Cajetan

Cajetan [Lat.,=from Gaeta], 1469?-1534, Italian prelate, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, b. Gaeta. His original name was Giacomo de Vio. He joined the Dominicans (c.1484), became general of this order (1508), and was made a cardinal (1517). He played a leading role at the Fifth Lateran Council as an advocate of reform. As papal legate in Germany in 1518 and 1519 he attempted to reconcile the differences of Martin Luther with the church. He strongly opposed the divorce of Henry VIII of England from his first wife Katharine of Aragón. Cajetan's political skills helped secure the elections of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Pope Adrian VI. He translated parts of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin, and his commentaries are published with the Summa of St. Thomas Aquinas in the pontifical edition of that work.

Cajetan, Tommaso De Vio (1464–1534). Dominican scholar and exponent of Aquinas. He entered the Dominican order in 1484 against his parents' wishes, and became a prolific author, with more than 100 works attributed to him. The best-known, De Ente et Essentia, attacked Averroism. He strongly defended the monarchical authority of the pope at the (Ps.-) Council of Pisa, and was accordingly made cardinal in 1517. In 1518, he held three disputations with Luther, but failed to convince him. His commentary on the Summa Theologica of Aquinas led to a revival of Thomism.

Cajetan, Thomas de Vio (1469–1534), Dominican theologian. As General of his Order (1508–18), Cardinal (1517), and Bp. of Gaeta (1519), he played an important part in ecclesiastical affairs, urging the cause of reform before the Lateran Council of 1512, reasoning with M. Luther in 1518, and opposing the projected divorce of Henry VIII (1530). His commentary on St Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae (1507–22) was the first monument of the 16th-cent. revival of Thomism.