FAGNANI, PROSPERO. - Canonist and theologian, b. at S. Angelo in Vado in 1587, d. in Rome in 1678. Having earned a doctorate in utroque iure at Perugia (1618), he taught canon law at the University of Rome.
Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of the Council at only 22 years of age, he discharged the same office at four other Congregations (Bishops and Regulars, Apostolic Visitation, State and Reform of the Regulars, Indulgences). Called at the same time to various other Curial duties, he held important assignments at eleven dicasteries at once. Gregory XV wanted him as his collaborator in drafting the bull Aeternis Patris concerning the election of the Supreme Pontiff. Blind at only 44 years of age, he continued his Curial and scholarly activity, called by antonomasia "doctor caecus oculatissimus."
His classic commentaries on the Decretals (Ius Canonicum seu commentaria absolutissima in quinque libros decretalium, Rome 1651, with successive editions, 5 vols., in-fol.), composed by order of Alexander VII and enriched with the important material drawn from the decisions of the Sacred Congregation of the Council and of various other Congregations, earned him an eminent place among the post-glossator canonists; they still enjoy much authority and are particularly useful for the history of post-Tridentine ecclesiastical discipline. In moral theology, he upheld the probabilissimus and wrote a pamphlet against probabilism, for which St. Alphonsus defines him: "magnus rigoristarum patet."
Bibliography3 worksBiographical notes are drawn from the prefaces to vol. I of the Commentary: Hutter, IV, col. 252 ff.; J. F. von Schulze, Geschichte der Quel
BIBL.: Biographical notes are drawn from the prefaces to vol. I of the Commentary: Hutter, IV, col. 252 ff.; J. F. von Schulze, Geschichte der Quellen und Literatur des colonischen Rechts, III, 1. Stuttgart 1880, p. 483; J. Bund, Catalogue auctorum qui scriperant de theologia morali et practica, Rotterdam 1900, p. 49.
Zaccaria da S. Mauro. “Fagnani, prospero.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. V, coll. 957–958. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950. https://azioneromana.com/article/fagnani-prospero.
MLA
Zaccaria da S. Mauro. “Fagnani, prospero.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. V, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950, coll. 957–958. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/fagnani-prospero.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec5_fagnani_prospero,
author = {Zaccaria da S. Mauro},
title = {Fagnani, prospero},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {V},
pages = {957--958},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1950},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/fagnani-prospero}
}
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