Roman Curia Research Articles

The Cistercian monastery of S. Martino al Monte in the 13th century through papal documents: first considerations on the relations with the Roman curia

This essay aims to reconstruct the history of the Cistercian monastery of S. Martino al Monte, located near Viterbo (Lazio), and focuses on its relations with the papacy and the papal curia during the 13th century. The analysis of the monastery’s documentation, especially papal records, has revealed that the first half of the century was a fruitful time for the Cistercian community. The monastery strengthened its relations with the Roman curia thanks to the personality of some eminent abbots who were involved in the workings of the curia, and to the support of some cardinals who promoted the Cistercian coenobium, subsidized its building renovation, and sponsored the abbey's interests in the curia. The monastery also enlarged its patrimonial endowment and reorganized its administrative and accounting system to improve the management of its possessions.

Confessional Intelligence: Early Modern Papal Diplomats and Information‐Gathering Regarding England and Poland

AbstractThis essay examines the information‐gathering practices of papal nuncios and legates to argue that they performed much of the same intelligence work, and in a similar manner, as other diplomatic agents in the early modern Europe. It focuses in particular on papal diplomats’ efforts to gather information regarding two areas that proved especially challenging for the papacy – England and Poland‐Lithuania – both of which were far from Rome and which contained large numbers of non‐Catholics, who would understandably be wary of these diplomats’ intelligence work. The essay explores the mechanisms by which nuncios gathered information, including via ambassadors, members of religious orders, and informal networks of informants; their efforts to verify the information they received; and their methods to securely convey that information to their superiors in the Roman curia.

The General Procurators of the Teutonic Order Towards the Polish-Teutonic Conflict

The article deals with the activities of the General Procurators of the Teutonic Order regarding the Polish-Teutonic dispute in the first thirty years of the fifteenth century. Based on their dispatches sent to Marienburg, it can be assumed that the Procurators were not passive executors of the Grand Master’s orders. Their frequently occurring disagreements resulted not only from their distinctive personal qualities but also from their different perspectives on assessing what was in the best interest of the Teutonic Order. The Grand Masters lacked professional knowledge not only of law (especially canon law) but also of how the Roman curia functioned.

The Avignon Popes and Their Chancery: Collected Essays by Patrick Zutshi

Reviewed by: The Avignon Popes and Their Chancery: Collected Essays by Patrick Zutshi Blake Beattie The Avignon Popes and Their Chancery: Collected Essays. By Patrick Zutshi. (Florence: SISMEL. Edizioni del Galluzzo. 2021. Pp. xiv, 466. €68,00. ISBN: 9788892900646. Starting with John XXII (1316–34), the popes of Avignon built up a remarkably elaborate administrative machinery that generated a voluminous body of official paperwork, on which so much of the study of the Avignonese papacy rests. The essential connections between the two–that is, the institutions of the papal bureaucracy, on the one hand, and their documentary output, on the other–has long stood at the heart of Patrick Zutshi’s scholarship. In this volume Zutshi presents twenty essays, all but two of which have been previously published, here revised, updated, and organized into a cohesive (if not quite fully monographic) study of “the largest and perhaps the most complex of the various departments within the Roman curia” (p. 4) at fourteenth-century Avignon, the chancery. The result is a brightly lit window into the inner workings of the single most advanced and sophisticated administrative system of the European Middle Ages, from one of the leading scholars in the field. The essays gathered together here span much of Zutshi’s career. Chapters 13 and 19 first appeared in the late 1980s; chapters 9 (“At the Point of Death: Licences to Choose a Confessor in mortis articulo Issued by the Avignon Popes,” pp. 179–203) and 12 (“The Autograph Letters of the Avignon Popes,” pp. 241– 252) were written for the book (2021). Following a foundational first chapter (a crystalline introduction to the high and late medieval papal chancery and the different types of documents it produced), the book is thereafter divided into five thematically organized sections. The first contains five chapters—one of which (no. 3) [End Page 807] was coauthored with the late Peter Linehan–which concern themselves with “Petitions and Registers” (pp. 27–138). Chapters 7–9 pertain to “The Chancery and Its Production” (pp. 141–203); chapters 10–12, to “The Role of the Pope” in the production of chancery output (pp. 207–51). Zutshi’s long-standing interest in the Avignon papacy and England is evinced by five chapters (13–17) on “Papal Letters and English History” (pp. 255–357). Neatly, the final three chapters (18–20) address “Papal Letters for the University of Cambridge,” where Zutshi served for years as Keeper of Manuscripts and University Archives. The sometimes byzantine intricacies of the curia and its departments can be daunting, but Zutshi is a sure and steady hand. An institutional scholar in the tradition of Guillaume Mollat, he guides readers easily through the chancery, its workings, and the different types of its documentary products. Zutshi has a superb sense of the bureaucratic spirit that animated the Avignon papacy and communicates it with clarity and precision. His work is everywhere informed by meticulous textual scholarship. Zutshi is never far from the manuscripts—indeed, most chapters contain appendices in which he presents exemplars of the documentary texts he elucidates. Much more than simply a useful assemblage of previously published works, The Avignon Popes and Their Chancery stands as the first major, stand-alone, monograph-length study of its subject, in any language (p. ix); as both a supremely informative overview and an eminently informative reference work, it will long be essential reading for scholars of the later medieval papacy and of medieval institutional history more broadly. Blake Beattie University of Louisville Copyright © 2022 The Catholic University of America Press

