Another great Jesuit theologian of this period was the Spaniard, Juan Maldonado, who was born in 1533 at Casas de Reina, about sixty-six leagues from Madrid. He went to the University of Salamanca, where he studied Latin under two blind professors. He took up Greek with El Pinciano, philosophy with Toletus, and theology with Soto. He was endowed with a prodigious memory and never forgot anything he had ever learned. His aspirations were at first for law, but he turned to theology; and after obtaining the doctorate, taught theology, philosophy and Greek at the university. He entered the Society in 1562, and was ordained priest in the following year. He lectured on Aristotle in the new College of Clermont in 1564, and then taught theology for the four following years; after an interruption of a year, he continued his courses until 1576. His lectures attracted such crowds that at times the college courtyard was substituted for the hall. He was appointed a member of the commission for revising the Septuagint; his knowledge of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldaic and Arabic and his comprehensive knowledge of history, of the early Fathers and of all the heresies, gave him the first rank among the Scriptural exegetes of his time. In Cornely's opinion, his "Commentaries on the Gospels" are the best ever published. Above all, he was a man of eminent sanctity, endowed with an extraordinary instinct for orthodoxy, and an unflinching courage in fighting for the Church as long as he had life. "His constant desire," says Prat, "was to make everything the Society undertook, bear the mark of the greatness and sanctity which St. Ignatius had stamped on the Institute."
There was also the great Suárez, who was born at Granada in 1548, and became a Jesuit in 1564. Pope Paul V appointed him to answer King James of England and wanted to retain him in the Holy City, but Philip II claimed him for Coimbra to give prestige to the university. When he visited Barcelona the doctors of the university went out to meet him processionally to pay him honor. Bossuet declared that his writings contained the whole of Scholastic theology. In Scholasticism he founded a school of his own, and modified Molinism by his system of Congruism. His book, "De defensione fidei," was burned in London by royal command, and was prohibited as containing doctrines against the power of sovereigns. One edition of his works consisted of twenty-three and another of twenty-eight volumes in folio. De Scoraille has written an admirable biography of this great man.