GONZÁLEZ de SANTALLA, TIRSO. — Moral theologian, a fierce opponent of probabilism and thirteenth Superior General of the Society of Jesus, born at Arganza (diocese of Astorga) on 18 January 1624, died in Rome on 27 October 1705. Professor of philosophy and theology at Salamanca (1655–65 and 1676–87); in the interval (1655–1676), a highly effective and widely followed preacher of popular missions in 24 dioceses of Spain. Sent to Rome for the 13th Congregation, he was elected Superior General there (6 July 1687), in accordance with the wishes of Innocent XI.
His name is linked to the heated controversy that arose around probabilism. Already during the period of his preaching, G. had recognized the harm caused by overly lax opinions in moral theology; reading 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 regarded as their cause. However, the work prepared in the period 1670–72, Fundamentum theologiae moralis, did not receive printing permission from the Superior General G. P. Oliva. This did not cause G. to modify his views; indeed, having himself been elected Superior General, he secretly had another work against probabilism printed at Dillingen (1690): Tractatus succinctus de recto usu opinionum probabilium, which, owing to the opposition of the Order’s Assistants, remained at Dillingen, and of which apparently only a single copy survives. Seeing the poor reception accorded to this work, he returned to the one whose printing had previously been prohibited and, having revised it, published it with the authorization of Innocent XII, though not without a prolonged struggle against members of his Order: Fundamentum theologiae moralis (Rome 1694), which received twelve editions in that same year. The answers and replies continued vigorously and without restraint. Among his opponents was also Fr. Paolo Segneri, the orator, who had already used his influence to prevent the printing of the Dillingen work and now entered the fray with three strong and resolute letters in favor of probabilism and against probabilism and 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 ended only in 1696, when, with the words: Recedant vetera, nova sint omnia, Innocent XII urged the Order’s General Congregation to cease all disputation.
G. also wrote other works: Selectae disputationes ex universa theologia (4 vols., Salamanca 1680–86), against the Neo-Thomists and 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 circulation, however, was prevented by Alexander VIII for fear of political disturbances. In his final 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 most effectively in the controversy provoked by Louis XIV, who wanted the Jesuit province of Flanders to be placed under the Assistance of France. The Superior General firmly opposed this, unwilling that the internal government of the Order should depend upon changing political circumstances; nor did he yield despite persecutions and threats of schism, so that in the end the King withdrew his demands.
Under his generalate, the missions of Spanish America, China, and India developed greatly.
I Gesuiti dalle origini ai giorni nostri, 2ª ed., Roma 1930, pp. 329–341; I. Arturo, Las misiones de un catedrático de prima, Vitoria 1946; A. Eberle, Das - probabile - bei Thyrsos G. in seiner Kampfschrift gegen den Probabilismus als Grundlage seines Moralsystems, in Theol. Quartalschrift, 128 (1947), pp. 295–331.