Panormitanus

Nicolò de' Tudeschi (Panormitanus)[1] (b. at Catania, Sicily, in 1386; d. at Palermo, 24 February 1445) was an Italian Benedictine canonist.

[2] During the troubles that marred the pontificate of Eugene IV, Nicolò at first followed the party of this pontiff, whom he represented briefly at the Council of Basel; but subsequently he allied himself with the antipope Felix V who, in 1440, named him cardinal.

Pius II, in an early work, depicts Panormitanus as lamenting that instructions from Alfonso made him oppose quick action to depose Eugene.

[3] He wrote thus "And I conclude that where sin feeds on the observance of civil law, as well as in a natural obligation born of consent or when one enriches himself to the detriment of the other, one can have recourse to the Church".

This opinion, which became problematic following the Protestant Reformation, will be strongly evoked by Francisco Suárez and Martin Becanus.