Church, Religion and Society in Early Modern Italy EUROPEAN STUDIES SERIES

Church, Religion and Society in Early Modern Italy EUROPEAN STUDIES SERIES General Editors Colin Jones, Richard Overy, Joe Bergin, John Breuilly and Patricia Clavin Published Robert Aldrich Greater France: A Short History of French Overseas Expansion Nigel Aston Religion and Revolution in France, 1780–1804 Yves-Marie Bercé The Birth of Absolutism: A History of France, 1598–1661 Christopher F. Black Church, Religion and Society in Early Modern Italy Susan K. Foley Women in France since 1789 Janine Garrisson A History of Sixteenth-Century France, 1483–1589 Gregory Hanlon Early Modern Italy, 1550–1800 Michael Hughes Early Modern Germany, 1477–1806 Matthew Jefferies Imperial Culture in Germany, 1871–1918 Dieter Langewiesche Liberalism in Germany Martyn Lyons Napoleon Bonaparte and the Legacy of the French Revolution Hugh McLeod The Secularisation of Western Europe, 1848–1914 Robin Okey The Habsburg Monarchy, c.1765–1918 Pamela M. Pilbeam Republicanism in Nineteenth-Century France, 1814–1871 Helen Rawlings Church, Religion and Society in Early Modern Spain Tom Scott Society and Economy in Germany, 1300–1600 Wolfram Siemann The German Revolution of 1848–49 Richard Vinen France, 1934–1970 Church, Religion and Society in Early Modern Italy CHRISTOPHER F. BLACK © Christopher F. Black 2004 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2004 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-0-333-61844-8 hardback ISBN 978-0-333-61845-5 ISBN 978-0-230-80196-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-0-230-80196-7 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Black, Christopher F. Church, religion, and society in early modern Italy / Christopher F. Black. p. cm. — (European studies series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-333-61844-8 – ISBN 978-0-333-61845-5 (pbk.) 1. Christian sociology – Italy. 2. Catholic Church – Italy – History. 3. Italy – Church history. I. Title. II European studies series (Palgrave Macmillan (Firm)) BX1543.B55 2004 274.5’06—dc22 2004050022 109876 54321 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 For my Mother Roma Black In memory of departed children With gratitude for consolation from ‘the playthings of the Holy Spirit’ Contents List of Tables and Maps x Preface xi Acknowledgements xiv List of Abbreviations xvi The Early Modern Popes xvii 1 Religious Crises and Challenges in Early Sixteenth-Century Italy 1 2 The Council of Trent and Bases for Continuing Reform 19 Background and Criticisms 19 The Council’s Main Work 23 General Problems over Implementation 32 Ready for Action? 35 3 Centre and Peripheries: The Papacy, Congregations, Religious Orders 37 The Papacy 38 Congregations 43 The Venetian Interdict Crisis 48 The Inquisition 51 Religious Orders 54 4 Episcopal Leadership 62 The Diocesan Map 63 ‘Model’ Bishops 67 Bishops at Work and Diocesan Organisation 73 vii viii CONTENTS 5 Parish Priests and Parishioners 86 Reforming the Parochial Systems 86 Finding Suitable Priests 89 The Duties of Parish Clergy 93 The Parish Church as Focus 96 Betrothal and Marriage 98 Confession 103 Peacemaking 106 Priest–Parishioner Relations and Immorality 107 6 Religious Education 112 Seminaries and Clerical Education 113 Education in the Parish and Christian Doctrine Schools 119 Preaching 125 Mission Work within Italy 127 7 Confraternities, Hospitals and Philanthropy 130 Confraternities 131 Philanthropy 141 8 Nunneries and Religious Women 149 Nunneries and Female Enclosure 150 Convent Culture 161 Some Other Religious Women 166 9 Repression and Control 171 Sentencing 175 Public Condemnation and Controlling Major Heresy 178 Censorship 181 Changing Inquisition Targets 186 Sexual Control 195 10 Churches, Cultural Enticement and Display 197 Churches and Chapels 198 Visual Arts 203 Music 209 Forty-Hour Devotions (Quarantore) 216 Processions, Pilgrimages and Theatricality 217 CONTENTS ix 11 Conclusions: Successes and Failures 223 Appendix: The Italian Bishoprics 229 Notes 250 A Brief Reading Guide 275 Bibliography 277 Index 300 List of Tables and Maps Tables 9.1 Accusations and denunciations before Venice and Friuli Inquisition Tribunals, 1547–1720 187 9.2 Accusations and denunciations to the Neapolitan Inquisition 1564–1740; highlighting main categories only 189 Maps 1 Map of Italy: Political divisions 1559 xix 2 Northern Italian bishoprics xx 3 Central Italian bishoprics, with Corsica and Sardinia xxi 4 Southern Italian and Sicilian bishoprics