TYRIE, JAMES

Jesuit theologian; b. Drumkilbo, Scotland, 1543; d. Rome, 1597. He was educated at St. Andrew's University, but left Scotland in 1562. He reached Rome via Louvain, and joined the Society of Jesus in 1563. Tyrie, sent to Paris to help found the Jesuit Clermont College, June 1567, stayed there as professor of philosophy and theology, rector, and head of the Scottish Jesuit Mission from 1585 to 1590. A letter to persuade his brother David to return to the Catholic Church from the Scottish Kirk was sent to John knox for reply. When this was published (1572), each paragraph of Tyrie's letter was printed with Knox's answer. Tyrie at once published a refutation of Knox (Paris 1573), which was publicly burned. A further answer to Tyrie, by a committee appointed for that purpose, never materialized. In 1585 Tyrie was summoned to Rome to represent France on the Committee of Six to draw up the Jesuit General Acquaviva's first edition of the Ratio Studiorum. During the Siege of Paris, 1590, Tyrie was rector of Clermont and then returned to Rome. In December 1590, Tyrie was sent to the University of Pont-à-Mousson as professor of Scripture, and head of the Scots College. In May 1592 he went back to Rome as assistant for France and Germany in the sixth general congregation of the Society of Jesus (1593). In Rome, Tyrie was constantly consulted by Clement VIII and the Catholic Earls of Huntly, Erroll and Angus, in their efforts for papal subsidy to support an armed expedition against the Kirk (1594). He also helped restore the Scottish hospital in Rome, which became the present Scots College (1600). Tyrie earned high praise, even from his opponents, for his "singular modesty, gentleness and charity."

Bibliography: a. bellesheim, History of the Catholic Church of Scotland, tr. d. o. hunter-blair, 4 v. (Edinburgh 1887–90) v.2–3. w. f. leith, ed., Narratives of Scottish Catholics under Mary Stuart and James VI (Edinburgh 1885). h. foley, ed., Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, 7 v. (London 1877–82) 3.2:726. h. fouqueray, Histoire de la Compagnie de Jésus en France, 5 v. (Paris 1910–25). n. abram, L'Université de Pont-à-Mousson (Paris 1870).

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