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Seminaries and the Education of Novarese Parish Priests, 1593–1627

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Thomas Deutscher
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Extract

One of the most important contributions of the Council of Trent (1545–63) to the Catholic or Counter-Reformation was its decree calling for the establishment of diocesan seminaries for the education of the secular clergy. To date, however, the role played by seminaries in the training of parish priests has not been the subject of detailed research. Most Italian diocesan histories, concerned more with the lives and decrees of reforming bishops than with the development of parish life, do not go beyond the institutional aspects of the problem, noting when seminaries were founded and what financial difficulties they faced. Little has been done to investigate the academic content of seminary training and the quality of seminary graduates. Among the few valuable points of reference are a study of clerical education at Rome by G. Pelliccia and brief comments on the seminary curriculum of Bologna by Paolo Prodi. While they have found that seminarians of both cities received practical instruction in the exercise of the cure of souls, they have not uncovered sources pertaining to the books used at seminaries or possessed by parish priests.

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Articles
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The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , July 1981 , pp. 303 - 319
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

1 Sess. 23, De reformatione, cap. 18, Conciliorum occumenicorum decreta, ed. Alberigo, Giuseppe et al. , Basle 1962, 726–9Google Scholar.

2 For example, see Cairns, C., Domenico Bollani, Bishop of Brescia: devotion to Church and State in the Republic of Venice in the sixteenth century, Nieuwkoop 1976, 160–70Google Scholar.

3 Pelliccia, G., La Preparaziom ed ammissione dei chierici at santi ordini nella Roma del secoto XVI, Rome 1946, 284–301Google Scholar, 411–24; Prodi, P., Il Cardinale Gabriele Paleotti, Rome 1959–67. ii. 143–4Google Scholar.

4 For the life and pastoral activity of Bascapè, see my unpublished doctoral dissertation for the University of Toronto, Carlo Bascapè and Tridentine Reform in the Diocese of Novara (1593–1615), 1978Google Scholar.

5 Longo, P. G., Problem di vita religiosa nella diocesi di Novara, prima del episcopato di Carlo Baicapè (1593) econ particolare riferimcnto al periodo 1580–1590, unpublished thesis for the University of Turin, 1969–70, ii. 208–10Google Scholar.

6 Seven bishops governed Novara between 1563 and 1593, including Cardinal Giovanni Antonio Serbelloni (1560–74), Romulo Archinto (1574–6), Francesco Bossi (1579–84) and Cesare Speciano (1585–91).

7 Bascapè described simple benefices in his Novaria, seu de ecclesia novarierui, Novara 1612, 61–7Google Scholar.

8 I 1593 the seminary of Novara had an enrolment of twenty-five clerics. Archivio provinciale dei Barnabiti, Milan: Carlo Bascapè, Registri di lettere del tempo del mo vescovado dal 1593 al 1615 (henceforth cited as Reg. vesc.) i. 500, to Guglielmo Vidoni, rector of the seminary of Milan, 7 September 1593. The seminary of Varallosesia had an income of only 500 lire in 1593, and Bascapè left it vacant to allow its revenues to accumulate. Archivio Storico Diocesano di Novara, Ada visitations (henceforth cited as ASDN, AV), xix. 23r–26r. The enrolment of the seminary of the island of San Giulio was eight in 1593. ASDN, AV, xx. 85r.

9 Reg. vesc, i. 404, to Don Pietro Aldobrandini, 10 August 1593.

10 Acta Ecclesiae Mediolanensis a Carlo Cardinalis. Praxedis Archiepiscopo condita, Milan 1599, 258.

11 Curates who studied at institutions outside Novara included Giovanni Viscardi of Cravegna, who studied philosophy and law at the University of Bologna, and Francesco Pizzetto of Bolzano, who studied letters and cases of conscience at the Jesuit colleges of Rome and Milan. ASDN, AV, xlvi. 216r–v; lxxi. 228v.

