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Post‐Tridentine Tuscan Diocesan Seminaries: Collaboration between City‐State and Church? 1

2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 43; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00309230701363682

1477-674X

Kathleen M. Comerford,

Medieval and Early Modern Justice

Abstract In 1563, the Council of Trent mandated the opening of diocesan seminaries to give low‐level instruction in pastoral duties for boys aged 12 years and older who were destined for the priesthood. This essay considers the early history of seminaries in four Tuscan dioceses of varying size and importance: Fiesole, Lucca, Pienza, and Pisa, in terms of the economic and political issues which placed the fledgling institutions squarely in between the needs of the Catholic Church and the resources of city‐states. In each case, the documentation points to limited financial and bureaucratic support for both the foundation and maintenance of the seminaries. In these dioceses we can in fact see a pattern of administrative and local action that amounted to moral support, rather than direct assistance, from either urban or church authorities. 1 The research on this article was in part supported by grants from Georgia Southern University and the Renaissance Society of America/Istituto Nazionale degli Studi di Rinascimento. An earlier version was read and critiqued by Christopher Carlsmith. Notes 1 The research on this article was in part supported by grants from Georgia Southern University and the Renaissance Society of America/Istituto Nazionale degli Studi di Rinascimento. An earlier version was read and critiqued by Christopher Carlsmith. 2 Twenty‐Third Session. Decree on Reform. Chapter XVIII: ‘Directions for establishing seminaries for clerics, especially the younger ones; in their erection many things are to be observed; the education of those to be promoted to cathedral and major churches.’ Schroeder, H. J. Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent. Original Text with English Translation. St. Louis, Missouri: Herder, 1941: 175–8. 3 For the history of the region, in particular the relationships of the towns and cities to Florence, see the articles in Connell, William J. and Andrea Zorzi (eds.). Florentine Tuscany: Structures and Practices of Power. Cambridge and NY: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 4 Schroeder. Canons and Decrees, 177–8. 5 Bizzocchi, Roberto. “Politica fiscale e immunità ecclesiastica nella Toscana medicea fra Repubblica e Granducato (secoli XV–XVIII).” In Kellenbenz, Hermann and Paolo Prodi (eds.). Fisco religione Stato nell’età confessionale. Annalli dell’Istituto storico italo‐germanico. Quaderno 26. Bologna: il Mulino, 1989: 355–86, at 362–5; Sella, Domenico. Italy in the Seventeenth Century. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 1997: 165. 6 Roani Villani, Roberta. San Miniato, il Valdarno inferiore e la Valdera: la storia…. Milan: Mondadori, and Florence: Regione Toscana, 1999: 19. 7 Sella. Italy in the Seventeenth Century, 165–6. 8 Comerford, Kathleen M. Ordaining the Catholic Reformation: Priests and Seminary Pedagogy in Fiesole, 1575–1675. Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2001. 9 ASF Misc. Med. 348 inserto 7: ‘Scritture riguardanti la Diocese di Fiesole’, n.d., f. 501 r, refers to the desire of Francesco I to see the seminary founded in S. Maria a Ponterosso. 10 For a fuller explanation and a complete listing of the archival sources, see Comerford. Ordaining the Catholic Reformation, 41–47. 11 For example, uniting S. Peter de Turichio and S. Peter de Casi to the diocese for the seminary fund, on 10 May 1587 and 29 January 1588, respectively; Archivio Vescovile di Fiesole (henceforth AVF) VII.3: Erezione del Seminario Fesulano nell’Oratorio della Madonna di Ponterosso, et Monumenta Seminarii Fesulani…. 1635: In hoc presenti libro olim confecto de mandato Reverendissimo D. Francisci Diacetii… de Ponte Rubeo sancivit, et decrevit verum nec ipse neque eius successores episcopale per spacium 60 annorum…., filze 15 and 16. 