Papal Jurisdiction Research Articles

The Hungarian Royal Family and the Delegated Papal Jurisdiction from the Mongol Invasion to the late Thirteenth Century

This paper is a short contribution to the history of the relations between the Roman pontiffs and the Hungarian rulers, or in a broader sense, the royal family. The focus of the research is on the second half of the thirteenth century, starting with the events after the Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1241–1242 and ending with the death of the last Árpádian king, Andrew III. The main question is: how did the members of the royal family get in touch with papal judges-delegate in the realm of St. Stephen? In which cases did they turn to the papacy in order benefit from the system, and under what circumstances did they appear as participants of a procedure? One of the most interesting sources regarding the attitude towards the papal delegated jurisdiction is a petition of King Béla IV. In his response, Pope Innocent IV forbade – with certain exceptions – the citation of the subjects of the king outside of the realm. The initiative of the Hungarian ruler is clear evidence for his awareness of the extension and the significance of the system of delegated jurisdiction in his kingdom.

Delegated Papal Jurisdiction and the Religious Orders in the Diocese of Veszprém in the First Half of the 13th Century

The paper is a short contribution to the history of papal delegated jurisdiction in Hungary in the first half of 13th century. The main aim of the study is to analyse the participation of the monasteries of religious orders in the diocese of Veszprém at the practical work of the system of papal judge-delegation. The connection could be formed in two quite separated ways: their officials, or as legal persons the convents themselves could function either as papal judges-delegate in foreign litigations, or they could be contestants of their own cases. The paper introduces the known cases of the second group from the selected era, since the main characteristics of the activities as papal judges-delegate are presented as well.

The Latin Talmud and the Extension of Papal Jurisdiction over Jews

This paper addresses the question of how the Latin translation of the Talmud, known as the <i>Extractiones de Talmud (1245)</i>, is related to the changing perception of the Jews and in particular to the reassessment of their legal status during the thirteenth century. It draws particular attention to Pope Gregory IX’s description of the Talmud as another law – an alia lex, as he called it – which challenged the traditional representation of the Jews as witnesses of the Christian truth, depicting them instead as heretics. This new perception of the Jews had far-reaching consequences for their legal status, for the popes used it to subject them to direct papal jurisdiction. To conclude, the question of whether the discovery of the Jewish »Oral Law« can be considered the cause of this new representation of the Jews in the strict sense is addressed. It is argued that it may, conversely, have been the intended representation of the Jews as heretics, who could thus be subsumed under papal jurisdiction, which was instrumental in bringing to light and decrying this body of rabbinic wisdom.

Die Eingliederung der Deutschordensballei Koblenz in die Struktur des Kölner Erzstifts

The integration of the Koblenz bailiwick of the Teutonic Order in the structures of the Archbishopric of CologneThe chronological scope of the article covers the period from the first half of the 13th c. to the mid-15th c., whereas the territorial scope – the commanderies of Koblenz, Cologne and Muffendorf. The research is based on the documents stored in the Historical Archive of the City of Cologne. The article tackles the issue of the independence of the Teutonic Order against the Archbishop of Cologne, who attempted to integrate the Teutonic Order with the structures of the Archbishopric of Cologne; however, in accordance with the papal privileges, the Teutonic Knights were subordinated to the Holy See. The paper consist of three parts which discuss three means of the policy of the Archbishop towards the Teutonic Knights. First, the means of such an integration was to include the official of the archbishop in the procedure of bestowal of the parishes to the priestbrothers. The presented candidate for the parish priest was obliged to take an oath to the Archbishop. Secondly, the Archbishop preferred to use his own jurisdiction over the papal jurisdiction. Thirdly, the Archbishop demanded payments from all the orders residing in his diocese. Despite these, the members of the Teutonic Orders could override these three means by addressing the Holy See directly. On the basis of this research, the author puts forward a thesis that the Teutonic Order was far less independent than it has been assummed so far.

