James of Viterbo, Blessed

JAMES OF VITERBO, Blessed. - Augustinian theologian, b. at Viterbo around the middle of the 13th century, d. at Naples between the end of 1307 and the beginning of 1308. Historians after the 16th century make him a descendant of the noble Capocci family.

As a very young man he was sent to Paris to attend the University there and to take his doctorate in theology. In 1281, in the registers of the Order, he is called lector novus, that is, of recent appointment. This was the name given to students who, having returned from Paris, were invested with the rank of lector. After some years spent in Italy, he was again sent to Paris to lecture on the Sentences. In October 1287 he obtained the baccalaureate, and at Easter 1293 he obtained the mastership in theology. He remained in Paris for a long time still, continuing to teach, as one of the masters actu regentes. Summoned in 1300 to head the Studium generale that the Augustinians had founded at Naples, on 3 September 1302 Boniface VIII appointed him archbishop of Benevento, but he was immediately transferred to the see of Naples. The Sacred Congregation of Rites, by a decree approved by Pius X, on 4 June 1914, confirmed his cult.

G. da V. carried on a notable literary activity. Some of his treatises were mentioned among the texts to be consulted by students in the official list of the University of Paris of 25 February 1304. He was one of the most authoritative representatives of the Aegidian school. As a young man he took a rather hostile attitude toward Thomism, and he is cited as one of the opponents by the followers of the Aquinate; but later he modified his thinking and several times spoke words of praise for St. Thomas, whose system, as a moderate Aristotelianism, in its general lines, is accepted by him. However, in conformity with the school of the Order, he differs from the Thomists in not a few important theories: he maintains the affective character of theology, affirms the primacy of the will over the intellect, and places the bonum above the verum in the hierarchy of the transcendentals. He has, moreover, the merit of having composed the first treatise De Ecclesia with his De regimine Christiano, in which he does not limit himself, as his predecessors did, to defining the Church, but describes and illustrates, with a certain fullness, its distinguishing characteristics, its organization in the form of a kingdom, the spiritual and temporal mission entrusted to it, and the powers assigned to the Supreme Pontiff.

Ugo Mariani