TUDESCHIS, NICOLAUS DE

Canonist; b. Catania, 1386; d. Palermo, 1445. He studied under Antonius de Butrio and Franciscus Zabarella, and taught from 1412 in Bologna, Parma, Sienna, and Florence. He was named an auditor general of the Camera Apostolica in 1421 and abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of Santa Maria de Maniaco in 1425 (thus his title abbas Siculus, abbas modernus). In 1434 he was nominated archbishop of Palermo by King Alfonso V of Aragon and Sicily, and was confirmed in this see in 1435 by Eugene IV (hence he was called also Panormitanus). In 1436 he was the ambassador of Alfonso V to the Council of Basel, where he played, with interruptions, a changing but always leading role. He was named a cardinal by the Basel antipope Felix V in 1440.

A sharp distinction is to be made between his juridico-dogmatic works and the polemical speeches occasioned by the ecclesiastical political quarrels of the time. The principal works of the first group are the extensive Commentarium begun in 1421 on the decretals of Gregory IX, a Lectura on the Clementines, 221 Consilia, and seven Questiones. The Quaestio Episcopus et quidam rector curatus reflects his moderate conciliar ideas stemming from the canonistic tradition. To the second group belong the many polemical addresses given in Basel and at the Frankfort Diets of 1438 and 1442. These speeches are to be used with caution as a source for his views on ecclesiastical constitutional law.

Bibliography: c. lefebvre, Dictionnaire de droit canonique, ed. r. naz, 7 v. (Paris 1935–65) 6:1195–1215, excellent article. j.f. von schulte, Die Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des kanonischen Rechts, 3 v. in 4 pts. (Stuttgart 1875–80; repr. Graz 1956) 2:312–313. a. van hove, Commentarium Lovaniense in Codicem iuris canonici 1, v.1–5 (Mechlin 1928–); v.1, Prolegomena (2d ed. 1945) 1:466 and passim. j. schweizer, Nicolaus de Tudeschi …: Seine Tätigkeit am Basler Konzil (Strasbourg 1924). c. lefebvre, "L'Enseignement de Nicolas de Tudeschis et l'autorité pontificale," Ephemerides iuris canonici 14 (1958) 312–339. k. w. nÖrr, Kirche und Konzil bei Nicolaus de Tudeschis (Cologne 1964).

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