12 For the development of summas of cases and confessors' manuals see Michaud-Quantin, P., Sommes decasuistique et manuels de confession au moyen âge (XII–XVI siècles), Louvain 1962Google Scholar; Tender, T. N., ‘The Summa for confessors as an instrument of social control’, in The Pursuit 0f Holiness in Late Medieval and Renaissance Religion, ed. Trinkaus, C., Leiden 1974, 103–26, 131–7Google Scholar, and Sin and Confession on the Eve of the Reformation, Princeton 1977Google Scholar; and my own discussion, below pp. 306–7, 312–14.

13 Reg. vesc, xxiv. 322, to the vicar general of Novara, 13 July 1612.

14 In 1608 Bascapè reported an enrolment of twenty clerics at Suna. Reg. vesc, xxi. 416, to the head of San Paolo at Piazza Colonna, Rome, 7 January 1608. For the foundation of the seminary of Borgomanero see ASDN, AV, lxxv. ii7r–n8r.

15 ASDN, AV, liv. 60r, 84r; lxii. 102r; lxxi. 107r, 275v, 287r, 309v; lxxiii. 73r, 241r, 303r, 322r, 387r, 481r; lxxxvii. 113r, 115r, 303r; lxxxviii. 350r; xcv. 108r; c. 32v, 292r, 376r; ciii. 52r, 234r, 455r; cv. 210v, 212V; cviii. 13v, 295r, 349r; cxxiv. 465r, 468r.

16 For example, Giovanni Pietro Maneca, curate of Crodo, ordained in 1624, studied grammar at Domodossola and Rome and cases of conscience at the Jesuit college of Milan, while Bernardino Borino, curate of Cerrano, ordained in 1602, studied grammar at Novara, logic at Milan and cases of conscience by himself. ASDN, AV, cviii. 349r; lxxiii. 241r.

17 Delumeau, Jean, Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire: a new view of the Counter-Reformation, London 1977, 32Google Scholar.

18 ‘Regole del seminario de’ chierici di Novara’, in Bascapè, Carlo, Scritti publicati da Mom. Reverendiss. d. Carlo Vescovo di Novara nel govemo del suo vescovado, Novara 1609, 595–615Google Scholar

19 Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétiaue et mystique, doctrine et histoire (henceforth cited as DS), ed. Vallier, M. et al. , Paris 1932, vi. 1303–4Google Scholar. Other manuals are described by P. Heath in The English Parish Clergy on the Eve of the Reformation, London 1969, 1–8, and Pantin, W. A. in The English Church in the Fourteenth Century, Cambridge 1955, 189–219Google Scholar.

20 Michaud-Quantin, Sommes de casuistique, 7–12, 88–106.

21 For works of ‘moral theology’ found in parish libraries of the nineteenth century see Allegra, Luciano, Ricerche sutla cultura del clero in Piemonte: le bibliotheche panocchiali nell’arcidiocesi di Torino sec. XVII–XVIII, Turin 1978, 93–218Google Scholar. Whether these new casuist works constituted a departure from the medieval tradition of summas of cases was the subject of a debate at a recent conference at the University of Michigan. According to L. E. Boyle, an expert on medieval summas, casuist works of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries continued the tradition of the summas. ‘The Summa for confessors as a genre, and its religious intent’. The Pursuit of Holiness, ed. Trinkaus, 126–30, at p. 127. In reply, Thomas Tentler argued that post-Tridentine casuists differed from their medieval counterparts in that they abandoned the attempt to be encyclopedic and came under the influence of modern authors: ‘…. casuists from the Reformation on do not organize their works around the opinions of Raymond of Peñaforte, John of Freiburg, or even Angelus de Clavasio. Rather they take up the more challenging ideas of modern doctors-Vitoria. de Soto, Azpilcueta, Lessius, Escobar, Sanchez, Diana, Molina, and others like them’. ‘The Summa for confessors’, 133. It is difficult, however, to accept Tender’s suggestion that there was a break between medieval and post-Tridentine casuistry. Although casuists of the seventeenth century abandoned the title ‘summa’ with its encyclopedic connotations, their works were if anything more extensive than the summas, often running into three or four volumes. Further, casuists of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries saw no break between themselves and medieval casuists. In his Clavis regia sacerdotum, casuum conscientiae sive theologiae moralis thesauri, Munster in Westfalen 1628, the English Benedictine Gregory Sayer (1560–1602) listed Martin de Azpilcueta (1493–1586), Francisco de Toledo (c. 1533–96), and other post-Tridentine moral theologians, among the ‘summisti’. Further, Sayer’s work contained numerous citations of late medieval authors of summas, such as Angelo Carletti de Chiavasso (1411–95) and Silvestro Mazzolini de Priero (1456–1523).