xxii 5 Places where groups of Protestant sympathisers were revealed 1540s–1560s xxiii x Preface Preliminary words are desirable about the book’s title, its coverage, and orientation. While the title is similar to Helen Rawlings’ on Spain,1 my book was conceived differently long ago, and does not fol- low hers in structure and coverage. This book derives from a project – too grandiose – envisaged 30 years ago, to write a very full study of the pre- and post-Tridentine Italian church, including its religious culture. One drafted chapter became my Italian Confraternities in the Sixteenth Century (1989; reprinted 2003), which led to more studies on confraternities, and indirectly to my Early Modern Italy. A Social History (2000–01). This book takes up part of that original challenge. In the intervening years much has changed, and a huge amount more mate- rial is published to complicate life for a single author trying to tackle all of Italy. Originally this book had ‘Counter Reformation’ in the title, though ‘Catholic Reform’, as an increasingly current alternative con- cept from the 1970s, would have been highlighted as an alternative thread. Both terms have been rejected as unhelpful and outdated overarching concepts; though both phrazes may occasionally appear later as minor descriptors. ‘Counter Reformation’ implies that what the Roman Church was doing and recommending was primarily neg- ative, and reacting against Protestant threats and criticisms. ‘Catholic Reform’ ties in with theories that reforms of western Christendom were attempted before the Luther-Zwingli-Melanchthon challenges surfaced, including in geographical areas such as Italy and Iberia which remained loyal to the central Roman Catholic authority. It pos- tulates a common Christian reform background that affected Luther, Loyola and Calvin – and men like Seripando, Contarini, Giberti, Pole, xi xii PREFACE Miani and others active in Italy. ‘Catholic Reform’ can also be attached to persons and policies in the post-Tridentine period that aimed at continuing earlier ecumenical reform trends, without hav- ing a key focus on the Protestant challenges. John O’Malley’s argu- ments for using a more neutral ‘Early Modern Catholicism’ are persuasive. He concludes: Early Modern Catholicism suggests both change and continuity without pronouncing on which predominates .... This term seems more amenable to the results of ‘history from below’ than the four just discussed (Counter Reformation; Catholic Reform or Catholic Reformation; Tridentine Reform and Tridentine Age; The Confessional Age or Confessional Catholicism), all of which indi- cate more directly the concerns and actions of ecclesiastical, political, or politico-ecclesiastical officialdom. Early Modern Catholicism more easily allows consideration of the resistance to control attempted by any social, ecclesiastical or intellectual elite. It allows for the negotiation that seems to have occurred at all levels – between bishops and Rome, between pastors and bishops on the one hand and pastors and their flock on the other, between accused and inquisitors – with even illiterate villagers emerging as effective negotiators when their interests were at stake. [and the term] has space for the new roles played by Catholic women, lay and religious. However that term can cover from the late fifteenth century to the French Revolution.2 Partly because of word limits, I focus on only part of ‘early modern’ Catholicism: on the post-Tridentine period till the mid- or late seven- teenth century. The closure of the Council of Trent in December 1563 was a defining moment for Italy, if not for all parts of the Catholic world. The period before this is covered in Chapter 1 in terms of the religious crises, and discussions throughout Italy of het- erodox ideas; and in other chapters when considering developments of institutions, policies and ideals that fed into the multi-faceted reformation of Italian church and society. Tridentine legislation set some programmes and norms for further reform, but many other agencies of change were at work. The book balances descriptions of church organisation and social life, with assessments of the problems of restructuring. Discussion and overall analysis is complicated by Italy being politically divided into about 17 significant states, and 290 PREFACE xiii or more bishoprics. Church and cultural leaders saw ‘Italy’ as a single entity for some purposes, but the other divisions militated against a monolithic or uniform Church.

Load more