MASTRIO, BARTOLOMEO. – A Franciscan philosopher and theologian, known as the “princeps scotisticus,” born at Meldola (Forlì) on the night of 7–8 December 1602, died there in early January 1673. He entered the Franciscan Order at Cesena in 1617 and then moved to Bologna for philosophical and theological studies.
Revealing himself as a speculative mind, he was directed by his superiors toward specialized theological training and went to Naples to the general study-house of S. Lorenzo Maggiore, where he attended (1623–25) the lectures of Fr. Giuseppe da Trapani, a promoter of the theory of “concurrent decrees” in the question of freedom and grace, increasingly grounding his thought in Scotist doctrine. He completed his theological formation at the Sistine College of S. Bonaventura (1625–28), where he was probably ordained priest, and earned the degree in theology.
He subsequently served as regent and professor at Cesena, Perugia, and Padua, as a Lenten preacher in various Italian cities (1633–40), as provincial minister of Bologna (1647–50), and as general commissioner for Italy and adjacent islands during the absence of the minister general on visitation in Germany and Poland (1662). He was even pre-elected to the generalship at the Chapter of 1656.
Meanwhile he devoted himself to his scholarly work, composing a course in philosophy “ad mentem Scoti” in collaboration with his confrere B. Belluti (v. 1760 to 1643, and later alone), and preparing two further courses in dogmatic and moral theology “ad mentem Scoti et s. Bonaventura,” which reveal him as one of the deepest theologians of the 17th century: Philosophiae ad mentem Scoti cursus integer (5 vols., Venice 1678), already issued in separate treatises and in multiple editions from 1630 to 1660; Disputationes theologicae in quatuor libros Sententiarum ad mentem Scoti (4 tomes, ibid. 1675), likewise published in separate books and various editions from 1655 to 1664; Theologia moralis ad mentem d. Seraphici et Subtilis concinnata (ibid. 1617).