Giovanni Lorenzo Berti
Giovanni Lorenzo Berti (1696–1766), also known by his Latinized name Johannes Laurentius Berti, was an Italian Augustinian theologian. The General of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, Schiaffinati, instructed him to write a book, to be used by all the students of the Order, expounding the whole of Augustine of Hippo's thought and particularly his doctrine of grace and free will. His huge Opus de Theologicis Disciplinis expounded not the private views of a theologian, but those of the Augustinian Order and therefore had a semi-official status in the Roman Catholic Church.
He was denounced to the Holy Office as a Jansenist by two French bishops. In December 1750, Pope Benedict XIV wrote a letter to one of them saying that the work had been submitted to competent theologians who had judged it to be sound; to the other he wrote a letter in May 1751 saying, that nothing had been found in his work contrary to any decision of the Church.
Biography
Born in 1695 in the Tuscan town of Serravezza, from a modest family, he entered the Order of Augustinians at the age of 15,[1] in which he was later called to assume important positions: secretary general of the Order and prefect of the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome.[1][2]
A man of varied culture, an expert in Greek language and Hebrew language and also interested in mathematical disciplines, Berti taught ecclesiastical history at the University of Pisa.[2]
For his work De theologicis disciplinis (Rome, 1739–1745), an extensive exposition of Augustine of Hippo theology, he was accused of Jansenism, but the accusation, supported by French bishops Jean d'Ise de Saléon and Jean-Joseph Languet de Gergy,[1] brought to the attention of the ecclesiastical hierarchies, was dropped at the behest of Pope Benedict XIV.[3] Berti in his defense published (Rome, 1747) Augustinianum systema de gratia ab iniqua Bajani, & Janseniani erroris insimulatione vindicatum....[3] Another work of his of note is Ecclesiasticae historiae breuiarium (Pisa, 1760), a text that was widely circulated[3] and had numerous reprints until the last one by the publisher Remondini (firm) of Bassano del Grappa in 1823.[3]
In 1762 Three Consultations, made in defense of smallpox inoculation by three living learned Tuscan theologians, was printed in Milan. The work, in defense of the inoculation in the individual to be immunized, of material taken from smallpox lesions (the "Variolation") contains, in addition to a text by Berti, two other articles by the theologians Francesco Raimondo Adami and Gaetano Veraci.[4]
He died in Pisa, aged sixty-nine, in 1766.
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
Giovanni Lorenzo Berti — An Italian theologian, b. 28 May, 1696, at Sarravezza, Tuscany; d. 26 March, 1766, at Pisa. His parents were of the lower class. At the age of fifteen he entered the Augustinian order, and preached with success before he had attained his twenty-third year. He subsequently occupied important offices in his order, i.e. those of general secretary, prefect of the Angelica (the former valuable library of the Augustinians at Rome), general assistant. He first taught philosophy, then theology, at Sienna, Florence, Bologna, Padua, Rome, and finally (1748) became professor of ecclesiastical history at Pisa. He suffered, in 1762, a stroke of apoplexy which was repeated and eventually caused his death. His literary career was an agitated one. By order of Father Schiaffinatti, his Superior General, he wrote the extensive work "De Theologicis Disciplinis" (Rome, 1739-45), an exposition of the theological teaching of St. Augustine. The book, which appeared in several editions, was vehemently attacked by d'Ise de Saléon (who was successively Bishop of Agen, 1730-35, Bishop of Rodez, 1735-46, and Archbishop of Vienne, 1747-51) and by Languet de Gergy, Archbishop of Sens (1731-53). They accused Berti of Jansenism. In answer, the latter published: (1) "Augustinianum Systema de Gratiâ" (Rome, 1747; Munich, 1750); (2) "In Opusculum" (Leghorn, 1756). The accusations against Berti were submitted to the Roman authorities. Benedict XIV (1740-58) had his book examined and found its teaching sound. Besides other works published in this controversy, Berti wrote: (1) "Commentarius de Rebus gestis S. Augustini" (Venice, 1756); (2) "S. Augustini Quaestionum de Scientiâ,....dilucidatio" (Pisa, 1756); (3) "De Haeresibus Trium Priorum Saeculorum" (Bassano, 1769); (4) "Historia Ecclesiastica" (Florence, 1753), an ecclesiastical history, which he later published in an abridged form (Pisa, 1760), and which, thus shortened, was frequently re-edited (recently at Turin, 1892).
References
- Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Back to citation occurrence 1.2 Fonte: The Catholic Encyclopedia, riferimenti e link in Bibliografia.
- Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Fonte: Enciclopedia Italiana, riferimenti e link in Bibliografia.
- Back to citation occurrence 3.0 Back to citation occurrence 3.1 Back to citation occurrence 3.2 Fonte: Enciclopedie on line, riferimenti e link in Collegamenti esterni.
- Back to citation Giovanni Miccoli, «ADAMI, Francesco Raimondo» in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 1, Roma, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 1960.
External links
- Winfried BOCXE, O. E. S. A.: Introduction to the Teaching of the Italian Augustinians of the 18th Century on the Nature of Actual Grace Archived 2006-10-13 at the Wayback Machine
- Catholic Encyclopedia Article
- Giovanni Lorenzo Berti entry (in Italian) in the Enciclopedia Treccani, 1930