then returned to Normandy, where she assisted in the routine business of ducal, and later
royal, government.
Although English chroniclers saw Matilda as arrogant and unsuited to rule, she won
the approbation of continental writers. A patron of letters, Matilda received dedications
from the historical writer Hugues de Fleury and the poet Philippe de Thaün. Upon her
death, she bequeathed money to construct a stone bridge across the Seine near Rouen.
She had also been a generous patron to Cistercian and Augustinian monasteries but above
all to the Benedictines of Bec-Hellouin.
Lois Huneycutt
Barlow, Frank. The Feudal Kingdom of England, 1042–1216. 3rd ed. London: Longman, 1972.
Chibnall, Marjorie. “The Empress Matilda and Church Reform.” Transactions of the Royal
Historical Society 5th ser. 38 (1988):107–30.
——. “The Empress Matilda and Bec-Hellouin.” Anglo-Norman Studies 12(1988):35–48.
MATTHEW OF AQUASPARTA
(ca. 1240–1302). Bonaventure’s most famous disciple, Matthew was a gifted Franciscan
leader rather than an original theologian or academic. He was born in Aquasparta, near
Todi, and became a Franciscan ca. 1254. By 1268, he was studying theology in Paris
under John of Peckham and was later Franciscan regent master there. He also taught at
Bologna. In 1278–79, he followed John of Peckham as lector sacri palatii in Rome, and
his ecclesiastical rise continued in regular fashion: he was minister-general of the order in
1287, cardinal in 1288, and cardinal-bishop of Porto and Rufina in 1291, carrying out
various missions for Boniface VIII.
Matthew’s academic strengths are his clarity of mind and of expression. Largely
following and developing Bonaventure (and therefore Augustine) in his thought, he
nevertheless gives a lucid restatement of some of the most difficult issues. His own
opinions are most evident in the theory of knowledge. However, like Bonaventure, he is
Franciscan in believing that the end of human speculation is not knowledge but love of
God.
His writings, which were not widely circulated even in his own time, include biblical
commentary, a Sententiae commentary, quodlibetal questions, disputed questions, and
sermons.
Lesley J.Smith
[See also: BONAVENTURE]
Matthew of Aquasparta. Quaestiones disputatae: De anima separata [ed. G.Gal], De anima beata
[ed. A.Emmen], De ieiunio [ed. I.Brady], et De legibus [ed. C.Piana]. Quaracchi, Florence:
Typographia Collegii S.Bonaventurae, 1959.
——. Quaestiones disputatae de anima XIII, ed. A.-J.Gondras. Paris: Vrin, 1961.
——. Quaestiones disputatae de fide et de cognitione. 2nd ed. Quaracchi, Florence: Typographia
Collegii S.Bonaventure, 1957.
——. Quaestiones disputatae de gratia, ed. Victorini Doucet O.F.M.Ad Claras Aquas, Florence:
Typographia Collegii S. Bonaventurae, 1935.
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