22 Borromeo ordered parish priests to purchase the confessors’ manual of St Antoninus, archbishop of Florence. Ada Ecclesiae Mediolanensis, 18. Paleotti recommended the manual of St Antoninus and the Summa Armilla by Bartolomeo Fumi. Prodi, Il Cardinale Gabrielt Paleotti, ii. 155. Bascapè did not specify which summas his curates should purchase. Lettere di governo episcopale, scritte da Monsign. Reverendiss. D. Carlo Vescovo di Novara, Novara 1613, 63Google Scholar.

23 See below pp. 313–14.

24 Heath, The English Parish Clergy, 88–9.

25 Hay, D., The Church in Italy in the Fifteenth Century, Cambridge 1977, 56CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 For general information on the scholastic revival and controversies on grace, see Pastor, Ludwig von, The History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages, London 1938–53, xxiv. 281–366Google Scholar and xxv. 229–52. For the lives and works of Francisco de Vitoria, O.P. (d. 1546), Domingo de Soto, O.P. (1495–1560) and Francisco Suarez S.J. (1548–1617), see Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, (henceforth cited as DTC) ed. Vacaut, A. et al. , Paris 1923–48, xv. 3117–44 and xiv. 2433–31, 2638–728Google Scholar.

27 For examples of scriptural commentaries of the sixteenth century see note 33.

28 Sess. 5, Decretum secundum super lectione et praedicatione, and Sess. 23, De reformatione, cap. 18, Conciliorumoecumenicorumdecreta, 643–4, 727.

29 For example, in the first years of his episcopate Bascapè obtained permission to set aside the first vacant prebend of the cathedral of San Gaudenzio of Novara for a theologian. When a vacancy occurred, the canons of the cathedral, supported by the city, claimed the right to provide a candidate and selected a non-theologian. Bascapè fought their right to collate, arguing that the city and diocese were in great need of theologians. Reg. vesc, vi. 395, to Vicar-general Besozzo, 10 June 1597. The canons probably had their way, for the first notice of a canon-theologian of San Gaudenzio occurs in 1606: Reg. vesc., xx. 395, to Canon Vandoni, theologian of San Gaudenzio, 23 December 1606.

30 Reg. vise, xxiii. 87, to Padre don Ciovanni Ferrari, canon-theologian of Gozzano, 27 August 1609. For Ferrari’s status personalis and personal library see ASDN, AV, lxxi. 42r, 72r. Ferrari’s books included the Summa Theologica of Aquinas, commentaries on Aquinas by Francisco Suarez and others, scriptural commentaries by Cornelius Jansenius (1510–76), Aquinas and Denis le Chartreux (1402–71), works of Ambrose, Augustine and Chrysostom, summas of cases of conscience and collections of sermons.

31 Bascapè, Letterc di governo episcopate, 63.

32 ‘Instruttione intorno al predicare la parola di Dio, data a’ sacerdoti che hanno cura d’anime’, Scritti publicati, 210–26.

