Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sherlock, Paul

601457Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 52 — Sherlock, Paul1897Richard Bagwell

SHERLOCK, PAUL (1595–1646), jesuit, was born at or near Waterford in August 1595. His name is latinised as Sherlogus. He went to Spain in early youth, and was educated at the Irish College at Salamanca. At seventeen he sought admission into the Society of Jesus, taking the fourth vow in the end, and was for twenty years superior of the Irish College at Salamanca and Compostella. His profound patristic learning appeared in the controversies which engaged him for years, and he taught scholastic theology and divinity with success. Sherlock injured his health by flagellation and hair-shirts, and especially by fasting and praying in honour of the Virgin. Some believed that he received direct communication from heaven while praying and writing. He died at Salamanca on 9 Aug. 1646, having never returned to Ireland. Sherlock was thought much of in France and Spain, and testimonials from many learned men are printed with his works. One of these panegyrists, a French Benedictine, exclaims in Latin iambics that Sherlock had given many variegated (murænulatas) and embroidered (vermicellatas) gifts to his bride, the church; and he also sings his praises in Hebrew and Greek.

His principal work is a vast disquisition on ecclesiastical history, with the Song of Solomon as a text, which appeared in three folios between 1634 and 1640 (‘Anteloquia Ethica et Historica in Canticum Canticorum,’ Lyons, 1634, fol.; Venice, 1639; ‘much augmented,’ Lyons, 1640, fol.; ‘Commentarium in duo priora capita Cantici Canticorum,’ Lyons, 1637, fol.; ‘Commentarium in reliqua capita Cantici Canticorum,’ Lyons, 1640, fol.). He also wrote, under the pseudonym of Paulus Leonardus, ‘Responsio ad Expostulationes recentium quorundam Theologorum contra Scientiam Mediam,’ Lyons, 1644, 4to; and ‘Antiquitatum Hebraicarum Dioptra,’ Lyons, 1651, fol.

[Sotvelli (Southwell's) Scriptores Societatis Jesus, Rome, 1676, whence Harris derived all his information in his edition of Ware's Writers of Ireland.]

R. B-l.