JAMES OF VITRY. - Cardinal, famous preacher and writer, b. around 1170 at Vitry in France, perhaps at Vitry-sur-Seine, d. at Rome on 1 May 1240. He studied at the University of Paris, where he obtained the degree of master. According to his contemporary Vincent of Beauvais (Spec. hist., XXX, 10) he was also parish priest at Argenteuil near Paris.
Attracted by the mystical movement that had appeared in the diocese of Liège in Belgium, he entered the priory of the Regular Canons of St. Augustine at Oignies, made famous by the mystic Mary of Oignies, an oblate of that priory. Under the impulse of this ardent soul G. devoted himself to popular preaching (ca. 1211-13), then placed himself at the service of the Crusades, preaching first against the Albigensians, then in favor of the Holy Land (1213-15). Elected bishop of Acre in 1215, the following year he betook himself to the papal Curia then at Perugia, where he found Innocent III dead, and came into contact with the Franciscan movement. Kept as bishop in the Curia, he went to Genoa, where he embarked for Acre, which he reached in Nov. 1216. He at once devoted himself to apostolic work and assisted (1218-21) the Christian army at Damietta, where he also met St. Francis of Assisi. Subsequently he made two journeys to Italy (1222-23, 1225-26). He renounced the bishopric in 1228 and retired to Oignies. In 1229 Gregory IX created him cardinal bishop of Frascati, and, as such, he took part in the peace negotiations with Frederick II at Gaeta. The rest of his activity as cardinal is little known. A year after his death, his mortal remains were transferred to Belgium and buried at Oignies. G. was one of the most distinguished figures of his time and an ardent promoter of the internal reform of ecclesiastical life, and he reveals himself as such also in his writings. These are: Vita Mariae Oigniensis (d. in 1213), an important source for knowledge of the religious movements in Belgium of that time. Written in 1215, it was inserted almost entirely in the Speculum historiale of Vincent of Beauvais, XXX, chaps. 10-51, and published in full by the Bollandists, Acta SS. Iunii, IV (Antwerp 1707, pp. 542-72); Historia occidentalis e orientalis (ed. D. Dubois, Douai 1597; the Historia orientalis alone also in Bongars, Gesta Dei per Francos [I, Hannover 1611, pp. 1047-1172]); Sermones de tempore (Antwerp 1575, Venice 1578); Sermones vulgares, of which there are extracts in J. B. Pitra, Analecta novissima spicigii Solesmensis (II, Frascati 1888, pp. 344-442); Th. Fr. Crane, The «exempla» or illustrative stories from the «sermones vulgares» of Jacques de Vitry (London 1890); S. Frenken, Die Exempel des Jacob von Vitry (Quellen und Untersuchungen zur lateinischen Philologie des Mittelalters, 5, 1, Munich 1914). The seven letters written from 1216 to 1221, some of which are addressed to several persons, have been critically edited by R. Röhrich, Die Briefe des Jacobus de Vitriaco, in Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte (14 [1894], pp. 97-118; 15 [1895], pp. 568-87; 16 [1896], pp. 72-114). Some of them are also found in E. Martène et U. Durand, Thesaurus novus anecdotorum (III, Paris 1717, coll. 287-306).
Bibliography2 works
Münster in W. 1863; Th. Fr. Crane, The «exempla» or illustrative stories from the «sermones» of Jacques de Vitry, London 1890, pp. XXII-LIII; Ph. Funk, Jacob von Vitry, Leben und Werke (Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte des Mittelalters und der Renaissance, 3), Leipzig and Berlin 1909; J. Greven, Die Anfänge der Beginen (Vorreformatorische Forschungen, 7), Münster in W. 1912, pp. 54-109.
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