James M. Powell, President of the
American Catholic Historical Association, 2006.
Photograph by Ira Lee

The Catholic Historical
Review
VOL. XCIII

APRIL, 2007

No. 2

CHURCH AND CRUSADE:
FREDERICK II AND LOUIS IX
BY

JAMES M. POWELL*

In the course of the thirteenth century, the crusade movement
underwent significant changes. Its focus expanded beyond military
expeditions against the Muslims as it came increasingly to be
employed for political purposes and in defense of the faith.
Increasingly, leadership of major crusading expeditions was under
the control of secular rulers. Frederick II and Louis IX, though often
contrasted, shared a common view of their role as leaders of the crusade.The role of the papacy, which through the early part of the century was central, became more marginal.While the religious ties of
the crusade remained and may have moved even more to the fore,
papal leadership became increasingly symbolic. By the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century, continuing adversity undermined efforts to maintain papal leadership.
The thirteenth century represents a critical transition in the history
of crusading. By focusing on the approaches taken by Frederick II and
Louis IX, I believe we can gain a much better understanding of the
changing role of the Church in the history of the crusades and, more
broadly, in the history of Italy and the Latin West leading up to the
crises of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, all of which

*Dr. Powell is a professor emeritus of medieval history in Syracuse University. He read
this paper as his presidential address at a luncheon held in the Hilton Atlanta Hotel on
January 6, 2007, during the eighty-seventh annual meeting of the American Catholic
Historical Association.

251

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had a profound impact on both the Church and the crusades.1 The fact
is that during the thirteenth century the role of the papacy altered and
diminished, but the role of religion did not. Given the fact that the
papacy had supported military action against Muslims even before
Pope Urban II’s summons of Western leaders to aid the Byzantine
Empire and to liberate Jerusalem, it may seem surprising to query
changes in that role in the thirteenth century. But this point deserves
attention because modern views of the crusades accept a static image
of that role that does not fit the realities of the period. In this view, religion is central to the discussion, but no effort is made to differentiate
the changing role of the papacy and the reasons for that from the
manner in which religious ideology was employed. In the preface to
his recently published work: God’s War: A New History of the
Crusades, Christopher Tyerman has written:
Violence, approved by society and supported by religion, has proved a commonplace of civilized communities. What are now known as the crusades
represent one manifestation of this phenomenon, distinctive to western
European culture over five hundred years from the late eleventh century of
the Christian era. The crusades were wars justified by faith conducted
against real or imagined enemies defined by religious and political elites as
perceived threats to the Christian faithful. . . . Crusading reflected a social
mentality grounded in war as a central force of protection, arbitration,
social discipline, political expression, and material gain.2

While this statement can to a limited degree be defended, it fails as
an expression of the role of religion in the history of the crusades
throughout our period. There is no denying that it had a foundation
in the events, aspirations, frustrations, and tragedies of the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, but it has assumed its modern shape chiefly in the
period since the eighteenth century.
The writings of Elizabeth Siberry have traced the development of
these images, showing that the most influential shapers of our views
of the crusades were writers like David Hume and Sir Walter Scott, the
one the severe critic, the other the creator of heroes.3 It is these
1
See David Abulafia, Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor (London, 1988), pp.164-201,
and Jean Richard, Saint Louis: Crusader King of France (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 85-152;
293-329.
2
Christopher Tyerman, God’s War: A New History of the Crusades (Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 2006), p. xiii.
3
Elizabeth Siberry, The New Crusaders: Images of the Crusade in the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries (Aldershot, 2000), pp. 1-2 and 112-132.

BY JAMES M. POWELL

253

images that are in contention today rather than the far different reality
of the thirteenth century. The crusades, like so many other aspects of
life, were part of a changing world, which I believe becomes more evident in our examination of two of the pivotal figures of the thirteenth
century. What emerges, I believe, is a mirror of a society not only different from our own but also more complex. Our vision of this world
is still quite distorted. I will try to provide some insight into the nature
of the problem through a study of these two crusaders, one at odds
with the Church, excommunicated, the other intensely loyal to the
faith, but perhaps not to the papacy.
Frederick’s commitment to the crusade became public on July 25,
1215, when he took the cross following his coronation as King of the
Romans. He was following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Frederick
Barbarossa, and his father Henry VI, as well as the example of his
Norman forebears. For he was Frederick Roger, scion of the Norman
line, grandson of King Roger II, founder of the Kingdom of Sicily,
whose family had conquered Muslim Sicily and laid tribute on Muslims
in North Africa. A fleet sent by King William II had come to the rescue
of Tyre besieged by the forces of Saladin shortly before the Third
Crusade. Frederick was twenty-one years old.4 Although some have
argued that he took the cross without the knowledge of the pope and
even lightly, papal representatives were present.5 There is no indication that he acted from any motives beyond those generally accepted
at this time.The fact that he enjoyed the support of Innocent III and
Philip Augustus of France reinforces this understanding. The only
cloud on the horizon came from the fact that his predecessor, the
Emperor Otto IV, whose Italian policies had led to his rejection by the
pope and who had already suffered a serious defeat at Bouvines in
1214, still had some support until his death in 1218. But Frederick
needed to conciliate the powerful German dukes and bishops, recognize the growing importance of the cities, and restore order in his
Kingdom of Sicily after a long period of internal turmoil.
In April, 1213, Pope Innocent III had announced that he was summoning a council that would take up church reform and the crusade.
There was no Western monarch, with the possible exception of King
4
James M. Powell, Anatomy of a Crusade, 1213-1221 (Philadelphia, 1986); Keith R.
Giles,“The Emperor Frederick II’s Crusade, 1215-1231” (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of
Keele, 1987); Thomas C. Van Cleve, “The Crusade of Frederick II,” in: Kenneth Setton,
History of the Crusades, 6 vols. (Madison,Wisconsin, 1969-1989), 2: 429-462.
5
Powell, Anatomy, p. 43.

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CHURCH AND CRUSADE

John of England, ready to lead a crusade.When, in November, 1215, the
Fourth Lateran Council promulgated a sweeping program of reform
and supported Innocent’s plan for the crusade, appending “Ad liberandam” to the conciliar decrees to provide detailed guidance regarding
the crusade, the plan was to depart in June, 1217.6 Since Frederick had
taken the crusade vow in July, 1215, there was ample time for the pope
to take that into consideration; yet there is no evidence that Innocent
dealt with his role in the crusade prior to his own death in early 1216.7
During the period following the council the pope was busy with
preparations, including letters to the Patriarch of Jerusalem and al-Adil,
the brother of Saladin and his successor as sultan. He had heard as early
as 1199 that it might be possible to obtain Jerusalem through negotiations, and he pursued this route in his letter.8 In fact, he did succeed in
arranging a truce to last until 1217. The absence of a letter to
Frederick is not really surprising under the circumstances. Innocent
was certainly aware of Frederick’s problems.We cannot read anything
specific into his failure to announce that Frederick was to lead the crusade. His was a very active mind, and he did not hesitate to explore various possibilities. Early in his pontificate he had shown a desire to
enter into direct negotiations with the Emperor Alexius III, by-passing
western crusade leaders of the Fourth Crusade, who were kept in the
dark.9 With Innocent’s death, however, his successor, Honorius III,
found himself confronted not merely with plans for the crusade but
also negotiations with Frederick on a wide range of subjects, from the
Matildine Lands, disputed between the empire and the papacy since
the early twelfth century, to the unresolved issue regarding the Sicilian
Kingship and the Imperial succession.What has usually been treated as
a rather simple issue of preparations for the crusade entailed a complex set of priorities facing the papacy and the empire.
The interpretation of the failure of the Fifth Crusade, blamed on
Frederick’s intransigence or on Cardinal Pelagius’s stubbornness, was
the product of oversimplification.The negotiations between Frederick
and Honorius III were extremely difficult. Among other troubles,
Frederick faced virtual civil war in the Kingdom of Sicily, led by pow-

6

Ibid., pp. 44-47.
James M. Powell, “Honorius III and the Leadership of the Crusade,” Catholic
Historical Review, 63 (1977), pp. 521-536.
8
Powell, Anatomy, p. 28.
9
James M. Powell, “Innocent III and Alexius III: A Crusade Plan that Failed,” in: The
Experience of Crusading, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 2003), 1: 96-102.
7

BY JAMES M. POWELL

255

erful northern nobles, who drew support from some elements in the
Roman Curia. Contemporaries, including the pope, were aware of this,
and both faced considerable pressure to reach settlements. Frederick’s
imperial coronation in 1220 signaled progress on one front, but not in
the Kingdom of Sicily. On the other hand, Cardinal Pelagius was only
partially responsible for the final bad decision that led to the defeat of
the crusaders in Egypt; he faced considerable pressure from the crusaders to move against Cairo and feared the break-up of the army. In
fact, it was the presence of reinforcements sent by Frederick and the
fear of widespread departures if no action were taken that put Pelagius
and the other leaders in such a difficult position. Defeat of the Fifth
Crusade was probably inevitable. Even if Frederick himself had arrived
with his forces, the Egyptian strategy of flooding the roads would have
led to the same conclusion. Ultimately, defeat was the result of trying
to fight too strong an enemy on its home ground with too few forces
under terrible conditions.
But the Fifth Crusade revealed some very important developments
in the Muslim world and in the Western reaction to it. On at least two
occasions, al-Kamil, who had succeeded his father, al-Adil, as sultan in
Egypt during the crusade, had offered truces which included the
return of the holy places in exchange for Damietta, the port city held
by the crusaders. Our chief source, Oliver Scholasticus, who opposed
this treaty, nevertheless seems to indicate that this offer received serious consideration.10 Moreover, we know that there were some negotiations, given the rather detailed understanding of the sultan’s offer on
the part of the crusaders.11 In fact, we know that the offer was taken
to both the pope and the emperor. Their rejection of a truce stemmed
directly from the failure of the sultan to include the return of the
fortresses in trans-Jordan that they regarded as essential to the defense
of Jerusalem.12 The important point is not the truce, but recognition
that the crusade was not a major issue with al-Kamil. What was far
more important was the internal struggle within his family for control
of the entire territories amassed by their uncle, Saladin.Western priorities were not shared in the East.
10
Oliverus Scholasticus, Die Schriften kölner Domscholasters, späteren Bischofs von
Paderborn und Kardinal-Bischofs von S. Sabina (Tübingen, 1894), Cap. 72.
11
There is no detailed record of these negotiations in Western sources. Arabic
sources were strongly influenced by the conflicts of the time. Historians have not been
as critical as they should have been.
12
Jonathan Riley-Smith, A History of the Crusades, Second Edition (New Haven,
2005), p. 179; Powell, Anatomy, p. 184.

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CHURCH AND CRUSADE

While the defeat of the crusade army was a bitter pill, it did not
cause Pope Honorius III to change the course he had been following.
Both he and the emperor continued to negotiate over the crusade.
Frederick devoted his efforts to restoring royal authority in the
Kingdom of Sicily. Negotiations over Frederick’s leadership of a crusade played directly into both ecclesiastical and dynastic interests in
this region.The agreement reached at San Germano, in the shadow of
Monte Cassino, called for Frederick’s marriage to Isabella of Brienne,
the heiress to the throne of Jerusalem, and guaranteed that he would
go on crusade in 1227. Honorius and Frederick maintained the cooperative effort begun under Innocent III, despite setbacks.There was
a mounting pressure on both, which is revealed in the terms of their
agreement, especially the provision that Frederick’s failure to go on
crusade would entail his automatic excommunication, but marriage to
Isabella provided a powerful motive for Frederick to go to the East.
While preparations for the crusade and efforts to pacify the
Kingdom of Sicily continued, in 1226 Frederick met with Fakhr ad-Din,
representing the sultan, al-Kamil.13 Although we have no clear record
of the negotiations, it is most likely that Al-Kamil was seeking
Frederick’s support against his brother, al-Mu’azzam, the ruler of
Damascus, who, in the view of Al-Kamil, posed a threat to his own rule
in Egypt as well as his ambitions in Syria.14 Al-Kamil probably offered
the same or similar truce with the return of Jerusalem that he had
made during the Fifth Crusade. David Abulafia has suggested that
Frederick’s willingness to negotiate “was less that of a traditional crusader, more that of the kings of Jerusalem themselves.”15 Since through
his recent marriage Frederick was king of Jerusalem, his attitude
should not surprise us. But his failure to depart for the East in 1227,
caused by an outbreak of fever in the port of Brindisi, triggered his
excommunication by Gregory IX.
13
Reported by Ibn Wasil in Francesco Gabrielli, Arab Historians of the Crusades
(Berkeley, 1969), pp. 267-268.
14
Gabrieli, Arab Historians, pp. 268-269. See also James M. Powell,“Frederick II and
the Muslims: The Making of an Historiographical Tradition,” in: Iberia & the
Mediterranean World of the Middle Ages, 2 vols. (Leiden, 1995), 1:261-269. Propaganda
played a critical role in this period. For example, the attitude of Patriarch Gerold to
Frederick’s treaty with al-Kamil was presented in an exaggerated manner in the letter
purportedly by Gerold copied by Matthew Paris. See my “Patriarch Gerold and Frederick
II: The Matthew Paris Letter,” Journal of Medieval History, 25 (1999), 19-26. I have
argued that this letter is a forgery.
15
Abulafia, Frederick, p. 171.

BY JAMES M. POWELL

257

The common assumption is that the crusade was the reason that
Gregory refused to accept Frederick’s reason for his failure to depart.
Emphasis has been put on Frederick, the excommunicated crusader,
but a thorough reading of events supports a somewhat different view.
While Gregory certainly acted under the terms of the agreement in
excommunicating the emperor, his concerns were as much on the situation of the Church in the Kingdom of Sicily as on the crusade.16 This
concern predated the Kingdom of Sicily. In part, it reached back to the
conflict with the Byzantine Patriarchs over jurisdiction of the churches
in Southern Italy and Sicily. Much of the dispute centered on the socalled apostolic legation granted by Pope Urban II to Count Roger of
Sicily, which had provided a basis favorable to the monarchy for relations between the Kingdom of Sicily and the Church. Even though
Frederick and Honorius had enjoyed a co-operative relationship, it
remained a source of concern to the Church.17 On his re-entry into the
kingdom in 1220, Frederick worked to settle disputes with churches
and monasteries. In many ways, however, conflict remained because of
his assertion of his rights based on the claims of his predecessors.18
Despite excommunication, Frederick determined to depart for the
East. A major factor was his desire to claim his role as king of
Jerusalem. Stopping in Cyprus en route, he intervened to assert his
right to be regent there. A strong party both on Cyprus and the mainland opposed him.19 When his wife died, they resisted his regency for
his son Conrad. Even though he regained Jerusalem by diplomacy, he
was dragged into the quagmire of politics in the Latin Kingdom of
Jerusalem.20 Gregory IX, moved in part by the disputes over the
Church in the kingdom but also influenced by rebellious northern
barons like the Count of Molise, invaded the Kingdom of Sicily.21
Frederick found himself unpopular in the East and besieged in the
West. He had no choice but to return and attempt to settle affairs in his
kingdom. But it is important at this point to recognize that his conflict
16

Giles,“The Emperor Frederick,” p. 57.
James M. Powell, “The Papacy and the Muslim Frontier,” in: Muslims under Latin
Rule, ed. James M. Powell (Princeton, 1990), pp. 175-204, esp. 183-185.
18
Donald Matthews, The Norman Kingdom of Sicily (Cambridge, 1992), p. 327, provides a list of complaints.
19
Philip de Novare, The Wars of Frederick II against the Ibelins in Syria and Cyprus
(New York, 1936), pp. 72-92.
20
Ibid., pp. 92-95, which contains a good example of the problems faced by any
Western ruler in the East.
21
Abulafia, Frederick, p. 200, scarcely mentioned the problems of the Church.
17

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CHURCH AND CRUSADE

with the papacy was no longer over his crusade. Despite the barrage
of propaganda letters on this topic, his diplomatic fait accompli was
accepted, and Jerusalem remained for a time in Christian hands.
Strangely, the diplomacy that has aroused the most discussion among
scholars was not really the central concern of the papacy nor of future
crusaders.22 The long-term implication of Frederick’s crusade was not
the fact that he negotiated the return of holy places rather than leading a conquering army. Rather, it reflected a shift in crusading away
from the leadership of the papacy and toward royal control. Pope
Gregory IX did try to regain some initiative. In 1234, he approached
Theobald IV of Champagne, King of Navarre, to lead a new crusade.
Theobald led his forces to Acre, unsuccessfully besieged Tripoli, and
recognizing his weakness, entered into negotiation with the ruler of
Damascus, who promised to return Jerusalem and other cities in
return for an alliance against the sultan of Egypt. Theobald used this
leverage to regain Jerusalem, which Damascus had failed to hand over,
from the Egyptians. He then left for home in September, 1240. He had
been in the Holy Land for almost exactly one year. When Richard of
Cornwall, brother of King Henry III, arrived with a substantial army a
month later, he was able to support the royal officials and force the
local barons to accept the treaty with Egypt. Richard stayed only about
seven months before he returned to the West. Jerusalem was lost definitively to Kwarismian mercenaries in the employ of Egypt in 1244. Its
loss was due chiefly to the lack of sustained Western support.
Negotiation was successful when it was backed by sufficient military
force. After Gregory’s death, the cardinals elected Celestine IV, who
survived only seventeen days. For the next twenty months there was
no pope.
Pope Innocent IV, a Genoese, who was elected in 1243, directed
most of his attention to Italy. But there was still strong popular support
for a new crusade. Innocent gave some heed to it at the council of
Lyons in 1245, but his main concern was Frederick II’s Italian policy,
which aimed at restoring imperial rule and punishing his opposition.23
At first, the emperor looked to the new pope to deal more sympathetically with his cause. There seemed to be reason for optimism.
Negotiations resulted in a tentative agreement that was to be concluded by a joint meeting in Narni. But Innocent did not come. Instead,
22

Matthews, Norman Kingdom, pp. 333-334.
Jean Richard, Histoire des Croisades (Paris, 1996), p. 347; Hans Wolter and H.
Holstein, Lyon I et Lyon II (Paris, 1966), pp. 95-98.
23

BY JAMES M. POWELL

259

he traveled to Genoa and, after a stay of three months while he recovered from an illness, he journeyed northward to the imperial city of
Lyons, to which he summoned a council.24 Louis IX, a long-time ally
and supporter of Frederick, had worked for years to mediate between
the emperor and the pope. His personal commitment to the crusade
exercised a strong influence on his effort. He had taken the crusade
vow in the previous December. He had not sought papal approval. He
did not allow Innocent to enter his kingdom. He continued to support
negotiations. At Lyons, Innocent preached on the crusade, most probably to placate Louis.25 Frederick made clear his willingness to lead a
crusade. Innocent rejected the offer. Clearly, Louis was determined to
act independently of the pope. Innocent was obviously aware of this
problem, and that may have triggered the decision of the council to
enact a crusade tax. Lyons was a very important effort by the papacy
to reclaim its weakened position of leadership. The pope chose to
emphasize Italy rather than the crusade. Louis IX disagreed with the
pope and the council regarding the deposition of Frederick, but he limited his role to his support of the crusade. I suggest that this background needs to be considered in our effort to understand his crusade.
William Jordan has provided us with a detailed discussion of Louis
IX’s preparation for his crusade.26 What is most striking is the degree
to which he addressed the shortcomings of previous crusades, especially the Fifth Crusade. It seems apparent that he took advice from
24
Peter Herde, “Literary Activities of the Imperial and Papal Chanceries during the
Struggle between Frederick II and the Papacy,” in: Intellectual Life at the Court of
Frederick II Hohenstaufen. Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts. Symposium
Papers, XXIV (Washington, D.C., 1994), pp. 227-239. Professor Herde raises important
questions regarding the letters employed in the papal-imperial disputes, especially under
Innocent IV. He questions the way in which historians have used these letters, particularly since some may not have circulated, at least not in the form often cited. Even genuine letters may have fed propaganda or may reflect propaganda drawn from other
sources. See Powell,“Frederick II and the Muslims,” pp. 261-262, regarding “Ascendit de
mari bestia. . . .”
25
Richard, Histoire, p. 347, says only:“L’intervention de Louis IX fut inutile.” See also
his Saint Louis, pp.103-104;William Chester Jordan, Louis IX and the Challenge of the
Crusade (Princeton, 1979), pp. 25-30. A problem that has affected virtually all efforts to
understand the conflicts between the papacy and the empire has been the tendency to
place blame on one side or another. In this case, that has resulted in a failure to assess
the underlying factors in the conflicts adequately and to stress the role of individuals
over the issues that motivated them. In each case, they were bound by precedents which
were so powerful that it was virtually impossible for them to move beyond them.
Assessment of blame does little to explain the causes of conflict.
26
Jordan, Louis IX, pp. 65-104.

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knowledgeable sources, most probably from John of Joinville, Marshall
of Champagne, and men of that sort. For one thing, he secured control
of finances, including moneys from ecclesiastical sources, a major
departure from the Fifth Crusade, during which Pelagius had controlled these funds. As we have noted, the Council of Lyons had voted
a twentieth of ecclesiastical revenues for three years. The French
church, which was virtually the only source for funding, provided
almost one million livres tournois. Louis also raised funds from other
sources including a campaign against usury, which resulted in virtual
extortion of funds from the Jews. As a result almost no money from
the royal treasury went to the crusade. He lent or gave large sums in
support of those who were going with him. He built a new sea port in
the south at Aigues Mortes. He stored supplies there and sent them
ahead to Cyprus. He probably forced some of the nobles to accompany
him because they had participated in rebellion against him. He was
totally in charge.
On August 25, 1248, Louis, with about 2500 knights, embarked from
Aigues Mortes for Cyprus. He made the trip in a bit more than three
weeks. But, following his arrival, he was in no hurry to move on to
Egypt, which once again was chosen as the goal of the crusade. He
spent the next eight months in further preparations. He collected additional troops from the East, no mean feat considering that the Latin
Emperor of Constantinople, Baldwin II, had been touring Europe seeking money and military support. Indeed, Louis had contributed generously to him as well as to the crusade of Theobald of Champagne. On
June 4 he arrived off Damietta, thus replaying the Fifth Crusade. The
crusaders quickly captured Damietta and began an advance southward
along the Nile toward Mansurah, which was now the main headquarters of the Egyptian forces. Just as Mansurah had proven to be the turning point in the Fifth Crusade, it once again proved an obstacle to the
crusaders. Defeated and forced to retreat, the army had to surrender.
Louis and many of his nobles were either killed or captured.27 The
result was one of the worst debacles in the history of the crusades, perhaps as bad as the loss of Jerusalem to Saladin. The importance of this
defeat cannot be overestimated. Though contemporaries continued
to plan and even mount some expeditions, the reality was that the
attention of Europe and the papacy had turned inward.
27
John of Joinville, The Life of St. Louis (New York, 1955), pp. 104 and 443, presents
two unusual stories in which Frederick is credited with supporting John himself and
later the king.

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261

Europe was becoming the main theater of the crusade, which played
out in Italy and on other fronts, against those labeled enemies of the
Church. The papacy and its supporters were obsessed with this idea of
crusade. Their main concerns were internal.They perceived a growing
threat from heresy, but even more from rising secular powers. Although
the application of the crusade to political problems and heresy was not
new, it now developed on a scale that dominated all other issues. Even
the death of the Emperor Frederick II brought no respite in Italy. First
his son Manfred, with strong ties in northwestern Italy and in the
Kingdom of Sicily, mounted a strong resistance.Then, Frederick’s heir,
Conrad III, took to the field. The successors of Innocent IV shopped
for surrogates to rule in Sicily as supporters of the papacy. The introduction of Charles of Anjou into Italian affairs made it clear that the
position of the papacy had shifted from the effort to defeat imperial
forces and their Italian allies to one of reliance on France. Through
much of this period and in spite of the involvement of his brother, Louis
IX concentrated on the recovery of his kingdom. Neither Charles nor
the papacy received much in the way of support from the crusader
king, who continued to hold to his own commitment to the crusade.28
While Henry III of England took the cross in 1250, it was his son,
Edward I who would fulfill that vow. But these “crusades” could not
escape from the shadow of papal-sanctioned crusades in Europe. The
death of Louis IX at Tunis in 1270 of an illness and the virtual collapse
of crusade plans reminded Westerners of the failure of his first crusade.
After Louis’s death, Edward I led a small force to the Holy Land. He managed to secure a truce for ten years.
In the meantime, the cardinals elected Tedaldo Visconti as Pope
Gregory X, two and a half years after the death of Clement IV. The
story of Gregory X is the story of a man who was dedicated to the
crusade. He had taken the cross and journeyed to the Holy Land in
1270 ahead of the crusaders. It was then that he was elected pope.
Gregory was well aware that many had grown disenchanted with the
crusade. He commissioned a number of well-known figures to investigate and report on the situation. Benjamin Kedar has provided an
insightful discussion of these reports, especially those by William of
Tripoli and Humbert of Romans, in Crusade and Mission.29 There
28

Richard, Saint Louis, pp. 308-313.
Benjamin Z. Kedar, Crusade and Mission: European Approaches toward the
Muslims (Princeton, 1984), pp. 180-187; Edward Tracy Brett, Humbert of Romans: His
Life and Views of Thirteenth Century Society (Toronto, 1984), pp. 176-194.
29

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was no broad consensus regarding the approach to be taken.William
of Tripoli took the stance that all effort should be put into missionary activities; Humbert systematically rebuffed every criticism of the
crusade and advocated a grand plan. It was this view that was taken
up by Gregory X at the Second Council of Lyons in 1274. His conciliar decree, entitled Constitutiones pro zelo fidei, an agonized appeal
to the Christian community to free the Holy Land and a reproach for
their failure, put words in the mouths of the “blasphemous and faithless Saracens . . . who insult the Christians with many reproaches:
Where is the God of the Christians?”30 These statements were clearly
aimed at arousing Christian feelings. What is perhaps of greater
import than the rhetoric, however, is the intensification of the measures promulgated in the decree. Gregory increased the levies and
took a tougher stance on collection of taxes from the clergy. He also
sought financial support from secular rulers. Although some believe
that had Gregory lived, his great crusade would have come to be, we
must also recognize that it was only with great difficulty that he had
succeeded in enlisting secular support. His death, in 1276, brought an
effective end to his plans. From our historical perspective the effort
of Gregory X marks the end of papal leadership of the crusading
movement to the East.
Moreover, the situation in the East had changed when the Mamluks,
the bodyguard of the sultan, seized power in Egypt. Under Baybars and
his successors, city after city fell, Antioch (1268) and Tripoli (1289),
then, in 1291, Acre.31 The last foothold of the Latins on the mainland
was lost.Still,Western interest in the crusade and in the East did not suddenly die. What did change, though not so much in men’s minds as in
political realities, was the relationship between East and West. In the
West, the position of the Church at the end of the thirteenth century
may be characterized as desperate.The conflict between Boniface VIII
and Philip IV, the Avignonese papacy, the Black Death, and its continuing visitations, and, over all, the Hundred Years’War overshadowed the
papacy’s efforts to revive the crusade. Such initiatives as there were
passed elsewhere, to the Hospitallers at Rhodes, the Venetians in
30
Norman Housley, Documents on the Later Crusades, 1274-1580 (New York, 1996),
p. 16; Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta, third edition (Bologna, 1973), pp. 309314. Gregory’s constitution was the most sweeping papal document regarding the crusade since “Ad liberandam” in 1215.
31
Erwin Stickel, Der Fall von Akkon: Untersuchungen zum Abklingen des
Kreuzzugsgedanken am Ende des 13. Jahrhunderts (Bern, 1975), pp. 68-95; Gabrieli,
Arab Historians, pp. 341-350.

BY JAMES M. POWELL

263

Greece, and the kings of Cyprus.32 After the pontificate of John XXII,
there were crusade proposals galore, but actual expeditions were
directed chiefly at defending western holdings in the East against
Turkish pirates. In the East, a new power was emerging with the rise of
the Ottoman Turks, named for their founder, Osman. They expanded
their hold on Asia Minor and moved into southeastern Europe already
in the fourteenth century. At Nicopolis in 1396, Murad II defeated a
great crusading army. The nature of crusade had changed completely.
Although religious rhetoric continued to form an ideological cocoon,
the political reality was that Europe was confronted by its first modern
war. The Ottoman State had moved beyond the limits of Asia, sealing its
European status by the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. From this
point on, the idea of crusade was entirely bound up in the defensive
struggle of Europeans against the threat posed by the Ottoman Empire.
With the collapse of papal leadership of the crusade to the East, we
are entering the age of myth-making. One of the chief elements in this
process has been the idea that the crusades were holy wars. Like many
myths, this one has some factual basis behind it. The term itself, from
the Latin bellum sacrum, holy war, was contemporary.33 But these
words do not adequately describe the reality of the crusades or of the
society that produced them. Like so many generalizations, they certainly ring true for some crusades, but even then we must recognize
that these crusades reflected only a portion of the society and limited
periods. The use of the term “holy war” as a stick to beat on the crusade distorts historical reality. Another and rather different myth
views the crusades as a clash of civilizations. This is a revival of the socalled “Eastern Question,” a view popular in the last century. Applied
to the crusades, it obscures much more than it enlightens. In effect it
presents an almost purely Western view that does not take sufficient
account of internal developments in Muslim lands.What I have tried to
do in this talk is demonstrate that there is little connection between
modern ideas of crusade whether in Western or Muslim minds and
what was actually happening in the thirteenth century, but at the same

32
Peter Edbury, The Kingdom of Cyprus and the Crusades, 1191-1374 (Cambridge,
1991), pp. 101-179.
33
The use of the term “holy war” has become conventional. In my view, this usage
should be employed in a more precise sense to refer to cases in which not only was
there papal authorization but also considerable evidence of religious motivation. The
latter was less evident in the later period and papal authorization was, in my view, more
pro forma.

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CHURCH AND CRUSADE

time to show that we can learn a great deal from the transformation of
the crusade under Frederick II and Louis IX. Rather than contrasting
them, we need to see them as exemplars of the way in which different
approaches were reflecting the emerging realities of their time. Part of
that reality resulted from changes taking place in Europe itself; part
from changes occurring in Muslim societies. These resulted in a
diminished influence of the papacy on the crusade to the Holy Land,
especially as the rise of the Ottoman Empire altered the relationship
between East and West. Increased emphasis on crusades in Europe
gradually reinforced an ideological basis for internal conflicts. Norman
Housley and others have traced that development in considerable
detail.34 One of its results was a deepening of factionalism in Italy and
in various parts of Europe. In spite of many sincere efforts, the position
of the papacy was increasingly defensive. But the decline in the role of
the papacy did not mean a decline in the role of religious rhetoric in
the crusade. Even though traditional interpretations have continued to
link the papacy to the crusade, it seems clear to me that there was a
very substantial change in the way in which religion was employed. It
was moving toward a more exclusively propaganda role. Religion was
more and more serving the interests of secular rulers. As this role
developed, we are moving closer to the linkage between religion and
nationalism. Unfortunately, the image of an excommunicated Frederick
and the picture of Louis IX as a crusader saint have overshadowed the
major changes we have tried to present here. Hopefully, this essay is
suggestive. We do not have to agree to recognize the complexity of a
movement that probably tells us much more about ourselves than
about any clash of civilizations.35

34
Norman Housley, The Later Crusades, 1274-1580: From Lyons to Alcazar
(Cambridge, 1992).
35
Aziz S. Atiya, Crusade, Commerce, & Culture (Bloomington, Indiana, 1957), pp. 140, deals with the Eastern Question. His remarks are well worth reading.

THE RECEPTION OF UNIGENITUS IN THE FACULTY
OF THEOLOGY AT LOUVAIN, 1713-1719
BY

TOON QUAGHEBEUR*

This article focuses on the years immediately following the introduction of the bull Unigenitus (1713), which condemned 101 propositions extracted from Quesnel’s Réflexions morales. At that time,
ultramontanist principles were gaining more and more strength at
the Theology Faculty of Louvain. On 8 July 1715, the Faculty
accepted and submitted itself to Unigenitus for the first time. The
Faculty again accepted the bull in 1718 and 1719. The origins of
these declarations of obedience to the Holy See are the focus of study
here. The research presented highlights the intricacies and the high
public profile of academic and ecclesiastical politics in the confessional age.
In the sixteenth century, the University of Louvain was well known
all over Catholic Europe. It was one of the leading centers of learning
*Dr. Quaghebeur is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Research Centre for Early
Modern History at the K.U. Leuven and a Lector at KaHo Sint-Lieven, Ghent, Belgium.
List of abbreviations: AAM=Aartsbisschoppelijk Archief Mechlin; ACDF, S.O., St.
St.=Archivio della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede o dell’ Sant’Uffizio, Sanctum
Officium, Stanza Storica; ARB=Algemeen Rijksarchief Brussel; ASV=Archivio Segreto
Vaticano; BCJ=Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, 11 volumes plus Supplements
(Brussels, 1890-1990); BETL=Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium
(Louvain, 1948-); BIHBR=Bulletin de l’Institut historique belge de Rome (Rome, 1919-);
BJB=Bibliotheca janseniana Belgica, 3 volumes (Brussels-Paris-Namur, 1949-1951);
BN=Biographie nationale de Belgique (Brussels, 1866-); DBF=Dictionnaire de biographie française (Paris, 1923-) CHR=Catholic Historical Review (Washington, 1915-);
DBI=Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (Rome, 1960-); DHGE=Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (Paris, 1912-); DTC=Dictionnaire de théologie
catholique, 15 volumes plus 3 of Tables générales (Paris, 1903-72); ECT=Encyclopedia of
Christian Theology, 3 volumes (New York, 2005); ETL=Ephemerides Theologicae
Lovanienses (Louvain, 1924-); IR=Innes Review (Glasgow, 1950-); KB=Koninklijke
Bibliotheek van België; NBW=Nationaal Biografisch Woordenboek, 12 volumes
(Brussels, 1964-87); NDB=Neue Deutsche Biographie (Berlin, 1953-); NF=Nunziatura di
Fiandra; ODNB=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford-New York, 2004);
UL=Oude Universiteit Leuven; PIBA=Prosopographia Iesuitica Belgica Antiqua. A
Biographical Dictionary of the Jesuits in the Low Countries 1542-1773, 4 volumes
(Louvain, 2000); RHE=Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique (Louvain, 1900-); RL=Rijksarchief
Leuven; TS=Theological Studies (Woodstock, 1940-); UL=Universiteitsarchief Leuven.

