Lawrence Arthur Faunt

A Jesuit theologian, b. 1554, d. at Wilna, Poland, 28 February, 1590-91. After two years at Merton College, Oxford (1568-70) under the tuition of John Potts, a well-known philosopher, he went to the Jesuit college at Louvain where he took his B.A. After some time spent in Paris he entered the University of Munich under the patronage of Duke William of Bavaria, proceeding M.A. The date of his entrance into the Society of Jesus is disputed, some authorities giving 1570, others 1575, the year in which he went to the English College, Rome, to pursue his studies in theology. It is certain, however, that on the latter occasion he added Lawrence to his baptismal name, Arthur. He was soon made professor of divinity and attracted the favourable attention of Gregory XIII, who on the establishment of the Jesuit college at Posen in 1581, appointed him rector. He was also professor of Greek there for three years of moral theology and controversy for nine more, are was held in highest repute among both ecclesiastical and secular authorities. His chief theological works are: “De Christi in terris Ecclesia, quaenam et penes quos existat” (Posen, 1584.), “Coenae Lutheranorum et Calvinistarum oppugnatio ac catholicae Eucharitiae defensio” (Posen, 1586); “Apologia libri sui de invocatione ac veneratione Sanctorum” (Cologne, 1589).