, commonly called the Angelical Doctor, of the ancient family of the counts
, commonly called the Angelical Doctor, of the ancient family of the counts of Aquino,
descended from the kings of Sicily and Arragon, was born
in the castle of Aquino, in the Terra di Lavoro, in Italy,
about the year 1224. At five years of age he was committed to the care of the monks of Mount Cassino, with whom
he remained till he was sent to the university of Naples.
In the year 1241 he entered into the order of the
preaching friars at Naples, without the knowledge of his parents.
His mother, being informed of this, used her utmost efforts to induce him to leave this society; to prevent which,
the Dominicans removed him toTerracina, and from thence
to Anagna, md at last to Rome. His mother followed him
thither, and when she could not obtain leave of the monks
to see him, by the assistance of her two elder sons, she seized
the youth in his journey to Paris, to which he was sent by the
monks of his order, and caused him to be shut up in her
castle; whence, after a confinement of two jears, he made
his escape, and fled first to Naples, and then to Rome.
In 1244 he went to Paris with John, the master of the Teutonic order, and from thence removed to Cologne, to hear
the lectures of Albertus Magnus. Here he remained till
he was invited again to Pans, to read lectures upon the
“Book of Sentences,
” which he did with great applause,
before a very large audience. In the year 1255 he was
created D. D. at Paris. He returned to Italy about the
year 1263, and was appointed definitor of his order, for
the province of Rome; and having taught school divinity
in most of the universities of Italy, he re-settled at last at
Naples, where he received a pension from king Charles.
Here he spent his time in study, in reading of lectures,
and exercises of piety; and was so far from any views of
ambition or profit, that he refused the archbishopric of that
city when it was offered him by Clement IV. In 1274 he
was sent for to the second council of Lyons, by pope Gregory X. that he might read before them the book he had
written against the Greeks, at the command of Urban IV.;
but he fell sick on his journey, at the monastery of Fossanova, near Terracina, where he died on the 7th of March,
aged fifty years.