Tommaso De Research Articles

The Historical Development of Cajetan's Philosophy of Pure Nature and Its Origins in the Thought of John Capreolus

The Historical Development of Cajetan's Philosophy of Pure Nature and Its Origins in the Thought of John Capreolus Steven Waldorf EVER SINCE the controversy concerning how to understand man's desire for the beatific vision as his ultimate end erupted following the publication of Henri de Lubac's Surnaturel in 1946, the issue of Cajetan's conception of human nature has been much debated. De Lubac's work, continuing from Surnaturel in the 1940s to his more mature Augustinisme et théologie moderne in 1965, aimed at both the theological and the historical deconstruction of what he termed the system of "pure nature," that is to say, the view that human nature must reach its complete end or perfection strictly by natural principles. For de Lubac, such a view, which entails the effective denial of a desire for the vision of the divine essence as the complete perfection of human nature as nature, is both theologically and historically problematic. From a doctrinal perspective, it leads to a purely natural end for man that effectively closes man in on himself, severing his nature from any intrinsic connection to grace and the supernatural. Moreover, historically speaking, it represents a rupture with a classical tradition of thought that runs from Augustine to Thomas Aquinas and the other great Scholastics of the thirteenth century. In purporting to find a theory of pure nature in Aquinas's writings, later Scholastic thinkers betrayed and falsified his thought. In de Lubac's narrative, the progenitor of this view of nature was Tommaso de Vio (1469-1534), better known as Cardinal Cajetan, who was a renowned Dominican theologian of the late [End Page 1] fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Often remembered by historians for his disputation with Martin Luther at Augsburg in 1518, Cajetan was one of the leading theologians of his day, producing a magisterial commentary on Aquinas's Summa theologiae that remained influential into the twentieth century, in addition to dozens of smaller treatises.1 According to de Lubac, Cajetan stands at the origin of the pure-nature theory that the great majority of later Scholastics, including de Lubac's own twentieth-century interlocutors, would adopt.2 Crucially, he was also the first to impute the view to Aquinas himself, passing off his novel philosophy of nature as the latter's own. Nearly all subsequent scholarly discussion of the issues de Lubac raised has addressed the question of whether Cajetan was an accurate interpreter of Aquinas on the pure-nature question. That the Dominican cardinal held a view of nature in which nature must reach its proper perfection in a naturally attainable end is generally not disputed, and the texts, as we shall see, are clear on the point. However, lost in the scholarly debate is sustained treatment of the question of the historical genesis of Cajetan's view. Indeed, contemporary scholars have devoted comparatively little attention to the question of how Cajetan's philosophy of pure nature developed, focusing instead on the question of his fidelity to Aquinas. When such scholars do advert to the question of the origins of the Dominican cardinal's view of natura, they generally do so in passing, attributing it to concerns about the gratuity of grace that supposedly arise from positing a supernaturally attained end as the complete perfection of nature qua nature. Indeed, scholars who find themselves on opposite sides of the debate about Cajetan's faithfulness to Aquinas, such [End Page 2] as Lawrence Feingold3 and Denis Bradley,4 generally concur in attributing the Dominican commentator's view of nature to concerns about this or some other issue of theological orthodoxy. Although theological concerns were foremost in the mind of later proponents of the pure-nature theory, writing in the aftermath of the Baianist controversy, there is less evidence that they preoccupied Cajetan, who was active decades before the controversy erupted. The argument Feingold adduces as proof of the fact that Cajetan's view of nature was motivated by issues of theological orthodoxy is based on a misinterpretation of Cajetan's De potentia neutra, a text in which the Dominican commentator argues against the claim that there can be a natural potency or inclination for...

