After being subjected to a thorough investigation, the record No. 19 of the Registrum by Petrus Diaconus (JL †4040), which was considered to be a complete forgery by editions and catalogues, reveals its partial authenticity. It fits into the context of a decisive change for the history of the abbey of Montecassino: the transition from the Byzantine to the Western influence following Henry II’s military intervention. The emperor, pope Benedict VIII and the abbott Theobaldus cooperate to consolidate the abbey in the new political framework: a strengthening that takes place not only at the legal and patrimonial level, but also in the field of worship, through a reaffirmation of the presence of the body of st. Benedict. The historiography of Montecassino recovers and amplifies this last point, and finally transforms it into a key event of 1022.
Bernardo degli Uberti († 1133), abbas maior of Vallombrosa (1098-1099), cardinal legate and apostolic vicar in Lombardy (1099-1109) and finally bishop of Parma (1106-1133) is one of the main figures of the reform movement who acted in northern Italy between the eleventh and the twelfth centuries. This paper aims to examine the memory construction of his figure in Parma during the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries, through the analysis of the hagiographic works and of the liturgy prepared to celebrate his holiness. Scripture and liturgical rituals, in fact, represent the main mediators of cultural memory that had as object Bernardo degli Uberti. This memorial process, marked by multiple horizons of meaning (religious, devotional, ecclesiological, political), represents not only a page of history of medieval holiness and piety but also of political and social history of Parma.
The article reconstructs the presence of the Cathar Church of Bagnolo in Faenza during the years 1206-1207, 1240-1241, 1260-1287. A new source (part of the first inquisitorial trial against domina Mirabella) and the consilium of Guido Faffi (about 1287) provide a lot of information about the organization, the pastoral care and the rites of the Cathars.
Thanks to the study of the inquisitorial documents preserved in the Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, this essay aims to provide a detailed picture of the use of magnets in the magical practice in the territory of Siena during the modern age. After clarifying the position of the inquisitorial law about this custom, several cases (most of them unpublished) had been analysed and put in relation to a general larger context. This study shows certain data of considerable interest; for instance, we note much more male actors than female and many of the first ones were members of the clergy, who were necessary for baptizing the magnets, but who also appeared active in this kind of practice and sometimes even able to spread the belief that these objects casted supernatural spells.
The Great Courts of Papal State applied the Justinian Law in matters of women’s intestate succession, which equated men and women. For the noble families and the finances of the Papal State, the danger was that a woman, getting married to a citizen of another State, allowed huge patrimonies to leave the State. For this reason Pope Innocent XI gave instructions to the jurist Giovanni Battista de Luca to set up a Committee which had to enact a Constitution that repealed the Justinian Law and, on the contrary, applied the municipal charters forbidding women to succeed ab intestato. During the meetings de Luca had a clash with another jurist. This paper will analyze the reports submitted to the Committee by the two jurists.
Chiara Isabella Fornari (1697-1744) was born in Rome and became Poor Clare in the convent of S. Francesco in Todi, in Umbria, where she spent her entire life, marked by an intense spirituality and mystical phenomenons, and where, as abbess, she reformed the religious life of her monastery. This essay aims to reconstruct the hagiographic image of Chiara Isabella shaped between the end of the Eighteenth Century and the first decades of the Nineteenth, retracing the difficult path given to her process of beatification, that started in Todi between 1748 and 1754, was reopened in Rome between 1837 and 1853 and never completed.
After a short summary of the most recent studies on seminars, this essay considers the Tuscan case focusing on a specific historical period: that one of the Napoleonic domination at the beginning of the Nineteenth century. Starting from the researches for the atlas of the educational institutions in Italy, the first part of this text recreates a sort of ‘picture’ of the development of the seminars from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth centuries. Then, focusing on the documents produced by the three departments in which the Napoleonic Tuscany was divided, this essay analyzes the attempt made to re-organize the institutions for the education of the clergy, trying to approach them to the French model and imposing the public control. This attempt was weakened by the strong influence of the ancient way of organization of the ecclesiastical education and by the few years available for carrying out this reform.
This essay retraces the editorial process and censorship of The Spirit of Catholicism, a Karl Adam’s study appeared in Germany in 1924. The book was part of a rediscovery of mysticism and community dimension of the Church during the years between the two world wars, affecting ecclesiology and theology of the laity. The editor Morcelliana translated the volume in 1929, arousing discontent in Vatican circles and the intervention of the Holy Office. The research reconstructs the doctrinal revision carried out by Adriano Bernareggi and Carlo Figini, following the request of Mario Bendiscioli, curator of the Italian edition. In particular, behind this work, the essay highlights the presence of a larger project, which aimed to protect the theological space opened by the German christology and by the studies of Adam published after The Spirit of Catholicism, especially Christ our brother and Jesus Christ.
Le giovanni donne sempre più lontane, i giovani in solitaria ricerca, il dovere degli adulti di mettersi in ascolto: Paola Bignardi racconta il libro-inchiesta "Dio, dove sei?".