The lost cause: failed French ultimata and the restoration of papal rule in Rome in 1849

In one of history’s ironies, the republic that arose in Rome out of Europe’s revolutionary wave in 1848 was crushed by the new republic that had formed in France at the same time. In an additional irony, the destruction of the Roman Republic and the restoration of the papal theocracy were overseen by the internationally renowned champion of constitutional rights and freedom, Alexis de Tocqueville, then France’s foreign minister. This article sheds new light on this dramatic series of events through an examination of the French diplomatic correspondence, which reveals growing dismay at the direction in which events were unfolding. The correspondence also gives a sense of how close the French came to abandoning the pope, a decision that could have changed the course of Italian and French, as well as Church history.     

A matter of fact rather than principle: women,work and property in papal Rome (eighteenth-nineteenth centuries)

During the last few decades, many studies have documented the considerable participation of women in the economy of past societies, even though women were bound by rules and laws that discriminated against them and denied them the rights of citizenship. Thus historians, and especially those in the field of gender history, have increasingly recognized the importance of interweaving two realms, those of work and of property. As part of this effort, this article focuses on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Rome and shows that over a long economic period, women's position was defined by a complex interaction between their status as workers and as owners of property.     

Pius XII: Romanita,prophesy and charisma

The modern popular cult of the Pope, which originated with the ‘disinherited’ papacy of Pius IX, reached its acme with Pius XII. Phases of intensification of this cult, which was linked to other ‘devotions’, those of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of the Virgin Mary, served to mobilize the Catholic masses at critical junctures for the Catholic Church and in the face of what were perceived as political threats. Pius XII had to animate ‘movement’ in an age proclaimed to be one of a unique crisis of civilization. The projection of him as a charismatic figure was linked to that of Rome as a sacred centre and as the very fulcrum of world history. The Catholic activist ethos of ‘movement’ and also the presentation of the interchange between Pius XII and the Crowd had features in common with Fascist rhetorics, but ultimately the cult of the ‘victim‐Pope’ represented an inversion of the crasser forms of power‐imagery.     

Framing papal communication in the central Middle Ages

ABSTRACT

This essay examines the production and consumption of papal communication in the central Middle Ages. It outlines the development of the papacy, which formed the historical and political framework for papal communication, and discusses the processes, themes and meanings behind various types of communication relating to the papacy in Latin Christendom principally between the years 1100 and 1300. Particular emphasis is placed upon the plurality of responses to papal communication and on the relationship between papal communication and authority, and papal self-identity and perceptions. The essay introduces seven diverse and interdisciplinary articles in a special issue of the Journal of Medieval History on the papacy and communication in the central Middle Ages.     

Contra damnationis filios: the Visconti in fourteenth-century papal diplomacy

This article seeks to reappraise the relationship between the Avignon papacy and the Visconti lords of Milan during the fourteenth century. Avignon popes generally viewed the Visconti as the major obstacle to papal temporal power in Italy and thus fashioned propaganda that demonised them. This mythic portrayal, that was re-framed by Florence to justify its own imperialistic ambitions in Tuscany, has been accepted uncritically by modern historiography. Documents from the Vatican archive reveal a more complicated diplomacy. Papal policy toward the Visconti was far from consistent, as the curia welcomed Visconti money and Avignonese popes regularly granted the Visconti papal vicariates. This article demonstrates that the papal-Visconti struggle was a key factor in the creation of the strategic alliance between Florence and the Visconti that made the War of Eight Saints possible and ended the Guelph alliance. This study further suggests that the political ambitions of Giangaleazzo Visconti were stoked in great measure by the Great Schism when partisans of both popes looked to him as the saviour of the Church and of Italy. Finally this article suggests that a re-evaluation of fourteenth-century diplomacy might accord closer scrutiny to the role played by the Church in destabilising Italy.     