Michelangelo and the Viewer in His Time by Bernardine Barnes

Reviewed by: Michelangelo and the Viewer in His Time by Bernardine Barnes Diane Ghirardo Bernardine Barnes, Michelangelo and the Viewer in His Time ( London: Reaktion 2017) 264 pp., ill. Viewers today usually view artworks from the Italian Renaissance in museum settings along with others from the same period, geographical area, subject, or materials. Such displays condition how we see artifacts, often altering key aspects of what the artist intended, as scholars have long realized. In her new book, Barnes argues that with single-minded clarity, Michelangelo kept his mind on the visitors' viewpoint in his large public sculptural, architectural, and painted projects, and even in many of his smaller works. The study considers several dozen artworks, of which the author examines about thirty in greater detail. Although much of the material upon which the book is based is available in specialist publications, this book is accessible to a general public and to students. The Sistine Chapel's ceiling and Last Judgment wall are the primary paintings that Barnes explores, well-trod turf that to which she explains the artist's intent for viewers with clarity, along with less widely-known drawings for Vittoria Colonna and Tommaso de' Cavalieri. Analysis of the latter, destined for private contemplation rather than public display, entails close [End Page 224] study of the details, as indeed both recipients acknowledged in their correspondence. So widely published are the two Sistine frescoes that most visitors will be familiar with them, but Barnes pays particular attention to the relation of the paintings to the architecture, the windows, the lighting, how they have changed over time, and the influence of these factors on what we see. For most readers, the sections with the greatest appeal may be those that treat the sculptures. The author begins with Michelangelo's earliest reliefs and the figures for the Arca of San Domenico in Bologna, which evidence precocious signs of the deftness with which even the very young artist attended to orientation and perspective. Two of the classics, the David and the Pietà, merit greater attention. Even the casual observer at the Accademia in Florence notices the outsized hands and head of David, but only the story of the varied locations considered for its placement helps explain these distortions. Originally intended for the corner of a buttress high on the Duomo, Santa Maria del Fiore, along with statues of several other prophets, officials soon realized the impossibility of such an enterprise. Other proposals considered included the interior of the Loggia dei Lanzi, a high pedestal in front of the Duomo, the Sala del Gran Consiglio, or the courtyard of the Palazzo della Signoria. Ultimately, it came to rest in front of the same palazzo, where a copy stands today. A committee formed to select an appropriate setting also paid particular attention to perspective, sight lines, and size in the discussions that Barnes summarizes. French cardinal Jean de Bilhères Lagraulas originally commissioned the Pietà, now located inside St. Peter's in Vatican City, for his tomb in the Santa Petronilla rotonda adjacent to the Vatican, where it was placed in 1501. Once Julius II initiated the enlargement of the basilica, Santa Petronilla had to be demolished, so by 1519, the sculpture had been moved into Old St. Peter's, thereafter to be transferred until it reached its present location behind a thick pane of glass far removed from any relation to its original setting. Barnes summarizes the story and discusses the particularities of the design as part of the larger tomb for which it had been designed. As Emily Fenicel has shown in her study of the statue, the story is richer and more complex than is possible to cover in a short book. Nonetheless, Barnes, like Fenicel, is attentive to more than the details of the artifact. Although much scholarship focuses on the physical attributes of the artifact, Barnes recognizes the importance of the spiritual and religious dimensions of Michelangelo's art. In the case of the Pietà, the artist no doubt worked with the client on the iconographic program, which comes into focus when we learn that it was not originally set high on an altar, as it is today. Barnes...