265

266

THE RECEPTION OF UNIGENITUS

both in Northern Europe and in the Habsburg domains and was
proudly orthodox and proudly modern.1 In 1519—more than half a
year before the Holy See reached any doctrinal decisions on
Lutheranism—Louvain theologians condemned some of Luther’s articles. In 1544, at the request of the Habsburg emperor, Charles V, the
Theology Faculty of Louvain drew up a summary of Catholic doctrine
in its thirty-two Articuli orthodoxam religionem sanctamque fidem
nostram respicientes (Louvain, 1545), which the Emperor then
imposed on his States as an expression of orthodox faith. Articles 22,
23, and 24 stressed papal primacy, which had to be obeyed in matters
of faith and religion. The Catholic Church and the cathedra Petri
could not err on these points.The fathers at the Council of Trent also
repeatedly made use of this list. In 1546, a Louvain index of forbidden
books appeared. It was not until thirteen years later that Paul IV promulgated the first Roman index.2 In 1547, the Louvain theologians were
responsible for the first official Catholic edition of the Latin Bible.3
New and corrected editions formed the basis of the official Roman edition of the Bible, which did not appear until 1592. At the end of the
sixteenth century, the Faculty, in its Justificatio (1588) of the Lessiuscensure (1587), proclaimed the Holy See to be the teacher of the entire
Church in matters of faith and religion, and the primary authority to be
obeyed.4 As a result of the Faculty of Theology taking on so many ini1
William Doyle, Jansenism. Catholic Resistance to Authority from the Reformation
to the French Revolution (New York, 2000), p. 9.
2
For the Louvain Index and the Index of the Council of Trent, see Albert Heymans,
De ecclesiastica librorum aliorumque scriptorum in Belgio prohibitione disquisitio
(Brussels, 1849), pp. 231-243; F.Willocx, L’introduction des décrets du concile de Trente
dans les Pays-Bas et dans la principauté de Liège (Louvain, 1929), pp. 138-148; and
Jesús Martínez De Bujanda, Index des livres interdits, vols. 2 and 7 (Sherbrooke-Québec,
1986 and 1988).
3
Biblia ad vetustissima exemplaria nunc recens castigata (Louvain, 1547).
4
In 1587, the Faculty censured the doctrine of Louvain Jesuits Leonardus Lessius and
Johannes Hamelius, which was said to be Semi-Pelagian. Lessius (1554-1623) taught philosophy at Douai (1574-1581) and afterwards studied at Rome for five years, where one
of his professors was Roberto Bellarmino (1542-1610). From 1585 until 1600, Lessius
taught a course of scholastic theology at the Jesuits’ house of studies in Louvain. See
PIBA, vol. 2, p. 68. Hamelius (1554-1589) was a fellow student of Lessius in Rome. Both
returned to the Low Countries in 1585 and taught a similar course at the Louvain Jesuit
College, see PIBA, vol. 1, pp. 417-418. On August 17, 1588, the Faculty published a justification of its censure of Lessius, the Justificatio censurae of Antapologia. The Faculty
ended the praefatio by submitting itself in the material discussed to the judgment of the
Holy See, see Justificatio seu Defensio Censurae Facultatis S. Theologiae Academiae
Lovaniensis contra assertiones quasdam professorum ibidem Societatis Nominis Jesu
de Scriptura Sacra, praedestinatione et gratia Christi, Jussu Reverendissimorum et

BY TOON QUAGHEBEUR

267

tiatives, the University of Louvain appeared in the international spotlight and obtained the reputation of a bastion of Catholic orthodoxy.5
Notwithstanding this sixteenth-century legacy, from 1640 onwards,
internal polemics fully absorbed the energies of the Louvain theologians. Outside interests increased dissension within the Faculty; more
specifically, two factions pitted Augustinianism and Thomism against
each other. In its contribution to Catholic renewal, the Faculty developed its own appropriation of the depositum fidei and the question of
authority in the Church, which was in line with Cornelius Jansenius’
Augustinus (1640). Jansenius was a professor of Holy Scripture and
went on to be a bishop of Ypres. For many years, the University of
Louvain, and especially its Theology Faculty, was considered to be a
center of Jansenist ideas.What was called “Jansenism” was nothing more
than the prolongation of the sixteenth-century Louvain quarrel between
the University’s theology and the doctrine of the Jesuits (who continually sought to establish themselves within the University), concerning
the topic of grace, free will, and predestination.6 Successive popes had
tried to impose a silence on the matter instead of offering a real theological solution. After several condemnations by the magisterium in the
bulls In eminenti (1642), Cum occasione (1653), Ad sacram (1656),
Vineam Domini Sabaoth (1705), and Unigenitus (1713), “Jansenism”
was authoritatively defined as a spiritual and theological movement of
dissidents proclaiming an Augustinian fundamentalism and reacting
against the living authority in the post-Tridentine Catholic Church.In the
southern Low Countries, many important and influential figures in the
academic, ecclesiastical, and secular world were labelled Jansenists.7

Illustrissimorum Belgii episcoporum, anno 1588 (Paris [Louvain], 1641), pp. 14-15, and
Fernand Claeys Bouuaert, “Les origines de la controverse théologique dite De Auxiliis
Divinae Gratiae (1587-1588),” ETL 41 (1965), 548-560. The Lessius-censure was never
upheld or suspended by the Holy See.
5
Jan Roegiers, “Louvain et Rome: six siècles d’histoire,” in: idem and Ignace Vandevivere, eds., Louvain/Louvain-la-Neuve. Aller Retour (Louvain, 2001), pp. 65-76.
6
Doyle, Jansenism, pp. 9-12, 21-22.
7
On Jansenism at Louvain University and in the Low Countries, see: Fernand Claeys
Bouuaert, L’ancienne Université de Louvain. Etudes et documents (Louvain, 1956), pp.
155-179; Mathijs Lamberigts,“Il giansenismo nei Paesi Bassi meridionali nel XVII secolo,”
in: Luciano Vaccaro, ed., Storia religiosa di Belgio, Olanda e Lussemburgo, vol. 1 (Milan,
2000), pp. 281-314; Jan Roegiers,“Le jansénisme de Louvain à la fin du XVIIe siècle,” in:
Guido Cooman, Maurice Van Stiphout, and Bart Wauters, eds., Zeger-Bernard Van Espen
at the Crossroads of Canon Law, History, Theology and Church-State Relations [BETL,
170], (Louvain, 2003), pp. 1-17.

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THE RECEPTION OF UNIGENITUS

Unigenitus and the Southern Low Countries
The content of Unigenitus and its reception in the southern Low
Countries caused serious problems.8 The bull appeared at a time when
both the political and ecclesiastical authorities in the southern Low
Countries were unstable.
Unigenitus in Brief 9
The bull was of French origin that, at first sight, had nothing to do
with Louvain and the Southern Netherlands. In 1672, the French
Oratorian Pasquier Quesnel edited his L’Abrégé de la Morale de
l’Evangile. This work was a collection of devout contemplations on
the Gospel and found wide approval in all French-speaking countries.10 In 1685, he joined Antoine Arnauld, a Jansenist and Sorbonne
doctor, at his retreat in Brussels, where they devoted themselves to
organizing the Jansenist party.11 Many new additions to Quesnel’s
work lengthened it considerably so that the author republished it in
1692 under a different name: Le Nouveau Testament en français avec
des Réflexions Morales sur chaque verset. Both in France as well as in
the southern Low Countries protests arose against Quesnel, who came
to be considered the undisputed leader of the Jansenists when Arnauld
died in 1694.12 The archbishop of Mechlin, Humbert Guillaume
8
See Lucien Ceyssens,“ La publication de la bulle Unigenitus en Belgique, ”in: Lucien
Ceyssens, Le sort de la bulle Unigenitus. Recueil d’études offert à Lucien Ceyssens à
l’occasion de son 90e anniversaire (Louvain, 1992), pp. 541-566.
9
On Unigenitus, see: David Hudson,“The Nouvelles Ecclésiastiques, Jansenism, and
Conciliarism, 1717-1735,”CHR 70 (1984), 389-406; James F. McMillan,“Jansenists and AntiJansenists in Eighteenth Century Scotland: The Unigenitus Quarrels on the Catholic
Mission 1732-1746,” IR 39 (1988), 12-45; Jacques M. Gres-Gayer, “The Unigenitus of
Clement XI: A Fresh Look at the Issues,” TS 49 (1988), 259-282; and idem, Théologie et
pouvoir en Sorbonne. La Faculté de Théologie de Paris et la bulle Unigenitus, 17141721 (Paris, 1991).
10
On Quesnel (1634-1719), see Louis J. Cognet and J.M. Gres-Gayer,“Quesnel, Pasquier
(Paschase),” in NCE, vol. 11 (New York-London, 2003), pp. 861-862.
11
For an overview of the years that Quesnel spent in the Netherlands,see Joseph A.G.
Tans, Pasquier Quesnel et les Pays-Bas (Groningen-Paris, 1960); Lucien Ceyssens,
“Quesnel à Brussels (1685-1703), ” Augustiniana 44 (1994), 137-176.
12
On Antoine Arnauld (1612-1694), doctor of the Sorbonne in 1641, theologian,
philosopher, and polemist: Jean Carreyre, “Arnauld, Antoine,” in: DHGE, vol. 4 (Paris,
1930), cols. 447-484. John Q.C. Mackrell and Jacques M. Gres-Gayer, “Arnauld,” in: NCE,
vol. 1 (New York-London, 2003), pp. 714-717.The years of his exile have been studied by
E. Jacques, Les années d’exil d’Antoine Arnauld (1679-1694) [Bibliothèque de la Revue
d’histoire ecclésiastique, 63] (Louvain, 1976).

BY TOON QUAGHEBEUR

269

Precipiano, managed to confiscate Quesnel’s papers and correspondence in 1703. He condemned Quesnel’s book on 10 November 1704
and prohibited its publication and reading in his archdiocese.13
Four years later, the cardinals of the Holy Office forbade the book
through a special brief and stressed that it contained false doctrine.14
The Roman ban on the reading of Réflexions morales was not sufficient in the eyes of the French anti-Jansenists. Madame de Maintenon
and the Jesuits urged Louis XIV to intervene.15 On November 11, 1711,
the French King suspended the licence to print the book. Five days
later, the ambassador in Rome asked for a papal condemnation of the
book on the King’s behalf. At that very moment, Clement XI resided
at Castel Gandolfo and was attended by the young chamberlain
d’Alsace, who later became the archbishop of Mechlin.The Pope asked
his chamberlain for advice. D’Alsace, who had received his doctoral
degree after four years of theology at the Jesuits’ Collegio Romano in
Rome,16 advised Clement XI to renew only the ban of 1708 on reading
of the book and, certainly, not to draw up a constitution, which could
have enormous consequences.17
Clement XI ordered the Holy Office to examine the book. In 1712,
the Augustinian Lambert Ledrou, a member of the Strict Faculty of
Louvain who resided at Rome, was one of the consultors on the com13
On Precipiano (1627-1711), archbishop in 1690, see: Charles De Clercq, Cinq
archevêques de Malines, vol.1: 1689-1759. Humbert-Guillaume de Precipiano,
Thomas-Philippe d’Alsace et la liquidation du jansénisme (Paris, 1974); and Lucien
Ceyssens,“Thyrse Gonzalez, général des Jésuites, et Humbert de Precipiano, archevêque
de Mechlin. Correspondances,” in: BIHBR 65 (1995), 89-119. On the condemnation by
Precipiano, see Causa Quesnelliana sive Motivum juris pro procuratore curiae ecclesiasticae Mechliniensis, actore, contra P. Paschasium Quesnel, citatum fugitivum
(Brussels, 1704), pp. 513-514.
14
Rome, ACDF, Decreta S.O., 1708, fol. 214: July 13, 1708. The cardinals considered
Quesnel a young Oratorian, professor at the seminary of the archbishop and cardinal
Louis Antoine de Noailles. De Noailles (1651-1729) was successively bishop of Cahors
(1679) and Châlons (1681). In 1695 he became archbishop of Paris. In June 1700 he was
named cardinal, see Lucien Ceyssens and Joseph A.G. Tans, Autour de l’Unigenitus.
Recherches sur la genèse de la constitution (Louvain, 1987), pp. 649-733. Donald R.
Campbell and Jacques M. Gres-Gayer,“Noailles, Louis Antoine de,” in: NCE, vol.10 (New
York–London, 2003), pp. 405-406.
15
On Madame de Maintenon, see: Lucien Ceyssens, “Madame de Maintenon (16351719),” in: Ceyssens, Le sort de la bulle Unigenitus, pp. 47-100.
16
Lucien Ceyssens, “Le cardinal d’Alsace (1679-1759),” in: Le sort de la bulle
Unigenitus, pp. 572-573.
17
Ibid., pp. 581-583.

270

THE RECEPTION OF UNIGENITUS

mittee of five cardinals and nine theologians who examined 155 of
Quesnel’s propositions.18 The members of the Strict Faculty, the
regents, made arrangements for curriculum, drew up the decisions
taken by the Faculty, and controlled the finances of the Faculty. The
other doctors of the Faculty who taught courses formed the Large
Faculty. Regent Ledrou, who participated in the discussions from June
6 to August 30, 1712, was remarkably more lenient in his judgment
than the others, but gave a negative opinion on sixteen propositions,
all of which were included in the bull of condemnation.19
On September 8, 1713, Unigenitus condemned 101 propositions
taken from the Réflexions morales. As a dogmatic bull the document
was directed not only to France but to the universal Church. Besides
the so-called Jansenist doctrine on grace and the alleged rigorist moral
theology, the disciplinary propositions of Quesnel and the Gallican
view on the Church were also censured.20 The bull condemned, without naming names, the Jansenists who opposed the general obligation
to swear the anti-Jansenist formulary prescribed since the bull
Regiminis Apostolici (1665).21 These “Jansensists” considered themselves to be in harmony with the Church, defenders of the truth, and

18
From 1689 until 1714 the Augustinian Ledrou (1641-1721) was a member of the
Strict Faculty. Retaining his place on the board, he resided in Rome between 1692 and
1712, see G. Moisse,“Pierre Ledrou,” in: BN, vol. 37 (Brussels, 1971-1972), cols. 499-522.
19
G. Moisse,“Pierre Ledrou,” cols. 505-506. Namely, the propositions: 5-7, 10, 28, 29, 31,
34, 35, 37-39, 41, 42, 52. In November 1712 Ledrou settled definitively in Liège. After that
the Pope gave the position of sacristy master to Augustine Nicolas Abbati Olivieri and
Ledrou was nominated vicar-general in Liège. Ledrou became a fervent adherent of
Unigenitus, on which he himself had collaborated, see Lucien Ceyssens,“L’Unigenitus à
Rome (1712-1713). Les jugements théologiques portés sur les 155 propositions de
Quesnel dénoncées au Saint-Office,” Lias 8 (1981), 3-77, 269-306.
20
Rigorism is the moral system according to which, in every doubt of conscience as
to the morality of a particular course of conduct, the opinion of law must be followed.
The view was defended by the Irish theologian John Sinnich, who taught at Louvain, see
Francis J. Connell, “Rigorism,” in: NCE, vol. 12 (New York-London, 2003), p. 246. For
Sinnich (1603-1666), see Paul Arblaster, “Sinnich, John,” in: ODNB (Oxford, 2004). On
Gallicanism, see Jacques M. Gres-Gayer,“Gallicanism,” in: ECT (New York-London, 2005),
pp. 603-606.
21
The formulary claimed that the Church had the ability to rule on the material presence in the Augustinus of the five propositions condemned in Cum occasione and on
their meaning as intended by the author. For the reception of the anti-Jansenist formulary in the southern Low Countries, see Lucien Ceyssens,“L’introduction du formulaire
antijanséniste en Belgique. Premier essai (1692-1694),” in: idem, Jansenistica, vol. 4
(Mechlin, 1962); idem, “La seconde introduction du formulaire malinois en Belgique
(1697),” Augustiniana 46 (1996), 229-257.

BY TOON QUAGHEBEUR

271

persecuted by church leaders who, blinded by passion, refused to
conduct serious investigations before acting forcefully.22
The Crisis of Unigenitus
Unigenitus was an unfortunate and unrealistic document.23 The
authors of Unigenitus took on too much. Regarding the 101 propositions they first tried to bracket together all possible and imaginary
heresies on dogmatic, moral-theological, ecclesiological, and pastoraltheological levels. They claimed and condemned these to be a summary of Jansenist teaching. Unigenitus aimed at a comprehensive condemnation of Jansenism in an attempt to define the heretical beliefs of
Jansenists. The bull listed all the propositions and bracketed them
together in globo as “false, fallacious, offensive, injurious to pious ears,
scandalous, pernicious, rash, damaging to the Church and her customs,
outrageous not just to her but to secular powers, seditious, impious,
blasphemous, under suspicion of heresy, reeking of heresy, favorable to
heretics, heresies and schism, erroneous, close to heresy.”The fact that
Unigenitus condemned 101 propositions in globo with more than
twenty different qualifications made it extremely difficult to know
which propositions were connected with which qualifications.
Contrary to Cum occasione (1653), which condemned five propositions without explicitly denoting their origin, almost none of the 101
propositions were rejected at that time.
Gres-Gayer showed that there was more to this bull than a collection of condemned extracts from a spiritual book.The bull represented
more than a simple condemnation of theological errors. Unigenitus
desired to destroy the root of Jansenism itself and, at the same time,
prove the ultimate authority of the Pope. Specifically the way in which
Rome and the anti-Jansenist bishops asked for total and unconditional
submission revealed the real intentions behind the condemnation of
certain propositions and what was really at stake for Rome: the confirmation of the personal infallibility of the Pope, the claim of immediate

22
See Heinrich Denzinger and Peter Hünermann, Enchiridion symbolorum definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum (Paris, 1996) [=DenzingerHünermann], 2497, proposition 97; 2500, proposition 100; 2501, proposition 101.
23
Jan Roegiers qualifies Unigenitus as ‘ongelukkig’ or ‘unfortunate’, in “De Leuvense
Faculteit der Theologie en haar rol in de geschiedenis der Oostenrijkse Nederlanden
(1713-1797),” Onze Alma Mater 36 (23-36, 1982), p. 24. Jacques M. Gres-Gayer calls the
bull ‘unrealistic’, in “The Unigenitus of Clement XI,” p. 279.

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THE RECEPTION OF UNIGENITUS

jurisdiction over the whole Church, and the recognition of the
supremacy of the Church by secular authority. The crisis of the reception of Unigenitus concerned a clash of two opposite conceptions of
theology and two visions of authority in the Catholic Church.24
The Jansenist faction considered the condemnation of Quesnel in
Unigenitus to be as unsound as that of Athanasius. All Regalists and
Gallicans forwarded a defense against the condemnation of the 21st
proposition, wherein Quesnel claimed that the fear of unfair excommunication should not restrain a Christian from fulfilling his duty.25 They
argued that Unigenitus broadly imposed imperial authority and reduced
the bishops to mere meek executors of papal instructions. Debates on
Unigenitus led the Sorbonne in Paris into complete chaos.26
In the southern Low Countries, in the Faculty of Theology at
Louvain, Unigenitus reinforced the already existing polarization
among the professors.The Jansenist theologians saw Louvain doctrine
and Unigenitus as irreconcilable. In their eyes, Rome wanted to oblige
Louvain to leave behind its own doctrine. The theologians criticized
Unigenitus’ condemnations of Bible-reading by unqualified laity
(propositions 80 and 81), the ecclesiastical doctrine of grace (1, 2, 5,
and 38-42), the omnipotence of divine grace (19, 20, 37), and the doctrine of the Lessius-censure. Unigenitus favored attritio at the expense
of contritio (60-64, 66, and 67) and condemned the necessity of love
toward God in order to realize good actions (44-58).27 At the same
time, the bull was defended by anti-Jansenists. The Louvain theology
professor Antoine Parmentier, president of the Grand Holy Spirit
College from June 1702 and doctor since 1703, put himself forward as
the spokesman of this group.28

24

Gres-Gayer,“The Unigenitus of Clement XI.”
Denzinger-Hünermann, 2491.
26
See Gres-Gayer, Théologie et pouvoir en Sorbonne.
27
On contritionism and attritionism, see: Pietro Stella,“Attrizione e contrizione in età
moderna: l’importanza storica di una disputa irrisolta,” in Annali di Scienze Religiose 3
(1998), 151-172; and Jean-Louis Quantin,“Le rigorisme: sur le basculement de la théologie morale catholique au XVIIe siècle,” Revue d’histoire de l’Eglise de France 89 (2003),
23-43.
28
A biography of Parmentier (1667-1722) is lacking, see Brussels, KB, ms. 22172/III:
BAX, Historia universitatis Lovaniensis, vol. 3: Sacrae Theologiae Doctores, fol. 135v.
Edmond Reusens, Documents relatifs à l’histoire de l’Université de Louvain (14251797), 5 volumes (Louvain, 1881-1903), vol. 3, p. 29 (We use volumes 3-5 in an anastatic
reprint by the State Archives, Brussels, 1999.)
25

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273

The Political and Ecclesiastical Situation of the
Austrian Low Countries
Due to the lack of political and ecclesiastical power in the southern
Low Countries around 1713, and especially in Brussels, which was the
seat of government, and Mechlin, which was the primatial see, the government and the ecclesiastical authorities were unable to deal with the
reception of Unigenitus.
In 1713, the War of the Spanish Succession ended at the negotiating
table in Utrecht.29 The Austrian Habsburg monarchy, which lost the war,
had to be satisfied with its acquisition of the southern Low Countries,
which was now placed under the government of Charles VI of Austria,
the Duchy of Milan, and the Kingdoms of Sardinia and Naples.With the
Treaty of Rastatt of March 6, 1714 and the Barrier Treaty signed in
Antwerp on November 15, 1715, the Spanish Netherlands came under
Austrian sovereignty. The Austrian Habsburgs accepted the southern
Low Countries under awkward conditions from the hands of the allied
occupying forces of Great Britain and the United Provinces. At first,the
new regime had problems establishing its authority. The first Governor
General appointed by the Emperor, Prince Eugene of Savoy, continued
fighting the Turks in the East.30 He allowed himself to be represented
by the unpopular minister plenipotentiary, Joseph Louis Turinetti,
Marquis of Prié, who arrived in Brussels on November 17, 1716.31
At the time of the promulgation of Unigenitus in Rome, the episcopal sees of Ypres and Bruges and the archiepiscopal see of Mechlin
were vacant. In October 1713, Pope Clement XI appointed his chamberlain Thomas Philippe d’Alsace, also a canon of Ghent, to the episcopal see of Ypres.32 At that time, the southern Low Countries had
29
See Linda S. and Marshall L. Frey (eds.), The Treaties of the War of the Spanish
Succession: An Historical and Critical Dictionary (Westport, Connecticut, 1995); and
Paul Arblaster, A History of the Low Countries (New York: Basingstoke, 2005).
30
In 1697 Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736) was supreme commander of the Austrian
troops against the Turks, in 1701 commander-in-chief of the Austrian troops in the War
of the Spanish Succession and in 1715 again against the Turks, see Max Braubach,
“Eugeen, Prinz von Savoyen,” in: NDB, vol. 4 (Berlin, 1959), pp. 673-678.
31
The Marquis of Prié (1658-1726), ambassador of Savoy in Vienna, was a delegate of
the emperor in Rome since 1706, see Max Braubach, Prinz Eugen von Savoyen. Eine
Biographie, vol. 5 (Vienna, 1965), pp. 121-136.
32
D’Alsace (1679-1759) studied humanities at the Jesuit College in Brussels and
received his doctoral degree in 1702 at the Gregorianum in Rome, see Charles De
Clercq, Cinq archevêques de Malines, vol. 1 (Paris, 1974), pp. 158-338; Lucien Ceyssens,
“Hennin-Liétard,” in: DHGE, vol. 23 (Paris, 1990), cols. 1037-1041.

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THE RECEPTION OF UNIGENITUS

already been granted to Austria but was still under the provisional government of the States General of the United Provinces. Problems arose
with Emperor Charles VI about the right of appointment. Parmentier,
the Dean of the Theology Faculty at the time, became involved in this
dispute and defended the papal appointment of d’Alsace.33 Parmentier
sent his congratulations to the new bishop and hoped that d’Alsace
would one day be appointed to the see of Mechlin, which had been
vacant since the death of Archbishop Precipiano. Rumors in this regard
were already circulating.34 D’Alsace was very grateful to Parmentier for
mediating in his appointment at Ypres. The new bishop promised to
seize any opportunity to serve Parmentier. He would do anything to
maintain good relations with the University and offer it due respect.35
Rumors about the nomination of d’Alsace to Mechlin were soon
confirmed. A commission by order of the Supreme Court of the Low
Countries at Vienna recommended d’Alsace to Charles VI for the see of
Mechlin. The letter stressed the importance of the archbishopric
because its territory included the University of Louvain, where the
plague of Jansenism had already spread.36 Since both Charles VI and
the States General of the United Provinces claimed the right of
appointment exactly as they had with regard to the see of Ypres, and
since discussions on that topic continued, both Charles VI and
Clement XI declared that they would wait until the Treaty of Rastatt
(March 6, 1714) placed the southern Low Countries under the
Habsburgs.A relieved d’Alsace wrote to Parmentier on March 27, 1714
that his appointment as archbishop was arranged. He thanked the
Dean again for intervening in his promotion and requested
Parmentier’s permanent advice and support. In return, d’Alsace promised to give practical expression to his appreciation for the University,
for the Faculty, and especially for Parmentier.37

33
The intervention of Parmentier is suggested in: Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19:
D’Alsace to Parmentier, January 12, 1713.
34
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19: Parmentier to d’Alsace, December 20, 1713.
35
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19: D’Alsace to Parmentier, January 12, 1714.
36
Louis Jadin, Le cardinal Thomas-Philippe d’Alsace, archevêque de Malines, et le
Saint-Siège. Correspondance tirée des Archives du Vatican (1703-1759), [Bibliothèque
de l’Institut historique belge de Rome, 6] (Brussels, 1953), p. 25: Supreme Court to
Charles VI, February 23, 1714.
37
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19. In the preliminary investigation, Parmentier, however, is not represented under the official testimonies, see Louis Jadin,“Procès de nomination de Thomas-Philippe d’Alsace Boussu, proposé pour le siège archiépiscopal de
Mechlin (1714),” BIHBR 11 (1931), 11-15.

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275

The plans of Parmentier and d’Alsace quickly became clear. In a
letter to Fabrizio Paolucci, Secretary of State in Rome, d’Alsace
declared the aims of his program. With the support and help of the
Emperor and the councillors he wanted to purge the Low Countries of
Jansenism.38 In Vienna, d’Alsace was ordained bishop on January 19,
1716. One month later, he took possession of his see as the new archbishop; he was thirty-seven years old. On March 15, 1716, there was the
solemn entry into the city of Mechlin. During the episcopacy of
Precipiano, sustained by Charles II through the Junta de gobierno,
Philip V, and Louis XIV, Jansenism at Louvain University was treated on
a case-by-case basis. D’Alsace would reap the rewards of his predecessor’s actions and would show himself, like his predecessor Precipiano,
to be explicitly anti-Jansenist.
The Faculty of Theology at Louvain Accepts Unigenitus
The ultimate acceptance of Unigenitus by the Faculty took two
years. Before the official publication of Unigenitus by the Faculty,
some individual professors had already pronounced their views on the
bull.The Strict Faculty, as the board of the academic theological community, was composed of Ledrou, Guillaume Renardi, Herman Damen,
Charles-Ghislain Daelman, Francis Martin, Parmentier, Hiëronymus
t’Seraerts, and Jean Libert Hennebel.39

38
Louis Jadin, Relations des Pays-Bas, de Liège et de Franche-Comté avec le SaintSiège d’après les ‘Lettere di Particolari’ conservées aux archives vaticanes (15661779), [Bibliothèque de l’Institut historique belge de Rome, 11] (Brussels–Rome, 1961),
pp. 542-543: D’Alsace to Paolucci, October 5, 1715. Paolucci (1651-1726), cardinal since
November 1697, was between 1696 and 1698 nuncio at Cologne. In December 1700
Clement XI appointed him as his Secretary of State. In 1721 he left the Roman scene
together with the pope, see Jacques-Paul Migne, Dictionnaire des cardinaux (Paris,
1857), col. 1356.
39
Renardi (1651-1731), former professor at Pedagogy of the Pork, president of Pope’s
College since 1689, doctor and member of the Strict Faculty from 1691 on. He became
professor of catechetics in 1713 but requested that a substitute teach in his place. He
actively took part in the Jansenist network, see Reusens, Documents, vol. 3, p. 447.
Damen (1656-1730), doctor since 1691 and professor at the Faculty one year later,
became president of Atrecht College in 1713. He is the author of several anti-Jansenist
writings, Antoine Haine, De Hermanni Damenii vita et meritis oratio quam die XV
mensis julii M.DCC.LXVII habuit Anvol. Jos. Jac. Franc. Haine. Accedunt annotationes
et appendix exhibens Hermanni Damenii nonnullas orationes academicas nunc
primum collectas (Louvain, 1867); and Jacques Forget, “Damen,” in: DTC, vol. 4 (Paris,
1911), cols. 36-38. Daelman (1670-1731), doctor since 1701, taught one of the two
courses on scholastic theology at the Faculty and was president of Pope’s College from

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THE RECEPTION OF UNIGENITUS

A Roman-minded Faculty
In July 1713, everything seemed quiet at the Faculty. The majority of
the Faculty was very favorably disposed toward the Holy See.40 The
former internuncio and Cardinal,Giulio Piazza,congratulated Parmentier
for his many efforts and asked him to send Damen his regards.41
It was not Parmentier or Damen, but Daelman and Martin who
launched Unigenitus within the Faculty. In the lecture he gave on
October 17, 1713 under the title In theologia vetustas novitati est
praeferenda, Daelman expressed the aversion of the Faculty to any form
of innovation. He argued that the depositum of their predecessors in the
Louvain Faculty had to be preserved and defended against innovators.42
Martin was Dean of the Faculty from the end of August 1713 and
expressed his devotion to Rome in his own way in an Oratio de
bulla novissima he held during the doctoral defense of the
Augustinians Ignatius Sweerts and Jan Libens on November 17.43

1702 on, see Jacques Forget, “Daelman,” in: DTC, vol. 4 (Paris, 1911), cols. 1-3. Martin
(1652-1722) began his academic career as a vehement anti-Jansenist, but went over to
the other party shortly after 1705. He is probably the only example of a switch from antiJansenism to Jansenism. He ended as an Einzelganger. Martin showed himself to be an
inconsistent person. Because of this, for every point he made, he never got any credit
from anybody, and he could not count on any sympathy from the Jansenists or from the
anti-Jansenists, see Lucien Ceyssens, “François Martin (1652-1722), Professeur à
l’Université de Louvain,” Augustiniana 46 (1996), 371-404; and Paul Arblaster,“Martin,
Francis,” in: ODNB (Oxford, 2004).The Dominican t’Seraerts († 1738), doctor since 1701,
was accepted as member of the Strict Faculty in September 1704. He taught Holy
Scripture at the house of studies of the Dominicans at Louvain, see Reusens, Documents,
vol. 5, p. 1322. Hennebel (1652-1720), doctor since 1682, became two years later president of Viglius College. Between 1692 and 1700 he stayed in Rome as delegate of the
Jansenists at Louvain, see Lucien Ceyssens, “Hennebel, Jean-Libert,” in: DHGE, vol. 23
(Paris, 1990), col. 1024.
40
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19: Parmentier to Piazza, July 16, 1713.
41
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19: Piazza to Parmentier,August 15, 1713.
42
Charles-Ghislain Daelman, Theologia seu observationes theologicae in summam
D. Thomae, pp. xi-xvi.
43
Sweerts (1676-1748) defended his doctoral degree on October 17, 1713 and taught
at Louvain’s Augustinian monastery from 1725 until 1729, see Reusens, Documents, vol.
5, p. 1426-1427. D. Verkerken and Werner Grootaers, Repertorium Ordinis Fratrum
Sancti Augustini. Provincia Coloniae-Provincia Belgica, 1252-1995 (Louvain, 1996), p.
448. Libens (1675-1747) taught philosophy at the monastery at Antwerp in 1708-1709
and theology at Louvain in 1711-1713. He received his doctoral degree together with
Sweerts, see Reusens, Documents, vol. 5, p. 1418-1420; and Verkerken and Grootaers,
Repertorium, p. 281.

