Prierias: The Life and Works of Silvestro Mazzolini da Prierio (1456-1527). (Reviews).

Michael Tavuzzi, Prierias: The Life and Works of Silvestro Mazzolini da Prierio (1456-1527)

Duke Monographs in medieval and Renaissance Studies, Vol. 16. Durham: Duke University Press, 1997. x + 189 pp. $39.95. ISBN: 0-8223-1976-4.

Students of the Lutheran Reformation remember the Dominican Silvestro Mazzolini of Preierio -- Prierias -- for his charge that Martin Luther had a brain of brass and nose of iron, but there was much more to that exchange and to Prierias as this excellent biography demonstrates. By the time Luther uttered his opinion, Silvestro, as Michael Tavuzzi calls him, was a powerful voice with a solid theological and administrative pedigree, a man to be reckoned with.

Tavuzzi's biography surpasses previous accounts, using the order's archives and reassessing earlier analyses of both the man and his writings. His scholarly efforts yield much, but there are also holes that frustrate and unfortunately cannot be filled short of someone, for example, stumbling upon heretofore-undiscovered letters. Tavuzzi is clear in identifying when he has evidence and, to his credit, when he can do no more than suppose what might be the case. It seems that what can be said for certain is here. Someone primarily interested in historical theology might wish for even more detail about the writings, but the essential theological points, are recounted.

Along the way the reader learns not only about Silvestro but also about the larger workings of the Dominican order of his day. For example, the varied interests of the conventuals and regulars are distinguished, and how a man rose through the academic and administrative ranks is illustrated as we follow Silvestro as a kind of case study. The path recounted on the way to the elite circles explains what Silvestro did and said along the way.

Before the Luther controversy, Silvestro had rubbed elbows with other prominent names and figured in several other noteworthy controversies. Having seen Savonarola at close range may have later caused him to move quickly and sharply against Luther lest another case of reforming zeal get out of hand. Silvestro's criticisms in the Reuchlin affair strained relations with German humanists. And we learn of tension and disagreement within Dominican ranks, most notably with Cajetan. There was a clash over Pomponazzi's reassessment of Aristotle on the immortality of the soul, and in late life a role in the inquisition for witchcraft in Italy, all interesting episodes well explained in this study. But the most famous and perhaps the most significant chapter, the "main event" the modern reader comes to expect, arrived near the end with the emergence of Martin Luther.

Perhaps it was because the case seemed so obvious to Silvestro that he wrote as he did. By his account, the "Dialogue Against the Presumptuous Theses of Martin Luther" took a mere three days to compose off the top of his head. The essential position is there already in the introduction: indulgences were related to papal authority and therefore to run counter to the pope on such a matter was to run counter to the church itself. In Silvestro's eyes, Luther's attack went to the heart of the church and its identity. Thus rather than accept Luther's points simply as matters for dispute, Silvestro rejected them out of hand as heretical with no room for review, for distinctions, for concessions. Even Erasmus was taken aback at the tough stance, but it seems Silvestro's position had deep roots with a culture of obedience and reverence cultivated early on with the Observant Congregation of Lombardy, combined perhaps with memories of the Savonarola episode.

This was no slight matter for Luther. Dealing with John Tetzel or John Eck was one thing, but being targeted by the papal palace theologian was another. But rather than wilt under high-level condemnation, Luther outdid Prierias with a response dashed off in two days. The lines were clearly drawn with Scripture holding sway above all for Luther while other voices -- the fathers along with the canons and decretals -- played but an auxiliary and subordinate role. Sylvester Prierias, the Dominican, would remind Luther that Aquinas was a teacher of the church beyond anything come from Luther's line, but for Luther that mattered little in light of Scripture as authority. Tavuzzi's fine biography

shows how Prierias developed as an able spokesman for his, for Rome's, position. He understood Luther's arguments but would have none of them. And given long years in supervising, guiding, and disciplining, he expected compliance from Luther. But the differences were too deep. This was not a clash between someone simply def ending the papal purse against complaints of a mere "Bohemian" or schismatic. This went to the heart of doing theology. Out of this exchange over authority, over the basis of theology and the nature of the church, came one of the primary issues that drove the Reformation.

Silvestro saw the Luther affair escalate in the years that followed. And there were more years than commonly assumed, for according Tavuzzi's chronology, Silvestro died not in 1523 but in 1527 having seen the sack of Rome, a last indignity for this servant of the church. Tavuzzi's clear and fair-minded biography is a wonderful contribution to understanding the life and times of Sylvester Prierias.