The 1518 Proceedings at Augsburg

The 1518 Proceedings at Augsburg Suzanne Hequet Martin Luther's writing of the 95 Theses in 1517 has been celebrated this past year as the 500th anniversary of the event that sparked the Reformation. Still, 2018 marks an opportunity to focus on another key moment that defined the early Reformation. Specifically, in 1518 Luther faced a papal legate, Cardinal Cajetan, in meetings held during an imperial diet in Augsburg. The 500th anniversary of this meeting lifted up Luther's arguments on the nature of faith and certainty—arguments that shook Cajetan's Thomist theology, and thereby exposed papal authority as the crux of issues surrounding reform. In 1517 Luther's academic dispute over indulgences, which began with the distribution of the 95 Theses on 31 October, was followed by two kinds of attacks. To begin with, theologians north of the Alps, such as Johann Tetzel and Conrad Wimpina, issued counter-theses and arguments. When Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz sent the Theses to Rome, however, the academic dispute automatically became an ecclesiastical case, perhaps expanded by a separate brief by Dominicans like Tetzel. First to answer Luther's Theses in Rome was the papal court theologian, Silvester Prierias, who in July 1518 published the Dialogus, in which he argued that Luther misunderstood his own presuppositions and needed especially to understand papal authority. This publication was an important first step in the papal decision to initiate formal proceedings against Luther.1 [End Page 60] Meanwhile, by May 1518, Luther had written a defense of the 95 Theses, the Explanations of the Ninety-Five Theses, dedicated to Pope Leo X and authorized for publication by Luther's ordinary, the bishop of Brandenburg, but not published until August.2 By the end of August, following a meeting of the German chapter of the Augustinian Order in April 1518, Luther published his response to Prierias, insisting on a coalition of authorities that he would later use in his encounter with Cajetan: reason, the fathers of the church, the official church decrees (canon law) and, above all, the Bible. In the summer of 1518 an imperial diet convened in Augsburg, to which the pope sent his legate, Cardinal Cajetan (also known as Tommaso de Vio). Already on 7 August Luther had received a summons to face trial in Rome. Matters had moved beyond learned debate to something far more serious, and Luther did not hide his alarm. To complicate matters, during Lent 1518 Luther had delivered a sermon on excommunication and its abuse by church authorities. Opponents had composed a distorted set of theses on the subject under Luther's name and circulated them at the diet.3 The emperor Maximilian was outraged and called for action. On 23 August the pope delivered to Cajetan a summons that Luther appear in Rome to answer charges of heresy. On 11 September Cajetan received permission to interrogate Luther in Augsburg and either receive his recantation or condemn him. The pope also sent word to Luther's prince, Elector Frederick, to assist in an arrest, if such action was necessary.4 Frederick delayed a few weeks, but then, in a shrewd political move, requested that Luther appear in Augsburg in late September under a letter of safe conduct. Thus, in early October, Luther set out for Augsburg. En route, he was joined in Nuremberg by Wenceslas Linck, a fellow Augustinian. At Augsburg the proceedings between Luther and Cajetan consisted of three meetings from 12–14 October 1518. Having received his letter of safe conduct for travel in the city of Augsburg, Luther met with the Cardinal for the first time on 12 October. In the following text, written after he returned to Wittenberg on 31 October 1518, Luther recounted his meetings with Cajetan at Augsburg: [End Page 61] The Proceedings of Friar Martin Luther, Augustinian, with the Lord Apostolic Legate at Augsburg5 To the Godly Reader, Friar Martin Luther Extends Greetings Now, dear reader, what I am doing is this: I see that pamphlets are being published and various rumors are being spread concerning my activities at Augsburg, although I really accomplished nothing more there than the loss of time and money. Probably, however, it was enough of...

Festett oklevelek és kódexek a késő középkori Magyarországon a művészettörténész dilemmái

In 1523 the papal legate Tommaso de Vio corroborated the statutes of the Pest Confraternity of the Virgin. The large booklet-shape diploma is representatively executed: the first page carries floral ornamentation in addition to the text. The decoration and the titulus starting the textual part, however, are archaizing, in line with the practice of the papal chancellary, instead of adopting the then widely popular modern all’antica decoration. The style of the embellishment of a diploma depended on the type of the diploma. Hungarian art historiography has long been resorting to letters patent of nobility in its efforts to date and define the place of origin of the manuscripts from the time of King Matthias and the Jagiello age. That was how the manuscripts of provost of Székesfehérvár Domokos Kálmáncsehi – including the activity of the master of the Breviary Francesco Castello (OSZK, Cod. Lat. 446) – could be located to Buda, and three ornamental manuscripts with music (OSZK, A24; Bratislava, Archív mesta, EC Lad. 6; Zagreb, MR 2) could be proven to have ties to Buda in the early 16th century. The Bakócz Gradual (Esztergom, MS I. 1a.), the Erdődy Missal (Zagreb, RK 354) and the Gradual of Máté Tolnai (Pannonhalma, Caps LIV. F f.) as well as the overwhelming majority of letters patent issued in Buda between 1514 and 1525 were illumined by the so-called Bakócz monogrammist. The letters granting nobility and armorial bearings in the Jagiello age are not merely props for art history but also constitute a separate diplomatic genre.

