Sanchez, Thomas

Sanchez, Thomas, A celebrated Roman casuist, was born at Cordova in 1550. Raised in Romish piety, he joined the Jesuits in his sixteenth year. He studied philosophy, law, and theology with great success; was punctual in the fulfilment of all Church duties; and, at an early age, enjoyed a high reputation throughout Spain and Italy. His fame as a casuist was so great that he was often personally applied to for the solution of specific cases. He died at Granada in 1610. His work De Sacramento Matrimonii (Genuae, 1592, 3 vols.) occupies a high place in Jesuitical casuistry. It treats of every variety of obscene and immoral questions, and is justly regarded as indirectly contributive to the very immorality which it formally condemns. Pope Clement VIII used the work in preparing a solution of a specific case, and pronounced upon it the highest praise. But others have vigorously assailed it, even in the Roman Church. Arnauld of St. Cyr attacked it in his Vindicioe Censuroe Facultatis Parisiensis (see Bayle, Dictionnaire [art. "Sanchez"], 4, 134). After Sanchez's death appeared Operis Moralis in Proeceptis Dei Tomus I (Venet. 1614): — Consilia seu Opuscula Moralia (Lugd. 1634). His complete works appeared at Venice in 1740, in 7 vols. See Wuttke, Christian Ethics (N.Y. 1873), 1, 255-272; Herzog, Real-Encyklop. 13, 413. (J.P.L.)