MASTER
39
MASTER
tumultuous strain which was to appear 100 years
later in the innumerable works of Rubens.
Van Mander. Le Livre des Peintres, ed. Htmans (Paris, 1884); Waagen, Treasures of Art in England (London, 1854); Hymans, Quentin Metzys in Gazette des Beaux-Arts (18SS); Cohen, Studien zu Quentin Metzys (Bonn, 1894); de Bos- 8CHERE, Quentin Metzys (Brussels, 1907); Wurzbach, Nieder- landisches KUnsllerlexicon (Leipzig, 1906-10).
Louis Gillet.
Master of Arts. See Abts, Master of.
Master of the Sacred Palace. — Tliis office (which has alway.s been entrustei.1 to a Friar Preacher) may briefly be described as being that of the pope's theo- logian. St. Dominic, appointed in 1218, was the first Master of the Sacred Palace (Magister Sacri Palatii) . .\raong the eighty-four Dominicans who have suc- ceeded him, eighteen were subsequently created cardinals, twenty-four were made archbishops or bishops (including some of the cardinals), and six were elected generals of the order. Several are famous for their works on theology, etc., but only Durandus, Torquemada, Prierias, Mamachi, and Orsi can be mentioned here. As regards nationality: the majority have been Italians; of the remainder ten have been Spaniards and ten Frenchmen, one has been a German and one an Englislmian (i. e. William de Boderisham, or Bonderish, 126.3-1270?). It has sometimes been asserted that St. Thomas of Aquin was a Master of the Sacred Palace. This is due to a misconception. He was Lector of the Sacred Palace. The offices were not identical. (See Bullarium O. P., Ill, 18.) Though he and two other contemporary Dominicans, namely his teacher Bl. Albert the Great and his fellow pupil Bl. Ambrose Sansedonico (about both of whom the same assertion has been made) held successively the office of Lecturer on Scripture or on Theology in the papal palace school, not one of them was Master of the Sacred Palace. Their names do not occur in the official lists. While all Masters of the Sacred Palace were Dominicans, several members of other orders were Lectors of the Sacred Palace (e. g. Peckham O. S. F., who became Archbishop of Can- terbury in 1279).
St. Dominic's work as Master of the Sacred Palace consisted partly at least in expounding the Epistles of St. Paul (Colonna, O. P., c. 1255, who says that the commentary was then extant ; Flaminius ; S. An- tonius; Malvenda, in whose time the MS. of the Epistles used by the Saint as Master of the Sacred Palace was preserved in Toulouse; Echard; Renazzi; Mort.ier, etc.). These exegetical lectures were de- livered to prelates and to the clerical attendants of cardinals who, as the saint observed, had been accus- tomed to gather in the antechamber and to spend the time in gossip while their masters were having audiences with the pope. According to Renazzi (I, 25), St. Dominic ma> be regarded as the founder of the papal palace school, since his Biblical lectures were the occasion of its being estabhshed. Catalanus, who, however, is not guilty of the confusion alluded to above, says he was the first Lector of the Sacred Palace as well as the first Master of the Sacred Palace. In the thirteenth century the chief duty of the Mas- ter of the Sacred Palace was to lecture on Scripture and to preside over the theological school in the Vati- can: "in scholiE Romanaj et Pontificia; regimine et in publica sacriE scriptural expositione" (Echard). The Leclores or Magistri scholarum S. Palatii taught under him. It became customary for the Master of the Sacred Palace, according to Cardinal de Luca, to preach before the pope and his court in Advent and Lent. This had probably been sometimes done by St. Dominic. Up to the sixteenth century the Master of the Sacred Palace preached, but after it this work was permanently entrusted to his companion (a Dominican). A'further division of labour was made by Benedict XIV (Decree, " Inclyta Fratrum", 1743) j at present the companion preaches to the papal
household, and a Capuchin preaches to the pope and
to the cardinals.
But the work of the Master of the Sacred Palace as papal theologian continues to the present day. As it has assumed its actual form by centuries of development, we may give a summary of the legisla- tion respecting it and the various functions it com- prises and also of the honours attaching to it. The "Acta" (or "Calenda") of the Palatine officials in 1409 (under Alexander V) show that on certain days the Master of the Sacred Palace was bound to deliver lectures and on other days was expected, if called upon, either to propose or to answer questions at the theological conference which was held in tlie pope's presence. On .30 October, 1439, Eugene IV decreed that the Master of the Sacred Palace should rank next to the dean of the Rota, that no one should preach before the pope whose sermon had not been previously approved of by him, and that in accordance with ancient usage no one could be made a doctor of theology in Rome but by him (Bullarium O. P., Ill, 81). Callistus III (13 November, 1455) confirmed and amplified the second part of this decree, but at the same time exempted cardinals from its operation (ibid., p. 356). At present it has fallen into disuse. In the Fifth Lateran Council (sess. x, 4 May, 1513) Leo X ordained that no book should be printed either in Rome or in its district without leave from the cardi- nal vicar and the Master of the Sacred Palace (ibid., IV, 318). Paul V (11 June, 1620) and Urban VIII added to the obligations imposed by this decree. So did .Alexander VII in 1663 (Bullarium, passim). All these later enactments regard the inhabitants of the Roman Province or of the Papal States. They were renewed by Benedict XIV (1 Sept., 1744). And the permission of the Master of the Sacred Palace must be got not only to print, but to publish, and before the second permission is granted, three printed copies must be deposited with him, one for himself, another for his companion, a third for the cardinal vicar. The Roman Vicariate never examines work intended for publication. For centuries the imprimatur of the Master of the Sacred Palace who always examines them followed the Si videbitur Revercndissimo Magis- tro Sacri Palatii of the cardinal vicar; now in virtue of custom but not of any ascertained law, since about the year 1825 the cardinal vicar gives an imprimatur, and it follows that of the Master of the Sacred Palace. At present 'the obligation once incumbent on cardinals of presenting their work to the Master of the Sacred Palace for his imprimatur has fallen into disuse, but through courtesy many cardinals do present their works. In the Constitution " Officiorum ac munerum " (25 Jan., 1897), Leo XIII declared that all persons residing in Rome may get leave from the Master of the Sacred Palace to read forbidden books, and that if authors who live in Rome intend to get their works published elsewhere, the joint imprimatur of the car- dinal vicar and the Master of the Sacred Palace renders it mmecessary to ask ajiy other approbation. As is well known, if an author not rcsidi-iit in Rome desires to have his work published there, pnivided that an agreement with the author's Ordinary has been made and that the Master of the Sacred Palace ju<lges fa- vourably of the work, the imprimatur will be given. In this case the book is knomi by its having two title- pages: the one bearing the name of the domiciliary, the other of the Roman jjublisher.
Before the establishment of the Congregations of the Inquisition (in 1.542) and Index (1587), the Mas- terof the Sacred Palace condemned books and forbade reading them under censure. Instances of his so doing occur regularly till about the middle of the sixteenth century; one occurred as late as 1604, but by degrees this "task has been appropriated to the above-mentioned congregations of which he is an ex- officio member. The Master of the Sacred Palace was
