PÈGUES, THOMAS. - Dominican theologian, b. at Marcillac (Aveyron) on 2 Aug. 1866, d. at Dax on 28 Apr. 1936.
A religious in 1888 and a priest on 11 June 1892, he was entrusted with the teaching of theology, which he held for more than forty years, first at Toulouse in the Institut catholique, then at Rome at the Angelicum from 1909 to 1921. He was then regent of studies in his province of Toulouse. In 1928 he was called to direct the Studium of the Roman province at St. Dominic's in Pistoia, where he remained until 1935. A passionate devotee of St. Thomas, he devoted his whole life to making him known through teaching and through writings rich in penetrating inquiry.
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): it is the masterpiece to which the author's name and fame remain bound; a translation and commentary on the whole Summa theologica, in which P., adhering scrupulously to the text, explains and illustrates St. Thomas by St. Thomas, without useless digressions or an overload of erudition, but with depth of insight and transparency of style. It is due to this commentary that St. Thomas was savored by a great number of scholars and learned laymen, who were accustomed to regard the work of the Aquinate as something antiquated rather than as a living and life-giving doctrine. By way of completion P. added a Dictionnaire de la Somme Théologique de St Thomas d'Aquin et du Commentaire français littéral (2 vols., ibid. 1935), which are its orderly and intelligent compendium; Propaéduction thomistica ad sacram theologium (Pistoia 1931): an original work on the model of St. Thomas's Summa, whose method and style it also imitates. Together with Fr. Ceslao Paban, P. also collaborated on the new edition of Capreolus's Defensiones (ibid.), 7 vols., Paris 1898-1908. He also wrote numerous articles of a philosophical and theological nature; notable is the one on L'hérésie du renouvellement, in the Rev. thomiste (of 1907), against modernism, which preluded the condemnation of the encyclical Pascendi promulgated two months later.