1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Laynez, Diego

LAYNEZ (or Lainez), DIEGO (1512–1565), the second general of the Society of Jesus, was born in Castile, and after studying at Alcala joined Ignatius of Loyola in Paris, being one of the six who with Loyola in August 1534 took the vow of missionary work in Palestine in the Montmartre church. This plan fell through, and Laynez became professor of scholastic theology at Sapienza. After the order had been definitely established (1540) Laynez was sent to Germany. He was one of the pope’s theologians at the council of Trent (q.v.), where he played a weighty and decisive part. When Loyola died in 1556 Laynez acted as vicar of the society, and two years later became general. Before his death at Rome, on the 19th of January 1565, he had immensely strengthened the despotic constitution of the order and developed its educational activities (see Jesuits).

His Disputationes Tridentinae were published in 2 volumes in 1886. Lives by Michel d’Esne (Douai, 1597) and Pet. Ribadeneira (Madrid, 1592; Lat. trans. by A. Schott, Antwerp, 1598). See also H. Müller, Les Origines de la Compagnie de Jésus: Ignace et Lainez (1898).