SUÁREZ, FRANCISCO. - Jesuit theologian and philosopher, called the Doctor Eximius, b. at Granada on 5 Jan. 1548, d. at Lisbon on 25 Sept. 1617.
I. LIFE
A descendant of the noble S. and Vasquez de Utiel families, at the age of 14 he was sent to Salamanca to study canon law. Moved by the sermons of Fr. Juan Ramírez, he entered the Society of Jesus on June 16, 1564. In the same year he began the course of philosophy under the guidance of Fr. Andrés Martínez and, after months of great but fruitless application, he suddenly gave proof of no common intellect. He finished the course of theology in 1570 at the same University of Salamanca with a public disputation on the superiority of Mary's Grace over that of the saints. Ordained a priest in 1572, he first taught philosophy at Salamanca and Segovia (1570-74), then theology at Valladolid, Segovia and Avila (1574-80).
Called in 1580 to teach theology at the Roman College (where in 1583 he made his solemn profession), he had to return to Spain (1585) because of poor health. He continued his theological teaching at Alcalá until 1593. In 1590 he published the De Incarnatione, and shortly afterward asked to be relieved of teaching in order to devote himself, at Salamanca, to the definitive redaction of his works. At that time the disputes over efficacious Grace began in Spain (v. BAÑEZ; MOLINA); Suárez found himself, on the substantial points, close to Molina, and therefore, when the decision on the controversy was reserved to Clement VIII, the most important part of the brief sent by the Jesuits was his work, published in the Varia opuscula theologica (Salamanca 1599). In 1597 the repeated requests of the University of Coimbra, supported by Philip II, induced him to accept the chair of the first year of theology. Having obtained his doctorate at Evora on 4 June, until two years before his death (1615) he alternated his work as a writer with the chair of which he was the holder, although in this he was sometimes replaced by Fr. Cristobal Gil. During those years he was consulted by Spain, Portugal and Rome. An opinion from his treatise De Paenitentia on confession at a distance and on absolution in absentia, condemned by the Holy Office, forced him to go to Rome (1603-1605) to defend himself, without however succeeding in the attempt. During this second stay in Rome, he had some involvement, secret but not ineffective, in the last episodes of the controversy de auxiliis, with his opuscule De vera intelligentia auxilii efficaci.
Having returned to Coimbra, he wrote the De immunitate ecclesiastica, against the Signoria of Venice, which was opposing the rights of the Church; it was this work that earned him from Paul V the brief of 2 Oct. 1607, in which he is described as "eminent and pious theologian." He published at that time the first two volumes of the great treatise De virtute religionis, the last part of which is a masterly commentary on the rules of the Society of Jesus. In the last years of his teaching, at the express invitation of the Pope, he intervened with the Defensio fidei in the polemic aroused by the King of England James I. In 1615 he retired to Lisbon, to the novitiate of the Society, but in May 1617 he had to intervene in the dispute (called "of the Lisbon interdict"), between the Collector of the Nunciature and the civil magistrates.
The testimonies to Suárez's virtues are many and immediate; among others those of his superiors and of numerous religious, some of great authority, such as Luigi de la Puente and Alonso Rodriguez. In the documents that at the end of his life Pope Paul V and Card. Borghese, his secretary, sent him, there is mention of his "excellent virtues and merits"; St. John Eudes made himself the spokesman of this fame, calling him a most pious theologian. His mystical gifts and extraordinary communications with God seem proven (sworn testimony of Jeronimo de Silva). His deep piety is reflected in his entire theological work. Clear testimony to this is his volume De mysteriis vitae Christi, where the first 23 disputations constitute his Mariology, and the 4 ample volumes consecrated to the virtue of religion.
II. WORKS
S., in the judgment of Grabmann (Storia della teologia cattolica, Ital. trans., Milan 1939, p. 241), is the most prolific of modern theologians. The treatises published by him or which he had left almost entirely ready for the press form, in the edition of the Opera omnia (Venice 1747 ff.; Paris 1856), a body of 23 folio vols. Not a few writings still remain, in preparation for a future critical edition.
