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 CAJETAN

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CAJETAN

can Order before the age of sixteen. As a student at Naples, Bologna, and Padua he was the wonder of his fellow-students and preceptors. As bachelor of theology (19 March, 1492), and afterwards master of students, he began to attract attention by his lectures and writings. Promoted to the chair of metaphysics at the University of Padua, he made a close study of the prevailing Humanism and Philosophism. Be- sides engaging in controversy with the Scotist Trom- betta, he took a stand against the Averroistic tenden- cies or teachings of such men as Vemias, Pompanazzi, and Niphus, directing against them his celebrated work. "De Ente et Essentia", counted the most subtle and abstruse of his productions. At a general chapter of the order (Ferrara, 1494) C'ajetan was selected to conduct the customary defence of theses in presence of the assembled dignitaries. He had to face Pico della Mirandola among others, and such was his success that the students bore him in triumph on their shoulders to receive the felicitations of the master general. He was immediately made master of sacred theology, and for several years expounded the "Summa" of St. Thomas, principally at Brescia and Pavia, to which latter chair he had been called by the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza. After two years he resigned and repaired to Milan, whence in 1500 Cardinal Oliviero C'araffa procured his transfer to Rome. In 1501 he was made procurator general of his order and appointed to the chairs of philosophy and exegesis at the Sapienza. On the death of the master general, John Cleree, in 1507, C'ajetan was named vicar-general of the order, and the next year he was elected to the generalship. With foresight and ability, he devoted his energies to- the promotion of religious discipline, emphasizing the study of sacred science as the chief means of attaining the end of the order. His encyclical letters and the acts of chapters promulgated during his term of office bear witness to his lofty ideals and to his unceasing efforts to realize them. He was wont to say that he could hardly ex- cuse from grievous sin a brother Dominican who failed to devote at least four hours a day to study. "Let others rejoice in their prerogatives", he once wrote, " but the work of our Order is at an end unless sacred doctrine be our commendation." He was himself a model of diligence, and it was said of him thai lie could quote almost the entire "Summa " from memory. About the fourth year of his generalship Cajetan rendered important service to the Holy See by appearing before the Pseudo-Council of Pisa (1511 ). where he denounced the disobedience of the i ini icipating cardinals and bishops and overwhelmed them with his arguments. This was the occasion of his defence of the power and monarchical supremacy of the pope. It is chiefly to his endeavours that is ascribed the failure of this schismatical movement, abetted by Louis XII of France. He was one of the first to counsel Pope Julius II to convoke a real oecu- menical council, i.e. the Fifth Lateran. In this coun- cil Cajetan was deputed by the principal religious orders to defend their common interests. Under the same pent ill he was instrumental in granting to Ferdi- nand of Spain the first Dominican missionaries who devoted organized effort to the conversion of the Mat IVeS <>f America.

On 1 July, 1517, Cajetan was created cardinal by Pope Leo X. lie was also appointed Archbishop of Palermo, but opposition oil the part of the Sicilian senate prevented his taking possession and he re- signed 8 Feb., 1518. On the demand ol Charles V, however, he was later made Bishop of ( laeta, but t his

was after he had been sent in lols as \postolic le- gate to Germany, bringing the insignia of the cardi- nalati to Ubert of Brandenburg, and a. sword blessed by the pope to Emperor Maximilian. ( >n this oc- casion he was empowered to confer with the latter and with the King of Denmark on the terms of an

alliance against the Turks. He also represented the pope at the Diet of Frankfort (1519), and took an active part in the election of Charles V (1519), thereby winning that emperor's friendship and gratitude. While executing these missions, the more serious duty of meeting Luther, then started on his career of re- bellion, was assigned to him. Cajetan's theological learning and humane disposition seemed to fit him for the task of successfully treating with the proud and obstinate monk, and Protestants have admitted that in all his relations with the latter C'ajetan exhibited a spirit of moderation, that did honour to his lofty char- acter. But neither pleading, learning, nor concilia- tory words availed to secure the desired submission. Luther parleyed and temporized as he had done with the Holy See itself, and finally showed the insincerity of his earlier protestations by spurning the pope and his representative alike. Some have blamed C'ajetan for his failure to avert Luther's defection, but others like Hefele and Hergenrother exonerate him. In 1523 he was sent by Adrian VI as legate to King Louis of Hungary to encourage the Christians in their re- sistance to the Turks. Recalled in the following year by Clement VII, he became one of the pope's chief advisers. During the sack of Rome by the imperialist army (1527) C'ajetan, like other principal persons, was seized, and obtained the release of himself and house- hold only on payment of five thousand Roman crowns of gold, a sum which he had to borrow and which he later made up by the strictest economy in the affairs of his diocese. He was one of the nineteen cardinals who, in a solemn consistory held by Clement VII (23 March, 1534), pronounced definitively for the validity of the marriage of Henry VIII and Catharine of Aragon. This was about the last public act of his life, for he died the same year and was buried, as he had requested, in an humble tomb in the vestibule of the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. It was the common opinion of his contemporaries that had he lived, he would have succeeded Clement VII on the papal throne. Much interest attaches to a portrait of Cajetan, the only one known, recently discovered by Pere Berthier, 6. P. in a collection of notables of the Reformation, owned by Count Krasinski of War- saw, Poland (see bibliography).

Cajetan has been described as small in bodily stat- ure but gigantic in intellect. In all his varied and laborious offices he never omitted his daily study and writing, nor failed in the practices of the religious life. He faced the trying issues of his times calmly and fearlessly, and endeavoured by learning, tact, and charity to pacify hostile minds, to lead back the err- ing, to stem the 'tide of heresy, and to prevent schism. His written solutions of living moral problems cover a wide field. His circumstances and position often required him to take part in polemical discussion-, yet he is said never to have given personal offence in his writing:- His st vie purjjy scisntifi: ind unrho- torical, is the more noteworthy for having attained its directness and simplicity in the golden age of Human- ism. More than any other philosopher and theolo- gian of his epoch, he' ministered to actual intellectual needs of the Church. With penetrat ion and sagacity he ranged beyond the confines of contemporary thought, and in his tentative solutions of grave prob- lems, still open and unsettled, displayed judgment and frankness. It is not strange that lie developed tendencies which surprised the more conservative, and essaved opinions which in some instances were, and have remained, unusual and occasionally errone- ous. He found numerous critics, even in Ins own order, who were as censorious of him as his fi were zealous in upholding his merits. Among his opponents, the learned Dominican Bartholomew Spina (d. 1542) was conspicuous. His persistent antagonism began, strangely enough, after he had written a laudatory preface to Cajetan's commentary