Maria Teresa Fattori
Maria Teresa Fattori (Ph.D. University of Pisa, 2001) is a researcher at the University of Teramo in the project Netex – Networks and exchanges within the Congregations of the Roman Curia. Her current work focuses on the relationship between the Catholic Church and slavery in the early modern period. She has published extensively on the history of the early modern Roman curia, the development of canon law after the Council of Trent, and the history of global Catholicism. Her recent research has been funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschung Gemeindschaft).
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What has become the Council of Trent in the course of its implementation? This event had to face the criticism of Martin Luther and the reformers but it had also to deal with the historical evolution of societies and contexts till the eighteenth century. Two hundred years after the opening of Trent, Prospero Lambertini, who became Pope under the name of Benedict XIV, published the De Synodo dioecesano, a treatise which relaunched the reception of Trent. The work on the synod, which was published in the first edition in 1748 and in an enlarged edition in 1755, offers a glimpse of the real declined fidelity to the letter and spirit of the council by the main offices of the curia, who had the task of directing and governing the process of translating Trent, in particular the Congregation of the council and the Holy Office. Through this tool, Benedict XIV presented and explained the main decisions of the papacy to the intended readers of his legislation: the bishops of the universal Church and officials of the curia engaged in the congregations. But this text reveal also the profile and the depth of the culture of Bolognese jurist, who has spent the first fifty years of his life in the service to the curia, who had after ruled two dioceses (Ancona between 1728 and 1731, Bologna between April 1731 and January 1740) and who was, finally, bishop of Rome from August 1740 to May 1758.
Benedict’s translation of Trent emphasizes changements and the distance that had developed between the council and its historical reception in the eighteenth century. He tried also to translate Trent in social behaviour and institutional reforms, in religious mentality and bureaucratic procedures. In this treatise, playing the role of a private doctor who explains his own papal decisions, Benedict XIV carried an attempt to accommodate several instances of reform, proposed by the internal currents of the European Catholicism, rooting every attempt to reform in the council of Trent. Only within this precise limits, he tried to integrate with the scientific and philosophical culture of his time. The law became the yardstick to measure customs and traditions, just as fidelity to the biblical text as interpreted by the Roman authority—according to tradition – was the yardstick to judge changes in economic and social reality.
The legal and theological culture in which Prospero Lambertini was immersed determined the meaning and scope of the tools that he utilized, as well as the theoretical and practical manoeuvres enacted through his many reforms. Benedict’s institutional reforms moderately accepted the Jansenistic, rigoristic and Gallican project but a more radical questioning institutional system was rejected and sent back to the future.
The whole work of reform, evidenced by his main treaties, to which the De Synodo was a part, consisted in a titanic effort to improve the functioning of the ecclesiastical institutions. The reforms consisted in a procedural modernization, an examination in a critical sense of the individual and community practices, thus concluding the period began with the normative Zentrierung starting with the Innocent XI and XII. The main treaties - the De S. Sacrificio Missae, the De Servorum Dei beatificatione et beatorum canonizatione, the De Synodo dioecesana along with the Institutiones ecclesiasticae – and the institutional reforms are two sides of the same policy.
The Benedict’s reforms remained within the ecclesiastical, theological, structural, and institutional limits established by the Council, and by Roman hermeneutics on the council and expressed by the Congregation for the interpretation of the Council of Trent. These limits prevented even a partial acceptance of the philosophical and legal ideas of Enlightenment, but subjected the practices of the Curia and Church institutions to an examination by reason and historical tradition. The meeting point between the post-Tridentine Catholic Church and eighteenth-century Europe was more happily attained through exchanges with the physical and medical sciences as well as in the reform of religious practices. For example, the rejection of clerical participation in slavery and the mistreatment of the inhabitants of Latin America was accompanied by decisions that diversified the discipline of the sacraments for Catholics in whose veins flowed a certain amount of non-European blood. No changes were made in terms of tolerance towards other faiths, or regarding a respect for Jewish citizens’ freedom of choice not to convert to Christianity. The Catholic Church of Benedict XIV continued to be driven by a decidedly Eurocentric approach when dealing with religious and cultural diversity.
