Provincial Councils in Polycentric Catholicism, 1517-1817. The Normative activity of worldwide episcopates in relation to the Papal Monarchy and Curial Congregations
Early Modern History
Final Report Abstract
This research project provides a global and systematical survey on the provincial Councils celebrated in the Catholic Church worldwide from 1517 to 1817. To date, scholarship has focused narrowly on individual Councils deemed to be “of interest” by the researchers investigating them. The project transcends that fragmented approach through analysis of different formats, wider contexts and the specific development of provincial Councils in a global setting. It systematically analyses the relationships between the legacy of the Council of Trent (1545-1563), its local enforcement, and the interpretation the Roman Congregation of the Council gave to its decrees. Moving away from a traditional Rome-centered approach, the project highlights the importance of provincial Councils as pivotal platforms of Catholic globalization and investigates the mutual relationships between different provincial Councils. The project’s specific objectives, attained in the monograph and specific essays, were: a phasing of conciliar activity in various chronological and geographical contexts; reconstruction of the bureaucratic procedures related to those Councils - primarily the recognition of the text of the provincial Councils done by the Congregation of the Council; analysis of the interactions between the Roman Curia and local centers and between local ecclesiastical interests and political ones; the exploration and description of different models of Provincial Councils in terms of normative content and in terms of the celebration’s typology; a complete catalogue of the provincial Councils celebrated worldwide from 1517 and 1817. a) The first step in the research is a global recognition of all metropolitan provinces, comparing the history of the institutions and the history of canon law, one encompassing the ongoing dialectical exchanges between the Roman center and local centers in a polycentric Catholicism. This is concentrated on the geographical aspects of the one hundred and thirty-one metropolises of the worldwide Catholic Church, between 1517 and 1817 and highlights evolutions in the ecclesiastical provinces, suggesting the moments, needs and actors who prevailed in deciding on changes. b) The second step in the research was dedicated to the Congregation of the Council's activity and bureaucratic procedures connected with the provincial Councils. The curia’s equilibrium in different periods influenced the approval or correction of conciliar decrees. While those decrees were necessarily examined by the Congregation of the Council, they were also submitted to other Curial organs, closely related to the bishops’ obligations to present reports on ad limina visits from 1588 on. In specific cases, the approval or correction of the content of synodal constitutions was also the subject of the Congregations de Propaganda fide for non-European Churches (from 1622 on), and by the Holy Office for doctrinal matters. The history of the years immediately after the Council of Trent’s end is reconstructed as a history of the background of the foundation of the Congregation of the Councils. In that part the four seasons of revisions and recognitions are identified, together with eight main topics related to provincial councils, decided on or decreed by the Congregation of the Council. c) The third step is the quantitative and qualitative analysis of provincial Councils worldwide between 1517 and 1817. The Provincial Councils celebrated numbered 281, celebrated by eighty-three metropolitanates; three councils were under the supervision and aided by the Congregation de Propaganda fide in missionary lands, with the participation of bishops and archbishops in the see of Naxos and in Albania; and with the participation of Apostolic vicars and prefects active in the province the Synod of Tonkin was convened in. Twenty-seven metropolitanates never celebrated councils in three centuries, for various reasons. The nineteen newly established archbishoprics did not celebrate councils from the second half of the 17th century on: at the time those seats were elevated, councils were no longer considered a useful instrument for provincial ecclesiastical life. The councils are divided into six chronological phases, differentiated on the basis of frequency, regularity and increasing or decreasing trends; subsequently eight classes/typologies of councils are presented. Finally, the identified provincial councils are presented aggregated into sixteen geo-political areas, and then province by province: in this way the political geographies of the ecclesiastical provinces are highlighted and cross-examined. For every area, the chronological seasons of the councils are presented in relation to the local reality, the political authorities, and the influence of the Congregation of the Council in terms of revision, times for approval and contested contents. The global recognition of the metropolitan provinces in a polycentric Catholicism for the three centuries is a subject I underestimated as to its complexity. The recorded attempts at councils unexpectedly appear to be no less important than the documented synods.
Publications
- “Licere – Non licere”. La legittimità della schiavitù nelle decisioni della Sede apostolica romana tra XVII e XIX secolo, «Rivista storica italiana» 132 (2020), 2, 393-436
Fattori, M.T.
- „Das Pfarramt nach dem Trienter Konzil zwischen Meritokratie und klerikalem Status aus Sicht der römischen Kurie“, «Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Gesellschaft zur Erforschung des 18. Jahrhunderts» 36/2021), 63-80
Fattori, M.T.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.7767/9783205214069.65)
