VÁZQUEZ (err. Vásquez), GABRIEL. – Jesuit theologian among the earliest of the 16th century, alongside Suárez, born at Villasecuela del Haro, near Belmonte del Tago (hence the epithet “Bellemontanus”) in 1549, died at Alcalá on 30 September 1604.
He entered the Society in 1569, and upon completing his studies he taught moral theology at Ocaña (1575–77), scholastic theology at Madrid (1577–79), Alcalá (1580–85), and at Rome in the Collegio Romano (1585–91), succeeding Suárez. Finding himself ill at ease with the Italian temperament, he returned in 1591 to Alcalá, where he devoted himself to his work until 1593, when he again succeeded Suárez, who had moved to Salamanca, remaining there until his sudden death.
He began with the De cultu adorationis (Alcalá 1594), later incorporated into his major work, which left its strong imprint and won him universal fame: Commentarii et disputationes in 1° partem s. Thomae (2 vols., IV, 1598); in 2°-2° (2 vols., IV, 1599–1605); in 3°-4° vols., IV, 1609–1615, followed by Opuscula moralia (IV, 1617), containing several treatises he had prepared on the 2a2ae. As the dates show, Vázquez himself saw only the first three volumes through the press; all the rest were published posthumously from his already prepared manuscripts, without alteration. His philosophical treatises were later extracted from the Commentarii and assembled in the Metaphysicae disputationes ex variis locis suorum operum, edited by Murcia de la Llama (Madrid 1617).
His contemporaries dubbed Vázquez the Spanish Augustine not only for his profound knowledge of the holy Doctor, but also for his biblical, patristic, and conciliar erudition. Concise, clear, and brilliant, possessed of extraordinary quickness of mind and vivid speech, he often drew applause from his students; yet while he surpassed Suárez in method and acuteness, he fell short of him in depth and breadth of doctrine and in moderation of judgment. Vázquez’s distinctive traits were indeed the boldness of certain recherché and subtle assertions that frequently led him to unjust and daring conclusions, and his tendency to dwell on secondary and useless questions. Much has also been said of his disagreements and disputes with Suárez, which, if they lent liveliness to the school, contributed little or nothing to the progress of theological science; yet whoever probes the matter beyond the many exaggerations born of fancy will find that at bottom it amounts to a certain intolerance of reciprocal ideas, even when sometimes expressed by Vázquez in too heated and impetuous a manner. In the question of grace he upheld strict Molinism (v.) against Bellarmine and Suárez; among moral systems he adhered to probabilism, though with a certain discretion.
Many other writings of Vázquez, some of considerable value, remain unpublished; others appeared posthumously, including: Paraphrasis et compendiaris explicatio ad nonnullas Pauli epistolas (Romans, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Hebrews [Madrid 1612]).
C. Celestino Testore
Vaughian, Herbert – Portrait.