Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/760

 THOMAS

694

THOMAS

d. 15 May, 1272. At the age of five his education be- gan at LiSge, where he spent eleven years mastering the difficulties of the trivium and quadrivium. At the age of sixteen he received the habit of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine in the Abbey of Cantimpr^, where he was eventually elevated to the priesthood. In 1232, after fifteen years at Cantimpre, during which he was a constant source of edification to his religious brethren, he entered the Order of St. Dom- inic at Louvain. Immediatelj' after his profession in the following year, he was sent to Cologne to pursue the higher theological studies of the order, under the tutelage of the illustrious Albert the Great. From Cologne, where he spent four years, he went to Paris, to the Dominican studium of St. James, to perfect him- self in the sciences and to prepare for the apostolate of preaching. Returning to Louvain in 1240, he was made professor of philosophy and theology — an office he filled with rare distinction. He achieved equal success in the apostolate of preaching, in recognition of which the title of "Preacher General" was con- ferred upon him. His missionary activities extended throughout Brabant and into Germany, Belgium, and France. To his reputation for missionary zeal and eloquence he addetl the fame of authorship. In aD, seven works, treating of philosophj', theology, and hagiology, are attributed to his pen. His first and most important work is entitled "Opus de natura rerum". In the composition of this gi-eat work, which contains twenty books, he spent fifteen j'ears. "Bonum universale de apibus" is an allegory in which, employing the figure of bees, he treats of pre- cepts concerning conduct and of the duties of su- periors and subjects. This work, which had a wide vogue among spiritual writers for many centuries, was printed at Deventer (before 147S), at Paris, and three times at Douai (1597, 1605, 1627). His other works treat of hagiology and are as follows: (1) "Vita Chris- tinas virginis mirabihs dictae"; (2) "Vita B. Mar- garitae Iprensis " ; (3) "VitaPiae Lutgardia"; (4) "Vita Joannis abbatis primi monasterii Cantimpratensis et ejus Ecclesiffi undatoris"; (5) "Supplementum ad vitam B. Mariae d'Oignies a B.M. Jacobo de Vi- triaco".

Qu^TiF-EcHAHD, Scriptores ordinis prmdicatorum, I, 250; Ann&e Dominic, V (1891), 433; Auger, Mystiques Pays-Bas moy. 6ge (1892), 135: Hist. till. France, XIX (1838), 177; Tuhon, Horn, ill. Domin., I (1743), 177.

John B. O'Connor.

Thomas of Celano, Fri;u' Minor, poet, and hagio- graphical WTiter, b. at Celano in the Province of the Abruzzi, about 1200; d. about 12.55. He was one of the first disciples of St. Francis of Assisi and joined the order probably in 1215. In 1221 Thomas accompanied Ca;sar of Speyer on his mission to Germany. The fol- lowing year he became cuslos of the convents at Mayence, Worms, Speyer, and Cologne, and soon after Caesar of Speyer, on his return to Italy, made him his vicar in the government of the German prov- ince. Before September, 1223, Thomas returned to Italy, and lived there in familiar intercourse with St. Francis. Soon after the canonization of St. Francis (16 July, 1228) he wrote his "Vita prima", or "First Life" of St. Francis of Assisi, by order of Gregory IX. Between 1244 and 1247, he compiled his "Vita se- cunda", or ".Second Life" of St. Francis, which is in the nature of a supplement to the first one, by com- mission of Crescentius of Jessi, then minister general of the order. About ten years later Thomas WTote a treatise on the miracles of St. Francis at the bidding of Blessed .lohn of Parma, the successor of Crescen- tius as minister general. In addition to these works, around which a large controversial literature has grown up in recent years, Thomas of Celano WTote two beautiful sequences in honour of St. Francis: "Fregit victor virtualis" and "Sanctitatis nova .signa", and, in all probability, he is also the author of the "Dies

Irae" and of the "Life of St. Clare of Assisi", written between 1255 and 1261 (cf. Robinson, "Life of St. Clare", Introduction, pp. xxii sq.). The best critical edition of the works of Thomas of Celano is that of Pere Edouard d'Alengon.