The Discussion of the Anti-Slavery Debate in the Consultations of the Holy Roman Inquisition
This article attempts to highlight the capacity of Catholic culture to engage with cer- tain issues of the radical Enlightenment: the question of the abolition of human traf- ficking, the emancipation of enslaved people and, finally, the equality of all human beings before God and before the law. To this end, the paper analyses two consulta- tions presented, discussed and voted on within the Congregation of the Holy Inquisi- tion in 1741 and 1795 that dealt with the moral and legal permissibility of slavery. In both cases, the contexts that had led to the two opinions, the sources used by the con- sultants to reach a decision and the final decisions established for the two cases are presented. The essay begins with an account of the traditional positions of the Holy Office on the question of slavery and analyses the context and sources of the Votum of 1741 which resulted in Benedict XIV’s bull “Immensa pastorum”. The article then reconstructs the context and sources of the Votum of 1795, which did not produce a final decision. The concise conclusion discusses the limits of Enlightenment in relaion to the decisions of the Holy Office and opens the view to the changing nature of the position of the Catholic Church with regard to human trafficking in the 19th century.
Persone schiavizzate – Imperi coloniali iberici – Sant’Ufficio – Cattolicesimo
What has become the Council of Trent in the course of its implementation? This event had to face the criticism of Martin Luther and the reformers but it had also to deal with the historical evolution of societies and contexts till the eighteenth century. Two hundred years after the opening of Trent, Prospero Lambertini, who became Pope under the name of Benedict XIV, published the De Synodo dioecesano, a treatise which relaunched the reception of Trent. The work on the synod, which was published in the first edition in 1748 and in an enlarged edition in 1755, offers a glimpse of the real declined fidelity to the letter and spirit of the council by the main offices of the curia, who had the task of directing and governing the process of translating Trent, in particular the Congregation of the council and the Holy Office. Through this tool, Benedict XIV presented and explained the main decisions of the papacy to the intended readers of his legislation: the bishops of the universal Church and officials of the curia engaged in the congregations. But this text reveal also the profile and the depth of the culture of Bolognese jurist, who has spent the first fifty years of his life in the service to the curia, who had after ruled two dioceses (Ancona between 1728 and 1731, Bologna between April 1731 and January 1740) and who was, finally, bishop of Rome from August 1740 to May 1758.
Benedict’s translation of Trent emphasizes changements and the distance that had developed between the council and its historical reception in the eighteenth century. He tried also to translate Trent in social behaviour and institutional reforms, in religious mentality and bureaucratic procedures. In this treatise, playing the role of a private doctor who explains his own papal decisions, Benedict XIV carried an attempt to accommodate several instances of reform, proposed by the internal currents of the European Catholicism, rooting every attempt to reform in the council of Trent. Only within this precise limits, he tried to integrate with the scientific and philosophical culture of his time. The law became the yardstick to measure customs and traditions, just as fidelity to the biblical text as interpreted by the Roman authority—according to tradition – was the yardstick to judge changes in economic and social reality.
The legal and theological culture in which Prospero Lambertini was immersed determined the meaning and scope of the tools that he utilized, as well as the theoretical and practical manoeuvres enacted through his many reforms. Benedict’s institutional reforms moderately accepted the Jansenistic, rigoristic and Gallican project but a more radical questioning institutional system was rejected and sent back to the future.
The whole work of reform, evidenced by his main treaties, to which the De Synodo was a part, consisted in a titanic effort to improve the functioning of the ecclesiastical institutions. The reforms consisted in a procedural modernization, an examination in a critical sense of the individual and community practices, thus concluding the period began with the normative Zentrierung starting with the Innocent XI and XII. The main treaties - the De S. Sacrificio Missae, the De Servorum Dei beatificatione et beatorum canonizatione, the De Synodo dioecesana along with the Institutiones ecclesiasticae – and the institutional reforms are two sides of the same policy.
The Benedict’s reforms remained within the ecclesiastical, theological, structural, and institutional limits established by the Council, and by Roman hermeneutics on the council and expressed by the Congregation for the interpretation of the Council of Trent. These limits prevented even a partial acceptance of the philosophical and legal ideas of Enlightenment, but subjected the practices of the Curia and Church institutions to an examination by reason and historical tradition. The meeting point between the post-Tridentine Catholic Church and eighteenth-century Europe was more happily attained through exchanges with the physical and medical sciences as well as in the reform of religious practices. For example, the rejection of clerical participation in slavery and the mistreatment of the inhabitants of Latin America was accompanied by decisions that diversified the discipline of the sacraments for Catholics in whose veins flowed a certain amount of non-European blood. No changes were made in terms of tolerance towards other faiths, or regarding a respect for Jewish citizens’ freedom of choice not to convert to Christianity. The Catholic Church of Benedict XIV continued to be driven by a decidedly Eurocentric approach when dealing with religious and cultural diversity.
