Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography/Volume 3/Suarez or Suaresius, Franciscus
SUAREZ or SUARESIUS, Franciscus, "the last of the schoolmen," a voluminous writer on theology, philosophy, and jurisprudence, was born of a noble family at Grenada in Spain in 1548. The scholastic philosophy had declined long before his time; but his method of exposition is so thoroughly scholastic—his divisions and subdivisions are so technical and minute—that he is properly regarded as a schoolman risen up in a later generation of thinkers. After completing his studies at the university of Salamanca, he was desirous of being enrolled in the order of the jesuits; but his faculties were at that time either so obtuse, or his diligence had been so remiss, that it was with great difficulty he could obtain admission into their fraternity. He afterwards made up for his deficiencies, as his writings attest, consisting of twenty-three folio volumes filled with the most intricate subtleties, and the most interminable hair-splittings of theology and philosophy. The jesuits ultimately regarded him as the glory of their order—as their greatest theologian and metaphysician. Suarez was not only a voluminous author, he was also an active professor in many of the continental universities. In Spain, he taught philosophy at Salamanca, Valladolid, and Alcala; in Italy, at Rome; in Portugal, at Coimbra—the only university in that kingdom, but one of great merit and celebrity. At the instigation of Pope Paul V., Suarez published at Coimbra in 1613 "A Defence of the Catholic Faith against the Anglican sect" (the Episcopalians), which King James thought so important, that he prohibited its sale within his dominions, and ordered it to be publicly burnt by the hands of the hangman. He had other motives for this besides his zeal for the reformed religion, for the work of Suarez not only denied the soundness of the Episcopalian faith—it also questioned "the divine right of kings." In return, the theological opinions of Suarez were impugned by Dr. William Twisse (see Dissertatio de Scientia media), a stanch Calvinist, who was prolocutor to the Westminster assembly of divines (1643), and a keen opponent of Arminianism, with which the doctrines of Suarez had a good deal in common. Suarez was consulted by the Roman catholic church on all important theological questions. He was seized with a mortal illness while taking part in an ecclesiastical conference at Lisbon, and died in that city in 1617. His last words were—"I did not think it had been so agreeable to die." The work by which Suarez is best known to modern students of philosophy is his "Metaphysiæ Disputationes." His whole works were published at Mayence and at Lyons in 1630; and at Venice in 1740. Father Noel published an abridgment of them in two volumes folio, Geneva, 1732. A life of Suarez, written in Latin by Ignatius Des Champs, was published in 1671.—J. F. F.