33 ASDN, AV, cii. 294r–295r. Among other scriptural commentaries the seminary collection included Francisco de Toledo on the gospels of Luke and John and the epistle of Paul to the Romans (DTC, xv. 1223–5), Juan Maldonado (1533–83) on the four gospels (Marcocchi, Massimo, La Riforma cattolica, documenti e testimonianze, Brescia 1967–71, ii. 655–8Google Scholar), Adam Sasbout (1516–53) on Isaiah and Paul (DTC, xiv. 1127–8), and Emmanuel Sa (c. 1528–96) on the four gospels and the whole of scripture (DTC, xiv. 425–7). Gregory, Augustine, Bernard, Chrysostom and Basil were among the seminary’s collection of fathers, although only Basil’s De virginitate was listed by title. Modern theologians included Domingo de Soto, Francisco Suárez, Luis de Molina (1536–1600), Thomas Sánchez (1550–1610) and Leonard Lessius (1554–1623). For biographies of Molina, Thomas Sánchez and Lessius, see DTC, ix. 453–4; x. 2090–2; xiv. 1075–85.

34 Reg. vesc, iii. 311, to the curates of Mandello, Morghengo, Soriso and Agrato, 13 November 1594.

35 For comments on heresy in the diocese of Novara, see my doctoral dissertation, Carlo Bascapè and Tridentine Reform in the Diocese of Novara, chap. vi.

36 Pelliccia, La Preparazione ed ammissione dei ckierici ai santi ordini nella Roma, 296–300, and Prodi, Il Cardinale Cabriele Paleotti, ii. 143–4.

37 Ada Ecclesiae Mediolanensis, 949–50.

38 Bascapè, Lettere di governo episcopate, 63.

39 ASDN, AV, lxxiii. 346r, 588r; lxxxvii. 284r; lxxxviii. 451r, xcv. 112r; c. 319r, 323r, 478r; ciii. 121r, 204r, 329r, 429r; cv. 234r, 236r, 346r–34gv; cviii. 276r.

40 Bascapè, Scritti publicati, 152–71.

41 Bellarmine composed two catechisms: the ‘Dottrina Christiana, breve perche si possa imparare a mente’, and the ‘Dichiarazione piú copiosa della Dottrina Christiana composta in forma di dialogo’. Bellarmine, , Opera omnia, ed. Justin Fevre, Paris 1874, xiiGoogle Scholar. 261–337. For the life of Bellarmine see Brodrick, J., Robert Bellarmine, Saint and Scholar, London 1961Google Scholar.

42 St Peter Canisius, who spearheaded the Counter-Reformation in Germany, wrote three catechisms: one for scholars, one for children and one for students: Marcocchi, La Riforma cattolica, ii. 206. The version for scholars was the Opus catechisticum live de summa doctrinae christianae, Cologne 1587. For the life of Canisius see DTC, ii. 1507–37.

43 Bellarino’s Doctrina Sacri Concilii Tridentine el Catechism Romani de sacramentis et justificatione underwent at least five printings, the first at Milan in 1600. Boffito, G., Scrittori Barnabiti o della Congregazione dei chierici regolari di San Paolo (1533–1933), Florence 1933, i. 154–55Google Scholar.

44 The Flos sanctorum was a five-volume work, the first three of which dealt with the lives of Christ, the Virgin and the principal saints recorded in the calendar. The last two volumes included sermons for all the principal feasts of the saints. Encidopedia universal ilustrada, Madrid 1907–1930, lxviii. 1571–2Google Scholar.

45 Razzi was a philosopher, theologian and historian from the convent of San Marco in Florence. DTC, xiii. 1829–30. Editions of the Giardino d’essempi, o vero fiori delle vite de i santi are cited by Quétif, Jacques and Échard, Jacques in Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum, Paris 1719–21, ii. 387–8Google Scholar.

46 Rationale divinorum officiorum, Antwerp 1614. Guillaume Durantis received a doctorate in law at Bologna and was called the Speculator because of his Speculum judiciale. Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. Baudrillart, Alfred, Paris 1912–, xiv. 1169–71Google Scholar.

47 Carletti was a Franciscan theologian and canon lawyer. The full title of his volume was the Summa angelica de casibus conscientiae. DTC, i. 1271–2.

48 The Summa Sylvestrinae, quae summa summarum merito nuncupatur, Venice 1587–93, filled two volumes of approximately 400 pages each, in quarto. Mazzolini was a Dominican theologian from the Piedmont and a noted anti-Lutheran polemicist. DTC, x. 474–7.

