Introduction to Suarez Defense

A. Biographical Note 1. Francisco Suárez (5 January 1548 – 25 September 1617) was a Spanish Jesuit Priest, one of the leading figures of the School of Salamanca movement. He was born at Granada, in southern Spain. He entered the Society of Jesus at Salamanca, and studied philosophy and theology there from 1565 to 1570. He was ordained in 1572, and taught theology at Ávila and Segovia (1575), Valladolid (1576), Rome (1580–85), Alcalá (1585–92), Salamanca (1592–97), and Coimbra (1597–1616). He wrote on a wide variety of subjects, producing works that fill twenty-six volumes in the complete Latin edition. These include treatises on law, the relationship between church and state (or more properly the spiritual and temporal powers), metaphysics, and theology. Because of his learning and writings, Suárez was given the nickname Doctor Eximius et Pius (outstanding and pious doctor). His final teaching position, at the University of Coimbra (technically in Portugal but at the time under the crown of Spain), was given to him by Philip II of Spain in order to confer prestige on the university. 2. After his death (in either Lisbon or Coimbra) his reputation grew still greater, and he had a direct influence on many of the leading philosophers and theologians of the day. His reputation has survived the years remarkably well, and he is still recognized as one of the greatest of the scholastics after St. Thomas Aquinas.