La Orden de Alcántara y el papado durante la Edad Media según la documentación pontificia (primera parte)

El autor de este artículo ofrece los primeros resultados de su investigación sobre los fondos medievales referidos a la orden de Alcántara que se conservan, principalmente, en los Archivos Vaticanos, en la Real Academia de la Historia y en la Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid. En esta primera entrega expone, asimismo, sus conclusiones históricas, a la luz de la documentación pontificia, acerca de los orígenes de la orden y las relaciones de la misma con la jurisdicción papal.

Poverty and Perseverance: The Jesuit Mission of Isfahan and Shamakhi in Late Safavid Iran

This essay considers the presence and activities of the Jesuits in early modern Iran, a topic that, to date, has received little attention in English-language scholarship. It examines their motives for wanting to establish a permanent mission in Safavid territory in the mid-seventeenth century—a desire to bring Iran’s Gregorian Armenians under papal jurisdiction and, in part, their search for an overland route to India and China free from Portuguese influence—and discusses these in the context of Iranian concerns and interests. The study’s particular focus is the role of French and Polish Jesuits in the establishment of a mission in Isfahan and the subsequent creation of an outpost in Shamakhi, located in the Safavid-held part of the Caucasus, on the trade route between Iran and Russia. It concludes by evaluating their (meager) accomplishments despite perseverance in the face of poverty and loneliness.

The Making of Christian Moravia (858–882). Papal Power and Political Reality by Maddalena Betti (review)

Reviewed by: The Making of Christian Moravia (858–882). Papal Power and Political Reality by Maddalena Betti Stefan Moffat Maddalena Betti, The Making of Christian Moravia (858–882). Papal Power and Political Reality (Leiden/Boston: Brill 2014) xiii + 251 pp. This book is a re-working of the author’s 2008 PhD thesis. It consists of a forward by Thomas Noble, an introduction, and three chapters, and is supplemented by five maps, a bibliography, and an index. The author points out quickly that “the aim of my research is to clarify the role of the sources concerning the Methodian archdiocese within the wider debate over the location of Great Moravia” (10). The author, however, concentrates on the image of Moravia and its Saints in the records of the papacy. This focus allows [End Page 212] the author to contribute something new to the debate between “traditionalists” and “revisionists” about the location of Great Moravia by means of a literary analysis of the relationship between the papacy and the missionary brothers Constantine-Cyril and Methodius in the sources. Chapter 1 is devoted to an overview of the changing historiography of the Cyrillic-Methodian mission, and of Great Moravia as a place. Betti begins with the initial development of research into Saints Constantine-Cyril and Methodius in the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries, concentrating on the impact of Slav nationalism on their historical image, pointing out that the figures were canonized by the pope in the nineteenth century and became important for Czech and Slovak scholars by the early nineteenth century as cultural icons. She follows a similar process with the discussion of the image of Great Moravia, beginning with eighteenth and nineteenth century debates about its physical location in East Central Europe. She makes it clear that a slowly emancipated Slavic conscience, due to the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires in the early twentieth century, allowed for the figures of Constantine-Cyril and Methodius to be studied by Slavic scholars, and to become an important part of Slavicists’ research. The historiography of the Saints culminated in twentieth century concepts such as the depiction of Czechoslovakia as a reflection of Great Moravia and therefore as a strong, civilizing power in Central Europe. Alongside textual sources, Betti makes it clear that archaeological research has also been oriented toward answering the question of Great Moravia’s location. Betti discusses revisionist history led by Imre Boba in 1971 questioning the traditional location of Great Moravia North of the Danube, and the subject of ecclesiastical jurisdiction over East Central Europe between Rome and Constantinople pioneered by František Dvorník, which freed scholarship from a nationalistic framework. Betti attempts to depict the papal policy in East Central Europe as ambiguous. The bulk of the Apostolic See’s sources examined for the images of Constantine-Cyril and Methodius, as well as of Moravia, are letters of three successive ninth-century popes in touch with and sympathetic to the two missionaries: Nicholas I, Hadrian II, and John VIII. However, Pope Stephen V, John VIII’s successor, removed the Apostolic See’s earlier support for the use of Slavonic in the Christian liturgy, and attempted to maintain papal jurisdiction in East Central Europe by supporting the Frankish clergy, the opposite of John VIII’s behavior. Alongside these Betti uses other Roman sources including the official biographical record on the Roman popes known as the Liber Pontificalis, and the correspondence of the papal secretary Anastasius Bibliothecarius (“The Librarian”). Other sources used in this analysis are Slavonic biographical works on Constantine-Cyril and Methodius (two vitae and an encomium), Frankish annals, ecclesiastical documents such as the Conversion of the Bavarians and the Carantanians, and letters of Frankish bishops. In chapter 2, Betti discusses sources associated with popes Nicholas I and Hadrian II. The Slavonic biographies of the brothers mix up the acts of Nicholas I and Hadrian II, claiming that it was Nicholas I, and not Hadrian II, [End Page 213] who ordained Methodius priest to work as a missionary, when in fact he did not even live to see the brothers whom he had invited to Rome. Pope John VIII is not even referred to by name in...