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277

Martin argued that although he had not expected Unigenitus, the
bull really condemned the 101 propositions. He submitted himself to
the bull. He was inclined to think that the Faculty would also accept
the bull since it was purely dogmatic and did not deal with facts.
Moreover, Quesnel was not a Louvain theologian but came from
Paris, and the condemnation did not refer to the sensus of the propositions meant by the author. Concerning at least sixty-three propositions Martin wondered whether they were really taken from the
Réflexions Morales. According to Martin, Quesnel simply taught the
legacies of Augustine and Thomas, faithfully expressed in the Louvain
Lessius-censure. Martin called Quesnel a devout and erudite person,
and saw in him an ally in his battle against scholasticism.44 Martin’s
standpoint offered a possibility to avoid the impending impasse
regarding Unigenitus and to bring Jansenists and anti-Jansenists to as
great a consensus as possible.
The board of the Faculty interpreted the Oratio very differently.
Damen considered the lecture to be fully positive according to
Unigenitus and used it as an example of the Faculty’s loyalty to
Unigenitus.45 But not everybody appreciated the speech. Internuncio
Vincenzo Santini received a copy of the lecture from Martin and sent
it to Paolucci.46 The internuncio recognized in this speech what he
considered to be the unacceptable interpretation that the condemnation by Unigenitus did not refer to the significance of the propositions
meant by Quesnel, but only to the sense of the propositions viewed by
the bull. This meant that Unigenitus condemned propositions that
nobody, not even Quesnel, taught.This left open the possibility for the
Réflexions Morales to remain a sound, Catholic book. Santini considered Martin’s loyalty to Quesnel unsuitable.47 The following day, Santini
asked Parmentier for advice on the speech. According to the internuncio, Martin declared, wrongly, that Unigenitus did not contain any
facts whatsoever and was therefore fully dogmatic. Moreover, according to Martin, Unigenitus stipulated nothing about the sensus of the
44

A manuscript is in: Rome,ASV, NF, 105, fol. 809, and Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19.
Louvain, RL, OUL, 467: Herman Damen, Commentarius, annum 1715.
46
Santini (1676-1728), a doctor in canon and civil law, was internuncio at Brussels
from October 1713 until June 1721. Afterwards he became nuncio at Cologne and in
Poland, see Jacques Thielens, La correspondance de Vincenzo Santini, internonce aux
Pays-Bas (1713-1721) [Analecta Vaticano-Belgica, Nonciature de Flandre, 12] (Brussels,
1969), p. v.
47
Thielens, La correspondance de Vincenzo Santini, p. 9: Santini to Paolucci,
November 23, 1713.
45

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THE RECEPTION OF UNIGENITUS

condemned propositions.48 Parmentier fully agreed with Santini and
gave the internuncio his Réflexiones in response. Parmentier disagreed
completely with the speech. According to Parmentier, Martin insinuated that Cum occasione, in contrast with Unigenitus, was not purely
dogmatic. Parmentier considered the lecture offensive to the
University and the Faculty. To him, Martin seemed to be implying that
if Unigenitus dealt with the sensus meant by the author, the Faculty
and the University would not accept Unigenitus.49
In mid-January 1714, Santini received directives from Paolucci.The
Secretary of State agreed with Santini’s analysis. Santini acted well in
not responding to Martin on paper. The lecture could not be printed.
Santini had to warn Martin that he could be deprived of his regius
professorship chair if any new flagrant irregularities were to arise in
the future.50
A few weeks later, the self-willed Martin seemed to be toeing the
line again. He published his Scutum fidei contra haereses hodiernas seu Tillotsonianae concionis sub titulo: Strena opportuna
contra papismum et refutatio, which he dedicated to Hendrik Jozef
Van Susteren, vicar general of Mechlin, who was appointed to the
episcopal see of Bruges on March 8, 1714.51 Martin refuted a lecture
from 1710 by Tillotson, archbishop of Canterbury, who, in an antiRoman spirit, fulminated against the Catholics of England and
Ireland. Martin countered the Anglican pretensions and made a plea
for papal infallibility.52
An Invitation from the Faculty of Theology in Douai
Before Unigenitus, the members of the Faculty had already submitted themselves to the decision by Rome and the infallible magisterium:
any person who wanted to receive a degree was obliged to subscribe
48

Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19: Santini to Parmentier, November 24, 1713.
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19.
50
Thielens, La correspondance de Vincenzo Santini, p. 15: Paolucci to Santini,
December 23, 1713.
51
On Van Susteren (1668-1742), see: Michel Cloet, Boudewijn Janssens De Bisthoven
and Robrecht Boudens, Het bisdom Brugge (1559-1984). Bisschoppen, priesters, gelovigen (Bruges, 1984), pp. 178-189. Louis Jadin,“Procès de nomination de Henri-Joseph van
Susteren, proposé pour le siège épiscopal de Bruges (1714),” BIHBR 11 (1931), 17-22. In
the dossier there is a testimony in favor of Van Susteren made by Martin and Damen.
52
Léopold Willaert, BJB, 8278b.The approbatio is dated January 15, 1714.
49

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279

to the bull Vineam Domini.53 The forced appointment politics of the
government and Rome presupposed that the submission of the Faculty
to Unigenitus would happen without any problem. In reality, however,
this submission was a long time in coming. On August 21,Van Susteren
invited Parmentier to a conference with Daelman and Martin.54 The
three regents and the vicar general most certainly discussed the reception of Unigenitus at the Faculty.
The Faculty did not come to accept Unigenitus on its own. In midSeptember,Adrian Delcourt, Dean of the Faculty of Theology in Douai,
presented himself to Santini.55 Delcourt had considered going to the
Louvain Faculty to propose that it sign the declaration of acceptance
of Unigenitus made by the Faculty of Douai or draw up its own declaration. Santini gave him the names of the persons who were receptive to such a project and could help Delcourt efficiently. The internuncio promised Delcourt that he would contact these men so that
they would cooperate with his project.56 Undoubtedly, Damen,
Parmentier, and Daelman were at the top of this list.
In mid-December Delcourt sent Parmentier the letter he intended
to present to the Louvain Faculty. In this letter, Delcourt argued that
Philip II had wanted a full consensus between both universities from
the very beginning of the foundation of the University of Douai.57
Because of the rumor that the Louvain Faculty did not obey
Unigenitus, Delcourt proposed to the regents of the Strict Faculty that
they work together to counter the heresy against which Unigenitus
reacted. This could succeed only if the bishops and the theology faculties united their efforts.58 Parmentier and Damen read the letter
53
On October 16, 1705 the Faculty promised Clement XI to demand from all graduandi allegiance to the bull Vineam Domini, see Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent (1927), 295.
For an introduction on the tensions in the Faculty concerning the reception of Vineam
Domini, see Claeys Bouuaert, L’ancienne Université de Louvain, pp. 168-172.
54
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19:Van Susteren to Parmentier,August 21, 1714.
55
Delcourt (1662-1740), born at Nivelles, was secretary of the bishop of Namur and
professor at the Seminary of that diocese. Later he became professor of catechetics at
the University of Douai and afterwards professor of Holy Scripture at the same
University, see Reusens,“Delcourt,Adrien,” in: BN, vol. 5 (Brussels, 1876), cols. 347-350.
56
Thielens, La correspondance de Vincenzo Santini, p. 72: Santini to Paolucci,
September 20, 1714.
57
On the University of Douai, see Gilbert Dehon, L’Université de Douai dans la
Tourmente (1635-1765). Heurs et malheurs de la faculté des Arts (n.p., 1998).
58
Rome, ASV, NF, 107, fol. 106: Draft of the letter by Delcourt to Parmentier, shortly
before December 21, 1714.

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THE RECEPTION OF UNIGENITUS

together and delivered their remarks to Delcourt. Damen and
Parmentier thought it better to wait until the Austrian emperor had
taken possession of the provinces of the southern Low Countries and
until the new bishops (including d’Alsace) were confirmed. In this
way, their concerted project would find the necessary support, so that
nobody would dare to resist it openly. In the meantime, Damen and
Parmentier assured Santini that the Faculty of Louvain had accepted
Unigenitus without any opposition and that nobody from the public
houses of study dared to defend even one of the condemned propositions.59 Parmentier believed that if the new government and the
Church cooperated, his aim could be achieved: the sound doctrine of
the majores would return and the University of Louvain would be
again in Rome’s favor.60
Santini left the case completely to the prudence of Parmentier who
knew the members of the Faculty very well, and was thus also
acquainted with the suspected motives of some people.61 On June 10,
1715, Parmentier gave Delcourt new instructions after deliberating
with Damen, Daelman, and Santini. They decided that the Theology
Faculty of Douai should address a letter to the Faculty of Louvain.The
letter should stress the rumors that were spreading. Parmentier
emphasized that this letter should not be written in radical language.
It should be short, simple, showing a real and honest concern about
the reputation of the Faculty of Louvain. Parmentier, Damen, and
Daelman promised an answer on behalf of the Faculty. The Faculty
would give a report of its activities in line with Unigenitus.The Faculty
would accept Unigenitus and insist that this declaration be made
public. Delcourt would then only have to publish and circulate the
letter of the Louvain Faculty. Parmentier, Damen, and Daelman would
try to obtain a unanimous answer from the Strict Faculty, or if this was
not possible, at least a majority of votes. They were convinced that
Jerome t’Seraerts and Jacob Bossuyt, provincial of the Augustinians,
would side with their party.62 From 1714 on, Bossuyt represented his
religious order in the Strict Faculty.63
59

Rome,ASV, NF, 107, fol. 103: Parmentier to Delcourt, December 21, 1714.
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19: Parmentier to Santini, in the beginning of January
1715.
61
Thielens, La correspondance de Vincenzo Santini, p. 98: Santini to Paolucci,
February 14, 1715.
62
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19.
63
In his handbook on moral theology of 1710, Theologia moralis contracta et delucide ad petitiones responsionibus adjunctis, ad instructionem singulorum proposita
60

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281

With respect to a possible Louvain declaration of acceptance
regarding Unigenitus, Parmentier, Damen, and Daelman did not trust
Martin, Hennebel, or Renardi.64 Martin attracted attention because of
his view on the dogmatic character of Unigenitus. Parmentier, Damen,
and Daelman found Hennebel’s views of the anti-Jansenist formulary
far too unclear and open to many interpretations. Hennebel was resistant to accept any form of perjury and in Theses de juramento of April
12, 1715 he defended the view that even those who took an oath with
reservations in the back of their mind were bound to the sensus verborum of the oath. Hennebel, however, never expressed himself
clearly about the sensus verborum or the aim of Rome in regard to the
formulary. Renardi was rather secretive so that nobody really knew his
position at that time.
A First Declaration by the Faculty of Louvain in Favor of
Unigenitus: July 8, 1715
Santini, Parmentier, Daelman, and Damen conceived the plan to
draw up a letter, which the Faculty of Douai would then address to the
Faculty of Louvain. Santini and Parmentier adapted their opinions on
this letter to suit one another.65 Santini, who agreed completely with
Parmentier’s plan, left the realization of it to Damen and Parmentier.
As an example, Santini sent to Parmentier the declaration by the
University of Cologne in favor of Unigenitus.66 Santini hoped for an
answer from the Faculty in favor of the University of Louvain that
would also be beneficial to the Catholic Church, which was encountering problems due to the opposition to Unigenitus. He appealed to
Parmentier.The Strict Faculty read the internuncio’s letter.The provincial of the Augustinians, Bossuyt, was absent. One of the regents—prob-

(L. Willaert, BJB, 7876), the classical handbook for Louvain students during the entire
eighteenth century, Bossuyt (1669-1727), doctor in 1712, defended the Augustinian doctrine. He was a very influential man, vehemently anti-Jansenist and militantly
Augustinian,see Jean-Noël Paquot, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire littéraire des dixsept provinces des Pays-Bas, de la Principauté de Liège et de quelques contrées
voisines, vol. 14 (Louvain, 1763-1770), pp. 373-376; Verkerken and Grootaers,
Repertorium, p. 56; and J. Roegiers, “L’Augustinisme de l’école de Louvain au XVIIIe
siècle,” in: Mathijs Lamberigts and Leo Kenis (eds.), L’augustinisme à l’ancienne Faculté
de Théologie de Louvain (Louvain, 1994), pp. 333-360, esp. 342-343.
64
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19: Declaration to Parmentier, Damen, and Daelman, not
dated.
65
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19: Santini to Parmentier, June 14, 1715.
66
UL, Fund Ghent, D 19: Santini to Parmentier, June 28, 1715.

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THE RECEPTION OF UNIGENITUS

ably Hennebel or Renardi—argued that only the Holy See could take
the initiative in this case; the Faculty of Douai could not do this.67
Santini advised Parmentier that the declaration by the Faculty of
Louvain could differ in no way from the declaration of Douai and
Cologne.68 Parmentier answered that the Louvain Faculty had always
defended papal infallibility and respected all apostolic constitutions.
The Faculty could not accept the teaching of even one of Quesnel’s
condemned 101 propositions. He even remarked that the situations at
Cologne, Douai, and Louvain were completely different and therefore
patience was needed.69 Santini once more urged Parmentier that the
declaration of acceptance by the Faculty of Louvain had to follow the
example of the Faculty of Douai and the University of Cologne.70
After some time, the internuncio accepted the specific situation at
Louvain. He considered it a hopeless task to expect a declaration from
Louvain similar to those from Douai or Cologne, which strongly
favored Unigenitus. At Louvain, such a declaration would cause much
trouble. Santini did not want to wait to execute the plan until Bossuyt
returned from his tour as provincial of the Augustinians.The internuncio delivered the so-called letter from the Faculty of Douai to
Parmentier, who gave it to the acting Dean of the Louvain Faculty,
Damen. The Dean read the letter at the meeting of the Strict Faculty.71
The letter of the Faculty of Douai was dated June 22, 1715. In it, the
Faculty of Douai made its concern known about rumors in France
saying that the Faculty of Louvain did not accept Unigenitus.72
Of course, the letter by the Theology Faculty of Douai was a set up.
The answer from the Faculty of Louvain was also contrived and corresponded completely to the project that Parmentier had worked out in
67

Rome,ASV, NF, 107, fol. 343v: Parmentier to Santini, July 1, 1715.
Rome, ASV, NF, 107, fol. 344, and Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19: Santini to
Parmentier, July 2, 1715. Douai and Cologne already had a decree that enforced
Unigenitus: Declaratio Sacrae Facultatis Theologicae Duacensis circa constitutionem
apostolicam quae incipit: Unigenitus Dei filius (Douai, 1714); cf. L.Willaert, BJB, 8213
and 8228; Declaratio Sacrae Facultatis Theologicae Coloniensis circa constitutionem
apostolicam, quae incipit: Unigenitus Dei filius etc. cum brevi apostolica ad eamdem
directa (Louvain, 1715); and cf. L.Willaert, BJB, 8369.
69
Rome,ASV, NF, 107, fol. 344v: Parmentier to Santini, July 4, 1715.
70
Rome, ASV, NF, 107, fol. 346: Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19: Santini to Parmentier,
July 5, 1715.
71
Rome,ASV, NF, 107, fols. 340-342v: Santini to Paolucci, July 11, 1715, see Thielens, La
correspondance de Vincenzo Santini, p. 132.
72
Louvain, RL, OUL, 389, fol. 819.
68

BY TOON QUAGHEBEUR

283

his letter of July 4 to Santini. In a Declaratio Sacrae Facultatis theologicae Lovaniensis contenta in Epistola responsoria ad Sacram
Facultatem Theologicam Duacensem of July 8, the Faculty of Louvain
denied, with great emphasis, the rumors in Paris and France that it considered Unigenitus as senseless, heretical, and impious and therefore
rejected the bull. On the contrary, the Faculty argued that it had always
submitted itself to the apostolic constitutions and had always upheld
papal infallibility. Unigenitus, said the Faculty, appropriately condemned the 101 propositions.73
Hennebel, Renardi, and Martin unanimously approved the text, even
though Parmentier, from the very beginning, had been uncertain about
their votes. The declaration stated that Bossuyt, provincial of the
Augustinians, was not present at that time, but agreed with this declaration. Parmentier and Damen were the authors of this answer by the
Faculty of Louvain.The following day, Parmentier delivered the declaration to Santini.74 Bossuyt, who was in Liège at the time, let the Faculty
know he fully agreed with the copy of the declaration that was sent to
him.75 Santini greatly thanked Parmentier and his friends for the declaration, which effectively put the universities of Louvain, Douai, and
Cologne on the same page.76
However, the declaration of July 8 did not elevate Unigenitus to an
article of faith and did not censure the opponents of Unigenitus. In retrospect, Santini preferred a decree by the Faculty that required submission to Unigenitus by all the members and candidates for degrees
of the Faculty. Parmentier once again pointed out to Santini that the situation at Louvain differed completely from the ones at Douai and
Cologne, where dissension among the professors was not a chronic
problem. According to Parmentier, the declaration by the Faculty of
Louvain had the same effect as a decree in France. Moreover,
Parmentier argued that he would never have obtained unanimous
approval by the Faculty for a decree. If Santini was convinced of the
73
L. Willaert, BJB, 8429. Johannes Opstraet, Antiquae Facultatis Theologicae
Lovaniensis, qui adhuc per Belgium superstites sunt discipuli, ad eos qui hodie
Lovanii sunt theologos de declaratione sacrae facultatis theologicae Lovaniensis
recentioris circa constitutionem Unigenitus Dei filius, edita 8 julii 1715 (n.p., 1717),
(L. Willaert, BJB, 8597), pp. 370-374; Rome, ASV, NF, 107, fol. 349; and Louvain, RL, OUL,
389, fols. 822-826.
74
Rome,ASV, NF, 107, fol. 346v: Parmentier to Santini, July 9, 1715.
75
Louvain, RL, OUL, 389, fol. 827: Bossuyt to Faculty, July 25, 1715.
76
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19: Santini to Parmentier, July 10, 1715.

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THE RECEPTION OF UNIGENITUS

necessity of a decree, he had to let this be known orally or through a
secretary. Parmentier and his supporters would then devote themselves to the cause.77 Secretary of State Paolucci was delighted with
the willingness of the Faculty of Louvain.78
Parmentier also received expressions of support from Van Susteren.
As the bishop of Bruges and the former vicar general of d’Alsace, he
would feel honored to cooperate with Parmentier and his colleagues
in securing the purity of faith and public well-being. Van Susteren
hoped to prove his appreciation in the future.79 Parmentier succeeded
in his project of letting all of Europe know that in regard to submission
and obedience to the Holy See there was no better university than
Louvain. The declaration of July 8, 1715 was evidence of this.80
Some Prominent Figures Inside the Faculty of Louvain
The declaration of July 8, 1715 did not bring harmony to the Faculty
of Louvain. Leading figures such as Hennebel and Damen interpreted
the submission by the Faculty to Unigenitus in completely different
ways. Hennebel viewed the submission by the Faculty in a minimalistic way, while Damen interpreted the declaration of acceptance in a
maximalistic way.
A Conference by Hennebel
The famous Jansenist and Louvain professor of canon law, Zeger
Bernard Van Espen, was hardly delighted about the acceptance of
Unigenitus by the Faculty.81 Through the Louvain theologian Francis
77

Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19: Parmentier to Santini, anno 1715.
Rome,ASV, NF, 151, fol. 104v: Paolucci to Santini,August 31, 1715; and see Thielens,
La correspondance de Vincenzo Santini, p. 139.
79
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19:Van Susteren to Parmentier, January 19, 1716.
80
Cf. Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19: Parmentier to Santini, some days after May 23,
1716.
81
Van Espen (1646-1728), appointed in 1674 as professor in the Faculty of Canon
Law, defended his doctoral degree in Law in 1675. From 1677 he taught canon law to the
students of Pope’s College, where he also resided. On several occasions, he acted as
juridical advisor to the Jansenist party. He is known as the last great Louvain Jansenist.
As he did not belong to the Faculty of Theology, his attitude toward Unigenitus is not a
point of study here, see G. Leclerc, Zeger-Bernard Van Espen (1646-1728) et l’autorité
ecclésiastique. Contribution à l’histoire des théories gallicanes et du jansénisme
[Pontificium Athenaeum Salesianum, Fac. Juris Canonici. Studia et textus historiae juris
canonici, 2] (Zürich, 1964); Michel Nuttinck, La vie et l’oeuvre de Zeger-Bernard Van
78

BY TOON QUAGHEBEUR

285

Verschuren and the Dutchman Joan Christiaan Van Erckel, he tried to
find out the reasons for Hennebel’s acceptance.82 No letter from
Hennebel to Verschuren, Van Erckel, or Van Espen explaining his reasons for his acceptance of Unigenitus has been found. During the doctoral defense by the theologians Willem Delvaulx and John Francis
Stoupy on December 2, 1716, Hennebel delivered a lecture on
Unigenitus.83 This speech was completely in line with Martin’s Oratio
of November 17, 1713. It is possible that he hoped to convince
doubters and to reach a consensus in the Faculty.
In his Oratio, Hennebel expressed that the propositions in
Unigenitus were, without doubt, appropriately condemned. He only
wanted to examine together with his audience what was really at stake
in the bull. In line with the thirty-two articles that the Faculty of
Louvain drew up in 1544,84 Hennebel argued that there was only one
shepherd in the Church whom everyone had to obey and to whom
judgment was reserved in controversies over faith and religion. With

Espen. Un canoniste janséniste, gallican et régalien à l’université de Louvain (16461728) [Recueil de Travaux d’Histoire et de Philologie, IVe série, 43] (Louvain, 1969);
Guido Cooman, Maurice Van Stiphout, and Bart Wauters (eds.), Zeger-Bernard Van Espen
at the Crossroads of Canon Law, History, Theology and Church-State Relations [BETL,
170] (Louvain, 2003).
82
[Gabriel Dupac De Bellegarde] (ed.), Supplementum ad varias Collectiones
Operum Clar.Viri Z.B. van Espen (Brussels, 1768), pp. 313-314:Verschuren on behalf of
Van Espen to Van Erckel,August 4, 1715. From 1689 until 1693 Verschuren (1660-1723)
taught grammar at Trinity College. From February 1693 on, he was vice-president of
Hogenheuvel College where, two years later, he was appointed president, see Philibert
Schmitz, “Verschuren, François,” in: BN, vol. 26 (Brussels, 1936-1938), cols. 689-690. In
1694,Van Erckel (1654-1734) received his license in law. From 1687 he was parish priest
at Delft, provisor of Hogenheuvel College, and a member of the vicariate in 1688. He was
the man behind the theoretical foundation of the resistance by the Old-Episcopal
Church of Utrecht against the Roman pretensions. He was excommunicated in 1711, see
J.Y.H.A. Jacobs, Joan Christiaan van Erckel (1654-1734). Pleitbezorger voor een locale
kerk (Amsterdam, 1981); and G. Ackermans, Herders en huurlingen. Bisschoppen en
priesters in de Republiek (1663-1705) (Amsterdam, 2003), pp. 356-357.
83
Delvaulx (1681-1761), was born in the ecclesiastical [or episcopal] principality of
Liège, was parish priest of Saint-Geertrui at Louvain (1708-1720), professor in theology
from 1711/12, doctor in theology in 1716, dean of Louvain and president of Viglius
College in 1720, and co-opted as regent in 1722. After his appointment to the episcopal see of Ypres in April 1730, he was ordained on 25 May 1732, see Reusens,
Documents, vol. 3, p. 300. P. Lefevre,“Delvaux, Guillaume,” in: BN, vol. 29 (Brussels, 19561957), cols. 541-542. Since 1711, Stoupy (1677-1736) was president of Liège College, see
Reusens, Documents, vol. 3, p. 30.
84
See supra note 2.

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THE RECEPTION OF UNIGENITUS

explicit reference to the Justificatio (1588) of the Lessius-censure
(1587), in which the Faculty had also considered the Holy See as the
teacher of the whole Church concerning faith and religion,85
Hennebel stated that the Faculty, according to the common doctrine of
the Louvain school, should accept Unigenitus unanimously. After this
long captatio benevolentiae, Hennebel stressed that Unigenitus did
not ask the Faculty to accept that the Pope stood above a general council or that the Pope was infallible in defining cases of faith or morals.
Unigenitus only required one to hold the same opinion of the 101
propositions formulated in the bull.86
Daelman reported to Hennebel that Santini and d’Alsace would be
delighted to receive a copy of the lecture. Hennebel sent a copy to
Santini.87 Hennebel possibly also sent a copy to the archbishop. At
first sight, the lecture seemed to Santini very much in favor of the
rights of the Holy See. But afterwards, the internuncio changed his
judgement, pointing to the ill intentions that lay behind this Oratio and
which prevented it from being circulated at the University.88 Santini
thanked Hennebel for sending the Oratio but advised him that he
would have preferred if the superiority of the Pope above a general
council and papal infallibility in the magisterium had been stressed
more.89 Hennebel, however, held his ground. Submission to Unigenitus
did not signify an affirmation of the doctrine that the Pope stood
above a general council or that he would be infallible in defining cases
on faith and morals.90 Daelman informed d’Alsace about the controversy arising around Hennebel’s lecture.91 The archbishop was very
grateful for the information.92
85
86

See supra note 4.
A manuscript is in Rome,ASV, NF, 109, fol. 16 and Mechlin,AAM, Jansenistica, bundel

22.
87
Rome,ASV, NF, 109, fol. 15, and Mechlin,AAM, Jansenistica, bundel 22: Hennebel to
Santini, January 7, 1717.
88
Rome,ASV, NF, 109, fols. 12-13v: Santini to Paolucci, January 14, 1717.
89
Rome, ASV, NF, 109, fol. 14 and Mechlin, AAM, Jansenistica, bundel 22: Santini to
Hennebel, January 9, 1717.
90
Louvain, RL, OUL, 467: Herman Damen, Commentarius, ad annum 1716; Mechlin,
AAM, Jansenistica, bundel 22: Hennebel to Santini, January 25, 1717.
91
Mechlin,AAM, Jansenistica, bundel 22: Daelman to d’Alsace, January 26, 1717.
92
Mechlin,AAM, Jansenistica, bundel 22: D’Alsace to Daelman, January 28, 1717.When
the Faculty in 1720 asked d’Alsace for the imprimatur for this Oratio, the archbishop
answered on August 26, 1720 with a refutation of the Oratio by Hennebel of December
2, 1716. The main argument of d’Alsace for the superiority of the Pope to the council
said that a papal constitution generally accepted by the bishops had force of law and

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287

A Lecture by Damen
Santini’s, and probably also d’Alsace’s, wish for a declaration by the
Faculty affirming papal infallibility in cases of faith and morals was fulfilled ten months later. During the defense of a licentiate’s thesis of a
canon of the chapter of Saint Rombout’s Cathedral in Mechlin at the
beginning of December 1717, the sixty-one year-old Damen delivered
a lecture in which he portrayed the dogma of papal infallibility as the
central dogma of the University and the Faculty of Theology. According to Damen, only those professors who obeyed Unigenitus could be
considered domestici fidei. D’Alsace, who was present, congratulated
Damen very openly while Hennebel and the others looked on.93
Opstraet strongly disapproved of the attitude of the majority in the
Strict Faculty (Martin and Hennebel remained in the minority) and
refuted Damen’s Oratio in his anonymous Antiquae Facultatis
Theologicae Lovaniensis, qui adhuc per Belgium superstites sunt
discipuli, ad eos qui hodie Lovanii sunt theologos de declaratione
sacrae facultatis theologicae Lovaniensis recentioris circa constitutionem Unigenitus Dei filius, edita 8 julii 1715, from the end of
December 1717.94 Opstraet wished to point out that many theologians, clergy, and parish priests rejected the acceptance of Unigenitus
by the Strict Faculty on July 8, 1715. The Faculty owed it to the doctrine of majores to react against Unigenitus. In his Prooemium ad
academicos, qui hodie Lovanii sunt, theologos, Opstraet argued that
Unigenitus condemned the fundamental truth of Catholic religion, of
Christian morality, and of ecclesiastical discipline. In his eyes,
Unigenitus undermined the foundations of the doctrine of the
Church.95 It grieved him painfully that with Unigenitus, above all, the
redeeming doctrine of confession was condemned.96
In the first chapter, Opstraet showed that Quesnel’s propositions
could also be found in the Bible, the Church Fathers, the documents of

could not be changed or reformed by a general council, see Louvain, RL, OUL, 467: H.
Damen, Commentarius, ad annum 1716.The Faculty decided to answer but wanted first
to hear Hennebel on the matter, see Louvain, RL, OUL, 389, fol. 881. Hennebel would not
respond any more. He died four days later on August 30, 1720.
93
See Jadin, Correspondance d’Alsace et le Saint-Siège, p. 143: D’Alsace to anonym,
December 9, 1717.
94
L.Willaert, BJB, 8597.
95
Opstraet, Antiquae Facultatis Theologicae, p. 4.
96
Ibid., p. 118.

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THE RECEPTION OF UNIGENITUS

different councils, and were accepted by the professors of the
University of Louvain. The second chapter was one long complaint
against the declaration by the Faculty of July 8, 1715. The third and
longest chapter was written against Damen’s Oratio. Opstraet wanted
to do away with the doctrine of papal infallibility, which formed the
foundation of the Declaratio of July 8. According to Opstraet, the
Faculty had not always defended papal infallibility. In the thirty-two
articles of the Faculty, which Charles V published in 1544, there was no
mention of papal infallibility. Opstraet argued that the idea of papal
infallibility was launched for the very first time by the Faculty of
Louvain only after 1544 and even then under very strict conditions. It
was the Louvain theology professor Cunerus Petri who, in 1580, taught
papal infallibility without conditions.97 One hundred years later,
Opstraet argued, this was no longer so self-evident. In 1683, five doctors were excluded from appointment to four vacant seats in the Strict
Faculty because they refused to approve Roman plans against the
Gallican articles.98 Opstraet ended with the statement that papal infallibility had no foundation in the Bible, the Church Fathers, or the councils. He saw himself obliged to react against Unigenitus and
reproached the silence of Louvain theologians who were not members
of the board of the Faculty.99
D’Alsace was not happy about Opstraet’s anonymous book. At the
beginning of March 1718, the archbishop asked the Faculty to track
down the author and punish him if he was a member of the Faculty.
The Faculty even had to refute the work by giving an authentic testimony of its old doctrine on infallibility.100 Through Parmentier, Van
Susteren congratulated Dean Damen for his Oratio about which so
much fuss had been made.101

97
Cunerus Petri (†1580), regent of the Strict Faculty since 1561, later became president of the disputations held by the baccalaurei on Saturdays until he was appointed
bishop of Leeuwarden in 1570, see Joseph Wils,“Les professeurs de l’ancienne Faculté
de théologie de l’Université de Louvain (1432-1797),” ETL 4 (1927), 338-358, esp. 348.
98
See L. Ceyssens,“L’ancienne Université de Louvain et la Déclaration du clergé de
France (1682),” RHE 36 (1940), 345-399 (Jansenistica, 1).
99
Opstraet, Antiquae Facultatis Theologicae, p.71.
100
Jadin, Correspondance d’Alsace et le Saint-Siège, p. 160: D’Alsace to Paolucci,
March 17, 1718.
101
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19:Van Susteren to Parmentier, March 25, 1718.

BY TOON QUAGHEBEUR

289

AN OBEDIENT FACULTY OF THEOLOGY AS D’ALSACE’S
SHOWPIECE FOR ROME
Five years after Unigenitus, the bull Pastoralis officii of August 28,
1718, the feast-day of St. Augustine, condemned the appellants and the
opponents to Unigenitus. Without excommunicating the opponents
of Unigenitus, Clement XI declared that he dissociated himself from
them and ordered all Catholics to do the same.102 D’Alsace could have
been satisfied with this, but wanted to take things one step further.
“Relying on the prudence of his chapter and of some Louvain doctors,” 103 d’Alsace launched a pastoral letter on October 17, 1718.104
Claiming much more than the bull Pastoralis officii, the archbishop
preached Unigenitus as an article of faith.105
From that time on, d’Alsace and the zealous internuncio Santini
(informed and supported by Daelman, Parmentier, and Damen) saw to
it that, even in 1718, the Strict Faculty officially declared itself once
more in favor of Unigenitus. All members of the Theology Faculty,
except one or two, submitted themselves to Unigenitus.
The Consultations between d’Alsace and Parmentier
When Parmentier informed the archbishop of how well disposed
the Faculty was,106 d’Alsace was reassured but found it a pity that the
Theology Faculty did not support the archbishop more actively in the
defense of Unigenitus. He looked forward to a declaration by the
Faculty that it had not only received and accepted Unigenitus but also
effectively wanted to execute and impose the bull upon all its members.107 Apparently, d’Alsace was not fully satisfied by the declaration
102
Charles Coquelines, ed., Bullarum, Privilegiorum ac Diplomatum Romanorum
Pontificum amplissima collectio, vol. 11 (Rome, 1739), pp. 139-142.
103
Brussels, ARB, Department of the Netherlands of the Hof- und Staatskanzelarei in
Vienna, 807: D’Alsace to Charles VI, October 30, 1718.
104
It is not known whether Damen or Parmentier helped in the issuing of this pastoral letter. Signs of their cooperation have not been found.
105
Pierre François Xavier De Ram and Jan Frans Van De Velde, Synodicon Belgicum,
sive acta omnium ecclesiarum Belgii a celebrato concilio Tridentino usque ad concordatum anni 1801, 4 volumes (Mechlin, 1828-1829; Louvain, 1858; Mechlin, 1839),
vol. 2, pp. 7-11; G. Dupac De Bellegarde, Mémoires, vol. 3, pp. 327 sq.
106
Mechlin,AAM, Jansenistica, bundel 39: Parmentier to d’Alsace, November 9, 1718.
107
Mechlin,AAM, Jansenistica, bundel 39. Louvain, UL, Fonds Gent, D 19. C. Declercq,
“Vier reeksen onuitgegeven brieven van Thomas-Philippus d’Alsace, aartsbisschop van
Mechlin,” in Handelingen van de Koninklijke Kring voor oudheidkunde, letteren en

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THE RECEPTION OF UNIGENITUS

of acceptance dated July 8, 1715, shortly before his arrival at Mechlin.
Parmentier reminded d’Alsace of this declaration by the Faculty in its
letter to the Theology Faculty of Douai. It seemed useless to him to procure another declaration.108
D’Alsace continued to try to urge and convince Parmentier.109 The
archbishop announced a letter written by the bishops of the Austrian
Netherlands to Clement XI. The bishop of Namur, Berlo de Brus, had
signed the letter on November 23, 1718 (the feast-day of Saint
Clement). He stated that all bishops of the ecclesiastical province of
Mechlin accepted Unigenitus, that they had arranged for the bull to be
published everywhere, and that they wanted to impose the bull upon
everyone as an article of faith and a norm for moral living.110 D’Alsace
was very satisfied with the letter. He had already signed it, together
with the bishop of Ghent. It would be beautiful, the archbishop told
Parmentier, if the Faculty would draft a similar letter. He invited
Parmentier to come and read the letter at the archiepiscopal palace. He
could not give out a copy until all the bishops had signed it.The next
day, d’Alsace sent the letter to the bishops of Roermond and Bruges
and to the vicar apostolic for ’s-Hertogenbosch.
In his letter to Parmentier, d’Alsace produced a copy of a letter by
the nuncio of Paris and another copy of a letter by the former internuncio of Brussels, Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Bussi, which d’Alsace
had received.111 Bussi said that in Paris the rumor circluated that
Louvain’s Faculty of Theology was divided into three parties: those
who accepted Unigenitus, those who rejected the bull, and those who
wanted the bull to have no force of law. Bussi asked d’Alsace for an
explanation given the importance of the Faculty of Louvain.112
D’Alsace immediately delivered to Parmentier his answer to Bussi.The

kunsten van Mechelen 75 (1971), 87-160, esp. 120-121: D’Alsace to Parmentier,
November 10, 1718.
108
Mechlin,AAM, Jansenistica, bundel 54: Parmentier to d’Alsace, November 12, 1718.
109
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19: D’Alsace to Parmentier, November 27, 1718.
110
P. F. X. De Ram and J.F.Van De Velde, Synodicon Belgicum, vol. 2 (Mechlin, 1829),
p. 18: Bishops of the ecclesiastical province of Mechlin to Clement XI, November 23,
1718, with their submission to Unigenitus.
111
In May 1712, Bussi (1657-1726), internuncio at Brussels from December 1698 until
June 1706, was named cardinal by Clement XI, see Giovanni De Caro,“Bussi, Giovanni
Francesco,” in: DBI, vol. 15 (Rome, 1972), pp. 572-574.
112
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19, and Louvain, RL, OUL, 389, fol. 861: Bussi to
d’Alsace, November 23, 1718.

BY TOON QUAGHEBEUR

291

archbishop explained that Bussi confused the Faculty of Theology with
the Faculty of Arts.113 The Louvain doctors in theology, Hennebel,
Renardi, Damen, Daelman, Parmentier, t’Seraerts, Martin, John Francis
de le Loz, and Stoupy had all accepted Unigenitus. Only the attitude of
Verschuren was suspect, according to d’Alsace.114
Possibly inspired by d’Alsace, on December 1 Damen allowed John
O’Reilly to defend a Quaestio theologica de Summo Pontifice against
those who wanted to appeal to a general council against Unigenitus.
O’Reilly had been Martin’s secretary for a long time.115 In the disputations for the licentiate’s degree, O’Reilly argued that d’Alsace was right
in confirming Unigenitus.The infallible judgement of the Pope stood
above any general council.This infallibility, according to O’Reilly, concerned cases of both faith and morals.116 Parmentier sent the theses to
d’Alsace, who transmitted the Quaestio to Paolucci as evidence of the
good disposition of the Faculty.117
Two days later, d’Alsace invited Parmentier to come to Brussels with
some colleagues in order to study the collective letter of the bishops of
the Low Countries to the Pope, which had not yet been sent because
not everyone had subscribed to it. The archbishop hoped for good
cooperation with Louvain’s theologians in order to restore peace in the
Church. He assured Parmentier that Santini agreed with them and
looked forward to a confirmation of the declaration of July 8, 1715.118

113
For the reception of Unigenitus in the Faculty of Arts, see F. Claeys Bouuaert,
L’ancienne Université de Louvain, pp. 172-173.
114
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19: D’Alsace to Bussi, November 23, 1718. De le Loz
(1667-1740) was successively lector at the abbey of Vlierbeek and the monastery St.
Maartensdal. As a licentiate, he first became lector among the Oratorians at Scherpenheuvel and, afterwards, until 1695, professor at the episcopal seminary at Ghent, see
Reusens, Documents, vol. 3, p. 95.
115
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, (1959), 357b: Parmentier to Santini, December 31, 1717.
116
Mechlin,AAM, Jansenistica, reg. 58, fol. 285. Extracts of the theses have been published in Francis Martin, Motivum juris pro bullae Unigenitus orthodoxia contra novissimas P. Quesnelli Litteras morientisque professionem fidei. Et S. Thomas pro infallibilitate pontificia vindicatus, contra Natalis Alexandri, et Opstratii cavillos (Louvain,
1720), pp. 174-175. On November 5, 1718, John O’Reilly had defended under the presidency of Hennebel the theses Ex prioribus capitibus epistolae B. Pauli ad Romanos.
The theses condemned the appellants for a general council and affirmed that Clement
XI had justly condemned the 101 propositions in Unigenitus because of their similarity
to the doctrine of Luther, see Mechlin,AAM, Jansenistica, reg. 58, fol. 278.
117
Jadin, Correspondance d’Alsace et le Saint-Siège, p. 185.
118
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19. AAM, Jansenistica, bundel 54.