49 Michaud-Quantin, Sommes de casuistiquc, 98–104.

50 The manual of St Antoninus was called the Defecerunt after the first word of its introduction. St Antoninus, a Dominican, became archbishop of Florence in 1446 and was famous for his pastoral activity and works of charity. DTC, i. 1450–4.

51 Cardinal Cajetan was a Dominican professor of theology at Padua and Pavia from 1508 to 1518 and papal legate to Germany in 1518–19. A prolific writer, his works included commentaries on Aquinas and the scriptures and polemics against Luther. DTC, ii. 1313–29. His Summula de peccatis, Lyons 1538, was only 500 pages in octavo.

52 Bartolomeo Fumi, Summa Aurea Armilla nuncupata, casus omnes ad animarum curam attinentis breviter complectens, Venice 1582.

53 Manuale de’ confessori et penitenti, al quale abbraccia la resolutione de i dubbii, che sogliono communemente occorare circa i peccati nelle confessioni, Venice 1607. For the life of Azpilcueta see DTC, i. 2119.

54 Irutitutionis sacerdotum libri septem, cum tractatu de septem peccatis capitalibus, Venice 1600. For the life of Francisco de Toledo see DTC, xv. 1223–5.

55 Medina’s manual was called in French the Brève instruction sur la manière d’administrer le sacrament de pénitence. DTC, x. 481–5.

56 Juan Azor was a Jesuit who taught scholastic theology at Alcala and Rome. DTC, i. 2653. His Institutionum moratium, in quibus universae quaestiones ad canscientiam recte, aut prove factorum pertinentes, breviter tractantur, Rome 1600–11, filled three folio volumes.

57 Giacomo de Graffis, of a noble house of Capua, was a Benedictine canon lawyer. His manual was the Decisionum aurearum casuum conscientiae. DTC, vi. 1691–2.

58 Martin Bonacina was a Milanese moral theologian and canon lawyer. DTC, ii. 953. His Opera omrua, Venice 1733, dealt with matrimony, the sacraments, restitution and sins against the ten commandments.

59 Emmanuel Sa was a Jesuit who taught philosophy and theology at Alcala and Rome. His manual was the Aphorismi confessariorum et doctorum sententiis collecti. DTC, xiv. 425–7.

60 Gregory Sayer fled from England to Oouai in 1582. A Benedictine monk, he spent a great part of his life at Montecassino. DTC, xiv. 1241–2. For his Clavis regia sacerdotum, see above, note 21.

61 Bossy, John, ‘The social history of confession in the age of the Reformation’, Trans. Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., xxv (1975), 21–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

62 The second volume of Bonacina’s Opera contains a section on restitution and contracts (p. ‘351 and passim), while the third volume is devoted to ecclesiastical censures. Sayer’s Clavis regia sacerdotum contains two sections on restitution. Post-Tridentine moral theologians, like medieval casuists, extended the concept of restitution to include calumny, adultery and other sins not falling under the seventh commandment. For fuller discussions of restitution in cases of calumny and adultery, with references to modern moral theologians, see DTC, i. 467–8; ii. 1372–6. Bossy’s generalisations are also questioned by Thomas Tentler, who argues that the medieval study of cases ‘was designed to make people understand concretely and feel acutely their own personal guilt’. Sin and Confession, 161–2.

63 DTC, viii. 309–13.

64 The National Union Catalogue, Pre-1956 Imprints, London 1968–, cxliii. 605Google Scholar, lists several works by Diez, including the Condones quadruplices super evangelia, Venice 1600. One parish priest possessed an index of moral concepts found in his works. ASDN, AV, lxxxvii. 284r.

65 For an analysis of Pittorio’s spirituality and excerpts from his Omilario quadragesimale, see Marcocchi, Riforma cattolica, i. 192–6.

