GREGORIO DA RIMINI. - Celebrated Augustinian theologian, born in Rimini in the second half of the 13th century, died in Vienna in 1358. From a letter by Clement VI to the Chancellor of Paris (12 January 1345), it is known that G. had begun his university studies in 1323: he must have been very young when, having donned the habit of the Hermits, he was sent to Paris. While teaching as a bachelor, he engaged in polemics with a Giovanni Scoto (not the famous Franciscan), against whom the *Libri logicales* (Lyons 1513) remain, directed against G. da Rimini.
In 1339, having obtained the bachelor's degree, G. returned to Italy and taught as *cathedralicus principalis* in the schools of the Order in Bologna, Padua, and Perugia. In 1341 he resumed his lectures in Paris, and in 1345, through the intervention of Clement VI with the aforementioned letter, he obtained the mastership. In 1347 the same Pontiff ordered him to vacate the chair in favor of Gerardo de Scholarihus; having returned to Italy, he resumed the position of *cathedralicus principalis* in the convent of Bologna.
G. da Rimini was among the first professors of the theological faculty at Paris to teach nominalism; this was perhaps the reason for the delay in conferring the mastership upon him. The Augustinians took a stand against this philosophical current, and in the General Chapters of 1345 and 1348 issued decrees to prevent its spread within the Order. But G. was not molested and continued his activity as a teacher and writer, though in his later years he devoted himself preferably to the theological field. In 1357 he was elected Prior General of the Order.
In philosophy, G. da Rimini is a staunch advocate of a nominalism that seeks to reconcile itself with faith. He upholds a logical conceptualism that, unlike the psychological conceptualism of many of his contemporaries, distinguishes between subjective and objective being; against Ockham, he rejects the plurality of forms in man and admits the demonstrative value of the proofs of God’s existence and the spirituality of the soul.
In theology, he is an irreconcilable opponent of Pelagian tendencies that crept into nominalism, insisting with abundant documentation on the necessity of grace for performing works in order to attain salvation. Even in his treatment of its origins, justification, and predestination, he marks a return to a strict Augustinianism. The accusation of having influenced Luther is unfounded: his extreme positions do not go beyond the limits of disputable questions.
His personality exerted a significant influence. At Wittenberg, the nominalists followed his path rather than Ockham’s; Capreolus often had recourse to him (*doctor authenticus*), and in the doctrine of grace he sought to reconcile him with St. Thomas. In the 16th century, the University of Salamanca had a *cathedra Gregorii*. His immediate disciples were Ugolino Malabranca of Orvieto (q.v.), Bonsembiante Baduario of Padua, and Giovanni da Basilea. Within his Order, the influence was predominantly theological: the nominalist infiltration was soon eliminated.