PEREYRA, BENITO. - Theologian and exegete, b. at Ruzafa, near Valenza, ca. 1535, d. at Rome on 6 March 1610. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1552. At Rome he taught rhetoric, philosophy, theology, and Holy Scripture, acquiring a reputation for vast learning.
His principal exegetical work, highly learned but prolix, is the Commentariorum et dissertationum in Genesim (4 vols., Rome 1591–98; other eds. up to 1685). Also noteworthy are: Commentariorum in Danielem prophetam libri XVI (Rome 1587); Selectarum disputationum in S. Scriptorum: I, Super libro Exodi (Ingolstadt 1591); II, Super Epistola
beati Pauli ad Romanos (ibid. 1603); III, Super libro Apocalypus (Lyons 1606, with the addition of 23 disputations against those who held Muhammad to be the Antichrist, printed separately: Trium et viginti disputationum, adversus Ioannem Annum Viterbiensem... [ibid. 1606]); IV and V in Evangelium b. Ioannis (ibid. 1608–10). The Opera theologica quoli-quot extant omnia (Cologne 1602) contain, besides the commentary on Daniel and the 5 volumes of the Disputationes in S. Scripturam, also the Adversus fallaces et superstitiones artes, libri tres, previously printed at Ingolstadt in 1591 and elsewhere; the first two books are already included in the commentaries on Daniel and Genesis. P.’s principal philosophical work is Physicorum, sive de principiis rerum naturalium libri XV (Rome 1562, 1576, 1585; subsequently reprinted at Cologne, Venice, and Paris). Several theological and exegetical works by P. remain in manuscript: commentaries on Matthew, Luke, John, and an introduction to the Epistle to the Romans.