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THE RECEPTION OF UNIGENITUS

A Second Declaration by the Faculty of Theology:
23 December 1718
Parmentier was willing to draw up a declaration and have it
approved by the Faculty.119 D’Alsace was delighted by the news and
hoped that this declaration by the Faculty would stem the tide of scandalous rumors that came from France. D’Alsace also asked Parmentier
to deliver a list with the names of those who opposed Unigenitus so
that the secular power could act against them. Then they could no
longer be opposed. Parmentier had to act in all secrecy, with patience
and prudence.The archbishop stressed that he could put this information to good use.120 Of course, d’Alsace brought Paolucci the good
news of an impending declaration by the Faculty to confirm its acceptance of Unigenitus and its opinion on infallibility.121
Parmentier and Damen worked out a plan.The Faculty, together with
Dean Hennebel, approved the declaration after some minor amendments.122 The ultimate declaration was dated December 23.The Faculty
argued that rumors about its disobedience to Rome and Unigenitus
and about dissension among the professors were false. The Faculty
repeated its declaration of July 8, 1715 and stated that the propositions
in Unigenitus were justly condemned.The Faculty rejected any appeal
to a general council and disapproved any recourse to secular tribunals.123 The Faculty was ready to submit its doctrine to the cathedra
Petri as it had already done with the Justificatio of 1588.124
The declaration by the Faculty was a compromise. It is striking that
just like the first declaration of July 8, 1715, the declaration of
119

Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19: D’Alsace to Parmentier, December 13, 1718.
Ibid.
12
Jadin, Correspondance d’Alsace et le Saint-Siège, p. 186: D’Alsace to Paolucci,
December 15, 1718.
122
Mechlin,AAM, Jansenistica, bundel 54: Parmentier to d’Alsace, December 17, 1718.
123
For some background on the question of appeal from the bull to a future general
council, inaugurated in March 1717 by four French bishops, soon sustained by other
members of the episcopate and by doctors of the theological faculty in Paris, see Jean
Carreyre, Le jansénisme pendant la régence, 3 vol. (Louvain, 1932). J. M. Gres-Gayer,
“The Unigenitus of Clement XI,” passim; idem, Théologie et pouvoir en Sorbonne, pp.
57-67; L. Ceyssens,“Le Régent (1674-1723),” in idem, Le sort de la bulle Unigenitus, pp.
257-309.
124
Louvain, RL, OUL, 389, fols. 861-864. Edited as Iterata declaratio Facultatis
Theologicae Lovaniensis circa acceptationem constitutionis apostolicae, quae incipit
Unigenitus (n.p., 1718).
120

BY TOON QUAGHEBEUR

293

December 23, 1718 did not make Unigenitus an article of faith and did
not censure opponents to Unigenitus—two stipulations demanded by
the pastoral letter of d’Alsace dated October 17, 1718. It is possible that
Parmentier and Damen would never have obtained a unanimous declaration had they left these stipulations in the text. Such a unanimous declaration certainly had much more impact than a mere majority. The
answer by the Faculty with regard to Unigenitus, with reference to its
teaching expressed in the Justificatio, was a way to downplay
Unigenitus without attacking the authority of the Pope directly.
On December 29, Dean Hennebel brought Santini the unanimous
declaration by the Faculty.125 The internuncio sent everything to
Paolucci126 and thanked the Faculty.127 Parmentier delivered d’Alsace a
copy of the declaration.128 The archbishop was delighted and sent the
declaration to Bussi in Paris. 129 Nevertheless, it was not the declaration
d’Alsace had hoped for. Considering the status of the Faculty, and with
the aim of reaching the larger public, he had been looking forward to
a declaration that would react against the appellants more broadly and
more explicitly. D’Alsace urged Parmentier to obtain another solid and
balanced declaration. It seemed to him that the time had come to wipe
out the heresy completely. The Marquis of Prié, argued d’Alsace, had
promised all support so that Unigenitus would obtain the force of law
in the Austrian Netherlands.130 This had not been the case so far.
Opstraet, a Jansenist professor of Louvain who resisted any compromise, published his Monitum cum responso ad iteratam declarationem Facultatis Theologicae Lovaniensis circa acceptationem
constitutionis apostolicae, quae incipit Unigenitus against the
declaration of December 23, 1718. In the Monitum, he poked fun at
the doctors of the Faculty who kept silent and did not defend the
doctrine of their predecessors. Opstraet reproached Parmentier for
filling the post of inquisitor-general at University.131

125

Rome,ASV, NF, 111, fol. 14.
Rome, ASV, NF, 110, fols. 585-586v: Santini to Paolucci, December 29, 1718; see
Thielens, La correspondance de Vincenzo Santini, p. 302.
127
Rome, ASV, NF, 111, fols. 14v-15: Santini to Hennebel, December 31, 1718; and
Louvain, RL, OUL, 389, fol. 866.
128
Mechlin,AAM, Jansenistica, bundel 54: Parmentier to d’Alsace, December 29, 1718.
129
Louvain, RL, OUL, 389, fol. 865: D’Alsace to Faculty, December 30, 1718.
130
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19: D’Alsace to Parmentier, January 4, 1719.
131
Cf. Louvain, RL, OUL, 467: Damen, Commentarius, ad annum 1718.
126

294

THE RECEPTION OF UNIGENITUS

The Declaration by the Large Faculty of Theology:
July 10, 1719
Even before Parmentier was informed of d’Alsace’s criticism of the
declaration by the Strict Faculty, he tried to augment the importance
of that same declaration by seeking support for it among the doctors
of the Large Faculty and the doctors of the Faculty of Louvain who
taught elsewhere. Some members of the Strict Faculty who did not
agree with this informed Santini that confirmation by the Large Faculty
of a declaration made by the Strict Faculty was unprecedented, that the
Large Faculty consisted only of a small number of academics, and that
in the Large Faculty there were persons who could cause trouble.They
feared that Opstraet, among others, would negatively influence
Florence Sullivane, president of the Irish College at Louvain and a
doctor in theology.132 The day before Christmas 1718, Santini prudently let Parmentier know that a confirmation by the Large Faculty of
the declaration might be useful but that he did not know if this agreed
with the custom of the Faculty.133 Around the same time, Santini
warned Sullivane to give his opinion on the case clearly and concisely.134 Sullivane told the internuncio that he did not have anything
to fear from him. He confirmed that he accepted Unigenitus and the
infallibility of the Holy See.135 Santini was somewhat reassured; but to
be absolutely sure, he warned Sullivane that it was important that he,
as president of the Irish College, be an example to his students.136 If he
did not support the plans of the Holy See, the presidency of the Irish
College could easily go to someone else. Santini conscientiously
informed Paolucci on everything.137
At the end of February, Santini received directives from Paolucci. In
the eyes of Rome, Santini’s hesitations regarding Parmentier’s plan to
obtain a declaration from the Large Faculty were justified. Santini did
132
Rome, ASV, NF, 111, fol. 28rv: Santini to Paolucci, January 12, 1719, see Thielens,
Correspondance d’Alsace et le Saint-Siège, p. 307. Sullivane (1655-1731), president of
the Irish College from 1692 until 1697 and from 1699 until his death on August 19, 1731,
received his doctoral degree in 1698, see Reusens, Documents, vol. 1, p. 291; vol. 3, p. 482.
133
Louvain, UL, Fund Ghent, D 19.
134
Rome, ASV, NF, 111, fol. 28rv: Santini to Paolucci, January 12, 1719; cf. J. Thielens,
Correspondance d’Alsace et le Saint-Siège, p. 307.
135
Rome,ASV, NF, 111, fols. 30v-31: Sullivane to Santini, December 30, 1718.
136
Rome,ASV, NF, 111, fol. 30r-v: Santini to Sullivane, January 3, 1719.
137
Rome, ASV, NF, 111, fol. 28rv: Santini to Paolucci, January 12, 1719; see Thielens,
Correspondance d’Alsace et le Saint-Siège, p. 307.

BY TOON QUAGHEBEUR

295

not have to involve himself with additional, superfluous, particular
declarations.138
Notwithstanding the advice by the Secretary of State, d’Alsace went
his own way. He stayed in Louvain for the last three weeks of March
1719. In the morning, he visited the eight monasteries and all the parish
priests of Louvain.All monasteries and parish priests pleased him with
the exception of pastor Jan Baptist Schoeps of St. Peter’s.139 In the afternoon, d’Alsace visited the theologians at the Faculty. He found good
intentions in all of them. On March 21, d’Alsace took part in a licentiate’s
degree disputation De Summo pontifice presided over by Damen and
defended by Jozef Ignatius Deprez, professor at Pedagogy the Lily.140 It
dealt with papal infallibility as Jansenius defended it in his doctoral
theses of October 9, 1617.141 Bachelor Deprez argued that Louvain
University had always stood for papal infallibility in cases of faith and
morals, that Unigenitus had to be held as an article of faith, and that
Quesnel’s 101 propositions were justly condemned. In this way, he
struck down Jansenism, Calvinism, Lutheranism, Donatism, and
Baianism.The two declarations by the Theology Faculty were lauded.142
In his Oratio entitled Verba Jansenii non jansenistica ad modernos
Jansenistas, Damen picked out some statements from Jansenius’ doctoral theses. It is possible that Damen delivered this lecture at about the
same time given the similarity in theme. Damen repeated the confession
of Jansenius in which he expressed his belief in papal infallibility, recognized papal authority over all (the faithful and the unfaithful,laymen,and
clergy), and accepted the Pope as the highest jurisdiction in cases of
faith. Damen correctly argued that Jansenius expressly confessed that
councils confirmed by the Pope could not err. Damen concluded that
whoever followed Jansenius,could not adhere to Jansenism.143 D’Alsace,

138
Rome, ASV, NF, 151, fols. 239-240: Paolucci to Santini, February 4, 1719; cf. J.
Thielens, Correspondance d’Alsace et le Saint-Siège, p. 310.
139
Schoeps (1675-1742), a pleban since 1713, defended his licentiate’s degree in theology on November 24, 1716; see Reusens, Documents, vol. 3, pp. 190-191.
140
Deprez († 1744) had taught at Pedagogy the Lily since 1716; see Reusens, Documents, vol. 4, p. 787.
141
In 1703, the doctoral theses by Jansenius were edited, see [Martin Steyaert],
Opuscula Ex. D. Martini Steyaert, S. Th. Doctoris et Professoris Regii in Academia
Lovaniensi, vol. 5 (Louvain, 1742), pp. 75-79.
142
Mechlin,AAM, Jansenistica, reg. 58, fol. 314.
143
Maurits Sabbe, Mathijs Lamberigts and Frans Gistelinck, Bernardus en de
Cisterciënzerfamilie in België 1090-1990 (Louvain, 1990), pp. 463-465: Oratio by
Damen, preserved in the abbey of Saint Bernard at Bornem, manuscript 116.

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THE RECEPTION OF UNIGENITUS

who witnessed the large crowd, encouraged all present to adopt
Damen’s view.
While d’Alsace was in Louvain, there appeared the Notae breves per
quas ostenditur quod propositiones 101 merito damnatae sint per
constitutionem Unigenitus by the vehement anti-Jansenist Léger
Charles de Decker.144 In his report to Paolucci on the many afternoon
talks with the theologians, d’Alsace stated that the Large Faculty was
on its way to preparing a declaration. He boasted that there were no
more than eighteen or twenty opponents left at the University and that
they were rapidly melting away as snow in the sun.145
Neither an eventual confirmation by the Large Faculty of the declaration of December 23, 1718 nor the drawing up of a completely
new declaration could satisfy the archbishop. Together with several
doctors of the Theology Faculty, he arranged to counter the instruction given by de Noailles on January 14, 1719. In this instruction, the
archbishop of Paris justified his resistance to Unigenitus by arguing
incorrectly that the doctors of Louvain resisted the bull.146 D’Alsace
thought it would be useful if the Faculty expressed itself publicly
against this in an important work,“a work of value.” It was clear that
d’Alsace would not be satisfied this time with a simple declaration
that was nothing more than a refutation of rumors. D’Alsace said he
wanted to draw up a refutation of the arguments of de Noailles himself but could not because of his pastoral visitations. He encouraged
the Faculty to react against de Noailles, and argued that the Louvain
theologians would never have done anything without his inspiring
ideas and exhortations.147 This was not a flattering statement for the
Faculty of Louvain. In regard to Rome, d’Alsace stressed his own role
in the affair.

144
Willaert, BJB, 8841.The book received the approbatio on July 4 and 20, 1719. De
Decker (1645-1723) manifested himself as a voluminous writer in service to the antiJansenists; see Reusens, De Decker, Léger-Charles, in BN, vol. 5 (Brussels, 1876), cols. 7377.
145
L. Jadin, Correspondance d’Alsace et le Saint-Siège, p. 206: D’Alsace to Paolucci,
March 30, 1719.
146
Louis Antoine De Noailles, Première instruction pastorale de son Eminence
Monseigneur le cardinal de Noailles, archevêque de Paris, au clergé séculier et
régulier de son diocèse, sur la constitution Unigenitus (Paris, 1719), pp. 164- 165; L.
Willaert, BJB, 8846; and cf. Jean Carreyre,“ Unigenitus, ”in DTC, vol. 17/2, cols. 2142-2153.
147
Jadin, Correspondance d’Alsace et le Saint-Siège, p. 208: D’Alsace to Paolucci,April
20, 1719.

BY TOON QUAGHEBEUR

297

In mid-May, d’Alsace received a letter from Paolucci. Clement XI was
delighted with the report of d’Alsace’s visit to Louvain.The Pope recognized and lauded the efforts of d’Alsace, which laid the foundation
of the good disposition of the clergy and the doctors at Louvain.
Thanks to d’Alsace, the heresy, which had already spread everywhere
in neighboring countries, had not yet affected the Austrian
Netherlands.148 Just a short time before, Paolucci had expressed himself very skeptically regarding the different declarations by the Faculty
at the request of d’Alsace.149 This was probably only the personal
opinion of the Secretary of State and was not to be considered the official point of view of the Holy See.
After various meetings and after reading the instruction by de
Noailles, the doctors of the Large Faculty decided to publish a declaration of their own.The “work of value” that d’Alsace anticipated, would
never happen.The declaration, dated July 10, stated that Louvain’s theological school had always been very devoted to the Holy See.The signatories declared that they accepted Unigenitus unanimously as a constitution ex cathedra. In line with their predecessors, they upheld the
doctrine that popes were infallible in such matters.150 The declaration
was signed by the members of the Strict Faculty, the doctors of the
Large Faculty, de le Loz, Delvaulx, and Stoupy, the four Augustinians,
Francis Pauwens, Ignatius Sweerts, Jan Libens, and Gerard Melijn,151
and the four Dominicans, Francis d’Enghien, Thomas Du Jardin,
Norbert Van Bilsen, and Vincent van Severen.152 The only name missing

148

Ibid., p. 210: Paolucci to d’Alsace,April 29, 1719.
See supra.
150
Jadin, Correspondance d’Alsace et le Saint-Siège, p. 247.
151
Pauwens (1653-1725) defended his doctoral thesis on November 9, 1685 and
taught the Augustinians at Louvain from 1682 until 1696; see Reusens, Documents, vol.
5, p. 1407; and E. Beeckman,“Pauwens, François,” in BN, vol. 16 (Brussels, 1901), cols. 770772. On October 17, 1713, Sweerts (1676-1748) received his doctoral degree and taught
at the Louvain monastery of his order from 1725 until 1729, see Reusens, Documents,
vol. 5, pp. 1426-1427; and Verkerken and Grootaers, Repertorium, p. 448. Libens (16751747) taught philosophy at the monastery of his order at Antwerp in 1708-1709 and theology at the Louvain house of studies in 1711-1713. He received his doctoral degree on
the same day as Sweerts, see Reusens, Documents, vol. 5, pp. 1418-1420; and Verkerken
and Grootaers, Repertorium, p. 281. For Melijn (1657-1734), see Verkerken and
Grootaers, Repertorium, p. 314.
152
D’Enghien († 1719) taught at the Louvain house of studies of his order from 1682
until 1703. He received his doctoral degree in 1687, see Jacques Quétif, Scriptores ordinis praedicatorum recensiti, notisque historicis et criticis illustrati, vol. 2 (Paris, 1721),
p. 798. Also Du Jardin (1653-1720) taught at the Louvain house of studies from 1680 until
149

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THE RECEPTION OF UNIGENITUS

was that of Verschuren, president of Hogenheuvel College, who was
prudent enough not to resist Unigenitus publicly.
In many pamphlets, Opstraet would resist this declaration by the
Large Faculty.153 His main argument against the acceptance of
Unigenitus was that, first of all, there was not even a consensus in the
Church regarding accepting the bull, and, secondly, that there were
serious doubts about the question of whether the bull was correct or
not, or even contradictory to Catholic faith. Moreover, Quesnel was
condemned without having been heard.
On behalf of Clement XI, Paolucci congratulated d’Alsace for the
declaration by the Louvain theologians.154 At the consistory of
November 29, 1719, Clement XI made him a cardinal. He was the first
archbishop of Mechlin since Antoon Perrenot de Granvell to receive
this honor.155

1698 and received his doctoral degree in 1687, see ibid., pp. 813-814.Van Bilsen taught
at the Louvain house of studies from 1701 until November 1702, see Reusens,
Documents, vol. 5, p. 1322. Van Severen (1663-1719), as regent at the Louvain house of
studies, was responsible for the organization of the courses, see Brussels, KB, hs.
22172/III: BAX, Historia universitatis Lovaniensis, vol. 3, Sacrae Theologiae Doctores,
fol. 138v.
153
Johannes Opstraet, Animadversiones in causam disparem, seu causa episcoporum non acceptantium constitutionem Clementis XI. Par causae S. Cypriani non
acceptantis rescriptum S. Stephani (Louvain, 1719); (L. Willaert, BJB, 8816); Opstraet,
Pondus novum adjectum ad partem tertiam staterae appensae in statera etc. contra
postscripta Poelmanni seu Quaestio facti. An S. Thomas docuerit Summum pontificem esse infallibilem in decidendis quaestionibus fidei et morum ? Ex ipso S.Thoma
et Thomistis soluta (Delft, 1719); (L.Willaert, BJB, 8920); Opstraet, Petrus Malleus, tundere nuper ausus Commonitorium ad RR. DD. Pastores aliosque etc. nunc ad eiusdem
Commonitorii incudem revocatus, retunditur et obtunditur (Louvain, 1720); (L.
Willaert, BJB, 9065); Opstraet, Responsionis quae sub nomine pii cuiusdam theologi
manuscripta circumfertur, confutatio (n.p., 1720); and (L.Willaert, BJB, 9078).
154
Jadin, Correspondance d’Alsace et le Saint-Siège, p. 248: Paolucci to d’Alsace,
November 4, 1719.
155
Granvelle (1517-1586) was archbishop of Mechlin from March 10, 1561 until his
resignation on January 24, 1583. Shortly before his appointment as archbishop, he was
named cardinal. He left the Netherlands in March 1564, see Maurice Van Durme, Antoon
Perrenot, bisschop van Atrecht, kardinaal van Granvelle, minister van Karel V en
Filips II [Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Wetenschappen,
Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Klasse der Letteren, 18] (Brussels, 1953), with a
summary in English.

BY TOON QUAGHEBEUR

299

CONCLUSION
In the years 1713-1719, ultramontanist leaders in the Theology
Faculty gained more and more influence. Instead of bringing about
unity among theologians, Unigenitus brought dissension.The Faculty
coped in a very specific way with this new ecclesiastical situation.The
two declarations by the Faculty requested by archbishop d’Alsace,
who had the help and support of Parmentier, Damen, and Daelman,
appeased Rome. Nevertheless, the contents of these declarations did
not express the fervent anti-Jansenist standpoint held by d’Alsace.
Apparently, the moderate faction in the Strict Faculty formed enough
counterweight to turn the declarations into a compromise.The reception of Unigenitus in the Faculty of Theology at Louvain shows once
more that the Catholic Church itself could no longer expect unconditional obedience, even from those who had no desire to abandon such
obedience.1576 Nevertheless, there is a remarkable evolution in the
ultramontanism of the Faculty. Whereas the Faculty in 1682 gave no
official declaration on the four Gallican articles, it was now, thirty-five
years later, willing to testify publicly to its obedience to the cathedra
Petri and to recognize the personal infallibility of the Pope and his
immediate jurisdiction in the Church.
Thanks to Unigenitus, the archbishop, the internuncio, and
Parmentier strengthened their positions with regard to the Faculty.
D’Alsace put himself on a pedestal as defender of apostolic authority
and did everything to show Rome that he had a firm grip on the
Faculty. Further investigation on the shifts in d’Alsace’s position, from
a voice of moderation as a Roman official to an anti-Jansenist hardliner
as Archbishop, still has to be done. It is clear that different paths suggested by Hennebel and Martin were not attainable or realistic for the
Faculty as an institution.

156

See Doyle, Jansenism, p. 90.

“THE STATUS OF WOMEN”:
TWO AMERICAN CATHOLIC WOMEN AT THE UN,
1947-1972
BY

JOSEPH S. ROSSI, S.J.*

From the late 1940’s until the American bishops closed their United
Nations Office in 1972, Catherine Schaefer and Alba Zizzamia, two
American lay women, served as both National Catholic Welfare
Conference UN Observers and Catholic Non-Governmental
Organization representatives for the World Union of Catholic
Women’s Organizations. This article discusses their creation and
leadership of a circle of Catholic NGOs at the UN, many of them
women, that developed strategies for promoting Roman Catholic
teachings on issues of concern for women, and delves into their successes and failures in matters such as the family, marriage and
divorce, child and adult education, prostitution, equal pay, birth
control, and the status of women in the developing nations.
In an August 1947 memorandum to Monsignor Howard J. Carroll,
General Secretary of the National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC),
Miss Catherine Schaefer,1 appointed Carroll’s Assistant for United
Nations Affairs in October 1946, included the following paragraph:
Special assistance in supplying documentation and day-to-day information
has been given to...the National Council of Catholic Women [NCCW], and
other interested departments of the National Catholic Welfare Conference,
on the matter of consultative relationships [Non-Governmental
Organization or NGO status] of international organizations with the [UN’s]
Economic and Social Council [ECOSOC]. In the latter connection, as consultant to the National Council of Catholic Women International Relations
*Father Rossi is an associate professor in the Department of Theology in Loyola
College in Maryland, Baltimore.
1
Born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Catherine Schaefer joined the Social Action
Department of the NCWC immediately upon graduating from Trinity College in
Washington, D.C., in 1927. In the 1930’s she earned a master’s degree in economics and
international relations from the Catholic University of America. For many years she
served as Secretary of the Catholic Association for International Peace. She was the first
and only director of the NCWC Office of United Nations Affairs, appointed to that position by its Administrative Board in 1946.

300

BY JOSEPH S. ROSSI, S.J.

301

Committee, the Assistant to the General Secretary, NCWC, for United
Nations Affairs [i.e., Schaefer herself] spoke before the ECOSOC
Commission on the Status of Women, on the competence of the
International Union of Catholic Women’s Leagues [IUCWL] to serve in this
consultative capacity.2

The same report documents that the IUCWL, whose headquarters
were in the Netherlands, and another international Catholic organization with “the reliability and fitness . . . to make a contribution to
ECOSOC,” namely, the International Union of Catholic Social Service
(IUCSS), had already been granted consultative NGO status with the
Economic and Social Council.This permitted the IUCWL, the first international Catholic organization to be so recognized, to submit memoranda to ECOSOC on matters within its competence.3
Schaefer was appointed one of the first ECOSOC consultants from
IUCWL.This designation was apropos, because it was due to her intervention as the UN consultant from the National Council of Catholic
Women, the US affiliate of IUCWL, that the IUCSS had achieved NGO
status. Schaefer had been the clear choice for the IUCWL consultant,
both because of her familiarity with women’s issues and because she
was already the NCWC Observer, mandated by the American bishops
to monitor and lobby the UN.4
From the start, Schaefer moved with great ease and authority
within women’s circles at the UN, Catholic or otherwise. Within her
first year (1946-47) as NCWC Observer, she spoke at several conferences on women’s rights, most notably the Inter-American
Commission of Women and the Commission on the Status of Women,
the latter established by the United Nations in 1946.5 She also
addressed conventions of American women’s groups, such as the
Biennial Convention of the National Council of Catholic Women, the

2
Archives of the National Catholic Welfare Conference (ANCWC): International Affairs:
United Nations: Office for UN Affairs: “Report of the N.C.W.C. Office for U.N. Affairs,
October 1, 1946-August 1, 1947,” Schaefer to Carroll [New York], August 1947, p. 2.
3
Ibid., pp. 1-2.
4
Archives of the United States Catholic Conference-National Conference of Catholic
Bishops (AUSCC-NCCB): Departmental Committees: International Affairs: UN: 1967,
“Office for UN Affairs,” Enclosure with Dougherty to Tanner, [South Orange, New Jersey],
April 18, 1967, pp. 1-2.
5
Edward J. Gratsch, The Holy See and the United Nations, 1945-1995 (New York,
1997), pp. 112-113.

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“THE STATUS OF WOMEN”

Supreme Directorate of the Catholic Daughters of America, the
Institute on Women in Industry, the Catholic Women’s Club of New
York, and the Saint Paul’s Junior Guild.6 In a prescient comment
during the summer of 1947, she remarked on the potential for
Catholic influence at the United Nations, anticipating that
As Catholics within the United Nations get to know each other better, and
as Catholic organizations, such as the International Union of Catholic
Women’s Leagues...are admitted to consultative relationships with the
Economic and Social Council, the utility of NCWC’s Office for U.N. Affairs
should increase, in the informational, liaison and other assistance it may be
able to render, and in its efforts to integrate Catholic principles into the
formal action and atmosphere of the United Nations and of international
life. . . .7

In no other aspect of the work of the UN Office would Schaefer and
her assistant,Alba Zizzamia,8 better integrate their duties and priorities
on behalf of the NCWC, Catholic social thought, and the rights of
women internationally than with their roles as UN consultants or NGOs
from the IUCWL. Schaefer recounted that by 1948 the volume of work
at the NCWC Office during its second year of operation had increased
significantly. Her official explanation for the greater workload was that
the United Nations in its second year was developing a sense of itself
and its obligations with regard to global peace and security; in fact, it
was her NGO duties, which demanded “actual participation in the work
of the various [UN] Commissions” and required expanded contacts
with other Catholic international groups and organizations, that
accounted for the expanded workload.9 In time Alba Zizzamia would
take on responsibilities not only as an IUCWL consultant, but also as the
National Council of Catholic Women representative at meetings of UN6
ANCWC: International Affairs: United Nations: Office for UN Affairs:“Report of the
N.C.W.C. Office for U.N. Affairs: October 1, 1946-August 1, 1947,” pp. 4-5.
7
Joseph Rossi, American Catholics and the Formation of the United Nations,
[Melville Studies in Church History, 4] (Lanham, Maryland, 1993), p. 36.
8
Alba Zizzamia was born in Hartford, Connecticut and taught in the public schools
there. At the time of her appointment to the UN Office in 1948, she was an Associate
Professor of Italian Literature at Trinity College,Washington, D.C.The holder of a doctoral
degree from the University of Rome, she was a noted translator of Italian classics. Her
acquaintance with several young clerical diplomats at the Apostolic Delegation in
Washington would ultimately serve her well during her stint at the UN Office.
9
ANCWC: International Affairs: United Nations: Office for UN Affairs: “Report of
N.C.W.C. Office for U.N. Affairs:August 1, 1947-August 1, 1948,” Schaefer to Carroll, [New
York], pp. 1-2.

BY JOSEPH S. ROSSI, S.J.

303

related associations such as “Women United for the United Nations.”But
it was as an NGO, not an NCWC Observer, that she covered most of the
meetings of the eleven ECOSOC commissions, including its
Commission on the Status of Women.10
The achievements of Schaefer and Zizzamia as Catholic women
NGOs in the late 1940’s were extraordinary. As liaisons between the
NCWC and the IUCWL, they laid the groundwork for what would
become an enduring alliance with various Catholic NGOs, many of
them women’s organizations. By the fall of 1947 the UN Office had initiated correspondence with all Catholic NGOs. Schaefer then secured
representation from each of these for a preliminary ICO (International
Catholic Organizations) meeting hosted by the NCWC. At those sessions, she briefed them for an NGO Conference in September sponsored by the UN’s Department of Public Information. At a subsequent
meeting of all NGO representatives in New York, Schaefer represented
the IUCWL as its consultant.This interim conference resolved to hold
a summit of all international organizations at Geneva in May 1948,
where Schaefer once again represented the IUCWL. Her election as a
delegate was a singular honor, for she was chosen by her forty-two
NGO peers to be one of only eight delegates to go to Geneva.There,
she was appointed to the Ad Hoc Committee that prepared the
agenda, and she was credited with securing acceptance of Human
Rights, especially the rights of women, as a “discussion theme.”11
During the New York discussions, Schaefer had kept Catholic NGOs
in Europe apprised of the progress being made, so that they would be
adequately briefed for Geneva. Through such preparedness, it was
anticipated that the Catholics would be able to interject their proposals and principles into the crucial debates. Schaefer would later verify
that “Catholic principles were generally well accepted by the representatives of the 200 organizations” at Geneva.The capstone of all her
preliminary work for both New York and Geneva, however, was her
selection as IUCWL representative to the Interim Committee of NonGovernmental Organizations that was to consider future relations
among all NGOs. The members of this committee also were charged
with preparing an agenda for the NGO Conference to be held the following year.12
10

Ibid., pp. 3-4.
Ibid., p. 7.
12
Ibid., pp. 7-8.

11

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“THE STATUS OF WOMEN”

After her return from Geneva, Schaefer found that her principal
work as a consultant centered on the work of three ECOSOC commissions: the Commissions on Social Affairs, on Human Rights, and
especially on the Status of Women. They were, she noted conscientiously,“fully attended and reported in the capacity of Consultant for
the IUCWL.” But Schaefer, and later Zizzamia, did not merely attend
and report on these sessions;“interventions” were made in each, especially the Commissions on the Status of Women and Human Rights. In
1948 and 1949, these interventions pertained chiefly to the suppression of commercial prostitution and venereal diseases in the Third
World, the efforts of Catholics and others against divorce, and the
wording in the draft document of the UN’s International Declaration
of Human Rights on the rights of parents regarding the education of
their children.13 Schaefer’s intervention against the inclusion of
divorce into the human rights document was ultimately eliminated
from the Draft Declaration, but her interventions on behalf of the
rights of parents in their children’s education, especially in opposition
to the power of the state, precipitated, at the very least, vehement discussion among the members, and her labors in recognition of
Catholic mission schools in the UN Trust Territories motivated a
majority of committee members to incorporate into the final draft an
article that “did not infringe on the right of parents to send their children to schools of their own choice.”14
The United Nations Commission drafted the first international
covenant on human rights after the UN General Assembly had adopted
the International Declaration of Human Rights in 1949. Subsequently,
the covenant had to be ratified by the General Assembly, and afterward
by individual member states; only then would it become legally binding on the UN signatories. Schaefer and Zizammia would fight
doggedly for endorsement of this covenant.15 Of particular interest to
them were the sections dealing with genocide, freedom of information
and a code of ethics for journalists, discrimination, refugees and stateless persons, and the status of women.They were particularly successful in the final category.16

13

Ibid.
Ibid., p. 8;
15
ANCWC: International Affairs: United Nations: UN Office: Annual Report: 1950:
NCWC Office for United Nations Affairs and Bureau of Information (Washington, D.C.
Printed by the Administrative Board: NCWC, but not for Publication, 1950), p. 13.
16
Ibid., p. 14.
14

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305

There were in 1949-50 still twenty countries in the world where
women did not have the right to vote, or had restricted suffrage.
Schaefer, as an NGO member of the UN Commission on the Status of
Women, was in the forefront of those who supported proposals to the
Commission on Human Rights for an international convention on
political rights for women, and for an international convention to
resolve conflicts “in various systems of law as to the nationality of married women.”17 Other matters concerning the status of women in
which Schaefer and Zizzamia were profoundly involved were equal
pay for equal work, political education, and equal educational opportunities for women, especially in underdeveloped and UN Trust
Territories. Recognition of the professional status of nursing and legal
protection of that status, and the conferring of responsible positions in
UN technical assistance programs on women were also subjects of
concern.18 Schaefer and Zizzamia also made notable “Catholic” recommendations to the Commission on Human Rights about the role of
women’s social progress in relation to family welfare.
In hindsight, it is now evident how Schaefer and Zizzamia, through
their advocacy of equal status for women at the UN, fused together
most effectively their roles as NCWC Observer and IUCWL consultant.
This can be seen in a 1950-51 NCWC report, in which Schaefer
reviewed her staff’s “Work at the UN with Regard to Particular
Questions.”That year she and Zizzamia had made an intervention to the
Commission on the Status of Women in the name of the IUCWL. This
presentation was based on Zizzamia’s observations during an IUCWL
inspection trip to Africa the previous summer. In this capacity, Zizzamia
proposed the introduction of legal safeguards for monogamous marriage in certain African territories controlled by the UN, where polygamous marriages and analogous social and economic practices were
abusive and degrading to the dignity of women.The chairwoman of the
Commission on the Status of Women, who in another capacity was concerned with circumstances in French territories in Sub-Saharan Africa,
expressed particular gratitude for these proposals and told the NCWC
of her intention to use them in her work for Trust Territories.19
17
Jean Gartlan, The Story of the NCWC/USCC Office for United Nations Affairs,
1946-1972 (Baltimore, 1998), p. 102.
18
Ibid., pp. 14-15; ANCWC: International Affairs: United Nations: UN Office: Annual
Report: 1951: NCWC Office for United Nations Affairs and Bureau of Information
(Washington, D.C. Printed but not for Publication by the Administrative Board: NCWC,
1951), p. 23.
19
Ibid., p. 35.

