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833G Richard Archdekin 1618-1693 ,

THEOLOGIA QUADRIPARTITA :POLEMICA, Praecipuas Fidei Controversias, ad brevem, ac facilem Metrodum redactas, PRACTICA, Resolutiones Theologicas, ac omnia prope SACERDOTIS munia accommodatas, SACRA, Apparatum alphabeticum, cum Praxi et Conceptibus Contionum pro singulis anni Dominicis; CATECHETICA, Summam Doctrinae Christianae, selectissimis exemplis, et brevi explicatione illustratam complectens.

Pragæ : Typis Universitatis Carolo- Ferdinandae in Collegio Societ. Jesu ad S. Clementem,1678                              $2,800 
Octavo 6 1/2 X 4 inches π1,)(6, )o(8,A-Z8, Aa-Pp8,Qq4. {[XXVIII], 582, [XXXI]}(Ee6 is a medial blank)

First and only edition. This copy is bound in the original Vellum binding, two brass clasps, manuscript title on spine.It is printed on (bad) iron rich paper with quite a bit of natural browning. OCLC only lists one other copy Czech Republic STATE RES LIBR, OLOMOUC which is also uniformly brown.
The ‘ Controversias Fidei’ had a wonderful success. A few copies of the work which found their way to the university of Prague were received with such enthusiasm that some transcripts of the whole were made for the use of the students; and in 1678 the book was reprinted, without the knowledge of the author, at the University

Press.ARCHDEKIN, or ARSDEKIN, RICHARD an Irish Jesuit, who has adopted both forms of his name on his own title-pages, and is also known as Mac Gioi.la Cuddy, was the son of Nicholas Archdekin and his wife Ann Sherlock, and was born at Kilkenny 16 March 1618. He went through a course of classical studies, and for two years applied himself to philosophy before he entered the Jesuit order; and he studied theology for four years at Louvain. Entering the Society of Jesus at Mechlin 28 Sept. 1642, he was in due time enrolled among the professed fathers of the order. He was teaching humanities in 1650; he studied under the Jesuits at Antwerp and Lille; and arrived at the Professed House at Antwerp 26 March 1653. For six years he taught humanities, and he was professor of philosophy, moral theology, and Holy Scripture for a long period, chiefly at Louvain and Ant werp. His death occurred in the latter city 31 Aug. 1693.Father Archdekin, who was proficient in the Latin, Irish, English, and Flemish languages, composed the following works:— 1. ‘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, 8vo, in English and Irish. This very scarce book is supposed to be the first ever printed in the two languages in conjunction. 2. ‘Precipure Controversiie Fidei ad facilem methodum redactae; ac Resolutiones Theologicoe ad omnia Sacerdotis munia, pnesertim in Missionibus, accommodatse,’ Louvain, 1671, 8vo. At the end of this volume, which is a summary of theology, is usually found: 3. ‘ Vitie et Miraculorum Sancti Patricii Hiberniie Apostoli Epitome, cum brevi notitia Hibernioe et Prophetia S. Malachise’ (Louvain, 1671,8vo), a life of St. Patrick, with a short notice of Ireland, and the prophecy of St. Malachi respecting the succession of the popes. The ‘ Controversias Fidei’ had a wonderful success. A few copies of the work which found their way to the university of Prague were received with such enthusiasm that some transcripts of the whole were made for the use of the students; and in 1678 the book was reprinted, without the knowledge of the author, at the University Press. The third edition, which was printed at Antwerp with the author’s corrections and additions, was followed by a fourth and fifth at Cologne and Ingolstadt; and the sixth, again at Antwerp, by a seventh again at Cologne. These particulars are gathered from the prefaces to the eighth edition, which appeared at Antwerp in 1686 and where the title, the bulk, and the arrangement of the work are so altered that it would hardly be recognised as the same. 4The ‘ Controversioe Fidei’ of 1671 is a small octavo of 500pages. In the edition of 1686 the title is ‘Theologia Tripartita Universal and the three volumes quarto, of which it consists, comprise in all about 1,100 pages closely printed in double columns, containing about five times the matter of the ‘Controversial’ The work includes a life of Oliver Plunket, the catholic archbishop of Armagh, who was executed at London in 1681r and a life of Peter Talbot, the catholic archbishop of Dublin, who died in imprisonment at Dublin in 1680. In addition to these Archdekin’s work contains a number of anecdotes connected with the history of Ireland, introduced as examples in support of his theological doctrines. Archdekin’s work displays much order, knowledge, and precision, but some of his decisions in cases of conscience have been controverted by higher authority in the catholic church. In 1700 it was prohibited until correction should be made by the Congregation of the Index. The first edition published with the necessary corrections appears to have been also the last. It appeared at Antwerp in 1718, and was the thirteenth of the whole. (DNB)

