THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
write the legend of the founder of that order, which was officially confirmed, Feb. 25, 1229. The value of this legend. Vita I., has latterly become stoutly contested, and the upshot of the controversy may be summarized fairly as follows: (1) its main defect is its rhetoric, which clouds the portraiture of the saint. (2) As a writer under official commission, Thomas had to assume a certain politic reserve; hence he silently ignores the crisis of 1219-20, the friction within the order, and the warnings of the saint against privileges, while he lavishes exuberant praise on Gregory IX. and Elias of Cortona. (3) Nevertheless he meant to tell the truth, and so wrote without conscious opposition to the intimate disciples of Francis. For its contemporary proximity as well as for the author's conscientiousness, the Vita I. remains a source of the first rank. In 1230, Thomas was in a position to entrust some precious relics of St. Francis (hair and articles of clothing) to Jordanus de Giano; it is, therefore, not impossible that he wrote also the legend of St. Anthony of Padua (1232). This hypothesis was held to be probable by Ferdinand Marie d'Araules (La Vie de St. Antoine par Jean Rigauld, Paris, 1899); yet this probability may scarcely be maintained, because the style as a whole is distinctly different in the two legends (cf. Leon de Kerval, S. Antonii de Padua vita dua, in Collection d' etudes et des documents, v. 7-S. Paris, 1904). Thomas himself made an extract from Vita I. for liturgical use, after 1230, Legenda in usum chori; but without new matter. The chapter general of 1244 commissioned the founder's associates to supplement the previous legends; and they then compiled their materials as directed by the letter, which, at all events, is surely genuine, and prefaces the so-called legend of the three associates (" not according to the usual manner of a legend, but, as if from a lovely meadow, have we culled some flowers "). There is no small dispute as to what this garland is; but the probability at least is, as a later source reports, that the General Crescentius delivered the material to Thomas, on which basis he produced the Vita II. This legend was composed in 1247, and purports to supplement Vita I. It takes account of the progressive development of the order, suppresses the name of the deposed General Elias, and combats the relaxing tendencies within the order. On the other hand, there is silence on the testament of the saint, his admonition concerning privileges, and the care of lepers. Yet here the author appears to be subjectively honest, and only a man of politic reserve. It is further supposed that by command of General Giovanni da Parma Thomas wrote a tractatus de mlracidis. Such a document has been recently discovered and issued by F. d'Ortroy; but no compelling proof can be adduced that it was the work of Thomas. Whether the legend of St. Clara, composed between 1255 and 1261, was written by Thomas, as Paul Saba tier supposes, is doubtful. According to the Liber conformitatum, a work dating from the close of the fourteenth century, Thomas also composed the Dies irce, dies ilia (cf. Julian, Hymnology, pp. 1559, 1629).
[The Dies irce, one of the most celebrated hymns of the Middle Ages, based on such passages as Zeph.
i. 15; Ps. xcvi. 13, xcvii. 3, cii. 26, may have been suggested by similar judgment-hymns of an earlier date, like the Libera me Domine, a responsory in a manuscript in the British Museum. It was written in three-line stanzas and intended for private devotion. In its time it was remarkably impressive by its solemn grandeur and awful majesty. Cf. H. A. Daniel, Thesaurus hymnologicus, ii. 103-131, v. 110-116 (Leipsic, 1855); Abraham Cole, Dies Irce in Thirteen Original Versions (4th ed., New York, 1866). The best English translations are by W J. Irons, H. Alford, A. Cole, and R. C. French. There is a fivefold translation in verse of various meters, issued with the text, by President M. W Stryker (privately printed, Clinton, N. Y., 1910)].
E. Lempp.
Bibliography: The best edition of the Opera so far as they relate to St. Francis is by Edward d'Aleneon, Rome, 1906; and the best discussion is W. Gotz, Die Quellen zut Geschichte des heiligen Franz von Assist, Gotha, 1904. Consult also KL, xi. 1668-70.
THOMAS CHRISTIANS. See Nestorians, §§ 2,8.
THOMAS, GOSPEL OF. See Apocrypha, B, I., 5.
THOMAS OF VILLANOVA: Spanish Roman Catholic; b. at Fuenlana, near Villanueva (40 m. n.w. of Valladolid), in the diocese of Leon, 1488; d. at Valencia Sept. 8, 1555. He studied at Alcala; lectured on moral science at the University of Salamanca, 1513-15; entered the order of the Augustinian hermits in 1517; became the provincial of his order for Andalusia and Castile; was confessor to Charles V., and bishop of Valencia, 1544-55. In 1658 he was canonized by Alexander VII. Fragments of the beginnings of his Commentaries on Canticles, Job, and Revelation were collected and published (best ed., with biography, Laurentius a Sancta Barbara, 2 vols., Milan, 1760). Opera omnia was edited and published (5 vols., Salamanca, 1761-64; another ed., Augsburg, 1757).
Bibliography: ASB, Sept., v. 799 sqq.; F. Posl, Leben des heiligen Thomas von Villanova, Munster, 1860; Bruder Bernards Aphorismen iiber katholische Handlung der Bibel, pp. 19 sqq., Freiburg, 1862; Thomas von Villanova Biichlein von der gbttlichen Liebe, vbersetzt von F. Kaulen, Freiburg, 1896; KL, xi. 1692-94.
THOMAS WALDENSIS. See Netter (Waldensis), Thomas.
THOMAS, ALLEN CLAPP: Friend; b. at Baltimore, Md., Dec. 26, 1846. He was educated at Haverford College, Haverford, Pa. (A.B., 1865), and after engaging in mercantile pursuits, 1869-7S, became professor of history and librarian of Haverford College, which position he still holds. He has written Edward Lawrence Scull, a Memoir (privately printed, Cambridge, Mass., 1891); A History of the United States for Schools and Academies (Boston, 1894); History of the Society of Friends in America (in collaboration with R. H. Thomas; New York, 1894, 4th ed., 1905); and Elementary History of tlie United States (Boston, 1900).
THOMAS, DAVID: Congregationalist ; b. at Hollybush-Vatson, near Tenby (10 m. e. of Pembroke), South Wales, Feb. 1, 1813; d. at Ramsgate (15 m. n.e. of Canterbury), England, Dec. 30. 1894.