Francesco Silvestri

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Francesco Silvestri (Ferrariensis) (b. at Ferrara about 1474; d. at Rennes, 19 September 1526) was an Italian Dominican theologian.

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[edit] Life

At the age of fourteen he joined the Dominican Order. In 1516 he was made a master in theology. He was prior first in his native city and then at Bologna, and in the provincial chapter held at Milan in 1519 he was chosen Vicar-General of the Lombard congregation of his order.

Having discharged this office for the allotted term of two years, he became regent of the college at Bologna where he remained for a considerable time. Later he was appointed by Pope Clement VII vicar-general of his entire order, and on 3 June, 1525, in the general chapter held at Rome, he was elected master general.

As general of his order he visited nearly all the convents of Italy, France, and Belgium, restoring everywhere primitive fervor and discipline. He was planning to begin a visitation of the Spanish convents, when a fatal illness carried him away. Albert Leander, his traveling companion, tells us that he was a man of remarkable mental endowments, that nature seemed to have enriched him with all her gifts.

[edit] Works

Silvestri wrote many works, principal among which is his monumental Commentary on the Summa contra Gentiles of St. Thomas Aquinas (Paris, 1552), and also explanations of various books of Aristotle. In his forceful and elegant Apologia de convenientia institutorum Romanae Ecclesiae cum evangelica libertate (Rome, 1525), he defended the primacy and the organization of the Catholic Church against Martin Luther. Some have erroneously attributed this work to Silvester Prierias.

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Preceded by
García de Loaysa		 Master General of the Dominican Order
1524 – 1526		 Succeeded by
Paolo Butigella

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.