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Diego Laynez, S.J. (1512 – 19 January 1565; first name sometimes translated James, Jacob; surname also spelled Laines, Lainez, Laínez) was a Spanish Jesuit priest and theology, a New Christian (of converted Jewish descent), and the second Superior General of the Society of Jesus after the founder Ignatius of Loyola. He was born in Almazán and died in Rome.
Because of unfavourable circumstances (no ship going to the Holy Land) the pilgrimage to Jerusalem fell through, and Laynez with Ignatius of Loyola and the other Friends in the Lord (by then they were ten) offered their services to the Pope. After the Order had been definitely established in 1540, Laynez, among other missions, visited Germany. Laynez was a papal theologian during each of the three periods of the Council of Trent. At one point he was also professor of scholastic theology at La Sapienza.
Laynez's famous speech on imputed and inherent justification (Girolamo Seripando's “double justice” theory) on 26 October 1546 was subsequently written out and incorporated into the Acta of the Council under the title "Disputatio de justitia imputata". By the time Laynez spoke, 37 theologians had spoken on the issue, and 28 had rejected duplex justitia. In his three-hour-long speech, which was widely regarded as the most thorough on the topic, Laynez gave 12 reasons that the proposed “double justice” must be rejected by the Church, including its relatively recent origin and its implied denial of merit. His arguments were consistent with the Council's 13 January 1547 Decree on Justification, which taught in Chapter 16, “we must believe that nothing further is wanting to those justified to prevent them from being considered to have, by those very works which have been done in God, fully satisfied the divine law according to the state of this life and to have truly merited eternal life.”
Laynez did not participate directly in the several months of discussions between his speech and the issuing of the Decree because immediately after his speech on justification, Cardinal Del Monte assigned him – along with Salmeron – to prepare a list of Protestant errors regarding the sacraments, as well as a summary of the relevant Church documents and patristic writings on sacraments. The first part of this research was presented to the council on 17 January 1547 by Cardinal Cervini under the headings of “sacraments in general,” “baptism” and “confirmation.” This research set the terms of debate, which was somewhat less contentious than that concerning justification. The seventh session of the Council promulgated its canons on sacraments in general, baptism and confirmation on 3 March 1547.
Laynez moved with the council to Bologna after the seventh session, where he continued his preparatory work on the sacraments of the Eucharist and penance. He grew frustrated with the slow pace of the work done in Bologna, and left in June 1547. He spent the time between the first and second period of the Council contributing to the reform of prostitutes, convents and dioceses, preaching in Florence, Venice and then in Sicily. From there, he accompanied John de Vaga's fleet on a successful raid of Tripoli, which had been a base for Muslim pirates; he was still in Africa on 5 October 1550 when he was called to Rome.
When Ignatius of Loyola died in 1556 Diego Laynez acted as Vicar General of the Society. Because of an internal crisis and difficult relations with Pope Paul IV, the Society's General Congregation was delayed by two years. When it was finally convened and opened on 2 July 1558, Laynez was elected at the first ballot and became the second Superior-General of the Society of Jesus.
Upon Laynez's arrival at Trent in August 1562, he defended the practice of distributing Communion under only one species. Among Laynez's other speeches during the third period of the council are (1) against the Gallicanism theory that general councils are superior to the Pope, against bishops who wanted to extend episcopal authority at the expense of that of the Pope, in which he argued that the power of the bishop was received through the mediation of the pope and not directly from God (20 October 1562), and (2) a speech in which he committed a rare theological error – he doubted the ability of the Church to invalidate clandestine marriages (23 August 1563), a position rejected by the 24th Session of the Council in Chapter 1 of its Decree on the Reformation of Marriage.
On the death of Pope Paul IV, many cardinals wished to elect Laynez pope, but he fled from them in order to avoid this fate.
He was instrumental in cementing the central role of Jesuit formation in the identity of the Jesuit Order:
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