Nacchianti, Giacomo - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VIII, p. 944

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

NACCHIANTI, GIACOMO. - Dominican theologian and bishop, born in Firenze about 1500, died in Chioggia on 6 March 1569. He entered religious life in 1518; in 1529 he was at the Dominican general Studium in Bologna, and in 1534 magister studentium of the new convent in Perugia; prior at Pisa in 1536 and at Lucca in 1537; in 1541 at S. Maria sopra Minerva. He took part in the disputations that Paolo III had the most renowned theologians of the city conduct at his table. On 30 Jan. 1544 he was appointed bishop of Chioggia and in that capacity took part in the first phase of the Council of Trent.

His interventions in the conciliar sessions were numerous and at times ill-advised, as when (5 Apr. 1546) he objected to the words of the decree concerning Tradition, « pati pietatis affectu ac reverentia suscipienda S. Scriptura ». Although he accepted, with exemplary submission, the definitive judgment of the Fathers (sess. IV, 8 Apr. 1546), from that moment he became suspect; and in 1548, prompted by an accusation made by a certain Giulio Ercolano, schoolmaster of Chioggia, proceedings were instituted against him and entrusted to Massarelli, secretary of the Council, then transferred to Bologna. Despite Massarelli’s hostility, the proceedings had a favourable outcome for N., who reappeared at Trent, in the other

Article illustration — NAGASAKI, DIOCESI di - Commemorative stamp depicting the Church of the Martyrs.

subjects of current interest at the time of the Council of Trent, for example, De existentia existendique modo Christi corporis in Sacramento (op. 1); De communione Corporis et Sanguinis Christi nobis praecepta (op. 2); De summo sacerdotis Christi (op. 3); De primatis (op. 7); De sacrosanctis indulgentiis (op. 10); De Sacramento Matrimonii (op. 14); De sacrificio Missae (op. 15); Quattuor quaestiones (creation, immortality of the soul, contingency, infinity of the first mover); Theoremata theologica, metaphysica, naturalia.

A follower of St Thomas, N. enriched the master’s doctrine with abundant positive material, presenting the old and the new in a personal synthesis, composed in a sober style not devoid of elegance. His works on Scripture are more a Theologia biblica than an exegesis, since, following the method already in use in the fifteenth century (v. Favaroni), he took as his starting point certain themes from the Pauline epistles, gathering around them a body of positive data and theological considerations so as to form a genuine treatise; thus, for example, in the Enarrationes in Ep. ad Romanos, he deals principally with justification, and in the Enarrationes in Ep. ad Ephesica with the predestination of Christ: there he expounds and advocates the Scotist theory, with that freedom which various Thomists of the sixteenth century, POLITICA (v.), allowed themselves in relation to the common current. All of N.’s work has the merit of combating Protestantism, opposing to the empty Lutheran conception the riches of Pauline theology; with vigour and warmth he develops its doctrine of the Mystical Body, insisting on the subsistentia mystica.

BIBL.: Quétif-Echard, II, pp. 202-59; Hurter, III, cols. 78-80; M.M. Gorce, s. V. in DThC, XI, cols. 2-3; F. Lauchert, Die italienischen literarischen Gegner Luthers, Friburgo in Br. 1912, pp. 584-612; C. Fischer, Jacques N. et sa théologie de la primauté absolue du Christ, in La France franciscaine, 20 (1927), pp. 97-174; E. Mersch, Le corps mystique du Christ, II, 2ᵉ ed., Bruxelles-Parigi 1936, passim (v. index: Naclantus); F. Florand, Introduction to L. Chardon, La croix de Jésus, Parigi 1937, p. LXXIX; G. Pozzato, G. N. e la sua dottrina sul Corpo Mistico, Roma 1941 (unpublished thesis of the Ateneo Lateranense); S. I. Crisanu, De essentia sacrificii Missae iuxta Jacobum Naclantum, ivi 1941 (unpublished thesis of the Ateneo di Propaganda Fido).