Saa, Emanuel

, a learned Portuguese Jesuit, was born in 1530, at Conde, in the province of Douro, and entered the society in 1545. After the usual course of studies, he taught at Coimbra, Rome, and other places, and was considered as an excellent preacher and interpreter of the scriptures, on which last account he was employed, by pope Pius V. on a new edition of the Bible. He died at Arona, in the Milanese, Dec 30, 1596, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. His chief works are “Scholia in quatuor Evangelia,” Antwerp and Cologn, 1596, 4to; and “Notationes in totam s cram Scripturam,” &c. Antwerp, 1598, 4to reprinted, with other scholi or notes, by Mariana and Tirini. Dupin says, that of all the Commentaries upon the scriptures there is nothing more concise and useful than the notes of our author, whose sole object, he adds, is to give the literalest use in a few words and in an intelligible manner. De Sa was the author of another work, which, although a very small volume, is said to have employed him for forty years: it is entitled “Aphorismi Confessariorum,” printed first at Venice, 1595, 12mo, and afterwards frequently reprinted in various places. Dupin calls it a moral work it seems rather a set of rules for confessors in cases of conscience and Lavocat tells us it contains some dangerous positions respecting both morals and the authority of kings. It underwent so many corrections and emendations before the pope would license it, that it did not appea- until the year before the author died. The French translations of it have many castrations. ¹