Aspectos del debate sobre la causalidad del motor inmóvil entre los siglos XV y XVI

Resumen. Hay tres asuntos principales que están bajo discusión pública dentro del Aristotelismo de los siglos XV y XVI. El primero es de carácter metodológico y se refiere al rol de la evidencia científica. El segundo se trata de la inmortalidad del alma. Ambos son bastamente estudiados en los siglos XX y XXI. La tercera cuestión se relaciona con las características y el rol del primer motor, que es Dios mismo. Este argumento, que involucra a casi todos los académicos más importantes del humanismo renacentista, es poco profundo en comparación con los otros, incluso cuando juega un papel importante tanto desde el punto de vista filosófico, como desde el teológico. Puede ser útil examinar cómo algunos pensadores de los siglos XV y XVI, tales como Elia del Medigo, Tommaso De Vio y Marco Antonio Zimara, han tratado de reconciliar la causalidad del primer motor aristotélico, que no aporta a la creación, con el concepto bíblico de Dios. En particular, la discusión se enfoca en la manera en que el primer motor, que provee el único movimiento diario de los cielos, también pueda en alguna manera ser productor del ser.

Birational rigidity of complete intersections

We prove that every smooth complete intersection \(X=X_{d_{1}, \ldots , d_{s}}\subset \mathbb {P}^{\sum _{i=1}^{s}d_{i}}\) defined by s hypersurfaces of degree \(d_{1}, \ldots , d_{s}\) is birationally superrigid if \(5s +1\le \frac{2(\sum _{i=1}^{s}d_{i}+1)}{\sqrt{\prod _{i=1}^{s}d_{i}}}\). In particular, X is non-rational and \({{\mathrm{Bir}}}(X)={{\mathrm{Aut}}}(X)\). We also prove birational superrigidity of singular complete intersections with similar numerical condition. These extend the results proved by Tommaso de Fernex.

Abstract 1611: 4-protein signature predicts outcome to tamoxifen treatment in estrogen receptor positive recurrent breast cancer

Abstract Tamoxifen is one of the most frequently used drugs in the treatment of estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. Although tamoxifen significantly increases patient survival in the adjuvant setting, a major factor that decreases its efficacy in the recurrent setting is drug resistance. The aim of our study is to identify a protein signature predicting outcome of tamoxifen treatment using high resolution mass spectrometry. A total of 112 snap frozen breast tumor tissues were gathered from patients that had received tamoxifen as first line treatment upon recurrence. Samples were divided into a discovery (n= 56; Erasmus Medical Center) and validation sets (n=56; multi-center cohort). Based on progression of disease from start of tamoxifen therapy, patients were categorized having either Good (time-to-progression; ttp>6 months) or Poor (ttp<6 months) outcome. Approximately 4,000 tumor cells (∼200ng protein) were microdissected from each tissue, which were lysed and subsequently trypsin-digested. MS analyses were performed on a nano-liquid chromatography LTQ-Orbitrap mass spectrometer. Protein identification and quantitation were performed through MaxQuant. Significantly differentially abundant proteins (p<0.05) were filtered through multivariate analysis and used to build a predictor for tamoxifen outcome. A total of 2741 proteins were identified in both datasets. Comparative proteome analysis showed differential expression of 99 proteins in the discovery set. A subset of 4 proteins (PDCD4, OCIAD1, G3BP2, and CGN) derived from the multivariate model was selected to develop a predictor for tamoxifen outcome. The 4 protein abundances in the discovery samples were used to build a receiver operating characteristic curve, in which Youden J was selected as grouping cutoff. Group prediction was tested in the validation set through log rank test, which resulted in a significant ttp difference (p=0.004; HR=2.33, 95% CI [1.30-4.16]) between Good and Poor outcome. Our signature significantly predicts Poor outcome patients with 86.7% sensitivity, 41.46% specificity, 35.1% PPV, and 89.5% NPV in the multi-center cohort. OCIAD1, PDCD4, and CGN were significantly enriched in patients with Good outcome, while G3BP2 was more abundant in patients with Poor outcome. We are currently validating these results by immunohistochemistry in a large independent cohort. In addition, we are developing a targeted, multiplexed, quantitative MS-based assay for larger scale clinical validation. Our 4-protein signature significantly predicts outcome to tamoxifen treatment for recurrent breast cancer. Large scale clinical validation will enable more tailored treatment of breast cancer patients with advanced ER+ disease. In addition, our findings may help elucidate the mechanisms underlying endocrine therapy resistance in recurrent breast cancer. Citation Format: Tommaso De Marchi, NingQing Liu, Mila Tjoa, Christoph Stingl, Marcel Smid, Maxime P. Look, Mieke A. Timmermans, Rene BH Braakman, Mark Opdam, Sabine Linn, Paul Span, Fred CGJ Sweep, John WM Martens, Theo M. Luider, John A. Foekens, Arzu Umar. 4-protein signature predicts outcome to tamoxifen treatment in estrogen receptor positive recurrent breast cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1611. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1611