Les « Provinces », terres de souveraineté dans les pays latins du monde méditerranéen ? (Xe-XIIIe siècles)

The study tries to understand the territorial nature and identity by which Provinces were recognized between 10th and 13th century, as intermediate between polarised local cells of authority and realms. Such a notion was received in inheritance from Roman antiquity and formed indeed the very permanent indentity of the eponymous territory of Provence. From the Carolingian times to the Catalans earls one, the acts linked the territory to the exercise of a supreme command power which was appointed to high dignitaries who received or claimed titles such as Patrice, Duke or Marquess. In the Italian Church States, Provinces were later identified as territories which were designed to unify some power areas of different nature under the Papal jurisdiction. The statute of authority, which is based on written right principles, contribute to define provincial territories, which are not indentified by the geographical seat of power.

Die Rechtsgeschichtliche Entwicklung des “Handelns Durch Andere” im Kanonischen Recht: Grundlage einer Teilhabe von Laienan der potestas regiminis? by Peter Platen

the prerequisites for entry into the clergy in the first five centuries on the basis of the sources reviewed (pp. 273–306). An excellent bibliography (pp. 313–355) and a helpful index (pp. 357–364) complete this remarkable and masterful work. Teachers and students of the early church will find here rich material translated and presented in a comprehensive manner. While the latest historical scholarship has been taken into account, the book’s main focus is on the spiritual rather that the social role of the clergy. It is the reviewer ’s deepest wish (along with the author’s) that those preparing for the ordained ministry might find here an accurate and vivid account of the virtuous life that should always be their goal. George Dmitry Gallaro Byzantine Catholic Seminary Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania DIE RECHTSGESCHICHTLICHE ENTWICKLUNG DES “HANDELNS DURCH ANDERE” IM KANONISCHEN RECHT: GRUNDLAGE EINER TEILHABE VON LAIEN AN DER POTESTAS REGIMINIS? by Peter Platen. Beihefte zum Münsterischen Kommentar . Essen: Ludgerus, 2007. Pp. liv–435. This study principally examines the historical development of the juridical concept of “acting through others” (Handeln durch andere) and the various ways that this has been admitted in canon law, including various offices like the papal legate, chorbishop, archdeacon, archpriest, officialis , vicar general, procurators, delegated judge, synodal and pro-synodal judges as well as various juridic institutes like the delegation of papal jurisdiction, the concept of commissio, the notions of delegatio ab homine and a iure and delegatio directa and indirecta. The work is a major contribution to the history of canon law, one that sheds light on juridic offices, institutes, rules and principles still operative in canon law today, especially as seen in Books I, II, and VII of the 1983 Code of Canon Law and the comparable titles of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.A secondary concern of this work, reflected in the subtitle, is contemporary: whether the notion of “acting through others” in the history of canon law lays a foundation for a participation of the laity in the power of governance. After a thirty-eight page bibliography of sources and secondary literature (mostly historical) and an introduction discussing the work’s scope, 494 the jurist methodology, and some terminological questions, there follows the body of the work which is divided into two parts. The first part, in two chapters , looks at how the notion of “acting through others” was expressed in Roman law. The first chapter treats Roman private and procedural law and the second is on the exercise of jurisdiction and administrative activity in Roman law. Roman law’s greatest influence on canon law with respect to the topic of the work lay in its notions of iurisdictio ordinaria, iurisdictio mandata, and iurisdictio delegata. Part II is devoted to the principal subject matter of the book—the development of the concept of “acting through others” in the history of canon law. It is divided into four chapters covering major periods of the history of canon law that saw significant developments in the notion: the beginning of the classical period of the science of canon law up to 1140; the period from 1140 to 1348; the middle of the fourteenth to the end of the eighteenth centuries; and the beginning of the nineteenth century until the 1917 code. It is interesting to see in several of these chapters the extent to which scholarly reflection on the “delegated judge,” acting on behalf of pope or bishop, led to increasing refinement of the concept of “jurisdiction” in the science of canon law. One of the questions addressed historically was whether a lay person could be vicar general. Opinions varied, but the authors did not exclude this possibility on the grounds of any essential incapacity of the laity. Moreover, it was admitted that the pope could appoint a lay person to be vicar general as well as to permit a bishop to do the same, and the possibility of appointing a lay person as vicar for temporal matters was unproblematic . There was also general agreement among canonists that the pope could delegate jurisdiction to a lay person. In fact, there are numerous examples of the actual exercise of jurisdiction by lay...

