Thomas Cajetan

For the saint, seeSaint Cajetan.

The Reverend Thomas de Vio Cajetan OP
Martin Lutherin front of Cardinal Cajetan byFerdinand Pauwels
Born	(1469-02-20)20 February 1469 Gaeta,Kingdom of Naples
Died	9 August 1534(1534-08-09)(aged 65) Rome,Papal States
Alma mater	University of Padua
Notable work	Summula Caietani.
Era	Medieval philosophy
Region	Western philosophy Italian philosophy
School	Thomism
Main interests	Metaphysics Theology Analogy

Thomas Cajetan,OP(/ˈkædʒətən/;20 February 1469 – 9 August 1534), also known asGaetanus,commonlyTommaso de VioorThomas de Vio,was anItalianphilosopher, theologian, theMaster of the Order of Preachers1508 to 1518, andcardinalfrom 1517 until his death. He was a leading theologian of his day who is now best known as the spokesman forCatholicopposition to the teachings ofMartin Lutherand theProtestant Reformationwhile he was the Pope'slegateinAugsburg,and among Catholics for his extensive commentary on theSumma TheologicaofThomas Aquinas.

He is not to be confused with his contemporarySaint Cajetan,the founder of theTheatines.

Life

He was born inGaeta,then part of theKingdom of Naples,asJacopo Vio.The name Tommaso was taken as his religious as a friar, while the surname Cajetan derives from his native city. At the age of fifteen, he entered theDominican orderand devoted himself to the study of thephilosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas,becoming before the age of thirty a doctor oftheologyatPadua,and subsequently professor ofmetaphysics.A public disputation atFerrara(1494) withPico della Mirandolamade his reputation as atheologian.

He became general procurator in 1507 andgeneralof the Dominicans a year later in 1508.

In 1511 a group of dissident cardinals called theConciliabulum of Pisa(1511–1512) againstPope Julius II,who had ignored the electoral capitulations he had accepted before being elected. Cajetan displayed vigorous support for the papacy in a series of publications. These were condemned by theSorbonneand publicly burnt by order ofKing Louis XII.

At theFifth Lateran Council(1512–17) which PopeJulius IIset up in opposition to that of Pisa, De Vio played the leading role. During the second session of the council, in which he gave the opening oration, he obtained the approval of a decree recognizing the superiority of papal authority to that of councils.

Cajetan composed in defence of his position theTractatus de Comparatione auctoritatis Papæ et conciliorum ad invicem.Jacques Almainanswered this work, and Cajetan replied in hisApologia.Cajetan refused to accept Almain's argument that the Church's polity had to be similar to a lay regime, complete with limits on the ruler.

For his support ofpapalrights, Cajetan was madeBishop of Gaeta,and in 1517 would be made acardinalandarchbishop of PalermobyPope Leo X.

In 1517,Leo Xmade himcardinal presbyterofSan SistoinRomefor his services. In the following year, he becameArchbishop of Palermo.He resigned Palermo in 1519 to becomeBishop of Gaeta,as granted him by theEmperor Charles Vfor whose election De Vio had laboured zealously.

The meeting of Cajetan andMartin Luther

In 1518, Cajetan was sent as legate to theDiet of Augsburgand at the behest of theFrederick III, Elector of Saxonywas entrusted with examining the teachings ofMartin Luther.According toHilaire Belloc,"[Luther] had not been treated roughly by his opponents, the roughness had been on his side. But things had gone against him, and he had been made to look foolish; he had been cross-examined into denying, for instance, the authority of a General Council — which authority was the trump card to play against the Papacy."

In 1519, Cajetan helped in drawing up the bill of excommunication against Luther.

Having proved to be an able diplomat and administrator, Cajetan was employed in several other negotiations and transactions. In conjunction with Cardinal Giulio de' Medici in theconclave of 1521–1522,he secured the election of Adrian Boeyens, thenBishop of Tortosa,asPope Adrian VI.He retained influence underPope Clement VII,suffered a short term of imprisonment after the storming of Rome by theConstable of Bourbonand byFrundsberg(1527), retired to his diocese for a few years, and, returning to Rome in 1530, assumed his old position of influence with Pope Clement, on whose behalf he drafted the decision rejecting the petition made byHenry VIII of Englandfor the annulment of his marriage toCatharine of Aragon.Appointed by Clement VII to the commission of cardinals assigned to report on the "Nuremberg Recess", De Vio, in opposition to the majority, recommended certain concessions to the Lutherans, notably the marriage of the clergy as in theGreek Churchand communion in both kinds according to the decision of theCouncil of Basel.

