Suárez, Francisco
Suárez, Francisco
Born in Granada in 1548, Francisco Suárez followed the tradition of the Jesuits whose theological writings constitute an important contribution to the Iberian “golden age.” After completing his secondary studies with distinction, he attended the University of Salamanca, then at the peak of its development with an enrollment of six thousand students. There he seems to have studied canon law from about 1561 to 1564. He then entered the Society of Jesus and pursued his philosophical and theological studies for another six years. Having been “proctor of repetitions” and professor of philosophy in various colleges and novitiates, he became a theologian and remained such for more than forty years. He taught brilliantly in the houses of the order at Valladolid, Segovia, and Ávila, at the Jesuit college of Rome, 1580-1585, and finally at the universities of Alcalá, 1585-1597, and Coim-bra, 1597-1617. He died at Coimbra in 1617.
Suárez‘ voluminous works constitute an entire “summa” of theoretical and practical theology. The most important of his writings is probably the De legibus (see Suárez 1612-1621). In this work he related the metaphysical order to the political or juridical order. In Part in, he set forth the basis of his doctrine in the form of a dialectic of liberty. Since man is naturally free and obligated only to his Creator, it might appear that any authority of man over man is mere usurpation and tyranny. However, it must not be forgotten that the nature of man transcends the individual: “Firstly, man is a social animal whose true nature tends toward life in common” ([1612-1621] 1944, De legibus, Part in, chapters 1, 3). All social arrangements required for that development, such as the family and the state, are therefore not only legitimate but necessary.
The creation of the state, then, proceeds from natural law. But inasmuch as it is a moral organism, it requires for its actual realization the active intervention of united human wills. Political society needs an efficient cause based on the free decision of its citizens: it demands, as the foundation of community life, a moral act which expresses the will to live together and the readiness to accept a constitutional modus vivendi. Thus, the organization of political union calls for an explicit declaration of the desire to live in common and a mutual recognition of an authority which thereafter acts in the name of all. In 1620 he wrote in De opere sex dierum: “such a political union [communitas] does not occur without a certain agreement, whether explicit or assumed, on mutual aid, nor without a certain subordination of individual families and persons to a superior or ruler of that union. Without such subordination, no political union can endure” (1856-1878, vol. 3, book V, chapter 7, section 3).
Hence, there lies at the base of political society a consensus of citizens, a union (”some special moral agreement among themselves”) that is made manifest in a desire to render service to itself and to recognize the brotherhood of its members. These psychological conditions constitute, so to speak, the materials necessary for the creation of any given state, but the preordained structure of political society requires further the presence of a very strong “power of jurisdiction” for the realization and preservation of that unity.
With respect to this question of political authority, Suárez was heir to the rather pessimistic Biblical and Augustinian tradition which considered the authority of kings to be the consequence of original sin. He restated this position with the qualification that authority derives from natural law. It is only the constraining aspect of authority which has been magnified by sin. Suárez was influenced in this matter by Luther and received, in addition, a well-developed theory of sovereignty from Bodin. He asserted that the surrender of authority to the prince meant that the populace lost all rights to participate in government—this despite his doctrine that the sovereign‘s power derives from the consensus of the citizens. He should therefore be classed among the defenders of a certain type of absolutism—that of the Roman Catholic monarchies of his time.
Nonetheless, both Suárez and Bodin believed that sovereignty is subject to limitations, whether internal or external. Created for the general wellbeing of the citizenry, it cannot derogate justice without creating a detestable tyranny. Moreover, the ruler must respect the conditions under which he was invested with sovereignty (such as constitutional rights and customs). Finally, the sovereign ruler must respect those other values necessary for the development of human kind: the rights of individual conscience, the rights of peoples. The subtlety of Suarez’ views in this regard allowed him to define the indirect authority of the church over the citizens of diverse countries—as, for example, the authority granted the Church of England by the Thirty-nine Articles—with such acumen that his analysis remains even today the authoritative statement on the subject.
Suárez, by his lofty conception of the human will and of its natural and supernatural authority, found the means of rescuing political philosophy from sordid realism by denning the conditions under which a state might prosper without sacrificing either the aspirations of its subjects or the primacy of the international order.
Pierre Mesnard
[For the historical context of Suárez‘ work, see International law; Natural law; Sovereignty; and the biographies of Augustine; Bodin; Luther
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Battaglia, Felice 1946 [A Book Review of] Le dottrine politiche da Lutero a Suarez, by Giuseppe Santonastaso. Giornale di metafisica 2:553-555.
Brouillard, R. 1941 La théologie pratique. Volume 14, part 2, cols. 2691-2728 in Dictionnaire de théologie catholique contenant l‘exposé des doctrines de la théologie catholique, leurs preuves et leur histoire. Paris: Letouzey & Ané.
Dumont, P. 1941 Théologie dogmatique. Volume 14, part 2, cols. 2649-2691 in Dictionnaire de théologie catholique contenant ¡‘expose des doctrines de la théologie catholique, leurs preuves et leur histoire. Paris: Letouzey & Ané.
Giacon, Carlo 1945 Suarez. Brescia (Italy): “La Scuola.”
Hamilton, Bernice 1963 Political Thought in Sixteenth-century Spain: A Study of the Political Ideas of Vitoria, De Soto, Suárez and Molina. Oxford: Clarendon.
Mesnard, Pierre (1936)1951 L‘essor de la philosophie politique au XVIe siécle. 2d ed. Paris: Vrin.
Monnot, P. 1941 Suarez: I. Vie et oeuvrés. Volume 14, part 2, cols. 2638-2649 in Dictionnaire de théologie catholique contenant l‘exposé des doctrines de la théologie catholique, leurs preuves et leur histoire. Paris: Letouzey & Ané.
MÚgica, PlÁCIDO 1948 Bibliografia suareciana. Universidad de Granada, Cátedra Suárez.
RazÓn Y Fe 1948 Centenario de Suarez: 1548-1948. Madrid: Razón y Fe.
Scott, James Brown 1933 Suárez and the International Community. Pages 44-50 in Catholic University of America, Francisco Suárez: Addresses in Commemoration of His Contribution to International Law and Politics. Washington: Catholic Univ. of America.
SolÁ, Francisco De P. 1948 Suárez y las ediciones de sus obras: Monografia bibliográfica con ocasión del IV centenario de nacimento, 1548—1948. Barcelona: Editorial Atlántida.
SuÁez, Francisco (1612-1621) 1944 Selections From Three Works of Francisco Suárez. De legibus, ac Deo legislatore, 1612. Defensio fidei catholicae, et apostolicae adversus anglicanae sectae errores, 1613. De triplici virtute theologica, fide, spe, et chántate, 1621. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. ? Volume 1 contains selections from the Latin editions; Volume 2 contains the translations.
SuÁez, FranciscoR.p. Francisci Suárez . . . Opera om-nia. 28 vols. Paris: Vives, 1856-1878. Translations in the text were provided by the editors.
Suárez: Modernité traditionelle de sa philosophie. 1949 Archives de philosophie 18, no. 1:3-128.
Wilenius, Reijo 1963 The Social and Political Theory of Francisco Suárez. Acta philosophica Fennica, No. 15. Helsinki: No publisher given.
ZaragÜta Bengoechea, Juan 1941 El problema del ser en la metafisica de Suárez. Granada, Universidad de, Boletin de la Universidad de Granada 13, no. 62:59-81.
ZaragÜta Bengoechea, Juan 1941 La teoria suareciana de la causalidad: Los valores ético-juridicos en el pensamiento de Suárez. Granada, Universidad de, Boletin de la Universidad de Granada 13, no. 63:173-219.