The Reformation of the Keys: Confession, Conscience, and Authority in Sixteenth-Century Germany (review)

Reformation of Keys: Confession, Conscience, and Authority in Sixteenth-Century Germany. By Ronald K. Rittgers. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 2004. Pp. xii, 318. $49.95.) This is a revised Harvard Ph.D. dissertation, produced under direction of Steven Ozment, Ronald Rittgers, who is presently an assistant professor of History of Christianity at Yale. It is, regrettably, a deeply flawed work in several major respects. First, Rittgers is disturbingly confused about the power of keys and blithely accepts Luther's casual equation thereof with power to forgive sin. Since Luther's central attack was on Church's penitential system, it suited his theological and rhetorical purposes to conflate these issues; but 1530 he evidently felt obliged to respond to his many critics penning a treatise on The Keys in which he flatly denied that power of binding and loosing, conferred first on Peter (Matt. 16:19) and then on other apostles (Matt. 18:18), can have meant anything more than power to forgive sins given to them after Resurrection (John 20:23). Now modern biblical scholars agree that and loose are technical rabbinical terms meaning forbid and permit, but Luther dismissed all that as pure Roman fabrication. Unfortunately, that position makes much of previous thousand years in history of Church, especially in West, largely incomprehensible. Matt. 16:19 is arguably single most difficult text in medieval political thought, for Jesus is indisputably on record as saying, Whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven . . . , which suggests no clear lines of demarcation, if any at all, between spiritual and temporal authority. When Augustine famously wrote, Roma locuta, causa finita, it was not writ in heavens what limits of juridical competence of bishop of Rome were. As ecclesiastical and especially papal jurisdiction came to be worked out in protracted struggles of High Middle Ages, and as theory of papal plenitude of power pari passu came to be fully elaborated, by reason of sin (ratione peccati) was but one of several major sources of that authority. Although many questions were raised about its extent and practical limits were sometimes imposed upon it (as, for example, in Statute of Praemunire in England), no outright rejections of papal or ecclesiastical jurisdiction as such were asserted in West before onset of Protestant Reformations. Thus, for example, such matters as marriage and probate came commonly to fall under its purview, notaries everywhere did their work by imperial and papal authority, and popes drew on universal jurisdiction they claimed to launch crusades and, later, to carve up world between Spanish and Portuguese. Many criticized abuses in this system, and a few thinkers and preachers assaulted its very premises; but powers that were in Europe rarely if ever joined in these attacks before 1520's. But of all of this Rittgers is evidently completely unaware, even though he cites Brian Tierney's still essential Crisis of Church State, 1050-1300 (1964) in his bibliography. Rittgers' unwitting confessional blindspot thus constitutes a major impediment to his historical understanding of what might well be considered keystone of medieval Church, and it would therefore seem to follow that his teaching of history of Christianity must inevitably be highly problematical. (It should be pointed out that Rittgers is hardly in this respect. Indeed, most of modern scholars he cites accept Luther's neat legerdemain, just as most Protestants believe incorrectly that justification faith is asserted in Paul's epistle to Romans, when in fact Luther added word alone in seeming contradiction of what Paul says at 2:6 (For [God] will render to every man according to his works . . .). Still, for an historian of Christianity to suffer from this chasm in his understanding is frankly appalling. …

