JAIME LUCIANO

BALMES (1810—1848)  , Spanish ecclesiastic, eminent as a political writer and a philosopher, was born at Vich in Catalonia, on the 28th of August 181o, and died there on the 9th of July 1848 . Having attacked the regent Espartero and been exiled he founded and edited on his return the El Pensamiento de la Nacion, a Catholic and Conservative weekly; but his fame rests principally on El Protestantismo comparado con el Catolicismo-en sus relaciones con la Civilisation Europea (3 vols., 1842-1844, 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 . See A. de Blanche-Raffin, Jacques Balmes, sa vie et ses ouvrages (Paris, 1849) ; and E . Bullon Fernandez, Jaime Balmis y sus oberas (Madrid, 1903) .