GIACOMO da VITERBO, Blessed. - Augustinian theologian, born in Viterbo around the middle of the 13th century, died in Naples between the end of 1307 and the beginning of 1308. Later historians, from the 16th century onward, claim he descended from the noble Capocci family.
He was sent to Paris while still very young to attend the University and earn a doctorate in theology. In 1281, the Order’s registers describe him as a *lector novus*, that is, recently appointed. This title was given to students returning from Paris who were granted the rank of lector. After spending some years in Italy, he was sent back to Paris to lecture on the *Sentences*. In October 1287, he obtained the baccalaureate, and at Easter 1293, he earned his master’s degree in theology. He remained in Paris for a long time, continuing his teaching as one of the *magistri actu regentes*.
In 1300, he was called to head the general Studium that the Augustinians had founded in Naples. On September 3, 1302, Boniface VIII appointed him Archbishop of Benevento, but he was soon transferred to the see of Naples. The Sacred Congregation of Rites, by a decree approved by Pius X on June 4, 1914, confirmed his cult.
G. da V. was a prolific writer. Some of his treatises were listed among the texts to be consulted by students in the official catalog of the University of Paris, dated February 25, 1304. He was one of the most authoritative representatives of the Giles of Rome school. In his youth, he took a rather hostile stance toward Thomism and is cited as one of the opponents by the followers of Aquinas; later, however, he modified his views and often spoke in praise of St. Thomas, whose system—inasmuch as it is a moderate Aristotelianism—he broadly accepted. Yet, in keeping with the school of his Order, he diverged from certain themes of that school.
Blessed Giacomo da Viterbo – Incipit of *De praedicamentis in divinis*. In the Q portrait of G. da V. Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, cod. VII C. 4 (14th century).
He differed from the Thomists on several important theories: he upheld the affective character of theology, affirmed the primacy of the will over the intellect, and placed the *bonum* above the *verum* in the hierarchy of transcendental properties. He also merits recognition for composing the first treatise *De Ecclesia* in his *De regimine Christiano*, in which he does not merely define the Church, as his predecessors had done, but describes and illustrates, at some length, its distinctive features, its organization as a kingdom, its spiritual and temporal mission, and the powers entrusted to the Supreme Pontiff.