TORRES, LUIS DE

Jesuit theologian; b. Alcalá de Henares, Spain, 1562;d. Madrid, 1655. Although prolific in his publications, Torres was not a theologian of conspicuous merit. His principal work was Disputationes in 2am2ae D. Thomae: De fide, spe, charitate et prudentia (Lyons 1623). He was quick to condemn opinions contrary to his own as dangerous, without taking the trouble to acquaint himself sufficiently with their foundations, a fault that caused the Jesuit general, Mutius Vitteleschi, to have his Disputationes selectae (Lyons 1634) withdrawn from circulation. He is remembered chiefly for the embarrassment in which he found himself when he had one of his students, D. de Oñate, defend the thesis that it was not of Catholic faith that a particular person, for example, Clement VIII (the then-reigning pontiff), was the legitimate pope. This happened in 1601, at the height of the stormy debates centering around the congregatio de auxiliis, the sessions of which were soon to begin. It was falsely charged that the thesis cast doubts upon the legitimacy of Clement's title to the papacy. Torres and the unfortunate Oñate were jailed by the Inquisition, but were released in 1603 with a stern reprimand.

Bibliography: c. sommervogel, Bibliotèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, 11 v. (Brussels-Paris 1890–1932) 8:129–131. h. hurter, Nomenclator literarius theologiae catholicae, 5 v. in 6 (3d ed. Innsbruck 1903–1913) 3:883–884. a. astrain, Historia de la Compañia de Jesús en la Asistencia de España, 7 v. (Madrid 1902–25) 4:316–331. j. p. grausem, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant, 15 v. (Paris 1903–50; Tables générales 1951–) 15:1241.

[p. k. meagher]