Catholic Media in the Hands of Laics: Case Study of Vatican Communication Chiefs’ Twitter Activities

The shape of religious media communication changed dramatically because of the opportunities given by digital media and by the process of the secularization, structural changes in religious organizations, and the challenge enabled by the huge loss of credibility in the eyes of the world. We can observe certain dynamics in the professional approach of official Catholic media, especially those based in the Vatican. Its on-line project Vatican News has provided news service since 2017, now in almost forty languages. In the spirit of continuing the reform of the Roman curia, for which the founding of Secretary for Communication (now dicastery) was the “pilot” area, Pope Francis appointed the first layperson to lead any office of curia in 2018, and journalist Paolo Ruffini became the prefect. A few months later, one of most famous experts on the Vatican, also a lay person, journalist Andrea Tornielli, became editorial chief of the Dicastery for Communication. Other personal changes continued soon. The goal of this article is to analyse the initiative that Ruffini and Tornielli took in their office during six months after their appointment. The quantitative content analysis of both their Twitter accounts, closely connected with the newscast produced by Vatican News, is the scientific method used in this paper. There were detected new journalistic genres in the social media space (e.g., short video, editorial, story), vast popularity of Pope Francis, and success of his own Twitter activity (he obtained even tens of thousands of followers) or, contrarily, the omission and inconsistency when introducing uneasy themes (abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, ecology or economy) to the public. There was also the surprising realization that Ruffini is more popular in the Twitter milieu than Tornielli.

Mit Nächstenliebe gegen den Kommunismus

Abstract This study examines the strategies adopted by the Catholic church in the post-World War II German-speaking area to curtail the ‚communist threat‘. The text compares two dioceses, St. Pölten in the eastern part of Austria, and Munich-Freising in Bavaria, that saw the need to react to the rise of communist regimes immediately outside their borders in East-Central Europe with the means at their disposal. The starting point for this analysis is the „Decree against Communism“ of Pope Pius XII, which belongs to a long tradition of ecclesiastical criticism directed against the great ideologies of the 19th and 20th centuries, and which was widely adopted by the German-speaking clergy. The discussion of the methods by which the church attempted to influence the east-west conflict and their constraints will address three topics: aid for refugees, the social question, and issues related to schooling. In these areas, the church used a variety of resources to achieve its aims and exploited the Roman curia’s position as a global actor – from its parishes and monasteries at the local level to its spheres of political influence at the nation-state level.

Scipione Borghese: Actor protagonist pe pământurile tuscolane

"Scipione Borghese: Leading Actor on Tuscan Lands. The contribution focuses on the figure of Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1577-1633) and on the role he playedas patron of the arts in the Colli Albani area, in particular in the city of Frascati (located 20 kilometers east of Rome). The cardinal, nephew of Pope Paul V Borghese and very important personality of the Roman curia, is investigated hereas a promoter of the arts and in particular as the patron of many architectural and landscape arrangements made on the hills of Frascati. The villas purchased by the Borghese family under went enlargement, reconstruction and decoration (such as Villa Taverna, Villa Torlonia, Villa Mondragone and Villa Grazioli). The cardinal and the Villas moved a lot of money and many artistic workers (architects, painters, sculptors, plasterers, masons, etc.) that made Frascati the Petrified testimony of the economic, political and cultural ideas of the Borghese himself. Keywords: Scipione Caffarelli Borghese; Paolo V Borghese; Flaminio Ponzio; Girolamo Rainaldi; Giovanni Vasanzio; Matthäus Greuter; Rome; Frascati; Alban Hills; Monte Porzio Catone; Burghesianum, patronage; Villa "

Irreparable Breach or Late-Medieval Reform? Luther’s Address to the Christian Nobility and the Conciliar Reform Tradition

