Theologian · Early modern
Cajetan (Tommaso de Vio)
1469–1534 · Thomism (commentatorial)
Cardinal, Master General of the Dominicans; papal legate who examined Luther at Augsburg (1518).
The greatest commentator on the Summa, whose glosses are printed with the Leonine edition, Cajetan systematized the doctrine of analogy (De Nominum Analogia) and defended the real distinction and the primacy of the Pope against conciliarism. He examined Luther at Augsburg, advised on the English divorce (against the King), and late in life turned to literal biblical commentary.
Why he matters: Through him Thomism became a school with a settled vocabulary; his reading of St. Thomas on “pure nature” and on the natural desire for God is the point at which the twentieth-century nature-and-grace debate begins.
Where to be careful
De Lubac charged that Cajetan's “pure nature” misreads St. Thomas; his biblical commentaries drew criticism from the Sorbonne; and his doubt that the soul's immortality is philosophically demonstrable sits awkwardly with Lateran V (1513).
School of Thomism · The commentators
Cajetan, Bañez and John of St. Thomas, who defended Thomas against Scotists, nominalists and Jesuits and in doing so systematized him: the real distinction, premotion, the analogy of proportionality. Rigorous, Catholic and indispensable, but a step away from Thomas's own voice.
Others in this strand: Domingo Báñez, John of St. Thomas (João Poinsot), OP, Francisco de Vitoria
Reading
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The Analogy of Names and The Concept of BeingCajetan (trans. Bushinski and Koren) · The treatise on analogy.
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Cajetan Responds: A Reader in Reformation Controversyed. Jared Wicks, SJ · His writings against Luther, including the Augsburg memoranda.
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Commentary on the Summa Theologiae (in the Leonine edition)Cajetan · Read with the Summa, question by question; no full English translation exists.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.