In spite of its numerous editions, beginning with the year 1671, it was put on the Index in 1700, donec corrigatur. Although at least the Antwerp edition of 1718 was corrected, especially as regards the peccatum philosophicum, and the Cologne edition of 1730 was “revised and corrected”, yet in the Index of 1900 he is still referred to as an author previously condemned. He left in manuscript a “Theologia Apostolica”. Hurter speaks of him as auctor gravis et probabilista. Webb in his “Compendium of Irish Biography” (Dublin, 1878) declares of the treatise on miracles that “it is said to have been the first book printed in English and Irish conjointly.” (CE)

HURTER, Nomenclator, II, 399; SOMMERVOGEL, Bibliothèque de la c. de J. I, 515, WARE-HARRIS, Writers and Antiquities of Ireland (Dublin, 1764). Foley’s Records, vii. 15; Oliver’s Collectanea S. J., 231; O’Reilly’s Irish Writers, 198 ; Ware’s Writers of Ireland, ed. Harris, 203; Thomas Watts, in Biog. Diet. Soc. D. U. K.; Ribadeneira, Bibl. Scriptorum Soc. Jesu,,ed. Southwell, 718; Backer, Bibliotheque des Ecrivains de la Compagnie do Jesus (1869), 267; Foppens.Bibl. Belgica, 1066.] T. C. Sweeney? see DeBacker Sommervogel vol I col 515-521

A more complete list of his books:
1. Theses Sacrae in Epist. Pauli Ad Romanos et Primum Ad Corinthianos (Louvain, 1668).

2. Theses Sacrae in Sancta Jesu Christi Evangelia, (Louvain, 1669), Quarto.

3. Praecipuae Controversiae Fidei Ad Facilem Methodum Redactae (Louvain, 1671), Octavo.

4. Theses Sacrae de Verbo Dei et Creatione Mundi (Louvain, 1671), Quarto.

5. Vitae et Miraculorum Sancti Patricii Hiberniae, Apostoli Epitome Cum Brevi Notitia Hiberniae et Prophetia S Malachiae (Louvain, 1671), Octavo.

6. Theses Theologicae de Deo Uno et Triuno ([Antwerp], [1676]), Quarto.

7. Apparatus Materiae et Formae Pro Doctrina Sacra in Quavis Dictione Facile Methodo Paranda, et Pro Catechesi Cum Exemplis Illustranda. Cum Praxi Varia Assistendi Aegris Ac Moribundis, et Alias Functiones Sacras Rite Obeundi, (Antwerp, 1678), Octavo.

8. Theologia Quadripartita (Prague, 1678). {His Theologia Quadripartita, a guide to essential Catholic teachings and controversies with Protestants, was extremely popular, quickly selling out, and he produced an expanded form of the work in the same year, the Theologia Tripartita. The work received censure from the Inquisition and was thus emended at various points during the production of subsequent editons. Brussels MS 7299, f.71r-75v contains a summary of things to be emended by Archdekin. }

9. Theologia Tripartita Universa, Complectens Nunc Bibliothecam Perfectam Viri Ecclesiastici, Ordine Sequenti, (Antwerp, 1678), Octavo.

INDEX TITULORUM of Theologia Quadripartita