By Michael Gryboski, Editor Friday, October 31, 2025
2. Tommaso de Vio Gaetani Cajetan
Cardinal Tommaso de Vio Gaetani Cajetan (1469-1534) | Public Domain
A native of Gaeta, Italy, Tommaso de Vio Gaetani Cajetan was elevated to the rank of cardinal mere months before Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg.
Cardinal Cajetan debated Luther over three days in October 1518 regarding the merits of the latter’s theses against the Catholic Church, with Luther ultimately refusing to recant his views.
“Luther followed the advice of his colleagues and prostrated himself before Cajetan, then rose to his knees to answer the cardinal’s interrogation. Luther, however, refused to recant his positions and instead pressed Cajetan for clarity on where he was in error,” noted Reformation 500.
“After the heated final session, Cajetan implored both Johannes von Staupitz, Luther’s Augustinian superior, and Wenceslaus Link, his Saxon legal counsel, to extricate a repudiation from Luther, but they were unsuccessful.”
In addition to debating Luther, Cajetan was one of 19 cardinals who, at a gathering in 1534, recognized the validity of King Henry VIII’s first marriage, which led Pope Clement VII to deny the monarch the right to divorce his first wife. The decision prompted Henry to break from the Catholic Church and create the Church of England.
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