Theologian · Early modern
Domingo Báñez
1528–1604 · Thomism (Bañezian)
Dominican; confessor and defender of St. Teresa of Ávila; his teaching on physical premotion was permitted alongside Molinism by Paul V (1607).
Dominican master at Salamanca, Báñez systematized the Thomist doctrine of grace against Molina: God moves every created will to act by a “physical premotion,” efficacious grace is intrinsically efficacious and infallibly obtains consent while leaving the will free, sufficient grace gives real power but not the act, and predestination to glory is before, not after, foreseen merits. He defended Teresa's reform and her writings before the Inquisition.
Why he matters: His school carried the Thomist doctrine of grace to the twentieth century (Garrigou-Lagrange) and keeps the primacy of God's initiative at the center; the Church protects it as one of her two permitted schools.
Where to be careful
Jesuit critics charged that physical premotion and negative reprobation differ from Calvin only in words; Paul V forbade the charge. The “Bañezian” label was coined by opponents; Báñez claimed only to be reading St. Thomas.
School of Thomism · The commentators
Cajetan, Bañez and John of St. Thomas, who defended Thomas against Scotists, nominalists and Jesuits and in doing so systematized him: the real distinction, premotion, the analogy of proportionality. Rigorous, Catholic and indispensable, but a step away from Thomas's own voice.
Others in this strand: Cajetan (Tommaso de Vio), John of St. Thomas (João Poinsot), OP, Francisco de Vitoria
Reading
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The Primacy of Existence in Thomas AquinasDomingo Báñez (trans. Benjamin Llamzon) · His commentary on ST I q. 3 a. 4; the metaphysics behind the theology.
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PredestinationRéginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP · The Bañezian school stated by its greatest modern exponent.
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Grace: Commentary on the Summa Theologica Ia IIae qq. 109–114Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP · Physical premotion and efficacious grace explained.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.