Jaume Balmes
Jaume Llucià Balmes Urpià (
August 28,
1810â€"
July 9,
1848),
Spanish ecclesiastic, eminent as a political writer and a
philosopher, was born and died at
Vic in
Catalonia.
Having attacked the regent Espartero and been exiled he founded and edited on his return the
El Pensamiento de la Nación, a
Catholic and
Conservative weekly; but his fame rests principally on
El Protestantismo comparado con el Catolicismo en sus relaciones con la Civilisación Europea (3 vols., 1842â€"1844, 6th edition, 1879; Eng. trans. London, 1849), an able defence of
Catholicism on the ground that it represents the spirit of obedience or order, as opposed to
Protestantism, the spirit of revolt or
anarchy. From the historical standpoint it is of little value.
The best of his philosophical works, which are clear expositions of the scholastic system of thought, are the
Filosofia Fondamental (4 vols., 1846, Eng. trans. by H. F. Brownson, 2 vols. New York, 1856), and the
Curso de Filosofia Elemental (4 vols., 1847), which he translated into
Latin for use in seminaries.
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Free ebook of Jaume Balmes at
Project Gutenberg*
Catholic Encyclopedia article
