Domingo Báñez (1528-1604) and the novus philosophus: Cajetan, Franciscus Toletus, and the (In)equality of Human Rational Souls

Abstract

This article takes its point of departure in a puzzle in the little studied De generatione et corruptione commentary by Spanish Dominican Domingo Báñez, first published in 1585. Specifically, five times in the work, Báñez takes as his opponent an otherwise unidentified novus philosophus or novus author. Using parallel texts, I show Báñez’s novus philosophus was none other than the Jesuit Franciscus Toletus. I then trace some of the background to one of the issues on which Báñez criticizes Franciscus: the issue of whether or not human rational souls are equal to one another in terms of substantial perfection. The central place of Thomas de Vio Cajetan in the dispute between the Dominican and the Jesuit quickly becomes clear. In an appendix, I offer complete question lists of the relevant natural philosophical works by Franciscus from which Báñez quotes or paraphrases, i.e. Franciscus’s Physics, De generatione, and De anima commentaries.