Matthew of Aquasparta

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Matthew of Aquasparta (born at Aquasparta in the Diocese of Todi, Umbria, about 1235; died at Rome, 29 October 1302) was an Italian Franciscan and scholastic philosopher.

[edit] Life

He was a member of the Bentivenghi family, to which Cardinal Bentivenga (d. 1290), also a Franciscan, belonged. Matthew entered the Franciscan Order at Todi, took the degree of Master of Theology at Paris, and taught also for a time at Bologna.

The Franciscan, John Peckham, having become Archbishop of Canterbury in 1279, Matteo was in 1280 made Peckham's successor as Lector sacri Patatii apostolici, i.e. he was appointed reader (teacher) of theology to the papal Curia. In 1287 the chapter held at Montpellier elected him minister general in succession to Arlotto of Prato.

When Girolamo Masci (of Ascoli), who had previously been general of the Franciscan Order, became pope as Nicholas IV, 15 February, 1288, he created Matthew cardinal of the title of San Lorenzo in Damaso in May of that year. After this Matteo was made Cardinal Bishop of Porto, and penitentiarius major (Grand Penitentiary). He still, however, retained the direction of the order until the chapter of 1289. Matthew had summoned this chapter to meet at Assisi, but Nicholas IV caused it to be held in his presence at Rieti; here Raymond Gaufredi, a native of Provence, was elected general.

As general of the order Matthew maintained a moderate, middle course; among other things he reorganized the studies pursued in the order. In the quarrel between Pope Boniface VIII and the Colonna, from 1297 onwards, he strongly supported the pope, both in official memorials and in public sermons. Boniface VIII appointed him, both in 1297 and 1300, to an important embassy to Lombardy, the Romagna, and to Florence, where the Blacks (Neri) and the Whites (Bianchi), that is, the Guelphs and Ghibellines, were violently at issue with each other.

In 1301 Matthew returned to Florence, following Charles of Valois, but neither peace nor reconciliation was brought about. The Blacks finally obtained the upper hand, and the chiefs of the Ghibelline party were obliged to go into exile; among these was the poet Dante. In a famous passage of the "Divina Commedia" (Paradiso, XII, 124-26), Dante certainly speaks as an extreme Ghibelline against Matthew of Aquasparta. Matthew, however, had died before this. He was buried in the Franciscan church of Ara Coeli, where his monument is still to be seen.

[edit] Works

Matteo was a very learned philosopher and theologian; he was further a personal pupil of St. Bonaventure, whose teaching, in general, he followed, or rather developed. In this respect he was one of what is known as the older Franciscan school, who preferred Augustinianism to the more pronounced Aristoteleanism of Thomas Aquinas.

His principal work is the acute "Quæstiones disputatæ", which treats of various subjects. Of this one book appeared at Quaracchi in 1903, namely: "Quæstiones disputatæ selectæ", in "Bibliotheca Franciscana scholastica medii ævi", I; the "Quæstiones" are preceded by a "Tractatus de excellentia S. Scripturæ" (pp. 1-22), also by a "Sermo de studio S. Scripturæ" (pp. 22-36); it is followed by "De processione Spiritus Sancti" (pp. 429-53). Five "Quæstiones de Cognitione" had already been edited in the collection called "De humanæ cognitionis ratione anecdota quædam" (Quaracchi, 1883), 87-182.

The rest of his works, still unedited are to be found at Assisi and Todi. Among them are: "Commentarius in 4 libros Sententiarum" (autograph); "Concordantiæ super 4 ll. Sententiarum"; "Postilla super librum Job"; "Postilla super Psalterium" (autograph); "In 12 Prophetas Minores"; "In Danielem"; "In Ev. Matthæi"; "In Apocalypsim" (autograph); "In Epist. ad Romanos"; "Sermones dominicales et feriales" (autograph).

[edit] References

he editions referred to of the Quæstiones disputatæ (1903), pp. v-xvi, and De Hum. Cognit., pp. xiv-xv
Chronica XXIV Ministr. General O. Min. in Analecta Franciscana, III (Quaracchi, 1897), 406-19, 699, 703
Luke Wadding, Scriptores Ord. Min. (Rome, 1650), 252, (1806), 172, (1906), 269-70
Sbaralea, Suppl. ad Script. O. M. (Rome, 1806), 525
Denifle-Chatelain, Chartular. Univ. Paris., II (Paris, 1891), 59
Ehrle in Zeitschrift für kathol. Theologie, VII (Innsbruck, 1883), 46
Grabmann, Die philosophische und theologische Erkenntnislehre des Kardinals Matth us von Aquasparta (Vienna, 1906)
Theologische Studien der Leo Gesellschaft, Pt. XIV.