S.'s output, begun at the age of 42, is the fruit of his teaching. The first works appeared at Alcalá: Commentariorum ac disputationum in tertiam partem divi Thomae tomus... De Verbo Incarnato (Alcalá 1590); De mysteriis vitae Christi (ibid. 1592); De Sacramentis (Salamanca 1595); De paenitentia (Coimbra 1602), to which he added as a complement the De censuris (ibid. 1603). Having set out and briefly explained the text of St. Thomas, these works expand into ample discussions divided into sections. Among these commentaries there appeared in 1594 the Quaestio theologica; Utrum opera mortificata per peccata per paenitentiam reviviscant, relectio, reproduced in the Varia opuscula, and then at Salamanca in 1597 the two celebrated volumes Disputationum metaphysicarum, written as a propaedeutic to theology. The volume Varia opuscula theologica (Madrid 1599) comprises six short treatises: the first three, De concursu et efficaci auxilio Dei ad actus liberi arbitrii necessario, De scientia quam Deus habet de futuris contingentibus, Brevis resolutio quaestionis de concursu, form part of the documentation sent to Rome by the Spanish Jesuits in the de auxiliis controversy; there follow two reports: De libertate voluntatis divinae in actionibus suis, De meritis mortificatis, already cited, and the Disputatio de iustitia qua Deus reddit praemia meritis et poenas pro peccatis, a polemical work against Vázquez. In 1606 he published at Lisbon the De Deo Uno et Trino (Lisbon 1606): written during the journey to Rome, not in the form of a commentary on St. Thomas, but as an autonomous work; De virtute et statu religionis (2 vols., Coimbra 1608-1609); Tractatus de legibus ac de Deo legislatore (ibid. 1612), which gave him fame as a jurist. The last great work published by him himself was the Defensio fidei catholicae et apostolicae adversus anglicanae sectae errores (ibid. 1613).
At the time of his death (1617) he already had various volumes ready, which were soon published by the Portuguese Jesuit Fr. Baltasar Alvarez: Tractatus de Gratia Dei seu de Deo Salvatore, iustificatore et liberi arbitrii adiutore per Gratiam suam (ibid. 1619). The second volume, which dealt with de auxiliis, could not be published then, but was published instead at Lyon in 1651, against the will of the superiors of the Society, and there in 1655 appeared the important De vera intelligentia auxilii efficacis, written at Rome toward the end of the controversy, and De angelis (Lyon 1620); De triplici virtute theologica (Coimbra 1621); De opere sex dierum with the De anima (Lyon 1621), left by the author at ch. 12 of bk. I; Fr. Alvarez completed it with the notes of the primitive treatise; there appeared at Lyon the III and IV vols. of the De religione (ibid. 1624-26); Tractatus quinque in primam secundae divi Thomae (ibid. 1628), a collection made by the author of the notes on the topics of general moral theology, De ultimo fine hominis, De voluntario et involuntario, De bonitate et malitia humanorum actuum, De passionibus et habitibus, De vitiis et peccatis.
The first editions, almost all published in Spain and Portugal, were soon followed (sometimes in the same year) by other editions, especially at Lyon, Mainz and Venice; of numerous works the editions multiplied until the middle of the 17th century. After the Opera omnia (23 vols., Venice 1740-51; 28 vols., Paris 1856-61), Mons. Malou published R. P. Francisci Suárez, opuscula sex inedita (Brussels 1859): two on confession at a distance, the third containing a letter to Clement VIII against the accusations of Báñez, the fifth bk. II of the De immunitate ecclesiastica against the Venetians; the other parts of the treatise have not yet been found again; the last opusculum reports S.'s opinion on the so-called "jesuitines." In 1866 Bourassé's Summa aurea included (vol. VIII, pp. 457-82) a treatise by S. on the Immaculate Conception. In 1948, the fourth centenary of S.'s birth, the University of Coimbra printed two volumes Doctor Eximius Conselhos e pareceres: these are dissertations on questions of morals and law on which S. was consulted.