12 AVF VII.7: Libro delle tasse imposte e delle offerte raccolte per la fondazione e costituzione del seminario, 1635–1648, ff. 82 r–83 r. 13 AVF VII.7, ff. 1 v–2 r. 14 Della Robbia’s sister Camilla was supposed to be the executrix of this provision until her death, after which the seminary itself took over for as long as the endowment lasted. When the money was exhausted, according to the will, the Monte should take over the financing of the positions. As far as I can reconstruct, the scholarships were paid at least through 1675, the end of my study. Della Robbia’s will is found in: AVF II.B.13: Copia del Testamento dell Illustrissimo e Reverendissimo Monsignore Lorenzo della Robbia Fondatore del Seminario Fiesolano dell’anno 1643, ff 1 v–2 r. 15 For a fuller discussion of the foundation, see Comerford. Ordaining the Catholic Reformation, ch. 4. 16 Tocchini, P. and P. Lazzarini, Storia dei Seminari di Lucca. Lucca: Accademia Lucchese di Scienze, 1969, 19–20. 17 Adami, A. Osservazioni Sopra la Storia del Seminario della Catthedrale di Lucca (MS, after 1825), in Biblioteca Comunale di Lucca, 3–4, 45. Tocchini and Lazzarini. Storia dei Seminari di Lucca, 26–27. 18 Marcocci, I. Medaglioni: I vescovi di Montepulciano 1561–1964. Siena: Edizione Arteditoria Periccioli, [1975]: 35. 19 Adami. Osservazioni, 3–4, 20, 27 and Tocchini and Lazzarini. Storia dei Seminari di Lucca, 20–21. 20 Adami. Osservazioni, 27, 44–45 and Tocchini and Lazzarini. Storia dei Seminari di Lucca, 24. 21 Adami. Osservazioni, 28–29. 22 Tocchini and Lazzarini. Storia dei Seminari di Lucca, 25–27. 23 Ibid., 30, 33–39, and Adami. Osservazioni, 5–6, 27, 53, 56. 24 Ibid., 29; Tocchini and Lazzarini. Storia dei Seminari di Lucca, 43; and Guidi, P. “La fondazione del Seminario Diocesano di Lucca.” L’Inaugurazione del nuovo seminario della diocesi di Lucca. Lucca: n. p., 1937: 9 [offprint]. 25 Adami. Osservazioni, 46. 26 Miller, P. N. “Stoics who Sing: Lessons in Citizenship from Early Modern Lucca,” The Historical Journal 44 (2001): 313–39, at 314. 27 Mazzei, R. La Società Lucchese del seicento. Lucca: Maria Pacini Fazi, 1977: 52, 55, 59–60. 28 Ibid., 65, 67, 71, 82. 29 Brief accounts of this seminary can be found in Mannucci, G. B. Pienza: Arte e Storia, third edition. Siena: Stab. S. Bernardino, 1937: 217 and Chironi, G. (ed.). L’Archivio Diocesano di Pienza. Siena: Amministrazione Provinciale, 2000: 475–98. Don Adlo Franci generously shared with me his unpublished manuscript Pienza: Seminario Vescovile: Cenni Storici, which he wrote over the course of the second half of the twentieth century (he did not remember when he began the volume, only that he stopped writing in 1998), the most comprehensive study of the institution; the information noted here is found on p. 3. 30 Archivio Diocesano di Pienza (henceforth ADPz) 121: Seminarium Episcopale Pientinum, a bound volume containing documents relating to the foundation and early operation of the seminary. ‘Consenso di Capitolo per la distribuzione di tre Conventi soppressi (1653)’, f. 1 r, and ‘Relatione, e Parere del Vescovo di Pienza, e suo Capitolo intorno all’applicatione, e repartimento debene della Conventi suppressi in quella Diocesi in virtu della Rolla della Santita di Nostro Signore sopra cit. publicata [!]’, f. 2 r. 31 ADPz 121: f. 5 r, untitled letter from Rome, 16 April 1654, and notices of suppressions and letters responding to such notification from ff. 7 r–12 r (ff. 8 and 9 are blank), 20 r, 25 v, and 26 v. 32 ADPz 121: Erectio Seminarii, ff. 13 r–14 r; repeated at 32 r–33 v. 33 ADPz 121: ‘Lettera della Sacra Congregazione continente la restitutione del Convento di S. Francesco di Pienza alla Religione di S. Francesco de Minori Conventuali’, 4 June 1659, f. 34 r, followed by further documentation on 34 v–36 r. 34 Chironi, 478 and Franci, 14. Baffi hailed from the town of Torri Sabina; Franci, 15. 37 The 1580 synod is quoted at length in Zucchelli. Appunti e documenti, 14–16. Archivio Capitolare di Pisa (henceforth ACP) 180.183: Costituzioni Sinodali fatte dall’Arcivescovo del Pozzo, 1602, 65 r. The statement of Bocca may refer to the Diciottato or Collegio Ricci, but it may indeed refer to an early incarnation of the seminary. Quoted in Zucchelli, 18. 35 Archbishop Onofrio Bartolini dei Medici in 1555 created the so‐called ‘Eighteen Clerics’ (Diciottato) or Congregazione dei Chierici for the specific purpose of educating future priests. Archbishop Giovanni Ricci (1567–74) opened the Collegio Ricci for eight students. Zucchelli, Niccolo. Appunti e Documenti per la storia del Seminario Arcivescovile di Pisa. Pisa: Tipografia B. Giordano, 1906: 9–20; Id. Cronotassi dei vescovi e arcivescovi di Pisa. Pisa: Tipografia Arcivescovile Orsoline‐Prosperi, 1907: 178–80, 191–3. Although some historians refer to the Diciottato as a seminary, the term is properly limited to post‐Tridentine foundations. 