A Catalan Diplomat, Theologian and Preacher at the Council of Constance : Master Felip de Malla

By this article, the author aims to present one of the theologians who participated in the Council of Constance : the Barcelonese canon Felip de Malla (c. 1375 – 1431). He studied in Paris, then went back to the countries of the Crown of Aragon. He was a theologian and master, but the court and the city (especially Barcelona), rather than the University, were the milieus where he used his authority. Felip de Malla was a member of the embassy that king Alphonse the Magnanimous sent to the council of Constance ; he read two sermons before the plenary session of the Council and was a member of the special conclave that elected Martin V. He also worked as a diplomat for the kings of Aragon, he was a preacher and the pastor of a parish in Barcelona, and wrote a huge book about the redemption of mankind through Christ’s death, a book in Catalan, not in Latin, evidently for a public of cultivated and devout lay people. In this work, and in the many sermons we can read still today, we can recognize some characters of the theology of the XV century, as well as an alternation of classic mythology and biblical passages, typical of the late Gothic culture.