NETTER, THOMAS. - Carmelite controversialist, b. at Saffron Walden (Essex) ca. 1375. From his place of origin, he is better known under the appellation Waldensis.

A religious in the Carmel of London, ordained priest on 23 Sept. 1396, he obtained a degree in theology at Oxford ("Doctor praestantissimus"). He was provincial of England (1416-30); in that office, and together with that of vicar general, he promoted regular observance and intellectual activity.

Confessor at court, he was an intimate counselor of 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 an envoy of Henry V. The latter also wanted him as his representative on the extraordinary mission for the reconciliation of Wladislaus king of Poland, Alexander grand duke of Lithuania and Michael grand master of the Teutonic Order in Prussia. In France, at Vincennes, on 30 Aug. 1422 he attended his king Henry V on his deathbed. He died while accompanying Henry VI to France as chaplain, on 2 Nov. 1430.

The titles of more than fifty different works are known, on philosophy, theology, polemics, biblical exegesis, sacred eloquence, besides an interesting collection of letters (cf. extracts in Zimmerman [v. bibl.], pp. 444-82). But the principal work is the Doctrinale antiquitatum fidei catholicae Ecclesiae, a thorough indictment against the aberrations of the Wycliffites and the 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 systematic treatise on the subject.

It had several editions, of which that of Venice (1757-59) is the most correct. The Dottrinale was received with admiration by his contemporaries, and its author, especially for the perfect orthodoxy acknowledged to him while still alive by Pope Martin V, after a serious examination of the first two parts, and for his broad patristic erudition and dialectical vigor, was regarded as the princeps controversistarum of his time.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: B. Blanciotti, Praefatio general. in novam edii. Doctrinalis Thomae Waldensis, in Doctrinale, I, Venice 1757, pp. IX-XVIII; B. Zimmerman, Monum. hist. Carmelitana, Lirino 1907, pp. 442-44; Cosma de Villiers, Bibliotheca Carmelitana, ed. Wesseris, II, Rome 1927, coll. 833-42; Matias del Niño Jesús, El Carmelo frente a la Falsa Reforma, in Rev. de Espiritualidad, 5 (1946), pp. 310-13; Meri Otho, Theologia Salmanticensis, Ratisbon 1947, pp. 233-36 (relationship with the Salmanticenses, dogmatic theologians); Roman de la Inmaculada, La doctrina de la incorporación a Cristo según Tomás N. « el Waldente » Carmelita, in El Monte Carmelo, 49 (1948), pp. 56-83.

Nilo di San Brocardo

@incollection{ec8_netter_thomas, author = {Nilo di S. Brocardo}, title = {Netter, thomas}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {1787--1788}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/netter-thomas} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

Netter, Thomas

About this entry