36 The earliest financial records are found in Archivio Arcivescovile di Pisa (AAP) 22: Entrata del Seminario, 1569–1582. 38 Virgili, E. “Il Sinodo dell’Arcivescovo Giovanni Ricci (26 aprile 1568).” Bollettino Storico Pisano 51 (1982): 316. 39 Mazzei, R. Pisa medicea. L’economia cittadina da Ferdinando I a Cosimo III. Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1991: 126. 40 Synodus Dioecesana Pisana, Quam Olim Franciscus Boncianus Archiepiscopus Habuit. Nunc Vero, Prout Res, et tempus postulare videbantur, auctam plerisque locis, et alicubi immutatam confirmavit in Sua Synodo Iulianus Medices Archiepiscopus Pisanus, Insularum Corsicae, et Sardiniae Primas, et in eis Legatus natus, Dominicae Incarnationis Anno MDCXXV, Pisa, 1626, Tit. X: ‘De Divini cultus Administratoribus, et primo de iis quae ad clericos pertinent. De eorum vita, et honestate. Cap. I. De Clericis Seminarii,’ 33. 41 Zucchelli. Appunti e Documenti, 23–24. 42 Ibid., 32. 43 Chapter II: ‘Provincial Synods are to be Celebrated Every three years, Diocesan Synods Every Year; Who are to Convoke them and who are to be present Thereat,’ in Schroeder. Canons and Decrees, 193. 44 The examinations are listed in Archivio del Seminario Arcivescovile di Lucca (henceforth ASAL), Stato dei chierici del seminario di S. Maria di Lucca 1637 and Stato dei Chierici del Seminario di S. Martino di Lucca dal 24 maggio 1644 al 1° aprile 1667, in the following manner: name of student, age, date of examination, material of examination, and assessment. 45 By ‘identifiable relatives’ I mean people with the same last name and same father or grandfather, or those who were recorded as being related to another student. For Fiesole, citizenship information can found in Archivio di Stato di Firenze (ASF) Cittadinari Quartiere di S. Croce Filza 3 (1500–1600) and Filza 4 (1600–1700), Quartiere di S. Giovanni Filza 3 (1500–1600) and Filza 4 (1600–1700), Quartiere di S. Maria Novella Filza 3 (1500–1600) and Filza 4 (1600–1700), and Quartiere di S. Spirito Filza 3 (1500–1600) and Filza 4 (1600–1700). Information on geographical origin for students from Pisa is so limited as to be meaningless—out of only 22 students identified from the 1680s, 7 are identified with specific towns, merely one of which is in the diocese of Pisa (the rest are from Livorno, Prato, Cascina, and Reggio); AAP Ordinations 1636–37–38 and Archivio Storico S. Caterina di Pisa # 61: Convittori nel Seminario et alunni in detto seminario 1679–1722. In the diocese of Lucca, some personal information on seminary students is found in ASAL, Stato dei chierici … 1637 and Stato dei Chierici … dal 24 maggio 1644 al 1° aprile 1667. For Arezzo, the most useful information is found in Archivio di Stato di Arezzo (henceforth ASAz) Descrizione di bocche, città e camperia 2: 1640 and ASAz Descrittione delle bocche della città d’Arezzo, e sue camperie fatta alla presenza di me Stefano Gualtieri… 1685. 46 Brescia: Editrice La Scuola, 2000. 47 I do not mean in this to include the synthetic studies of seminaries and seminarians throughout the peninsula, the most important of which are Guasco, M. “La Formazione del clero: i seminari.” In Chittolini, G. and G. Miccoli (eds.). Storia d’Italia Annali 9: La Chiesa ed il potere politico dal medioevo all’età contemporanea. Turin: Giulio Einaudi, 1986: 575–633; Toscani, X. “Ecclesiastici e società nel ‘700: un problema di storia sociale e religiosa.” Società e Storia 17 (1982): 683–716. 48 Guasco, M. “Clero e seminari nei sinodi piemontesi post‐tridentini.” In Rota, S. Ghibaudi and F. Barcia. Studi Politici in onore di Luigi Firpo 2/4: Ricerche sui secoli XVII–XVIII. Milan: Franco Angeli Libri, 1990: 503–16; quote at 515. 49 Donvito, L. Società Meridionale e istituzione ecclesiastiche nel cinque e seicento. Milan: Franco Angeli Libri, 1987: 40; the other works referred to are: Donvito, L. and B. Pellegrino. L’Organizzazione ecclesiastica degli Abruzzi e Molise e della Basilicata nell’età Postridentina. Florence: Sanzoni, 1973, and Martucci, R. “‘De vita et honestate clericorum.’ La formazione del clero meridionale tra sei e settecento.” Archivio Storico Italiano 144 (1986): 423–67. 50 The members of this order were variously known as the Poveri (or poverelli) di Cristo, the Poveri per Gesù, or, after 1494, the Chierici apostolici di S. Gerolamo. The Gesuati were founded as a lay eremitical movement between 1360–1364 by a Sienese merchant‐banker known as Giovanni Columbini. They were forced in the last quarter of the sixteenth century to become priests, and were suppressed by Clement IX in 1668. Pelliccia, G. and G. Rocca (eds.). Dizionario degli Istituti de Perfezione, 8 vols. Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1973, s.v. ‘Gesuati’, by R. Guarnieri, Vol. 4, cols. 1116–30. 51 See Ricordi ff. 41 r–43 v, and Comerford. Ordaining the Catholic Reformation, ch. 5. 52 Constitutiones, f. 13 v; Confirmatio et Constitutiones, 13v: ‘Ciascuno avanti riceva il Presbyterato spenda otto giorni in far gli’essercitii Spirituali di Sant’Ignatio, per il che gli sarà assegnato Persona in luogo opportuno’. Although the text does not specify, the retreat must have taken place in Florence, as there were no foundations in Fiesole at the time. 53 Sánchez Aliseda, Casimiro. “Los Seminarios Tridentinos.” Razón y Fe 131 (1945): 189–201, at 195. More general information on the foundation and operation of Spanish diocesan seminaries can be found in Fernandez Conde, Manuel. España y los Seminarios Tridentinos. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas Instituto ‘Enrico Flórez’, 1948 and Martin Hernández, Francisco. Los Seminarios Españoles: Historia y Pedogogía I (1563–1700). Salamanca: Ediciones Sígueme, 1964. 54 Haliczer, Stephen. Sexuality in the Confessional: A Sacrament Profaned. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996: esp. 96, 158 and notes 35, 36. 55 Hoffman, Philip T. Church and Community in the Diocese of Lyon 1500–1789. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984: 81–83 and Barnes, Andrew. “The Social Transformation of the French Parish Clergy, 1500–1800.” In Culture and Identity in Early Modern Europe (1500–1800). Essays in honor of Natalie Zemon Davis, edited by Barbara Diefendorf and Carla Hesse. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993. 56 Peyrous, Bernard. ⟨La réforme institutionnelle de l’archidiocèse de Bordeaux au temps du Cardinal François de Sourdis (1599–1628).⟩ Revue d’Histoire Ecclesiastique 76 (1981): 5–47; and Lottin, Alain. ⟨Lille, Citadelle de la Contre‐Réforme 1598–1668.⟩ Revue d’Histoire Ecclesiastique 79 (1984): 97. The rather old Degert, A. Histoire des Séminaires Français jusqu’à la Révolution, 2 vols. Paris: Gabriel Beauchesne & Cie, 1912, remains an important source of information comparing French seminaries. On the general point of the improvement after the Tridentine seminaries opened, see Mullett, Michael. Popular Culture and Popular Protest in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. London: Croom Helm, 1987: 164–6. 57 On the institutions in Florence and Pisa during the sixteenth century, see among others Leonardi, C. “L’Ateneo fiorentino dallo Studium generale (1321) all’Istituto di Studi Superiori (1859).” In Storia dell’Ateneo fiorentino: Contributi di studi. Vol. I. Florence: Edizioni F&F Parretti Grafiche, [1987]: 18; Piana, C. La Facoltà Teologica dell’Università di Firenze nel Quattro e Cinquecento. Grottaferrata [Rome]: Editiones Collegii S. Bonaventurae ad Claras Aquas, 1977: 9 and 31–32, and Università e società nei secoli XII–XVI. Pistoia: Centro Italiano di Studi di Storia e d’Arte, 1982. An excellent recent comprehensive study is Grendler, Paul F. Universities of the Italian Renaissance. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. 58 Grendler. Universities of the Italian Renaissance, 76 and 364. 59 Ibid., 82 and 232–3. 60 Twenty‐Second Session, Decree Concerning Reform, Chapter II: ‘Who Are to be Promoted to Cathedral Churches’, Schroeder. Canons and Decrees, 153. 61 Grendler. Universities of the Italian Renaissance, 364–5. 62 For the dates of seminary foundations in the Italian peninsula and islands, see Comerford, Kathleen M. “Italian Tridentine Diocesan Seminaries: A Historiographical Study.” Sixteenth Century Journal 29 (1998): 997–1020. 63 Cohn, S. K. Death and Property in Siena 1205–1800: Strategies for the Afterlife. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988: 161–5.