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“THE STATUS OF WOMEN”

In 1951, Schaefer addressed the UN Population Commission and the
Ad Hoc Committee on Slavery. She was also a member of the Advisory
Committee of Non-Governmental Organizations to the United Nations
International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF}.Through her work
with this committee, and the Board of UNICEF itself, she sought to prevent the recognition of this advisory committee as the sole means
through which NGOs could have consultative status with UNICEF. In
other words, she argued for direct access by NGO representatives to
UNICEF’s executive board.20
During this same period, Schaefer attended the White House
Conference on Children as observer for the IUCWL. Correspondence
and exchanges of information between the IUCWL International
Secretariat in the Netherlands and NCWC headquarters in Washington,
D.C., continually passed through her New York office. Memoranda on
many UN subjects, questionnaires, and other bits of intelligence were
exchanged between the UN Office and an IUCWL affiliate, the
International Committee for the Protection of Young Girls.This flurry
of correspondence focused on the drafting of the UN Convention for
the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the
Prostitution of Others. All this United Nations NGO information was,
of course, shared with interested departments at NCWC.21
In 1952, the International Union of Catholic Women’s Leagues was
re-titled the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations
(WUCWO). It also moved its headquarters from the Netherlands to
Paris, so as to be in closer proximity to the cluster of UN offices in the
French capital. Catherine Schaefer, however, remained its principal
NGO representative. If anything, she and her staff became even more
immersed in Catholic/UN women’s issues. In the “Work with
International Organizations” section of her 1953 report, Schaefer notes
the astonishing integration of her duties as NCWC Observer and
WUCWO consultant.
Much of the time of the Office staff is devoted to representation of the
World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (its American affiliate is
the National Council of Catholic Women), which is one of the organizations
having consultative status with the Economic and Social Council and its
commissions, and to assistance to other Catholic groups having such status.

20
21

Ibid., p. 38.
Ibid., pp. 37-38.

BY JOSEPH S. ROSSI, S.J.

307

This Consultative status is given only to international organizations. It permits the submission of written and oral statements and other methods of
direct cooperation and influence.22

Schaefer here is going to great lengths to clarify for NCWC bureaucrats
that WUCWO had a Category B Consultative Status at the UN and had
been the first Catholic organization to achieve such status. Category A
Consultative Organizations were strictly economic and Category C
groups had limited access to ECOSOC and its eleven commissions. The
123 Category C groups were quite specialized organizations on the UN
Register, and were called into consultation infrequently, and then only
in relation to their field of competence.23 By 1953, group B was comprised of 107 international associations “of a great variety of complexions and interests.”Among these were Protestant and Jewish groups, at
least two Communist groups, organizations of women and youth, professional groups, such as lawyers, the press, and social service organizations, etc.The eleven Catholic groups so designated constituted proportionally by far the largest representation of any religion at the
United Nations, and, as Schaefer never tired of reiterating to the
NCWC, these Catholics had come to depend on, and saw their organizational focus to be, her Office for UN Affairs.24
In 1953, their peers selected both Schaefer and Zizzamia as delegates
to the Information Conference for International Non-Governmental
Organizations in Geneva. At those deliberations, a review of the entire
consultative process, together with discussions on the possibilities that
consultation for NGOs would be extended to UN agencies such as the
Trusteeship Council, the Technical Assistance Board, and the
International Law Commission, was undertaken. An impending
ECOSOC reassessment of all organizations in consultative status was
also on the agenda, because it had been advised by some in the
ECOSOC that inactive NGOs be terminated.The sessions in Geneva, and
22

ANCWC: International Affairs: United Nations: UN Office: Annual Report: 1953:
NCWC Office for United Nations Affairs and Bureau of Information (Washington, D.C.
Printed by the Administrative Board: NCWC, but not for Publication, 1953), p. 8.
23
Ibid., p. 9.
24
Catholic NGOs designated Category B were: WUCWO, the Catholic International
Union of Social Service, the International Conference of Catholic Charities, the
International Catholic Migration Commission, Pax Romana, the International Federation
of Catholic Young Women, the Young Christian Workers, the International Catholic Child
Bureau, the International Union of the Catholic Press, la Union Fraternelle entre les
Races et les Peuples, and le Mouvement Mondial des Mères.

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“THE STATUS OF WOMEN”

subsequent ones in New York, were, Schaefer thought, the most important series of NGO meetings in the history of the United Nations up to
that point. She and Zizzamia never missed a session, participating energetically in the drafting of working papers on proposed consultative
relations with the Trusteeship Council and the UN Technical Assistance
Board. These two UN agencies were particularly important to the
NCWC, because they dealt extensively with matters concerning
Catholic missions in Trust Territories.25 At Geneva, Schaefer delivered a
paper entitled “Minimum Criteria for Maintaining Consultative Status
Relations.” In it, she discussed the substance and extent of requisite
inquiries for a questionnaire to NGOs intended to evaluate the quality
of their consultative activities and contributions to UN agencies.
Zizzamia served as Chair of the Working Party on Information to Trust
Territories, and as a member of the Planning Board for the next conference. She also participated in a study committee to consider NGO activity in disseminating information in Third World UN member countries.
A questionnaire on this matter was then prepared by the staff of the UN
Office and sent to all WUCWO national affiliates.26
The staff’s extensive activities concerning women’s issues, however, were nowhere more apparent than at the sessions of the
Commission on the Status of Women. At its seventh session in 195354, the Commission decided to urge all governments to ensure equality of rights and duties of husbands and wives in family matters, and
to ensure that wives had full legal capacity and equal rights with
regard to property and work outside the home. It also recommended
that a draft convention on the nationality of married persons be circulated to governments for comment. Schaefer and Zizzamia made
oral and written interventions on the subject of equality of rights and
duties in family matters, equal access to education for both men and
women, the nationality of married women, and the rephrasing of
Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, recommending the deletion of the reference to “dissolution” of marriage. At all
times, they took pains to stress the unity of the family and the indissolubility of the marriage bond.
Schaefer also assisted other Catholic NGOs in drafting papers to be
delivered before the Women’s Commission. In that same session,
WUCWO’s research and analyses were shared with a woman consult25
26

Ibid., pp. 10-11.
Ibid., p. 10.

BY JOSEPH S. ROSSI, S.J.

309

ant from the Catholic International Union for Social Service.This was
done during the developmental stage of her written interventions on
the topics of part-time work for women and the effects of technical
assistance on their work.27
In July of 1955, the Convention on the Political Rights of Women,
prepared by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women,
came into force. With this protocol in place, the UN declared that
women now had equal rights in sixty-six countries, and that in no
more than fifteen were they still denied the right to vote. Schaefer also
saw progress in the vote by the General Assembly to work with the
Trusteeship Council and its Administering Authorities for educational
and legislative measures to develop the exercise of political rights by
women in the “trust”and “non-self-governing”territories.These UN protectorates, located mostly in the South Pacific, Africa, and Asia, were
ancestral, male-dominated societies, where the rights of women, and
their place in the life of the culture outside the home and family, were
not a high priority. Social custom, economics, and illiteracy were often
given as reasons why women were not allowed to exercise political
responsibility. Even with the most careful UN preparation and prompting, Schaefer believed that it would take extensive groundwork, and
much time and effort, even to introduce, much less implement,
women’s rights in these cultures.28
Another godsend for those working for improvement of the status
of women came from the Economic and Social Council itself, which
approved all the resolutions submitted that year by its Commission on
the Status of Women, of which Schaefer was, more than ever, an energetic and influential member. Three proposals were of greatest concern to her. The first called on non-governmental organizations, such
as WUCWO, to continue developing means of “citizenship education”
for women, so that they might exercise their responsibilities effectively
in their own countries.The second recommendation suggested that all
members of the United Nations promote and set in motion equality of
access to education for women.The third proposal advanced the application of the equal pay for equal work principle and the measures
27

Ibid., pp. 18-19.
ANCWC: International Affairs: United Nations: UN Office: Annual Report: 1954:
NCWC Office for United Nations Affairs and Bureau of Information (Washington, D.C.
Printed by the Administrative Board: NCWC, but not for Publication, 1954), p. 18; Annual
Report: 1956, p. 27.
28

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“THE STATUS OF WOMEN”

submitted by the International Labor Organization (ILO), a UN-related
group, concerning that standard.29
Schaefer also outlined in her Annual Reports for 1954 and 1955
other projects in which she was involved as a member of the Women’s
Commission. She had submitted contributions to the Commission’s
reviews on part-time work for women and work of older women, and
had, through the UN Office and the American affiliate of WUCWO, the
NCCW, circulated to governments for comments a new text of the
“Draft Convention on Nationality of Married Women,” which enabled
these women to retain their own nationality on marriage to an alien
and precluded routine imposition of the husband’s nationality.
Schaefer noted in a memorandum attached to this text that Catholic
NGOs were committed to a policy of drawing attention to the social
and moral implications of the purely legal principles that were being
put forth and to a full review and study by the Women’s Commission,
and by other relevant commissions of the ECOSOC, of the all-encompassing family and community context in which marriage existed.30
The final area of specific interest to the UN Office and WUCWO
dealt with the Commission’s “preoccupation with the status of women
in private that is, family, law.” Schaefer noted that while countries like
the United States did not favor specific recommendations in this area,
feeling that more could be gained by study and discussion, many of
“the so-called underdeveloped countries” welcomed them as tools to
help change conditions in their own nations. During the 1950’s, several
momentous, and in the long term, significant resolutions on this issue
were brought before the Women’s Commission. One recommended
that UN member states take measures with regard to certain practices,
notably prevalent in Africa, in order to ensure freedom in the choice of
spouse, to abolish the custom of the “bride price,” to eliminate child
marriages, and to ensure rights of widows to remarry and to retain the
custody of their children. In adopting this resolution, the Women’s
Commission had incorporated the recommendations of WUCWO,
which had been presented by Schaefer and Zizzamia “both in oral
interventions and in contacts with delegates.31
29

Ibid., pp. 18-19.
Ibid., p. 19; ANCWC: International Affairs: United Nations: UN Office: Annual
Report: 1955: NCWC Office for United Nations Affairs and Bureau of Information
(Washington, D.C. Printed by the Administrative Board: NCWC, but not for Publication,
1955), pp. 34-35.
31
Annual Report: 1954, p. 19.
30

BY JOSEPH S. ROSSI, S.J.

311

As the year 1955 progressed, the two women took part in discussions on two more resolutions brought before, and eventually adopted
by, the Women’s Commission.The first dealt with “equality as between
parents in the exercise of rights and duties with respect to their children”; the second fostered the right of a married woman “to an independent domicile.” Quite apart from some degree of “feminism” among
certain delegates, and Soviet propaganda that claimed to advocate
women’s rights, Schaefer noted there was in the Commission’s promotion of these questions a great deal of genuine preoccupation with
those legal systems that discriminated against the mother’s guardianship or custody of her children in the case of the father’s death or in
cases of separation and divorce. For instance, to many “experts” the
matter of domicile seemed to be chiefly a legal one, but Schaefer,
Zizammia, and their Catholic allies underscored stubbornly the social
and ethical ramifications of otherwise abstract legal theories and the
need for a complete assessment and analysis of these principles in
light of a familial and communal framework.32
One of Zizzamia’s interventions on the details of family law pointed
out that in this field it was unwise to make general recommendations.
Specific proposals were made, however, to provide for “simple freedom
and human dignity of women” in certain areas of Africa.This intervention, and ensuing private consultations with certain delegates, led to the
adoption of her recommendations by the UN Commission on the Status
of Women.33 In addition, presentations on the education of women for
civic responsibility and work for older women by the two WUCWO representatives were reiterated in important statements given by several
UN delegates, and ultimately, inserted into the Commission’s final resolutions.Three delegates, including one from the United States, took the
opportunity in their remarks to enumerate the accomplishments of
WUCWO. Schaefer also was credited with the withdrawal by one delegate of “a resolution of doubtful implications” on equal pay concerning
principal breadwinners, an action taken by him after he had consulted
with her. Her written intervention on this issue was reprinted in the
United States in a journal entitled “The Equal Pay Bulletin.”34
The NCWC UN Office closely monitored developments at the UN
regarding women’s civic responsibility.Working in tandem with Mary
32

Annual Report: 1955, p. 35.
Ibid., pp. 19-20.
34
Ibid., p. 20.

33

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“THE STATUS OF WOMEN”

Lord, the United States delegate to the UN Human Rights
Commission, Schaefer had been one of several women NGO consultants to sponsor and attend “small conferences” at the US Mission to
discuss the ramifications of the political franchise for women, principally in the Third World.35
Finally, Schaefer regularly scheduled WUCWO consultations with
national delegations, individual UN delegates, and members of the staff
of the United Nations Secretariat, and since the Office for UN Affairs
was recognized as an international Catholic research center, assistance
was routinely sought by Catholic NGOs preparing statements to be
delivered before UN commissions and boards.This was true especially
with regard to women’s issues, because the library of the NCWC
Office had extensive holdings on subjects such as family law and stability, women’s political rights in the UN Trust Territories, and stateenforced discrimination against mothers.
In the midst of all their WUCWO activities, Schaefer and Zizzamia
did not shirk their tactical social obligations.To cite only two examples
from the year 1954, briefing, consultation, and entertainment services
were furnished to Dr. Helene Weber, a member of the German
Bundestag and the Council of Europe, who attended the sessions of
the UN Commission on the Status of Women as an extraordinary representative of WUCWO.The UN Office also provided assistance in the
same year to the Vice-President of WUCWO in entertaining delegates,
NGO representatives, and other officials of the United Nations.36
Seen in toto, the years from 1954 to 1956 were among the busiest
ever for Schaefer and Zizzamia. As a matter of course, as WUCWO consultants they would do their preliminary informational work at UN
headquarters and its various agencies. WUCWO would then use the
intelligence it received from them to develop and conduct surveys
among its national affiliates. Lastly, it would make recommendations,
and even policy, based on its appraisal of these studies. At this time,
for instance,WUCWO was primarily interested in education of women
for civic responsibility, work for older women, and the development of
UN family law, with particular reference to fundamental rights of
women in Africa. Toward the last goal, status-of-women survey questionnaires were sent to WUCWO contacts in Africa, and deliberations
35
36

Annual Report: 1956, p. 29.
Ibid.

BY JOSEPH S. ROSSI, S.J.

313

and responses from African women were encouraged.37 This extensive
process, one of many carried out during the period, was launched from
the UN Office in New York, and would most likely have been impossible for WUCWO without the link between it and the NCWC.
By the year 1959-60, Catholic NGOs, now referring to themselves as
a conference of International Catholic Organizations (ICOs), had
turned their attention, more than ever, to the role of women in the
Third World, thanks in large part to the efforts of Schaefer and
Zizzamia.The ICOs held their annual meeting in Munich, Germany, that
year; its theme was Technical Assistance to Underdeveloped Nations.
Because of this topic, and because the Roman Catholic International
Eucharist Congress was likewise convening in that city, many visitors
from Asia,Africa, and Latin America attended.The UN Office provided
authoritative materials regarding technical assistance to the ICO
preparatory commission. Catholic NGO consultants who attended this
conference, and who were also involved in New York with the UN
Commission on the Status of Women, maintained that they were able
to cultivate an even keener regard for the rights of women in the Third
World because of the work of the UN Office.38
The Commission on the Status of Women often concentrated its
efforts on the “underdeveloped areas” of the world, because it was in
these nations where women had not yet begun to be a factor in civic life.
In Africa, its work had been directed largely to family law, in large part
because Schaefer and Zizzamia were interested in this issue. In 1959, the
UN Office made arrangements for an African Missionary Sister, Soeur
Marie Andre,W.S., to attend the Commission sessions as a representative
of WUCWO, and further assisted her in preparations for her written and
oral interventions. One of her presentations was on free consent, abolition of child betrothal, the age of marriage without parental consent, and
the right of widows to the custody of their children; another centered on
the access of African women and girls to education.39
For those at the UN involved in issues related to the status of
women, the two most significant events of 1959-60 were the 1960
37

Annual Report: 1954, p. 19.
ANCWC: International Affairs: United Nations: UN Office: Annual Report: 1959:
NCWC Office for United Nations Affairs and Bureau of Information (Washington, D.C.
Printed by the Administrative Board: NCWC, but not for Publication, 1959), p. 21.
39
Ibid., p. 22.
38

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“THE STATUS OF WOMEN”

Women’s Commission meeting hosted by the government of Argentina
and the UN-sponsored Western Hemisphere Seminar on “Participation
of Women in Public Life,”held in Bogotá, Colombia, from May 18 to May
29, 1959. Prior to the latter, detailed information on arrangements and
general trends was supplied by the UN Office to WUCWO headquarters in Paris. This enabled it to alert its affiliates about the Bogotá
Seminar itself, and the process whereby a country’s delegates were to
be named. Alba Zizzamia represented the WUCWO at the Bogotá conference. Because the majority of delegates were from the overwhelmingly Catholic countries of Latin America, the sessions at Bogotá
reflected, in general, traditional Catholic values with respect to the role
of women in the family and society, and the interrelationship of community and family, values that WUCWO consultants in New York had
been championing for many years. The seminar’s recommendations
aimed at promoting the civic education of women at all levels, and
equal rights and opportunities with respect to education, employment, public government service, and “legal personality.” Participation
in women’s organizations was stressed, especially in the national affiliates of international organizations. The theme was summed up by
Zizzamia as “an appeal to women to make the personal sacrifices necessary to participate in community and public life and to bring to their
betterment a specific contribution as women.”40
The most controversial issue considered at Bogotá, and at the
numerous subsequent discussions held in Latin American capitals, had
been female prostitution, a social evil that figured prominently in that
region and in other Third World nations. Once Zizzamia returned to
New York, she collected material from affiliates of the International
Catholic Association of Works for the Protection of the Young Girl and
from WUCWO itself. On the basis of this information, Schaefer made an
intervention to the Social Action Commission of ECOSOC. She advocated ratification of the International Convention on the Suppression
of the Exploitation of Prostitution of Others, inclusion of this subject
in the agenda of the World Congress on Prevention of Crime that was
to be held in London in 1960, and governmental co-operation with,
and assistance to, NGOs working in the field of “protection.”41 The last
involved matters such as travel-aid services, vocational training, youth
hostels, and employment services for women. Because of her extensive
work in this matter, and by all accounts, her highly effective presenta40
41

Ibid., p. 22.
Ibid., pp. 22-23.

BY JOSEPH S. ROSSI, S.J.

315

tion before the Social Action Commission, the Vice-President of the
International Catholic Association of Works for the Protection of the
Young Girl extended to Schaefer an invitation to serve as a delegate at
something called the London Conference on Crime.42
By 1960, the Commission on the Status of Women, like other UN
agencies, was coming under growing pressure from member states,
primarily the nations of the Third World, to take not only its work, but
also more of its working sessions, out of New York and other First
World capitals. This theory contended that it was better for UN commissions that administered the activities of the world body to meet in
different areas of the world, such as South America, so as to come into
more substantive contact with the peoples they were proposing to
serve. The meeting in Bogotá had been a direct result of this controversy, as was the last session of the Women’s Commission for the 195960 UN Year held in Buenos Aires; the latter, like Bogotá, naturally drew
a disproportionate representation from women’s organizations from
all over Latin America.This assembly also spawned other women’s conferences in South America: Buenos Aires was preceded by a
Communist women’s meeting in Chile, and followed up by an assembly for Catholic women in Venezuela.43
The most important work of the Buenos Aires meeting, which
Schaefer attended, was the completion of a draft convention to be submitted to the ECOSOC. It assigned fifteen as the minimum age for marriage for both men and women, declared marriages invalid without the
full and free consent of both parties, and required governmental marital registration. The protocol was geared particularly to meet conditions in areas where absence of free consent, polygamy, child
betrothal, and abuses such as bride-price customs acknowledged no
fundamental rights for women. Schaefer made several formidable oral
and written interventions, in which she presented analyses based on
information that WUCWO had gleaned from ninety-two of its local
affiliates and from its correspondents in nineteen territories around
the world. Another “important recommendation” made by several
Catholic NGOs under Schaefer’s leadership was that “out-of-school”
education for women should be vigorously developed. This recommendation had broad appeal at Buenos Aires, because, although
WUCWO and the NCWC Office first advanced it, it was also based on
42
43

Ibid., pp. 23-24.
Annual Report: 1960, p. 16.

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“THE STATUS OF WOMEN”

a report furnished by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The NCWC UN Office provided all
Catholic representatives, both in person and through correspondence,
briefings on these two subjects well in advance of Buenos Aires.44
At conferences such as Bogotá and Buenos Aires, and at UN sessions
in New York, Schaefer and Zizzamia continued to couple the status of
women scrupulously to Catholic principles on marriage, children, and
the family. An excellent example of this can be seen in the discussions
on Article 22 of the UN Draft Covenant on Human Rights, adopted by
the General Assembly in 1962.The article reads as follows:
1. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is
entitled to protection by society and the State. 2. The right of men and
women of marriageable age to marry and to found a family shall be recognized. 3. No marriage shall be entered into without the free and full consent
of the intending spouse. 4. States Parties to this Covenant shall take appropriate steps to ensure equality of rights and responsibilities of spouses as to
marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. In the case of dissolution,
provision shall be made for the necessary protection of the children.45

Schaefer reported that the debate on the last sentence included some
discussion of the rights of the illegitimate child. The government of
Communist Poland submitted a text for a new article on the special protection due to the child by society and the “State”without distinction as
to birth, in or out of wedlock. Although the representatives of WUCWO
were forceful in their defense of the welfare of all children, whether
legitimate or illegitimate, they expressed their apprehensions about the
emphasis of the Polish revision, because it highlighted the statist point
of view that government alone, and not voluntary organizations such as
the Catholic Church, was responsible for the children in a state.46
In that same year, the Third Committee of the General Assembly completed a Draft Convention on Free Consent, Minimum Age, and
Registration of Marriage.This convention had first been suggested by a
UN conference that convened in 1956 to draw up a supplementary con44

Ibid., pp. 16-17.
ANCWC: International Affairs: United Nations: UN Office: Annual Report: 1962:
NCWC Office for United Nations Affairs and Bureau of Information (Washington, D.C.
Printed by the Administrative Board: NCWC, but not for Publication, 1962), pp. 11-12.
46
Ibid., p. 12; Mary Ann Glendon, A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (New York: Random House, 2001), pp. 92-93.
45

BY JOSEPH S. ROSSI, S.J.

317

vention on the abolition of slavery. After a nearly two-year study on marriage laws and customs in all parts of the world, the Commission on the
Status of Women prepared a draft, for which information was supplied
both by sympathetic governments and NGOs.WUCWO, through the UN
Office,had been able to provide the Commission with extensive studies,
surveys, reports, and evaluations from its many affiliates throughout the
world.Thanks to this wealth of information, Schaefer and Zizzamia were
able to make effective interventions before several sessions of the
Commission as it was preparing its draft for the Assembly.47 The
Commission at first contended that the three areas of the world in
which the convention would have greatest impact were Africa, Asia, and
the Islamic world, but Schaefer interjected that it would also affect particular customs among some Indian tribes in Latin America, especially in
Brazil, because its aim was the abolition of the abuses of child betrothal,
child marriage, polygamy, and the bride price. Furthermore, while
polygamy did not figure in the text of the Assembly’s Draft Convention,
African women delegates, including several Catholic women associated
with WUCWO, counseled by Alba Zizammia, mentioned its indignities.
These interventions were so persuasive that they prompted a defense of
the custom by the Prime Minister of Nigeria,“attended by the respectful
interest of all Muslim delegates.”48
In one particular instance, a Catholic woman delegate from Togo
played an important part in these deliberations. A corresponding
member of WUCWO’s Executive Board, she spoke out against
polygamy in Africa at the sessions of the UN General Assembly devoted
to the Draft Convention on Free Consent, Minimum Age, and
Registration of Marriage. She would later play a conspicuous role in the
debates on the floor of the Assembly, and later wrote an article on the
family as it was envisioned in the UN Draft Covenant on Human Rights.
Schaefer and Zizzamia maintained close contact with her and with
other friendly delegates as well. For its part, WUCWO furnished her
with information on marriage customs and laws from many areas in
Africa, and this information proved vital both to this Catholic delegate
and to other opponents of family and marriage abuses.49

47
ANCWC: International Affairs: United Nations: UN Office: Annual Report: 1956:
NCWC Office for United Nations Affairs and Bureau of Information (Washington, D.C.
Printed by the Administrative Board: NCWC, but not for Publication, 1956), p. 28; Annual
Report: 1957, pp. 20, 27.
48
Annual Report: 1962, p. 12.
49
Ibid., p. 13.

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“THE STATUS OF WOMEN”

The linking of the three subjects of the Convention, namely, child
betrothal, child marriage, and the abuses of the bride price, to the general status of women was once again raised in the 1962 UN General
Assembly discussions on the Draft Convention. This gender position
was the point of departure for an important segment of the subsequent
work of the UN Commission on the Status of Women pertaining directly
to the family. Up to this time, the Commission had held two seminars
on Family Law, one in Bucharest and the other in Tokyo. Problems such
as parental authority, inheritance laws, and matrimonial systems were
addressed at these meetings.50 A final regional seminar on this topic,
this one for Latin America, was scheduled for Colombia in 1963.
The relationship between child betrothal, child marriage, polygamy,
and the bride price—all abuses generally attributed to the Third
World—and the status of the rights of women everywhere, was
WUCWO’s chosen domain, and it approached these regional commission sessions with its customary thoroughness. Over the years 196263, consequently, the UN Office would supply documents and materials on all these matters to Catholic NGOs and “competent authorities
and interested organizations,” the latter being Schaefer’s pat phrase for
UN officials and non-Catholic NGOs.To cite only one instance, special
briefings by Schaefer and Zizzamia were provided to the representative of the Catholic International Union of Social Service at the Tokyo
Seminar, who later expressed her indebtedness also for introductions
to key members of the UN Women’s Commission.51
In the introduction to her annual report for that year, therefore,
Schaefer had every reason to be confident in her hope for the future
success of the United Nations, especially in the area of women’s
rights.52 The year 1962 had been, after all, the year in which that
extraordinary African woman from Togo had played such a singular
part in the floor debates of the UN General Assembly on the Draft
Covenant on Human Rights. Schaefer and Zizzamia’s liaison with her,
and with other key participants, had proved remarkably productive.
50

Ibid.; Annual Report: 1963, p. 13.
ANCWC: International Affairs: United Nations: UN Office: Annual Report: 1963:
NCWC Office for United Nations Affairs and Bureau of Information (Washington, D.C.
Printed by the Administrative Board: NCWC, but not for Publication, 1963), pp. 1, 13-14;
Annual Report: 1962, p. 13.
52
ANCWC: International Affairs: United Nations: UN Office: Annual Report: 1964:
NCWC Office for United Nations Affairs and Bureau of Information (Washington, D.C.
Printed by the Administrative Board: NCWC, but not for Publication, 1964), p. 4.
51

BY JOSEPH S. ROSSI, S.J.

319

WUCWO had contributed data and other particulars on fundamental
topics that had proved indispensable to this eloquent Catholic
reformer. It most probably appeared to Schaefer that 1962 had furnished once and for all incontrovertible proof that if the NCWC
worked in tandem with an international Catholic organization like
WUCWO, it would redound to the benefit of an estimable cause such
as the rights of women, which Schaefer believed to be a hallmark of
Catholic social thought and a boon to the welfare of humankind.53
Besides its efforts on behalf of women’s rights in the drafting of the
UN Covenant, the NCWC UN Office was also engaged at this time in
another fractious women’s debate at the UN: the question of the desirability of work outside the home by mothers.The subject of “crèches”
or day nurseries, first considered by the UN Commission on the Status
of Women in 1962, had been originally proposed by some of its
Communist members. Schaefer reported that the matter had been continually postponed at various sessions, because many delegates thought
that it was more properly the province of the ECOSOC Social Action
Commission, and because it was evident that discussions on the topic
had been routed not only to day care, but also to the justification of the
state’s prerogative to constrain mothers to work outside the home.The
Commission’s deliberations, however, bolstered by Schaefer’s research
and her numerous interjections during the debates, supported by “scientific background documents,” ultimately championed
the duty of mothers to care for their children, the inadequacy of day care
centers as substitute care where the child had to be deprived of its own
family home environment, the absolute inadvisability of crèches for children under three and the necessity of preserving freedom of choice as to
whether mothers would or would not work.54

The resolution adopted by the Social Council of the UN
Commission on the Status of Women, and supported by Schaefer,
authorized, as both a way to checkmate the Communist delegates and
as a means of further clarification on the subject, more information
from the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Labor
Organization, and the International Children’s Center.The basis for this
policy, which necessitated input from these international and UN agencies, was that it would be necessary to deal in the future with the prob53
54

Annual Report: 1962, pp. 13-14.
Ibid., p. 17.

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“THE STATUS OF WOMEN”

lem of providing home aid services, visiting nurses, day nurseries, and
family allowances, particularly for children of working women.55
The Social Council also was mandated primarily to take account of
the needs of working mothers in its consideration of family and child
welfare, and, subsequently, inform the Status of Women Commission of
the various studies and recommendations in this field. Schaefer had
been at pains to note for the benefit of the members of the Council
that WUCWO had developed many such studies on women’s and
family matters, studies she hoped would be of use in the development
of its final report to the full UN Commission.56
In reviewing 1962-63, Schaefer could report that from the viewpoint of economic, social, and cultural development, and from the general perspective of political maturity, which she deemed the main concerns of the developing countries, all UN bodies had expanded their
emphasis on the pivotal role of women.The improvement of the status
of women and the development of women’s rights, along with the
defense and preservation of existing family values and the elimination
of the most deplorable customs and abuses, had been some of the
most daunting moral challenges for these countries. These goals had
unique significance not only for Catholic women in the Third World,
but also at the UN, where people like herself hoped for the continued
promotion of the Christian family.57
Since its inception, the primary mission of the UN Commission on
the Status of Women had been to work for equality of rights for both
men and women. Schaefer was pleased to report that the initial “rather
doctrinaire” approach of the Commission, when its membership had
consisted largely of delegates from Western nations, had softened in the
face of the practical problems faced by women and their families in the
developing world. The members of the Commission from the Third
World,and the representatives of international organizations from Africa,
Asia,and Latin America,many of whom were Catholics who had testified
before the panel, had contributed mightily to that alteration.58 Members
of the Women’s Commission had the opportunity to be exposed to Latin
American Catholic thought through the interjections of certain women
55

Ibid.
Ibid.
57
Ibid., pp. 17-18.
58
Ibid.

56

BY JOSEPH S. ROSSI, S.J.

321

delegates and representatives from that continent in joint discussions
with the Human Rights Commission, and through the workings of its
own Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination.The Women’s
Commission also maintained formal relations with the Catholic-dominated Inter-American Commission of Women, a component part of the
Organization of American States (OAS), which reported, as a matter of
course, to the UN panel on an annual basis.59
By 1962, the Women’s Commission was being regularly, if unofficially, briefed on Catholic thought concerning the rights of women and
the role of the family in modern life through its ongoing association
with Catholic NGOs such as Schaefer and Zizammia. Consultant
groups such as WUCWO, to name only the most significant of these
organizations, were to be found throughout the UN structure, and
especially in the ECOSOC, of which the Commission on the Status of
Women was an integral part. Schaefer often remarked that to a much
greater degree than any other bureau of the United Nations, the
Commission on the Status of Women relied on interaction with accredited NGO representatives, especially in the procuring of reliable data
about the conditions of women in specific areas of the world. In many
cases, this intelligence came from eyewitnesses associated with NGO
regional branches.The Commission also counted on NGOs to provide
news and intelligence for its reports and studies, and in the promotion
and implementation of its recommendations.60
In that same year, Schaefer reported that relations between the
Women’s Commission and NGO representatives were proceeding on
the national level through reciprocal participation in seminars sponsored both by the Commission and by different women’s organizations.
Largely because of this co-operation, the impact of the Commission’s
work was more widespread at the grass-roots level than that of most
United Nations programs. She cited as an example the fact that twentysix international organizations had participated in its spring 1962 sessions, including five Catholic groups. Many of the delegates on the
Commission were also officers or influential members of international
women’s organizations that sponsored programs worldwide. Both
Schaefer and Zizzamia were active in several Commission subcommittees,61 while maintaining a productive and highly professional consul59

Ibid., p. 18.
Ibid.
61
Ibid., pp. 18-19.

60

322

“THE STATUS OF WOMEN”

tative relationship with its Steering Committee, particular members of
that Commission, and with “related sections of the United Nations
Secretariat.”Therefore, these women were able to keep abreast of the
UN-related programs and activities of many different international
women’s organizations; in turn, they kept the Women’s Commission
and its associated women’s consultants apprised of the plans, studies,
and operations of WUCWO, as well as other Catholic NGOs. Conversely,
these WUCWO representatives disseminated through the UN Office a
constant stream of information on UN policies on women and specifics
about its international women’s programs to both religious and lay
groups in developing countries, potential recipients of aid from these
projects.To cite but one instance from 1962,a member of the UN Office
staff was invited to give a seminar to a large gathering of Maryknoll
Mission Sisters on sabbatical at their Mother House in upstate New York
after ten years of service in the foreign missions.62
With all these NCWC and WUCWO triumphs to build on, Schaefer
and Zizammia must have believed at the beginning of 1963 that the
brightest prospects for the status of women lay ahead. Within a year,
however, something changed unaccountably. In the Human Rights section of her 1963-64 Annual Report, Schaefer, breaking with tradition,
inserted only a brief summary, little more than a sketch really, of UN
activities relating to the Commission on the Status of Women. Even
more puzzling, she failed to catalogue the activities of the UN Office,
or of WUCWO, concerning women’s rights. She noted only that “legal
assurance of political rights for women throughout the world is now
almost complete,” an incongruous assertion, considering that the
Commission had in no way satisfactorily discharged its mandate. On
the contrary, its membership was girding itself for the next round of
the ongoing struggle, namely,“the promotion of the exercise of these
rights through civic and political education, with emphasis on the
social context of civic responsibilities,” issues dear to Schaefer’s heart.
The Commission was likewise immersed in preparing a handbook on
the subject, a manual aimed especially at the persistent challenges to
women’s rights in the developing world, a project that the
NCWC/WUCWO team, notably Zizzamia, would tackle with fervor.63
Yet, even in this peculiarly terse report, speaking with the authority of
an UN insider, Schaefer was never less than eloquent when laying out
the specifics of a women’s rights strategy.
62
63

Ibid., 19.
Annual Report: 1963, pp. 13-14.

BY JOSEPH S. ROSSI, S.J.