The Liturgical Use of the Organ in the Sixteenth Century: the Judgments of Cajetan and the Dominican Order

This paper explores the liturgical use of the organ in the sixteenth century according to the judgments of Tommaso de Vio, Cajetan (1469–1534) and the Dominicans. In particular, it asks the question: In worship, is solo organ music capable of conveying a specific meaning or a particular text (as seemed to be expected in alternatim practice)? The Dominican sources show an increasingly skeptical attitude, with a consequent tendency to limit the organ’s role in worship. The implication of this study is that organ alternatim did not fall out of favor (with the Dominicans at least) because it failed to carry out the job it was given in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but because it could not do the new job is was given in the sixteenth century. Organ alternatim made sense in a gothic worldview, but less so under the influence of renaissance humanism. While these Dominicans accepted the use of the organ, they did so with great concern at the potential influx of secular music into worship, since secular melodies and rhythms, even without their original words, bring multiple inappropriate associations. To remedy this, various strategies were used to harness instrumental music to text.

‘Eccellentissimo poeta et amatore divinissimo’: Benedetto Varchi and Michelangelo’s poetry at the Accademia Fiorentina

This study examines the first of two public lectures on Michelangelo delivered by Benedetto Varchi at the Accademia Fiorentina in 1547. The lecture played an unprecedented role in disseminating Michelangelo’s poetry to a broad audience both orally and in print, and the article contends that Varchi was able to do so after receiving a manuscript of poems from an associate of Michelangelo in Rome. Varchi’s broadcast of the poems has significant implications in relation to Michelangelo’s rapport with Tommaso de’ Cavalieri, who is named in the lecture as a recipient of Michelangelo’s poetry. By upholding Michelangelo’s enactment of Socratic love, Varchi grounds this Neoplatonic virtue in lived experience. Drawing on evidence including epistolary correspondence, archival sources, and Varchi’s own poetry, the article shows why the Accademia would have been a uniquely receptive setting for the ideals espoused in Varchi’s commentary.

Michelangelo'sChildren's Bacchanal: an allegory of the intemperate soul?

The Children's Bacchanal is not only the most consummate but also the most baffling of the drawings Michelangelo executed for Tommaso de' Cavalieri. This article provides a new reading of the work by undertaking a thorough analysis of the compositional elements. In the process, the significance of some previously misunderstood details are clarified and the allegory made more pertinent to the artist's life and work. The article posits that the drawing was a visual exemplum of what Ficino considered the threats posed to the human soul by the excess of love for the elemental body. While in the upper half of the sheet Michelangelo may have alluded to the ‘incontinent man’, an individual in whom the ‘tumultuous corporeal passion prevails’, in the sleeping youth depicted in the lower portion he may have referred to ‘the intemperate man’. For such a person ‘reason slept entirely or completely succumbed to desire’ during his lifetime while ‘after death it is weighed down by an even deeper slumber and troubled by even more frightening dreams’. If the interpretation here adduced is closer to the artist's intentions, it may be more appropriate to define the drawing an Allegory of the Intemperate Soul.

