Aegidius Antonini[1] of Viterbo[2] (Viterbo, 1469 - Rome, November 11/12, 1532) was an Italian Augustinian cardinal, a reforming theologian, orator, humanist and poet. He was born at Viterbo, Italy and died at Rome.
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He was born of not rich parents; his father was Lorenzo Antonini, of Canepina, near Viterbo, his mother, Maria del Testa.[3][4] He entered the Augustinian Order in June 1488. After a course of studies with the Augustinians at Viterbo, he was made doctor of theology, and in 1506 became vicar general of his order on the death of the prior, and, under the patronage of Pope Julius II, was confirmed by election as prior general at three successive Augustinian general chapters, in 1507, 1511 and 1515. Besides the bishopric of Viterbo he held several other benefices.[5]
Aegidius is famous in ecclesiastical history for the boldness and earnestness of the discourse which he delivered at the opening of the Fifth General Council, held in 1512, at the Lateran Palace).[6]
In 1517 Pope Leo X, with whom he was also on the most cordial terms, made him cardinal,[7] confided to him several sees in succession, employed him as legate on important missions, notably to Charles of Spain, soon to be Emperor. Leo gave him (in 1523) the title of Latin Patriarch of Constantinople. His zeal for the genuine reformation of ecclesiastical conditions prompted him to present to Adrian VI a Promemoria.[8] He was universally esteemed as a learned and virtuous member of the great pontifical senate and many deemed him destined to succeed Pope Clement VII.
Aegidius knew Marsilio Ficino from a visit to Florence, and he was familiar with Pico della Mirandola's interpretations of the Kabbalah, which he was to surpass in the depth of his understanding; his interest in the Talmud led him into correspondence with Johannes Reuchlin.[9]
In Jewish history he is coupled with the grammarian Elias Levita, who honed his knowledge of Hebrew and Aramaic. When the turmoil of war drove Levita from Padua to Rome, he was welcomed at the house of Aegidius, where, with his family, he lived and was supported for more than ten years. It was there that Levita's career as the foremost tutor of Christian notables in Hebrew lore commenced. The first edition of Levita's Baḥur (Rome, 1518) is dedicated to Aegidius. Aegidius introduced Levita to classical scholarship and the Greek language, thus enabling him to utilize Greek in his Hebrew lexicographic labors — a debt acknowledged by Levita, who, in 1521, dedicated his Concordance to the cardinal.
Aegidius's main motive was to penetrate the mysteries of the Cabala. Ægidius belonged to the group of sixteenth century Christian cabalists, among whom Johann Reuchlin and Pico della Mirandola also were prominent, who believed that Jewish mysticism, and particularly the Zohar, contained incontrovertible testimony to the truth of the Christian religion. In the course of Reuchlin's conflict with the obscurantists (1507–21), in which the preservation of the Jewish books was at issue, the cardinal wrote (1516) to his friend: "While we labor on thy behalf, we defend not thee, but the law; not the Talmud, but the Church."
Ægidius also engaged another Jewish scholar, Baruch di Benevento, to translate for him the Zohar (the mystic Book of Splendor). The scholar last named may also have been partly responsible for the numerous cabalistic translations and treatises which appeared under the name of Ægidius. The cardinal was a collector of Hebrew manuscripts, of which many are still to be seen at the Munich Library, bearing both faint traces of his signature and brief Latin annotations.
In the Biblioteca Angelica at Rome an old Bible manuscript is extant, which was given by Pope Leo X to Ægidius. The British Museum contains a copy of Makiri and the Midrash on the minor Prophets, written for the cardinal at Tivoli, in the year 1514, by Johanan b. Jacob Sarkuse. The study of Jewish literature led the cardinal to a friendly interest in the Jews themselves, which he manifested both in his energetic encouragement of Reuchlin in the struggle referred to above and in a vain attempt which he made in the year 1531, in conjunction with the cardinal Geronimo de Ghinucci, to prevent the issue of the papal edict authorizing the introduction of the Inquisition against the Maranos.
He was a profound student of the Scriptures and a good scholar in Greek as well as Hebrew. Giovanni Pontano dedicated to him one of his Dialoghi.
The writings commonly attributed to Ægidius are numerous. Most of them are to be found in manuscript form in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, but their authenticity is still to be established. Aside from minor works on the Hebrew language, the majority by far are of a cabalistic nature. There is scarcely a classic of Jewish medieval mysticism that he has not translated, annotated, or commented upon. Among these works may be mentioned the Zohar
Only a few of his writings have been printed in the third volume of the Collectio Novissima of Martène. When urged by Clement VII to publish his works, he is said, by the Augustinian Thomas de Herrera, to have replied that he feared to contradict famous and holy men by his exposition of Scripture. The Pope replied that human respect should not deter him; it was quite permissible to preach and write what was contrary to the opinions of others, provided one did not depart from the truth and from the common tradition of the Church.[10]
His major original work is an historical treatise: Historia viginti sæculorum per totidem psalmos conscripta. It deals in a philosophico-historical way with the history of the world before and after the birth of Christ, is valuable for the history of its own time, and offers a certain analogy with Bossuet's famous Discours sur l'histoire universelle.
The six books of his important correspondence (1497–1523) concerning the affairs of his order, much of which is addressed to Gabriel of Venice, his successor, are preserved at Rome in the Bibliotheca Angelica. Cardinal Hergenröther praises particularly the circular letter in which Aegidius made known (27 February 1519), his resignation of the office of General of the Augustinian Order.[11]
Other known works of Aegidius are a commentary on the first book of the Sentences of Peter Lombard, three Eclogae Sacrae, a dictionary of Hebrew roots, a Libellus de ecclesiae incremento, a Liber dialogorum, and an Informatio pro sedis apostolicae auctoritate contra Lutheranam sectam.