Miracles, Science, and Testimony in Post-Tridentine Saint-Making

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 481-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Vidal
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Experimental Philosophy ◽  
Council Of Trent ◽  
Medical Expertise ◽  
Bear Witness ◽  
Formal Status ◽  
The Catholic Church

ArgumentSeeing a prodigious cure happen and then testifying about it certainly differs from attending an air pump experiment in order to bear witness to it. Yet early-modern saint-making and the “new” or “experimental philosophy” shared juridical roots, and thereby an understanding of the role of testimony for the establishment of “matters of fact” and for the production of legitimate knowledge. The reforms carried out after the Council of Trent, especially during Urban VIII's pontificate (1623–1644), of the juridical procedures for saint-making in the Catholic Church implied a new attitude towards the examination of proposed miracles. Most of these miracles were healings. While the appeal to medical expertise had long been common, and skepticism had often manifested itself regarding cures or extraordinary bodily phenomena, both were now given formal status. Miracle inquests henceforth leaned towards refuting miraculousness by means of natural explanations. The procedure was systematized in a treatise published in the 1730s by Prospero Lambertini (later pope Benedict XIV). The combination of Lambertini's work with the canonization causes in which he acted as the “devil's advocate” in charge of disputing arguments favorable to a sainthood candidate allows for a reconstruction of the interplay between the juridical and scientific economies of saint-making, and of the role of testimony in the production of trust and evidence.

Is There a Baroque Style of Preaching in Early Modern France?

2019 ◽  
pp. 641-663
Author(s):  
Anne Régent-Susini ◽  
Laurent Susini
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Council Of Trent ◽  
Literary Field ◽  
Early Modern France ◽  
Modern France ◽  
The Catholic Church

Preaching in the baroque period, though often neglected by researchers, is a literary field that assumed renewed importance in the Catholic Church following the Council of Trent. Looking carefully at examples from the French repertory of sermons, this chapter describes several stylistic variants, ranging from austere simplicity to vivid appeals to the hearers’ imagination. The pulpit borrowed from the theater as well as from recently rediscovered Greek novels, but the florid style of the early seventeenth century was followed by a simpler one that is sometimes described as neoclassical.

Molding the Model Bishop from Trent to Vatican II

2019 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-86
Author(s):  
Celeste McNamara
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Council Of Trent ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Catholic Enlightenment ◽  
Catholic Reform ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

The creation of new saints often has a political edge; the Catholic Church molds saints’ lives to fit its needs, and individual popes have particular priorities in saint-making. In the early modern Church, this was particularly important after the Council of Trent. The Tridentine decrees (1563) instructed bishops to reform the Church but provided few practical suggestions for how to do this. One solution was to hold up exemplary post-Tridentine bishops as models through beatification and canonization. Historians have noted the importance of model bishops but have not fully considered the process of creating them and its implication for the histories of Catholic Reform and of canonization. The case of Cardinal-Bishop Gregorio Barbarigo of Padua (bp. 1664–1697) tells a complicated and interesting story about the intersection of Catholic Reform and canonization. Barbarigo was beatified in 1761 during the Catholic Enlightenment and was finally canonized in 1960, on the eve of the Second Vatican Council. Examining the construction of his image from 1699–1960, this article argues that the Catholic Church in both the eighteenth and the twentieth centuries molded Barbarigo into the model bishop needed at those particular times, in response to the issues facing contemporary bishops and clergy.

scholarly journals Pedagogia Prymasa Tysiąclecia Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 19-35
Author(s):  
Bogusław Śliwerski
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The Catholic Church

Pedagogy of the Primate of the Millennium, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński An analysis of source texts and selected biographical studies of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński was carried out from the perspectives of the processes of secularization taking place in Poland in the year AD 2020, the radical attacks of left-wing politicians on the Catholic Church and its relationship with the current governing coalition known as the United Right [Zjednoczona Prawica]. This strikes at the foundations of the Second Vatican Council and the role of the Polish Church in regaining the nation’s freedom from socialist domination in 1989. The author therefore recalls not only the exceptional merits of the Polish Primate during the period of totalitarianism of the „People’s Poland” [Polska Ludowa], but also his message to educator-practitioners, parents, and scientists.

scholarly journals Ekumeniczna działalność świeckich dworzan cesarza Justyna I (518-527) w świetle ich korespondencji z Rzymem

Vox Patrum ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 319-325
Author(s):  
Stanisław Koczwara
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Main Role ◽  
Important Thing ◽  
Apostolic See ◽  
The Catholic Church

Taking over the throne in 518 by the Emperor Justin I impacted on the emperor's court to change politics in order to support of the Chalcedonian Synod. The most important thing was that, the Emperor as well as his supporting courtiers, took into consideration the main role of the Apostolic See in protecting truth religion. Courtly guardians of Chalcedon such as the Empress Eufemia, Justinian's relative a commander of the Court Guard Vitalian, maids of honour: Anastasia, Palmacja Julianan Anicia, Celer, Pompeius, German were successful in making an ecumenical effort to restore the union in the Catholic Church.

Images of the Priesthood: An Analysis of Catholic Sermons from the Late Seventeenth Century

2000 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renate Dürr
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
The State ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Council Of Trent ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Catholic Church

“All, therefore, who consider themselves Christians may be absolutely certain that we are all equally priests.”1 With this declaration Martin Luther categorically repudiated the Catholic understanding of priesthood as a holy estate with indelible marks bestowed at consecration. According to the reformers all Christians, in principle, have the same authority in word and sacrament, but only those authorized by the respective community of believers may wield it. This assessment not only reflected certain irregularities within the clergy but also signified a completely new definition of the priesthood. It cannot be understood outside the context of existing contemporary criticism—not only from reformatory circles—of the state of numerous parishes who suffered under poorly educated, morally unacceptable (from a contemporary point of view) or indeed absent clergymen. The Catholic Church's answer to this challenge, therefore, had two aims: plans for far-reaching reforms were intended to renew the image of priests and, primarily, to provide effective pastoral care. Polemical theological debates against Protestants and discussions within the Catholic Church were intended not only to strengthen the certainty of the fundamental essence of priestly identity but also to facilitate a differentiation of Catholic from Protestant understanding. The decisions of the Council of Trent also touched both areas. At the 23rd session both the theological basis of the sacrament of consecration and the plans to reform the rules concerning the bishops' obligatory residence in their parishes were debated.2

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