La croce sulla porpora. Una cronotassi dei cardinali protettori della Religione di Malta tra XIV e XXI secolo, in «Studi Melitensi» XXXI (2023), pp. 89-152

Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger, 2012

This article deals with the development of Cardinal Protectors of Nations in the 15th century. It is based partly on texts examined by Josef Wodka (1938), partly on the correspondence of Cardinal Enea Silvio Piccolomini published in the Opera Omnia edition of 1571 and the correpondence of King Christian 1. with the Papal Court. The author’s interpretation of the development differs somewhat from Josef Wodka’s in that it recognizes the decisive role of the Council of Basle in creating a legal base for cardinals representing royal interests at the Apostolic See. The Council agreed with the stance of Pope Martin V that cardinals should act as impartial and independent advisors of popes, but – reaching back to Avignonese precedents – it accepted a form of representation termed ”promotorship” rather than ”protectorship” of royal affairs. It did not indicate any difference of content between the two concepts, but only addressed the modalities of partiality and payment. This interpretation is based on the Conciliar Decree itself and on the Cardinal’s correspondence which documents the practice at the Papal Court in the 1450’s, including a formal arrangement of promotorship between the Cardinal and the Emperor, and negotiations concerning such a promotorship between the Cardinal and the King of Denmark.

Church History and Religious Culture, 2011

Reclaiming Rome: Cardinals in the Fifteenth Century [Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History ]. Brill, Leiden/Boston , xxiv +  pp. ISBN .  ; US . Carol Richardson has produced a monumental study that reveals the motives, process, and mechanics of the papacy’s fifteenth-century reclamation of the City of the Apostles. The end of the Schism (-) and the return to Rome of Pope Martin V in  initiated a period of urban growth spearheaded by popes and actively pursued by cardinals through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The subtext of this volume comprises a study of papalcardinal relations, for Richardson argues that through the period under discussion cardinals moved from being the pope’s manipulators to being his instruments. This partnership provides the foundation for Richardson’s study, which focuses almost equally on cardinals and popes and emphasizes the importance of this relationship for peace and prosperity in Rome. Although the cardinals were more numerous, their wealth and potential often depended on papal patronage, while many cardinals followed papal models and encouragement. While cardinalatial and papal patronage and lifestyle occupy the majority of the volume, Richardson also sets out to distinguish what a cardinal was and review contemporary debates on role, theory, and practice. A tremendous cache of information builds up examples that establish theoretical behavioural norms, but sadly avoids discussing divergent streams of practice within the College (e.g., based on geographic origin, monastic affiliation, social origin, papal nipoti). Theorizing from scattered evidence as Richardson does requires a huge amount of research and an almost universal knowledge of primary and secondary texts, as well as what physical evidence remains in Rome. Among others the published work of D.S. Chambers, Meredith Gill, Arnold Esch, and Richardson’s own work publications take centre stage as a foundation from which the author reveals the fifteenth-century cardinals’ ecclesiastical and secular patronage within Rome and its environs. Richardson deftly presents the chief and best-known examples, returning to certain cardinals several times throughout the volume in order to exploit fully the potential of individual cardinals to serve as cases of common practice, intent, or necessity. While the volume presents examples from all the pontificates from  to , Richardson’s expert knowledge of the Piccolomini family shines brightest. Sadly, amongst the wealth of examples from the other decades there is little attention paid to the pontificate of Alexander VI (r. -) or the Spanish cardinals resident in Rome.

Journal of Jesuit Studies

The strong resistance of Ignatius of Loyola (c.1491–1556), first superior general of the Society of Jesus (1541–56), to the promotion of his confrères to ecclesiastical offices of (arch)bishops and cardinals because such posts were contrary to the spirit of religious life, requires a brief explanation. Ignatius’s opposition was codified in the Jesuit Constitutions with a requirement that each professed Jesuit promise not to accept such dignities. Nonetheless, Loyola and his successors were occasionally pressured to acquiesce to possible papal appointments of different Jesuits to such offices. This issue of the Journal of Jesuit Studies focuses on six of approximately forty-nine cardinals (the definition of Jesuit cardinal can be sometimes tricky for the early modern period). These six represent different historical periods from the late sixteenth until the early twenty-first centuries and different geographical areas, both of origin and of operation (they did not always coincide): P…

The paper deals with a special organisation of the medieval papal Curia, the personal chapel of the popes, thus the research focuses on their members’ activity in Hungary in the fourteenth century. Papal subdeacons, chaplains and other clerics played an important role in the operating of the Apostolic See, for instance they appeared beside the cardinals as legates and nuncios whereas they had their share in the work of the papal chancellery, chamber, and penitentiary as well. Nevertheless, the papal clerics were to be found also outside the Apostolic Curia, meanwhile the differentiation of the title led to the formation of several sub-categories, like the curial and the honorary chaplains. Papal clerics could appear generally in two ways in the fourteenth-century Hungary: Their first group was formed by the members of the papal chapel who visited the Church’s regions authorized by special mandates given by the popes for various kinds of tasks. They had to deal mostly with affairs of diplomacy, financial questions, church-government or discipline. The second category consisted of clerics who had a career within the Hungarian church either from outside already as a papal chaplain, or they received the (honorary) chaplaincy at some point during their life.

Companion to the Early Modern Cardinal, 2020

Studying the cardinals with regard to their relationships with the Greek and Eastern, i.e. non-Chalcedonian, Churches, involves three related issues: 1. the appointment of cardinals of Greek origin in the Roman Church (e.g. Bessarion and Isidore of Kiev); 2. the cardinals from the West who had “fictive positions” such as the Patriarchs (e.g. Bessarion as patriarch of Constantinople in exile); and 3. the Councils and the projects of Union between the Greek, Eastern and Latin Churches. Apart from this, the relations between the cardinals and the Greek and Eastern Churches during the early modern period found their origins in the long and ancient presence of Greek and Eastern populations in southern Italy, dating back to the Byzantine period, and from the acculturation that resulted from it. This essay discusses the role played by cardinals in forging unions with other Christian faiths in the late medieval and early modern period, and the nomination of cardinals from these faiths. In particular, it deals with the issues raised by the 1439 Union between the Greek and Latin Churches, the appointment of Isidore of Kiev and Bessarion to the cardinalate, and the problems these cardinal converts faced in adopting the Catholic faith and their role in the College.

Confraternitas

The Council of Trent made the parish priest the head of the parish, but for a long time priests found it difficult to affirm their authority. Chief among their opponents were the confraternities led by the parish elites. This article examines the difficult relations between Don Francesco Maria Xuereb (1769–1801), parish priest of the Maltese parish of Saint Catherine’s (in Zejtun), and members of the local confraternity of the Holy Sacrament, who led a revolt against him. The charges levelled against the priest were several, but the Sacra Congregazione dei Vescovi e Regolari found him innocent on all counts. The assistant clergy and the parishioners of Saint Catherine’s would not, however, receive him back. When, against the warning of the bishop of Malta, Xuereb returned to his parish, the women took over the church and shut themselves in it, while the men stood outside in protest against the priest. In the end, a coadjutor was appointed to run the parish and when Father Xuereb die…