Relations are a major topic in early modern philosophy, and not only on account of Leibniz. Following Aristotle, Suárez took some relations to be accidents constituting a category of their own. Like most scholastic philosophers and theologians, he considered such categorical relations to be ineliminable and real properties in their subjects, distinct from any other non-relational accidents. The term of a real categorical relation must be an actually existing entity, according to Suárez, and it must be really distinct from the foundation and the subject. Suárez argues against the view that there is a real distinction between foundation and relation on the grounds that it leads to unnecessary ontological profligacy. It could be argued further that if Suárez succeeds in avoiding the danger of undermining the reality of the relation, it is only at the cost of building an incoherent ineliminably relational reference to its term into the absolute foundation.