BANEZ
247
BANEZ
jnatologists. says (Doctrina Xummorum I, cviii)
that it contains few important contributions. At
the same time he praises the remarkable bibUography
of the subject that Banduri prefixed to this work
imder the title of " Bibliotheca nummaria sive auc-
torum qui de re nummaria scripserunt ", reprinted
by Fabricius (Hamburg, 1719). In 1715 Bandiu-i
•was made an honorary foreign member of the Aca-
demy of Inscriptions, and in 1724 was appointed
librarian to the Duke of Orleans; he had in vain
solicited a similar office at Florence on the death
■of the famous Magliabecchi,
Freret in Mem. de iacad. des inscr. el belles lettres, X\I, 34S.
Mairice M. Hassett.
Banez (originally and more properly Vanez and sometimes, but erroneously, Ibaxez), Domingo, a Spanish Dominican theologian, b. 29 Februan,-, 152S, at Medina del Campo, Old Castile; d. there 22 October, 1604. The quaUfying M ondragoneyisis , attached to his name, seems to be a patronjTnic after his father, John Banez of Mondragon, Guipuzcoa. At fifteen he began to study philosophy at the Uni- versity of Salamanca. Three years later he took the Dominican habit at St. Stephen's Convent, and made his profession 3 May, 1547. During a year's review of the liberal arts and later, he had the af- terwards distinguished Bartolome Medina as a fellow student. Under such professors as Melchior Cano (1548-51), Diego de Chaves (1551), and Pedro Sotomayor (1550-51) he studied theologj', laying the foundations of the erudition and acquiring the acumen which later made him eminent as a theo- logian and an exponent and defender of Thomistic •doctrine. He next began teaching, and under Domin- go Soto, as prior and regent, he held various profes- sorships for ten years. He was made master of stu- ■dents. explaining the "Summa" to the younger brethren for five years, and incidentally taking the place, with marked success, of professors who were sick, or who for other reasons were absent from their chairs at the university. In the customarj-, some- times competitive, examinations before advancement, ie is said easily to have carried off all honours. He taught at the Dominican University of Avila from 1561 to 1566. About 1567 he was assigned to a chair •of theology at Alcala, the ancient Complutum. It ^.ppears that he was at Salamanca again in 1572 and 1573, but during the four scholastic years 1573-77 lie was regent of St. Gregorj^'s Dominican College at Valladolid, a house of higher studies where the best students of the Castilian province were prepared for a scholastic career. Elected Prior of Tore, he went instead to Salamanca to compete for the chair of Durandus, left vacant by Medina's promotion to the ■chief professorship. He occupied this position from 1577 to 15S0. After Medina's death (30 December, 1580) he appeared again as competitor for the first chair of the university. The outcome was an aca- •demic triimiph for Bai'iez, and he was duly installed in his new position amid the acclamations of pro- fessors and students. There he laboured for nearly twenty years. His name acquired extraordinary .authority, and the leading schools of orthodox Spain referred to him as the pradarissimiim juhar — "the brightest light" — of their eoimtry.
In another way, Banez in his prime was rendering memorable service to the Church as director and con- fessor of St. Teresa (1515-82). Her own words mark him as the spiritual ad\-iser who was most relied upon AS a guide and helper, both in her interior life and in her heroic work of the Carmelite reform. "To the Father Master Fra Dominic Baiiez, who is now in Valladolid as Rector of the College of St. Gregorj', I confessed for six years, and, whenever I had occasion to do so, communicated with him by letter. . . . All ■that is written and told, she commtmicated to him.
who is the person with whom she has had, and still
has, the most frequent communications." (See
" Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, bv herself", tr. by David
Lewis, 3d ed., London, 1904, Relation VII, 448, 4.50.)
Of the first foundation of the reform, St. Joseph's
Monaster,' at Avila, she wrote that Baiiez alone
saved it from the destruction resolved upon in an
assembly of civU and religious authorities (op. cit.,
ch. xxxvi, 336 sqq.). He did not then know the saint,
but "from that time forth he was one of her most
faithful friends, strict and even se^'ere, as became a
wise director who had a great saint for his penitent."
He testifies, in the process of her beatification, that
he was firm and sharp with her, while she herself was
the more desirous of his counsel the more he humbled
her, and the less he seemed to esteem her (op. cit., p.
xxxvi). He looked for the proof of her love of God
in her truthfulness, obedience, mortification, pa-
tience, and charity towards her persecutors, while
he a^•owed that no one was more incredulous than
himself as to her visions and revelations. In this his
mastery of the spiritual life was shomi to be as scien-
tific as it was wholesome and practical. "It was
easy enough to praise the WTitings of St. Teresa and
to admit her sanctity after her death. Fra Banez
had no external help in the applause of the many,
and he had to judge her book as a theologian and the
saint as one of his ordinary penitents. When he
\\T0te, he WTote like a man whose whole life was
spent, as he himself tells us, in lecturing and disput-
ing" (ibid.).
.\s the schoolman, the lecturer, and academic disputant, Baiiez stands forth as a figure of unprece- dented distinction in scholastic Spain. In h;s time discussion was rife, and disquieting tendencies counter to the beaten paths of Augustine and Thomas manifested themselves. The great controversy, with whose beginnings his name is prominently asso- ciated, goes back to a pviblic disputation held early in 1582. Francisco Zumel, of the Order of Mercy, was moderator. Prudentius Montemayor, a Jesuit, ar- gued that Christ did not die freely, and conse- quently suffered death without merit, if the Father had given him a command to die. Baiiez asked what the consequences would have been if the Father had given command not only as to the substance of the act of death, but also as to its circumstances. Pru- dentius responded that in that case there remained neither liberty nor merit. Louis de Leon, an Augus- tinian, sided with Prudentius and presently the discussion was taken up by the masters in attendance and carried to the kindred subjects of predestination and justification. Other formal disputations ensued, and strong feeling was manifested. Juan de Santa Cruz, a HieronjTnite, felt constrained to refer the matter to the Inquisition (5 February), and to his deposition he appended sixteen propositions covering the doctrines in controversy. Leon declared that he had only defended the theses for the sake of argu- ment. His chief thought was to prevent them from being qualified as heretical. Notwithstanding these and further admissions, he was forbidden to teach, publicly or privately, the sixteen propositions as reviewed and proscribed.
In 1588, Luis Molina, a Jesuit, brought out, at Lisbon, his celebrated "Concordia liberi arbitrii cum gratiie donis", bearing the censitra, or sanction, of a Dominican, Bartolomeu Ferreiro, and dedicated to the Inquisitor General of Portugal, Cardinal Albert of Austria; but a sentiment against its appearance in Spain was aroused on the ground of its favouring some of the interdicted propositions. The cardinal, advised of this, stopped its sale, and requested Baiiez and probably some others to examine it. Three months later, Banez gave his opinion that six of the forbidden propositions appeared in the "Concordia ". Molina was asked to defend himself, and his answer?