Howell, The Lives of St. Francis of Assisi, by Brother Thomas of Celano, I (London, 1908), 24; Robinson, Life of St. Clare, as- cribed to Thomas of Celano (Philadelphia, 1910), 22 sq.; Idem. .4 Short Introduction to Franciscan Literature (New York, 1907), 7-9; Dubois. Thomas of Celano, the Historian of St. Francis, in Cath. Unic. Bulletin. XIII, no. 2 (.\pril, 1907), 230;-268; D'Alencon, S. Frajtcisci .issisiensis: vita et miracula, odditis opusculis liturgicis, auctore Fr. Thoma de Celano, IX (Rome. 1906), 22; Bablati, Tommaso da Celano e le sue opere tCasalbordino, 1894); Analecta Boll., XVIII, 81-176; Wadding, Script. Min., 323; Sbaralea. Supplem. ad script, min., 672-74.

Ferdinand Heckm.^^nn.

Thomas of Dover, mart>T; d. 2 or 5 Aug., 1295. On the above date the French ravaged Dover with fire and sword, and eventually attacked the Benedictine priory of St. Martin. All the inmates fled, with the exception of one, an old and infirm monk named Thomas Hales or de Halys, whom the sailors found in the dormitory, and slew for refusing to disclose the place where the treasures of the church were hidden. Numerous miracles [for which see Horstniann, " Xova legenda Angliae " (Oxford, 1901), and Bishop Chal- loner's work cited below] are recorded by John of Tynemouth as having been wrought through his relics. Friar Simon Simeon, in the narrative of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land about 1322, bears wit- ness to the honour paid to him as a martyr at "the Black Monks under Dover Castle" ("Itin. Sim. Sim- eon. etWill.de Wore", ed. Nasmith, Cambridge, 1778, p. 7). Richard II at the instance of his mother re- quested the pope to canonize Thomas; but though an enquiry was set on foot in 1382 nothing further seems to have been done. He was, however, popularly re- garded in the neighbourhood as a saint. In 1500 Thomas Rich, Vicar of Buckland, near Dover, left eightpence for the altar of Blessed Thomas de Halys at Dover Prion,-. His own church contained a chapel of St. Thomas, which may possibly have been dedi- cated to Thomas of Dover. He is very generally given the title of saint, and it is remarkable that he is represented (fig. 26) in the copper-plate reproduction of the pictures formerly at the English College, Rome, which resulted in the equivalent beatification of sixtj-- three martyrs mentioned by name therein (see Eng- lish Confessors and Martyrs). On neither day is he mentioned in the "Acta Sanctorum".

Supplement to Stanton, Menology of England and Wales (London, 1892), 665; Challoner, Britannia sancta, II (London, 1745). 72; HussEY, Testamenta Cantiana,: East Keni (London, 1907), X, 391, 104.

John B. Wainewright.

Thomas of Hereford (Thomas de Cantelupe), Saint, b. at Hambledon, Buckinghamshire, England, about 1218; d. at Orvieto, Italy, 25 August, 12S2. He was the son of William de Cantelupe and Millicent de Gournay, and thus a member of an illustiious and in- fluential family. He was educated under the care of his uncle, Walter de Cantelupe, Bishop of Worcester, first at Ox-ford then at Paris. During his studies he attended the Council of Lyons in 1245, when he be- came a papal chaplain. Returning to Oxford, he taught canon law, and in 1262 was elected chancellor of the university. In the Barons' Wars he took the popular side and stated the Barons' case before St. Louis .at .\miens, 1263. .\fter the defeat of Henry III at the battle of Lewes he was made Chancellor of England (22 Feb., 12t)5), gaining wide renown for his judicial wisdom and fairness. Deprived of the chan- cellorship on the death of Simon de Montfort, he went into exile, lecturing at Paris on theology and Scripture (126.5-72). He then resumed teaching at Oxford till 1274 when he attended the second Council of Lyons. He held several benefices which he ad- ministered most zealously, apjiointing responsible