CAJETAN (TOMMASO DE VIO)

Thomistic theologian; b. Gaeta, Italy, Feb. 20, 1469;d. Rome, Aug. 10, 1534.

Life. Although he was to be popularly known by the place of his birth (Gaietanus), he was baptized James de Vio. At the age of 16 he entered the Dominican Order at Gaeta, receiving the religious name of Thomas. After studying philosophy at Naples and theology at Bologna, he was sent to Padua, where he lectured on metaphysics in the priory and on the Sentences at the university (1493). At the general chapter of the Order at Ferrara in 1494, he held a disputation with Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. On this occasion, though only 25 years of age, he was promoted to master in sacred theology at the request of Hercules, Duke of Ferrara. At the invitation of Duke Sforza he taught at Pavia (1497–99), lecturing on the Summa of St. Thomas. From 1501 to 1508 he taught at the Sapienza University in Rome and served as procurator general of his Order. During this time he had occasion to preach for Alexander VI and Julius II. On the death of the master general, John Clérée, in 1507, he was appointed vicar-general by Julius II. As master general of the Dominicans (1508–18), he stressed reform, study, and the common life; settled certain difficulties involving devotees of savonarola; sent the first Dominican missionaries to the New World; and defended the mendicant orders at the Fifth Lateran Council (1512–17).

From 1508 until his death he was deeply involved in ecclesiastical affairs. When consulted about the pseudo-Council of Pisa (1511), he urged Julius II to convoke a legitimate council. Forbidding his own friars to support the schismatic council, he sent trusted friars to the scene to win over the secular clergy to the Pope's cause, and he wrote an important treatise on papal authority against French conciliarists, De comparatione auctoritatis papae et concilii (1511). At the Fifth Lateran Council, convoked in 1512, he defended papal supremacy, urged ecclesiastical reform, and participated in discussions on averroism and the immaculate conception. He was made a cardinal priest of St. Sixtus on July 6, 1517, and was sent to

Germany the following year as legate of Leo X to arouse interest in a crusade against the Turks. While there he represented the Holy See in discussions with Luther at Augsburg (1518)—which proved unsuccessful—and in the election of the new German emperor in 1519. In the latter assignment he succeeded, getting the Pope's candidate, Charles V, elected. On March 14 of that year Thomas was appointed bishop of Gaeta, his native city. He took part in the consistory of 1520, which condemned Luther, and in the conclave of 1522 which elected Adrian VI. In the following year he was made legate to Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia in the hope that he could obtain support for a crusade. After the death of Adrian (Sept. 14, 1523), he was recalled by Clement VII. Disappointed with Clement's lack of interest in reform and the crusade, Thomas devoted full time to study, writing, and examining the question of Henry VIII's divorce. During the last illness of Clement (1534) many considered Cajetan a likely successor, but he himself was gravely ill and died on the morning of Aug. 10, 1534, at the age of 66. He was buried according to his wishes at the entrance of the Dominican church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva so that the faithful might walk over his grave, but since 1666 his remains have been preserved in the sacristy.

Cajetan was a man of deep prayer and devotion to study; simple and exacting with regard to himself; broad-minded and generous with regard to others; and profoundly conscious of the needs of the Church, particularly in Biblical studies and ecclesiastical reform.

Writings. Over 150 works, long and short, came from the pen of Cajetan. Most of them can be dated accurately from his habit of indicating year, day, and place of completion together with his own age and occupation. Apart from acts and official documents, his writings may be grouped under three headings: philosophical, theological, and exegetical.

Philosophical. The commentaries and treatises were the fruit of his teaching at Padua, Pavia, Milan, and Rome between 1493 and 1507. They include commentaries on Porphyry's Isagoge (1497); Aristotle's Praedicamenta (1498), Peri Hermeneias (1496), Posterior Analytics (1496), De Anima (ed. 1509 from earlier notes), and Metaphysics (c. 1493); St. Thomas's De ente et essentia (1494–95); and five treatises, the most important of which is De nominum analogia (1498).

Theological. Between 1507 and 1524, while Cajetan was master general and papal legate, he wrote theological works. The most important are the commentary on the Sentences (1493–94, unpublished), the influential commentary on the Summa theologiae of St. Thomas (I, completed in 1507; I–II, completed in 1511; II–II, completed in 1517; III completed in 1520), and treatises on papal authority, confession, the Eucharist, Matrimony, Holy Orders, religious life, social questions, and Protestant errors.

Exegetical. This work filled the years from 1524 until his death. Using the Greek text of Erasmus and the latest methods of exegesis, he examined carefully the claims of Protestant reformers. In 1527 he dedicated to Clement VII a new translation of the Psalms from the Hebrew. His commentaries on the Gospels (1527–28), Epistles (1528–29), Pentateuch (1530–31), historical books (1531–32), Job (1533), and Ecclesiastes (1534) provoked much opposition, even from his own brethren. Cajetan insisted that the Latin Vulgate was insufficient for serious Biblical studies. He expressed strong doubts about the literal meaning of Song of Songs and the Revelation; the authenticity of Mk 16.9–20 and Jn 8.1–11; and the authorship of Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Jude. Some of his views were censured by Ambrogio Catarini, Bartholomew Medina, Melchior Cano, and "many theologians" of the Sorbonne (1533, 1544).

