Career
He was soon called to Rome by Pope Clement VIII, who confided to the promising young scholar an edition of the works of Saint Peter Damian, which he executed in four folio volumes (Rome, 1606 et saep). The latter important office he held under four popes until his death. Baronius was indebted to him in the composition of his Annales Ecclesiastici, and praised Cajetan"s knowledge of the Roman archives.
Cajetan was a collector of books, and at his death left his fortune to the Bibliotheca Aniciana, founded by him in honor of the family of Saint Gregory the Great (Gens Anicia).
The books have since been divided between the Propaganda Library and that of the Sapienza, or Roman University. He had long hoped to found at Rome a Collegium Gregorianum de propagandâ fide, in which young Benedictines might be trained for foreign missions, after the spirit and teachings of Saint Gregory the Great, Apostle of the Anglo-Saxons.
He really opened a house of studies for this purpose in the monastery of San Benedetto in Piscinula at Rome, and this may be looked on as historically the germ of Propaganda. His idea was taken up seriously by Pope Gregory XV (1621-1623), who enlarged and modified until it took shape as the "Collegium de propagandâ fide".
The pioneer labors of Dom Cajetan received due recognition by his nomination as first consultor of the new college.
