THE RELIGIOUS STATE ACCORDING TO SUAREZ by John F. Martin, S.J. A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Canon Law, Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Canon Law ,1 .u Ottawa* Ottawa, Canada, 1984 © John F. Martin, Ottawa, Canada, 1985. UMI Number: DC53636 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform DC53636 Copyright 2011 by ProQuest LLC All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Various circumstances have delayed the completion of this dissertation more than three years beyond the date I had originally anticipated. Accordingly, I wish to thank all those individuals whose patient encouragement has sustained me throughout the course of this project. In the first place, this study was made possible by my religious superiors and my brothers in Christ of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus. Two of these are deserving of special mention. Father Joseph P. Whelan, first as Assistant for Formation and Studies, and later as Provincial Superior of the Maryland Province, was the key influence in my embarking upon this work and in its sub­ sequent prosecution. His successor as Assistant for Formation and Studies, Father William J. Walsh, has insured by his unwavering concern that the work was brought to completion. In addition, among my many brothers in Christ of the Upper Canada Province of the Society of Jesus who lent me inestimable support during the time I was laboring in Ottawa, Fathers Jacques Monet and David Eley must not remain unnamed here. The Reverend Germain Lesage, O.M.I., Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Canon Law of Saint Paul University, directed this dissertation with his character­ istic enthusiasm and care up until his retirement last year. The Reverend Francis G. Morrisey,- O.M. I., sometime Dean of the Faculty of Canon Law at Saint Paul, provided me with invaluable assistance and inspiration throughout, and has graciously directed me in the final stages of the work. To both of these men, admirable scholars and dedicated religious, I offer my heartfelt thanks. Needless to say, any inadequacies in this work cannot be attributed to them, but rather to my own shortcomings. Finally, my thanks go out to my family and to the many friends who have sustained me while this work was in progress. My parents did not live to see it completed, but they share in what has been accomplished, as do my sister and brothers and their families. Those special friends whose love has kept me going when times were troubled for me know of my gratitude, inadequate as it may be. JOHN F. MARTIN, S.J. Washington, D.C. August 29, 1984 iii BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE John F. Martin, S.J., was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on July 21, 1942. Having been raised in Los Angeles, California, he entered the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus in 1960 at Wernersville, Pennsylvania. He was ordained priest in the same Society on December 21, 1974, in Washington, D.C. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Classics from Fordham University in New York City; a Master of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; a Master of Sacred Theology from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, California; and a Master of Canon Law from the University of Ottawa and a Licentiate in Canon Law from Saint Paul University. Having taught philosophy at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and theology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C, he is currently a Judge on the Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. iv ABBREVIATIONS c. , cc. canon, canons CIC Codex Juris Canonici . Benedicti Papae XV Auctoritate Promulqatus, praef. et al. Petro Card. Gasparri, Westminster, Maryland, The Newman Book Shop, 1944. CIC (1983) Codex Juris Canonici Auctoritate loannis Pauli PP. II Promulqatus, Vatican City, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1983. D.R. Francisco SUAREZ, S.J., Opus de Reliqione. (For method of citation, v. INTRODUCTION, pp. 4-5, n. 8. ) 0.0. Francisco SUAREZ, S.J., Opera Omnia. (For method of citation, v. INTRODUCTION, pp. 4-5, n. 8. ) THOMAS AQUINAS, St., Summa Theoloqiae. (For method of citation, v. INTRODUCTION, p. 9, n. 14. ) V TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments ii Biographical Note iii Abbreviations iv INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I: THE PERFECTION OF CHRISTIAN LIFE 11 I. The State of Christian Life 12 A. The Concept of a State of Life 14 B. Christian Life as a State 21 II. The Nature of Christian Perfection 29 A. Charity as the Perfection of Christian Life. 30 B. The Perfection of Christian Charity 39 CHAPTER II: THE CANONICAL STATE OF PERFECTION 52 I. The Matter: Evangelical Precepts and Counsels . 