The Politics of Religion in the Age of Mary, Queen of Scots: The Earl of Argyll and the Struggle for Britain and Ireland (review)

Reviewed by: The Politics of Religion in the Age of Mary, Queen of Scots: The Earl of Argyll and the Struggle for Britain and Ireland James Kirk The Politics of Religion in the Age of Mary, Queen of Scots: The Earl of Argyll and the Struggle for Britain and Ireland. By Jane E. A. Dawson. [Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History.] (New York: Cambridge University Press. 2002. Pp. xvii, 251.) The title is lengthy but the subject is significant. Dr. Dawson's central theme is the career of the fifth earl of Argyll, who exercised a strategic role in securing a Protestant victory at the Scottish Reformation. He not only helped shape the shared Protestant allegiance within the two kingdoms on the British mainland but supported English efforts at controlling Ireland. Highland chieftain, Protestant reformer, and supporter of John Knox, Argyll succeeded to the earldom in 1558, and followed his father's example in promoting Protestantism within his domains and beyond with evangelical zeal. He grew up in a household whose Protestant chaplains were renegade Catholic clerics, John Douglas, a former friar, and notably John Carswell, a former priest and later superintendent of Argyll, who, with Argyll's patronage, furthered the work of the Reformed church in the west Highlands. As a leading magnate, Argyll held key offices of state: justice-general, master of the royal household, and ultimately the prized post of chancellor. Geographically, his power-base lay in the west Highlands and islands where he commanded the necessary military and naval resources enabling him to intervene [End Page 817] in Ireland. Besides, within Scotland, he effortlessly straddled the cultural divide and was as readily at home in the Scots-speaking Lowlands as he was in his Gaelic-speaking heartland. He became one of the most powerful figures not only in Scotland but in the whole of Britain. Joining the Protestant "lords of the Congregation," he took a lead in overthrowing, with English help, the regime of Mary of Guise, governor of Scotland for her daughter Mary, queen of Scots, then absent in France. Even so, as brother-in-law to Mary, he became a member of the royal circle when Mary, who remained a Catholic, returned home in 1561. That may appear incongruous, for Argyll was also one of the nobles who had been particularly active in destroying "idolatrous" images in churches and in demolishing friaries. At the Reformation parliament in 1560, he had been prominent in promoting the legislation abrogating papal jurisdiction in Scotland and forbidding the celebration of Mass. As part of the deal, Mary was obliged to support Protestantism publicly while maintaining a priest for her own private devotions at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. At the same time, Argyll came to an understanding with Sir William Cecil in England, Queen Elizabeth's secretary, whom he met in Edinburgh, to promote a shared Protestantism within the three kingdoms of the British Isles. Argyll's promise of assistance in northern Ireland was welcomed by the English government as part of its plans for subjugating Ulster. Five years later, however, Argyll withdrew his offer of co-operation. When Mary married Darnley, her second husband, Argyll had temporarily lost power, and he blamed Elizabeth for her failure to send help to Scotland. Consequently, any belief he had in a common cause evaporated. By 1567, he accepted the need to imprison Mary after her defeat in battle, but he could not condone her enforced abdication. He refused to attend the coronation of Mary's infant son and continued to support the queen's party, commanding her forces at the battle of Langside in 1568 before her flight to England. Under pressure from his clan council, however, he changed sides and finally joined the supporters of young King James. To some degree, he served as a peacemaker and tried to reconcile his former allies to the government of King James. He died in 1573 as the dust of the civil war between supporters of Mary and King James began to settle. Dr. Dawson is to be congratulated for her well-researched and masterly study of Argyll as a 'British' statesman, exploring his triple role as Gaelic chief, Scottish statesman, and British...

