Sylvester Mazzolini, in
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
Silvestro Mazzolini da Prierio, in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
Sylvester Prierias. (1456/1457 – 1527) was a
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
born at
Priero,
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
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; he died at
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
. Prierias perished when the imperial troops forced their way into the city, leading to the
Sack of Rome.
At the age of fifteen, he entered the
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of ...
. Passing brilliantly through a course of studies, he taught theology at
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...
,
Pavia
Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the cap ...
(by invitation of the senate of
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
), and in Rome, whither he was called by
Julius II
Pope Julius II ( la, Iulius II; it, Giulio II; born Giuliano della Rovere; 5 December 144321 February 1513) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1503 to his death in February 1513. Nicknamed the Warrior Pope or the ...
in 1511. In 1515, he was appointed Master of the Sacred Palace, filling that office until his death.
His writings cover a vast range, including treatises on the
planets, the power of the
demons,
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
,
homiletics
In religious studies, homiletics ( grc, ὁμιλητικός ''homilētikós'', from ''homilos'', "assembled crowd, throng") is the application of the general principles of rhetoric to the specific art of public preaching. One who practices or ...
, the works of St.
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wit ...
and the primacy of the
popes. His exposition of Thomas' teaching was critical of the interpretations offered by his fellow Dominican Thomas de Vio
Cajetan.
Prierias is credited with being the first theologian who by his writings attacked publicly the doctrines of
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...
.
Johann Tetzel
Johann Tetzel (c. 1465 – 11 August 1519) was a German Dominican friar and preacher. He was appointed Inquisitor for Poland and Saxony, later becoming the Grand Commissioner for indulgences in Germany. Tetzel was known for granting indulgence ...
's productions against the arch-reformer are called by
Jacques Échard
Jacques Échard (22 September 1644, in Rouen – 15 March 1724, in Paris) was a French Dominican and historian of the order.
As the son of a wealthy official of the king he received a thorough classical and secular education. He entered the Domin ...
scattered pages (''folia volitantia''), and Mazzolini stands forth as the first champion of Roman
Pontiff
A pontiff (from Latin ''pontifex'') was, in Roman antiquity, a member of the most illustrious of the colleges of priests of the Roman religion, the College of Pontiffs."Pontifex". "Oxford English Dictionary", March 2007 The term "pontiff" was la ...
s against Luther. Luther replied to Mazzolini's arguments and the latter published rejoinders, and there was a regular
controversy between them.
According to D.J. Kennedy’s article in the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'', ‘the necessity of promptness in attack and defence will account for defects of style in some of his writings’. Morgan Cowie is blunter on his performance in the controversy with Luther: ‘he succeeded so ill that the Pope forbade him to write any more on the matters in discussion’. He further notes that the eighteenth-century Jesuit literary critic
Girolamo Tiraboschi
Girolamo Tiraboschi S.J. (; 18 December 1731 – 9 June 1794) was an Italian literary critic, the first historian of Italian literature.
Biography
Born in Bergamo, he studied at the Jesuit college in Monza, entered the order, and was appointed i ...
‘is rather annoyed that
Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' w ...
speaks ill of our author as a controversialist, but is compelled to allow it to be true.’
[Morgan Cowie, ''A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts and scarce books in the Library of St. John’s College, Cambridge'' (London: Deighton, 1843)]
p. 127
His principal works are: ''De juridica et irrefragabili veritate Romenæ Ecclesiæ Romenique Pontificis'' (Rome, 1520); ''Epitoma responsionis ad Lutherum'' (
Perugia
Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia.
The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and pa ...
, 1519); ''Errata et argumenta M. Lutheri'' (Rome, 1520); ''Summa Summarum, quæ Sylvestrina dicitur'' (Rome, 1516), reprinted forty times; an alphabetical
encyclopedia of theological questions; ''Rosa aurea'' (Bologna, 1510) an exposition of the
Gospels of the year; ''In theoricas planetarum'' (Venice, 1513).
Works
*
*
*
*''In theoricas planetarum'', Venice, 1513.
*
*''Summa Summarum, quæ Sylvestrina dicitur'', Rome, 1516 (40 reprints).
**
*''Epitoma responsionis ad Lutherum'', Perugia, 1519.
*''De juridica et irrefragabili veritate Romenæ Ecclesiæ Romenique Pontificis'', Rome, 1520.
*''Errata et argumenta M. Lutheri'', Rome, 1520.
References
*
* Michael M. Tavuzzi,''Prierias : the life and works of Silvestro Mazzolini da Prierio, 1456-1527'', Durham, N.C. : Duke University Press, 1997.
External links
C. Matthew McMahon, ''A History of the Reformation in the 16th Century'', Book 3*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mazzolini, Sylvester
1450s births
1527 deaths
15th-century Italian Roman Catholic theologians
Italian Dominicans
16th-century Italian Roman Catholic theologians