Symposium on Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust in Italy

The articles published in this section of JMIS were given at a symposium held early in 2001 on the role of Pope Pius XII in the rescue of Jews in Italy during the Holocaust. The discussion focuses on recent books on the subject by Susan Zuccotti and Ronald J. Rychlak. In the articles published here the authors and the panelists discuss the historical record (sources, facts and interpretations) and the nature of the obligations of the Papacy and the Catholic Church in the circumstances of the Second World War and the German occupation of Italy after the fall of Fascism.     

Intentional ethics and hermeneutics in the Libellus de symoniacis: Bruno of Segni as a papal polemicist

The Investiture Contest has at regular intervals been considered as a ‘revolution’, largely because it contributed forcefully to the reorganisation of the Church in the centuries to come. But the Contest has also been seen as heralding a new and more critical way of thinking, in which the traditional reliance on authorities was giving way to new approaches to the textual past. These new approaches are best evident in an extensive polemical literature that accompanied the struggle. From the 1030s and until the end of the Contest with the Concordat of Worms in 1122, a number of contending issues were discussed by contemporary churchmen. One issue scrutinised was that of simony and the validity of sacraments of simoniacs. In the following, the Libellus de symoniacis of Bruno of Segni will be analysed in order to address several aspects. First, the Libellus shows a new and more critical approach to the textual past, foreshadowing the juggling with auctoritas of the twelfth century. Second, Bruno's analysis is a witness to the efforts taken to justify papal reform in the last decades of the eleventh century.     

Memorializing Gregory the Great: the origin and transmission of a papal cult in the seventh and early eighth centuries

This article examines the origins and early development of the cult of Pope Gregory the Great (590–604) in Rome, England, Gaul and Ireland. A first section analyses the earliest Life of the pope, written between 704 and 714 at the Northumbrian monastery of Whitby, arguing that it depended not upon oral tradition but upon early writings originating among Gregory's disciples in Rome and in part at least recorded by John Moschus. A second section relates this material to the development of Gregory's cult in the seventh and early eighth centuries, highlighting the activity of Archbishop Theodore in England. Although clerical rather than popular, the cult thus promoted established Gregory's reputation as a pastor, evangelist and father of the Latin liturgy.     

Visitor experiences: art,architecture and space at the papal curia c.1200

ABSTRACT

The Lateran Palace in Rome was the main papal residence and the administrative centre of the papacy in the central Middle Ages. The physical setting that confronted visitors to the Roman curia at the Lateran Palace during the pontificate of Innocent III (1198–1216) can be explored by piecing together information from curial material and the few visitors’ accounts about the architecture, art and use of space within this no-longer existent building. The article examines how visitors perceived the palace and the use of space within it, placing particular emphasis on visitors’ admission to the different areas of the palace which determined their access to the pope and other members of the curia. The ways in which the layout and decoration of the palace reflected and reinforced notions of papal authority are also discussed.     

Reconsidering reputation through patronage: Cardinal Napoleone Orsini and Angelo Clareno at the Avignonese papal court

The changeable politics of Cardinal Napoleone Orsini (c.1262/3–1342), negotiator and pope-maker, have been explained for over a century as the expression of his independent character and antagonistic relationships. Significant moments in his early career are interpreted as deliberate opposition to his own family's policies. This generalisation does his political acumen and familial loyalty a disservice. In particular, the rationale for his political decisions has previously been relied upon in explanations for his support of the Spiritual Franciscans, reformers and sometime separatists within the Franciscan Order. The cardinal's impact on the group has likewise been understated, as scholars have largely focused on their spokesmen's intellectual output, with limited investigation of the political support that enabled their survival. Orsini was connected to the group's spokesmen at the papal court at Avignon, including the prolific author Angelo Clareno (c.1250–c.1337). Close examination of Clareno's letters allows for a reinterpretation of the relationship. Orsini family documents reframe the relationship as part of an established familial tradition of Franciscan patronage. In this larger picture, the impetus for the cardinal's idiosyncratic patronage of the Spirituals becomes, instead, a small strand in the much larger network of familial obligations and patronage responsibilities. This also sheds further light on the fourteenth-century papal curia.