He also wrote commentaries on Aristotle: on the Peri hermeneias, on the Analytica, on the Topica, on the De generatione et corruptione, etc., some of which are perhaps lost. The correspondence and other occasional writings amount (in Rivière's bibliographical repertory, see op. cit. in the bibliography) to more than 300 index cards, a number later increased. The correspondence is ready for publication. A writing on 15 propositions of St. Augustine concerning efficacious Grace was edited in 1948 (Estudios eclesiásticos, pp. 495-505) by Fr. J. A. de Aldama. A new edition of S. is about to gather together all these literary remains.
III. SCIENTIFIC PERSONALITY
A theologian who best represents the doctrinal orientation of the Society of Jesus, heir to the tradition of Paris and Salamanca, he took part in the movement of return to the sources. His patristic erudition is imposing, not only for its citations but also for its profound critical sense. He knew earlier theology better than any other writer of his time, and this is one of his recognized characteristics (in S. tota auditur Schola).
Profound and personal is his reworking of the elements offered by the philosophical and theological tradition. The reappropriation of all preceding thought is not an end in itself, but a means for a more constructive labor, for the formulation of a valid judgment on individual problems. If under these aspects S.'s work proves eminently analytical, it must be added that it does not lack synthetic vigor. S. did not claim to elaborate a personal systematic construction. He was instead a great organizer of treatises: mariology, as it is conceived today, was his ingenious creation; the same must be said of the treatises De Gratia, De legibus and De religione; he further organized metaphysics into a broad synthesis around the idea of being.
If S. was not original in the whole of his doctrine, nor in method, he was so instead in specific points, above all in the problems most debated among the scholastics. His teaching seemed to present novelties, perhaps far more than can currently be thought, and he was accused on this account.
S.'s well-known eclecticism depends on his attitude toward the three systematic orientations, of differing value but still current in the scholasticism of the 16th century: Thomism, Scotism and nominalism; to them, just as they historically presented themselves, he gave no preference whatsoever. And this is the only foundation for the label of eclectic given to his teaching. But S. subjected the arguments and systems of the various authors to vigilant criticism, which «sine ira et studio» he demolished in whatever, in the light of Revelation or of reason, did not seem to have consistency; thus it happened that he coincided at times, in his conclusions, with one or another system.
S. made extensive use of the works of St. Thomas (898 citations in the Metaphysics alone); his adherence to the master's doctrine was not servile but sincere: he followed him always when no contrary motive, in his judgment preponderant, presented itself. Of the 6,000 and more conclusions contained in S.'s works, only about twenty disagree with the thought of the Angelic Doctor. His substantial Thomism is recognized by Cardinal Gonzalez and by Grabmann.
IV. DOCTRINE
Suárez's contributions are numerous. To him is due the systematic character and precision finally achieved in the classification of theological doctrines. Noteworthy is the Suarezian development of the supernaturality of the entire order of Grace, of the positive dispositions to Grace, and of the doctrine of merit (based on God's commutative and distributive justice: Opusc., VI: De merito, ch. 33); the delimitation of the effects of original sin to the "gratuitous" or original justice, energetically emphasized, as well as the universality of God's salvific will and the defense of the true character of freedom as active indifference. Suárez's own opinions in various theological treatises (cf. P. Dumont, S., in DThC, XIV, cols. 2652-89) are: the character of the divine relations (De Trinitate, bk. III), the constitutive element of the hypostatic union (De Incarnatione, disp. 8), the motive of the Incarnation (ibid., disp. 5), the essence of beatitude and of the intuitive vision of God (De Deo, bk. II), the nature of Providence, the supernaturality of the formal object of "salutary acts," the disposition to justification (De Gratia habituali, II, VII-VIII), the explanation of the axiom "to him who does what is in him God does not deny Grace," the opposition between Grace and sin (ibid.), active obediential potency (De Incarnatione, disp. 31, sect. 5-6), the causality of the Sacraments (v.), the essence of transubstantiation (v. EUCHARIST) with the mode of the eucharistic presence (cf. R. Masi, La teoria suareziana della presenza eucaristica, Rome 1942), the intimate nature of the sacrifice of the Mass (v.), the sufficiency of contrition and the voluntary character of original sin (De opere sex dierum, bk. III). In the discussion on efficacious Grace, Suárez, who at first did not accept middle knowledge, soon became its most convinced defender. In the further discussion on predefinition and predestination, he defended together with Bellarmine the system that was improperly called "congruism" (v.), in opposition to pure "Molinism" (v.).
