MASTRIO, BARTOLOMEO. – Philosopher and theologian of the Friars Minor Conventual, known as « princeps scotistarum », born at Meldola (Forlì) on the night between 7 and 8 December 1602, died there at the beginning of January 1673. He entered religious life at Cesena in 1617, then went to Bologna for philosophical and theological studies.
« Having revealed himself as a speculative intellect, he was directed by his superiors toward theological specialization and went to Naples, to the studium generale of S. Lorenzo Maggiore, where he was able to attend (1623–25) the courses of Fr. Giuseppe da Trapani, promoter of the theory of the « concomitant decrees » in the question of freedom and Grace, increasingly grounding himself in Scotist doctrine. He completed his theological formation at the Collegio Sistino di S. Bonaventura (1625–28), in Rome, where he was probably ordained a priest, and obtained his doctorate in theology.
He was subsequently regent and professor at Cesena, Perugia, and Padua, Lenten preacher in various cities of Italy (1633–40), provincial minister of Bologna (1647–50), and general commissioner in Italy and the adjacent islands during the absence of the minister general, who was visiting Germany and Poland (1662); he was nominated for the office of minister general at the Chapter of 1656.
Meanwhile, he devoted himself to his studies, composing a course of philosophy « ad mentem Scoti », with the collaboration of his confrere B. BELLINI (v.) until 1643 and thereafter alone, and preparing two further courses in dogmatic and moral theology « ad mentem Scoti et s. Bonaventura », which reveal him as one of the most profound theologians of the seventeenth century: Philosophiae ad mentem Scoti cursus integer (5 vols., Venice 1678), previously published in separate treatises and in several editions from 1630 to 1660; Disputaciones theologicae in quatuor libros Sententiarum ad mentem Scoti tomi 4 (there 1675), likewise published in separate books and in various editions from 1655 to 1664; Theologia moralis ad mentem dd. Seraphici et Subtilis concinnata (there 1617).