Moral Theology: Its Method and Masters
Francisco Suárez
Drawn from the authors' own words; every quotation links to its place.
S.J. · Jesuit · 1548–1617
On this site:
In the Index: Suarez
His Moral System
Probabilist ("weighty and probabilist", St. Alphonsus's judgment by Haringer's sign **)
- “Suarez Franciscus, Spanish, S.J., a man of most founded knowledge and profound humility” — Gury-Ballerini, Haringer's index of writers
What Our Authors Say of Him
- “Suarez is deservedly numbered among the greatest theologians of the renowned Society of Jesus” — Prümmer, Catalogue of authors
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.
| Probabilist | |
|---|---|
| Counted among them by 7 of our authors | Noldin, Summa I, n. 246; Marc, Institutiones I, n. 91; Bucceroni, Commentarii, n. 108; Slater, Short History, ¶ 86; Konings, Compendium, n. 74; Konings, Compendium, n. 79; Vermeersch, Theologia moralis I, n. 357; Tanquerey, Fundamental Moral Theology, n. 396; Bucceroni, Institutiones, n. 119 |
| “Almost all theologians of the Society of Jesus adhere to Probabilism”Prümmer: almost all the theologians of the Society of Jesus adhere to probabilism, he among them | Prümmer, Manuale I, n. 342 |
| “Suarez Franciscus, Spanish, S.J., a man of most founded knowledge and profound humility. He taught theology with highest praise at Complutum, Salamanca, and Rome, and left 23 folio volumes besides manuscripts. Benedict XIV named him a luminary of theology. Bossuet praises him especially as, so to speak, a doctor of every kind of knowledge; and St. Alphonsus numbers him among the classic doctors. H”Haringer marks him **, giving St. Alphonsus's judgment of him (weighty and probabilist) | Haringer's index, Index of writers, p. XXIX |
| “These agree in substantial matters with the equiprobabilists, and can be called moderate probabilists. Such are Suarez, Vasquez, Lugo, Lessius, Laymann, Sylvius, Palaus, Viva, Abelly, Reuter, Voit, etc.”Moderate probabilist. Marc calls him a moderate probabilist, agreeing in substance with the equiprobabilists, and will not attack him | Marc, Institutiones I, n. 86 |
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, after giving a brief explanation of St. Thomas, append ample disputations to the individual articles of St. Thomas; this is the method of Suarez (1617) and Vasquez (1604)”His method and his works: disputations on St. Thomas, On Laws | Vermeersch, Theologia moralis I, n. 19In nearly the same words: Vermeersch, Theologia moralis I, n. 19; Vermeersch, Theologia moralis I, n. 19; Koch-Preuss, Handbook I, history of moral theology |
| “such as Suarez, Vasquez, Lessius, Lugo, Gregory of Valencia, Becanus”Marc, quoting Ernest Müller, names him among the scholastics who set forth moral doctrine both positively and speculatively | Marc, Institutiones I, n. 6 |
| “Francis Suarez (d. 1617), whom Benedict XIV called a luminary of theology”Marc, quoting Ernest Müller, names him among the casuists celebrated with great praises | Marc, Institutiones I, n. 6 |
| “Greater probability is a certain moral certitude, if the excess of probability is certain”Marc quotes him that the certainly or notably more probable opinion is to be followed | Marc, Institutiones I, n. 100 |
| “among the moderns, we have often kept before our eyes Suarez, De Lugo, the Salmanticenses, and Billuart”Tanquerey names him among the moderns he often kept before his eyes | Tanquerey, Synopsis, Preface (1902) |
| “among modern theologians most learned, wrote clearly and at the same time profoundly” | Tanquerey, Fundamental Moral Theology, n. 47 |
| “Likewise S. D. calls that doctrine lax which authors of the past century almost commonly handed down, namely in the latter part of that century, in which several lax opinions of probabilists were condemned by the Holy See; but certainly not Sanchez, Suarez, Lessius, Palaus, Laymann, Lugo, Pallavicini and very many others, whom S. Alph. himself, not only in his Moral Works, but in that very Dissertation on his moral system, approves and praises for his opinion.”Bucceroni: not among the authors St. Alphonsus called lax, but among those he approves and praises | Bucceroni, Institutiones, n. 133 |
| “And thus Suarez, De Leg., l. 8, c. 3, n. 9”Bucceroni: St. Alphonsus’s rule for the notably more probable is Suarez’s | Bucceroni, Commentarii, n. 123 |
| “this love is a means necessary for salvation; now such means are always of an obligation of precept”Daniel quotes him among the Jesuit theologians who taught the strict precept of loving God | Daniel, Apology, ¶ 61 |
| “these collectors of cases, from the most eminent theologians such as Suárez, transcribe everything that can favor laxity”Concina: the collectors of cases copy from Suarez what favors laxity and pass over his limitations | Concina, Theologia IV, diss. I, ch. VI, n. XXVI |
| “Francis Suarez, S.J.”Koch-Preuss name him among the authors of notable monographs on ethical topics | Koch-Preuss, Handbook I, history of moral theology |
| “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 |
| “Likewise in Suarez in these other words”Konings cites him against following the less probable opinion | Konings, Compendium, n. 93 |
In the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)
“Francisco Suárez”, vol. 14, by Antonio Pérez Goyena. Public domain; transcription from Wikisource.