66 Fiamma became bishop of Chioggia in 1584. DS, v. 293–5.

67 Panigarola was a Franciscan whose works included the Homliae pro Dominitis post Pentecosten usque ad Adventum. DTC, xi. 1850–3Google Scholar.

68 ‘Instruttione intorno al predicare’, Scritti publicati, 210–26.

69 Ludolph of Saxony was a Carthusian monk. DTC, ix. 1067–70.

70 Thomas a Kempis’s authorship of the Imitation of Christ was firmly established only in the twentieth century. Hyma, Albert, The Christian Renaissance: a history of the ‘Devotio moderna’, 2nd edn, Hamden, Conn. 1965, 176–90Google Scholar.

71 DTC, ix. 953–9.

72 For excerpts from the Trattato delta communione see Marcocchi, Riforma cattolica, ii. 532–9.

73 DS, iv. 1366–70.

74 DS, i. 1971. The third part of the Meditations of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ Our Saviour was reprinted in fascimile in English Recusant Literature, 1558–1640, (ed. Rogers, D. M.), Menston, Yorkshire 1972, cxviiGoogle Scholar.

75 For an analysis of spiritual writing in the sixteenth century see Pourrat, P., Christian Spirituality, trans. Mitchell, W. H. and Jacques, S. P., Westminister, Md. 1953–5, iiiGoogle Scholar.

76 The Catena aurea in quattuor evangelia was based on the commentaries of the fathers and was designed for preachers as well as scholars. DTC, xv. 694.

77 Denis le Chartreux was a theologian and mystic of the Carthusian order. DTC, iv. 430–49.

78 Promptuarium moralium super evangelia dominicalia totius anni … pars aestivalis, Cologne 1620Google Scholar. For the life of Stapleton see O’Connell, M., Thomas Stapleton and the Counter Reformation, New Haven 1964Google Scholar.

79 Estella wrote the In sacrosanctam Jesu Christi Domini nostri evangelium secundum Lucam ennarationes, first published at Salamanca in two volumes, 1574–5. DS, ii. 1366–7.

80 National Union Catalogue, Pre-1956 Imprints, lxxxix. 449.

81 Francesco Panigarola, Dichiaratione de isalmi di David, Venice 1587.

82 Ricerche sulla cultura del clero in Piemonte, 91–223. Allegra (pp. 220–3) arranged the books included in 57 Torinese libraries into the following categories: Patristic and classical, 349 (4–7%); Catechisms, confessors’ manuals and various instructions, 651 (8–9%); Devotional works and lives of saints, 1435 (19–5%); Theology and Christian doctrine, 1333 (18–1%); Sermons, 592 (8–196); Synods, Councils, ecclesiastical history and Biblical studies, 478 (6–5%); Other religious works, 957 (13%); Secular books, 1549 (21–1%); Total, 7344.

Although the Torinese libraries were far larger than the Novarese, averaging approximately 130 volumes, it would not be appropriate to make a strictly numerical comparison between them. The Torinese libraries belonged to parishes and not to individual priests, hence were collected over a longer period of time-according to Allegra (pp. 22–4) between 1650 and 1850. Further, Allegra’s study included a number of urban parishes, one of which had 889 titles in its library. Finally the Torinese libraries included secular works, which the Novarese clergy were not asked to list.

Several of Allegra’s figures require further explanation. The section on theology and Christian doctrine includes approximately 450 works of moral theology, used by curates in administering the sacrament of confession. Works of dogmatic theology were only approximately 200 in number. Scriptural commentaries and paraphrases numbered approximately 250.

83 DTC, xii. 1962–74.

84 The Compendium was erroneously attributed to Albert the Great. DTC, i. 670.

85 Aquinas wrote the Expositio super symbolum aposlolorum and the Expositio orationis dominicae. DTC, xv. 638.

86 Biel’s work was the Sacri canonis missae expositio resolutissima, litteralis ac mistica. DTC, ii. 814–15.

87 Unfortunately, the status personalis of the curate of Stresa sheds no light on his education. ASDN, AV, lxxxvii. 269v.

88 Delumeau, Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire, 32.

89 See above, note 15.