PETER THOMAE

Franciscan scholastic (Petrus Thomae); b. probably in Compostella or nearby, c. 1280; d. c. 1340. Peter was lector at the Franciscan studium generale of Barcelona sometime after 1317 (more likely after 1322), and seems to have continued teaching until 1333. In that year he became apostolic penitentiary at Avignon. Nothing is known of him after 1336 although some older writers, confusing him with the Carmelite, St. Peter Thomas (d.1366), Bishop of Patti in Sicily, claimed he ended his days as a bishop.

At least nine works of theology and philosophy are known to be from Peter Thomae. Of his Sentences only a reportation of the first book is extant. This is followed by his De esse intelligibili, nine questions on the ontological status of ideas both in creatures and in God, perhaps an answer to a work of like title by william of alnwick. The 15 (unpublished) questions on being (De ente ) appear to be merely the first part of a work on the transcendentals in general; it defends Scotus's doctrine of being, analogy, and univocity, and gives some attention to the attacks on richard of conington. Peter again reveals his debt to Duns Scotus in two works on formalities about the formal distinction and its applications. Both seem to have brought Peter considerable fame in the late Middle Ages. The Quodlibet, one of his later works, is incomplete in the only extant manuscript (ed.M. R. Hooper and E. M. Buytaert, St. Bonaventure, New York 1957). While Peter's last philosophical work was the De unitate minori, there is considerable evidence that he wrote a commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics and perhaps on the Physics.

In the field of theology, Peter wrote the exegetic-moral work "On the Christian Rich Man," as well as the more important Liber de originali Virginis innocentia. This is the first extensive defense of the immaculate conception after those of Duns Scotus and peter aureoli (both of which are primary sources for the theological reasoning); it contains the first earnest effort to find positive support for the doctrine in Sacred Scripture. Unfortunately, the work did not exert a real influence until 50 or more years after its appearance when it was used by Peter of Candia (later antipope alexander v), Andrew of Neufchâteau, John Vitalis, and John of Segovia.

In his own day, Peter Thomae was called "a great Scotist" and given the titles Doctor strenuus, invincibilis, proficuus, and serenus. He is viewed today as a faithful disciple of the Subtle Doctor, important for his clarifications of the Scotist synthesis (see scotism).

Bibliography: É. buytaert, "The Scholastic Writings of Petrus Thomae," in j. auer and h. volk, eds., Theologie in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Munich 1957). g. g. bridges, Identity and Distinction in Petrus Thomae OFM (St. Bonaventure, N.Y. 1959). a. maieru, "Logica e Teologia Trinitaria ne Commento Alle Sentenze Attributo a Petrus Tomae," in j. jolivet, z. kaluza, and a. de libera, eds., Lectionum Varietates: Hommage à Paul Vignaux, 1904–1987 (Paris 1998), 177–198. i. brady, "The Later Years of Petrus Thomae," in Studia Mediaaevalia et Mariologica (Rome 1971), 249–257.

[i. c. brady]