Diego Lainez

Lainez, Diego (dēā'gō līnĕth'), 1512-65, Spanish theologian, leader of the Counter Reformation; general of the Society of Jesus. He was one of the small band that formed the original Society of Jesus under St. Ignatius of Loyola. At the Council of Trent (see Trent, Council of) he was papal theologian and made a sensation by his brilliant expositions of doctrine; his words were incorporated exactly in some of the canons. At St. Ignatius's death (1556) he was vicar general of the Jesuits, and in 1558 he was made general. The next year he avoided being made pope only by secretly leaving Rome. He represented the church in disputation with the Calvinists in the Colloquy of Poissy (1561). The name also appears as Laynez.