Michelangelo in Love: Decoding the Children's Bacchanal

In 1532-33, Michelangelo created a group of drawings for Tommaso de’ Cavalieri, some of which allude openly to the passion for Cavalieri that the artist professed in sonnets. More cryptic is the Children's Bacchanal, which has resisted interpretation but opens to enriched understanding if dream analysis methods are used to explore Michelangelo's creative process. A new reading suggests that Michelangelo plays referentially within his own formal vocabulary to represent the effect of love on artistic creativity. Figuring himself in coded ways, he also depicts Tommaso de’ Cavalieri in disguise, a reference that clarifies other images of Michelangelo's beloved in his art.

Michelangelo: the drawings of a genius

Michelangelo's drawings endowed human physique with an expressive musculature that remains to be rivaled in its feeling for corporeal articulation. His drawings of male nudes in particular, fraught as they are with tempestuous longing, project both tension and pliancy, and a compelling sense of health in the exertions and torque of bodies; he was also readily able to bring contrary qualities of grace and swiftness to depictions of women and cherubim. With over 300 color plates and extensive contextualizing scholarship, Michelangelo: Drawings of a Genius is the most complete treatment of this work ever published, and thus constitutes a publication of great importance. Masterpieces from the world's finest museums are gathered here, from the early studies for the Battle of Cascina and the studies for the Sistine Chapel frescoes, to the drawings for the tomb of Julius II, the Medici tombs, the drawings for Tommaso de' Cavalieri and the later crucifixion scenes; also addressed are those works whose authenticity has been subject to debate. Works by other artists, done after the master's sketches, further illuminate the enormous influence of Michelangelo's art. Painter, sculptor, poet, architect and engineer, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564) was both dauntingly prolific and relentlessly innovative in output. He sculpted two of his greatest works, the Pieta and David, before he turned 30, and created two of the world's best-known paintings on the ceiling and walls of the Sistine Chapel in Rome--the creation scenes from Genesis and The Last Judgment. Giorgio Vasari proposed that Michelangelo represented the pinnacle of all artistic achievement since the beginning of the Renaissance, a view that has survived to this day.

Michelangelo Reading Landino? The "Devil" in Michelangelo's <i>Last Judgment</i>

In lieu of Satan, the Hell scene in Michelangelo's Last Judgment features Charon and Minos, two key figures present in Dante’s Inferno. These figures were given an interesting psychological interpretation in the well circulated fifteenth-century commentary on Dante's Commedia by Cristoforo Landino. This article compares Landino's allegoresis of the two figures and a selection of Michelangelo's poetry, as well as the artist's drawings for and relationship to the young nobleman Tommaso de' Cavalieri, to suggest the hypothesis that Michelangelo's Minos and Charon were intended to symbolize the psychological experience of damnation and, more specifically, the dynamic interplay of conscience, free will, choice and volition.

From Personal Duties Towards Personal Rights: Late Medieval and Early Modern Political Thought, 1300-1600

Part 1 Civic republicanism and renaissance liberty in Italy: 14th-century political and legal developments Bartolus of Sassoferrato Baldus de Ubaldis 15th-century humanist political thought 16th-century humanist political thought. Part 2 Constitutionalism and the church: introduction John of Paris conciliar thought in the 14th century conciliarism at the time of the Great Schism and Basle conciliarism after Basle conciliarism secularized - George Buchanan. Part 3 Consent and limit in spanism neo-scholasticism Spanish scholasticism Cardinal Cajetan (Tommaso de Vio) Alonxo de Castrillo Juan Luis Vives Francisco de Vitoria Juan de Mariana Francesco Suarez. Part 4 Emerging rights as a basis for resisting authority - reformation political thought: introduction Martin Luther John Calvin Theodore Beza Peter Martyr Vermigli Francois Hotman: the Francogallia Mornay - the Vindiciae contra tyrannos Richard Hooker.

