CAJETAN
145
CAJETAN
in the collections of councils, in CouBTANT, Micne, Hinschiub,
etc. On a letter attributed to fains hv the Malabar Christians.
see Routh, Rcliq. Sacra:, II, 158, and Harnack. op. nl . 777
John Chapman.
Cajetan (Gabtano), Saint, founder of the Thea- tines, b. Oct., 1480 at Vicenza in Venetian territory; d. at Naples in 1547. Under the care of a pious mother he passed a studious and exemplary youth, and took his degree as doctor utriusque juris at Padua in his twenty-fourth year. In 1.506 he became at Rome a prothonotary Apostolic in the court of Julius II, and took an important share in reconciling the Republic of Venice with that pontiff. On the death of Julius in 1513 he withdrew from the court, and is cred- ited with founding, shortly after, an association of pious priests and prelates called the Oratory of Divine Love, which spread to other Italian towns. Though remarkable for his intense love of God, he did not advance to the priesthood till 1516. Recalled to Vicenza in the following year by the death of his mother, he founded there a hospital for incurables, thus giving proof of the active charity that filled his whole life. But his zeal was more deeply moved by the spiritual diseases that, in those days of political disorder, infected the clergy of all ranks, and. like St. Augustine in earlier times, he strove to reform them by instituting a body of regular clergy, who should combine the spirit of monast jcism with the exercises of the active ministry.
Returning to Rome in 1523 he laid the foundations of his new congregation, which was canonically erected by Clement VII in 1524. One of his four companions was Giovanni Pietro Caraffa, Bishop of Chieti (in Latin Thratr), afterwards Paul IV. who was elected first superior, and from whose title arose the name, Theatines. The order grew but slowly. During the sack of Rome in 1527 the Theatines, then twelve in number, escaped to Venice after enduring many outrages from the heretic invaders. There Cajetan met St. Hieronymus jEmiliani (see Somaschi), whom he assisted in the establishment of his Congregation of ( 'lerks Regular. In 1533 Cajetan founded a house in Naples, where he was able to check the advances of Lutheranism. In 1540 he was again at Venice, whence he extended his work to Verona and Vicenza. He passed the last four years of his life, a sort of seraphic existence, at Naples where he died finally of grief at the discords of the city, suffering in his last moments a kind of mystical crucifixion. He was beatified by Urban VIII in 1629. and canonized by Clement X in 1671. His feast is kept on the 7th of August.
Acta 8S., August. II, 2S2; Matjlde de la Cuviere. Si. Cajetan (2d ed., Paris, 1905); Const. Conn. Cleric. Regul S P. Cajetan (1706); Luben, Der hi. Cajetan von Thine (Ratisbon, 1883).
Joseph Keating.
Cajetan, Constantino, a Benedictine savant, b.
at Syracuse, Sicily, in 1560; d. at Rome, 17 Septem
ber, 1650. While his brothers. Ottavio and Alfonso,
joined the Societv of Jesus, Constantino became
a Benedictine (29 October, 1586) at San Nicold
d'Arena in Catania, and was soon called to Home
by Clement VIII, who confided to the promising
voting scholar an edition of the works of St. Peter
Damian, which he executed in four folio volumes
(Rome, 1606 et strp.). His constant and successful
researches in Roman archives won him the friend-
ship of Cardinal Baronius, through whom he was
made titular Abbot of San Baronzio in the Diocese
of Pistoia, and Custodian of the Vatican Library; the
latter important office he held under four popes until
his death. Baronius was much indebted to him in
the composition of his "Annales Ecclesiastici", and
more than once praises Cajetan 's thorough knowledge
of the Roman archives (e. g. ad an. 1002, n. 10).
