Religious Life Cecilia Cristellon and Silvana Seidel Menchi This
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RELIGIOUS LIFE Cecilia Cristellon and Silvana Seidel Menchi This chapter is divided into two sections: the first, by Cecilia Cristellon, treats the concrete aspects of Venetian religious life and the ways in which they were codified and endorsed by the authorities. It analyzes the structures of the dioceses and the clergy; the language, organization, and control of devotion; the reform movements within the Church; and the relationship between ecclesiastics and the faithful. The second section, by Silvana Seidel Menchi, confronts issues that are more theoretical and theological: the osmosis between the religious and political spheres; the secularized perception of the sacred on the part of the Venetian ruling class; and Venice’s ecclesiastical vocation which allowed it to confront papal power in the name of Christian values and to develop an ethico- religious identity independent of papal protection. In addition, it analyzes forms of consensus and religious dissent; the diffusion of Protestant ideas in the 16th century; and the diffusion of erudite libertinism in the 17th century and in the age of Enlightenment. While this study covers a chronological arc that spans the 14th to the 18th centuries, it illustrates the crucial role of the Council of Trent in shap- ing Venetian religiosity, receiving or reacting to the demands for reform that were raised from various parts of the city on the lagoon. In addi- tion, this chapter interprets crucial events such as the defeat at Agnadello (1509) and the Interdict controversy (1606) as aspects of a structural con- flict that was fundamentally religious, even though the existing histori- ography has tended instead to interpret these as chance conflicts of a political nature. I. Piety, Its Institutions, and Its Languages 1. Institutional Configuration of the Venetian Church and Jurisdictional Conflicts From the end of the 12th century, Venice found itself having to manage a latent tension in the sphere of ecclesiastical jurisdiction that stemmed from a presence within the city of competing religious authorities, and the 380 cecilia cristellon and silvana seidel menchi situation grew only more complex following the Republic’s conquest of the terraferma. Indeed, the city was home not only to the bishop of Castello— ordinary head of the diocese—but also to the Patriarch of Grado, whose jurisdiction encompassed the Venetian parishes of San Silvestro (where his residence was located), San Matteo di Rialto, San Giacomo dell’Orio, San Bartolomeo, San Canciano, and San Martino. Moreover, there was a palatine church with its own clergy (and, from 1581, its own seminary) led by the primicerio of the basilica of St Mark’s, the head canon who was responsible not to the head of any metropolitan church but to the doge himself. The primicerio exercised his own jurisdiction in the parishes of San Giovanni Elemosinario, San Giacomo di Rialto, San Filippo e Gia- como, and Santa Maria delle Vergini. The competition among religious authorities grew further with the annexation of the Friuli region into Venetian domains and the resulting fall of the patriarchal state of Aquileia in 1420: now, in addition to the suffragan bishop and primicerio, in fact, there resided in Venice two met- ropolitans: no longer only the Patriarch of Grado, who after 1440 would extend his jurisdiction to the territories of the suppressed diocese of Era- clea, but also the Patriarch of Aquileia as well, whose authority extended to territories well beyond the confines of the Serenissima.1 2. Patriarchate and Patriarch In the 15th century the Venetian Church went through a process of ratio- nalization and achieved a greater centralization thanks to its change from episcopate to patriarchate. With the suppression of the patriarchate of Grado in 1451, the patriarchate of Venice was founded, and this, under the prestigious leadership of Lorenzo Giustiniani,2 united the jurisdiction of the ex-metropolitan of Grado with that of the parishes of the old civic 1 On Venetian ecclesiastical institutions see Daniela Rando, Una chiesa di frontiera. Le istituzioni ecclesiastiche veneziane nei secoli VI–XII (Bologna, 1994). On the ducal church, see Bianca Betto, Il capitolo della basilica di S. Marco in Venezia: statuti e consuetudini dei primi decenni del sec. XIV (Padua, 1984). 2 On the passage from the episcopate of Castello to the patriarchate of Venice, see Silvio Tramontin, “Dall’episcopato castellano al patriarcato veneziano,” in Giovanni Vian, ed., La Chiesa di Venezia tra Medioevo ed età moderna (Venice, 1989), pp. 55–85; Antonio Niero, Dal patriarcato di Grado al patriarcato di Venezia, in Grado nella storia e nell’arte (Antichità altoadriatiche, XVII) (Udine, 1980), pp. 265–84. On the patriarchate, see Paolo Prodi, “The Structure and Organisation of the Church in Renaissance Venice: Suggestion for Research,” in John Rigby Hale, ed., Renaissance Venice (London, 1973), pp. 409–30. On Lorenzo Giustiniani, see infra, section II, and the included bibliography..