TORRES (Turrianus), FRANCESCO. - Patrologist and controversialist, b. at Herrera (Valencia), or at Léon, c. 1509; d. at Rome, 21 Nov. 1584.
He was one of the most prolific theologians of his time. He took part in the Council of Trent as a papal theologian; having entered the Society of Jesus in 1566, when he had already published 14 works, he spent the rest of his life in Germany and Rome, leaving an extensive body of theological-patristic writings.
The subjects most frequently treated by him were questions concerning the authority of the Pope (particularly well known is the work De Summi Pontificis supra concilium auctoritate Libri tres, Florence 1551), the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the canons and decrees of various councils, especially the duty of residence of pastors, the administration of vacant churches, the reading of Holy Scripture, the Eucharistic Sacrament, and, in general, the most controversial questions of the age, especially against the Centuriators of Magdeburg, the Ubiquitists, the Arians, and various Lutheran Protestants, among whom Antonio Sadaele. T. earned particular merit by making accessible through his Latin translations many patristic works of the Eastern Church, including the orations of Anastasio Sinaita, patriarch of Antioch, the book of St. Giovanni Damasceno against the Acephali and the Monophysite Jacobites, those of Leonzio Bizantino against the Eutychians and Nestorians, and many others.