Cajetan died inRomein 1534.

Views

Opuscula omnia,1596

Religion and Philosophy

As a philosopher and logician, Cajetan defended the idea ofanalogy.

Though as a theologian Cajetan was a scholastic of the olderThomisttype, his general position was that of the moderate reformers of the school to whichReginald Pole,laterarchbishop of Canterbury,also belonged; i.e., he desired to retain the best elements of the humanist revival in harmony withCatholicorthodoxy illumined by a revived appreciation of the Augustinian doctrine of justification.In the field ofThomisticphilosophy, he showed striking independence of judgment, expressing liberal views on marriage and divorce, denying the existence of a materialHelland advocating the celebration of public prayers in the vernacular.

Some Dominicans regarded his views as too independent of those of Saint Thomas. TheSorbonneinParisfound some of these views heterodox, and in the 1570 edition of his celebrated commentary onAquinas'Summa,the objectionable passages were expunged.In this spirit, he wrote commentaries upon portions ofAristotleand upon theSummaofAquinas,and towards the end of his life made a careful translation of theOldandNewTestaments, exceptingSolomon's Song,theProphetsand theRevelation of St John.Cajetan also wrote opinions on subjects of practical importance, such as the disposition of plundered goods whose ownership could not be determined.

Of theReformationhe remained a steadfast opponent, composing several works directed againstMartin Luther,and taking an important part in shaping the policy of the papal delegates in Germany. Learned though he was in thescholastics,he recognized that to fight the reformers he would need a deeper knowledge of the Scriptures than he possessed. To this study he devoted himself with characteristic zeal, wrote commentaries on the greater part of the Old and the New Testament, and in the exposition of his text, which he treated critically, allowed himself considerable latitude in departing from literal and traditional interpretations.

Cajetan was a man of austerepietyand fervent zeal. And from the standpoint of the Dominican idea of the supreme necessity of maintaining ecclesiastical discipline, he defended the rights of the papacy and proclaimed that the pope should be "the mirror of God on earth."

Views on papal authority

Against the Council of Pisa's advocacy ofconciliarism,which placed the authority of a general council above the pope's authority, Cajetan responded that a general council could only judge a pope if the pope had become a heretic. In the case of a wicked but non-heretical pope, Cajetan insisted that resistance is sufficient to reduce abuses, while deposition is inadmissible as a council convened without a pope would be "headless" (using the scriptural analogy of the relationship between sheep and their shepherd). In the case of heresy, however, Cajetan wrote that an exceptional general council could be convened to grant the reigning pope a fair hearing, and if he was judged to be in heresy, the council could act to sever the bond between the man holding the papacy and the office itself.However, he denied that this action constituted the council acting over the pope, which he regarded as theologically impossible. Rather, he considered that such an action merely indicated that the council could undo the election of that particular man to the office of the pope (since the election was also performed by human beings).Cajetan, building on similar discussions fromJohn of ParisandAugustinus Triumphusregarding the removal of heretical popes, interpreted Titus 3:10 as saying that a heretical pope should be deposed after two admonitions.

Economic thoughts

In light of the contemporary economic development, Cajetan cogitated a lot about the morality of trade. More conservative than the futureSchool of Salamanca,his reflections were nonetheless quite modern with utilisation of practical consideration outside of pure theorical thinking and some relevant ideas, like the formulation of theliquidity preference.

However his views onusurywere still conservative, as showed by his condemnation ofmounts of piety(that he tried unsuccessfully to ban during theFifth Council of the Lateran),his disapproval ofusuryor his prohibition ofcontractum trinius.

Modern assessment

On Aquinas

In the mid-twentieth century, Cajetan's thought came to be assessed negatively by certain Catholic commentators who, in reacting againstneo-Thomistthought, portrayed Cajetan as the first person to make mistaken interpretations of the thought ofThomas Aquinas.

