Born in
Acquasparta,
Umbria, he was a member of the
Bentivenghi family, to which belonged his fellow Franciscan, Cardinal
Bentivenga dei Bentivenghi, bishop of Albano (died 1290). Matthew entered the Franciscan Order at
Todi, took the degree of Master of Theology at Paris, and taught also for a time at Bologna. Friar
John Peckham having become
Archbishop of Canterbury in 1279, Matteo was in 1280 made Peckham's successor as
Lector sacri Palatii apostolici, i.e. he was appointed reader (teacher) of theology to the
papal Curia. In 1287 the
General Chapter of the Order held at
Montpellier elected him Minister General in succession to
Arlotto of Prato. When
Girolamo Masci of Ascoli, who had previously been Minister General of the Franciscan Order, became pope as Nicholas IV, 15 February 1288, he created Matthew cardinal with the
titulus of
San Lorenzo in Damaso that May. After this Matteo was made
Cardinal Bishop of Porto, and
penitentiarius major (Grand Penitentiary). He still, however, retained the direction of the Order until the chapter of 1289. Matthew had summoned this chapter to meet at
Assisi, but Nicholas IV caused it to be held in his presence at
Rieti; here
Raymond Gaufredi, a native of Provence, was elected Minister General. As Minister General of the Order, Matthew maintained a moderate, middle course; among other things he reorganized the studies pursued in the order. In the quarrel between
Pope Boniface VIII and the
Colonna family, from 1297 onwards, he strongly supported the pope, both in official memorials and in public sermons. Pope Boniface appointed him, both in 1297 and 1300, to important embassies to Lombardy, the Romagna, and to
Guelph Florence, where the Neri and Bianchi Guelph factions were violently at issue with each other. In 1301 Matthew returned to Florence, following
Charles of Valois, but neither peace nor reconciliation was brought about. The Blacks finally obtained the upper hand, and the chief Whites were obliged to go into exile; among these was the poet
Dante. In a famous passage of the
Divina Commedia (Paradiso, XII, 124–26), Dante certainly speaks as a partisan of the Bianchi against Matthew of Aquasparta, calling Cardinal Matthew a
sodomite. Matthew, however, had died before this, on 28 October 1302. He was buried in Rome, in the Franciscan church of
Santa Maria in Aracoeli, where his monument is still to be seen. ==Works==