323

The importance of the advancement of women in developing countries to
the human, social and economic goals of the Development Decade [the
1960s as proclaimed by the UN], is a new element in the work of the
Commission, which has recommended a comprehensive campaign through
intensified action of UN agencies and governments and closer cooperation
from international non-governmental organizations. Education, vocational
training, community development, increased opportunities for employment—by technical assistance, national planning, public opinion—are
among means that will be used.64

Up to 1962, WUCWO’s clout as an NGO dedicated to the rights of
women everywhere, and to the championing of the Catholic perspective, had never been more pronounced within the Women’s
Commission, and Schaefer’s and Zizammia’s roles as NGO consultants
and liaisons between the NCWC and WUCWO had never been of
greater consequence; yet the puzzling silence continued in the annual
reports for 1964 and 1965: they contained not a word about the “status
of women” or UN Office’s function in that enterprise.
The answer to this baffling quiet was to be found in Washington,
D.C., not in New York.The National Catholic Welfare Conference was
in financial difficulties,“tight finances,” and was about to begin the initial stage of a transformation, a bureaucratic and fiscal metamorphosis,
into the joint organization that would come to be called the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops/United States Catholic Conference.
The reforms and innovations advanced by Vatican Council II would
bring about many changes in the Catholic Church in the United States
and its executive offices. Ironically, even as the American bishops were
being lauded by the Ecumenical Council for their “venerable” experiment in collegiality, an example held up to the universal Church for
emulation, the NCWC was preparing, as was America itself during the
Vietnam era, to turn inward, electing to concentrate on the profound
internal issues that consumed American Catholicism.
On June 30, 1972, in a controversial decision, the NCCB/USCC
closed its UN Office, believing incorrectly that the Holy See’s
Permanent Observer Mission now rendered an official American
Catholic presence at the UN diplomatically unnecessary, and prohibitively expensive. With this, Catherine Schaefer retired to her home in
Washington, D.C., after five decades of service to the Catholic Church.

64

Ibid., p.14.

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“THE STATUS OF WOMEN”

She died in 1995 after a long illness. Alba Zizzamia would go on to
work for the Archdiocese of New York as its Director of Justice and
Peace, retiring from that post in 1996.
In that early summer of 1972, Schaefer and Zizammia could look
back with humble satisfaction on a quarter-century of extraordinary
service as UN observers/consultants. They had been among the first
NGOs to put forth women’s rights as a topic for UN discussion, even
before formal deliberations began on the United Nations Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. During three crucial decades of UN history, they had been the earliest and foremost spokespersons for the
“Catholic circle” on the matters of divorce, prostitution, polygamy,
child betrothal and marriage, venereal disease, the rights of parents in
the education of their children, and equal pay, political education, and
equal educational opportunities for women, especially in the developing nations. In these matters, they had many notable successes, such as
women’s education, and more than a few failures, particularly divorce,
but soaring over all these efforts was one undoubted achievement,
their creation and cultivation of the group of Catholic NGOs, many of
them women’s organizations, that worked so cohesively to present the
Catholic voice on human rights, social affairs, and the status of women
in the UN.The journal Commonweal said it best: they had “conscientiously sought to fashion a Christian response to the problems and
decisions of the UN itself.”65
The struggle for the Christian response to international women’s
rights would now be taken up by these other Catholic NGOs, many of
whom Schaefer and Zizzamia had tutored over the years. In 1977, this
group would constitute itself officially as the Conference of
International Catholic Organizations.66

65

Commonweal, November 5, 1971, pp. 123-124.
Joseph Rossi, Uncharted Territory: The American Catholic Church at the United
Nations, 1946-1972 (Washington, D.C., 2006), pp. 226-242.
66

REVIEW ARTICLE

OF MISSIONS AND MODELS:
THE JESUIT ENTERPRISE (1540-1773)
REASSESSED IN RECENT LITERATURE
BY

SIMON DITCHFIELD*
Titles in order of consideration:
The Society of Jesus, 1548-1773. A catalogue of books by Jesuit authors and
works relating to the Society of Jesus published between 1548, with the
firstprinting of Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises, and the suppression of the Society in 1773. By Detlev Auvermann and Anthony Payne, with
an introduction by Alastair Hamilton. (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd. 2006.
n.p. £50.00.)
The Jesuits and the Arts 1540-1773. Edited by John W. O’Malley, S.J., and
Gauvin Alexander Bailey. (Philadelphia: Saint Joseph’s University Press.
2005. Pp. xv, 496; 476 color illus. $50.00.)
The Jesuits II: Cultures, Sciences and the Arts, 1540-1773. Edited by John
O’Malley, S.J, Gauvin Alexander Bailey, Steven J. Harris, and T. Frank Kennedy,
S.J. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2005. Pp. xxxvi, 905, 91 halftones,
8 tables, and one DVD. $95.00/£55.00.)
The Wily Jesuits and the Monita Secreta: The Forged “Secret instructions” of
the Jesuits. A History and a Translation of the “Monita.” By Sabina
Pavone.Translated by John P. Murphy, S.J. [Studies on Jesuit Topics, No. 28 in
Series IV.] (St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources. 2005. Pp. xxiii, 250.
$24.95 paperback.)
The Spiritual Writings of Pierre Favre. Translated and edited by Edmond C.
Murphy, S.J., and Martin E. Palmer, S.J. (St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit
Sources. 1996. Pp. xii, 437. $41.95 paperback.)
Year by Year with the Early Jesuits (1537-1556). Selections from the
“Chronicon” of Juan de Polanco S J.Translated and edited by John Patrick
Donnelly, S.J. (St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources. 2004. Pp. xix, 480.
$37.45 paperback.)
*Dr. Ditchfield is a reader in the Department of History in the University of York,
England.

325

326

OF MISSIONS AND MODELS

The Ratio Studiorum: The Official Plan for Jesuit Education.Translated and
annotated by Claude Pavur, S.J. (St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources.
2005. Pp. xxiii, 294. $29.95 paperback.)
Preaching Wisdom to the Wise: Three Treatises by Roberto De Nobili, S. J.,
Missionary and Scholar in 17th Century India.Translated with an introduction by Anand Amaladass, S.J., and Francis X. Clooney, S.J. [Jesuit Primary
Sources in English Translation.] (St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources.
2000. Pp. xxi, 345. $ 31.95 paperback.)
Evangelizzare il mondo: le missioni della Compagnia di Gesù tra Europa e
America (secoli XVI-XVII). By Paolo Broggio. (Rome: Carocci editore. 2005.
Pp. 364. €21.50.)
I gesuiti dalle origini alla soppressione, 1540-1773. By Sabina Pavone. (Rome,
Bari: Editori Laterza. 2004. Pp. ix, 168. €10.)
Jesuitische Missionierung, priesterliche Liebe, sakramentale Magie: Volkskulturen in Luzern, 1563-1614. By Dominik Sieber. [Luzerner Historische
Veröffentlichungen, Band 40.] Pp. 298, 19 illus. Sw. fr. 48; €33.50.)
“The world is our house,” wrote Jerónimo Nadal, one of Ignatius’s companions. Such an all-encompassing vision lay at the heart of the Society’s success
and goes far in explaining the astonishingly consistent willingness of its members to adapt themselves creatively to local circumstances from Milan to
Macau, Paris to Potosì, Vienna to Vietnam. It also represents a particular challenge, not only to this reviewer but also to the various authors and editors of
the works under review as they seek to impose a purposeful pattern and
attempt a balanced assessment of a contribution that was as various as the
individuals involved. Alastair Hamilton goes as far as stating:
[It was] precisely because of the vast area of Jesuit interests, [that] it is no
more possible to talk of a specifically Jesuit culture than it is to define a
specifically Jesuit style of art or architecture.The Jesuits made their contribution as individuals rather than as members of a group, and they were
absorbed by the various movements of the time. We thus find them on all
sides of the great scholarly debates, opposing and supporting Descartes,
Galileo and Newton, attacking or espousing the ideas of the Enlightenment,
traditionalist and progressive, but nearly always remarkably adaptable.1

1
Auvermann and Payne, The Society of Jesus, last page of the introduction. This
volume was first published in 1996 as Catalogue 1226 but has now been reissued in an
edition of 200 copies. Its succinct descriptions of the contents of 237 titles presented in
alphabetical order make it an invaluable resource for interested scholars. It may usefully
be consulted in conjunction with Quaritch’s Catalogue 1309: Jesuit Books: Books by
Jesuit Authors and Books Relating to the Society of Jesus from the Sixteenth to the
Eighteenth Century Including Science and Travel, (2003).This contains descriptions of

BY SIMON DITCHFIELD

327

In support of this contention, the pages of the antiquarian bookseller’s catalogue which follow his introduction eloquently testify to the versatility and
individuality shown by members of the Society as authors of works on subjects as diverse as optics (cat. 3), the use of plane mirrors in surveying (cat. 11),
geometry (cat. 16 and 210), atomic theory (cat. 17), the ruins of Troy (cat. 19),
conchology (cat. 26), the art of laquer (27), hydrostatics and mechanics (cat.
34 and 35), the Gregorian calendar (cat. 42), emblems (cat. 61), perspective
(cat. 65), horticulture (cat. 70 and 71), bookkeeping (cat. 73), astronomy (cat.
78 and 208), magnetism (cat. 106 and 111), dance (cat. 141), the law of contracts (cat. 153), art criticism (cat. 154 and 195), mathematics (cat. 15, 16, 40,
43, and 216), political theory cat. 200), and hydraulics (cat. 206).These topics
are, of course, over and above the more mainstream works of hagiography, martyrology, theology, history, catechesis, spirituality, and geographical description,
which make up the bulk of the catalogue.Whether or not such variety and versatility outweighed the corporate, collective identity felt by individual Jesuits
is an issue which, I believe, may be usefully kept in mind as a theme to link the
studies under review.
Turning to The Jesuits and the Arts, one’s very senses are at first overwhelmed by variety and abundance. This is a direct consequence of the
volume’s handsome size and format together with the sheer number of fabulously reproduced color illustrations. (The very reasonable pricing of the
volume is entirely due to the financial generosity of several Jesuit bodies, who
are fulsomely acknowledged in the preface.) As authors of standard works on,
respectively, the early history of the Jesuits and the global artistic patronage of
the Order before its suppression, O’Malley and Bailey are very well placed to
give coherence to the volume (this is demonstrated with particular force by
the latter, whose three authored chapters account for no fewer than 175 pages
out of the 426-page total). Although this volume has its origins as an Italian
book: Ignazio e l’arte dei Gesuiti (2003), edited by Giovanni Sale, the changes
and additions to this translation make it effectively a new one. Many of the
chapters have been updated, with a pioneering one added by Bailey on North
America. In addition, there are 184 new images in respect of the Italian original and both the captions and the bibliography have been expanded and
revised. The result represents, without any shadow of doubt, a triumphantly
successful tour d’horizon of both the world-wide scope and protean nature of
the Jesuit artistic enterprise, which deserves to become a fundamental point
of reference not only for interested scholars but also for the general reader

a further ninety-one titles, the majority of which are not to be found in the previous catalogue. Both catalogues testify to the particular richness of Jesuit intellectual endeavor
in the eighteenth century, a phenomenon which cannot simply be explained by reference to the accidents of survival. On the contrary, the rarity of Ruggero Boschovich’s
landmark study marking the birth of atomic theory: his Philosophiae naturalis (1755)
makes it the most expensive item by far in either catalogue (Catalogue 1309, item 7).

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OF MISSIONS AND MODELS

(footnotes have been eschewed and references kept to impressively up-to-date
chapter-by-chapter bibliographies at the end of the volume).
O’Malley sets the pace and standard of the volume with a lucid and suggestive account of how the Order quickly responded to the challenges of
worldwide mission by recourse to the arts, notwithstanding the fact that:
“Nothing in the Formula or in the behaviour of the Jesuits at the time of the
founding suggested any particular engagement with culture and the arts” (p.
4). For “practice almost immediately began to modify theory” (p. 6). Francis
Xavier, for example, fully recognized the pastoral potential of images. He took
with him to India in 1542 engravings, paintings, and statuettes, and in 1583 a
seminary of indigenous painters was founded in Japan (just five years after the
Accademia di S. Luca was established in Rome). Almost thirty years before
that, in 1556, a printing press had been installed in Goa in the very same year
that one was set up in the Collegio Romano, where just a decade later,Arabic
as well as Greek type were available.The powerful combination of print and
image was already in evidence by the century’s close with the publication of
Jerome Nadal’s beautifully illustrated and globally influential Evangelicae historiae imagines (1593) followed by his Adnotationes et meditationes in
Evangelia (1595). Designed to help young Jesuit seminarians to meditate on
the Gospels they had heard read at Mass, the second work combined engravings portraying episodes from the Gospels executed by the renowned Flemish
Wierix brothers with Nadal’s explanatory notes and interpretative meditations.2 All of this was, of course, fully in line with the notably visual nature of
meditation required by those taking Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises.
Nor were music and song ignored. For instance, Jesuits in Spain were quick
to set the catechism to popular tunes, thereby adopting the practice promoted
by Juan of Avila. Almost a third of the thirty-three chapters of Diego Ledesma,
S.J.’s Modo per insegnar (1573) is, for example, devoted to music. This was
despite the fact that Ignatius had famously insisted that members of the
Society must not be restricted by what he saw as the distractive burden of
having to sing the Daily Office in choir.Two years after the Jesuits took over
management of the Roman seminary in 1564, Palestrina was hired to teach.
This precedent continued to be honored with the appointment of MarcAntoine Charpentier to teach at the Collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris in the seventeenth century and of Domenico Zipoli to teach both mestizo and indigenous students at Córdoba in present-day Argentina in the eighteenth. Finally,
nor was the Order blind to the didactic and propagandistic possibilities

2

There is now a fully illustrated English translation of three key sections of the
Adnotationes underway.To date, two of the three volumes have been published: Jerome
Nadal, S.J. (trans. Frederick A. Homann, S.J. with an introductory study by Walter Melion),
Annotations and Meditations on the Gospels, Vol. I: The Infancy Narratives,
Philadelphia: St Joseph’s Press, 2003.Vol. III: The Resurrection Narratives was published
in 2005. Vol II: The Passion Narratives, is due imminently.

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offered by theater and dance for the students who attended the Jesuit-run colleges in both the Old and New worlds. Lope de Vega, Calderón, Andreas
Gryphius, Jacob Bidermann, Corneille, and Molière all received their first training in theater in Jesuit schools.3
Given the volume’s length, geographical scope, and overall quality, it is perhaps churlish to note that the rest of The Jesuits and the Arts does not quite
live up to the promise of O’Malley’s agenda-setting introduction with its exciting vision of Jesuit culture as multi-media performance.With the exception of
a single chapter each on theater and music, the book focuses overwhelmingly
on art and architecture, with a pronounced emphasis on the latter. In this
respect it reflects the particular interests of the original, Italian editor, Giovanni
Sale, whose own two chapters describe a Jesuit aesthetic that, to borrow the
words of Claudio Acquaviva (Father General, 1581-1615), should be above all
“simple, hygienic and functional . . . [and] designed for practical living and not
for pomp and ornamentation” (p. 33).4 In this respect, the size and magnificence of the Collegio Romano—a direct expression of the munificence of its
papal patron, Gregory XIII—was the exception that proved the rule.
Concomitant with Sale’s emphasis on austerity is his contention that we
cannot talk of an architectural colonization by means of paradigmatic models
carried out by the Jesuits from the Order’s Roman center. Sale adduces in support the failure of Giovanni de Rosis, who took over as the Society’s chief architect in 1575, to gain acceptance for his ideal designs for Jesuit churches as
templates for use throughout the provinces of the Order (p. 38, fig. 2.11).
It is against such a backdrop that we should judge the exceptional nature,
in every sense, of the special relationship between Gianlorenzo Bernini and
Gian Paolo Oliva (Father General, 1664-1681), as symbolized above all in the
baroque exuberance of the Jesuit novitiate of Sant’Andrea al Quirinale. Sale’s
chapter on the Gesù complements this picture by emphasising how the construction of the mother church of the Order was the product of a debate
between the donor (Cardinal Alessandro Farnese) and Francisco de Borja
(Father General, 1565-1572).While Farnese won with his insistence on an eastwest orientation and on the stone vault, he lost to Jesuit preference for a single
nave, while his death ensured that the plan to decorate the apse with mosaic
(in deference to paleochristian prototype) came to nothing. Although I think
that Sale overdoes the contrast between the “humanist” Farnese and the
“Counter-Reformation” Borja, he is right to draw attention to process as well as
product. Sale is also spot on when he reminds readers:“Saying that the Gesù
3

A recent catalogue of theatrical productions put on at the Collegio Romano in the
seventeenth century lists no fewer than 94 for the period 1616-1698. See Bruna Filippi,
Il Teatro degli Argomenti: gli scenari seicenteschi del teatro gesuitico romano,
Bibliotheca Instituti Historici S.J.,Vol. LIV (Rome, 2001), pp. 467-468.
4
See Giovanni Sale, Pauperismo architettonico e architettura gesuitica (Milan: Jaca
Book, 2001).

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OF MISSIONS AND MODELS

was the ‘prototype’ for the architecture of the Catholic reformation does not
mean that its design was mechanically reproduced in different parts of the
world without consideration given to particular local conditions. . .” (p. 59).
Citing Richard Bösel, he notes that of the 160 churches constructed by the
Jesuits in Italy, only thirty were influenced by the typology of the Gesù in
Rome. Also to be taken into account as alternative models were S. Fedele in
Milan as well as the Gesù in Naples and Genoa. Nevertheless, as Bösel’s own
substantial chapter on Jesuit architecture in Europe demonstrates, one can talk
meaningfully of a Jesuit “corporate consciousness,” which was built upon the
mobility of a great number of North Italian Jesuits who travelled throughout
central and eastern Europe and made their influence felt not just in Prague
but, earlier, in the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth, which in this period
extended to territories that today may be found in Ukraine and Belarus. From
the impressive, fortress-like Jesuit complex in Pinsk (Belarus) to the church of
St. John in Vilnius, one sees at work a willingness to adopt and adapt local
architectural forms (which here included the three bell towers and onion
domes from the Eastern Orthodox tradition).
Bailey’s chapter on the Jesuit artistic legacy in Europe 1565-1773 successfully focuses the insight and knowledge that he has brought to bear in his
monographic study of Jesuit art in Rome.5 He notes how the early proponents
of devotional imagery amongst the Jesuits included not only Loyola himself, in
the pictorial imagination of his Exercises, but also Borja, who compared
images to spices at a meal, capable of piquing the spiritual appetite and whose
eager endorsement and dissemination of the cult of the Salus Populi Romani
icon of the Madonna and Child launched what perhaps may be considered the
first truly global logo. For Bailey, the Jesuits “changed the way people used
devotional art, by emphasising its affective and didactic potential in a more systematic, sequential and experiential way than had been attempted before” (p.
125). There was a no more striking display of this strategy than the several,
gruesome martyrdom cycles which decorated the interior of the several Jesuit
seminaries for missionary priests, most famously at S. Stefano Rotondo, which
Bailey analyzes in some detail, observing rightly that any links contemporaries
made between such cycles and the Counter-Reformation struggle against
Protestant heresy were arguably of lesser significance “than the link to be
made between present-day [i.e., sixteenth-century] Catholicism and the Early
Church to celebrate the legitimacy of the papacy and of Rome” (p. 133). Bailey
concludes his continent-wide survey with the observation:
The Jesuits did not invent the Baroque, nor did they have a distinct style,
yet they were among the greatest patrons of art in early modern Europe.
Their most important contribution to church decoration was their treatment of the programmatic, meditative painting cycle. Using the Spiritual
5
Between Renaissance and Baroque: Jesuit Art in Rome, 1565-1610 (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 2003).

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331

Exercises and other devotions as a model, the Jesuits created a highly integrated network of imagery that extended throughout the interiors of their
churches and residences and addressed those in all walks of life. (p. 198)
Although as Evonne Levy has observed, we must be careful not to reduce the
complex and dynamic relationship between patron, artist, audience and programme to a simplistic translation of a text, in this case the Spiritual Exercises,
into image. Of particular value in Heinrich Pfeiffer’s well-structured chapter on
the iconography of the Society are the two sections devoted, respectively, to
cycles of Ignatius’ life produced in Europe and Latin America 1590-1720 and to
angels as favored themes in Jesuit commissioned art.6 As we shall see, Pierre
Favre was one of the first Jesuits to promote the belief that each person in life
was accompanied and protected by a special, guardian angel.The third chapel
on the right in the Gesù is, for example, entirely devoted to angels and features
biblical scenes in which they appear.
The role of the Jesuits as midwives of Western and non-European artistic
syncretism is most strikingly evident in the two chapters devoted to Spanish
America and Asia. In the former, Ramón Gutiérrez and Graciela María Viñuales
remind us of the diversity in origin of the Jesuits who worked in Central and
South America. Prominent here were the lay brothers from Italy, Germany,
Bohemia, France, Flanders, Hungary, and Holland as well as from Spain and
Portugal who worked as architects, sculptors, painters, musicians, and silversmiths and brought their own styles and working practices to bear on the
training of indigenous craftsmen. In Chile, for example, there was a striking
concentration of German lay brothers, the most important of whom was the
sculptor Johann Bitterich, who petitioned his superiors in the Society to send
out artists and craftsmen. In 1724, therefore, no fewer than fifteen architects,
woodcarvers, pewterers, smelters, potters, silversmiths, carpenters, lathe operators, cabinetmakers, blacksmiths, and weavers arrived, all of them Jesuits
(p. 299). They helped create an important center of production in Calera de
Tango.The indigenous artisans trained in such workshops undoubtedly made
possible the astonishingly hybrid artistic forms visible to this day, for example,
in the polychrome woodcarving carried out by Huilliche sculptors (p. 306, fig.
9.40) for the mission church of Santa Maria de Achao on the Chiloé archipelago in Chilean Patagonia. By contrast, the appearance of the wooden church
itself, in what remained the southernmost Catholic mission in the world
(founded in 1608) until modern times, would not have looked out of place in
a Swiss Alpine valley. Elsewhere in Southern America, this cultural hybridity
6

Cf.Trevor Johnson,“Guardian Angels and the Society of Jesus” in Peter Marshall and
Alexandra Walsham (eds.), Angels in the Early Modern World (Cambridge, 2006), pp.
191-213. Selections from influential writings on the guardian angel by the Jesuits
Francesco Albertini, Paolo Segneri,Andrea Da Pozzo, and others have now been conveniently collected together in Silvia Ciliberti and Giacomo Jori (eds.), Gli angeli custodi:
storia e figure dell’”Amico Vero” (Turin: Einaudi, 2004).

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OF MISSIONS AND MODELS

found more exotic expression in the so-called estilo mestizo, which is still
strikingly visibile, for example, in the façade of the Peruvian church of the
Society in Arequipa, where the background mosaic-like, floral, carved decoration was influenced by traditional Andean textiles.
In his chapter on Asia, Bailey distils and develops his previously published,
ground-breaking work on the topic and takes full advantage of the stunning
color illustrations at his disposal to demonstrate convincingly how the Jesuit
missions in China, Japan, India, and the Philippines “witnessed some of the
most high-level artistic exchanges in the early modern world [including
Europe]” (p. 313).7 Here he makes the significant point that a greater number
of Jesuit lay-brother and priest artists travelled to Asia between 1542 and 1773
than were sent to most other parts of the world “including many parts of
Europe, where Jesuit artists were in chronically short supply” (ibid.). The
Japanese seminary of painters, founded by Giovanni Niccolò in 1583, has
already been mentioned, but Bailey shows us that church architecture of the
Japanese mission was even more acculturative than the painting, making use
of local post and lintel construction with a hipped gable roof. In China, the
façade of St. Paul’s church in Macao is shown to be “a masterpiece of accommodation in the arts” (p. 334), in which a Roman baroque framework is decorated with Chinese motifs such as carp and temple lions as well as with
inscriptions in Chinese. The eighteenth-century Jesuit painter Giovanni
Castiglione (1688-1768) enjoyed direct imperial patronage and developed a
subtle and creative hybrid of Eastern conventions and Western realism (e.g.,
figs. 10.29 and 10.32). In the religiously tolerant atmosphere of the North
Indian court of the Mughal Emperors Akbar and Jahangir, Jerome Xavier
(1549-1617), grand-nephew of St. Francis and superior of the third Jesuit mission, wrote one (of several) Persian language catechisms with the help of the
imperial court historian Abd Al-Sattar Ibn Qasim Lahori with illustrations commissioned from Mughal artists likely led by Manohar.The result was possibly
“the most lavishly illustrated catechism of all time” in a style which married
the Indo-Persian idiom of the day, with rich landscapes and jewel-like colors,
to the deployment of stage-like architectural settings together with certain
mis-en-scène that clearly show the influence of Jesuit theatre” (p. 351 figs.
10.34-42).
If The Jesuits and the Arts leaves the reader dizzy at the diversity on show
and unsure of the existence of any coherent, collective identity for the individual members of the Order, what is one to make of the 800-plus pages of text
to be found in Jesuits II? As with the Hollywood blockbusters its title unavoidably calls to mind, one has to get beyond the “even bigger and even better”
trope the following statistics perhaps inevitably evoke. Jesuits II contains
thirty-seven chapters selected from sixty papers given at a conference in 2002,
7

Gauvin Alexander Bailey, Art on the Jesuit Missions in Asia and Latin America,
1542-1773 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999).

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333

as against thirty-two chapters selected from fifty papers given back in 1997,
which issued in Jesuits I (1999). At over one hundred pages, its index is twice
the length of that for the 1999 volume. Moreover, it includes new media (in the
form of a DVD) and at 905 pages is over 200 pages longer than its predecessor. But if one makes this effort, the reader is rewarded with a magisterially
introduced, carefully structured, and scrupulously edited collection that complements its predecessor in several important respects. To begin with, the
Jesuit contribution to science and natural philosophy is given just deserts with
its own section (part three) containing seven essays, which range chronologically from William Wallace’s fine study of Jesuit influences on Galileo’s science
to Ugo Baldini’s authoritative survey of the reception of Ruggero Boscovich’s
works on theoretical physics (that paved the way for Faraday and post-Faraday
field theory). In addition, the volume’s regional coverage is extended to cover
the Flemish and Iberian provinces (including a fine, thought-provoking essay
by Jeffrey Muller, showing the innovative and diverse uses of the visual arts by
the Jesuits in Flanders), as well as the missions to Japan and to post-suppression Russia and the United States. The performing arts are also more fully
treated here, with chapters on theater (essays on gesture, word, and image in
the Collegio Romano by Bruna Filippi and on eighteenth-century Milan by
Giovanna Zanlonghi) as well as on music (the latter with a bonus DVD of the
performance given at the conference in Boston in June 2002 of Johann
Bernhard Staudt’s opera Patientis Christi memoria).
Moreover, coverage of painting and architecture has been broadened to
include the decorative arts (with a fascinating essay by Nuno Vassalo e Silva
taking as its case study the woodcarving, tiles, textiles, furniture, and gold and
silverware which have miraculously survived in the church of the Casa
Professa of São Roque in Lisbon). Finally, more attention has been given to the
eighteenth century. As was noted in passing at the start of this review essay
(note 1), on the evidence of Quaritch’s catalogues, a book collector might be
forgiven for thinking that the 1700’s, not the 1600’s, constituted the true
“golden age” of the Order. However, part six of Jesuits II is wholly devoted to
a rather more downbeat account of this so-called “age of disasters” (although
Larry Woolf’s account of the Croatian Jesuit Einstein Ruggero Boscovich’s
“enlightened” othering of the poor and dirty Orthodox in the Balkans provides some upbeat relief). Here I must single out Dauril Alden’s masterly narrative of the campaign against the Jesuits in eighteenth-century Brazil (which
promises very well for his current work in progress, “The Destruction of an
Enterprise: The Jesuits in the Portuguese world and beyond, 1750-77”),
together with Ronnie Po-chia Hsia’s elegant account of the closing years of
the China mission (1748-1760), which he sees as having been in crisis long
before 1773 (as reflected in the fact that by 1740 the number of converts had
not only fallen in quantity, from 200,000 in 1700 to 120,000 in 1740, but also
in quality, as fewer and fewer converts came from the social elite; all this at a
time when the population of China doubled during the course of the eighteenth century).

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OF MISSIONS AND MODELS

Jesuits II therefore can be seen as not only complementing its predecessor,
but also The Jesuits and the Arts in both its geographical scope and its emphasis on the integral role played by the arts (as understood in the broadest sense)
in the Order’s way of proceeding.8 However, there are several essays in Jesuits
II which point to important themes whose exploration will, I believe, help us
take our understanding of the Society further by enabling us see it both as it
was seen by others and as Jesuits saw each other—on different sides of important debates. Part One of Jesuits II, entitled “The Society in Society,” contains
two essays which are particularly promising in this regard.The first, by Olwen
Hufton, invites us to consider the ‘modernity’ of the Jesuits from a novel angle:
as the first professional fundraisers. She emphasizes members’ ingenuity and initiative in the face of a succession of problems, which were both circumstantial
and structural. Emblematic of this challenge was the solution happened upon
for the foundation of the first Jesuit college in Messina, whereby the promise of
financial support by Leonor Osorio de Vega, wife of the Spanish Viceroy of
Sicily, Juan de Vega, prompted the civic government to offer to endow a residence and running costs on the implicit understanding that generous individuals (like de Vega) would also make financial contributions.
What worked for Sicily failed miserably for Modena and Ferrara, while Rome
and Florence proved difficult to crack. For example, the building of the Collegio
Romano, as we have seen, was saved only by direct papal patronage and the
Gesù through Farnese munificence. Hufton notes how the Order had expected
their major donors to be “great princes, wealthy dynasties and ecclesiastics
seeking commemorative building projects” (pp. 13-14), although in fact, pace
Gregory XIII and Alessandro Farnese in Rome, Duke Albert of Bavaria in
Ingolstadt, and Henry IV at La Flèche, the Jesuits found themselves relying especially on wealthy widows, who now controlled their own dowries (and who in
lands under Spanish jurisdiction controlled also 50% of the new wealth they
had accumulated after their marriage by their husbands). In general, civic governments were unreliable providers.When ancien régime central governments
needed money to service their debts, they bled the towns of their indirect tax
income. Under such circumstances, the running costs of existing Jesuit colleges
were especially vulnerable. Moreover, as themselves frequent investors in government or municipal debts via the form of juros (in Spanish territories) and
monti (in the Papal States), Colleges found themselves in trouble when their
interest rates were cut at times of crisis. Here the Society was not exempt from
the structural weakness of the ancien régime deficit funding.

8

There can be no longer any doubt that the fundamental contribution of the Jesuit
Order to science and natural philosophy now enjoys full scholarly recognition.To limit
myself to two recent English-language publications see: Mordechai Feingold (ed.), Jesuit
Science and the Republic of Letters (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2003) and
Katherine Park and Lorraine Daston (eds.), The Cambridge History of Science, Vol. 3:
Early Modern Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), ad indicem.

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335

The second article is a brilliant interpretation of the circumstances surrounding the publication and reception of the Monita privata Societatis Iesu
by Sabina Pavone, which usefully sketches in the themes elaborated in more
detail in her excellent monograph The Wily Jesuits.9 Published anonymously
in Cracow in 1614, but known from the start to have been written by a disgruntled former Jesuit Jerome Zahorowski, who had failed to pass his comprehensive examination in theology and so could not proceed to take his
fourth vow, this pamphlet claimed to be a transcription of the “secret constitution”of the Society. It comprised a set of brief instructions purportedly given
to members in the Order so that they might more effectively gain political
influence and reap considerable material benefits.To this end, there were initially sixteen directives of which the following are representative: “How our
men ought to win close familiarity with princes and aristocrats” (no. 2);“What
things should confessors of princes and magnates have at heart” (no. 4), and
“How the Society is to win over rich widows” (no. 5).10 Pavone explains the
enduring success enjoyed by this work (with eighteen printed editions published in the seventeenth century and twenty-seven between 1702 and 1767),
in terms of its very plausibility to non-Jesuits combined with the fact that its
concerns echoed debates within the Order itself. Several features of Jesuit
behavior were open to (mis)interpretation by outsiders as being ambiguous at
best and dissembling and secretive at worst, a danger which preoccupied the
Society at the highest levels from early on. In a letter of June 11, 1587, for example, General Acquaviva praised the superior of the German province for having
refused legacies in favor of the Society from several wealthy women so as to
protect the Society from possible scandal. In 1602, the same General sent to all
the provinces a directive with the title De confessariis principum in which
the limits of the confessor’s sphere of action were laid down. Moroever, the
missionary policy of accommodation was itself open to charges of cynical
pragmatism, as can be seen subsequently by the controversies within and outside the Order over the Malabar and Chinese rites. Also, as Pavone shows in
her monograph, the image of the “plotter” Jesuit was reinforced by contemporaries’ awareness of the formalized system of correspondence, in which there
was known to be a distinction made between “letters of edification” (to be circulated for general consumption in the form of the litterae annuae) and those
written for internal use. Such suggestion of a vast, all-encompassing network
of information—a kind of secret worldwide web before the letter—has been
a key component of conspiracy theories ever since.11
9
This was first published as: Le Astuzie dei Gesuiti: le false ”Istruzioni segrete” della
Compagnia di Gesù e la polemica anti-gesuita nei secoli XVII e XVII (Rome: Salerno
Editore, 2000).
10
An English translation of the 1667 Italian translation of the Monita in the Vatican
Library (Barb. lat. 5861) is given on pp. 217-233 of Pavone, The Wily Jesuits. Editions of
the Monita in both printed and manuscript form (1614-1996) are listed on pp. 234-242.
11
This essay is the nearest Jesuits II comes to discussing politics and diplomacy
which, on O’Malley’s own admission, is a lacuna of the volume. However, three recent

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OF MISSIONS AND MODELS

The three final essays to be considered from Jesuits II all come from part
five (“The Overseas missions: challenges and strategies”).Taken together with
those by Hufton and Pavone, I believe that they ask us to pay more attention
both to tensions within the Order and to ways in which the Society’s strategies for remembering and forgetting operated. The first essay, by Aliocha
Maldavsky, provides a revisionist account of how the Jesuits regarded the
acquisition of indigenous languages in the province of Peru (1568-1640).
Surprisingly, in the light of the considerable reputation members of the Order
have justly enjoyed for their linguistic prowess (itself the topic of an essay by
Peter Burke which considers Jesuit practitioners of the art of translation in the
Old World), her findings highlight the reluctance and hesitation such language
instruction encountered amongst some members of the Order. This was
despite unambiguous pronouncements on this point made by Francisco Borja
and reiterated by Claudio Acquaviva, whose requirements were also incorporated into the missionary strategy set out by José de Acosta in his authoritative
missionary manual De procuranda Indorum Salute (1589). Maldavsky uncovers evidence that knowledge of indigenous language was considered to be
merely a practical skill, not genuinely scholarly knowledge and so could be left
to local criollas and mestizos who were recruited to teach the Europeans.
This reluctance to learn local languages went hand in hand with a corresponding unwillingness to undertake missionary work amongst the indigenous peoples; in the eyes of more than a minority, pastoral work amongst the
Spanish settlers was to be infinitely preferred. Clearly, more work needs to be
undertaken to compare the differences between European and Latin American
theological and missionary training in the Order:“being a Jesuit did not have
the same meaning everywhere in the world” (p. 610).This emphasisis on local
difference lies at the heart of the essay by Charlotte de Castelnau-L’Estoile on
evangelizing strategies and missionary models in seventeenth-century Brazil.
Here the challenge was felt to be particularly tough. In 1557, less than ten years
after the Jesuits’ arrival, the provincial Manoel da Nórbrega summed up a widespread opinion when he wrote:“As these pagans [the Tupí] worship nothing,
and believe nothing, all that you can tell them amounts to nothing” (p. 616).
She focuses her attention on a slightly later figure, Francisco Pinto, who was
killed by Indians in northeastern Brazil in 1608 after many years of service as
a missionary. Pinto’s “solution” to the problem of proselytizing to the Tupí was
not only to become fluent in their language but to allow himself to be
regarded and used as a shaman-prophet by the indigenous peoples. Indeed,

works ably fill the gap: Robert Bireley’s The Jesuits and the Thirty Years’ War: Kings,
Courts and Confessors (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), Harro Höpfl’s
Jesuit Political Thought:The Society of Jesus and the State, c.1540-1630 (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2004), and Eric Nelson’s The Jesuits and the Monarchy:
Catholic Reform and Political Authority in France (1590-1615) (Aldershot: Ashgate,
Rome: Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 2005).

