FRANCESCO TORRES (Turrianus). — Patrologist and controversialist, born at Herrera (Valencia), or at León, c. 1509, died at Rome on 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 at Rome, leaving a vast output of theological-patriotic writings.
The subjects most treated by him were questions concerning the authority of the Pope (notably his work *De Summi Pontificis supra concilium auctoritate Libri tres*, Florence 1551), ecclesiastical hierarchy, the canons and decrees of various councils, particularly on 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 time, especially against the Centuriators of Magdeburg, the Ubiquitists, the Arians, and various Lutheran Protestants, including Antonio Sadale. Torres acquired particular merit for having made accessible through his Latin translations many patristic works of the Eastern Church, including the orations of Anastasius Sinaita, Patriarch of Antioch, the book of St. John Damascene against the Acephali and the Jacobite Monophysites, those of Leontius of Byzantium against the Eutychians and Nestorians, and many others.