ABSTRACT Martin Luther’s 1520 reform treatise, Address to the Christian Nobility, notably pleaded to secular authorities to help reform the German territorial churches of the Empire. Treatments of the Address, however, have neither explained adequately the source of Luther’s proposals nor taken into account recent scholarship on late-medieval conciliar reform and its aspirations to undertake wide-ranging disciplinary improvements. This study compares three specific reforms in Luther’s treatise (annates and services, Roman curia, and papal provisions and reservations) with their analogues at the councils of Constance (1414–1418) and Basel (1431–1449) to show the overlap between them. It will emerge that while Luther likely inherited the proposals from the German Gravamina, he was not aware of the conciliar reforms mediated through those Gravamina, or of the fact that the territorial authorities to which he appeals in his treatise were largely responsible for the failure of those conciliar efforts.

Between Languages, Genres and Cultures: Diego Collado’s Linguistic Works

Dominican Diego Collado can be rightfully counted among the most influential missionaries of the sunset of the Christian Century in Japan. Although he spent only three years there, between 1619 and 1622, and never achieved the palm of martyrdom, it transformed the rest of his life. After his return to Europe, he fought vehemently against the Jesuit monopoly in Japan at the Roman curia and the court in Madrid. While severe Christian persecution was raging in the land of the rising sun, he prepared a plan for an ambitious and highly controversial project for a new Dominican congregation devoted only to the missionary activity in Japan and China. This endeavour failed bitterly. His literary activity was similarly focused on a single goal – to promote his mission. He wrote multiple reports disputing and fighting the Jesuits, finished and published a history of the Christianisation of Japan from the Dominican perspective, and – most importantly for this article – composed three linguistic works: a grammar of the Japanese language, a Latin-Spanish-Japanese dictionary and a Japanese-Latin model confession. This study understands these three influential works as a trilogy that should be treated together as mutually complementary. It recognises them not only as examples of missionary linguistics but as part of a long European (and, in particular, Latin) tradition of language description, language learning and pastoral care.

English News in Papal Rome: Cross-Confessional Information Exchange in Reformation Europe

Abstract This essay argues that confessional differences had a direct impact on the circulation of news in early modern Europe. By examining how the Roman curia struggled to gather information about England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, it demonstrates how the Reformation both shaped and limited the information-gathering channels available to the papacy. The article begins by examining the various means by which the curia sought to collect news about English affairs, including via apostolic nuncios, Jesuits, and lay intelligencers, although fears of misinformation and imposters were always present. It then investigates the death of Elizabeth in 1603 as a case study to explore how quickly, and by what means, the Roman curia was able to verify news of a major event in a Protestant land.

Juan de Torquemada, Nicholas of Cusa and Pius II on the Islamic Promise of Paradise

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Visitor experiences: art, architecture and space at the papal curia c.1200

ABSTRACTThe Lateran Palace in Rome was the main papal residence and the administrative centre of the papacy in the central Middle Ages. The physical setting that confronted visitors to the Roman curia at the Lateran Palace during the pontificate of Innocent III (1198–1216) can be explored by piecing together information from curial material and the few visitors’ accounts about the architecture, art and use of space within this no-longer existent building. The article examines how visitors perceived the palace and the use of space within it, placing particular emphasis on visitors’ admission to the different areas of the palace which determined their access to the pope and other members of the curia. The ways in which the layout and decoration of the palace reflected and reinforced notions of papal authority are also discussed.

The Curia in Aeneid 7

Abstract In Aeneid 7, Latinus receives the Trojans in his curia, a building simultaneously described as tectum, regia, and templum in Vergil’s ekphrasis (7.170–91), which has complicated discussions concerning the building’s function and conception. Many studies have suggested that specific temples in Rome are the sole inspiration for Vergil. I argue, however, that the poet is more generally allusive, and I suggest below that the Roman curia, overlooked thus far in scholarship, also informs the poet’s ekphrasis, through an examination of the architectural and ideological features in Latinus’s curia. By projecting Roman architecture and monuments into the past, Vergil emphasizes that architecture comprises a significant part of the history and purpose of Rome.

Between Rome, Brussels and Spain. The Southern Netherlands and Franche-Conté ecclesiastical agency in the Policentric Monarchy of Philip the 2nd.