Changing Places: The Marriage and Royal Entry of Philip, Prince of Austria, and Mary Tudor, July-August 1554

This article revisits accounts of the marriage and royal entry of Philip and Mary in the summer of 1554 to demonstrate the complex ways in which these public ceremonies responded to the uncertainties and concerns that surrounded Mary's Spanish marriage. From this fresh reading of the sources it emerges that Mary made every effort to reassure the English people that she would retain full sovereignty over them and that there was far greater willingness to embrace and accept Philip as king of England than has been believed. It is also suggested that the consecrated link between the return of papal jurisdiction and the notion that the marriage has resulted in an abrogation of English sovereignty needs to be carefully related to the polemic of exiled reformers who harped on concerns and doubts about Mary's female authority, despite both the contract's limitations on Philip's power in England and the act investing Mary with kingly authority.

The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council of Serdica (review)

Reviewed by: The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council of Serdica H. A. Drake Hamilton Hess The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council of Serdica Oxford Early Christian Studies Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002 Pp. xii + 279. $80. When this book inaugurated the Oxford Theological Monographs series in 1958, its title was The Canons of the Council of Sardica, A.D. 343: A Landmark in the Early Development of Canon Law. The repositioning of title and subtitle indicates the primary change in this new edition. Whereas the first edition began [End Page 250] with a discussion of the historical and textual issues surrounding the composition and survival of the canons of Serdica, this material is now preceded by a new Part I that adds almost 100 pages of new text to the volume. Here Hess demonstrates how, through the twin pressures of schism and recalcitrant clergy, meetings that were originally deliberative in nature, seeking to resolve local issues through open discussion and consensus, were transformed into legislative assemblies (44). The transformation is reflected in the meaning of the Greek κανων, which by the end of the fourth century had changed from "custom" to "conciliar enactments" (77). The three chapters in Part II, "Serdica: the Council and its Canons," contain lightly revised versions of chapters of the former Part I dealing with the background to the Council, historical and textual problems, and transmission of the text. As in the first edition, the book closes with a final part, "Studies in Interpretation," in which the canons are individually analyzed after being re-sorted under four general headings: "The Appointment of Bishops," "The Translation of Bishops and Other Clergy," "The Appeal Canons," and "Episcopal Visits to the Imperial Court." In this edition Hess has added Greek text to the Latin and provided an English translation for both. Obviously, more has changed in this edition than the spelling of Serdica (or of Ossius—formerly Hosius—of Cordoba). But in important ways this book remains very much what it was when it first appeared. In the intervening half century, the burgeoning field of Late Antiquity has developed a more sympathetic understanding of the eastern bishops who withdrew from the synod and of the political machinations on both sides. Hess's concentration on the canons causes him to give short shrift to such ambiguities; in his study, right and wrong positions are always easy to discern. This said, the virtues of Hess's approach are many. The author argues that Serdica was a pivotal moment in the process of conciliar transformation.1 The western bishops there set out deliberately to create an avenue of appeal for clergy who believed themselves victims of politically motivated synods and to rein in the ambitions of others who sought to remove themselves to more prestigious sees. The effect of these decisions, in the West at least, was decisive (111). The 20–25 Serdican canons (the number varies in different mss.) are notoriously confusing and even contradictory, and previous scholars had created even more problems by trying to resolve the problems by claiming primacy for either the Greek or Latin versions of the text. Hess argues instead that the two versions are equally valid. He demonstrates that the canons originated as "stenographic records" reflecting a process by which a formal proposal (relatio) is followed by suggested resolutions (sententiae) and a summary of the issue by the presiding bishop (64). He is particularly judicious in analyzing the canons that specify appeal to the bishop of Rome (3bc. 4, 7 and 17 in the Latin text). Whereas theological positions have guided much previous analysis, Hess's philological and historical approach leads him to conclude that (1) the three canons involved are not separate but "three phases of the [same] verbal process" (180), and (2) the "Serdican formula represents a stage of development towards the notion of papal jurisdiction," but such jurisdication had not yet been articulated (188). Hess's much-expanded bibliography shows that he has kept abreast of important [End Page 251] new scholarship concerning argumentation and decision-making in Late Antiquity, such as Richard Lim's Public Disputation, Power and Social Order in Late Antiquity (Berkeley, 1995). But...