55 A. The Distinction between Precept and Counsel. 56 B. The Evangelical Counsels and the Precept of Charity 66 C. The Principal Matter of the Canonical State. 74 II. The Form: Essential Conditions of the State ... 89 A. The External Character of the State 90 B. The Obligation of Permanence 93 C. Canonical Solemnity 94 vi D. The Purpose of Practicing Perfection 101 E. The External Character of the Acts 102 CHAPTER III: THE RELIGIOUS STATE IN THE CHURCH 108 I. The Subdivisions of the State of Perfection . .110 A. Practicing Perfection: the Episcopal State . .112 B. Acquiring Perfection: the Religious State. .125 II. The Origins and History of the Religious State. .134 A. Biblical Roots 136 B. Historical Continuity 147 CHAPTER IV: THE ESSENTIALS OF THE RELIGIOUS STATE 157 I. The Profession of the Vows of Religion 161 A. The Three Perpetual Vows 163 1. The Three Evangelical Counsels 164 2. The Bond of Perpetual Vows 173 B. The Traditio Personae 181 C. Simple and Solemn Vows 189 II. The Approbation of the Church 201 A. The Necessity of Ecclesial Approbation .... 202 B. Canonical Aspects of Approbation 209 CONCLUSION 219 BIBLIOGRAPHY 226 INTRODUCTION In the year 1592, Father Claudio Aquaviva, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, wrote to two of the Order's most eminent theologians, the Spaniards, Luis de Molina and Francisco Suarez. In his letter, Aquaviva expressed both a concern and a desire. His concern was that the Society, despite the numerous papal approbations and confirmations it had received over the half century of its existence, was still the object of fierce polemics against many elements of its institute. Aside from the Reformers, some Catholics continued to be upset by the "novelties" which had been introduced into the traditional religious life in the Church by Saint Ignatius Loyola and his fellow companions. Accordingly, Aquaviva felt that the Jesuits needed to offer a precise and sound defense of their institute in order to silence its critics. His desire in writing to the Spaniards was that they include in their published writings such an apologia for the Society. Molina, absorbed as he was in 1. Raoul de SCORRAILLE, S.J., Francois Suarez de la Compaqnie de Je*sus, d'apres ses lettres, ses autres ecrits in4dits et un grand nombre de documents nouveaux, Paris, P. Lethielleux, [1912-1913], v. 2, pp. 130-131. This definitive account of Suarez' life and work remains the primary resource for understanding the circumstances in which one of the greatest thinkers of the post- reformation period labored. V.q. Joseph FICHTER, S.J., INTRODUCTION 2 the great controversies de auxiliis and nearing the end of his life, was not at all responsive to the Superior General's suggestion. Suarez, on the other hand, was more sympathetic to the commission, but pleaded in his reply to 2 Aquaviva for more time to fulfill it. At this point, Suarez was at the height of his career. While lecturing in theology at Alcala and Salamanca, he was also preparing for publication two of his major works, the sections of De Sacramentis concerning Baptism, Confirma­ tion and the Eucharist, and the controversial Disputationes Metaphysicae. Neither of these seemed to him, moreover, to provide a proper context for a polemical defense of the 3 Society* s institute. Nor was Suarez ever one to attack a task in piecemeal fashion. In this case, he argued that an apologia for the Order ought to be well-grounded in an historical, theological and canonical study of the religious state in the Church, if he was going to show that the Man of Spain: Francis Suarez, New York, Macmillan, 1940, p. 277. The only full-length biography of Suarez in English, this work depends in part on the foregoing study. Although his presentation is more in the popular style than is Scorraille's, Fichter maintains a consistently high quality. 2 SCORRAILLE, op_. cit. , v. 2, p. 131. 3 SCORRAILLE, ibidem; FICHTER, op_. cit. , p. 270. INTRODUCTION 3 Jesuits truly belonged in this category. This kind of study needed, furthermore, to be preceded by a thorough consider­ ation of the virtue of religion, from which the state of life in question derives both its name and its inner significance. Such a work also happened to coincide with a personal project of Suarez, in short, to cover in his theological writings the entire scope of the Summa Theoloqiae of Saint Thomas Aquinas.