Entre Roma, Bruselas y España. La agencia eclesiástica de los Países Bajos y del Franco Condado en la monarquía policéntrica de Felipe II.El agente de los Países Bajos y del Franco Condado en la Santa Sede en época de Felipe II ha despertado poco interés entre los historiadores hasta éste momento. Sin duda, creemos que ello es debido a la aparente falta de relevancia de dicho puesto; sometido al embajador del monarca hispano, su margen de maniobra parecía reducido únicamente al seguimiento técnico y defensa de los asuntos eclesiásticos de los Países Bajos y del Franco Condado ante la curia romana. Sin embargo, una lectura atenta de las prácticas y las redes generadas por dicho agente nos permiten modificar esa lectura inicial. A través de las estrategias socio-profesionales del agente Laurent du Blioul, heredero de prácticas ya llevadas a cabo con anterioridad, la institución fue capaz de acrecentar su influencia en Roma. Nuestro análisis muestra de éste modo que el razonamiento y funcionamiento de dicho agente desborda los intereses únicamente de Bruselas, pues podemos considerar que el agente Laurent du Blioul fue un actor que defendió los intereses de toda una monarquía policéntrica.

Symmaque dans le Contra Symmachum de Prudence : enjeux et significations d’une mise à mort littéraire

In his Contra Symmachum, probably written in 404, Prudentius, a poet of triumphant Christianism, attacks an emblematic figure of Paganism, senator Symmachus, famous for his skills as an orator. In the famous Relatio 3 written in 384 and addressed to Emperor Valentinian the 3rd, Symmachus protested against the withdrawal of the Victory’s altar from the Roman curia and the end of some privileges of the Pagan clergy, and especially the Vestals. The aim of this paper is to show that the literary «killing » of orator Symmachus and his speech is at the centre of the poem’s meaning. Prudentius obviously manipulates the figure of Symmachus, probably recently dead, to promote a radical Christianization of the Roman civilization in front of young emperor Honorius and his regent Stilicho. This view is very far from the one given a few months before by Claudian, the culturally Pagan poet of the court of Milan in his De bello Getico.

Herrschaft und Reziprozität: Vom Sichtbarwerden der Gegenseitigkeit in Krieg und Konflikt (Paris – Rom 1589)

Rule and Reciprocity. The Dependencies between Sovereign andSubjects becoming visible in War and Conflict (Paris - Rome 1589). Political crises in Early Modern Times made the reciprocity visible of both, the relationship between rulers and ruled, as well as that between the ecclesiastical and secular powers. This is demonstrated regarding the culmination of the confrontation between King, Catholic League and Huguenots in France in 1589 after the murder of the duke and cardinal Guise by king Henri III (reg. 1574-1589) in 1588 and how the French negotiated that case at the Roman curia before Sixtus V and the special congregation of French affairs, chaired by the great inquisitor Giulio Antonio Santori cardinal of Santa Severina. The major catholic monarchomach treatise De justa Henrici tertii abdicatione, attributed to Jean Boucher, is shown not to be a plagiarism of the Calvinist monarchomachs and not to post-date the murder of Henri III - as research assumes since the nineteenth century. It rather continued the teaching of the school of Salamanca, and it served as expression of the League's constitutional thought in that Roman context. New archival findings help to understand how this case can be understood as a part of a possibly larger approach to historicize 'reciprocity'.

Herrschaft und Reziprozität: Vom Sichtbarwerden der Gegenseitigkeit in Krieg und Konflikt (Paris – Rom 1589)

Rule and Reciprocity. The Dependencies between Sovereign andSubjects becoming visible in War and Conflict (Paris - Rome 1589). Political crises in Early Modern Times made the reciprocity visible of both, the relationship between rulers and ruled, as well as that between the ecclesiastical and secular powers. This is demonstrated regarding the culmination of the confrontation between King, Catholic League and Huguenots in France in 1589 after the murder of the duke and cardinal Guise by king Henri III (reg. 1574-1589) in 1588 and how the French negotiated that case at the Roman curia before Sixtus V and the special congregation of French affairs, chaired by the great inquisitor Giulio Antonio Santori cardinal of Santa Severina. The major catholic monarchomach treatise De justa Henrici tertii abdicatione, attributed to Jean Boucher, is shown not to be a plagiarism of the Calvinist monarchomachs and not to post-date the murder of Henri III - as research assumes since the nineteenth century. It rather continued the teaching of the school of Salamanca, and it served as expression of the League's constitutional thought in that Roman context. New archival findings help to understand how this case can be understood as a part of a possibly larger approach to historicize 'reciprocity'.

Crónica de Derecho Canónico 2016

The Chronicle reports the main documents and legal acts issued in 2016 by the papa and the various dicasteries of the roman curia, as well as the international agreements signed by the Holy See. Canonical activity undertaken by the Spanish Episcopal Conference is also covered.

