MATTEO FERCHIO (Ferrich, Ferchius). — Franciscan Conventual theologian, b. at Veglia (Istria) in 1583, d. at Padua on 8 Sept. 1669. He entered the order in 1599, studied at Bergamo, Padua, and Rome in the College of St. Bonaventure. Regent of studies at Rimini (1611) and Venice (1617), he was public professor for about 40 years in the Socratic chair at the University of Padua (1630–66), minister of the Lyon province, and finally for two years assistant to the Minister General.
Initially devoted to Bonaventurian studies, he later became a staunch defender of Scotus, whom he knew deeply and revered as a saint, at a time when Scotus was being attacked by Bovo. He wrote against him the Convegno Sca-tica I. D. Scoti doct. sub. tituli et motem explicans (Chambery 1620), and against a canon of Cologne the famous Apologia pro Io. Duns Scoto in Io. Frid. Mater-nium (Cologne 1619); of the same character were the third Apologia Historia in Paulum Iovium Novocomensem (Bologna 1620) and the esteemed Vita B. Io. D. Scoti franciscani doctori subditi (Venice 1622–23, Naples 1629, Padua 1671). Other works by F. include: Observatorius super Epist. libri de septimo-Quacistis, quae est de creatione Filii Dei ad intra (Venice 1632), and Recognitio peripattica An-siotelis ut magistri, Liceti ut disciplini... (Padua 1656); for the authenticity of Scotus’ works are the Discussiones Soci-ae (ibid. 1638) against the Reportata Parisiensia edited by Giovanni Mayer, and for the interpretation of Scotist thought, to which refer the Vestigationes Peripat-ticae (ibid. 1639) and the vigorous Defensio Vestigationum Peripateticarum ab offensionibus Belluti et Mastri (ibid. 1646). After a bitter CASTORI (v.) BELLINI (v.), this Defensio was placed on the Index “donec corrigatur” (decr. S. Uffizio, 12 May 1655). Weary of the struggle, he returned in his old age to the teachings of St. Bonaventure and wrote Tractatus theol. de Angelis ad mentem S. Bonaventurae (Padua 1655, 1658), judged a masterpiece. Among his other important treatises are: De Personis productionibus Spiritum Sanctum (ibid. 1641), De coelesti substantia eiusque ortu ac motu in sententia Anaxagorae (ibid. 1646); De productione Filii Dei (Venice 1650; Padua 1667); the “literary recreation” “on the most important poem of the Tuscan language” (as he himself says): Osservazioni sopra il Goffredo del sig. Torquato Tasso (ibid. 1642) and the Praecursor de B. M.ae Virginis Immaculatae conceptu (ibid. 1668, 4°).
FERDINANDO THE CATHOLIC, II (V) of Aragon (III of Naples, II of Sicily). — B. 10 May 1452 at Sos (Aragon), d. 23 Jan. 1516 at Madrigalejo (Cáceres). Son of John II of Aragon and Joanna Enriquez, F. was not destined for the throne, which fell to him after the death of his elder brother Charles of Viana. Having married Isabella, heiress of the Kingdom of Castile, in 1468, a long dispute arose with Alfonso V of Portugal, which was ended by the Treaty of Alcáçovas (1479). Immediately thereafter the two sovereigns began the war against the Kingdom of Granada, the last Muslim stronghold in Spain, which lasted more than a decade but ended in January 1492 with the conquest of Granada.
Thus having completed the unification of Spain, F. found himself facing broader political horizons. Columbus (v.) are well known. Soon after the discovery of the new lands, the controversy between Spain and Portugal over the possession of the American territories led F. to appeal to Alexander VI, who issued bulls by which the disputed territories were adjudged to Spain. By these bulls Isabella and F. were also granted the exclusive right to evangelize the new lands and the right of presentation for ecclesiastical dignitaries, a privilege that constituted the first step toward the Patronato de Indias, granted by Julius II in 1508.
F.’s foreign policy was shaped by the aggressive policy of Charles VIII and Louis XII of France, who sought the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples. Nor did the expulsion of the enemy from the Kingdom of Naples seem to reassure F., who wished to confine France within its natural limits, opposing every imperialistic design. The King therefore did not hesitate to support the Spanish cardinal Carvajal, who, taking as a pretext the need for Church reform, had convened a conciliabulum at Pisa with the aid of Louis XII; the Spanish prelates instead took part in the Ecumenical Council of the Lateran (1512). It is difficult to say whether F.’s policy, in the monarch’s intentions, was exhausted in a consistent, continuous anti-French action, or whether it aimed, as Doussinague maintains, at realizing the grand design of a war against the infidels and the definitive elimination of the Turkish threat.
In any case, it is certain that F.’s personality occupies a place of the first rank not only in the history of his own country but also in that of Europe in his time, and that the effects of his political action had a lasting character and formed the foundations of the Spanish state in the modern age.