TIRINUS (LE THIRY), IACOBUS. - Flemish theologian, b. at Antwerp in 1580, d. there in 1636. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1600 and held administrative positions for much of his life.
A disciple of Cornelius a Lapide (q.v.), he always maintained a keen interest in exegesis, which, besides moral theology, he taught at intervals before 1616 and then from 1625 to 1629 and from 1633 to 1636.
While building the magnificent church (now S. Carlo) adjoining the professed house in Antwerp, he involved his province in a perilous financial venture (averted by his successor). However, he earned special merit for his firm and prudent direction of the Dutch Mission from 1629-33, a time of intense Calvinist persecution. His only but well-known work is the *Commentarius in Vetus et Novum Testamentum* (Antwerp 1632), which went through 26 editions (the last in Turin in 1882, in 5 vols.). It is rather a collection of brief scholia, supplemented by introductory treatises and especially indices; it is a useful biblical manual in which T. appears more as a practical professor than a great exegete. The index on controversies merited the refutation by the Calvinist Samuel Des Martes (Maresius) in two large folio volumes: *Anti-Tirinus* (Groningen 1646-48).