UBERTINO OF CASALE. - Leader of the Franciscan Spirituals, b. in 1259 at Casale-Monferrato (Vercelli), he took the Franciscan habit in the province of Genoa (1273). Destined for S. Croce in Florence for the purpose of study (1285), he first went to Rome and then to Greccio, where the blessed Giovanni da Parma initiated him into the apocalyptic prophecies concerning the decadence and the resurgence of the Franciscan Order.
In prologue I of the Arbor vitae and in the course of its five books, U. shows by what paths his spiritual formation was accomplished, from 1285 to 1305. During his first stay in Tuscany, where he devoted himself to preaching, he found that the spirit of Jesus strongly "seethed" in many virtuous persons, among them Pietro Pettinaio (v. Dante, Purg., XIII, 125-29) of Campi in Chianti near Siena, the virgin Cecilia of Florence and Pietro Olivi (v.). In Paris (1289-98), U. continued to study the sacred books and also held the office of lector. Dragged along by the common laxity, he lost the fruits of his first spiritual formation. Returning to himself, he went back to Umbria, where the blessed Angela of Foligno transformed him completely. A fervent propagator of the spiritual rebirth, U. distinguished himself by his passionate attacks against those who opposed his dreams of reform of the Church and of the Franciscan Order. Denounced to Benedict XI, accused even of immorality, he was relegated to La Verna (spring 1304), where on 28 Sept. 1305 he finished the Arbor vitae.
From the end of 1309 to May 1312, U. strongly defended the strict observance of the Franciscan Rule and the orthodoxy of Olivi before Clement V; the bull Exivi de Paradiso (6 May 1312), which maintains the Franciscan life in its traditional rigor, and the generic decree Fidei catholicae fundamento (1312), which spared Olivi any nominal condemnation, attest to U.'s influence in the heated controversy among the Franciscans at the Council of Vienne. After the bitter dispute U. probably withdrew to Avignon, to the cardinals Colonna and Orsini. To remove him from the hostility of his adversaries (Michele da Cesena, Bonagrazia da Bergamo), John XXII allowed him to pass among the Benedictines of the abbey of S. Pietro at Gembloux, diocese of Liège (1 Oct. 1317). In reality, U. remained in the service of N. Orsini and successfully discharged various political-ecclesiastical negotiations. In the controversy over the poverty of Christ and the Apostles, under John XXII, U. gave a moderate judgment inspired by the Apologia pauperum of St. Bonaventure (1322). Accused of heresy and of rebellion against the Holy See, he fled from Avignon in 1325, perhaps to Louis the Bavarian. The date of his death is unknown.
II. WRITINGS
At the request [of others], U. composed the Arbor vitae crucifixae Jesu at La Verna (1305). It reflects not only his fiery personality and the spiritual milieu in which he lived, but also his theological, mystical and political thought. In it the mysteries of the Life, Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, together with the loving compassion of Mary, are adapted to the roots, trunk, branches, top and fruits of the allegorical tree (cf. the Lignum vitae of St. Bonaventure), and are set in comparison with the betrayal of the unfaithful Church, whose return to the Tree of life U. nonetheless proclaims according to the tendentious Joachimite predictions. U. urges the reader to a deeper meditation on the interior life of Jesus and on the sufferings of his Heart, the first mover of the redemption, the foundation of every Grace and every merit (l. IV, 21; f. 164). A century before St. Bernardine of Siena, U. exalted the Name of Jesus and thought of making it a triumphal banner (l. II, ch. 2; f. 41°-44°). Of Mary he sets forth above all the divine maternity and the mediating mission (l. II, ch. 5; f. 51°). To St. Joseph too U. dedicates pages full of tenderness (l. II, ch. 6; f. 62°).
The tone changes when U. treats of the state of the Church, especially in ch. 7 (Jesus despectus iterum) and ch. 8 (Jesus falsificatus) of l. V, ff. 224-34. Seduced by Joachimism, U. judges the Church and therefore the Franciscan Order according to the theory of the seven states, in which the sixth is that of the spiritual renewal of the Church through the work of St. Francis and his faithful lovers of «madonna poverty» in the midst of general decadence. Although professing, from the prologue of the Arbor vitae onward, the most complete submission to the Roman Church, U. distinguishes between the carnal Church and the spiritual Church, rejects the former as the great harlot of Babylon and declares that after the invalid abdication of St. Celestine V, whose resignation was obtained through the malice and fraud of Card. Caetani and his accomplices, there was no longer a legitimate pope. Boniface VIII is the evil beast of the Apocalypse, Benedict XI the proud beast, and Clement V will be [raised up] to oppress the Apostolic See, until he comes who will sit legitimately and reform everything (l. V, ch. 8, ff. 228°-34°). Once the storm has passed, the humble ministers of Christ will lead back to the true Church those who had been seduced by the proud usurpers (l. V, ch. 9, Jesus doctor humilium, f. 234°).
In l. V of the Arbor (which Dante knew) recourse is had, in order to support their tendentious theses, both by the rebellious little friar, author of the Decalogus evangelicae paupertatis (1340), and by Mattia Bellintani da Salò in his Historia Capuccina (1588). A deeper and more extensive influence was exercised by his meditations on the life of Jesus, Mary, St. Joseph and St. Francis set forth in the other books (for example: on St. Bernardine of Siena, St. James of the March, Giac. Gruytrode, Trithemius). St. Bernardine of Siena found in the Arbor the substance of his Christological preaching, as well as of his doctrine on the universal mediation of Mary and on the patronage of St. Joseph. The very diffusion of the manuscripts of the Arbor, especially in Italy, in Spain and in the Netherlands, in the most diverse circles, proves its vogue.
The other notable writings of U. are: the Responsio to the four questions of Clement V on the observance of Franciscan poverty and the doctrine of Olivi (beginning of 1310); the Rotulus in which he denounces twenty-five violations of the Franciscan Rule (end of 1310 or beginning of 1311); Super tribus sceleribus Damasci, in which he maintains that the friar minor can have nothing other than the strict use of necessary things (July 1311); Sanctitati apostolicae, which is the Apologia of Olivi (v.) presented at the beginning of the summer
1311; Declaratio fr. Ubertini et sociorum eius, a reply to the procurator Raimondo da Fronsac and to Bonagrazia da Bergamo, in which he highlights his own work for the repression of the heresy of the freedom of the spirit and defends Olivi once again (summer 1311). The Sentenza on apostolic poverty, of 1322 (Wadding, Annales, n. XIX), was developed into a Traetatus de altissima paupertate Christi et apostolorum eius et verorum apostolicorum, hitherto unpublished (Vienna, Hofbibliothek, ms. 809).