Cajetan


Cajetan

[Lat.,=from Gaeta], 1469?–1534, Italian prelate, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, b. Gaeta. His original name was Giacomo de Vio. He joined the Dominicans (c.1484), became general of this order (1508), and was made a cardinal (1517). He played a leading role at the Fifth Lateran Council as an advocate of reform. As papal legate in Germany in 1518 and 1519 he attempted to reconcile the differences of Martin Luther with the church. He strongly opposed the divorce of Henry VIII of England from his first wife Katharine of Aragón. Cajetan's political skills helped secure the elections of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Pope Adrian VI. He translated parts of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin, and his commentaries are published with the Summa of St. Thomas Aquinas in the pontifical edition of that work.