TANNER, ADAM. — Jesuit, theologian, b. at Innsbruck on 14 April 1572, d. at Unken (near Salzburg) on 25 May 1632.
For 34 years he taught dogmatic theology, moral theology, and controversies at Munich, Ingolstadt, Prague, and Vienna; endowed as he was with keen intelligence and broad learning, he enjoyed a reputation as the finest theologian of the Counter-Reformation in Germany, while his opponents bestowed on him the title of “insolent.” He took part in the conferences at Regensburg in 1601, of which he composed a Relatio compendiosa (also translated by him into German [Munich 1602]), and a vigorous refutation of the Augsburg Confession: Anatomia confessionis augustianae (Ingolstadt 1613); during the conflict between Venice and Paul V, he defended the rights of the Pope in Defensio Ecclesiae libertatis (ibid. 1607), asserting the freedom of the Church against the tyrannical aggressions of the State. The work that brought him the greatest fame is: Universa theologia scholastica (4 vols., ibid. 1626–27), which was compared with the Summa of St. Thomas, not only for the arrangement of its questions, but also for the solidity of its doctrine and the concision of its style. In it he follows the doctrine of St. Thomas, but with an eye to the times and to the development of theories; and while in one respect he remains attached to the opinion of the incorruptibility of the stars, despite having directly observed lunar spots, in another he goes too far in the question of Grace and the immunity of princes. He also concerned himself with mitigating the severity of proceedings against witches.