Lemos, Tommaso de

LEMOS, TOMMASO de. - Dominican theologian, b. at Rivadavia (Galicia) around 1546, d. at Rome on 23 Aug. 1629. He entered the Order in his native city. Regent of the Studium of Valladolid in 1590, he was teaching in 1594 when the Molinist controversy flared up between the Jesuits and the Dominicans. He was chosen, together with his confrere Diego Alvares, to represent the Order officially in the discussions, when Clement VIII reserved to himself the settlement of that controversy. In the 47 disputations held over four years (1602-1606) before Clement VIII and Paul V, he eloquently displayed the strength of his intellect and his oratorical gifts. Once the discussions were closed, he refused the episcopate offered to him by the King of Spain, and withdrew to the convent of the Minerva in Rome.

He himself collected the proceedings of the 47 disputations, which were published only in 1702: Acta omnia congregationum ac disputationum (Louvain 1702). He wrote much more on the debated subject; famous is the Panoplia gratiae (4 vols., Liège 1676), certainly one of the best works of the school that returned to the subject of Grace. The Order energetically took up the L.'s defense when this work was attacked by the inquisitor Knippenberg.