Suárez's philosophy is the fruit of personal reworking; on the one hand the epistemological, cosmological, anthropological and metaphysical doctrines (which constitute the common foundation of Scholasticism) were deepened by him and expressed in clear-cut formulas; on the other, in his further investigation of philosophical problems, he arrived at partially new solutions: a realistic application of the act-potency theory to being, formal distinction ex natura rei, conceptualist nominalism; he further posited as the basis of his system the idea of being (one, transcendent and analogous), which demands the fullness of Being by essence, from which every other being derives in full dependence (cf. F. Cayré, Patrologia e storia della teologia, Ital. trans., II, Rome 1938, pp. 845-49).
Suárez's moral theology, although it is not complete (he did not treat the particular problems of justice and contracts, nor of Matrimony), brought precisions to the common doctrine; St. Alphonsus regarded Suárez as one of the safest authors; the special points on which he pronounced are: the constitutive element of morality, the notion of penal law, positive imperfection as distinct from venial sin, probabilism. Suárez is recognized as one of the most eminent jurists, the theorist of law in general and of political law in particular. He deepened the philosophy of society and the concept of law, with his usual breadth, and together with Bellarmine he is held to be the qualified representative of the traditional doctrine on the immediate origin of civil society and of authority through the free consent of citizens, presupposing their natural necessity and therefore its special foundation in God. Important is Suárez's contribution to the formulation of the theory of the indirect power of the Church over the State; as a canonist he excels in the De censuris and in the De immunitate ecclesiastica as in many passages of the Defensio fidei and of other treatises. International law found in Suárez (after Francisco de Vitoria [v.]) one of its most distinguished cultivators. Substantial are the Suarezian contributions to the concept of the delimitation of the law of nations, as a middle way between natural law and particular civil law, and to the idea of the natural community of nations (which replaced the more abstract one of de Vitoria's world). The problem of just war was considered by Suárez, with the ancient theologians, in relation more to charity than to justice, which must undoubtedly be presupposed with certainty, without its being possible to apply properly so-called probabilism to the determination of the cause of war. In the systematic exposition of moral-juridical doctrines, Suárez emphasized the voluntary element without however dissociating it from the intellectual (cf. R. Bouillard, S., in DThC, XIV, cols. 2691-2728).
V. INFLUENCE OF SUÁREZ
As the fruit of his immense labor, S. obtained great authority in sacred science. From his own times, S.'s lectures were eagerly sought by students from other centers, and his works enjoyed publishing successes that are difficult to assess today; almost all of them had, in less than half a century, seven and even ten editions, and the Metaphysics, outside Spain, had as many as 17 editions. S.'s authority was recognized by the Vatican Council, through the phrases of praise with which he was cited by the Fathers and through the frequent references to his thought in the schemas and notes of the theologians.
From the description "eminent and pious theologian" given by Paul V to S. (brief of 2 Oct. 1607) derives the title of "Eminent" Doctor, by which posterity soon designated him, corroborated by Alexander VII, who called him the "prince of modern theologians," taken up by Benedict XIV in the work De Synodis and confirmed by Pius XII, who cited S. in the Apostolic Constitution that defines the Assumption of Mary.
