DÖRING, MATTHIAS. — Theologian, biblical scholar, and historian of the Conventual Franciscans, b. at Kyritz in Brandenburg between 1390 and 1400, d. there on 24 July 1469. Elected provincial minister of Saxony (1427), he devoted himself to the governance of his friars, taking part in the controversies with the Observants concerning the Franciscan Rule. In 1432 he attended the Council of Basel. A supporter of the conciliar position during the schism of Felix V, he was elected (1443) by the supporters of this antipope as minister general of the Order; not recognized, he resigned his office. He took part in the dispute over the blood of Wilsnack. He did not neglect ecclesiastical reform, although his personal views were not always acceptable.
Of his scholarly activity as a lecturer (at Erfurt and Magdeburg in 1422, 1445, and 1451) and as a writer, there remain the Commenti in quattuor libros Sententiarum (manuscript, Munich), the Defensorium postillae Nicolai de Lyra (Nuremberg 1481, 1485, 1487; Venice 1481, 1482–83), and the Continuatio chronici Theodorici Engelhussi ab a. 1420 ad a. 1464 (Leipzig 1730, Berlin 1838–63). In theology he preferred Scotus, whom he defended against his opponents.
ralea, II, pp. 235–37; L. Oliger, M. D.'s Gutachten über die Franzisbaerregel (1451) und observantistische Gegenschrift, in Franzisk. Studien, 9 (1922), pp. 203–36; L. Meier, De Schola Franciscana Erfordensi sacc. XV, in Antonianum, 5 (1930), pp. 59–70; F. Doello, s. V. in LThK, III, col. 421; Bullarium Franciscanum, nuova serie, ed. Pou y Marty, II, Quaracchi 1930, p. 501, n. 959. Giovanni Odoardi