The Discussion of the Anti-Slavery Debate in the Consultations of the Holy Roman Inquisition
This article attempts to highlight the capacity of Catholic culture to engage with cer- tain issues of the radical Enlightenment: the question of the abolition of human traf- ficking, the emancipation of enslaved people and, finally, the equality of all human beings before God and before the law. To this end, the paper analyses two consulta- tions presented, discussed and voted on within the Congregation of the Holy Inquisi- tion in 1741 and 1795 that dealt with the moral and legal permissibility of slavery. In both cases, the contexts that had led to the two opinions, the sources used by the con- sultants to reach a decision and the final decisions established for the two cases are presented. The essay begins with an account of the traditional positions of the Holy Office on the question of slavery and analyses the context and sources of the Votum of 1741 which resulted in Benedict XIV’s bull “Immensa pastorum”. The article then reconstructs the context and sources of the Votum of 1795, which did not produce a final decision. The concise conclusion discusses the limits of Enlightenment in relaion to the decisions of the Holy Office and opens the view to the changing nature of the position of the Catholic Church with regard to human trafficking in the 19th century.
Persone schiavizzate – Imperi coloniali iberici – Sant’Ufficio – Cattolicesimo
P. Firmilian (1731–1803), vom Oberösterreichischen Landesgubernium eine existenzzerstörende achricht: „Lieber Geistlicher, wir haben aus erheblichen Ursachen für gut gefunden, Eurer Kloster llhier zu Innsbruck aufzuheben […]“. Die Schließung des Innsbrucker Kapuzinerkonvents reiht sich ein in eine Welle von Klosteraufhebungen innerhalb der Habsburgermonarchie im ausgehenden 18. Jahrhundert.
Tesi di dottorato discussa alla Fachbereich Katholische Theologie dell’ Università di Tubinga, l’opera di Pius Onyemechi Adiele costituisce un importante punto di riferimento per gli studi dedicati alla relazione tra Chiesa cattolica e schiavitù nei quattro secoli dell’età moderna. Una iniziale premessa spiega le ragioni di questa ricerca: la schiavitù dei neri è parte di una storia della schiavitù di lungo periodo. L’autore, di origini africane e sacerdote cattolico, rivendica per la schiavitù dei neri tratti peculiari e caratterizzanti per ragioni razziali e riserva un’attenzione privilegiata ai pronunciamenti dei romani pontefici per l’importanza del ruolo giocato dal papato all’interno della cristianità conquistatrice europea. Il confronto con lo sterminio ebraico perpetrato dal III Reich e con la richiesta di perdono pubblica di papa Giovanni Paolo II è espressamente stabilito dall’autore come specchio per verificare il diverso trattamento riservato alla questione della schiavitù nera, rispetto agli altri peccati di omissioni o clamorose connivenze. La domanda centrale della ricercar è “Is the Black African race not worthy enough to deserve a document through which the Church can address the mistake and injustice of her past committed against her people?”. Il quadro storiografico è analizzato dall’autore, mostrando come la stessa selezione delle fonti di alcuni studi è volta a misconoscere la colpa e disconoscere la responsabilità dei vertici dell’istituzioni ecclesiastica. Citando alcuni casi concreti di mancate e recenti prese di posizione sulla schiavitù dei neri, come le conferenze latino-americane di Medellin e Puebla (rispettivamente del 1968 e del 1979), l’autore afferma un’attuale responsabilità delle istituzioni nel promuovere una “culture of amnesia” (p. 5). L’impegno ecclesiale dello storico che le righe sopra menzionate evidenziano, nulla toglie al rigore dell’opera, ma mostra il radicamento esistenziale della sua ricerca.
JEFFREY BURSON, MARIA TERESA FATTORI,
HARM KLUETING, ROBERT SCULLY, S. J.,
MITA CHOUDHURY, DALE VAN KLEY
Dale Van Kley, Reform Catholicism and the International Suppression of the Jesuits in Enlightenment Europe. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018.
