MATTEO of Cracow. - Theologian and bishop, born in Cracow around 1335, died in Pisa on 5 March 1410. At the University of Prague he became magister artium (1367) and doctor in theology (c. 1381). A renowned orator, he was appointed by the archbishop of Prague as synodal preacher. In 1395 he obtained the chair of theology at the new University of Heidelberg, of which he became rector the following year.
Confessor to Robert, elected King of the Romans in 1400, M. of C. had to take part in all the civil and religious life of his time; sent to Rome to consult Innocent VII on the modalities of Robert’s induction, he was elected bishop of Worms. Named cardinal by Gregory XII (1408), he refused the honour, not certainly out of any lack of attachment to the Roman party (he was in the midst of the Western Schism), which he defended at the Council of Pisa (1409).
A man of broad and varied culture, he left many works: Tractatus rationis et conscientiae de sumptione pabuli salutiferi corporis Domini nostri Iesu Christi (Mainz 1460); a golden little work, which had various reprints under different titles, in which he recommends to priests and faithful the frequent use of the Eucharist and establishes its conditions in terms that seem a happy anticipation of the decrees of Pius X; De squalore seu de praxi Curiae Romanae (Basel 1551); a dark picture of the conditions of the Church with a project for reform; Speculum aureum de titulis beneficiorum (ibid. 1555). Numerous other writings remain unpublished, e.g., Opus de praedestinatione, De consolatione theologica, De officio antistitum, etc.