Doctrine. Cajetan stands out as one of the most gifted and influential thinkers of the Thomistic tradition. Coming at the beginning of "second Thomism," he not only helped to replace the Sentences of Peter Lombard by the Summa of St. Thomas in the schools of theology, but he also managed to influence the whole of Thomism with his views. The importance of his commentary on the Summa was so great that Pius V ordered its publication with the complete works of St. Thomas in 1570 (minus certain heterodox opinions expressed in the Third Part). Leo XIII ordered it to be published with the critical edition of St. Thomas's Summa (1888–1906). Little is known about Cajetan's intellectual formation. In his own day he was a pioneer in Thomistic studies. Undoubtedly his polemics with Averroists, Scotists, and Protestants, his sympathy for Renaissance humanism, and his involvement in practical affairs did much to shape his philosophical and theological outlook. The Thomism that he lived was not simply a restatement of St. Thomas but a Thomistic approach to problems of his day. Many of the opinions he held are not to be found in St. Thomas but are the insights that were a result of his own genius (see scholasticism).

In philosophy Cajetan stressed the Aristotelianism of St. Thomas, often to the detriment of St. Thomas's originality. Constantly attacking Scotist views of being and abstraction, he presented a concept of being, which though analogical, might be considered too realistic and formalistic, depending as it does on the pseudo-Thomistic Summa totius logicae. In his doctrine of analogy he overemphasized the importance of proper proportionality. Thus for Cajetan the proper subject of metaphysics is attained by "formal abstraction" from all matter. In the metaphysical constitution of person Cajetan posited a special modality (subsistentia ) to terminate the essence prior to existence. His doctrine of psychological abstraction, while basically Thomistic, was explained in terms of extrinsic illumination of the phantasms by the active intellect, which operates also within the thinking intellect.

The most conspicuous of Cajetan's unique positions rests on his personal view that the immortality of the human soul cannot be demonstrated by reason. In a discourse given in Rome in 1503, five years after departing from the Averroist university of Padua, Cajetan demonstrated the immortality of the human soul from the spirituality of intellectual and volitional functions, much as St. Thomas had done. Commenting on the Summa (1a, 75.2) in 1507, he confirmed the validity of St. Thomas's reasoning. But when preparing his De anima for publication in 1509, he admitted with Averroës that Aristotle had denied the immortality of the thinking intellect because of its dependence on phantasms; consequently only the active intellect is immortal and separated. However, Cajetan maintained that the immortality of the soul could be demonstrated from Aristotelian principles. Commenting on Matthew, ch. 22, in 1527, he flatly asserted that the immortality of the soul is not rationally demonstrable. He repeated this opinion in his commentary on Romans, ch.9 in 1528, listing the doctrine of immortality with knowledge of the Trinity and Incarnation. Commenting on Ecclesiastes, ch. 3, in 1534, he asserted that no philosopher has ever demonstrated the immortality of the soul, and that this truth can be known only through Christian revelation. The reason for Cajetan's change of view is still far from certain. What is certain is that Thomists after Cajetan have unanimously rejected it as incompatible with the teaching of St. Thomas and Christian tradition.

In his commentary on the Summa Cajetan is a faithful expositor of St. Thomas. In the first two parts his principal adversaries are Duns Scotus, Henry of Ghent, Gregory of Rimini, Peter Aureole, and Durandus of St. Pourçain. In sacramental theology it is principally the errors of Luther and Zwingli that are criticized. The passages that Pius V had suppressed from the Third Part in no way touched the basic principles of Thomism. Rather, they were minor points that might have added coals to rampant heresies. Here his concern was to find areas of agreement between Catholic theology and Protestantism.

In Biblical exegesis Cajetan represents the best humanist tradition, faithful to the Church and to the spirit of St. Jerome; much of his criticism was far in advance of his time. While his farsightedness in Biblical theology and ecclesiastical reform were little appreciated by his contemporaries, his scholastic theology found immediate response in Italy and Spain. Even today he is found a stimulating and illuminating guide to the basic doctrines of St. Thomas; on many moral and social issues he is a very modern teacher.

Bibliography: Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum 2.1:14–21. a. cossio, Il Cardinale Gaetano e la riforma (Cividale, Italy 1902). d. a. mortier, Histoire des maîtres généraux de l'Ordre des Frères Prêcheurs, 8 v. (Paris 1903–20) v.5. Revue thomiste (Paris 1838–) 39.2 or New Style 17.2 (1934–35). Angelicum 11 (1934) 405–608. Rivista di filosofia neoscolastica 27.2 (1935). j. hegyi, Die Bedeutung des Seins bei den klassischen Kommentatoren des heiligen Thomas von Aquin (Pullach-Munich 1959). Repertorium biblicum medii aevi 5:8207–32.9. j. f. groner, Kardinal Cajetan (Fribourg 1951).

[j. a. weisheipl]