NETTER, THOMAS. - Carmelite controversialist, b. at Saffron Walden (Essex) ca. 1375. From his place of origin, he is better known by the surname Waldensis.
A religious in the Carmel of London, ordained priest on Sept. 23, 1396, he obtained his doctorate in theology at Oxford ("Doctor praestantissimus"). He was provincial of England (1416-30); in this office, and simultaneously in that of
(photogr. Vatican Photographic Archive)
Court confessor, he was an intimate counselor to the kings of England. In 1409 Henry IV sent him as his orator to the Council of Pisa. In 1415 he took part in the Council of Constance as the envoy of Henry V. The latter also wanted him as his representative in the extraordinary mission for the reconciliation of Wladislao, King of Poland, Alexander, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Michael, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order in Prussia. In France, at Vincennes, on August 30, 1422, he attended his king, Henry V, on his deathbed. He died while accompanying Henry VI to France as chaplain, on Nov. 2, 1430.
The titles of more than fifty different works are known, concerning philosophy, theology, polemics, biblical exegesis, sacred eloquence, in addition to an interesting collection of letters (cf. excerpts in Zimmerman [V. BIBLICA.], pp. 444-82). But his principal work is the Doctrinale antiquitatum fidei catholicae Ecclesiae, a thorough indictment against the aberrations of the Wycliffites and Hussites. Notable are the doctrinal developments on the members of the Church, the primacy of St. Peter, the infallibility of the Pope, and transubstantiation. His De sacramentalibus is the first organic treatise on the subject.
It went through several editions, of which the Venice one (1757-59) is the most correct. The Doctrinale was received with admiration by his contemporaries, and its author—especially for his perfect orthodoxy, recognized while he was still alive by Pope Martin V after a serious examination of the first two parts, and for his vast patristic erudition and dialectical vigor—was considered the princeps controversistarum of his time.