Juan Tomás de Rocaberti

Juan Tomás de Rocaberti (b. of a noble family at Perelada, in Catalina, c. 1624; d. at Madrid 13 June1699) was a Spanish theologian.

Educated at Gerona, he entered the Dominican convent there, receiving the habit in 1640. His success in theological studies at the convent of Valencia secured for him the chair of theology in the university.

In 1666 he was chosen provincial of Aragon, and in 1670 the General Chapter elected him general of the order. The celebrated Dominican Vincent Contenson dedicated to him his "Theologia mentis et cordis".

In 1676 he was appointed by Carlos II of Spain first Archbishop of Valencia, and then governor of that province. In 1695 he was made inquisitor-general of Spain.

He obtained the canonization of Sts. Louis Bertrand and Rose of Lima, the solemn beatification of Pius V, and the annual celebration in the order of the feast of Bl. Albert the Great and others.

Works

Rocaberti is best known as an active apologist of the papacy, against Gallicans and Protestants.

His first work in the sense was "De Romani pontificis in temporalibus auctoritate " (3 vols., Valentia, 1691-94). His most important work is the "Bibliotheca Maxima Pontificia" (21 vols., Rome, 1697-00). In this monumental work the author collected and published in alphabetical order, and in their entirety, all the important works dealing with the primacy of the Holy See from an orthodox point of view, beginning with Abraham Bzovius and ending with Zacharias Boverius. A summary is given in Hurter's "Nomenclator".

References

*Quétif-Échard, Script. ord. Prad., II (Paris, 1721), 630,827;
*Touron, Hist. des hom. Ill. De l'ordre Dom., V (Paris, 1748), 714-26;
*Hugo von Hurter, "Nomenclator literarius recentioris theologiae catholicae", II: Année Dominicaine, XIII, 785.