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337

after his death, the Jesuit missionary remained the property of the Indians he
had served in a literal sense. When Father Manuel Gomes tried to recover
Pinto’s bones in 1615, the Indians refused to hand them over for the reason
that Pinto’s remains brought rain and sun on their demand. By contrast, in
Jesuit circles Pinto’s violent death was met by silence. He had evidently “gone
native” in such a spectacular fashion to be beyond even rehabilitation as a missionary martyr. Selective memorialization is also a theme which shapes Haruko
Nawata Ward’s account of the important role played by women catechists in
the Jesuit mission in Japan. She has found evidence of about a dozen wellknown and numerous lesser-known female catechists. Her chosen three casestudies, all noble women, show that they ministered and acted as Jesuit coadjutors not only in women’s circles but also in the wider arena.
All five of these essays suggest that rather than a single or collective identity, “Jesuit” might be more helpfully understood as a dynamic cluster of identities that were continually in the process of renegotiation and recreation at
the hands both of outsiders and of the fathers themselves. Just how this
worked will be suggested below in relation to the four source editions to be
discussed and which together cover the more significant genres of writing that
the Jesuits used to narrate and negotiate their activities to themselves (and to
the world): spiritual autobiography and letters (Favre), chronicle (Polanco),
rules (Ratio studiorum), erudite polemic and dialogue (de Nobili). I have
chosen to consider them as a whole, notwithstanding the fact that in one case,
Favre, the edition is now ten years old, because taken together they make available for the first time in reliable English translation with light (but nimble)
scholarly apparatus significant selections from an important corpus of writings
from the first century of the Order’s history. (Allen Farrell’s 1970 version of the
Ratio studiorum and S. Rajamanickam’s translations of De Nobili have both
been long out of print.)
Although Favre’s Memoriale was known to several key figures in the early
days of the Society (Canisius, whom Favre had won over to the Order, quoted
from it and Orlandini made some use of it in his history of the Jesuits of 1594
as well as in his life of Favre of 1617), it did not appear in print in anything
approaching a reliable text until 1914 (when it was issued in Latin as volume
48 of the Monumenta Historica Societatis Iesu). The first priest of the Order,
Favre had been ordained in 1534, before either Ignatius or Xavier. His
Memoriale took the form of a diary from June 1542 to July 1543, which he
then took up again from January 1545 until the same month of the following
year, seven months before his death, in August 1546. To this may be added a
substantial retrospective account of his life from his birth in 1506 down to
1542, which he apparently wrote in the course of a single day (June 15, 1542).
As a genre of the Christian tradition, the spiritual diary can be traced back to
St. Paul’s account of his conversion on the way to Damascus (Acts 22:3-21;
26:9-20). In the later Middle Ages it came to be popularized by the
Netherlandish school of the Devotio moderna, whence early Jesuits including

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OF MISSIONS AND MODELS

Nadal, Canisius, Ribadaneira, and Juan de Vitoria, as well as Loyola and Favre,
adopted it as an aid to religious development through discernment of signs in
the world of daily experience that God had accepted the author.What was distinctive about Favre’s spiritual journal was the intense, daily devotion he
showed not only to the saint or saints whose particular feast day it was as well
as to patrons of the places he passed through on his ceaseless journeying
within and beyond the German-speaking lands (p. 80), but also to those saints
and guardian spirits (Favre was an early promoter of the cult of the guardian
angel) who watched over those he met (or had especial desire to meet). For
example, in June 1541, wanting to make contact with the dean of Speyer, so
that he could instruct the latter in the Spiritual Exercises, Favre found himself
inspired to pray to the saints for whom the dean might have a special spiritual
affection as well as to his guardian angel:“This practice seemed to me to be a
good way of attaining a person’s friendship” (p. 85). It is worth noting that
despite firsthand experience of Lutheran heresy during his extensive travels in
Germany (Favre had, inter alia, attended the Colloquy of Regensberg), his
Memoriale displays little to no interest in doctrinal definition or theological
dogma. Rather, he consistently strove to consecrate his life to a daily round of
prayer, structured by his private recital of the breviary which, as has been seen,
he also grounded thoroughly in the local cultic landscape.
The Chronicon of Juan de Polanco, who was secretary (“memoria y
manos”) to successive Jesuit Generals for twenty-six years from 1547, covers
the history of the Society, year by year from 1537 down to 1556. As befitting
the first archivist of the Society, it was conceived on a monumental scale; the
six volumes of the standard 1894-1898 Madrid edition run to 4,500 pages.
Although Polanco had been an eye-witness to many of the personalities and
events he described, the Chronicon was a retrospective composition (dictated
1573-1574) and designed not for publication but as a source book for later
(Jesuit) historians of the Order. Although Donnelly’s edition makes available
only 8% of the total, such is the clarity of his editorial principles and the
cogency of his rationale set out in the concise introduction, that I have no hesitation in recommending this volume as a vital vade mecum for anyone wishing to follow up issues raised or interests sparked by O’Malley’s classic, The
First Jesuits (1993). It constitutes essential reading for those seeking to understand the priorities of the Society in its first decades. Furthermore, its two
indexes—one of persons and places and the other of topics and ministries—
render it yet more useful. Representative of his conception of “our way of proceeding” is Polanco’s treatment of Favre in his narrative, where he noted how
the Frenchman:
did no preaching, but accomplished so much by the ministry of the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist, by holding private conversations and,
most importantly, by giving the Spiritual Exercises that Germans as well as
Italians and Spaniards, even men outstanding for their authority, dignity,
nobility and learning, exerted themselves to change their lives. (p. 9)

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339

Again and again, Polanco placed emphasis not on preaching but on confession
and penance. In addition, he lost no opportunity to defend the Order from
attacks on the practice of frequent communion. As he did so, he took several
swipes at rival orders, particularly the Dominicans in the form of Melchior
Cano. Ultimately, for Polanco,“the arms of our militia” were the Word of God
and the sacraments (p. 37). Nevertheless, he was not insensitive to the need for
the Jesuits not to alienate such powerful bodies as the Inquisition, in both its
Roman and Spanish variants. In particular, Polanco emphasized the care with
which the Jesuits exercised their right to absolve in cases of heresy for fear of
offending the Spanish inquisition. In the case of its Roman cousin, writing from
the standpoint of the 1570’s, by which time the party of the zelanti, led by
Carafa and his faithful lieutenant Ghislieri (later elected, respectively, as Popes
Paul IV and Pius V) had won and, to quote Massimo Firpo, the Holy Office had
become “the true motor of the Roman curia,” Polanco went out of his way to
identify Ignatius as the direct cause of its foundation (p. 26).
By contrast, the Ratio studiorum, presented here by Pavur in its more or
less definitive 1599 version (it was slightly modified again in 1616) has been
traditionally presented in Jesuit historiography as a model of consensus, of a
piece with the Spiritual Exercises and the Constitutions; all three an artful balance of structure and freedom. In the case of the official plan for Jesuit education, over half a century of collaborative academic effort had gone into its
making. In addition, there had been twenty years of committee work and two
major trial versions (in 1586 and 1591). The end result was a document that
successfully combined reverence for such medieval mainstays of the modus
parisiensis as St. Thomas Aquinas (“only those well disposed to St. Thomas
should be promoted to theological studies,” p. 10), with a humanist sensitivity
for the need to combine erudition with eloquence, with Cicero as the model
to imitate par excellence. Central to its rationale was the belief,“Nothing preserves the entire effort of well-ordered learning as effectively as the observance of rules” (p. 151) and the latter was only to be achieved by means of
competition underpinned by hope of honor and fear of shame. Of course, it
was the colleges that provided the Jesuits with perhaps their most important
arena for demonstrating their intellectual prestige and garnering financial support among members of the élite who sent their children to receive education
as befitting a Christian gentleman. Of particular value in this very useful edition is not only the decision to provide the reader with parallel columns of the
original Latin with an English translation but also to offer in a series of appendices material which allows the reader to go further than perhaps ever before
in reconstituting what actually took place in the classroom.
Turning to the three texts by the seventeenth-century missionary to India
and famed Sanskrit scholar Roberto De Nobili, one needs straightaway to draw
a distinction between the Latin “Report concerning certain customs of the
Indian nation” and the Tamil “Dialogue on Eternal Life” and “Inquiry into the

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OF MISSIONS AND MODELS

meaning of God.” In the case of the former we need to appreciate the context
that gave rise to its composition, the fierce dispute with his former fellow missionary Gonçalo Fernandez, who believed that de Nobili had “gone native” in
his adoption of local dress and Brahmin customs. (This was effectively the first
round in the Malabar rites controversy.) De Nobili’s treatise, in the first
instance, was a direct appeal to General Aquaviva to let him continue in his
mission despite the representation made in his turn by Fernandez.
Unfortunately, nowhere in this edition are we given either Fernandez’s identity
or the full polemical context that gave rise to the “Report.” This makes it very
difficult for the reader to understand quite why it was so important to De
Nobili that he demonstrate in such laborious detail that the Brahmin customs
he described were purely social and non-religious, thereby non-superstitious
and thus candidates for adoption by accommodating missionaries such as himself. For to De Nobili, as to Matteo Ricci in China, failure to win over the intellectual élite would spell disaster to the success of the Christian mission. The
Tamil dialogues, by contrast, reveal a far lesser degree of engagement with
local circumstances. Instead, the indigenous audience was treated to a decidedly stilted, Thomist dialogue between a teacher and his disciple confidently
founded on the mistaken assumption that Indian and European epistemological and metaphysical categories were fundamentally the same and that it was
merely irrational ignorance on the part of the Indians that prevented them
from appreciating this obvious and natural (Christian) truth.
In the light of the foregoing literature, it is a brave scholar who attempts to
write a single-authored treatment of the pre-suppression Order as a whole.
Nonetheless, two recent Italian candidates have put forward their own individual interpretations which both deserve to be read and reflected upon.The first,
by Paolo Broggio, offers what, to the best of my knowledge, is the first thoroughgoing comparative study of the Jesuit missionary enterprise in the Old and
New Worlds.12 As he reminds us, already, in 1551 the Jesuit Silvestro Landini
declared that Corsica would be “my own Indies” (p. 20). In this respect, Broggio
sees himself as having picked up the gauntlet thrown down by Louis Chatellier
in a letter to Marc Venard of 1980 in which the former argued for the necessity
of breaking with custom by comparing Jesuit missionary activity on a global
scale (p. 19). But Broggio has gone further, by drawing also on the confessionalization paradigm as adapted for Italy in clearly Gramscian terms by Adriano
Prosperi and his pupils. For Prosperi, it was not enough for the post-Tridentine
Church to win by repressive force; it had to convince hearts and minds (non
basta vincere, bisogna convincere). The internal missions to the Italian rural
hinterland (“the other Indies”) were simply one dimension of a triple strategy—the other elements being confession and the Inquisition—artfully
12

Although there is now an account of the Jesuits in Spain and the Spanish empire,
the first two parts of which cover the period 1540-1773:Teófanes Egido, Javier Burrieza
Sánchez, and Manuel Revuelta González, Los Jesuitas en España y en el mundo hispánico (Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2004), pp. 13-278.

BY SIMON DITCHFIELD

341

deployed by the Roman Catholic Church after Trent whose result, according to
the Italian scholar, was nothing less than the colonization of the conscience of
the Italian people.13 For all its problems, this interpretative model has the considerable advantage of integrating the activities of the Order into the wider currents of early modern religious history by foregrounding the direct links
between Jesuit missionary activity with their special role as confessors (including their power to absolve penitents in cases of heresy) and the implications
this had for their relationship with the Inquisition, as well as with the secular
hierarchy. In the light of the links between these areas of activity, it is therefore
surprising to discover that there was in fact little exchange of personnel
between European and extra-European missions. An interesting exception
here was Juan de la Plaza, rector of the Society’s college in Granada (1556-1562)
and missionary among the moriscos, whom General Mercurian appointed visitor of the province of Peru in 1573 and then provincial of New Spain, where he
died, without having ever returned to Europe, in 1602. One of the particular
strengths of Broggio’s book is, indeed, his focus on the internal missions to the
Spanish “other Indies”; it takes advantage, for example, of the survival of the
“catálogos de missiones” for the Jesuit province of Castile for the period 16501695.This enables Broggio to detect significant changes in the conduct of missions (pp. 254-255). For example, between 1650 and 1660 of the 202 missions
undertaken only thirteen Jesuits conducted more than three missions each and
so between them were responsible for about 50% of the total. However, by the
1680’s, of the 288 missions listed for the decade, just twenty fathers led 40% of
the missionary enterprise (out of a total of 212 Jesuits involved). By locating
such details in the wider comparative context of both the external and internal
Jesuit mission enterprise, Broggio is to be thanked. He also deserves our gratitude for the very full endnotes and impressive bibliography, although the
prospective reader should be made aware of the author’s habit of quoting in
extenso from his sources, so that more than a passing acquaintance with early
modern Castilian, in particular, would be very helpful.
By contrast, Sabina Pavone’s slim volume is more conventionally structured
according to a chronological framework. However, it is none the worse for that
since it offers what is easily the most up-to-date and coherently argued
account of its subject matter currently available in any language. As one might
expect from the author of The Wily Jesuits, Pavone is particularly alive to the
fact that right from its origins, the Order was very conscious of the importance
of nurturing its self-image for public (and internal) consumption. In this
respect the Jesuits’ spectacular volume to celebrate their first centenary, the
Imago primi saeculi Societatis Iesu (1640), issued from a pre-existing tradition that we have seen at work, for example, in Polanco’s Chronicon. Such
motivation was also behind Acquaviva’s hagiographical remodeling of Loyola

13

This thesis is clearly stated in the title of Prosperi’s Tribunali della coscienza:
inquisitori, confessari, missionari (Turin: Einaudi, 1996).

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achieved through the promotion of Maffei’s vita over that by Ribadeneira, in
order to emphasize the founder’s institutional prowess (over his miraculous
powers).Another feature which Pavone emphasizes throughout is the flexibility of the Order, which was ever sensitive to the need to adapt regulations and
practices to local circumstances and, wherever possible, to an individual’s
capabilities as reflected in that trinity of handbooks: the Spiritual Exercises, the
Constitutions, and the Ratio studiorum (as well, it might be added, in the casuistry of their moral theology as lampooned so mercilessly by Pascal in the
latter’s Provincial Letters). Pavone’s work on the Monita secreta has made her
particularly sensitive to tensions within the Order; not only those which manifested themselves after Loyola’s death concerning whether or not to accept
New Christians as candidates to join the Society, but also the more intractable
and long-term resentments that arose between those who were fully professed
and those, like Zahorowski, who remained spiritual coadjutors and perceived
themselves (and were indeed perceived by some of their confrères) as secondclass citizens. As a pupil of Prosperi, she is also thorough on Jesuit confession
practices, whose overall mildness suited them to believers rather than heretics
(as happened for example in Naples, where Jesuits almost never appear in the
records as confessors of those who denounced themselves to the local tribunal of the Holy Office). Nonetheless, when required, members of the Order
could work closely with the Inquisition as happened in Seville (1556-1564) or
during the trial against several Jesuit fathers in Valladolid (1586-1588), who had
been accused of alumbradismo (a form of quietism) and of unbecoming
behavior with penitents in the confessional. In the end, however, not even the
truly remarkable capacity of the Jesuits to adapt to local circumstances could
save them from the political maelstrom which led to the Order’s suppression
in 1773. Here Pavone makes two telling observations: firstly, in contrast to
Bailey, she emphasizes that the Order kept its best members for service in the
Old World, since the task of winning back souls from Protestant heresies
appeared to be more difficult, and that some evidence is to be found where
embarrassing members, including descendants of New Christians, were sent
overseas. Here she draws, inter alia, on the work of Castelnau-L’Estoile on the
Jesuit mission to Brazil, where it can be shown that a high proportion of its
members were of difficult character (“collericus” is the adjective which
appears frequently in the relevant records).14 Secondly, and more convincingly,
she argues for the vital role played by the printed work in helping create the
conditions for the Society’s abolition, (e.g., the Monita secreta was reprinted
no fewer than a dozen times between 1740 and 1767), with the suggestive
implication perhaps that those that live by the pen shall die by the pen?
On the evidence of the works under review, the state of Jesuit historiography has never been healthier. A good mix of Jesuit and non-Jesuit scholars
14
Charlotte De Castelnau-L’Estoile, Les ouvriers d’une vigne sterile: les jésuites et la
conversion des Indiens au Brasil, 1580-1620 (Lisbon and Paris: Fundaçao Gulbenkian,
2000).

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343

have carried out original research on the Order’s activity in almost all the areas
covered by the Quaritch catalogue referred to at the start of this review article.Whither next? As my passing comments have perhaps already made clear,
the time is now ripe to undertake further research in two particular directions.
On the one hand, we need more studies along the lines of those by Maldavsky,
Castelnau-L’Estoile, and Pavone, which explore creatively the tensions and disagreements within the Order in ways that make us more aware of the strategies whereby the Society sustained its remarkable enterprise in such different
locales. On the other, we require more work in the spirit of Hufton, Broggio,
and Prosperi, who have been trying to integrate their understanding of the
Jesuits’ distinctive contribution into the wider picture of early modern religious and cultural history. As the thematic richness of the books under review
clearly suggests, there will be space aplenty for interdisciplinary works of synthesis on the history of the Order before its suppression for some time to
come; yet this very richness implies, for me at least, the imperative to integrate
the history of the Jesuits more fully into the wider picture. It no longer makes
sense (if it ever really did), when writing an account of the Counter/Catholic
Reformation, to consider the Society, in symbolic fashion, as an essentialized
expression of the movements’ militancy/modernity. In this spirit, Dominik
Sieber’s carefully contextualized, regional study of the Jesuit mission in the diocese of Luzern for the period 1563-1614 is to be welcomed. Of particular
strategic significance, as part of a frontier zone between contesting faiths, a
fact duly recognized by the location of a permanent papal nunciature in the
town in 1586, Luzern has provided Sieber with rich archival pickings—in particular the writings of the civic chronicler and apothecary, Renward Cysat
(1545?-1614), who tried to make sense of local happenings in relation to
accounts of missionary daring-do in Japan and elsewhere, which he laboriously
copied and collected. Sieber’s achievement is not only to have located the
Jesuit mission and its reception in relation to magic and religion viewed as
points of a single, unified spectrum, in the spirit of David Gentilcore’s thoughtful 1992 study of Southern Italy, From Bishop to Witch (which has clearly been
an influence), but also to have looked at the activity of the Society in relation
to that of the other main Order undertaking missionary work in the province,
the Capuchins.This fully and richly contextualized study is therefore to be welcomed as an example of how such an integrative approach to the history of
the Jesuit Order can reap rich dividends.

THE EIGHTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING
OF THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC
HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Report of the Chairman of the Committee on Program
The Committee on Program consisted of Constance Berman, University of
Iowa; Frank Coppa, St. John’s University, New York; Nicholas Creary, Ohio
University; William Hudon, Bloomsburg State University; Asunción Lavrin,
Arizona State University; Mark Massa, S.J., Fordham University; and James M.
Powell, chairman, Syracuse University (Emeritus).
The Association met in Atlanta between Thursday and Sunday, January 4 and
7, 2007 at the Hilton Hotel together with the American Historical Association.
The registration desk was conveniently located off the main lobby; fifty persons registered their attendance. All sessions save one were held in the headquarters hotel.
The opening session, on Thursday afternoon, sponsored jointly with the
Conference on Latin American History and entitled “Justitia et Misericordia:
Recent Research Advances in Inquisition Studies,” consisted of three papers
with Sonya Lipsett-Rivera of Carleton University in the chair. Javier Villa-Flores,
University of Illinois at Chicago, spoke on “God’s Name as Pharmakon: False
Witnessing before the Mexican Inquisition,” followed by “Confession and
Popular Culture in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth Century Mexico,” delivered by
Linda A. Curcio-Nagy, University of Nevada at Reno.The final paper,“By all Arts
and Magic: Sexual Magic and the Manipulation of Gender and Sexuality in
Colonial Yucatan, 1550-1790,” was by John F. Chuchiak IV, Missouri State
University.Alejandro Caneque served as commentator.
In the second session at this time William Hudon, Bloomsburg State
University, chaired “Galileo, the Medici, and the Inquisition.”About thirty persons
attended the three papers. Brendan Dooley of the International University of
Bremen examined “Narrative and Truth: Don Giovanni de Medici and Galileo,”on
the 1611 dispute on floating bodies. Stefania Tutino of University of California at
Santa Barbara analyzed Robert Bellarmine’s role in attempting to find a compromise in “Robert Bellarmine between Theology and Natural Science.” Thomas
Mayer, Augustana College, argued that Galileo did harm to his own cause in a
paper entitled,“Galileo’s Precept.” Dr. Hudon provided a comment.
On Friday morning, January 5, Jeffrey M. Burns, Academy of American
Franciscan History, chaired an interdisciplinary session on “Art and
Evangelization in the Franciscan Missions,” which explored the role of art and
imagery in the evangelization of the indigenous peoples in New Spain. Andrea
LePage, Brown University, spoke on the arts of the Franciscan Colegio de San
Andrés in Quito. Cristina Cruz Gonzalez, University of Chicago, gave a paper
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345

on “The Propagation of Faith and Image: Art, Mission, and the Holy Body in
Spanish America,” and Nuno Senos, New York University, presented a paper on
“The cult of a Black Saint in Franciscan Brazil.” Jaime Lara,Yale University, provided a valuable comment, along with enticing references to the image of the
“Flying St. Francis.”
Duane Osheim, University of Virginia, chaired the second morning session
on “Religion in the Communes: Augustine Thompson’s Cities of God: The
Religion of the Italian Communes, 1125-1325,” which was jointly sponsored
by the Society for Italian Historical Studies. Brenda Bolton, MBE, University of
London, discussed early evaluations of the book and emphasized the description of the lived religion of the laity in the book. After a response by Father
Thompson, O.P., University of Virginia, George Dameron, St. Michael’s College,
raised a number of points, noting the role of religion in the rise of the popolo
and Christianity in the countryside. A lively discussion followed.
In the afternoon, Margery Ganz, Spelman College, chaired a popular session
“The Papacy and the Jews: From Pius XII through John Paul II.” Peter Kent,
University of New Brunswick, dealt with “Pius XII and Israel in the 1950s.”
Richard Wolff of the Global Consulting Group spoke on Vatican II as the beginning of a new relationship between the Church and the Jews. Dr. Ganz read the
paper by Roy Domenico, University of Scranton, on John Paul II and the Jews.
Frank Coppa, St. John’s University, commented on the papers and was followed
by a very lively discussion, with lots of questions and comments.
“Political Catholicism in the Interwar Period” was the topic of the second
afternoon session, chaired by Beth A. Griech-Polelle, Bowling Green State
University. Rae Bielakowski, Loyola University Chicago, discussed “Student
‘Catholic Action’ and Middle-Class Aspirations in Chicago, 1927-41.” Samuel
Pearce, University of Florida, delivered a paper on “Catholic Women in Spain’s
Second Republic, 1931-36: Female Participation in the Confederación española
de derechas autónomas.” Michael O’Sullivan, University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill, dealt with tensions in the role of women during the Weimar
period and under the Nazis.Women became leaders in preserving Catholic traditions in the homes, despite the traditionalist role assigned by Catholic
Action. Dr. Griech-Polelle commented, and this was followed by very active
audience participation.
Late on Friday afternoon the business meeting and the social hour were
held.The latter was well attended.
On Saturday morning, Constance Berman, University of Iowa, chaired the
session on “Upholding Ideals in Clerical/Religious Lives across the Centuries.”
Daniel LaCorte, Saint Ambrose University, presented an interesting paper on
“Smaragdus of St. Mihiel’s Advice to a Prince on Salvation and Reform.” He
argued the case for a critical edition of his works. Michelle Armstrong-Partida,
University of Iowa, was unable to attend, but her paper was read by Dr. Chris
Africa, University of Iowa. Her topic was the interaction between clergy and

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THE 87TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

their parishioners in fourteenth-century Catalunya. Kathy Wilson, University of
Iowa, discussed female education in the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in
York between 1760 and 1870.There was considerable interest in the papers.
Professor Berman commented.
Ann Twinam, University of Texas, presided at the session on “Saints, Bishops,
and Inquisitors in Spanish America,” since Dr. Lavrin was unable to attend due
to a family health emergency. The session was jointly sponsored by the
Conference on Latin American History. Emily Berquist, University of Texas at
Austin, presented “Indians as Enlightened Plebe:The Improvement Projects of
Bishop Martínez Compañón in Trujillo, Peru,” viewed as an aspect of the
Spanish Enlightenment. Cornelius Conover, University of Texas at Austin,
showed how the liturgy of seventeenth-century Mexico City reflected Spanish
imperialism by increasingly including Spanish saints and the Spanish king.The
cult of St. Philip of Jesus, a native of Mexico City martyred in Nagasaki, provided a basis for local identity and reinforced ties to Madrid and Rome. Martin
Nesvig, University of Miami, discussed the trial of the Spanish settler, Pedro de
Trejo, by the inquisition in Mexico. He hoped that his colonial status would
help him to escape the surveillance of the inquisition. Dr. Twinam read Dr.
Lavrin’s comment, which brought out the importance of the “margins”in a geographical and cultural sense.
At the presidential luncheon the Archbishop of Atlanta, the Most Reverend
Wilton D. Gregory, addressed the thirty persons present with words of welcome, appreciation, and encouragement.The John Gilmary Shea Prize and the
Howard R. Marraro Prize were awarded. Then Professor Powell delivered the
presidential address on “Church and Crusade: Frederick II and Louis IX.”
There were two Saturday afternoon sessions. At the invitation of the chair,
Mark Massa, S.J., Fordham University, Steven Ozment, Harvard University,
opened the joint session with the American Society of Church History on “Is
the Reformation Over? An Evangelical Assessment of Contemporary Roman
Catholicism—-Roundtable with Co-author Mark A. Noll.” Discussants were Jan
Shipps, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis; Daryl Charles,
Union University; Jill Raitt, University of Missouri, Columbia; and Kirsi Stjerna,
Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg. Mark A. Noll, University of Notre
Dame, served as commentator. A standing-room crowd heard Professor Raitt
discuss her own conversion to Catholicism while an undergraduate at
Radcliffe. Daryl Charles spoke about the way in which he, an evangelical
Christian teaching in a Baptist University, used the Catechism of the Catholic
Church, wishing that evangelicals could undertake a similar corporate witness.
Kirsi Stjerna spoke of the value of Catholic spirituality in her work with
Lutheran seminarians. Mark Noll responded to the panel and joined Steven
Ozment in giving a yes and no answer to the question raised by his book.
The second session,“Religious Women in Medieval Europe,” was chaired by
Daniel LaCorte, Saint Ambrose University, in place of Raymond Mentzer,

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347

University of Iowa. There were four papers. Janet Sorrentino, Washington
College, Maryland, delivered a paper on music and the Gilbertine nuns, dealing
with the issue of women singing the office in the presence of men. Erin Jordan,
University of Northern Colorado, compared Cistercian nunneries and monastic
houses in thirteenth-century Europe. Erika Lindgren,Wartburg College, focused
on the origins of Dominican nuns. Finally, Maiju Lehmijoki-Gardner, University
of Helsinki, asked why we know so much about Dominican lay women and so
little about Dominican nuns in Italy and found an answer in the ambiguous
status of the latter. Dr. LaCorte led a spirited discussion.
Early Sunday morning the Reverend Joseph M. Chinnici, O.F.M., of the
Franciscan School of Theology, Berkeley, California, first vice-president of the
Association, celebrated a Mass for the living and deceased members. More than
fifty persons participated.
The Sunday morning sessions opened with “Priests under Pressure:
Historical Moments of Crisis and Transformation in the American Priesthood.”
It was chaired by Amy Koelinger, Florida State University.The first paper, delivered by Michael Pasquier of Florida State University, was “Les Confrères et les
Pères: French Missionaries and the Religious Authority of Priests in Early
Nineteenth-century America,” which discussed French émigré priests on the
Western frontier. Justin Poché, University of Notre Dame, spoke about
Southern-born and Northern “carpet-bagger” priests under Jim Crow. Leslie
Woodcock Tentler,The Catholic University of America, addressed the question
“‘How Am I Valuable to People?’ The Crisis of the Catholic Priesthood in the
1960s.” She examined priests on the cutting edge of ecclesial change. Joseph P.
Chinnici, O.F.M., Franciscan School of Theology, Berkeley, California, delivered
a detailed commentary.
Cyprian Davis, O.S.B., St. Meinrad School of Theology, chaired the session on
“The Catholic Church and Slavery.” He noted the role of the Holy See in abolition in the early nineteenth century. Anthony M. Bonta, Marquette University,
presented a paper on the debate between Edward Purcell and James
McMaster, editor of the New York Freeman’s Journal, on the morality of slavery in the United States. Nicholas M. Creary, Ohio University, presented a paper
on the failed Catholic mission to expatriate slaves in Liberia (1842-1844). Paul
V. Kollman, C.S.C., University of Notre Dame, examined the different strategies
of evangelization pursued by various religious congregations in East Africa
(1860-1884). Cyprian Davis led the discussion, which brought out the need for
more comparative studies in the field.
JAMES M. POWELL, Chairman
Luncheon Address of the Most Reverend Wilton D. Gregory,
Archbishop of Atlanta
It is a genuine honor to be with you today, and I want to thank my dear and
longtime friend Monsignor Robert Trisco, and the present secretary and treas-

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THE 87TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

urer of the Association,Tim Meagher, for inviting me; also I wish to thank the
outgoing president, Professor Powell, and his successor, Father Chinnici, and all
the officers of the Association, for honoring the Archdiocese and the City of
Atlanta by holding your conference here; I welcome all the leaders and members of the American Catholic Historical Association, the American Historical
Association, and all other guests and friends; I hope that you will continue to
find in our midst all the hospitality for which this city is so well known.
The Catholic Church in America has experienced over the past ten years,
since you last met in Atlanta, more than her share of turmoil and disappointments, but also many fortunate opportunities for concentrating her inner
strength and renewing before American society, the unchanging foundation
upon which Catholic leadership rests—the Good News of Jesus Christ. During
my years of leadership for the Conference of Bishops, I observed, and continue
to realize, that the renewal of strength within the Church, and her ongoing
reclamation of the American people’s esteem, is not the work of one body, or
the result of the influence of any particular school of Catholic theology or
practice. Rather, as with all true renewal in the Church, her enduring authority
arises through the Holy Spirit, and the efforts of those who seek to do His
work—individuals, associations, religious orders, schools and universities, and
any company of the Faithful assembled to labor for Christ and for His Church.
During this time, I have had many opportunities to praise the work of the
American Catholic Historical Association, and it is that work for which I wish
to express today the thanks of the bishops, the clergy, and the people of the
Catholic Church in the United States.
The first goal of the Association has always been to reveal, with claritas, the
history, development, and present state of the Church’s life—for the sake of
her own members, but also to show those ways by which the Church exists in
and opens herself to society, where she finds the fundamental challenge of the
Gospel—the need for evangelization. Your work in this area has been significant—in helping people to understand and then to contribute to the healing
of our own internal problems—especially the terrible ways in which the
people’s faith in the clergy has been so severely compromised, and then, as you
have worked to rebuild the status of the Church before the critical gaze of
society in general. By asserting what is good and unchanging in the Church,
while assisting to make clear how the Church is going about and will continue
to go about healing her inner illnesses and failings, the American Catholic
Historical Association has generously come to the aid of the Catholic family,
adding immeasurably to the recovery process, and to our hopes for a future
free of past sins and sorrows.That is the first, and most immediately perceived
measure of goodness for which I want to thank you.
The second goal of the Association is one which adds to the intellectual life
in general of the Church and society, but is, I suspect, more deeply appreciated
by the membership, than by those who observe the work of the Association
from without. And that is the broad contribution of the membership to the

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scholarly exploration of history itself, applied to all fields of human endeavor.
By maintaining a high profile and high-quality presence in the work of colleges,
universities, and other institutes of higher learning throughout the world, and
by embracing within the membership, persons of many faiths and many cultures, you are fulfilling superbly the mandate of the Second Vatican Council for
true ecumenism—the welcome opening of the wealth of the Church’s thought
and work in friendship to mankind, and the fair exchange of ideas, events, and
accomplishments, across the boundaries of our differences.This is the broader,
and perhaps in the long run, the more deeply significant work of the American
Catholic Historical Association—its lasting legacy—and in expressing to you
our gratitude for these initiatives, the sentiment comes not just from the people
I represent, or my brothers in the Episcopacy of the United States, but truly,
from the heart of the Universal Church—and I have no hesitation in representing our thanks to you with all esteem and with heartfelt sincerity.
Honored guests, as we learn from the central Sacrament of the Christian
Church, from the rites of our forerunners in the Faith, and indeed, from all peoples who proceed with good will, there is no better way to find God, and to
find peace with one another, than to sit and share a meal. And although I have
wanted to speak these few words of appreciation and thanks, it is to the meal
of our fellowship, the more important event of this afternoon, that we now
turn.This meal will serve as a preamble to the highlights of the annual meeting, the presentation of the book prizes, followed by the message of the outgoing President, Professor Powell.
And since the Holy Spirit of God serves as the preamble to all our activities,
let us open our hearts to prayer, taking care of first duties first, and ask God, in
the historical words of our Faith, to bless us, and to bless those things He gives,
which make our hearts to overflow, and our lives full and worth living.
Report on the Committee on Nominations
In this election (220) ballots were cast. The results are as follows:
For First Vice-President (and President in the following year):
ROBERT BIRELEY, S.J., Loyola University Chicago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
WILLIAM V. HUDON, Bloomsburg University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
For Second Vice-President:
CONSTANCE B. BOUCHARD, University of Akron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
SABINE MACCORMACK, University of Notre Dame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
For the Executive Council (three-year term, 2007, 2008, and 2009)
Section I:
NOEL D. CARY, College of the Holy Cross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
BRAD S. GREGORY, University of Notre Dame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

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Section II: 5984
TERENCE FAY, S.J., University of Toronto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
CECILIA MOORE, University of Dayton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
For the Committee on Nominations (three-year term, 2007, 2008, and 2009)
JOANNA H. DRELL, University of Richmond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
JAMES D. RYAN, Bronx Community College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
WIETSE DE BOER, Chairman
Miami University (Ohio)
JAY P. CORRIN
Boston University
MARGARET MCGUINNESS
LaSalle University
Report of the Committee on the John Gilmary Shea Prize
The John Gilmary Shea Prize for 2006 is awarded to J. Michael Hayden, professor emeritus of history, University of Saskatchewan, and to Malcolm R.
Greenshields, professor of history, University of Lethbridge, for their book 600
Years of Reform: Bishops and the French Church, 1190-1789, which was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 2005. The committee of judges
received more than forty books published between July 1, 2005, and June 30,
2006, ranging in time from the early Church to the present.
600 Years of Reform is a sweeping study of synodal and episcopal reform legislation in the French Church from the reign of Innocent III to the French
Revolution.The authors distinguish four major periods of episcopal reform activity, each period beginning with a burst of episcopal activity followed by a slow or
dramatic tapering off. The first period, dating from 1190 to 1489, began with vigorous local activity implementing the decrees of the Lateran Councils,but was cut
short by the Black Death and other disasters after 1340. During the second
period, the “First Catholic Reformation” of 1490 to 1589, the French monarchy
patronized the reform efforts of Gerson, Briçonnet, and Lefèvre d’Etaples, whose
work led to new models for diocesan statutes. This work placed the French
church at an advantage to that in Germany going into the Reformation.
Perhaps the single most important result of this study comes for the period
after 1560, where the analysis reveals a division of this period into two periods of reform rather than the common model of a single “Counter
Reformation” extending to about 1730. The authors demonstrate that the
Tridentine reforms in France, which had a powerful local effect, stalled in the
1680s due mostly to the Gallican controversies, which left many sees vacant.
A new, albeit less aggressive, reform period began by 1770 and was extinguished only by the Revolution.
Using computerized and statistical analysis of a highly sophisticated kind,
the authors have, for the first time, given us a comprehensive description of the

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four waves of institutional reform undergone by the Church in France and a
detailed picture of the legislation in each period.The result is a panorama that
is both nuanced and comprehensive, not only chronologically but also geographically.This work provides a framework for further study of the bishops as
reformers, as well the linkages between reform and royal and papal authority.
In addition, it lays the ground work for a suggestive reframing of traditional
questions of continuity and discontinuity in the history of Catholic reform.
The prize is named in memory of the famous historian of American
Catholicism John Gilmary Shea (1824-1892) and is partially funded by a
bequest of the late Reverend Dr. John Whitney Evans of the College of Saint
Scholastica, Duluth, Minnesota. It is given each year to the American or
Canadian author who, in the opinion of the committee, has made the most
original and significant contribution to the historiography of the Catholic
Church in the form of a book published during the previous twelve-month
period ending June 30.
The Committee on the John Gilmary Shea Prize is composed of Father
Augustine Thompson, O.P., of the University of Virginia, for medieval history;
Professor Thomas C. Reeves of the University of Wisconsin, Parkside, for
American history, and Father Charles J. T. Talar of the University of Saint
Thomas, Saint Mary’s Seminary, Houston, for modern European history.
AUGUSTINE THOMPSON, O.P., Chairman
Report of the Committee on the Howard R. Marraro Prize
The ACHA’s Howard R. Marraro Prize for 2006 is awarded to Lance Gabriel
Lazar, an associate professor of history at Assumption College, Worcester,
Massachusetts, for his book Working in the Vineyard of the Lord: Jesuit
Confraternities in Early Modern Italy, which was published by the University
of Toronto Press in 2005.
This careful and learned monograph makes a valuable contribution to our
understanding of the motivations, goals, and accomplishments of Jesuit confraternities in the initial decades of the Order. Previous scholarship on Jesuit
confraternal activity has centered on the Marian congregations, the first of
which (the Prima Primaria) was founded by Jan Leunis in the Roman College
in 1563. Professor Lazar focuses instead upon three confraternities that
Ignatius Loyola himself established in Rome in the early 1540s: (1) the
Compagnia della Grazia, which established and managed a halfway house for
women seeking refuge, a group including reformed prostitutes; (2) the
Compagnia delle Vergini Miserabili di Santa Caterina, which provided longterm cloistered care for poverty-stricken girls (including daughters of prostitutes) who were perceived to be in moral danger; and (3) the
Archconfraternity of St. Joseph, which established and governed a “Casa dei
Catecumeni” for newly converted Jews and Muslims.