The Conciliarist Tradition: Constitutionalism in the Catholic Church 1300-1870 (review)

General and Miscellaneous The Conciliarist Tradition. Constitutionalism in Catholic Church 1300-1870. By Francis Oakley. (New York: Oxford University Press. 2003. Pp. xii, 298. $95.00.) In 1969 a brilliant young medievalist published a short book very much in spirit of times: Council over Pope? Towards a provisional ecclesiology. In Francis Oakley then an associate professor of history at Williams College, advocated a revival of conciliar model of Church that had been constructed as a response and solution to Great Western Schism. This was not first time that an attempt was made to correct growth of papal centralizing authority with an appeal to constitutional model of Church; varieties of Gallicans in early modern period did just that, and also many of anti-infallibilists in time of Vatican Council I. All attempted to balance of Papal power with pole of episcopal authority, to quote great ecclesiologist Yves Congar. Were these undertakings to restore conciliar theory related? Do they constitute a specific tradition that could be traced and followed from late medieval period to modern times and eventually be revived? This is perspective adopted by now President emeritus of Williams College in a work that recapitulates a lifetime of research and reflection and brings back his early recommendation. The dense and well structured study opens with a masterly introduction to historical background of movement (chap. 1), in which he endeavors to show a pattern of conciliar thinking, identified as the classical age of conciliar theory. At heart of argument are content and legitimacy of Haec sancta (1415), decree of Council of Constance that affirms superiority of council over pope. After a review of conflicting interpretations of decree, he presents a minute historical investigation of context (the council did depose John XXIII, while acknowledging him as legitimate pope) as well as early commentaries on text, principally by Jean Gerson, Chancellor of University of Paris (chap. 2), concluding (p. 98): it seems clear that Constance intended to be something more universal and less time bound then a mere emergency measure cobbled together to cope with crisis at hand. It mandated for future an understanding of nature of church and of its constitution. In succeeding chapters Oakley examines continuity of this interpretation into modern times. Chapter 3 focuses on a famous controversy on conciliar authority between Parisian Jacques Almain and Dominican Tommaso de Vio, known as Cajetan (1512-1514), which he places in larger historical, canonical, and theological contexts. Oakley emphasizes in particular contribution of John Mair, Almain's former teacher, who, by that time, grounded his conciliarist ideas in natural law and affirmed that on matter of ecclesiastical polity there were two viable opinions, one contending that pope is above council, other defending opposite (p. 129). Unsurprisingly, is this Gallican tradition that author continues to investigate in following chapters, a tradition that had become quite disparate, as demonstrated by selected examples. After an eclipse during religious wars, was renewed at beginning of seventeenth century by Edmond Richer, Syndic of Sorbonne, who published Gerson's works and wrote a history of councils. Richer was rebuked for his extreme positions, but his followers continued to present conciliarism as authentic doctrine of French School, among them Louis Ellies Du Pin, and Antoine Arnauld, who briefly appear in this review. Du Pin was not a Patristic scholar (p. 178) but a prolific historian and influential theologian; as editor of works of Gerson and other writers of conciliar period, he contributed to a renewal and re-interpretation that deserved more scrutiny [See my articles in Revue d'Histoire de l'Eglise de France (1986) and Lias (1991)]. …

Ramus and other renaissance philosophers on subjectivity

This paper considers philosophical approaches that are relevant to the intertwinement of logic, metaphysics, and psychology proposed by the Aquinas commentator Tommaso de Vio Cardinal Cajetan, the humanist Petrus Ramus, the pure Aristotelian Cornelius Martini, the Semi-Ramist Bartholomaeus Keckermann, and the lexicographer Rudolf Goclenius. Mostly, however, it is about Ramus and his followers, the Ramists, because of the role they played in exacerbating a discussion on the constitution of objectivity during the Renaissance that was to have an impact on Cartesian andpost-Cartesian theories of subjectivity. Finally, keeping in mind that Kant was familiar with the secunda Petri, i.e., with the second part of Ramus's logic, namely the theory of judgment, some common ground is recognizable between Ramus and Kant as well.

