Fonseca Pedro Da

Fonseca Pedro Da, a Jesuit and metaphysician, was born at Cortizada, Portugal, 1528. He entered the order in 1548, and. in a few years was made professor of philosophy at Coimbra, and afterwards professor of theology at Evora. He obtained the name of the "Portuguese Aristotle." He stood high in the favor of king Philip II and of pope Gregory XIII, He died November 4, 1599. He was the first who publicly taught the doctrine relative to the divine prescience known as scientia media, and which was discussed long and furiously between the adherents of Molina (he was a pupil of Fonseca) and the Dominicans. SEE PRESCIENCE. Among his works are Commentarii in Aristotelem (4 volumes, often reprinted): —Institutiones Dialecticae (Lisbon, 1564): — De concord providentiae ai gratiae Dei cum libero arbit. hom. (Lisb. 1588). — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 18:81.