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| Toynbee "Matteo d'Acquasparta" |
monk of the Franciscan order, who was appointed general of the
order in 1287, and created cardinal by Nicholas IV in the next
year. In 1300, and again in 1301, he was sent by Boniface VIII to
Florence to act as mediator between the Bianchi and the Neri, but
he was unsuccessful in his mission on both occasions (Villani,
viii. 40, 43, 49). He died in 1302. His portrait is preserved in a
fresco by Benozzo Gozzoli in the church of St. Francis at
Montefalco in Umbria. As general he introduced relaxations in the
discipline of the Franciscan order, which allowed abuses to creep
in, and which were vehemently opposed by the ascetic Ubertino da
Casale, the head of the so-called Spiritualists. Matteo and
Ubertino are referred to by Bonaventura (in the Heaven of the Sun)
in allusion to their different views as to the interpretation of
the rule of St. Francis,
[Par. xii. 124-126].
[Acquasparta:
Casale:
Ubertino da Casale.]
[See V. Doucet, introduction to Bonaventura, Quaestiones
disputatae de gratia (Quaracchi, 1935).]
©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee
(1968) by permission of Oxford University Press