Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/722

 THOMAS

660

THOMAS

torum, ffiditum per virum cruditum, sacrarum liter- arum professorem Edoardum Poelum adversus Mar- tinuta Lutherum fratrem famosum et Wiclifistan in- signetn", London, 1523, three books in the form of a dialogue between Powell and Luther). The Uni- versity of Oxford commended this work, and styled Powell "the glory of the university" in a letter to the king. PoweU was one of the four theologians se- lected to defend the legality of the marriage of Cath- arine of Aragon, in connexion with which he wrote the very rare ' ' Tractatus de non dissolvendo Henrici Re- gis cum Catherina matrimonio" (London).

In March, 1.533, Powell was selected to answer Lati- mer at Bristol, and was alleged to have disparaged his moral character. Latimer complained to Crom- w^ell, and Powell fell into further disfavour by de- nouncing Henry's marriage with Anne Boleyn. He was discharged from the proctorship of Salisbury in Jan., 1.534, and in November he was attainted, to- gether with Blessed John Fisher, for high treason in refusing to take the oath of succession, deprived of his benefices, and imprisoned in the Tower of London. His confinement was very rigorous: the keeper him- self was sent to the Marshalsea Prison for allowing Powell and Abel out on bail. The sentence was not carried out until 30 July, 1540. Three Catholics (Powell, Abel, and Richard Featherstone) and three Protestants suffered together. The victims were dragged on hurdles from the Tower to Smithfield, a Catholic and a Protestant on each hurdle. Powell's companion was Robert Barnes, the Protestant divine. A dialogue in verse was published shortly after, "The metynge of Doctor Barnes and Dr. Powell at Paradise Gate and of theyre commuuicacion bothe drawen to Smithfylde fro the Towar" (London, 1,540), in the British Museum. The Catholics were hanged, drawn, and quartered as traitors; the others were burned as heretics.

Churto.v, Lives of the Founders of Brasenose, 118, 181, 245, 363.

C. F. Wemyss Brown.

Thomas a Jesu (Diaz Sanchez de Avila), Dis- calced Carmelite, writer on mystical theology, b. at Bffiza, Andalusia, 1.564; d. in Rome, 24 (or 27) May, 1627. Son of Don Baltasar de Avila and Doiia Teresa de Herrera, he took degrees in the humanities at an unusually early age, applied himself afterwards to the study of Divinity, and in 1583 to that of law at the university of Salamanca. Having heard one of the professors extol the writings of St. Teresa (as yet un- published) he procured a copy, the study of which re- sulted in a determination to embrace her manner of life. He took the habit at Valladolid, April, 1586, and made his profession in the following year. As a novice he was commissioned to WTite a ceremonial ac- cording to the Roman Rite lately introduced into the order, which remained in fon^e until the last century. He filled the posts of reader of Divinity at Seville, prior at Saragossa, and provincial of Old Castile. At the expiration of his term of office he withdrew to the Desert of Las Batuecas situated in a mountain gorge of difficult access near Alberca. Later he became prior of this convent. He himself had been the orig- inator of this peculiar kind of life. The Carmehte Rule was written for hermits, but the strictly eremiti- cal life, at least on a large scale, being incompatible with the exigencies of modern times, he devised a compromise by restricting the number of such con- vents to one for each province, and limiting that of the religious to four jiermanent ones, and volunteers from other houses who were to reside there only one year at the time. He establishe<l the tirst Desert at Bohirque (New Castile) in 1502, Las Batuec.is (Old Castile) during his provincialship, and later on a similar house in Belgium. He was called to Italy by Paul V who desired to evangelize the Congo States. Unlike the Spanish Congregation of the Order, the Italian had

decided on principle to engage in missionary work, and Thomas being noted for his zeal was selected for it. The ex-pedition, however, was frustrated, but he, with a view to furthering missionarj' enterprise, es- tablished with the pope's consent a new branch of the orderunderthetitleof Congregation of St. Paul, which was to cultivate exclusively missionarj' work (22 July, 1608). Both the Spanish and the Italian superiors resented this step on the ground that it might lead to a spht in the order; the pope withdrew his approval, and Thomas remained two years under a cloud.

He wrote his large work, "Stimulus missionum" (Rome, 1610), and soon afterwards another, "De pro- curanda salute omnium gentium" (Antwerp, 1613), in which he outlined the organization and functions of a papal congregation with such wisdom that Gregory X'C' when instituting Propaganda in 1622 followed the lines suggested by Thomas. The latter had been sent by Paul V to the Low Countries where he was favour- ably received by the archdukes, and founded convents at Brussels (1610), Louvain (1611), Cologne (1613), Douai (1613), Lille (1616), Liege (1617), Antwerp (1618), Marlagne (Desert, 1619), Louvain (mission- arv college for the East, and also for England and Holland, 1621), and Namur (1622). From 1617 he filled the post of Provincial of Flandera. While at Brussels he placed the CarmeUte Nuns who had come there from Spain and France under the jurisdiction of the Italian superiors, and assisted them in the estab- lishment of numerous convents. In 1621 he was re- called to Rome as definitor general, and died there three years later in the odour of sanctity. By order of Urban VIII his WTitings were collected in two vol- umes, and were pubUshed at Cologne in 1684, while a third volume waa never carried through the press. Besides the works already mentioned there are some on subjects connected with his order (its antiquity, Salamanca, 1599; the privileges of the confraternity, 1599, commentaries on various points of the rule, notices of prominent men, etc.). Other works deal with mystical theology, of which the principal are: "De contemplatione divina", Antwerp, 1620, and "Divinae orationis methodus", Antwerp, 1623. The small treatise " La meilleure part, ou la \ie contempla- tive", translated and edited by Berthold-Ignace de Ste Anne (Brussels, 1686), is from an unpublished work. In his mystical writings Thomas A Jesu sys- tematized St. Teresa's teaching on the basis of St. Thomas Aquinas, II-II, QQ. clx.xi-clxxv.

Not less active than Thomas d Jesu in helping to es- tablish the Propaganda was Venerable Dominic d Jesu Maria (Ruzzola), b. at Calatajud, 16 May, 1559; d. at Vienna, 16 Feb., 1630. At an early age he entered the convent of Calced Carmelites in his nati\'e town where his uncle was prior, and was sent after liis pro- fession to Saragossa and Valencia, recei\ing Holy or- ders at Tortosa. The desire of a stricter life led him to the Discalced Carmehtes at Pastrana (15S9), wlio -sent him as master of novices to Madrid, and afterw ards to Alcald for his higher studies. He a.ssisted the plague- stricken at B.ircelona, and was five years subprior at Valencia. He resigned thepriorshipof Toledo at the command of Philip III who desired his presence at Ma- drid. .\fter a short time he withdrew to the Desert of Bolarque. The papal nuncio sent him to Rome where he filled the posts of master of no\-ices and prior at the convent of La Scala. The pope entrusted him with a mission to the \'iceroy of Naples at Pa- lermo, but would not consent to his permanently ab.i^enting hini.self from Rome. In 1614 he became procurator general, and three years later general, in which capacity he undertook the canonical visitation of the northern Italian convents, and founded the De.sert of Vara/.zo near Genoa, having previously es- tablished a convent at Loano in Liguria. The strug- gle between the Catholic and Protestant powers which ultimately developed into the Thirty Ye;u-s War hav-