Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/398

 VENTURING

344

VERA CRUZ

Ventura de Rauuca From a contemporary portrait

etc.", Palermo, 184S; "Menzogne diplomatiche", etc.). His ideal was an Italian Confederation under the presidency of the pope. During the exile of Pius IX at Gaeta, Ventura's position in Rome was a deli- cate and compromising one. Though refusing a seat in the Roman Assembly, he advocated the separation of the ecclesiastical and temporal powers, and in the name of the Sicil- ians recognized the Roman Repubhc. As Commissioner from Sicily, he was present at an un- seemly politico- religious ceremony in St. Peter's, but took no active part in the services. He opposed French in- tervention in behalf of the pope and, when Oudinot at- tacked Rome, spoke of Pius IX in words which he bitterly regretted. On the downfall of the Triumvirs (1849), he went to Montpellier and then to Paris (1851). Here he made an ineffectual attempt to convert his former friend de Lamennais. His Conferences at the "Madeleine" etc. were pubhshed as "La raison philosophique et la raison catholique" (1852-). In 1857 he gave the Lenten Sermons at the Tuileries before Napoleon III; these appeared as "Le pouvoir pohtique chretien". Ventura's philo- sophical views received final expression in "La tra- dizione e semi-pelagiani della philosophia", "Saggio suir origine dell' idee", "Philosophic chretienne" (Paris, 1861). He is a moderate TraditionaUst of the Bonald-Bonnetty School. Ventura's private life was irreproachable. In spite of some blunders, he re- mained a loyal Catholic and died an edifying death. His works were pubhshed as: "Opere Complete" (31 vols., Milan, 1854-64); "Opere Postume", (Venice, 1863).

CuLTRERA, Delta vita e delle opere del Rev. P. D. Giocchino Ventura (Palermo, 1877); Mostazio, Gioacchino Ventura (Turin, 1862): Rastoul, Le P. Ventura (Paris, 1906); Brown- son, Works (Detroit, 1904), III, 180; X, 69, 78, 263; XII, 423; XIV, 526; XVI, 139; Dudon, Lettres inidites de Lamennais a Ventura (1826-33), in Etudes. CXXII, 602; CXXIII, 239. 621; Etudes, VIII, 156: XII, 650: Hurter, Nomenclalor Litternrius, III (Innsbruck, 1895). 1005; Darras-Fevre, Histoire de VEglise, XLII (Paris, 1884-97), 419-31; Laurentie, Melanges (Paris, 1805): DE R^MUSAT, Le P. Ventura et la Philosophie in Revue des Deux Mondes (Feb., 1853): Rerue du Monde Calholigue (Feb., 1874). For Ventura's philosophy cf. Bonald, Loris Jacques Maurice de; Bonnetty. Augustin; Urhaburu, Institutiones Pkilosophicet CRotne, 1896); Kleutgen, Theologie der Vorzeit, I (InMbruck, 1873), 361.

John C. Reville.

Venturino of Bergamo, preacher, b. at Ber- gamo, 9 April, 1304; d. at Smyrna, 28 March, 1346. He received the habit of the Order of Friars Preachers at the convent ot St. Stephen, Bergamo, 22 January, 1319. From 1328 to 1335 he won fame preaching in all the cities of upper Italy. In February, 1335, he planned to make a penitential pilgrimage to Rome with about thirty thousand of his converts. His pur- po.se was misunderstood, and Benedict XII, then re- siding at Avignon, thought that Venturino wished to make himself pope. He wrote letters to Giovanni Pagnotti, Bishop of Anagni, his spiritual vicar, to the Canons of St. Peter's and St. John Lateran's, and to the Roman senators empowering them to stop the pilgrimage. This complaint to the Dominican Master

General resulted in an ordinance of the Chapter of London (1335) condemning such pilgrimages. The pope's letters and commands, however, did not reach Venturino, and he arrived in Rome, 21 March, 1335. Hewaswell received, and preached in various churches. Twelve days later he left Rome, without explanation, and the pilgrimage ended in disorder. In June, he requested an audience with Benedict XII at Avignon; he was seized and cast into prison (1335-43). He was restored to favour by Clement VI, who appointed him to preach a crusade against the Turks, 4 January, 1344; his success was remarkable. He urged the pope to appoint Humbert II of Dauphine, whose friend and spiritual adviser he had been, leader of the crusade, but Humbert proved incapable and the crusade came to naught. Venturino's writings consist of sermons (now lost) and letters.

Quetif-Echard, Scriptores Ordinis Prmdicatorum, I (Paris, 1719), 620; Leander, De viris illuslribus Ord. Prxd., V; MoR- tier, Histoire des Mattres Generaux de I'Ordre des Freres Pr., Ill (Paris, 1907), passim; Clementi, // beato Venturino da Bergamo (Rome, 1904).

A. C. O'Neil.

Venusti (Venosta), Raff.\ele, b. at Tirano, Valtellina, northern Italy, about the end of the fifteenth century; d. at Venice, in 1543; he joined the Canons Regular of SS. Salvatore, devoting himself to theological and canonical studies, and winning fame as a powerful Catholic controversiahst against the Lutherans and Calvinists. When the discussion concerning the divorce of Henry VIII of England arose, Venusti was invited both by the king and by the Emperor Charles V, the protector of Catherine of Aragon, to wTite an expression of his views on the question. His polemical and apologetic works were printed in 1543; they treat of the truth of the Catholic doctrine as opposed to Protestantism, especially of the notes of the true Church, free will, the councils, etc. These wTitings have a special historical value as representing the first phase of anti-Lutheran, anti- Calvinistic Cathohc polemics, a phase which gave way later to the WTitings of Catholic theologians like Mel- chior Cano and the early Jesuit theologians. This class to which Venusti belonged is, in theology, parallel to the group of Cathohc apologists in the field of history, who were predecessors of Baronius in his controversies with the Centuriators of Magde- burg.

Nuovo dizionario istorico (Bassano, 1796); see also the works relating to the order of the Canons Regular of SS. Salvatore.

U. Benigni.

Vera Cruz, Diocese of (Verje Crucis or Jala- PENsis), a Diocese of the ^Iexican Republic, suffra- gan of the Archbishopric of Mexico. Its area covers all the State of Vera Cruz with the exception of one or two parishes in the northern part which belong to Tamaulipas, one in the western part which belongs to the Diocese of Tulancingo and a few others in the southern part which are a part of the Bishopric of Tehuantepec. Its population amounts to 1,124,368. The capital of the State, which is the residence of the bishop, is Jalapa, 4335 feet above the level of the sea, and has a population of 24,816 inhabitants. (Cen- sus of 1910.) When Hernando 'Cortes landed at what is now the seaport of Vera Cruz on 22 April, 1519 (Good Friday, whence the town obtained its name) he Wits accomi)anied by Father Fray BiVtolome de Olmedo, who was intrusted with the spiritual direc- tion of the new colony founded by this audacious lender. With them was the licenci.ado, Juan Diaz, and the deacon, Geronimo Aguilar, who, having been ket)t a pri.soner by the Indians for a few years, knew their language and acted as interpreter for the expe- dition. From a letter WTitten by Hernando Cortes to the Emperor Charles V, it is known that on 15 Oct., 1524, there were parishes, with their rectors, sex- tons, and ornaments, in Vera Cruz.

During the first century of the existence of the