CAJ'ETAN ( Lat. ('ojetanas) (14('i9-1534) . An Italian eeelesiastie, whose real name wits .laeopo de Vio (in religion Tomaso), the name Cajetan being assumed by him front his birth place Gaeta (('ajeta). At the age of 15 he entered the ll i ll ieatt Order. studied for the next few years at Naples. Padua. and Ferrara (where he held his OW11 in a )/1111lie disputation with Pico della Mirandola), and in 1508 became general of his order. Leo X. made him a car dinal in 1517, and in the following year sent him to Cermany to urge the Emperor and the Scandinavian kings to form a league against the Turks. While on this errand he was com missioned to examine Luther personally, and send him to Rome if need were. Luther ap peared before him at Augsburg. but refused to retract his teaching on indulgences, and his breach with the Church was only widened by the discussion. In 152:3 Cztjetan was sent as legate to Hungary: but Clement V1L, on his acces sion, recalled hint to Rome, in order to make use of his theological knowledge and counsel.
Ile was consulted on the divorce of !henry VIII., and decided unhesitatingly against it. Ile made a translation of the ()Id Testament, with a com mentary, and wrote a treatise on the authority of the Pope. which was answered by the faculty of the l'iliversity of Paris. He also wrote eom menta•ies upon parts of Aristotle's writings, and upon the A'+umma of Aquinas. The latter is reprinted in the definitive edition of the great Aquinas issued under the patronage of Leo XIII. (q.v.) (Rome, 1882), lle died in Rome, August 9, 1534. collection of his works ap peared at Lyons in 1639 (5 vols.): his life is prefixed. Consult, also. S•hillmels, De Vita ac ?criptis de 1 io rajetani (Berlin, 1881).