Congresses of Velehrad

The desire for unity among Christians, called the popular term "ecumenism", has its origins. The split between the Byzantine and Catholic churches finally established itself in the minds of ordinary people after the Crusades and the capture of the Crusaders of Constantinople in 1204. Subsequent centuries were marked by unity competitions, but the Roman Catholic Church was the initiator of these competitions. In Catholic theology, all churches that were not under papal jurisdiction were considered to be objects of missionary activity. The result of such missionary unity was the deepening of the divide between the Catholic and Eastern churches. Segments of the latter proclaimed unity with Rome, beginning their existence as Uniate churches.

‘Received in his Name’: Rome’s Busy Baby Box

Innocent III, a proud and learned Roman pope, was well acquainted with the history and literature of the Rome of earlier days. He would have been aware of the prophecy given by Virgil in theAeneidthat when the foaming Tiber appeared to run as a river of blood disaster was foretold. In his own day the River Tiber gave him a clear message of a real disaster actually taking place. Far too frequently the fishermen of Rome drew in their nets only to find not a harvest of fish, but the tiny corpses of babies. These had been thrown naked to meet their deaths in the waters of the Tiber. Rome, of course, was by no means a stranger to the problem of abandoned babies. The great legend of the City’s origins with the suckling of the babes who were to become its eventual founders was given a daily reminder since, under the portico of the Lateran Palace, was the famous bronze statue of theLupaorShe-Wolf. In spite of the serious damage caused by a thunderbolt in Antiquity, which had left the Wolf’s feet broken and destroyed the group of the twins, the ‘Mother of the Romans’, as she was known, had come to represent papal jurisdiction over Rome, as well as the nourishing of its children. The River Tiber had always been available for the disposal of the many unwanted infants. Why, then, should the macabre catch of the fishermen of his time have been received by Innocent III as a matter in need of his most urgent attention? It might have been that there were more babies than usual. Population pressure was affecting Rome, and, as elsewhere, social problems were increasing with consequent effects on newborn children. What evidence then can be found to link Innocent with Rome’s Baby Box as a way of remedying such a dreadful situation?

The Piety of The Catholic Restoration in England, 1553–1558

There was very little in Reginald Pole’s previous record as a scholar, confessor, or ecclesiastical statesman to suggest that he attached great importance to the externals of traditional worship. However, in his task of restoring the Church in England to the Catholic fold, he felt constrained to use whatever methods and materials were available to his hands. Ceremonies, as Miles Huggarde rightly observed, were ‘curious toyes’, not only to the Protestants, but also to those semi-evangelical Reformers of the 1530s whose exact doctrinal’standpoints are so hard to determine. Along with the papal jurisdiction had gone the great pilgrimage shrines, not only St Thomas of Canterbury—that monument to the triumph of the sacerdotium over the regnum—but also Our Lady of Walsingham and a host of others. Down, too, had gone the religious houses, lesser and greater, with their elaborate liturgical practices, and many familiar saints’ days had disappeared from the calendar before the austere simplifications of 1552. Such changes had provoked much opposition and disquiet, but they had left intact die ceremonial core of the old faith, the Mass in all its multitude of forms, and the innumerable little sacramental and liturgical pieties which constituted the faith of ordinary people. The recent researches of Professor Scarisbrick, Dr Haigh, Dr Susan Brigden, and others have reminded us just how lively these pieties were before—and during—the Reformation, even in places heavily infiltrated by the New Learning, such as London. It was at this level that traditional religion seems to have been at its most flourishing; in the small fraternities and guilds attached to parish churches; in the ornamentation and equipment of the churches themselves; and in the provision of gifts and bequests for obits, lights, and charitable doles.

