Hilary of Paris

HILARY OF PARIS. - Capuchin theologian, b. in Paris on 23 Nov. 1831, d. by drowning near Castel S. Elia (Viterbo) on 18 July 1904. Already a priest, with a degree in theology and canon law, he became a religious on 2 Aug. 1859; he accompanied as theologian the bishop of Geneva Mermillod, later a cardinal, to the Vatican Council.

He began a Theologia universalis (3 vols., Lyon 1868-1871), which remained incomplete because of the vastness of the project; in Cur Deus homo? (Lyon 1867, Amiens 1886) he sets out the Thomist opinion on the motive of the Incarnation; connected with the Vatican Council is the treatise De dogmaticis definitionibus (Fribourg 1871); in Notre-Dame de Lourdes et l'Immaculée Conception (Lyon 1880) he studied in depth the privilege of Mary; in the Liber Tertii Ordinis s. Francisci

(Geneva, Paris, Brussels 1888) he published a rich body of historical and juridical material, which had first served the Roman Congregations (2 vols., Rome 1881-82) for the reform of the Third Order carried out by Leo XIII. In these and other publications he gave proof of a keen intellect and of erudition; but some of his assessments of Scholastic philosophy were condemned, as were those on the Regula Fratrum Minorum (Lyon-Paris 1870; French ed. Exposition de la règle des Frères Mineurs [Fribourg 1872], placed on the Index on 12 June 1895); moreover, the position he maintained in the conflict with the major superiors, concerning the capitular vote for lay brothers, caused him to leave the Order (rescript 5 March 1894); he found fraternal hospitality in the convent of Castel S. Elia of the German Minorites.

Ilarino da Milano