“Possent praeterea his adjungi argumenta theologica, ut est illud quod sumitur ex illis verbis Genes. 2. Formavit Deus hominem ex limo terrae et inspiravit in faciem ejus spiraculum vitae et factus est homo in animam viventem:  ille enim spiritus, quam Deus spiravit, anima rationalis fuit, et PER EADEM FACTUS EST HOMO VIVENS, ET CONSEQUENTER, ETIAM SENTIENS.

“Aliud est ex VIII.  Synodo Generali quae est Constantinopolitana IV. can. 11, qui sic habet. Apparet quosdam in tantum impietatis venisse ut homines duas animas habere dogmatizent:  talis igitur impietatis inventores et similes sapientes, cum Vetus et Novum Testamentum omnesque Ecclesiae patres unam animam rationalem hominem habere asseverent, Sancta et universalis Synodus anathematizat."[1]

[Footnote 1:  Disput. xv.  “De causa formali substantiali,” Sec. x.  No. 24.]

Moreover, if the animal nature of man was the result of evolution, so must that of woman have been.  But the Catholic doctrine, according to Suarez, is that woman was, in the strictest and most literal sense of the words, made out of the rib of man.

“Nihilominus sententia Catholica est, verba illa Scripturae esse ad literam intelligenda.  AC PROINDE VERE, AC REALITER, TULISSE DEUM COSTAM ADAE, ET, EX ILLA, CORPUS EVAE FORMASSE."[1]

[Footnote 1:  “Tractatus de Opere,” Lib.  III.  “De hominis creatione,” cap. ii.  No. 3.]

Nor is there any escape in the supposition that some woman existed before Eve, after the fashion of the Lilith of the rabbis; since Suarez qualifies that notion, along with some other Judaic imaginations, as simply “damnabilis."[1]

[Footnote 1:  Ibid.  Lib.  III. cap. iv.  Nos. 8 and 9.]

After the perusal of the “Tractatus de Opere” it is, in fact, impossible to admit that Suarez held any opinion respecting the origin of species, except such as is consistent with the strictest and most literal interpretation of the words of Genesis.  For Suarez, it is Catholic doctrine, that the world was made in six natural days.  On the first of these days the materia prima was made out of nothing, to receive afterwards those “substantial forms” which moulded it into the universe of things; on the third day, the ancestors of all living plants suddenly came into being, full-grown, perfect, and possessed of all the properties which now distinguish them; while, on the fifth and sixth days, the ancestors of all existing animals were similarly caused to exist in their complete and perfect state, by the infusion of their appropriate material substantial forms into the matter which had already been created.  Finally on the sixth day, the anima rationalis—­that rational and immortal substantial form which is peculiar to man—­was created out of nothing, and “breathed into” a mass of matter which, till then, was mere dust of the earth, and so man arose.  But the species man was represented by a solitary male individual, until the Creator took out one of his ribs and fashioned it into a female.