Author: Matthew Gaetano

Cries for Reform in the Tradition – Bernard of Clairvaux (and Pope Eugenius III)

In the previous post, we saw Bernard of Clairvaux’s way of confronting the spiritual and moral failures of those seeking and holding clerical offices. In On Consideration to Pope Eugenius, his aim is the reform of the papacy. Writing between 1148-53, Bernard sets forth what Oliver and Joan Lockwood O’Donovan call a “mirror” of the papal office.… Read More Cries for Reform in the Tradition – Bernard of Clairvaux (and Pope Eugenius III)

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Cries for Reform in the Tradition – Bernard of Clairvaux

by Matthew Gaetano Recent events–political and especially ecclesiastical–have made discussions of fourteenth-century political theology, seventeenth-century Augustinianism, nineteenth-century Romanticism, etc., seem less than timely or appropriate. In light of this situation, I thought that it might be fruitful to see how saints, theologians, and clergymen in the past articulated their cries for reform. A friend recently… Read More Cries for Reform in the Tradition – Bernard of Clairvaux

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Friedrich Schlegel, Romanticism, and Catholic Traditionalism

by Matthew Gaetano Friedrich Schlegel (1772-1829), one of the most important early German Romantics, deserves more attention from theologians today. I think that one of the reasons for the problematic shape of “modernity criticism” today is that we at times forget about the critics of Bacon, Hobbes, Descartes, and others between the seventeenth and twentieth… Read More Friedrich Schlegel, Romanticism, and Catholic Traditionalism

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Articles 1-3 of the Colloquy of Regensburg

by Matthew Gaetano Article 5 of the Colloquy of Regensburg–its statement on justification–is a famous moment in the history of dialogue between Roman Catholics and Protestants. A while ago, we published a rough translation of the agreement on original sin. I’ve provided here a translation of Articles 1 through 3 on the state of innocence,… Read More Articles 1-3 of the Colloquy of Regensburg

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John of Paris, the Deposing Power, and the Punishment of Heretics

by Matthew Gaetano In a previous post, I discussed Henri de Lubac’s criticism of the position of Bellarmine and Suarez on the pope’s power to depose Christian kings. Though he believed that such a position was already obsolete in the context of his own day, he called this position–quite widespread from the Middle Ages through… Read More John of Paris, the Deposing Power, and the Punishment of Heretics

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Henri de Lubac’s Criticism of Indirect Power

by Matthew Gaetano In my previous post, I discussed theologians who offered interpretations of the doctrine of the two swords before the Second Vatican Council. While some hierocrats believed that the pope’s two swords made him lord of the world, Vitoria, Bellarmine, and Suarez argued that popes had indirect power in temporal matters. Papal power… Read More Henri de Lubac’s Criticism of Indirect Power

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Boniface VIII’s Two Swords and the Theologians

by Matthew Gaetano In the excellent dialogue hosted at the Regensburg Forum several months ago about Vatican II, religious freedom, and political theology, Boniface VIII seems (quite understandably) to have been in the background. His 1308 bull Unam Sanctam makes several claims that remain important to contemporary theological discussion. Boniface speaks of two swords: the spiritual and the temporal. Both… Read More Boniface VIII’s Two Swords and the Theologians

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The True, the Good, and the Beautiful in Reformed Scholasticism

by Matthew Gaetano This title is a bit misleading because I only intend to offer brief remarks about Bartholomew Keckermann’s statements about the transcendental properties of being in his Compendious System of the Science of Metaphysics (1611). I hope that it helps to develop the remarks about scholasticism and the Reformed tradition from previous posts. A Reformed… Read More The True, the Good, and the Beautiful in Reformed Scholasticism

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