The base of my analysis is De servorum Dei Beatificatione et sanctorum canonizatione (On the Beatification of the Servant of God and the Canonization of Saints, from now on referred as DSD), written and published by Prospero Lambertini (Bologna, 1675 – Rome, 1758)-Benedict XIV. The first published version of this work was edited by the author himself and issued in Bologna between 1734 and 1738. It was reprinted in 1743, with a revision of the Latin by Jacopo Facciolati. The definitive edition was issued in Rome between 1747 and 1751, edited by the Portuguese Jesuit Emmanuel de Azevedo.
With the foundation of the Congregation of Rites in 1588, the Roman apostolic authority centralized the procedures of beatification and canonization. Yet beginning with the establishment of the College of Cardinals, the public consistory in Rome was often involved in the conclusion of causes. Later modifications of the norms were made by Urban VIII (1624-44) and Benedict XIV (1740-58). The establishment of the Congregation of Rites in 1588 by Sixtus V (1585-90) definitively assigned the evaluation of causes of sainthood to the papal curia. From 1588 to 1741, examination of processes was centralized in the hands of the members of the Congregation of Rites and in the last instance in those of the pope.
The curial procedures were divided into two parts: in the first, the procedure was carried out following formalized steps, while in the second God enlightened and guided the choices of the pope, the cardinals, and the consultors, thanks to a charismatic turning point. The procedural phase also included programmed moments of reflection and silence, opened to the divine intervention. As for confessors, miracles were required of martyrs, yet otherwise the procedure for the latter was simpler. Miracles represented the divine corroboration of the sanctity.
Proving holiness was a huge question for both the parts and the centers of polycentric Catholicism, the Roman center and the Local centers. Sainthood played its role. Indeed, it was extremely incorrect, on behalf of the Roman authority, to propose through the prayers of the universal Church facts that were unproven, doubtful, or apocryphal. That responsibility came under papal authority, and juridical and scientific standards were introduced into the procedure. Through the DSD, Benedict XIV made known the procedures followed by the Holy See in beatification and canonization. This was the first time that curial decisional procedures were published and explained in detail. Benedict XIV was guided by principles of fairness and transparency: clear, uniform norms were the best way to legitimate the work of the papacy. Publicizing beatification and canonization procedures was also an operation of propaganda, demonstrating the caution exercised by the Curia on the topic of miracles.
This was an image put forward from the mid-16th century onwards, also through the papal ceremonies that pervaded the city extensively and took possession of religious spaces. Spatial descriptions of the Roman and European hierarchies of power also found space in the urban fabric.
This idea, that Rome was the mother and root of the Church, was tied to its history as well as to the examples of Catholic devotions (the “pratiche devozionali”) it could offer. Perhaps in this direction should be understood Clement VIII’s efforts to construct the image of Rome based on adoration to the Holy Eucharist, frequent confession and Eucharistic communion, the renewal in the city of preaching cycles and popular missions, the resumption of conversionist policies toward Roman Jews, the proclamation of collective penances, public mortifications, solemn processions, and jubilees. It was a richness and variety of religious experiences that Rome truly offered, and religious orders and congregations born after the Kirchenspaltung, such as the Capuchins, Jesuits, and Oratorians, to name a few, contributed to highlighting them.
From the beginning of his reign, Clement VIII was concerned with confirming the external credibility of the holy city of Rome by imprinting a particular image on the College of Cardinals. In this operation, he drew on some elements of a previous tradition, renewing and adapting them to his own personal project. The paper will consider the following areas of interests: the ceremonial and devotions practiced by Clement VIII and the Roman court, the relationship with religious orders and congregations, canonized sanctity, and missionary activity.
Arti, religione e cultura nell'Ordine cappuccino tra XVI e XVIII secolo
Teramo 12-14 aprile 2023
Special attention will be paid to the theological and canonical debates about the orthodoxy of the Eastern Christian tradition; the confessional surveillance of Eastern communities residing in territories under Catholic government; the answers of the Roman theologians to the questions posed by the missionaries working among ‘heretics and schismatics’; and the importance of the documents in oriental languages kept in the inquisitorial archives for the history of these communities.
Our working hypothesis is that the comparison and confrontation with Eastern Christianity revealed some of the contradictions and unsolved problems of Tridentine Catholicism, while providing the Inquisition with a range of cultural tools and interpretative lenses that were then applied also in other contexts, especially in the framework of the missionary and theological controversies which shook the Catholic world after 1650.
