MATTHEW OF ACQUASPARTA. - Also called, in ancient documents, M. Lombardo. Franciscan theologian, b. around 1240, d. in Rome on 29 Oct. 1302, buried in Aracoeli. He is believed to have belonged to the Bentivegna family, brother of Card. Bentivegna and of Angelario, bishop of Todi. From the convent of S. Fortunato in Todi he passed to the Studium of Paris, where he was biblical bachelor in 1268-69 or 1269-70, and bachelor of the Sentences in 1271-72.
He taught for some time at the Studium generale of Bologna. In 1279 he succeeded G. Peckam, elected archbishop of Canterbury, in the office of lector of the Sacred Palace, and remained there until 1287, when he became general of the Order. During his brief generalate he reformed the statutes of the Studium of Paris, condemned friar Nicolò de Ghistelle, formerly provincial of France, for his pamphlet against the declaration on the Minorite rule of Nicholas III, Exiit qui seminat; he restored liberty to the Spirituals, especially to Giovanni da Parma and Pier Giovanni Olivi, whom he assigned to the Studium of S. Croce in Florence. The attitude of prudent moderation in the government of the Order procured for M. d'A. the unfavorable judgment of Dante (Paradiso, XII, 124-26). Created cardinal priest of the title of S. Lorenzo in Damaso on 16 May 1288, he retained the government of the Order until the General Chapter of Rieti, in 1289. In this year, if not already at the end of 1288, he was elected major penitentiary and in 1291 bishop of Porto and S. Rufina. As cardinal and legate of the Pope, he played a very important part in the ecclesiastical affairs of his time; he labored to settle the discords between Guelphs and Ghibellines, and the dissension between Boniface VIII and Philip the Fair, vindicating for the Pope the plenitudo potestatis, also with famous speeches: at Orvieto on 11 July 1297 on the occasion of the canonization of Louis IX, king of France, and in the Lateran Basilica on 6 Jan. 1300 on the occasion of the great Jubilee, and in the reply in Consistory to the legates of Philip the Fair, in the year 1302.
Nor is M. d'A.'s importance in the history of theological and philosophical thought of the 13th century any less, even if he has no system of his own. He inclines toward the Seraphic Doctor, of whom he proves himself a faithful disciple, and from his works he often draws literally. He is thus a continuator of that Augustinian current which in the Order had predecessors, besides Bonaventure, in G. de Barlo, in G. of Bruges and in G. Peckam. Depth of thought and extraordinary clarity of exposition make M. d'A. one of the most distinguished masters of the pre-Scotist Franciscan school.
His literary production is rich, a notable part of which is preserved in the autograph codices of the libraries of Assisi and Todi. The scriptural works comprise some Introitus, the exposition of Ecclesiastes, the Postillae in Ps. 1-50, in Iob, in Apoc. More numerous are the works of a theological and philosophical character: Comment. in I-II, IV Sent., Concordantiae II. Sent. per alphabetum, Breviloquium de S.ma Trinitate, Tract. de aeterna Spiritus S. processione, Quadlibeta VI, etc. There are also preserved by him ca. 200 Sermones dominicales et festivi. Of all this vast production only the Quaestiones de fide et de cognition, Quaestiones selectiae de Christo, Quaestiones de Gratia have been edited, in the Bibliotheca Franc. Schol. Medii Aevi, I-II, XI (Quaracchi 1903, 1914, 1934) and some other question published in special studies.
Bibliography11 works
Celestino Piana