Juan Azor

Drawn from the authors' own words; every quotation links to its place.

Jesuit · ?–1603

In Prümmer's Catalogue and Haringer's Index

“Azor, Ioannes, S.J., Spanish (d. 1603), published Institutiones morales, 3 folio volumes, Rome 1600, a work very often cited by St. Alphonsus and printed again and again.” — Prümmer, Catalogue of authors
[**: weighty, probabilist] “Azorius Ioan., S.J., conspicuous for skill in languages, talent, and knowledge of theology, for integrity and simplicity of life, and for candor and cheerfulness of soul, adorned the Society of Jesus for a long age, and at last, broken by labors, died at Rome in 1607.” — Haringer's index of writers (Gury-Ballerini) (p. XIII, sign read on the page)

His Moral System, as Our Authors Report It

Every report quoted in the author's own words and linked to its place; point at a name to see his words. Haringer's signs give St. Alphonsus's judgment as Haringer found it in St. Alphonsus's works (his notice, Gury-Ballerini, 1884, p. XI); a sign on a writer the 1884 editor added to the list is the editor's own, and is said to be his.

Our authors disagree. Probabilist: Bucceroni, Haringer's index, Tanquerey. Probabiliorist: Tanquerey.

Probabilist
Counted among them by 2 of our authors	Bucceroni, Commentarii, n. 108; Tanquerey, Fundamental Moral Theology, n. 397
“Azorius Ioan., S.J., conspicuous for skill in languages, talent, and knowledge of theology, for integrity and simplicity of life, and for candor and cheerfulness of soul, adorned the Society of Jesus for a long age, and at last, broken by labors, died at Rome in 1607.”Haringer marks him **, giving St. Alphonsus's judgment of him (weighty and probabilist)	Haringer's index, Index of writers, p. XIII
Probabiliorist
Counted among them by one of our authors	Tanquerey, Fundamental Moral Theology, n. 47
Charged with laxity
“Chapter II — The lax opinions of several Casuists … LII. Fr. John Azor, part 3, book 4, chap. 4, question 3: “Whether ceasing gain may be paid by an anticipated payment? It is answered by common consent that it may not.”Concina's censuses of lax opinions list 1 of his opinion (the first is quoted; every one is under 'Where Our Authors Discuss Him')	Concina, Compendium II, bk. IX, diss. I, ch. II, n. LII

Where Our Authors Discuss Him

Each read in its full passage; the words quoted are the author's own. Where several authors say the same thing, one is quoted and the others follow “in nearly the same words”; point at a name to see his words.

“Others treat the whole of moral theology solidly indeed, but less scholastically: Azor, S.J. (1603); Castropalao, S.J. (1633); P. Laymann, S.J. (1635)”Among the best-known moralists of the close of the sixteenth century	Vermeersch, Theologia moralis I, n. 19In nearly the same words: Marc, Institutiones I, n. 6; Koch-Preuss, Handbook I, history of moral theology
“The same may be said of Azor, who published the first volume of his “Institutiones Morales” in the year 1600”Slater: like Hall, he did not fully see that the new principle was universal	Slater, Short History, ¶ 86
“Now he is esteemed a great theologian who possesses the greatest authority among theologians on account of his distinguished doctrine, prudence, and probity”Konings names him among the great theologians whose word that an opinion is probable makes it so	Konings, Compendium, n. 57

In the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)

“Juan Azor”, vol. 2, by Arthur J. McCaffray. Public domain; transcription from Wikisource.

Born at Lorca, province of Murcia, Southern Spain, in 1535; entered the Society of Jesus, 18 March, 1559; d. in Rome, 19 February, 1603. He was professor of philosophy and later of theology, both dogmatic and moral, at Piacenza, Alcalá, and Rome, and was a member of the first committee appointed by Father General Acquaviva to draw up the famous "Ratio Studiorum". Father Azor was a man of wide and solid learning, deeply versed in Greek, Hebrew, and history, as well as in his more special branch of theological science. His chief title to general remembrance rests on his classical work on moral theology, in three folio volumes: "Institutionem Moralium, in quibus universae quaestiones ad conscientiam recte aut prave factorum pertinentes breviter tractantur pars 1ma", the first volume of which appeared in Rome in 1600, the second six years later, and the last in 1611. The work met with flattering success in Rome and at all the Continental seats of learning, and was honored by a special Brief of Clement VIII. Numerous editions were brought out at Brescia, Venice, Lyons, Cologne, Ingolstadt, Paris, Cremona, and Rome. The work continued to hold its lofty position during the succeeding centuries, was strongly recommended by Bousset in his synodal statutes, and was held in highest regard by that master in moral theology, St. Alphonsus Ligouri. Gury speaks of Father Azor as a "moderate Probabiliorist, in wisdom, in depth of learning and in gravity of judgment taking deservedly high rank among theologians". There are extant in manuscript other works by Father Azor; in Rome, in the Jesuit archives, a commentary on the Canticle of Canticles; at Würzburg, an exposition of the Psalms and at Alcalá, several theological treatises on parts of the "Summa" of St. Thomas.

Sommervogel, Bib. de la c. de J.; Hurter, Nomenclatur, I, 232.

ARTHUR J. MCCAFFRAY