PREACHERS
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PREACHERS
where the Averroist doctrine had reappeared. The
General of the Dominicans, Thomas de Vio (Cajetan),
had published his commentaries on the "De Anima"
of AJistotle (Florence, 1509), in which, abandoning
the position of St. Thomas, he contended that
Aristotle had not taught the individual immortality
of the soul, but affirming at the same time that this
doctrine was philosophically erroneous. The Council
of Lateran, by its Decree, 19 Dec, 1513, not only
condemned the Averroistic teaching, but exacted still
further that professors of philosophy should answer the
opposing arguments advanced by philosophers — a
measure which Cajetan did not approve (Mansi,
"Councils", I, 32, col. 842). Pietro Pomponazzi,
having published at Bologna (1516) his treatise on
the immortality of the soul in the Averroistic sense,
while making an open profession of faith in the Chris-
tian doctrine, raised numerous polemics, and was
held as a suspect. Chrysostom Javelli, regent of
theology at the Convent of St. Dominic, in agree-
ment with the ecclesiastical authority, and at the
request of Pomponazzi, sought to extricate him from
this difficulty by drawing up a short theological
expose of the question which was to be added in the
future to the work of Pomponazzi. But this dis-
cussion did not cease all at once. Several Dominicans
entered the lists. Girolamo de Fornariis subjected to
examination the polemic of Pomponazzi with Augus-
tin Nifi (Bologna, 1519); Bartolommeo de Spina at-
tacked Cajetan on one article, and Pomponazzi in two
others (Venice, 1519); Isidore of Isolanis also wrote
on the immortality of the soul (Milan, 1520); Lucas
Bettini took up the same theme, and Pico della Miran-
dola published his treatise (Bologna, 1523); finally
Chrysostom Javelli himself, in 1523, composed a
treatise on immortality in which he refuted the point
of view of Cajetan and of Pomponazzi (Chrysostomi
Javelli, "Opera", Venice, 1577, I-III p. 52).
Cajetan, becoming cardinal, not only held his posi-
tion regarding the idea of Aristotle, but further de-
clared that the immortality of the soul was an article
of faith, for which philosophy could offer only prob-
able reasons ("In Ecclesiasten", 1534, cap. iv;
Fiorentino, "Pietro Pomponazzi", Florence, 1868).
(f ) Literary and Scientific Productions. — During the Middle Ages the order had an enormous literary output, its activity extending to all spheres. The works of its writers are epoch-making in the various branches of human knowledge.
(i) Works on the Bible. — The study and teaching of the Bible were foremost among the occupations of the Preachers, and their studies included every- thing pertaining to it. They first undertook correc- tories (correcloria) of the Vulgate text (1230-36), under the direction of Hugh of Saint Cher, professor at the University of Paris. The collation with the Hebrew text was accomplished under the sub-prior of St-Jacques, Theobald of Sexania, a converted Jew. Two other correctories were made prior to 1267, the first called the correctory of Sens. Again under the direction of Hugh of Saint Cher the Preach- ers made the first concordances of the Bible which were called the Concordances of St-Jacques or Great Concordances because of their development. The English Dominicans of Oxford, apparently under the direction of John of Darlington, made more simjilificd concordances in the third quarter of the thirteenth century. At the beginning of the fourteenth cen- tury a German Dominican, Conrad of Halberstadt, simplified the English concordances still more; and John Fojkowich of Ragusa, at the time of the Council of Basle, caused the insertion in the concordances of elements which had not hitherto been incorporated in them. The Dominicans, moreover, composed numerous commentaries on the books of the Bible. That of Hugh of Saint Cher was the first complete commentary on the Scriptures (last ed., Venice, 1754,
8 vols, in fol.). The commentaries of Bl. Albertus
Magnus and especially those of St. Thomas Aquinas
are still famous. With St. Thomas the interpretation
of the text is more direct, simply literal, and theolog-
ical. These great Scriptural commentaries repre-
sent theological teaching in the sludia generalia.
The lecturce on the text of Scripture, also composed
to a large extent by Dominicans, represent Scrip-
tural teaching in the other sludia of theology. St.
Thomas undertook an "Expositio continua" of the
four Gospels now called the "Catena aurea", com-
posed of extracts from the Fathers with a view
to its use by clerics. At the beginning of the four-
teenth century Nicholas of Trevet did the same for
all the books of the Bible. The Preachers were also
engaged in translating the Bible into the vernacular.
In all probability they were the translators of the
French Parisian Bible during the first half of the
thirteenth century, and in the fourteenth century
they took a very active share in the translation of the
celebrated Bible of King John. The name of a
Catalonian Dominican, Romeu of Sabruguera, is at-
tached to the first translation of the Scriptures into
Catalonian. The names of Preachers are also con-
nected with the Valencian and Castilian translations,
and still more with the Italian (F. L. Mannoci,
"Intorno a un volgarizzamento della Biblia attri-
buita al B. Jacopo da Voragine" in "Giornale storico
e letterario della Liguria", V, 1904, p. 96). The
first pre-Lutheran German translation of the Bible,
except the Psalms, is due to John Rellach, shortly
after the middle of the fifteenth century. Finally
the Bible was translated from Latin into Armenian
about 1330 by B. Bartolommeo Parvi of Bologna, mis-
sionary and bishop in Armenia. These works en-
abled Vercellone to write: "To the Dominican Order
belongs the glory of having first renewed in the
Church the illustrious example of Origen and St.
Augustine by the ardent cultivation of sacred criti-
cism" (P. Mandonnet, "Travaux des Dominicains sur
les Saintes Ecritures" in "Diet, de la Bible", II,
col. 1463; Saul, "Das Bibelstudium im Predigeror-
den" in "Der Katholik", 82 Jahrg, 3 f., XXVII,
1902, a repetition of the foregoing article).
(ii) Philosojihical works. — The most celebrated philosophical works of the thirteenth century were those of Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas Aquinas. The former compiled on the model of Aristotle a vast scientific encyclopedia which exercised great influence on the last centuries of the Middle Ages ("Albert! Magni Opera", Lyons, 1651, 20 vols, in fol.; Paris, 1890, 38 vols, in 40; Mandonnet, "Siger de Brabant", I, 37, n. 3). Thomas Aquinas, apart from special treatises and numerous philosoph- ical sections in his other works, commentated in whole or in part thirteen of Aristotle's treatises, these being the most important of the Stagyrite's works (Mandonnet, "Des 6crits authentiques de St. Thomas d'Aquin", 2nd ed., p. 104, Opera, Paris, 1889, XXII-XVI). Robert of Kilwardby (d. 1279), a holder of the old Augustinian direction, produced numerous philosophical writings. His "De ortu et divisione philosophia; " is regarded as "the most important introduction to Philosophy of the Middle Ages" (Baur, " Dominicus Gundissalinus De divisione philosoi)hia> ", Miinster, 1903, 368) . At the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth cen- tury, Dietrich of Vriberg left an important philosoph- ical and scientific work (Krebs, "Meister Dietrich, sein Leben, seine Werke, seine Wissenschaft", Miinster, 1906). At the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century the Domini- cans composed numerous philosophical treatises, many of them bearing on the special points whereon the Thomistic School was attacked by its adver- saries ("Archiv f. Litt. und Kirchengesch.", II, 226 sqq.).
