Religion and Ecstasy in Seventeenth Century Italy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilija Babich
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Teresa Of Avila ◽  
Saint Teresa Of Avila ◽  
Artistic Production ◽  
The Catholic Church

In the seventeenth century, the supremacy of the Catholic Church was being threatened both by science and by the growth of Protestantism. Rome, as the only remaining centre for Catholicism, needed to reassert its authority and reclaim those who had lost their faith. As a result, religious artistic production of the seventeenth century took on a spectacular and theatrical character that sought to inspire awe and reverence in its audience. There was a renewed interest in depicting martyred saints, encouraging the laity to look upon them as models of Catholic piety who were willing to give their lives for the faith. However, there was also a growing cult of interest in the mystical aspects of Catholicism. Figures such as Saint Teresa of Avila, who experienced visions and ecstatic unions with Christ, encouraged a renewed interest in Catholicism and promoted a much more personal and private connection with Christ. Thispresentation will investigate the growing interest in and conceptions of martyrdom and religious ecstasy. In particular, it will examine Gianlorenzo Bernini’s sculptures of St. Lawrence, The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, and the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni, ultimately demonstrating that the two concepts were intimately related and, when depicted with the magnificence and splendour of the Baroque style, were powerful tools of propaganda for the Catholic Church.

scholarly journals Ecstasy as Polemic: Mysticism and the Catholic Reformation

2017 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-23
Author(s):  
Carlos M.N. Eire
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Catholic Reformation ◽  
Spanish Inquisition ◽  
Teresa Of Avila ◽  
Saint Teresa Of Avila ◽  
Mystical Experiences ◽  
The Catholic Church

In the 16th century, Protestants rejected the possibility of mystical encounters between humans and God. Catholics responded in various ways, but perhaps most forcefully by continuing to claim mystical experiences and by emphasizing extreme forms of mysticism. This paper analyzes how that rejection affected the development of Catholic mysticism at that time, especially in the case of Saint Teresa of Avila (1515–82), whose ecstasies were closely examined by the Spanish Inquisition, but were subsequently approved and promoted as exemplary of the truths professed by 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

scholarly journals Bishop Nicholas French and the second Ormond peace, 1648-9

1948 ◽  
Vol 6 (22) ◽  
pp. 83-100
Author(s):  
Patrick J. Corish
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
The State ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Moral Order ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

Europe in the seventeenth century was a land of mar and confusion because the great political problems raised by the religious disruption of the preceding century had not yet been solved. Chief among these was the problem of the relations between the Roman catholic church and a protestant state. The teaching of the pope's indirect power in temporal matters in any problem involving a breach of the moral order (ratione peccati) had been strongly re-stated by Bellarmine, and was the official attitude of the church. A protestant prince had committed a grave sin, that of heresy, and so it was the pope's right and duty to depose him and absolve his Catholic subjects from their allegiance. But this political theory was becoming impractical as the seventeenth century progressively demonstrated that Europe was permanently divided. As might be expected, juridical forms lagged behind the development of events; but by the middle of the century the Roman curia, while not prepared to give antecedent approval to a peace with protestants, might be said to be ready to acquiesce once it had been concluded, if the position and rights of the Catholic church could be assured. Yet this assurance was, in the circumstances, almost impossible. The Catholic church could not rest satisfied with toleration as a sect, but demanded recognition as an organised society with a source of jurisdiction illdependent of the state.

scholarly journals A Catholic Theologian Responds to Copernicanism: The Theological Judicium of Paolo Foscarini’s Lettera

1997 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irving A. Kelter
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Celestial Bodies ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
The Catholic Church

This paper is an in-depth analysis of the Carmelite Paolo Foscarini's role in the debate on Copernican cosmology in the early seventeenth century. Using as a point of departure the 1616 Judicium issued by the Catholic Church against Foscarini's pro-Copernican treatise, this analysis will lead to a clearer understanding of the discussions on the fluidity or hardness of celestial bodies, and more generally on the conflicting Biblical and Copernican models.

scholarly journals A ‘Chief Error’ of Protestant Soteriology: Sin in the Justified and Early Modern Catholic Theology

Perichoresis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 41-72
Author(s):  
Matthew T. Gaetano
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Good Works ◽  
The World ◽  
The Catholic Church

AbstractCatholic theologians after Trent saw the Protestant teaching about the remnants of original sin in the justified as one of the ‘chief ’ errors of Protestant soteriology. Martin Luther, John Calvin, Martin Chemnitz, and many Protestant theologians believed that a view of concupiscence as sinful, strictly speaking, did away with any reliance on good works. This conviction also clarified the Christian’s dependence on the imputed righteousness of Christ. Catholic theologians condemned this position as detracting from the work of Christ who takes away the sins of the world. The rejection of this teaching—and the affirmation of Trent’s statement that original sin is taken away and that the justified at baptism is without stain or ‘immaculate’ before God—is essential for understanding Catholic opposition to Protestant soteriology. Two Spanish Dominican Thomists, Domingo de Soto and Bartolomé de Medina, rejected the Protestant teaching on imputation in part because of its connection with the view on the remnants of original sin in the justified. Adrian and Peter van Walenburch, brothers who served as auxiliary bishops of Cologne in the second half of the seventeenth century, argued that the Protestants of their time now agreed with the Catholic Church on a number of soteriological points. They also drew upon some of their post–Tridentine predecessors to offer a Catholic account of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. Nonetheless, the issue of sin in the justified remained a point of serious controversy.

