Italy: Notable Philosophers, Theologians, and Religious Figures

1033 - 1109 - St. Anselm of Canterbury (All Facts)

• Italian Philosopher

  • He was one of the first Scholastic philosophers

• He was the Archbishop of Canterbury

• He proposed the Ontological Argument for God’s existence

  • This sought to establish the existence of God by reason, arguing that God must necessarily exist since He is perfect and it is more perfect to exist than not

1181 - 1226 - St. Frances of Assisi (All Facts)

• Founded his namesake religious order, also known as the Friars Minor

  • It was approved by Pope Innocent III

  • It was based on a simple life derived from the Gospel

  • Its members gave up all their possessions and went around ragged, barefoot, and dirty like vagabond beggars, mixing themselves in with the poor and helping them

  • In his own lifetime, he resigned from being the leader of the namesake order which he created

• He was known for devoting himself to helping not just the poor and the sick, but animals

  • He was famous for preaching to animals such as birds, and they appeared to listen to him and talk back

• He was born as the son of a wealthy cloth merchant

• He became uneasy about the contrast between his riches and the poverty and sickness he saw in the streets

  • One day, he not only gave alms to lepers, but forced himself to kiss one on the lips

  • In doing so, he produced a sudden and profound conversion for himself to Christianity

• Later on he had a second revelation when the crucifix of the church of St. Damien spoke to him and said “You, go and repair my house, which you see is in ruins”

  • He first interpreted this literally and went through the streets begging for stones to rebuild the church of St. Damien and sold some of his father’s cloth to buy more stones, but his father was furious with him and demanded his money back

  • So the namesake gave it to him publicly in front of the bishop’s palace and then, in dramatic fashion, he also took off his clothes and gave them back as well saying, “Naked I will go to the Lord”

1225 - 1274 - St. Thomas Aquinas (All Facts)

• Italian Scholastic Philosopher

• Best known for his works “Summa contra Gentiles,” which explains Catholicism, and “Summa Theologica,” which summarized his entire work

  • He argued and showed that Aristotelian reason and the Christian faith were complementary and confirmed, rather than contradicted each other

  • His work marked a major watershed in western thought for his success in creating a synthesis of Christian theology and Aristotelianism

  • He thus forged a new bond between Christian Europe and one of the great philosophers of its pagan past

• He

  • was born of a noble family at Aquino, near Naples

  • entered the order of and became a Dominican

  • traveled to Paris to study under Albertus Magnus, a fellow Dominican

  • studied Aristotle thoroughly when he was back in Italy at the papal court

  • died at the papal court at the age of 48

1265 - St. Thomas Aquinas: Summa Contra Gentiles (All Facts)

• Work in which the namesake author stated his belief in the power of reason and presented arguments designed to convince the non-believer of the power and truth displayed in Christianity

• Work which, along with the namesake author’s others, gave a strong Aristotelian basis to Catholic philosophy

1247 - 1328 - Giovanni Monte Corvino (All Facts)

• Italian Franciscan Missionary

• He established the earliest Latin Catholic missions in India and China

• He famously baptized Khaistan Kuluk, the third great khan of the Yuan Dynasty in China

1347 - 1380 - St. Catherine of Siena (All Facts)

• She was one of the greatest Christian mystics who had glorified the age of mystical fervor at the time

• She was in constant tireless devotion to those in need and to the church, both in her native town and throughout Italy

• She sought recognition of Pope Urban VI in the face of the breakaway papacy at Avignon and the election of anti-Pope Clement VII

• She was paralyzed from the waist down by a stroke and then died eight days afterwards

1433 - 1499 - Marsilio Ficino (All Facts)

• Italian Philosopher from Florence

• He was a leading member of Florence’s “Platonic Academy”

1454 - 1494 - Angelo Poliziano (All Facts)

• Italian Renaissance Poet from Florence

• He was the official poet for Lorenzo de Medici

• His poems inspired Sandro Botticelli to paint “Primavera” and “The Birth of Venus,” Botticelli’s two most famous paintings

1463 - 1494 - Pico della Mirandola (All Facts)

• Italian Renaissance Philosopher from Ferrara

• He took on the view of Humanism, writing that “nothing in the world can be found that is more worthy of admiration than man”

• He suggested that Christ did not really descend into the underworld

• He argued that cabalistic magic is the best way of proving the divinity of Christ

• He was the son of a noble family

• He began to study canon law at the age of 10 in Bologna

• He began to study philosophy at the age of 12 in Ferrara

• He began to study Hebrew and Arabic in Perugia, where he was strongly influenced by Jewish scholars of the Kabbalah

• He met many humanist philosophers while in Sorbonne in France

• His views and work was condemned as heresy in a papal commission by Pope Innocent VIII

1482 - Marsilio Ficino: The Platonic Theology “Concerning the Immortality of the Soul” (All Facts)

• Philosophical work which argues for the freedom of the soul from the body

1486 - Pico della Mirandola: Conclusiones (All Facts)

• Work which comprises 900 propositions about God and man