Fergus Kerrwrote a 2002 book,After Aquinas,attacking Cajetan on this. Among others, he citedÉtienne Gilson,who was responding to arguments that 'philosophy' and 'Christianity' were incompatible disciplines, there existed in Hellenistic Judaism, patristic thought and the medieval period a way of thinking, animated by the ancient Greek quest for the cause of being, which could rightly be called 'Christian philosophy'. In Gilson's account, it was in Cajetan's thought that this link was first broken, since Cajetan, influenced byScotism,reducedThomas Aquinas's metaphysics of the existential act of being to an ontology of substance. Cajetan and his successors therefore, in Gilson's account, represented Thomas as focused on the forms and essences of beings only, and not on the existence of all things as participation in the pure actuality which is God. Accordingly, for Gilson, 'philosophy' and 'Christianity' are only incompatible if Christian thought is understood in its tradition post-Cajetan—a tradition which is worse than the older, more distinguished tradition of Christian thought.Henri de Lubacwrote inSurnaturel(1946), an account of Aquinas’ views on the natural and the supernatural, that Cajetan's interpretation of Aquinas, while influential, was incorrect. De Lubac argued that Cajetan treated Aquinas as an Aristotelian, working with a definition of nature from Aristotle'sPhysics,which effectively turned human nature into a reality essentially closed in on itself, with its own intrinsic powers, desires and goals. De Lubac did not think Aquinas was an Aristolean, and that subsequent Catholic thought produced mistaken readings of Thomas Aquinas's account of the relationship between nature and grace.

In 2006,Ralph McInernyand other scholars challenged the negative assessment of Cajetan's work made by De Lubac and Gilson. McInerny writes that the criticisms of Cajetan are not in fact supported by evidence from his works, and furthermore that it is not Cajetan but Gilson whose interpretation of Aquinas is a departure from the latter's beliefs.

Other

Bruce Metzgerwrote that Cajetan's biblical commentaries were surprisingly "modern", anticipatingbiblical textual criticism.Notably, Cajetan revived earlier Christian doubts as to the apostolic authorship of the Epistles of James, Jude, 2 John, and 3 John, as well as opposing Paulineauthorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Works

Summula Caietani,1530

• Opera omnia(5 vols., 1639)
• Opuscula omnia(1530)
• Summula Caietani(in Latin). Paris: Claude Chevallon. 1530.
• Commentary on Saint Thomas' Summa theologiae(1540)
• De divina institutione Pontificatus Romani Pontificis(1521)
• In Porphyrii Isagogen(1934)
• De comparatione auctoritatis papaeandApologia(1936)
• De Anima(1938)
• Scripta philosophica(6 vols., edited by P. Zammit, M.-H. Laurent and J. Coquelle, 1934–39)

References

Sources

• "Aktenstücke uber das Verhalten der römischen Kurie zur Reformation, 1524‑1531," inQuellen und Forschungen(Kön. Press.Hist. Inst., Rome), vol. iii. p. 1‑20; TM Lindsay,History of the Reformation,vol. i. (Edinburgh, 1906).
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Cajetan, Cardinal".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 961.
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Tommaso de Vio Gaetani Cajetan".Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Conciliarism and Papalism,trans. J. H. Burns and Thomas M. Izbicki, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
• Decock, Wim (2020). "Thomas Cajetan (1469-1534)". In O. Condorelli; R. Domingo (eds.).Law and the Christian Tradition in Italy.Londres: Routledge. pp. 230–244.

External links

• De Vio, Tommaso (1596).Opuscula omnia(in Latin).Lucantonio Giunta,Francesco senese De Franceschi.

• De Vio, Tommaso (1513).Apologia de comparata auctoritate pape et ecclesie(in Latin).

• De Vio, Tommaso (1512).Oratio in secunda sessione Concilii Lateranensis(in Latin). Johann Beplin.

• De Vio, Tommaso (1511).Auctoritas Pape et Concilii siue Ecclesie comparata(in Latin). Marcello Silber.
• Works by Thomas CajetanatPost-Reformation Digital Library