The Presbyterian Story

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew R. Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Central Component ◽  
Home Rule ◽  
Historical Scholarship ◽  
High Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

Chapter 2 explores the interplay between historical scholarship, church government, and Unionist identity politics. The chapter begins with the appropriation by evangelicals of the seventeenth-century origins of Presbyterianism in Ireland and how this was used to respond to theological and ecclesiological moderatism as well as the challenge of High Church Anglicanism. The second section examines how the High Church threat produced scholarship on the early church and the Celtic church, including St Patrick. Presbyterian writers remained concerned about Catholic claims and the final section considers their attitude to the Catholic Church in principle, the growing influence of Ultramontanism, and the threat of ‘Rome Rule’ in Ireland. The prospect of Home Rule introduced the Presbyterian story to a much broader audience and became a central component of Unionist identity politics, especially during ‘the Ulster Crisis’ of 1912 to 1914.

An English Gallican: Henry Holden, (1596/7–1662) Part I (To 1648)

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antony F. Allison
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
The Other ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Important Work ◽  
Large Measure ◽  
The Catholic Church

THE writings of the seventeenth-century English theologian, Henry Holden, played a small but significant part in the development of western religious thought in the centuries following his death. His most important work, Divinae fidei analysis, first printed in Latin at Paris in 1652 and afterwards translated and published in English, was several times reprinted in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and was later incorporated in two theological collections, J. P. Migne's Theologiae cursus completus (tom.6, 1839), and Josef Braun's Bibliotheca regularum fidei (tom.2, 1844). It influenced the thinking, in the nineteenth century, not only of avowed liberals such as Dôllinger and Acton, but also, in some degree, of moderate progressives like Newman. In recent years, specialist studies on different aspects of Holden's thought have appeared in English and in French. So far, however, no serious attempt has been made to revise his bibliography: we still have to rely, in large measure, on that published by Joseph Gillow more than a century ago. In this article I want to bring together material that has come to light since Gillow's time and to examine Holden's works afresh against the background of his life and the religious and political developments in England and France at that period. I shall devote particular attention to two themes that run through all his work. One is gallicanism, that amalgam of mediaeval theories limiting the authority of the papacy in relation to secular states and their rulers and national churches and their bishops. It will be seen that plans which Holden advanced in the 1640s for the reform of the Catholic Church in England along gallican lines are based largely on ideas developed in his Divinaefidei analysis published a few years later. The other is his analytical and critical approach to doctrine, aiming always to distinguish truths solidly based on Scripture and tradition from the mere speculations of theologians. It is an approach that had been made popular in France by the Catholic controversialist, François Véron, whose Régula fidei catholicae was first published at Paris in 1644 when Holden was probably already at work on his Divinae fidei analysis. It reveals itself in all Holden's writings and distinguishes him from many of the other Catholic apologists who were drawn into controversy with the Anglican divines of the post-Chillingworth era.

State intervention in disputes between secular and regular clergy in early seventeenth-century Ireland

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 304-326
Author(s):  
Mark Empey
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Decisive Factor ◽  
Religious Orders ◽  
Counter Reformation ◽  
Secular Clergy ◽  
The Catholic Church ◽  
Episcopal Authority

The success of the Counter-Reformation in Ireland following the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy was a remarkable achievement. Between 1618 and 1630 Rome made a staggering nineteen episcopal appointments in a kingdom that was ruled by a Protestant king. Documenting the achievements of the initial period only paints half the picture, however. The implementation of the Tridentine reforms and the thorny issue of episcopal authority brought the religious orders into a head-on collision with the secular clergy. This protracted dispute lasted for a decade, most notably in the diocese of Dublin where an English secular priest, Paul Harris, led a hostile attack on the Franciscan archbishop, Thomas Fleming. The longevity of the feud, though, owed at least as much to the intervention of Lord Deputy Sir Thomas Wentworth as it did to the internal tensions of the Catholic Church. Despite Wentworth’s influential role, he has been largely written out of the conflict. This article addresses the lacunae in the current historiography and argues that the lord deputy’s interference was a decisive factor in exacerbating the hostilities between the secular and regular clergy in early seventeenth-century Ireland.

The Origins of St. Gregory’s, Paris

1992 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antony F. Allison
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
The Other ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
Small College ◽  
Financial Difficulties ◽  
Secular Clergy ◽  
The Catholic Church ◽  
The Revolution

St. Gregory’s was a small college belonging to the English secular clergy founded at Paris in the late seventeenth century. Its main purpose was to enable suitable ecclesiastics who had completed their training at Douai or the other colleges abroad to pursue advanced studies at the Sorbonne before working on the mission in England. Its founders hoped it would serve to produce a corps of highly qualified men to fill the leading administrative and teaching posts in the Catholic Church in England. It survived until 1786 when financial difficulties forced it to close—temporarily, as was at first thought. During the Revolution it suffered the fate of the other English Catholic institutions in France, and it never, in fact, reopened. Among the documents that have survived from its archives is a Register Book covering the whole period of its existence from its first beginnings in 1667 until it closed down over a century later. This Register Book, which records the arrival and departure of students, the stages in their university career, their promotion to holy orders, deaths occurring at the college, and occasional memoranda of events affecting the life of the community, was edited for the Catholic Record Society in 1917 by the late Monsignor Edwin Burton.

scholarly journals In persona Christi

2019 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-156
Author(s):  
Cordelia Warr
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Specific Role ◽  
The Catholic Church

Within the Catholic Church from around the tenth century onwards, liturgical gloves could be worn on specific occasions by those of the rank of bishop and above. Using a pair of seventeenth-century gloves in the Whitworth as a basis for further exploration, this article explores the meanings ascribed to liturgical gloves and the techniques used to make them. It argues that, within the ceremony of the mass, gloves had a specific role to play in allowing bishops to function performatively in the role of Christ.

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