III.— 10
He was a tireless worker in the field of ecclesiastical
history; the long list of his writings may be seen
in Ziegelbauer, "Hist, rei lit. O. S. B." (Augsburg,
1754, III, 380 sqq.). Among them are a life of
the liturgist, St. Amalarius of Trier (Rome, 1612),
annotated lives of St. Isidore of Seville, St. Ilde-
phonsus of Toledo, Cardinal Gregory of Ostia, notes
on the life of St. Anselm, an annotated edition of the
"Vita Gelasii II" by Pandolfo of Pisa (Murat.,
Script. Rer. It., Ill, 367). treatises on the primacy
and the Roman episcopate of St. Peter (Rocca-
berti, Bibl. max. pontif., VII). He was persuaded
that St. Gregory the Great was a genuine disciple of
St. Benedict, and wrote in defence of this thesis "De
S. Gregorii monachatu benedictino libri duo" (Salz-
burg, 1620). The authorship of the "Imitation of
Christ" interested him also, and he several times
broke a lance for the Benedictine Jean Gersen
[" Joannes Gersen, De Imit. Xti, acced. Defensio pro
Gersen et methodo praetica IV librorum" (Rome,
1616); "Concertatio, Apologetica responsio" (Rome,
1618); "Libellus apologeticus pro Gersen" (Rome,
1644 '<. the latter two against Rosweyde]. His ardour
for the glory of the Benedictine Order troubled his
judgment occasionally, says Father Hurter, e. g.
when he claimed for it such persons as St. Colum-
banus of Bobbio, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis
of Assisi, St. Ignatius Loyola. He inaugurated the
controversy concerning the authorship of the work
known as the "Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius"
by his book " De religiosa S. Ignatii, sive S. Enneconis
lundatoris soc. Jesu per Benedictinos institutione,
deque libello exercitiorum ejusdem ab Exercitato-
rio Cisnerii desumpto" (Venice. 104 1). in which he
claimed priority for the " Exercitatorium Spirituale"
of Garcias de Cisneros, Benedictine Abbot of Mont-
ferrat (1455-1510). (See Spiritual Exercises.)
Both this work and the "Achates", or reply of
Giovanni Rho, S. J., were placed on the Index of
Forbidden Books in 1646. Cajetan was an intelli-
gent and munificent collector of books, and at his
death left his fortune to the "Bibliotheca Aniciana",
founded by him in honour of the family of St. Gregory
the Great (Gens Anicia); the books have since been
divided between the Propaganda Library and that
of the Sapienza. or Roman university. To many his
chief title to fame will seem to rest on his claim to be
considered the first promoter, if not the founder,
of the Propaganda College at Rome. He had long
hoped to found at Rome a Collegium Gregorianum de
Cropagandd fide, in which young Benedictines might e trained for foreign missions, after the spirit and teachings of St. Gregory the Great, Apostle of the Anglo-Saxons. He really opened a house of studies for this purpose in the monastery of San Benedetto in Piscinula at Rome, and this may be looked on as historically the germ of Propaganda. (Cf. his "De ereetione eollegii Gregoriani in Urbe epistola ency- clica", Rome, 1622.) His idea was taken up seri- ously by Gregory XV (1621-23), and by him enlarged and modified until it took shape as the "Collegium [later Urbanum] de propaganda fide". However, the enlightened zeal and pioneer labours of Dom Cajetan received due recognition by his nomination as first consultor of the new college. (See Propaganda College of).
Hcrter, Somrndalor, I, 45!): Woi.fsgruber, in Kirchcnlex. s. v.; BucHBEHOER, Kirrhl. Handler. (Munich, 1906), s. v.; Heurtebize, in Diet, de thiol, cath., s. v.
Thomas J. Shahan.
Cajetan, Tommaso de Vio Gaetani (baptized Giacomo), Dominican cardinal, philosopher, theolo- gian, and exegete; b. 20 Feb., 1469 at Gaeta, Italy: d. 9 Aug.. 1534 at Rome. He came of noble stock, and in early boyhood was devout and fond of study. Against the will of his parents he entered the Domini-