BIBLI: 1. Elenchi bibliografici: S. A. Pérez Goyena, Fuentes para el estudio de S., in Razón y Fe, 42 (1917), pp. 442-57; E. Rivière, S. et son oeuvre, Tolosa 1918; E. Elorduy, S., su vida y su obra, in Rev. nacion. de educación, 3 (1943), pp. 16-28; P. Mujica, Bibliogr. suareziana, Granada 1948; F. Solà, Repertorio bibliogr. de las ed. de S., Barcellona 1948; J. Iturrioz, Bibliogr. suareziana, in Pensamiento, 4 (1948), pp. 603-38 e in Razón y Fe, 143 (1948), pp. 479-99; Bibliogr. suareziana dal 1917 al 1947, recensioni critiche in Estudios eclesial, 22 (1948), pp. 603-71; Atti del IV centen. della nascita di F. S., pubbl. dalla Direc. gen. di propaganda dello Stato spagnolo (2 voll., Madrid 1949-50); Congr. internaz. di filosofia, Barcellona 1-10 ott. 1948, in occasione del centen. dei filosofi spagnoli F. S. e G. Balmes, 3 voll., Madrid 1949. - 2. Vita e opere: la biografia definitiva è quella di R. de Scoraille, François S. de la Comp. de Jésus, d'après ses lettres, ses autres écrits inédits et un grand nombre de documents nouveaux, 2 voll., Parigi 1911-1912. Complementi posteriori: P. Monet, s. v. in DThC, XIV, coll. 2638-49; B. Leorca, S. e l'Inquis. spagnola del 1594, in Gregorianum, 17 (1936), pp. 3-52; id., L'inquis. spagnola ed il libro postumo del p. F. S. De vera intelligencia auxilii efficaci, in Arch. Hist. S. J., 7 (1937), pp. 240-56; F. Rodrigues, O Doutor Esimio na Universidade de Coimbra, in Broteria, 24 (1937), pp. 437-51; L. Lopetegui, La Secretaria de Estado de Paulo V y la composición del « Defensio fidei » de S., in Gregorianum, 27 (1946), pp. 584-96; E. Elorduy, Censuras de Enriquez contra S., in Arch. teol. granatino, 13 (1950), pp. 173-252. Per le opere del S. sono stati citati i principali lavori nel testo: inoltre C. Confalonieri, Spicilegio Vatic. di docum. inediti e rari, Roma 1890; V. Beltran da Heredia, Las manuscr. de los teólogos de la escuela salmantina, in Ciencia tomista, 42 (1930), pp. 327-349; A. Zulueta, Manuscritos de F. S. en Portugal, in Rev. portuguesa de filosofia, 3 (1947), pp. 390-99. - 3. Teologia: J. Mar-
tinez Gomez, S. y la sobrenaturalidad del mérito, in Arch. teol. gran., 2 (1939), pp. 71-127; A. Reddington, The act of faith in the theology of S., Roma 1939; L. Gomez Hellin, La libertad divina según los primeros teólogos jesuitas, in Arch. teol. gran., 6 (1943), pp. 217-67; J. Hellin, El principio de identidad comparada según S., in Pensamiento, 6 (1950), pp. 435-63; 7 (1951), pp. 169-92. - 4. Filosofi: M. Grabmann, Die disputationen metaphysicae des F. S. in ihrer method. Eigenart und Fortwirkung, in Gedenblätter (1917), ampliato nel Mittelalterl. Geistesleben, Münster 1926; J. Zaragusta, La filosofia de S. y el pensamiento actual, Granada 1941; H. Gutier, The Metaphysics of F. S., Nuova York 1941; C. Gacon, La seconda scolastica, II, Milano 1946; R. Masi, Il movimento assoluto e la posizione assoluta sec. S., Roma 1947; id., Interno ad una critica alla presenza assoluta di F. S., in Divus Thomas, 54 (Piacenza 1951), pp. 385-500; J. Alejandro, La gnoseologia del Doctor Esimio y la acusación nominalista, Comillas 1948. - 5. Morale e diritto: F. Plappert, S. als Völkerrechtlicher, Würzburg 1914; A. Medina Olmos, La obra jurística de S., Granada 1917; J. Brown Scott, S. and the international Community, Washington 1933; J. de Blic, Le volontarisme juridique chez S., in Rev. de philosophie, 30 (1950), pp. 213-30; C. Barcia Trelles, F. S., Les théologiens espagnols du XVIe siècle et l'école moderne du droit internat., Parigi 1933; R. Bouillard, S. La théol. pratique, in DThC, XIV, coll. 2691-2728; A. Esteban, Concepción suareziana de la Ley, Siviglia 1944; E. Elorduy, Teoria suareziana sobre la justicia de Dios, Granada 1942; id., La moral suareziana, Salamanca 1944. - 6. Infuso: T. M. Bartolomei, Relaz. dottrinale tra la bella Munificentissimus Deus e il pensiero del S. sull'Assunzione corporea di M. V., in Divus Thomas, 54 (Piacenza 1951), pp. 334-358.