Aguirre, Josg Saenz D

Aguirre, Josg Saenz D'

a Spanish prelate, was born at Logrono, March 24, 1630, assumed the habit of the order of St. Benedict, and in 1668 took the degree of doctor at Salamanca, where he was chosen professor. He was afterward inquisitor, and in 1686 Innocent XI gave him the cardinal's hat as a return for the book which he had written against Gallicanism (q.v.). He was a man of acquirements, but strongly biased in favor of ultramontane views. He died at Rome August 19th, 1699. In 1671 he published three folios on philosophy, and in 1675 a work on Aristotle's Morals. His Treatise on the Virtues and Vices appeared in 1677; in this work he followed the principles of probability, which he abandoned in 1679. During the following two years he put forth at Salamanca his Theologia St. Anselmi, which he afterward printed at Rome, in three vols. fol. In 1683 he published his Defence of the Chair of St. Peter against the Declaration of the Gallican Clergy; but another work, entitled De Libertatibus Eccl. Gallicanoe, is incorrectly attributed to him, having been written by M. Charlas, a priest of the diocese of Pamiers, who composed it at Rome. He is, however, perhaps best known by his Collection of the Councils of Spain (Rome, 1693-4), and in which he inserted many original dissertations, some of which are attempts to defend the false decretals attributed to the early popes.