FULL TEXT The Lateran in 1600: Christian Concord in Counter-Reformation Rome (Cambridge UP, 1995); also available on www.archive.org (2024)

From the Counter-Reformation to the Birth of the Baroque: Art and Patronage in Rome, c. 1600

Art History, 2017

Imitation, Innovation, and Renovation in the Counter-Reformation: Landscapes all'antica in the Vatican Tower of the Winds

Antiquity and its Interpreters, ed. A. Payne et al., 2000

MATER ET CAPUT OMNIUM ECCLESIARUM: Visual Strategies in the Rivalry between San Giovanni in Laterano and San Pietro in Vaticano

The Basilica of Saint John Lateran to 1600, 2020

The Fifth-Century Oratory of the Holy Cross at the Lateran in Rome

Péter Tusor: The Baroque Papacy (1600–1700)

Péter Tusor: The Baroque Papacy (1600–1700), Viterbo: Sette Citta, 2016.

This volume, entitled The Baroque Papacy (1600–1700), originally contains the material of the early modern European history seminar held by the author at the Péter Pázmány Catholic University. In the Foreword, the author provides a brief review of the paradigm of confessionalisation. The Introduction (I) summarises the impressive achievements of the reform papacy, the main characteristics of the less dynamic baroque papacy and the gradual change in the relationship of the papal Curia with nation states. The first large chapter (II) examines the role played by the Apostolic See in the European political stage. The focus is on the accelerating loss of pontifical power under Pope Urban V III and on the temporary reversal of this trend due to the organization of the Holy League by Pope Innocent XI, which liberated Hungary from 150 years of Turkish rule.Next, the author analyses the social, economic and financial structures of the State of the Church (III). A separate subchapter deals with the college of cardinals, the pope’s court and Roman society, as well as the the papal financial system and its institutions, the sources, types, sums and the balance of revenues and expenditures. Key processes are best modelled by the rise and fall of papal nepotism (IV). The portrayal of the changes in social and economic structures is followed by a presentation of the Curia’s pioneering decision-making system (V), which, however, became increasingly complicated and, at the end of the 17th century, underwent comprehensive reforms. In the course of this is chapter, the author discusses dicasteriums, which originate in the Middle Ages, but focuses on the expanding network of congregations, their operation, structure and competence, and finally examines the network of nunciatures and especially the development of the pontifical State Secretariate. The aim of these three chapters (III–V) is not only to understand the shifts in pontifical policy in the Early Modern Era, but also to shed light on the changes of Roman church administration and church policy as well as the changing relationship between Rome and local church organisations. The last large chapter (VI) contains a summary of the latter two, including precedent cases, key ordinances, legal frameworks, a summary of the technical and organisational problems of maintaining contacts with Rome and finally an analysis of Spanish, French and German church relations as a sample. In the end, the book contains an Outlook on the 18th century, an Appendix with the archontology of popes and chief curial magistrates.

Organum Deitatis: Die Christologie des Thomas de Vio Cajetan. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought 62. By Marcel Nieden. New York: Brill, 1997. xiv + 247 pp. $100.00 cloth

Church History, 1999

Rethinking “Catholic Reform” and “Counter-Reformation”: What Happened in Early Modern Catholicism—a View from Italy

Journal of Early Modern History, 2016

There are now a number of ways to describe the phenomena which come under the umbrella of innovations in Roman Catholicism in the early modern period including “Counter Reformation”; “Catholic Reformation” and “Early Modern Catholicism.” After a brief survey of the various labels used by scholars over the last half century or more, this article seeks to rehabilitate the use of the label “Counter Reformation” in the light, particularly, of the determining role played by the Holy Office (aka Roman Inquisition) in shaping the Catholic Church down to Vatican ii (1962-65). A key role in this was played by Gian Pietro Carafa, who was made head of the congregation of the Holy Office at its foundation in 1542 and who became pope as Paul iv in 1555. During the key decades from the 1540s to 1570s the Inquisition in Rome set the agenda and by means, not only, of a series of trials of prominent members of the clerical establishment whom they regarded as their enemies, succeeded in intimidating ...

Art as a mean to propaganda in 17th and 18th century Catholic Rome

The end of the 16th and the dawning of the 17th century found the tottery Europe having to face poverty, epidemic outbursts, lethal diseases, population’s increased mortality and numerous revolutions. Religious and political wars and social unrest gave a blood like color to the motley Europe’s chessboard and while political leaders sought ways for the new political status to obtain some balance. While the early forms of European nations were struggling to establish their independence, the Holy Roman Empire was finding it impossible to establish a new subsistence and the French Monarchy was reaching its apex, the new catastrophic element of the irreversible religious schism between the Catholic and the Protestant Church appeared, leading to a whole diverse prospect of Europe’s religious identity. Luther’s Reformation undeniable challenge towards the Catholic Church, the almost immediate response of the papal power through the Council of Trent (1545 - 1563) with the movement of the Counter-Reformation and the devastating consequences of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) completed the picture strife-torn Europe. Within such ambiguous and divided environment Baroque art was born. Despite all the difficulties, the adamant Catholic Church, following the Council of Trent’s commands and with the succor of Ignatius Loyola’s Jesuits, redefined its relationship with art and its commitment to the fight against Protestantism. Art became sacred and expressed in a high tone the catholic doctrine aiming at spreading the ecclesiastical morale over the world. The papal hierarchy was the key patron to Baroque Art which glorified God and the power of the Catholic Church by appealing to the human senses as a means of spiritual awakening and enlightenment to convince the faithful Catholics for the prestige and grandeur of Catholicism. This project aims to indicate, through an intensive research of the 17th and 18th century artistic movements, the great impact of Baroque’s art on the religious propaganda of the Catholic Church and the Counter Reformation movement and to also examine its extensions to politics. Throughout this project and by perusing certain case studies of artistic creations, such as the Bernini’s marble statue of Santa Teresa, currently located in the church of Santa Maria Della Vittoria in Italy, we will present the significance and the power of Art to accompany, empower and enhance the religious effort of the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide organization to lead the “prodigal” crowd into awareness and back within the true Catholic faith. Arcangelo Correlli’s music piece Christmas Concerto Grosso in Sol minor Op. 6, No 8, will establish the attempt of the Catholic Cleric leadership to create strong connections of preference and friendship to the European Royal Courts.

Clement’s New Clothes. The Destruction of Old S. Clemente in Rome, the Eleventh-Century Frescoes, and the Cult of (Anti)Pope Clement III

Reti Medievali Rivista, 2012

In the early 1100s, the fifth-century church of S. Clemente in Rome was buried beneath an entirely new basilica. Inspired by suggestions published by Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri (1998) and Valentino Pace (2007), the present article considers the possibility that this radical intervention constituted an act of damnatio memoriae or, better, of deletio memoriae, an obliteration of memory prompted by the nascent cult of miracles associated with Pope Paschal II’s enemy and rival, (anti)pope Clement III. Clement III (Wibert of Ravenna) died in 1100, not long after the execution of an extensive fresco cycle in the early Christian basilica celebrating the miracles and cult of the first-century pope and martyr St. Clement I of Rome. Resonances between these images and the prodigia attributed to Clement III may have invited analogies between the two Clements, especially during the turbulent early years of Paschal II’s pontificate, when Paschal, alarmed by reports of his adversary’s mira...

Renaissance and Reformation Review