The ‘Privy Kirks’ and their Antecedents: The Hidden Face of Scottish Protestantism

The history of Scottish protestantism as a clandestine, underground movement can be traced, albeit unevenly, over three decades from parliament’s early ban on Lutheran literature in 1525 to the protestant victory of 1560 when, in disregard of the wishes of its absent queen then resident in France, parliament finally proscribed the Latin mass and the whole apparatus of papal jurisdiction in Scotland and adopted instead a protestant Confession of Faith. Out of a loosely-defined body of beliefs in the 1530s, ranging from a profound dissatisfaction at ecclesiastical abuse (shared by those who remained Catholic), to a recognition of the need for a reformation in doctrine (less readily conceded by orthodox Catholics), Scottish protestantism by the 15 50s had developed a cellular organisation, enabling it to survive periodic persecution. Early protestants, themselves brought up within the Catholic church as baptised and communicating members, by the 1550s had taken the agonising and momentous step of separating themselves from the fellowship of the established church by forming their own separate communities of believers, worshipping in secret and centred on the privy kirks which arose in the years immediately preceding the Reformation.

Via Ascetica: a Papal Quandary

‘Rescue us O Lord Pope from barbaric power and subjugation to laymen’ was the cry of despair from the clerics of Grandmont which reached Pope Innocent III about the year 1215. It indicated the growth of the appeal to Rome which took place in the Cannon Law of the twelfth century. Many other examples of an increase in papal authority occurred at this time. The extension of papal jurisdiction is one of two important developments of twelfth- and thirteenth-century Christendom with which this paper will be concerned.

The idea of peace in the West, 500–1150

Most of the numerous peace traditions of the early middle ages developed within a framework of three dimensions: monastic, ecclesiastical, imperial. But after 1150 the equilibrium among these three views of peace became upset. The pax ecclesiae and the imperial peace were channeled into papal jurisdiction and the public peace of the lay powers. The monastic peace began to lose its influence upon society at large.

Vatican I and the Papacy 7: Reception and Revision

Theological revision is taking place all the time. Theology is revision, in the sense that the faith which was once delivered to the saints (Jude 3) is constantly re-appropriated by a new generation, and in new circumstances, so that every fresh appropriation is inevitably a revision. There is no way of telling in advance whether you arc seeing things in a new perspective seeing (and saying) things differently, but still seeing (and saying) the same things; or whether you are simply saying something completely different from what previous generations have believed. In this respect the problem of interpreting the decrees of Vatican I is no different from the problem of interpreting the Christological affirmations of the Council of Chaleedon. Some reinterpretations will prove sooner or later to be distortions: illusory or even dishonest attempts to say substantially the same thing but in necessarily different language; but often it will take time for this to become clear, and in the meantime we must not fear to look again at what we have inherited.To re-examine the decrees of Vatican 1 on papal jurisdiction and infallibility may seem peculiarly difficult because the papacy as an institution has clearly done as much harm as good, and the dark history may suggest that the Vatican I decrees should simply be rejected and that nothing can be salvaged. While Catholics should certainly seek to recover some of the highly critical attitude to the papacy which their forefathers displayed, and be ready to admit that much of the doctrine and the exercise of the papal prerogatives requires to be condemned and corrected, none can remain in communion with the church of Rome without having some vision of the Petrine ministry and that must include some interpretation of the Vatican 1 decrees.