Mamachi, Thomas Maria
Mamachi, Thomas Maria
Dominican theologian and historian, born at Chios in the Archipelago, 4 December, 1713; died at Corneto, near Montefiascone, Italy, 7 June, 1792. At the age of sixteen he entered the convent of Chios and passed later to St. Mark’s at Florence and the Minerva at Rome. In 1740 he was appointed professor of physics in the Sapienza, and in 1743 taught philosophy at the Propaganda. His residence at Florence and Rome brought him into contact with brilliant men of his order, e.g. Orsi, Divelli, and Concina, and greatly facilitated his progress in his studies. He collaborated with Orsi in his “De Romani pontificis in synodos oecumenicas et earum canones potestate”. Soon Benedict XIV appointed him prefect of the Casanatensian Library, master of theology and consultor of the Congregation of the Index. Owing to his office he had to take part in the controversy between the Appellants (Jansenists) and the Jesuits, and displayed an impartiality which greatly increased the difficulties of his anxious and laborious position. He engaged in lively theological controversies with Mansi and Cadonici. He had, likewise, to intervene in the controversy concerning the beatification of Blessed Palafox. In a published writing on this question, he dealt severely with the Jesuit party who opposed the beatification; but he was not less energetic in dealing with their opponents, the Appellants and Jansenist Church of Utrecht. He was director of the ecclesiastical journal of Rome (1742-85), and established at his residence a reunion of the learned Roman society.
Mamachi was a zealous supporter of the power of the Roman Pontiff. Involved in all the controversy of the day, he was one of the first to take issue with Febronius. Pius VI made him secretary of the Index (1779) and afterwards Master of the Sacred Palace, and frequenty availed himself of his advice and of his pen. Mamachi’s great work was to have been his “Christian Antiquities”, but his labours in the field of dogma and jurisprudence absorbed so much of his time that he published only four of the twenty books that he planned. Moreover, he lived in an age when the good method inaugurated by Bosio had been abandoned and, considered as an archaeological work, the synthesis which he had projected is valueless. A second edition, however, appeared in 1842-1851. His chief writings are: “De ratione temporum Athanasiorum deque aliquot synodis IV saeculo celebratis” (Florence, 1748) “Originum et antiquitatum christianarum libri XX” (4 vols. Rome, 1749-55) “Dei costumi dei primitivi cristiani” (3 vols. Rome, 1753 sqq.) “Epistolae ad Justinum Febronium de ratione regendae christianae reipublicae (2 vols. Rome, 1776-77).
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R. MAERE Transcribed by Joseph P. Thomas In Memory of Fr. Sebastine Karethedomy
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IXCopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Mamachi, Thomas Maria
a distinguished Dominican, was born on the island of Chio Dec. 3,1713; was brought to Italy when yet a youth, and joined the Dominicans. He became professor of theology at Florence, and in 1740 was called to Rome as a member of the college of the Propaganda. Benedict XIV made him a doctor of divinity, and appointed him member of the congregation of the Index, of which he became secretary in 1779. Under Pius VI he was appointed Magisterpalatii. He died in 1792, at Corneto, near Montefiascone. His principal works are Ad Joh. D. Mansium de ratione temporum Athanasiorum deque aliquot Synodis iv sceculo celebrats Epistoole iv (Flor. 1748), against Mansi, who, in his De epochis conciliorum Sardicensis et Sirmiensium, cceterumque in causa A rianorum, hac occasione simul rerum potissimarum S. A thanasii Chronologiam restituit (Lucre, 1746), asserted, contrary to general opinion, that the Council of Sardica was held in 344, and that the return of Athanasius to Alexandria took place in 346. His Oriqinum et antiquitatum Christianarum Libb. xx (Rom. 1749-55), of which only five books, however, were completed, is a very important work, holding the same position among the Roman Catholics as Bingham’s Origines ecclesiasticoe among the Protestants; it is written in view of the later work, which it often attempts to refute. De Costumi deprimitivi Christiani libri tres (Rome, 1753; Venice, 1757) is an interesting work on the early ages of Christianity, and contains some valuable and curious information. Epistolarum ad Justinum Febronium, de ratione regende Christiance reipublicce, deque legitima Romani Pontificis potestate, Liber primus (Romans 1776), in answer to Justinus Febronius’s (J. N. von Hontheim, q.v.) De statu Ecclesiae et legitina potestate Romani Pontificis liber singularis, etc. (Bullioni. 1763), is but a weak production compared to that which it attacked. See Neue theol. Bibliothek, 55. 392 sq.; Acta historico- eclesiastica nostri temporis, 39:888; Gttinger gel. Anzeigen, 1757, p. 1189 sq.; 1759, p. 595; Richard et Giratud, Biblioth. sacree. Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale. 33. 123; Herzog, Real-Encyklopdie, 8:772; Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 10:806.