This paper analyzes, first, the background of the foundation of the Congregation of the Council and its competences over the Provincial councils’ from the point of departure of the recognition over the decrees (from February 1564 on). Second, the corrections and the recognition of the Congregation of the Council will be described. The bases of the Congregation’s subsequent procedure were decided in the early decades and that first period may be divided into three main parts, following the multifaced activity of the Cardinals until the foundation of the Congregation de Propaganda fide. Third, since the act of recognition was not the unique, nor the most important activity the Congregation regularly carried on in the area of provincial councils, a short presentation of the main topics related to provincial councils will be held.
- What role have Christian experiences either played in the formation of particular forms of racism or in creating forms of integration or egalitarianism within religious organizations and institutions?
- Have there been practices and provisions that have favored integration in the community of non-native Christians, or has Christian birth – the approval of standards for infant baptism being the indicator– been more significant and even a discriminatory factor among community members? When has ethnic origin hindered certain members of a given church to be fully accepted within a community?
The seminar intend to offer answers to these questions by working through different chronological aspects of the issue. The goal would be to bring together the various forms of Christian expression and interpretation in the world with the socio-economic systems where aspects of racism are engendered, and to take into account the normative and political-institutional frameworks that give rise and meaning to manifestations of hostility toward and isolation of stigmatized peoples/groups.
- What role have Christian experiences either played in the formation of particular forms of racism or in creating forms of integration or egalitarianism within religious organizations and institutions?
- Have there been practices and provisions that have favored integration in the community of non-native Christians, or has Christian birth – the approval of standards for infant baptism being the indicator– been more significant and even a discriminatory factor among community members? When has ethnic origin hindered certain members of a given church to be fully accepted within a community?
The seminar (June 2021, Bologna) / monograph and the commitment of “Cristianesimo nella storia” to publish articles in this subject area might offer answers to these questions by working through different chronological aspects of the issue (the approach our journal generally takes). The goal would be to bring together the various forms of Christian expression and interpretation in the world with the socio-economic systems where aspects of racism are engendered, and to take into account the normative and political-institutional frameworks that give rise and meaning to manifestations of hostility toward and isolation of stigmatized peoples/groups.
Beyond the borders. Laboratory of history and historiography, networking action between Europe and Central America (Sapienza 2020–22), di cui sono partner i seguenti atenei: Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC – Prof. José Edgardo Cal Montoya), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM – Prof. Gibrán Irving Israel Bautista y Lugo), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM – Prof. Antonio Álvarez Ossorio Alvariño), National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (UOA – Prof. Gerassimos D. Pagratis), Università di Palermo (UNIPA – Prof.ssa Valentina Favarò), Università di Milano (UNIMI – Prof.ssa Blythe Alice Raviola). Responsabile: Gaetano Lettieri – Responsabile operativo (Project Manager): Alessia Ceccarelli
https://www.uniroma1.it/it/offerta-formativa/corso-di-alta-formazione/2022/storia-storiografia-e-scienze-umane
El curso es gratuito y está dirigido a quienes posean una licenciatura de al menos tres años obtenida en cualquier facultad de una de las siguientes universidades: Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC) o Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).
El curso, que se llevará a cabo en línea a través de la plataforma Zoom, comenzará el 25 de agosto 2022 y tendrá una duración de 5 semanas. Lo conforman unas 25 clases, que se impartirán de lunes a viernes, aproximadamente en las siguientes franjas horarias: de 9.30 a 11.30 horas, horario de Ciudad de Guatemala, y de 10.30 a 13.30 horas, horario de Ciudad de México.
Los profesores del curso – principalmente historiadores de la Edad Moderna y Contemporánea, junto con historiadores del arte e historiadores de la filosofía – desempeñan sus labores de investigación y de docencia en algunas de las mejores universidades de Europa y América Latina. La principal lengua del curso será el español (algunas clases serán en italiano, aunque de fácil comprensión).
La asistencia al menos al 75% de las clases dará derecho a un certificado de Sapienza Università di Roma de 13 créditos.
El Aviso de selección (Avviso di Selezione) se encuentra disponible en el siguiente enlace: https://www.uniroma1.it/sites/default/files/avviso_selezione_31873_fto.pdf
La solicitud de admisión (preinscripción), acompañada de la documentación requerida, tiene que enviarse a más tardar el 22 de agosto de 2022 a la siguiente dirección: [email protected]