Richard Archdekin

Life
1618-1693 [var. Arsdekin; also Mac Giolla Cuddy]; b. Kilkenny, 16 March; professor of Philosophy and Moral Theology at Louvain; his ecclesiastical works include A Treatise of Miracles, Together with New Miracles, and Benefits Obtained by the Sacred Reliques of S. Francis Xaverius Exposed in the Church of the Society of Jesus at Mechlin (Louvain 1667), in English and Latin, the first printed in bilingual edition; Life of St. Patrick (Louvain 1671); Controversiae Fidei went into 13 edns. between 1671 and 1718; later edns., under the title Theologia Tripartita Universa, included lives of Oliver Plunkett and Peter Talbot, with other material on Ireland; d. Antwerp 31 Aug. DIB RR DIW ODNB

Works
A Treatise of Miracles Together with New Miracles and Benefits Obtained by the Sacred Reliques of S. Francis Xaverius, Exposed [...] at Mechlin (Lovanii: Typis A. Bouveti 1667), 107pp., 8o.; Vitae et Miraculorum Sancti Patricii Hiberniae Apostoli Epitome. Cum brevi Notitia Hiberniae, & Prophetia S. Malachiae, etc. (Lovanii: Typis haered. B. Masii 1671), 74pp., 8o.

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Criticism
Cited in Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica, Irish Worthies (1821), Vol. I, p.19 [see infra]; Joseph Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fíor Ghael (Amsterdam: Rodopi Press 1986), p.299.

Commentary

Richard Ryan, Biographical Dictionary of Irish Worthies, Vol. I (London & Dublin 1819;1822) - “Richard Archdekin”

An eminent Jesuit, was a native of the county of Kilkenny, and became a member of that society at Mechlin, in Brabant, in 1642, at the age of twenty-three. He taught divinity and philosophy successively at Louvain and Antwerp, and, at the latter place, became rector of the students of the highest class in 1676, and afterwards professor of divinity. He died there about 1690. Peter Talbot gives him the character of “a good father, but an incautious writer;” and the Abbé de Me Berthier, in his parallel of the Doctrines of the Pagans and Jesuits, quarrels with a proposition advanced by him in his under-named Theologia Tripartita, viz. “That absolution is not to be deferred to ‘habitual sinners,’ till they are actually reformed;” to which he opposes that saying of Horace, Epist. ii. Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem testa diu; and of Catullus, Epigr. lxxvii. Diffcile est longum subito deponere amorem. And from thence humorously makes these two, and other pagan authors, anti-jesuits. He wrote, “Of Miracles, and the new Miracles done by the Relicks of St. Francis Xaviers, in the Jesuits’ College, at Mechlin.” Louvanii, 1667, 8vo. This piece is in English and Irish.

“Precipue Controversie Fidei ad facilem Methodum redactze; ac Resolutiones Theologica ad omnia Sacerdotis munia, presertim in Missionibus, accommodate, cum apparatu ad Doctrinam sacram. Cui accessitsumma Doctrine Christiane selectis Exemplis elucidata.” The first title is, “Theologia, Polemica, Practice, Sacra.” Louvanii, 1671, 8vo.) [20] “Vite et Miraculorum S. Patricii, Hiberniæ Apostoli, Epitome, cum brevi Notitiâ Hibernia.” Louvanii, 1671, 8vo. printed with the former; which he afterwards revised and enlarged, and published under the title of “‘Theologia Tripartita Universa, sive Resolutiones Polemicæ, Practicæ, Controversiarum et Questionum etiam recentissimarum, que in Scholâ et in Praxi per omnia usum precipuum habent; Missionariis, et aliis Animarum Curatoribus, et Theologiæ Studiasis, solerter accommodatæ, Editio quinta.” Antwerpiæ, 1682, 3 vols. 8vo. If we may judge by the number of editions, this book carried a vast reputation abroad. I have seen the eleventh edition of it printed, Venice 1700, 4to. after the author’s death, and, for what I know, there may be others since. At the time the eight edition was undertaken, there were sixteen thousand of them disposed of, and a great demand for more.

He also wrote and published, “The Lives of Peter Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, and of Oliver Plunket, Primate of Ireland,’ which are printed in the eleventh edidion of his “'Theologia Tripartita.”

Sotvellus [sic] tells us, that he had a book ready for the press, entitled, “Theologia Apostolica.”

See copy in RICORSO > Library > Criticism > History > Legacy - Ryan - via index, or as attached.

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References
Dictionary of National Biography, entry’s sources include Edward O’Reilly’s A Chronicle Account of Nearly 400 Irish Writers (1820), Walter Harris’s edition of Sir James Ware’s Writers of Ireland (1764), Thomas Watts’s Biographcial Dictionary and the Bibliothèque des Écrivains de la Compagnie de Jesus; gives details of the 13th edition of his major work with some discussion of his theological manner (‘methodical’) and its orthodoxy.

British Library holds [1] A Treatise of Miracles together with new miracles and benefits obtained by the sacred reliques of S. Francis Xaverius, exposed [...] at Mechlin. 107pp. Typis A. Bouveti: Lovanii, 1667. 8o. [2] Apparatus et praxis formae pro doctrina sacra in concione proponenda, etc. [3] Praecipuae controversiae fidei ad facilem methodum redactae, ac resolutiones theologicae ad omnia sacredotis munia, praesertim in missionibus, accommodatae, cum Apparatu ad doctrinam sacram; cui accessit Summa doctinae Christianae selectis exemplis elucidata, cum aliis tractatibus, etc. 510pp. Typis haered. B. Masii: Lovanii, 1671. 8o. [4] R.P. Richardi Arsdekin [...] Theologia tripartita universa [...] Post editionem octavam Antverpiensem, ab authore in singulis partibus plurimùm locupletatum [...] editio secunda in Germania Superiore, revisa & additis opinionibus ab Alexandro VIII. damnatis, aucta, etc.. 3 tom. Dilingae, 1694, 93. fol. [5] Theologia tripartita [...] Accedit apparatus novus ad doctrinam sacram; sive conciones per singulas anni dominicas & festa [...] Cum triplici indice [...] Editio septima & ultima, ab auctore recognita, & aliquot tractatibus auctior. 3 pt. Apud haeredes Joannis Weidenfeldt: Coloniae Agrippinae, 1702, 01. 8o. [6] Theologia tripartita universa [...] Editio octava, etc. Title Editionis octavae prima editio in Germania Superiore.. 3 tom. M. Conbbaert: Antverpiae, 1686. 4o.. 3 tom. J. C. Bencard: Dilingae, 1687. fol. [7] Vitae et miraculorum Sancti Patricii Hiberniae Apostoli epitome. Cum brevi notitia Hiberniae, & prophetia S. Malachiae, etc. [Another copy.]. 74pp. Typis haered. B. Masii: Lovanii, 1671. 8o.

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