John Matthew Rispoli (17 August 1582 – 6 April 1639) was a Maltese philosopher of great erudition. He was held in high esteem by the Grand Masters of the Knights Hospitaller Order, the Bishops of Malta, the Viceroys of Sicily, cardinals, bishops, inquisitors, and the common people. Perhaps the most eminent Maltese philosopher of the Middle Ages, the various extant writings of his are witness to his philosophical aptitude and dexterity as to his high calibre as a philosopher. These qualities were highly appreciated during his lifetime, in Malta as in France and Italy. He lived a busy life, both as an intellectual and as an administrator. He was professor of philosopher at various institutions of high education, an able preacher, and an official at various posts within the Dominican Order, of which his was a member. He was an avid aficionado of music, and was talented with playing musical instruments. Though the fame of holiness accompanied him in his life, this did not deter the Inquisition from suspecting him of heresy, and keeping him in its dungeons for fourteen months. When he died, he was given an almost state funeral.
Rispoli was born in Senglea, Malta, on 17 August 1582, to John Vincent and Catherine. He was christened John Mary. His father was a pilot on one of the galleys of the Knights Hospitaller. This suggests that the family enjoyed a decent financial income. In fact, Rispoli was given a good education from an early age.
At sixteen years of age, in 1598, Rispoli joined the Dominican Order at the Annunciation Priory of Vittoriosa. He was formally admitted a year later, and given the name John Matthew as a sign of his new religious status. Thereafter, he was sent to Palermo, Sicily, to begin and complete his institutional education at the Dominican Studium Generale there in philosophy and theology.
Rispoli's initial studies ended seven years later, in 1606. Though he returned to Malta to commence his academic and pastoral work, he came under the eye of Alof de Wignacourt, Grand Master to the Knights Hospitaller, who conceded him protection. Most probably, this was due to Rispoli's intellectual capabilities as much as the high esteem in which the Grand Master held his father, whom, as recompense for his thirty-seven years in the service of the Knights Hospitaller, had been elected Donat and Brother in the Order. Whatever the case, the Grand Master personally recommended Rispoli to King Henry IV of France in order to ensue his theological studies at the University of Sorbonne, in Paris. Thus Rispoli left almost immediately for France. This gave the twenty-four-year-old Rispoli an opportunity to upgrade his studies at one of the then most illustrious centres of learning in the world, and show his true colours. In fact, as it happened, this opening gave him great prestige throughout his whole life.
Rispoli remained in Paris for the next six years. Throughout his stay there he was known as le Jacobin Maltois, the Maltese Dominican (since in France the Dominicans were known as Jacobins because their first convent in Paris was built near the church of Saint Jacques). His outstanding intelligence and erudition can be gauged from the fact that, just over two years into his studies at the Sorbonne, in 1609, the twenty-seven-year-old Rispoli was earmarked to be appointed professor to the seat theology teaching on Lombard's Sentences . Unfortunately, the professorship was eventually awarded to one of the two French candidates who were presented together with Rispoli, this being solely due to their nationality, since Rispoli was clearly tanto dotto e più di quelli due (by far much brighter than the other two).
Despite this setback which could have changed his life forever, during that same year (1609) Rispoli published a book which impressed his peers and contemporaries. It was entitled Status Controversiæ Prædefinitionum et Prædeterminationum cum Libero Arbitrio (The State of the Question dealing with the Predefinition and the Predestination of Free Will). Basically, Rispoli concludes that divine grace fully respects human freedom, and does not tarnish it in any way. This conclusion clearly sides with the position of the Dominican Domingo Bañez against the Jesuit Luis Molina in the famous and very often acrimonious controversy on the intervention of divine grace in relation to free will. The work surely did not go unnoticed for, some two years later, in 1611, it threw him in the limelight. It so happened that, in 1611, the General Chapter of the Dominican Order, gathering some 450 Dominicans from across the world, met at Paris. As was the custom, four of the best scholars were chosen to carry out a public disputation, and Rispoli was the first to be given this great honour. According to one contemporary, Rispoli's disputation, held on May 15, 1611, was attended by the whole academic world of Paris, the Apostolic Nuntio to the King of France (Roberto Ubaldini), the bishops of Montpellier and Orléans together with a great number of ecclesiastics, and of course the Capitular friars, including the Master of the Dominican Order.
Rispoli's performance that day left a deep an impression upon his illustrious audience. Eyewitnesses attested that his words were docte et gloriose (brilliant and persuasive), and that they were received cum laude (with great praise). The impact was so great that the Apostolic Nuntio there and then requested of the Master of the Order that he grants Rispoli the coveted title of Master of Sacred Theology. He was only twenty-nine years old.
Such a success catapulted Rispoli to the highest ranks of learned Dominicans. Only a few months after his Paris disputation, in 1612, to show his delight in championing such a first rate scholar, and in respect towards his family, for all its worth Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt appointed him his personal theologian and consultor, and made him a familiar of the Order of Knights Hospitaller.
Upon terminating his studies in Paris in 1612, Rispoli was also on great demand at the many Studia Generali of the Dominican Order. That same year, the General Chapter of Paris appointed him Regent of Studies at the newly established Studium Generale of Messina, Sicily. Then, in 1613, not having yet completed his one-year assignment at Messina, the Provincial Chapter of Sicily, celebrated at Palermo, appointed him Regent at the Studium Generale of Palermo. He stayed at the Sicilian capital city up till 1617.
During his Regency at Palermo, between 1615 and 1616, he was accused before the Sicilian Inquisition of teaching heretical doctrines. The precise imputations against Rispoli are not known. It appears that the records of the Inquisition at Palermo have not survived the ravishes of time. However, it seems that Rispoli's accusers were numerous and powerful, and that the accusations were quite serious. Expenses for a defence lawyer were shared between Rispoli's religious communities at Palermo and at Vittoriosa.
The most heart-rending upshot of the incident was that, between May 1615 and July 1616, pending the charges, Rispoli was incarcerated at one of the Inquisition's dungeons for fourteen months. Eventually, his accusations were proved to be unfounded. He was thus declared not guilty, released, and, on July 15, 1616, reinstated to his former offices.
Having overcome this harrowing ordeal, Rispoli continued to hold the Regency at the Studium Generale of Palermo for another year. In 1617, after an absence of eighteen years, he was back to Malta as superior (of Vicar-General) of the Maltese Dominicans, and as official Visitor for the three Dominican Priories in Malta on behalf of the Sicilian Prior Provincial. During his stay in Malta, for one academic year (1617–18) Rispoli lectured at the Studium of the Portus Salutis Priory at Valletta, and, during the following academic year (1618–19), at the Dominican Studium of the Annunciation Priory at Vittoriosa. Here, at Vittoriosa, he was also chosen at Master of Studies, and elected Prior, offices he held up till 1623.