LAYMANN, PAUL

LAYMANN, PAUL. – Jesuit and moral theologian, born at Arzl near Innsbruck in 1574, died at Constance on 13 November 1635. He taught philosophy at Ingolstadt (1603–1609); moral theology at Munich (1609–25), and canon law at Dillingen (1625–32). He was constantly consulted from every quarter on the most difficult and complex cases, and his answers were regarded as decisive. He was confessor to Ferdinand II.
Of his 34 works, the most important is the Theologia moralis in quinque partes partita (5 vols., Munich 1625; with numerous editions through the middle of the eighteenth century; the best are those reproducing the 3rd [Munich 1630], revised by the author), composed according to a new method in the formulation of questions, their classification, and their discussion, in a lucid and closely reasoned style, with no stinting of erudition. This was followed by Pacis compositio inter Principes et Ordines Imperii Romani (Dillingen 1629), in which, against the accusations of harshness and duplicity levelled by the Protestants, he proves that the Peace of Augsburg, signed by Ferdinand I in 1555, is valid always and in every circumstance; and Iusta defensio, in causa monasteriorum extinctorum (there 1631), in which he deals with the Edict of Restitution issued by Ferdinand II in 1629 and maintains that the property of suppressed monasteries should not be restored to the Order to which the monasteries belonged, because each monastery constituted a separate corporation. Jus Canonicum was published posthumously (3 vols., there 1666–98), but remained incomplete. L. was also credited with the rigorous Processus juridicus contra sagas et veneficos (Cologne 1629), and the author was accused of defending the cruelties employed up to that time in witch trials. But it is certain that the work is not his (cf. B. Duhr, P. L. und Processus juridicus contra sagas, in Zeitschr. für kath. Theol., 23 [1899], p. 773 ff.; 24 [1900], p. 585 ff.; 25 [1901], p. 166 ff.); moreover, it is in clear contradiction to what he himself says, especially in the 3rd ed. of the Theologia moralis, where he condemns the severity of the judges and recommends gentleness and understanding toward the accused, so much so that the eventual cessation of those trials was due in part to the influence of his judgment.