PÈGUES, THOMAS. — Dominican theologian, born at Marcillac (Aveyron) on 2 August 1866, died at Dax on 28 April 1936.
He entered religious life in 1888 and was ordained a priest on 11 June 1892. He was entrusted with the teaching of theology, which he carried out for more than forty years, first at the Catholic Institute in Toulouse, then in Rome at the Angelicum from 1909 to 1921. He subsequently became regent of studies in his province of Toulouse. In 1928 he was called to direct the Studium of the Roman province at S. Domenico in Pistoia, where he remained until 1935. An ardent student of s. Thomas, he devoted his entire life to making him known through teaching and writings rich in penetrating investigation.
Principal works: Jésus-Christ dans l'Évangile (Paris 1899); Initiation thomiste (Toulouse 1921); St Thomas d'Aquin. Sa vie par Guillaume de Tacco (Ibid. 1923); Aperçus de philosophie thomiste et de propédentique (Paris 1927); Commentaire français littéral de la Somme Théologique de St Thomas d'Aquin (21 vols., ibid. 1907–32): this is the masterpiece to which the author’s name and fame remain attached; a translation and commentary on the whole Summa theologica, in which P., adhering scrupulously to the text, explains and illustrates s. Thomas through s. Thomas, without useless digressions or an excess of erudition, but with depth of vision and clarity of style. It was thanks to this commentary that s. Thomas came to be appreciated by a large number of lay scholars and intellectuals, who had been inclined to regard the work of the Angelic Doctor as something antiquated rather than as a living and life-giving doctrine. To complete it, P. added a Dictionnaire de la Somme Théologique de St Thomas d'Aquin et du Commentaire français littéral (2 vols., ibid. 1935), which is its orderly and intelligent compendium; Propaéduction thomistica ad sacram theologium (Pistoia 1931): an original work modeled on the Summa of s. Thomas, whose method and style it also imitates. Together with Fr. Ceslao Paban, P. also collaborated on the new edition of Capreolus’s Defensione (iv.), 7 vols., Paris 1898–1908. He also wrote numerous articles of a philosophical and theological nature; noteworthy among them is the one on L'hérésie du renouvellement, in the Rev. thomiste (1907), against modernism, which anticipated the condemnation in the encyclical Pascendi, promulgated two months later.