Treatises on the Ideal Cardinal

Chapter 28 Treatises on the Ideal Cardinal

David S. Chambers

The notion of an “ideal” cardinal may never have been expressed as such, but discussion about the office, what membership of the Sacred College stood for, was certainly a live topic by the 13th century, that great age of legal compila- tions and definitions, and soon became part of the repertoire of canon law treatises about papal authority. Many jurists pronounced opinions, using vari- ous figurative and historical arguments. They often expressed the idea that the College represented a senate of the Church, but opinions differed about its members’ duties: whether these senators were obliged just to give counsel, re- maining wholly subordinate to the pope once they had elected him, or whether they rightfully possessed some ultimate powers of restraint and control. The latter alternative reached a climax of expression during the period of the Great Schism and General Councils in the early 15th century comprising an oligarchi- cal challenge to papal monarchy. Although this challenge failed, the debates in the Great Councils of Constance (1414–18) and Basel (1431–49) nevertheless introduced for the first time some enactments, never enforced, about the qual- ities intended to ensure exemplary cardinals (see Bernward Schmidt’s chapter in this volume). These included high standards of learning, moral comport- ment, and administrative efficiency (Constance), plus, more specifically, a minimum age (30) and a doctorate in either canon law or theology (Basel).1

1 15th-Century Legal Authors

Following the triumph of papal monarchy by 1450 and on into the 16th and 17th centuries, discussion remained mainly in the hands of the lawyers and con- cerned the constitutional status and obligations of cardinals. Some of these jurists were themselves cardinals or would-be cardinals (it is remarkable how many cardinals wrote prescriptively about their own office, rather as if they felt in need of assurance) and almost invariably dedicated their treatises to fellow cardinals. Some cardinals also drafted renewed reform agenda wide in range,

1 Hubert Jedin, “Vorschläge und Entwürfe zur Kardinals-reform,” in Kirche des Glaubens – Kirche der Geschichte (Freiburg i.Br.: 1966), 2:118–21. Jedin goes on to discuss later proposals.

454 Chambers such as the proposals of several more ascetic porporati included in a reform bull drafted by Pius ii (1458–64), which envisaged households limited in numbers, a total ban on hunting or lavish banquets accompanied by entertainment (only three courses, and serious readings allowed), while interior decorations (paintings and tapestries) should be confined to sacred or virtuous subjects and libraries consist mainly of law books.2 Learnedness was essential, though for prince cardinals representing ruling powers some flexibility might be per- mitted. Provided that the total membership of the College remained relatively low – a maximum of twenty-four was usually prescribed, evoking the Apoca- lyptical “senators” (Apocalypsis/Revelation 4:4) – it may have been hoped that uniform standards could be realized, but there were problems with steadily rising numbers by the later 15th century, and unequal levels of income. During Alexander vi’s period of remorse in 1497, reforms were again proposed by a commission of cardinals – Carafa, Costa, Piccolomini, Pallavicino, Sangiorgio and Riario (only the first two of whom were notable for their austerity) – advised by a distinguished auditor of the Rota court, Felino Sandei.3 In the first decades after 1450 at least two cardinals had contributed inde- pendently to the subject. One was Jean Jouffroy (ca. 1412–73), a Burgundian French canonist appointed cardinal in 1461, who in spite of his Gallican politics professed extreme papalist opinions, but maintained in an unpublished dia- logue about poverty that great wealth was appropriate for cardinals because of their heavy, although subordinate responsibilities.4 The other was Jacopo Am- mannati (1422–79), whose intellectual formation was humanistic rather than legal, but who also professed strong if rather more reformist views about the office he held. Some of these he expressed in a letter of advice in 1468 to the young cardinal Francesco I Gonzaga (1444–83), one of the growing category of ruler’s relatives appointed for political reasons.5 Ammannati emphasized that to give counsel to the pope was a solemn and arduous obligation, but the

2 Rudolf Haubst, “Der Reformentwürf Pius des Zweiten,” Römische Quartalschrift 49 (1954), 211–14. 3 L. Celier, “Alexandre vi et la réforme de l’Eglise,” Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire 27 (1907), 83–102. On Carafa see Diana Norman, “Cardinal of Naples and Cardinal in Rome: The Patron- age of Oliviero Carafa,” in The Possessions of a Cardinal, eds. Mary Hollingsworth and Carol M. Richardson (University Park, PA: 2010), 77–79; on Costa see David S. Chambers, “What made a Renaissance Cardinal respectable? The case of Cardinal Costa of Portugal,” Renais- sance Studies 12 (1998), 87–108. 4 Claudia Märtl, Kardinal Jean Jouffroy († 1473) (Sigmaringen: 1996), 194–207. 5 Jacopo Ammannati, Iacopo Ammannati Piccolomini, Lettere 1444–1479, ed. Paolo Cherubini (Rome: 1997), vol. 2 no. 363, 190–1202; see also Marco Pellegrini, “Da Iacopo Ammannati Pic- colomini a Paolo Cortesi: lineamenti dell’ethos cardinalizia in età rinascimentale,” Roma nel Rinascimento (1998), 23–44.