The Meritorious Human Life of Jesus: Renaissance Humanist Tendencies in the Thomism of Cardinal Cajetan

The Dominican theologian and cardinal, Tommaso de Vio (1469-1534), known as Cajetan after Gaeta, his birthplace, is best remembered for two things. Firstly, he is the expositor of Aquinas, whose monumental commentary on the Summa is included in the Leonine edition of Aquinas’ works. As a consequence of this canonisation, Cajetan’s commentary is either treasured or vilified, to the extent that it is judged to represent Aquinas accurately or not; meanwhile, more subtle developments, not to mention overt disagreements, tend to be overlooked. Secondly, and more widely. Cajetan is remembered as the Roman prelate who met with Martin Luther for three days in October 1518. At those meetings, characterised typically as a dialogue of the deaf, Cajetan sought to persuade Luther to withdraw a number of unorthodox theological opinions. Several years later, Cajetan was involved, albeit peripherally, with the Roman commission that drew up the formal condemnation of Luther’s teaching.It is commonly and plausibly assumed that the rest of Cajetan’s work is to be understood in the light of his involvement with Luther, especially his commentaries on biblical texts, which he worked on from 1524 until his death in 1534. The conventional view of the biblical commentaries (found in various forms in Iserloh, Weisheipl, Parker, Janz and others), runs roughly as follows: the Reformers had appealed to scripture alone, and on the basis of scripture were challenging the papacy and Roman traditions; Cajetan, therefore, set out in his biblical commentaries to meet his adversaries on their chosen territory, and to demonstrate, with scholastic patience and rigour, that the Roman use of scripture was sound, that the Bible belonged to the Catholic Church.

Prierias: The Life and Works of Silvestro Mazzolini da Prierio, 1456-1527 by Michael Tavuzzi

Prierias: The Life and Works of Silvestro Mazzolini da Prierio, 1456-1527. By Michael Tavuzzi. [Duke Monographs in Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Vol. 16.] ([Durham: Duke University Press. 1997. Pp. x, 189. $39.95.) This admirably researched work presents a familiar figure in the first act of Reformation controversy, Silvester Prierias, O.P, the papal palace-theologian (1515-1527). It rests on work in Dominican archives and chronicles and on close reading of early sixteenth-century works, which combine to carry it well beyond all recent treatments of Prierias and his work. The author also shows a sense of the limits imposed on him both by the vastness of his subject's writings and by the absence of correspondence, table-talk, and other more personal revelations. Especially interesting is Tavuzzi's work on the conventual-observant division within the Dominican order around 1500 and his account of the itinerary of education of the friars in the late fifteenth century. Many will be surprised at the extent of contemporary polemics by Dominican Thomists against the thought of Tommaso de Vio, Cardinal Cajetan. Also, whereas Prierias's death is commonly dated in 1523, we find a good case for him living into mid-1527 and dying amid the violence of the Sack of Rome. For the works of Prierias, concise accounts of their contents are given, e.g., the early Compendium dialecticae and its Apologia, vernacular booklets of lay spirituality, writings on witchcraft and sorcery, and the fateful De potestate papae dialogus (1518), in which Prierias subjected Luther's Ninety-Five Theses to rigorous testing of their orthodoxy. Many readers will turn immediately to Tavuzzi's account of Prierias's censorious writings against Luther in 1518-1519. They should also read the following section, that argues for Prierias's, not Cajetan's, authorship of a forthright Consilium on reform of the Church, prepared for Pope Adrian VI in 1522. Prierias's anti-Luther works are now given in Dokumente zur Causa Lutheri, edited by Peter Fabish and Erwin Iserloh, in a Corpus Catholicorum volume of 1988. Tavuzzi has worked out Prierias's thought-processes in interpreting Luther, and shows how his hermeneutic was dominated by an anticonciliarist ecclesiology, accentuating papal plenitude of juridical and magisterial authority, which was already expounded by St. Antoninus of Florence, Juan de Torquemada, and Prierias himself in his Summa Silvestrina (1514-15). In the Dialogus, this ecclesiology served as norm for Pope Leo X's decision to open canonical proceedings against Luther as suspect of heresy Prierias was completely forthright in setting out the criteria he applied to Luther's theses, in the well-known four fundamenta, placed at the head of the book in the Dialogus, on the universal normativity of papal teaching and Roman church order. …