Leonardus Lessius

Leonardus Lessius (in Flemish Lenaert Leys ) (October 1st 1554, Brecht, Antwerp, Belgium - January 15th 1623, Leuwen, Belgium) was a Belgian Jésuite, Théologien and one of the first to be interested in an approach Morale economic questions and in the ethical of the banking practices.

Formation

Very good student, but from modest rural origin, Lessius accepted a purse which enabled him to study with the college of Arras and in Leuwen where it brilliantly finished the course of Philosophie in 1572. The same year it entered the Society of Jesus. At the end of the first years of religious training he taught philosophy with Douai (where he had as student Saint Robert Southwell) and after its sacerdotal ordination (1582) was sent to Rome for studies more pushed in theology under the direction of the best Masters of the time, Francisco Suarez and Robert Bellarmin. Of return in its country, it was named professor of theology at the University of Louvain.

Professor of theology

During its first years of teaching it innovated by basing its teaching on the Summa theologica of St Thomas d' Aquin, teaching a complete course of theology instead of limiting itself to present special Questions of them . In addition it wasted time and energy to be quarreled with Baius on the question of the Grâce and Inspiration in the Scriptures (1587-88).

Morals of the Economy and banking Ethics

Lessius is especially known for its treaty Of justitia and iure ( Of justice and the law ) of 1605 which was reprinted a score of time during only the XVIIe century. It was the first time that a theologist seriously studied the problems Moraux raised by the economy and the Finance. Lessius went to Antwerp, then a city in full economic expansion, to study there on the spot how the banks and the modern trade functioned. The competence that it acquired in this field - a rare thing among the clerks of the time - gave a considerable weight to the solutions which it proposed with the raised problems. Today still the historians of the economic life admire the subtlety of its analyzes of the related questions to the Prêt with interest. Inter alia things it gave indications to calculate with what corresponds exactly a price right , giving up in this field what was proposed by its Master E to think, St Thomas d' Aquin.

Ascetic theologist

From 1610, and its health declining, Lessius turned to the ascetic Théologie and wrote several books which made authority and also had success. In 1615 the pope Paul V personally thanked it for the services rendered to the Church.

Works

De Iustitia and Iure , Leuwen, 1605.
De Bono Statu eorum which vovent… , Cologne, 15.
Of moribusque perfectionibus divinis , Antwerp, 1620.

References

GORDON, B.T., Economic Analysis Before Adam Smith: Hesiod to Lessius (Macmillan, 1975).
SMITH, Gerald (ED), Jesuit Thinkers off the Rebirth, Milwaukee, 1939, pp.133-155

VAN HOUDT, T. and DECOCK, W., Leonardus Lessius: traditie in vernieuwing . Antwerpen, 2005.