Repertorium Poenitentiariae Germanicum, X: Verzeichnis der in den Supplikenregistern der Pönitentiarie Leos X. vorkommenden Personen, Kirchen und Orte des Deutschen Reiches (1513–1521) ed. by Ludwig Schmugge

Reviewed by: Repertorium Poenitentiariae Germanicum, X: Verzeichnis der in den Supplikenregistern der Pönitentiarie Leos X. vorkommenden Personen, Kirchen und Orte des Deutschen Reiches (1513–1521) ed. by Ludwig Schmugge Thomas M. Izbicki Repertorium Poenitentiariae Germanicum, X: Verzeichnis der in den Supplikenregistern der Pönitentiarie Leos X. vorkommenden Personen, Kirchen und Orte des Deutschen Reiches (1513–1521). Edited by Ludwig Schmugge. 2 vols. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter. 2016. Pp. xxiv, vii, 424; 237. €129.95.ISBN 978-3-11-047012-3. Pope Leo X (Giovanni de' Medici) reigned for more than eight years in a time of turmoil. He inherited the Fifth Lateran Council from his predecessor, Julius II, and brought it to a conclusion. Leo condemned Martin Luther but was unable to end his challenge to the ecclesiastical status quo. Part of the revenue from the indulgences which so offended Luther went into extensive art patronage. His political endeavors included sustaining the Medici regime in Florence once it had been re-established. None of these things appears in this latest volume of Repertorium Poenitentiariae Germanicum. Here, instead, we see the Roman Curia transacting routine business. The Apostolic Penitentiary dealt with spiritual matters; and it was more accessible to Christians, both clerical and lay, than were many other curial offices. German petitioners appear in these extracts from the registers of the Penitentiary requesting favors the pope could grant through his curia. The first volume of the book provides these extracts, which often are telegraphic in their brevity. The second volume provides multiple points of access through detailed indexing even to the level of Latin terms. Aside from the foreword (Vorwort), the first volume begins with a brief introduction (Einleitung). Ludwig Schmugge, the editor, has provided more detailed discussions of the Penitentiary in previous volumes and other publications. Ten volumes of registers are described, followed by a precis of the layout of a register. The remainder of the introduction lists the persons involved, from the cardinal Major Penitentiary to the procurators listed in the records. Two sets of abbreviations, both necessary for understanding these extracts, follow. One indicates the diocese involved, from Utrecht to Prague, while the other expands the abbreviations commonly used in the Penitentiary's registers. We know that some grants were not registered, but we have no idea whether requests were declined. The extracts from the registers fall into five categories. De matrimonialibus is most pertinent to the laity, since the making and unmaking of marriages usually applied to them. Many were requests for dispensations to marry or remain married within the restrictive bounds of consanguinity (blood kinship) or affinity (sexual contact, marital or extramarital). De diversis formis and De declaratoriis pertain to either special favors granted to individuals or confraternities or to cases involving crimes falling under canon law. These are so various in nature that the extracts are the most detailed in the registers. Concessions De defectu natalium and De uberiori removed obstacles to illegitimate children, especially those of clergy, pursuing ecclesiastical careers. These tend to be so common as to be recorded very briefly. Dispensations De promotis et promovendis removed other obstacles to ecclesiastical [End Page 804] careers, especially to those not of the appropriate age for ordination. Also covered were injuries or scars marring the physical perfection of an ordinand. A few dispensations fall under the heading De confessionalibus. These allowed recipients to choose a priest other than the one in their parishes to minister to their spiritual needs. The duty of receiving communion from the "proper priest" in Eastertide usually was omitted from this concession. The index volume provides name of petitioners and curial functionaries tied to the sequential numbers assigned to each extract. Places are indexed by name and diocese. Patron saints and other dedications, including such Marian references as the Seven Sorrows, are listed. So are religious orders, hospitals, and confraternities. Dates of registration appear, as do the taxes or fees exacted for the registration of concessions. The index by words provides access not just by Latin vocabulary but, through specialized terms, a form of subject indexing. One caution: indulgence may mean remission of punishment and not a grant of spiritual pardon. This series remains a very useful tool, covering pontificates...

Fiesta y regozijo. Las fiestas de toros en España y su defensa en 1570

El objeto del artículo es comentar y editar un memorial presentado a instancias de la Monarquía Hispánica, datable en 1570, en defensa de las fiestas de toros. Su contexto es el de la prohibición pontificia de Pío V, mediante bula, en 1567. En el Archivo General de Simancas se halla el memorial en redacción primigenia y en el Archivo-Biblioteca Zabálburu (Madrid) la versión definitiva, para ser utilizada en Roma por el embajador hispano ante la corte papal. El documento está dirigido al doctor Juan López de Velasco. Estos aspectos, y otros, se analizan antes de editarse por primera vez, en su integridad, la versión completa del memorial tras editarse en 2012 la primigenia.