Suárez, Francisco (fränthēs`kō swä`rāth), 1548–1617, Spanish Jesuit philosopher, b. Granada. He studied at Salamanca and was ordained in 1572. He taught successively at Ávila, Segovia, Valladolid, Rome, Alcalá, and Salamanca and in 1597 was appointed to the Univ. of Coimbra, Portugal (then under Spanish dominion). He may be called the last of the scholastic philosophers (see scholasticism scholasticism (skōlăs`tĭsĭzəm), philosophy and theology of Western Christendom in the Middle Ages.
..... Click the link for more information. ). His system is mild and characteristic of the Jesuit theologians. His "congruism" is a middle course between the teachings of Luis Molina Molina, Luis (lwēs mōlē`nä), 1535–1600, Spanish Jesuit theologian. He taught at Coimbra and Évora.
..... Click the link for more information. and the Dominican predestinarian teachings. Suárez taught that one may hold the same doctrine by science and faith. His teaching on the divine right of kings that earthly power is properly held by the body of men and that kingly power is derived from them so enraged James I of England that the king had Suárez's De defensione fidei burned by the hangman. This political doctrine, based on the Roman Catholic doctrine of the equality before God of all men, is a basis of subsequent Catholic teachings on democracy. Suárez was highly esteemed by Grotius and his followers. In his Tractatus de legibus he made an important distinction between natural law and international law, which he saw as based on custom.

Bibliography

See J. H. Fichter, Man of Spain (1940); H. Lacarte, The Nature of Canon Law according to Suarez (1964).

Suárez, Francisco

(born Jan. 5, 1548, Granada, Spain—died Sept. 25, 1617, Lisbon) Spanish theologian and philosopher. In his Metaphysical Disputations (1597), he drew on the works of Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, and Luis de Molina (1535–1600) to discuss the free will problem and other metaphysical topics. He is widely considered the greatest Scholastic philosopher after Aquinas (see Scholasticism) and the major Jesuit theologian. His departures from Aquinas's positions have been considered significant enough to warrant the separate designation of his system as Suárezianism.