Rewiring the Circuit: Campi's Reformation

Abstract

Liturgy, Sanctity and History in Tridentine Italy: Pietro Maria Campi and the Preservation of the Particular. By Simon Ditchfield. [Cambridge Studies in Italian History and Culture.] (New York: Cambridge University Press. 1995. Pp. xvi, 397. $79.95.) Here is book which throws singular new light on the Catholic Reformation and the cult of the saints in early modern Italy. Following in the wake of scholars like John d' Amico and Charles Stinger, Ditchfield examines the widespread concern of humanists like Raffaele Maffei, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, with the many and various details in saints' lives and other commentaries which are to be considered apocryphal. This concern was met in the work of Cardinal Quinones for the reform of the breviary. In the Quinones breviary, Scripture, hymnody, and hagiography were combined in way that was designed to supply minimal basis of priestly formation. The principles underlying its conception were adopted by Cardinal Carafa and the Theatines, and passed in straight line into the reforms of the Council of Trent. Maffei's plea for what Ditchfield calls a textually chaste liturgy thus found fruition in the papal bull Quod Nobis of 1568. Part One of Ditchfield's book explores the reception of this decree in the localities. Between Rome and the Italian dioceses there immediately developed process of feedback and arbitration, as bishops like Paleotti and Valier found themselves under pressure to retain local saints and traditions. How much, if anything, might be conserved of local liturgies which lacked the two-hundredyear test applied by Quod Nobis? First Cardinal Sirleto, then, after 1588 the newly established Congregation of Rites, undertook the reconsideration of local traditions. Thus the creation of the Congregation should be seen, according to Ditchfield, as a papal response to the demands of frequently embattled episcopate rather thanan interfering watchdog intent on imposing . . . standardizing policy that did not take local needs and priorities into Standardization occurred, but Ditchfield prefers the expression `regularization: Just as in the study of secular government simplistic views of absolute monarchy have long since been abandoned, so should they be in matters of ecclesiastical government. Things were no different in the religious sphere.' Ditchfield applies this insight to reconsideration of the theses about Rome and the local churches advanced by scholars like Prodi and Alberigo in the past forty years. The result is compelling new assessment verified by Ditchfield's discovery in the library of the Roman Oratory, of the complete documentation surrounding the revision of the Piacenzan Breviary of 1598. The ensuing story affords striking insight into the workings of local liturgical reform at close quarters. Here we have unique case study of the Catholic Reform in seventeenth-century Barchester. Pietro Maria Campi (1569-1649), canon of Piacenza Cathedral, undertook the revision of the local breviary at the request of his bishop. Campi's text, and the bishop's endorsement of it in 1598, were questioned by the Canon Theologian of the Cathedral, Daniele Garatola. Garatola was the official responsible for priestly spiritual formation in the diocese. His was the task of ensuring that the clergy were suitably equipped for preaching and theological instruction. Garatola's objections to Campi's revised breviary were essentially those of Raffaele Maffei and Carafa at the beginning of the century:many and various details.... to be considered apocryphal Garatola objected to Campi's account of Piacenza's patron saint, S. Antonino. Piacenza's supposed possession of the body of S. Giustina lacked documentary substance. There were other objections. Should such material, he asked,be preached to the People or inserted between the offices of canonical hours by the bishop? The essential issue, for Garatola, was that such material should not be reformed locally,for this is simply prohibited by Pius V's injunction at the front of the Roman Breviary. …