 24 dioceses of Spain. Sent to Rome for the 13th Congregation, he was elected General there (6 July 1687) in deference to the wishes of Innocent XI.
His name is linked to the heated controversy that arose around probabilism. Already during his period of preaching, G. had noted the harm caused by overly lax opinions in morals; the reading of the work of Fr. M. de Elizade, De recto doctrina morum (Lyons 1670), printed without the permission of his superiors, persuaded him to combat not only those individual opinions, but probabilism itself, which he deemed their cause. However, the writing prepared in the period 1670-72, Fundamentum theologiae moralis, did not receive from the General G. P. Oliva the license to print. G. did not change his opinions on this account; on the contrary, once elected General in his turn, he had printed: secretly at Dillingen (1690) another work against probabilism: Tractatus succinctus de recto usu opinionum probabilium, which, owing to the opposition of the Assistants of the Order, remained at Dillingen and of which apparently only a single copy survives. Seeing the poor reception of this work, he returned to the one previously forbidden to print, and, after revising it, published it with the authorization of Innocent XII, but not without a long struggle against the members of his Order: Fundamentum theologiae moralis (Rome 1694), which in that same year went through twelve editions. The replies and rejoinders continued fierce and unsparing. Among his opponents was also Fr. Paolo Segneri, the orator, who had already used his influence to prevent the Dillingen printing, and now entered the lists with three letters, forceful and resolute, in favor of probabilism against probabilism and against G.'s assertions: Massimo degli Afflitti, Lettere sulla materia del probabile, printed only later (Cologne 1703; in Opere del p. P. Segneri, IV [Turin 1856], pp. 285-386). The long controversy came to an end only in 1696, when, with the words: Recedant vetera, nova sint omnia, Innocent XII exhorted the General Congregation of the Order to cease all dispute.
G. also wrote other works; Selectae disputationes ex universa theologia (4 vols., Salamanca 1680-86) against the Neo-Thomists and the Jansenists; Monuductio ad conversionem Mahumetanarum, (2 vols., Madrid 1687); De infallibilitate Romani Pontificis (Rome 1681), composed and printed by order and at the expense of Innocent XI, against the assertions of the Assembly of the Clergy of France; its dissemination, however, was prevented by Alexander VIII for fear of political disturbances. In his last years G. had also composed an Opusculum historico-theologicum de ortu et origine probabilismi... but it remained in manuscript, despite his urging his Assistants to publish it after his death (Biblioteca Casanatense, ms. 1361).
G. conducted himself better in the controversy stirred up by Louis XIV, who wanted the Jesuit province of Flanders to pass under the Assistance of France. The General opposed this resolutely, not wishing the internal government of the Order to depend on shifting political fortunes, nor did he yield despite persecutions and threats of schism; so that the King in the end withdrew his claims.
Under his generalate, the missions of Spanish America, China and India greatly developed.