Doctor Eximius, a pious and eminent theologian, as Paul V called him, born at Granada, 5 January, 1548; died at Lisbon, 25 September, 1617. He entered the Society of Jesus at Salamanca, 16 June, 1564; in that city he studied philosophy and theology from 1565 to 1570, and was ordained in 1572. He taught philosophy at Avila and at Segovia (1571), and later, theology at Avila and Segovia (1575), Valladolid (1576), Rome (1580-85); Alcalá (1585-92), Salamanca (1592-97), and Coimbra (1597-1616). All his biographers say that he was an excellent religious, practicing mortification, laborious, modest, and given to prayer. He enjoyed such fame for wisdom that Gregory XIII attended his first lecture in Rome; Paul V invited him to refute the errors of King James of England, and wished to retain him near his person, to profit by his knowledge; Philip II sent him to the University of Coimbra to give prestige to that institution, and when Suárez visited the University of Barcelona, the doctors of the university went out to meet him, with the insignia of their faculties. His writings are characterized by depth, penetration and clearness of expression, and they bear witness to their author's exceptional knowledge of the Fathers, and of heretical as well as of ecclesiastical writers. Bossuet said that the writings of Suárez contained the whole of Scholastic philosophy; Werner (Franz Suárez, p. 90) affirms that if Suárez be not the first theologian of his age, he is, beyond all doubt, among the first; Grotius (Ep. 154, J. Cordesio) recognizes in him one of the greatest of theologians and a profound philosopher, and Mackintosh considers him one of the founders of international law.
In Scholasticism, he founded a school of his own, "Suarism", the chief characteristic principles of which are:
the principle of individuation by the proper concrete entity of beings;
the pure potentiality of matter;
the singular as the object of direct intellectual cognition;
a nonconceptual distinction between the essence and the existence of created beings;
the possibility of spiritual substance only numerically distinct from one another;
ambition for the hypostatic union as the sin of the fallen angels;
the Incarnation of the Word, even if Adam had not sinned;
the solemnity of the vow only in ecclesiastical law;
the system of Congruism that modifies Molinism by the introduction of subjective circumstances, as well as of place and of time, propitious to the action of efficacious grace, and with predestination ante praevisa merita;
possibility of holding one and the same truth by both science and faith;
belief in Divine authority contained in an act of faith;
production of the body and blood of Christ by transubstantiation as constituting the Eucharistic sacrifice;
the final grace of the Blessed Virgin Mary superior to that of the angels and saints combined.
"Suárez classes" were established in several universities—Valladolid, Salamanca (1720), Alcalá (1734)—and various Scholastic authors wrote their works ad mentem Sáii. Charles III suppressed those classes throughout his dominions by a royal decree of 12 August, 1768, and prohibited the use of Jesuit authors, and therefore of Suárez, in teaching. It is obvious, says Cardinal Gonzalez, that, in so many volumes written by Suárez, there are to be found some matters of little utility, or the practical or scientific importance of which are not in proportion to the time and space that Suárez devotes to them. He is also charged with being somewhat diffuse. His book "De Defensione Fidei" was burned at London by royal command, and was prohibited by the Parliament of Paris (1614) on the ground that it contained doctrines that were contrary to the power of sovereigns.
WORKS
Suárez published his first work, "De Deo Incarnato", at Alcalá, in 1590; he published twelve other volumes, the last of which, "De Defensio Fidei," written against the King of England, was published at Coimbra, in 1613. After his death the Jesuits of Portugal published ten other volumes of his work, between 1619 and 1655. Of all of these works, two different editions were made; the first, at Venice, 23 volumes in folio (1740-1757); and the second in Paris (Vives), 28 volumes (1856-1861). In 1859 Mgr Manlou published another volume in folio, containing six short treatises that had not been previously published. Father De Scorraille (Etudes, Vol. LXIV, pp. 151-175) gave an account of the manuscripts of Suárez, noting the fact that they were numerous and that he himself possessed seventy-five of them. Many of these and others besides were found by Father Rivière. The works of Suárez were held in the highest esteem in his day, as is shown by the numerous partial editions that were made of them (Lyons, Salamanca, Madrid, Coimbra, Mayence, Cologne, Paris, Evora, Genoa), as also by the fact, related by his biographies, that one of the wings of the old college of the Jesuits at Salamanca was restored with the product of the sale of his metaphysical works. A compendium of the theology of Suárez was published by Father Noel, S.J. (Madrid, 1732); a short epitome of this theological disputes, by the Portuguese Father Francis Soárez, S.J. (Lisbon, 1626), and a compendium of the metaphysics, by Father Gregorio Iturria, S.J. (Madrid, 1901).
A. Pérez Goyena.