John of Ragusa

Johannes von Ragusa OP ( Croatian Ivan Stojković ; * 1395/96 in the Republic of Ragusa ; † August 28, 1443 in Lausanne ) was a Croatian Dominican, representative of the Paris University at the Council of Pavia-Siena, participant and general secretary of the Council of Basel , authorized legate of the Council of Basel in Constantinople and Cardinal Tituli S. Sixti .

Life

John of Ragusa (Stojković) was born in 1395/96 into a middle-class family in the Republic of Ragusa. He entered the Dominican order and studied theology in the Dominican monastery of Zadar , Padua and Paris . In Padua he finished his studies with a bachelor's degree . Before he continued his studies in Paris in 1417, he took part in the Council of Constance for some time . There he was appointed royal chaplain by King Sigismund and made the acquaintance of Johannes Gerson . Arrived in Paris in 1422, the Paris University sent him to Pope Martin V to support the Frequens for the Council in Constance. Pope Martin V commissioned John of Ragusa to hold the opening sermon at the Council of Pavia on April 23, 1423 .

At the Council of Siena in October 1423 he gave a detailed sermon in which church reform and the solution of the Hussite question were called for. On March 7, 1424 he visited the Republic of Dubrovnik for a short time and then worked as a lecturer in theology at the University of Bologna . As procurator in the Dominican order (1429–1431) and employee in the Roman Curia , Johannes von Ragusa campaigned for the convening of the council in Basel. He was the companion of the papal legate and cardinal Julian Cesarini at the opening of the council in Basel. In 1431 John of Ragusa took part in the peace negotiations with Bohemia in Eger . On July 23, 1431, Johannes of Ragusa opened the Council of Basel. After the defeat of the Catholic Church against the Utraquists , Ragusa campaigned for a peaceful solution. Ragusa was of the opinion that the Pope was subordinate to the Council in everything, this opinion he took in 1434 at the Reichstag in Frankfurt am Main .

During the negotiations of the Council of Basel on the union with the Eastern Churches , Ragusa took the view that they should only enter into the union with the Council and not with the Bishop of Rome. As a legate of the Basel Council, he was sent to Constantinople on May 14, 1435 to move the representatives of the Eastern Churches to unity. During the negotiations in 1437, the representatives of the Greek Orthodox Church decided to travel to the council that had moved from Basel to Ferrara to meet the Pope there. On January 19, 1438, John of Ragusa returned from Constantinople to Basel for the council. Again he defended the independence and legitimacy of the council against the Pope, this time before King Albrecht II in Vienna . He continued this at the Reichstag of Nuremberg in October 1438 and in Mainz in April 1439. For Ragusa, the superiority of the council over the pope was irrefutable.

Due to his service for the Council of Basel, Ragusa was appointed titular bishop of Argos by the council on October 10, 1438 , and was ordained episcopal on February 8, 1439. After his titular bishopric, he is also referred to in historical sources under the name "Argensis". On June 25, 1439 Ragusa acted in the reading of the deposition bull to Pope Eugene IV in the Basel Council. He preferred Amadeus of Savoy, who was elected last antipope Felix V on November 5, 1439 . Ragusa was his adviser and was designed by Felix V. to Cardinal Tituli S. Sistine appointed. Ragusa again justified the deposition of Pope Eugene IV at the Reichstag in Frankfurt am Main in 1440.

On August 28, 1443, John of Ragusa died in Lausanne. He was considered a good speaker and zealot for reform in the Catholic Church. He is considered the most important theologian of the Council of Basel. He was a great connoisseur of patristic and medieval literature. As a humanist , Johannes von Ragusa owned a large library as well as many valuable Greek manuscripts from his time in Constantinople. Johannes Reuchlin and Erasmus von Rotterdam used his manuscripts .

literature

• Stefan Hess : Johannes of Ragusa. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . January 21, 2010 .
• Alois Krchňák:  JOHANNES von Ragusa Stoyci (Stojković) de R. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 7, Bautz, Herzberg 1994, ISBN 3-88309-048-4 , Sp. 1256-1263.
• Albert Reinhart:  John of Ragusa . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Volume 8, Robert Appleton Company, New York 1910.
• Zvjezdan Strika: John of Ragusa († 1443). Church and council terms in the dispute with the Hussites and Eugene IV. Augsburg 2000.

Web links

• Ivan Stojković in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages"
• Ragusa, OP, Giovanni di. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website), accessed January 24, 2018.