Erasmus of Montecassino

ERASMUS OF MONTECASSINO. - Theologian who lived in the 13th century. He received his first theological formation at Montecassino; the predominantly experimental orientation of the Cassinese school, begun by Constantine the African, soon led him toward a more rational method than those most common in his time. This tendency then matured at the Studium of Naples, where he was called to the chair of theology in 1240, and he probably remained there until the death of Frederick II (1250).

In the Neapolitan environment, open to the currents most inclined toward Aristotelianism, E. acquired a certain autonomy of thought also with respect to William of Auxerre, whose follower he nevertheless proves to be in his treatises. It is by now a common opinion that E. had relations at Naples with St. Thomas Aquinas, who in those very years had been sent by the abbot of Montecassino to attend that University. Even more likely is that they had already known each other earlier at Montecassino, and that it was precisely to that period that the first scholarly contacts between the two figures date. Some theological treatises and a few sermons by E. still remain unpublished in Cassinese manuscripts.

Ambrogio Mancone