Major Jesuit scholastic philosopher and theologian. Born in Granada, Suárez became a Jesuit in 1564. His principal work is the Disputationes Metaphysicae (‘Metaphysical Disputations’, 1597), although his writings occupy 28 volumes in the Paris edition of 1856. He is frequently ranked next to Aquinas as the greatest scholastic thinker, and is the principal exponent of the doctrinal thought of the Jesuits; his writings were extensively studied by the great philosophers of the 17th century and his work on divine, natural, and human law influenced Grotius. His last words were ‘I would never have thought it was so sweet to die.’