Giacomo Nacchiante

Giacomo Nacchiante (Jacopo Nacchianti, Naclantus) (born 1502 at Florence; died at Chioggia, 6 May 1569) was an Italian Dominican theologian who served as Bishop of Chioggia (1544-1569).

Early Biography

He was placed by his father under the protection of the superintendent of the Ospedale degli Innocenti, Florence's foundling hospital, in 1509.

Formation

Nacchiante joined the Dominican Order at the convent of San Marco, in Florence. He studied at Bologna, where Michael Ghislieri, afterwards Pope Pius V, was his fellow-student.

Career

In 1541 Nacchiante was appointed professor of philosophy and theology at the Roman studium of the Dominican Order at Santa Maria sopra Minerva, which had developed out of the studium provinciale at Santa Sabina, and which would later develop into the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum.

Pope Paul III, struck with his talents, made him Bishop of Chioggia (30 January 1544). At the Council of Trent he made a vigorous protest against the words of the decree of the IV Session (8 April 1546), which asserts that the traditions of the Church are to be received with the same reverence and piety as the Scriptures; but he gave assent to the decree, when he saw it confirmed by the assembly. Further serious suspicions of his orthodoxy seem afterwards to have arisen, and the papal secretary at the Council of Trent, Angelo Massarelli, undertook an Inquisition. The records of the parallel Venetian Inquisition of Nacchiante's orthodoxy can be found in the Venetian state archives. As Pallavicini remarks, Pope Pius IV assigned to him grave affairs of trust, and he returned to the second and third sessions of the Council of Trent as a full participant in the Council's debates.

Works

His works were published by Pietro Fratino at Venice in 1567. Among them are:

• "Enarrationes ... in ep. D. Pauli ad Ephesios";
• "Inep. ad Romanos";
• "S. Scripturæ medulla";
• "Tractationes XVIII theologales";
• "Theoremata metaphysica";
• "Theoremata theologica".