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Professor Lazar convincingly demonstrates the vitality of these sometimes
makeshift charitable institutions, and he shows how St. Ignatius himself played
a critical role in shaping them. Each of the three confraternity-run houses
sought to intervene to help the marginalized, and each did so with the goal of
preparing its charges for reintegration into society. For each confraternity, the
Jesuits enlisted the participation and financial support of elite lay people, especially of noblewomen, and respected traditional class divisions rather than
trying to eradicate them. Each of the three charitable institutions provided a
model of outreach that would be highly influential.
Working in the Vineyard of the Lord is most impressive for how it situates
its panoptic view of early Jesuit confraternities in the larger context of sixteenth-century European cultures of reform. Professor Lazar has read both
widely and deeply in the scholarly literature, not only about institutions of
poor relief in both Protestant and Catholic regions, but also about how
Christians historically had dealt with prostitutes, Jews, and Muslims, respectively. Equipped with this formidable range of knowledge, he is able to distinguish authoritatively between the traditional and the innovative, and between
the generic and the unique.The result is a measured, richly documented contribution that promises to be of lasting significance.
The committee is composed of Kenneth Gouwens of the University of
Connecticut, representing the American Catholic Historical Association, Joanne
Ferraro of San Diego State University, representing the American Historical
Association, and David Roberts of the University of Georgia, representing the
Society for Italian Historical Studies.
KENNETH GOUWENS, Chairman
Report on the Committee on the John Tracy Ellis Dissertation Award
On behalf of the Committee for the John Tracy Ellis Dissertation Award, I am
pleased to announce that we had an unusually large number of applicants this
year, eleven, all with excellent records and with dissertations on a very broad
range of topics, ranging chronologically from the eighth century to the 1950’s,
and geographically from the British Isles, the Carolingian Empire, and Spain, to
Cuba, Mexico, New Mexico, and Chicago. Given the overall distinction of the
proposals and the diversity in themes, locations, and periods, we found it very
difficult to choose among the top candidates and have decided to split the
award between our two excellent front-runners.
Kathleen Holscher (Princeton University): “The Conflict over Nuns in U.S.
Public Schools.”
Kathleen Holscher’s research on the controversy surrounding the presence of Catholic sisters as teachers in American public schools, producing
legal confrontation in the New Mexico case Zellers v. Huff (1951), superbly
reveals the complexity of American attitudes toward religion. Because

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353

American optimism has focused historically on the rearing of children, the
classroom as a physical space and an intellectual site stirs recurring
conflict. During the Cold War, a time when religious practice gained importance in the nation’s public culture as an icon of freedom, the issue was less
whether children should be exposed to religion than what kind of faith they
would encounter. Expediency that had once led localities to employ nuns,
inevitably dressed in habits, as public school teachers now predictably
evoked ideological resistance. Holscher offers scholars a rich case study
informed by the methods of material, social, and legal history. Her subject
highlights the enduring American attachment to religious activity that places
the diverging values of the nation’s religious communities at the center of
public debate.
Steven Turley (University of Wisconsin-Madison): “The Development of
Franciscan Missionary Spirituality in Granada and New Spain, 1492-1572.”
If historians are finally to transcend the boundaries imposed by nationalism and the nation state they must produce works that cross linguistic and
political borders. Steven Turley’s project exemplifies the kind of historiography that represents the future of our discipline. Combining formidable language skills that are essential for a less parochial history, together with a
broad transatlantic vision,Turley examines the Franciscan order’s struggle to
convert the indigenous peoples of the New World while maintaining its traditional role of fostering reform in the Old.The thrust of his work has been
to uncover the attitudes and the spirituality (mystical and humanist, with
heterodox strains) of the Franciscans who left their known world to confront the strangeness of one across the ocean and to investigate how that
confrontation “converted the missionaries to new understanding of their
faith.” Enriched by his broad cultural approach, his project will be a major
contribution to the literature of the Christianization of the New World and
the mentalities of the Old.
The members of the committee were Margaret Lavinia Anderson of the
University of California at Berkeley, Kenneth Pennington of The Catholic
University of America, and Anne C. Rose of Pennsylvania State University.
MARGARET LAVINIA ANDERSON, Chairman
Report of the Secretary and Treasurer
The Association met for its annual meeting in Atlanta this year.The last meeting in Atlanta was in 1996 (remembered by many for among other things, a
freakish brutal ice and snow storm). We had twelve sessions at this meeting.
Two sessions were co-sponsored with the Conference on Latin American
History and one with the American Society of Church History. We thank
Professor James Powell and his program committee for putting together an

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THE 87TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

intriguing array of sessions and Ms. Sharon Tune of the American Historical
Association for her help in scheduling them.
Membership declined again last year, though the losses were not quite as
great as in some recent years.
The high point in the Association’s membership came in 1961 at 1,333
members.
We began the year 2006 with 890 members.
We gained forty-five (45) new members.They included twenty seven (27)
new ordinary, fifteen (15) new student and three (3) new retired, members.
Twelve (12) members, whose affiliation had lapsed, renewed this year.We thus
gained fifty-seven (57) members over last year.
On the other side of the ledger, four (4) members died, four (4) resigned
and seventy-three (73) let their memberships lapse. We thus lost eighty-one
(81) members from last year.
Our total loss from last year, then, is twenty-four (24) members, and thus as
the Association begins the year 2007 its membership stands at 876.
Our net loss in 2006 was not quite as great as in 2005. The difference
between 2005 and 2006 lies largely in the disparity in the number of new
members. In 2005 we added twenty two (22) new members, twelve (12) ordinary and ten (10) student members, compared to this year’s forty five (45) new
members.
It is difficult to determine why the number of new members rose this year
over last.Though there has been a long-term decline over several years in the
Association’s membership, the numbers are sufficiently volatile from one year
to the next to caution against reading too much into year-by-year comparisons.
In 2004, for example, the Association enrolled forty (40) new members, thirty
three (33) new ordinary members, and seven (7) new students.
We can point to efforts to increase membership this year that may have had
some effect in prompting new memberships. Perhaps the one that had the
greatest impact was Dr. Minnich’s practice of asking scholars, who were not
members of the Association but reviewed books for the Review, to join the
ACHA.This had regularly been done in the past but less successfully.
We also took some steps to increase membership in the future. We began
to create a database of recent PhDs in Catholic history by identifying them
from Dissertation Abstracts and searching for their current addresses. We
looked at dissertations in Catholic history from the last three years. We were
not able to contact these scholars this last year but hope to do so in the future
and expect to add to the database as well. This should provide a useful
resource for targeting our potential market among young scholars.

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355

We mourn the following four members who were in good standing when
they died last year:
The Reverend Scott J. Buchanan, Saint Ann Catholic Church, Holly Hill, South
Carolina, a member since 1999
Dr. Charles J. Fleener, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, a life member
since 1980
The Reverend Harold F. Vieages, V.F., New Orleans, Louisiana, a member since
1980.
The Rev. Francis J. Murphy, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, a
member since 1972 and a member of the Committee on the John Gilmary
Shea Prize in 2002.
Two members whose deaths in 2005 we only learned about in 2006 were:
The Reverend Donald J. Grimes, C.S.C., King’s College, Wilkes-Barre,
Pennsylvania, a member since 1976
Dr. John A. Schulz, Los Angeles, California, a member since 1961
In addition to these departed members let us recall also the memory of a
former member of long standing though not active at the time of his death:
The Reverend John F. Broderick, S.J., Campion Center,Weston, Massachusetts, a
member from 1953 to 2003.
The Association’s Spring Meeting took place at the College of the Holy
Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, a small city, but beloved by its natives
(including this one).The meeting was organized by Professor Virginia Raguin
and took place on April 7th and 8th 2006.This spring the Association will meet
at Marquette University in Milwaukee,Wisconsin from March 29 to March 31,
2007.We thank Father Steven Avella for organizing this meeting.
As Treasurer, while the slower decline in membership and the surge in the
value of our endowment are more gratifying, still the Association faces some
important decisions about how it will conduct its business over the long term.
First, the Association will have to address some rising costs. The office secretary’s salary has risen slightly but annual meeting costs are rising significantly.
In particular, convention audiovisual costs have become exorbitant. The
American Historical Association no longer acts as a go-between in contracting
such services from the convention hotel for its affiliates and this may have contributed to the increase.
While costs rise or remain high, income has fallen. Annual meeting income
has not met the costs of the meetings since at least the year 2000. This year
annual meeting costs were $3,824.69 but income was but $2,309.60. It is hard
to compare membership income year by year because the largest number of
renewals comes either in early December or after Christmas depending on
when the reminders are sent out, which are, in turn, dependent on when the

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THE 87TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

Review is mailed. Since our fiscal year ends on December 16, this can lead to
a wide variation in the income from membership from year to year. Keeping
that in mind, it is nonetheless still useful to note what membership fees have
provided us in income over recent years. As recently as 2003 and 2004 they
exceeded forty thousand dollars ($43,235 and $41, 945 respectively), but have
been only $31,560, $37,795 and $31,009.08 respectively in the last three
years.
The endowment thus has been a vital source of income for the Association
in meeting its costs. Between 2000 and 2005, the Association drew an annual
average of $17,670.49 from either the income generated by the endowment
or the sale of investments in the endowment to pay its bills.This last year, the
Association sold off $9,000 of investments (still much less than the $20,728.16
in dividends that the Association’s investments produced in income) but even
that amount was too little to meet our obligations. Since I knew that I would
be stepping down from the Treasurer’s post and returning it to Monsignor
Trisco, I left it to him, far more experienced than I, to determine what further
sales of investments the Association should make to meet these obligations.
Though the Association does have issues to address, it is important to keep
in mind that unless the membership decline becomes precipitous, or the stock
market suffers a catastrophic crash, the Association remains financially sound.
The endowment, the product of Monsignor Trisco’s lifelong hard work and
sharp financial acumen, provides sufficient cushion to meet the Association’s
obligations into the foreseeable future.
The value of our investments has increased considerably over the past year.
The net equity of our portfolio held by Deutsche Bank Alex Brown on
November 30, 2005 was $867,333.52; on December 31, 2006 it was $1,018,
847.90.This represents an increase of $151, 514.38 or 17.46%.The value of our
other holdings also increased, though less dramatically, by 4.8%. The current
value of our investments is as follows:
Wachovia Certificate of Deposit (October 12, 2006) . . . . . .
T. Rowe Price GNMA funds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Vanguard GNMA Portfolio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Vanguard High Yield Corporate Fund . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3,241.00
44,441.54
83,700.00
5,273.16
136,656.20

Adding the net value of the portfolio held by
Deutsche Bank Alex Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,018,847.90
Total 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,155,504.07
Total 2005, November 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 997,730.03
Increase December 31, 2006 over November 30 2005 . . . . 157,774.07
The percentage increase was a healthy 15.8% from 2005 to 2006.

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Financial Statement
Fund Statement (as of December 15, 2006)
Cash:
Balance as of December 15, 2005 . . . . . . . . . 21,569.08
Increase (Decrease) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (5,537.34)
Sale of Stock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9,000.00
Balance as of December 15, 2006 . . . . . . . . . 25,031.74
Investments (See Exhibit B) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409,935.90
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434,967.64
Statement of Revenue and Expenses (Exhibit A)
(for the period December 15, 2005 through December 15, 2006)
Revenue
Membership Fees
Annual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31,009.08
Annual Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,309.60
Endowment Fund . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
241.88
Dividends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
370.08
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33,930.64
Expenses
Office Expenses
Secretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,505.27
Telephone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
26.88
Supplies and Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,287.00
Postage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
998.60
Catholic Historical Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17,040.00
Annual Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,824.69
John Gilmary Shea Prize
Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750.00
Luncheon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
90.00
Less Endowment Income . . . . . . (400.86)
439.14
Bank Service Charges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
57.00
Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
290.00
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39,467.98
Operational surplus—Net Gain (loss) . . . . . . . . . (5,537.34)
Investments (Exhibit B)
General Fund
Balance as of December 15, 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . 282,800.59
Income from Investments (dividends and interest)
Abbot Laboratories . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,950.54

357

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THE 87TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown
Cash Fund . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,110.45
General Electric Company . . . . . . . 2,785.47
Johnson and Johnson . . . . . . . . . . 2,842.55
T. Rowe Price GNMA Fund . . . . . . 1,182.16
T. Rowe Price Equity Index . . . . . . 1,853.60
T. Rowe Price Emerging Europe . . 1,118.06
Vanguard GNMA Fund . . . . . . . . . 2,643.84
Vanguard High Yield . . . . . . . . . . . 370.08
Less dividends received as revenue . . . . . . . . . . .

(370.08)

Less Stock Sold
T. Rowe Price Media and Technology . . . . . .

(9.000.00)

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289,063.90
Special Fund I—Howard R. Marraro Prize
Balance as of December 15, 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . 18,572.13
Investment Income
T. Rowe Price GNMA Fund . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
928.61
Prize and Luncheon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
795.00
Balance as of December 15, 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . 18,705.74
Special Fund II—Anne M.Wolf Fund
Balance as of December 15, 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . .
Investment Income
T. Rowe Price GNMA Fund . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Balance as of December 15, 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . .

5,071.08
253.55
5,324.63

Special Fund III—Expansion of the Catholic Historical Review
Balance as of December 15, 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . .
270.63
Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,592.00
Expense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (3,604.21)
Balance as of December15, 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,258.42
Special Fund IV—Endowment
Balance as of December 15, 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . .
Investment income
Vanguard GNMA Portfolio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Transferred to Exhibit A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Balance as of December 15, 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . .

4,642.50
241.68
(241.68)
4,642.50

Special Fund V—John Tracy Ellis Memorial Fund
Balance as of December 15, 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . 25,812.44
Investment Income
Vanguard GNMA Portfolio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,337.08
Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (1,200.00)
Subscription to the Catholic Historical Review .
(36.00)
Balance as of December 15, 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . 25,908.52

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359

Special Fund VI—Harry C. Koenig Fund
Balance as of December 15, 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . 53,100.07
Investment income
PIMCO GNMA Fund—Class C . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,932.99
Balance as of December 15, 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . 55,033.06
Special Fund VII—John Whitney Evans Fund for the
John Gilmary Shea Prize
Balance as of December 15, 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000.00
Investment income
PIMCO GNMA Fund Class A . . . . . . . . . . . . .
400.86
Applied to Prize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (400.86)
Balance as of December 15, 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000.00
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120,872.00
New Members
Rev. Casey Beaumier, S.J., Boston College, Saint Mary’s Hall, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
Ms. Emily K. Berquist, 135 Salem Drive, Ithaca, NY 14850
Mr. Ronald A. Binzley, 713 Moygara Road, Monona,WI 53716
Dr. Philip Bolger, 808 Barbara Blvd., Franklin Square, NY 11010
Professor Noel D. Cary, 61 Winter Hill Road, Holden, MA 01520
Ms. Grace C. Chan, 744 Oakwood Court,Westmont, IL 60559
Dr. Mary Katherine Cooney, Department of History, Lourdes College, Sylvania,
OH 43560
Mr. Brian J. Coyne, 565 Wolcott Hill Road,Wethersfield, CT 06109
Mr. Jace T. Crouch, 603 Liberty Street,Alma, MI 48801-1230
Dr. Joanna H. Drell, 3331 W. Franklin Street, Richmond,VA 23221
Mr. Steven Ellersick, 1010 NW 175th Street, Shoreline,WA 98177
Dr. James Felak, Department of History, University of Washington, 315 Smith,
Box 353560, Seattle,WA 98195-3560
Professor Alison Frazier, History B 7000—Mail Station 1, University of Texas,
Austin,TX 78712-0220
Dr. Laura Grimes, 1300 Adams Avenue,Apt.12E, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Mr. Ryan T. Gruters, 595 Wilhelm Road, Goshen,VA 24439-2306
Dr.Todd F. Hartch, Department of History, 303 Keith Building, Eastern Kentucky
University, 521 Lancaster Avenue, Richmond, KY 40475-3102
Ms. Kathleen A. Holscher, 408 Green Street,Apt. A, Philadelphia, PA 19123
Professor Charlene F. Kalinoski, Department of Foreign Languages, Roanoke
College, 221 College Lane, Salem,VA 24153-3794
Professor Paula M. Kane, Department of Religious Studies, 2604 CL, University
of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Mr. James G. Kroemer, 9440 N. Bethanne Drive, Brown Deer,WI 53223
Dr. Ulrich Lehner, 1112 E. Knapp Street, Apt. 18, Milwaukee,WI 53202
Dr. Melissa Belleville Lurio, 703 Forest Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60302

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THE 87TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

Professor Sabine MacCormack, 511 Marquette Avenue, South Bend, IN 46617
Dr. Stephen J. McCarthy, History Department, Aquinas College, 4210 Harding
Road, Nashville,TN 37205
Dr. Linda McMahon, 6800 Fleetwood Road, #1123, McLean,VA 221101
Dr. David P. Miros, Midwest Jesuit Archives, 4511 West Pine Boulevard, Saint
Louis, MO 63108-2191
Dr. Michael E. O’Sullivan, Box 957, Emory,VA 24327
Ms. Mary Alma Parker, 2 Riverdale Drive, Charleston, SC 29407
Mr. Michael Pasquier, Jr., 1015 Kingdom Drive,Tallahassee, FL 32311-1223
Professor Rodger Payne, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies,
Louisiana State University, 106 Coates Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Ms. Fernanda Perrone, 20 Magnolia Street, #81, Highland Park, NJ 08057
Mr. Samuel Pierce, 4411 Black Forest Way, Gainesville, FL 32605
Mr. Arthur Plaza, 71-29 58th Road, Maspeth, NY 11378
Dr. Raymond A. Powell, 129 Fawn Valley Drive, Boerne,TX 78006
Dr. Joyce E. Salisbury, 3651 Bay Settlement Road, Green Bay,WI 54311
Mr. John A. Scofield, 51177 Lexingham Drive, Granger, IN 46530
Professor Rainulf A. Stelzmann, 18705 Lakeshore Drive, Lutz, FL 33549-3830
Ms. Carrie Lee Tallichet, 822 Azalea Court, College Station,TX 77840
Ms. Lisa Wuliang Tom, 2021 Amur Court, Milpitas, CA 95035-2516
Mr. Jonathan Truitt, 1937 W. St. Germain Street, St. Cloud, MN 56301
Dr. Richard Warren, History Department, St. Joseph’s University, 5600 City
Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19131
Mr. Donald C.Weigel, 7910 Michael Road, Orchard Park, NY 14127-1464
Ms. Kathy J. Wilson, Department of History, 280 Schaeffer Hall, University of
Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242
Dr.Stanley L.Wyrzykowski,Esq.,633 Palisade Avenue,1A, Cliffside Park,NJ 07010
Ms. Anna T. Zakarija, 4100 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Apt. 610, Washington, DC
20016
TIMOTHY J. MEAGHER
Report of the Editor
Volume XCII (1906) contained 736 pages with Arabic numerals, 22 with
Roman for the preliminary materials, and 16 for the index, for a total of 764
pages, 124 pages more than budgeted.We are grateful to those who generously
contributed money to make these extra pages possible.* The volume con*Final List of Contributors—2006
Rev. John Alexander, O.P., Ms. Charlotte Ames, Rev. Robert C.Ayers, Rev. Dr. Paul F. Bailey,
Ms. Carla Bang, Prof. Lawrence Barmann, Prof. Frederic J. Baumgartner, Dr. Christopher M.
Bellitto, Prof. Harry L. Bennett, Dr. Martin A. Bergin, Jr., Dr. Melinda K. Blade, Dr. Uta Renate
Blumenthal, Rev. Dr.Thomas Bokenkotter, Prof. Henry W. Bowden, Prof.Thomas A. Brady,
Jr., Dr. Franklin W. Burch, Dr. David H. Burton, Prof.Anne M. Butler, Prof.William J. Callahan,
Rev. Robert Carbonneau, C.P., Rev. Msgr. Patrick J. Carney, Rev. Daniel E. Carter, Mr. Joseph
C. Castora, Rev. Peter Clarke, Rev. Joseph P. Chinnici, O.F.M., Prof. Luca Codignola, Prof.

THE 87TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

361

tained 12 articles, 3 review articles, 2 review essays, 166 book reviews, 10 brief
notices, and one miscellany.
Of the articles received prior to 2006, 10 were published in 2006, 4 await
publication, 7 are pending revisions, and 10 were rejected during 2006. Of the
articles received in 2006, one was published, 8 were accepted and await publication, 2 are pending revisions, 8 are being evaluated, 3 were rejected, and 2
withdrawn. In an effort to increase the number and quality of the articles
offered to the review, I wrote to the past presidents of the Association in
October of 2005 soliciting their assistance and offerings. Four past presidents
sent me articles and another two promised to do so. I also urged those whose
articles had been accepted pending revisions to complete the revisions.
As to the distribution of fields, the articles break down as follows—articles
accepted prior to 2006 and published in 2006 (10): Medieval (2), Early Modern
Frank Coppa, Rev. Richard F. Costigan, S. J., Prof. Jay Corrin, Bro. Emmett Corry, O.S.F.,
Professor Raymond L. Cummings, Prof. George Dameron, Rev. Dr. Richard L. DeMolen,
Vincent P. De Santis, Sister Susan Karina Dickey, O.P., Dr. John J. Dillon, Dr. Roy P.
Domenico, Rev. Msgr. Thomas Duffy, Most Rev. Walter J. Edyvean, Dr. Keith J. Egan, Mr.
Nicholas Falco, Rev. James K. Farge, C.S.B., Mr. Louis Ferrero, Rev. James Flint, O.S.B., Mr.
Ryan P. Freeburn, Prof. John B. Freed, Rev. Joseph Fugolo, C.S., Sr.Ann Miriam Gallagher,
Rev. James F. Garneau, Dr. Sheridan Gilley, Rev. Paul E. Gins, O.S.M., Prof. J. Phillip Gleason,
Dr. Philip A. Grant, Jr., Rev. Peter N. Graziano, Prof. Paul F. Grendler, Prof. Michael J. Hayden,
Sr. Mary Hayes, S.N.D., Dr.Thomas Head, Jr., Prof.Thomas J. Heffernan, Dr. Sandra HorvathPeterson, Rev. Msgr. Richard A. Hughes, Dr. Jane C. Hutchison, Rev. Leon M. Hutton, Prof.
James John, Prof. Christopher J. Kauffman, Rev. Rene Kolar, O.S.B., Rev. Msgr. Raymond J.
Kupke , Dr. Henry J. Lang, Dr. Charles F. Lasher, Mrs. Joan Lenardon, Rev. Dennis M.
Linehan, S.J., Most Rev. Oscar H. Lipscomb, Rev. John F. Lyons, Rev. Michael P. Lyons, Rev.
Ambrose Macaulay, Dr. Ellen A. Macek, Dr. Joseph F. Mahoney, Dr. Elizabeth Makowski, Dr.
Lawrence McAndrews, Sr., Rev. Floyd Mc Coy, Mr. Frederick J. McGinness, Rev.Thomas C.
McGonigle, O.P., Mr. John H. McGuckin, Jr., Rev. Joseph M. McLafferty, Dr. Mary M.
McLaughlin, Rev. Robert McNamara, Sr. Bridget Merriman, Rev. Wilson D. Miscamble,
C.S.C., Dr. Edward J. Misch, Prof. John C. Moore, Dr. Victoria M. Morse, Dr. James M.
Muldoon, Most Rev. Francis Murphy, D.D., Rev. Benedict Neenan, Ms. Caroline
Newcombe, Rev. Dr. Leo A. Nicoll, S.J., Prof.Thomas F. X. Noble, Dr.William L. North, Prof.
Doyce B. Nunis, Jr., Prof. Francis Oakley, Prof. Glenn W. Olsen, Dr. John R. Page, Prof. Fred
S. Paxton, Rev. Dr. John Piper, Jr., Rev.Thaddeus Posey, O.F.M. Cap., Prof. James M. Powell,
Dr. Robert E. Quigley, Dr. John F. Quinn, Dr. Marguerite Ragnow, Prof. Virginia Reinburg,
Prof. John F. Roche, Dr. David M. David Rooney, Mr. John Peter Rooney, Prof.Anne C. Rose
, Prof. Jane Rosenthal, Dr. Steven J. Rosswurm, Dr. James D. Ryan, Prof. José M. Sánchez,
Rev. Msgr. Robert J. Sarno, Dr. Daniel L. Schlafly, Rev. Dr. David G. Schultenover, S.J., Rev.
Dr. Robert Scully, S.J., Rev. Msgr. Francis Seymour, Rev. Msgr.Thomas Shelley, Mr. George T.
Spera, Dr. Peter F. Steinfels, Dr. Neil Storch, Right Rev. Matthew Stark, O.S.B., Dr. Stephen
J. Sweeney, Rev. Arthur I.Taborelli, Rev. Prof. Charles J.T.Talar, Rev. George H.Tavard, Mr.
Daniel F.Tanzone, Prof. Samuel J.Thomas, Rev. Dr.Thomas W.Tifft, Prof. James D.Tracy, Rev.
Dr. Edward R. Udovic, C. M., Rev. John Vidmar, O.P., Dr. Karen T. Wagner, Prof. Morimichi
Watanabe, Rev. Msgr. Edward Wetterer, Rev. Martin N.Winters, Rev. John W.Witek, S.J., and
Rev. Dr. Martin A. Zielinski

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THE 87TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

(2), Late Modern (2), American (3), Mixed (1); accepted prior to 2006 and
awaiting publication (4): Late Modern (2),American (1), Far East (1); accepted
prior to 2006 and pending revisions (7): Medieval (1), Early Modern (1), Late
Modern (2), American (2), Latin American (1); received prior to 2006 and
rejected in 2006 (10): Medieval (1), Early Modern (1), Late Modern (4),
American (2), Latin American (1), Far East (1); received in 2006 and published
in 2006 (1): Medieval; received in 2006 and accepted awaiting publication (8):
Medieval (3), Early Modern (2), Late Modern (1),American (2); received in 2006
and accepted pending revisions (2): Early Modern (1), Late Modern
(1); received in 2006 and still being evaluated (8): Medieval (2), Early Modern
(2), Late Modern (2), Latin American (2); received in 2006 and rejected (3):
Medieval (1),American (2); received in 2006 and withdrawn (2): Early Modern
(1), Late Modern (1). The summary distribution of all articles received is:
General (0), Ancient (0), Medieval (11), Early Modern (10), Late Modern (15),
American (12), Latin American (4), Canadian (0), Far East (2), and Mixed (1).
For many years the John D. Lucas Printing Company, bought out by the
Cenveo Publishing Company, has provided courteous and excellent services to
the review, for which we are grateful. But because of a dramatic increase in
production costs by Cenveo, the Review reluctantly searched for a new typesetter and printer. We found a new typesetter in BocaType of Boca Raton,
Florida, and a new printer in Sheridan Printing Company of Hanover,
Pennsylvania.With the July issue we made the switch.To bring down costs we
have gone increasingly to an electronic format. The editing corrections are
now done mostly in our office. In general the transition has gone smoothly, but
one problem did occur with the first issue: the pagination was off—it repeated
that of the April issue, a problem discovered by our indexer.We hope this does
not create difficulties for future bibliographers.
Monsignor Robert Trisco has graciously continued to provide me with
invaluable assistance by way of sage advice on many topics, evaluation and
copyediting of manuscripts, compilation of the Periodical Literature and Other
Books Received sections, and careful proofreading of the galleys. Mr. Mark
Frisius, a graduate student assistant, has helped me with great skill to find
potential reviewers and their addresses, send out invitations, compile bibliographical cards and transmittal slips, and send out the books once accepted for
review. Mrs. Rita Bogley, who also serves as assistant to the Association’s
Secretary and Treasurer, also assists Msgr. Trisco in the compilation of the
Periodical Literature and Other Books Received sections, types the Table of
Contents and some correspondence, sees that galleys and offprints are sent to
the authors and publishers, and provides numerous other services that contribute to a cheerful atmosphere in the office. She is ably assisted by the undergraduate work-study student, Mr. Sean Phillips. I am most grateful to them all
for their dedicated services to the review.
NELSON H. MINNICH

BOOK REVIEWS

General
Christian Community in History. Vol. 1: Historical Ecclesiology. By Roger
Haight. (New York: Continuum. 2004. Pp. x, 438. $34.95.)
The prior decade, but especially the last few years, has seen a short but rich
shelf of books on ecclesiology from both established and emerging scholars
(Joseph Komonchak, Thomas Rausch, Richard Gaillardetz, Bernard Prusak,
Gerard Mannion, Christopher Ruddy, et al.). This research represents a natural
summation, re-evaluation, and reconfiguring of the generation of scholarship
sparked by Vatican II’s promulgation of Lumen gentium and Gaudium et spes,
now just over forty years ago. Roger Haight’s Historical Ecclesiology joins this
company as the first of his two-volume Christian Community in History.
(Volume 2: Comparative Ecclesiology covering the Reformation through contemporary developments, appeared in 2005.) Haight intends Christian
Community in History to form a sort of trilogy with his Dynamics of
Theology (1990, 2001) and Jesus Symbol of God (1999).
Haight begins with a discussion of what he defines as historical ecclesiology: an exploration of a lived rather than a theoretical ecclesiology, despite the
fact that the study must attend to theories of the nature and function of the
Church in addition to her actual experiences. He explains that he intends the
phrase “historical ecclesiology” to mean ecclesiology “from below” as opposed
to “from above” or an abstract and ahistorical approach. Indeed, a “from above”
approach has not been characteristic of the most recent studies in the field,
although Haight’s date of publication indicates that he was probably unable to
engage some of the newly-published scholarship of his colleagues who have
likewise been pairing ecclesiological concepts with the difficult realities and
diverse contexts of church history.
Haight “intends to do more than simply lay out the various ecclesiologies
that have been generated in the course of history. . . . Drawing out these principles results not in a metahistory of ecclesiologies, but a more empirically
based set of guidelines for reflection on the church at any given time. . . . The
goal of the work is to display a historical and developing church with multiple
ecclesiologies” (pp. 2-3, 6). He pursues this goal by looking at developments in
history and theology, while also applying concepts from sociology and anthropology, to form a “multidenominational and interdisciplinary analysis of the
church” (p. 11). It should be noted that the author approaches this goal as a
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systematic theologian and not as an ecclesiologist or a church historian; at
times he is not in dialogue with the latest research on particular topics, which
weakens especially the chapter on conciliarism.
Each chapter, after the first on methodology, has four similar sections—historical narrative/development, a social-theological (and sometimes anthropological) analysis, a description of the period, and a summary “principles for a
Historical Ecclesiology”—treating, in turn, the Church’s genesis, the Church
before and after Constantine, the Gregorian reform and the medieval Church,
and the late medieval Church, considering especially conciliarism. The parallel structure makes for helpful comparisons, particularly for the graduate and
seminary student best suited as the book’s audience. The volume’s technical
language and somewhat formal delivery might not work well with undergraduates or the uninformed general reader. For the dedicated reader, however,
there is a great reward in learning more about a Church that should be constantly self-reflective; that should discover how she has developed and
changed; and that should understand the critical difference and creative tension between continuity and discontinuity in her past and present life.
Kean University

CHRISTOPHER M. BELLITTO

When Science & Christianity Meet. Edited by David C. Lindberg and Ronald L.
Numbers. (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 2003. Pp. xii,
357. $29.00.)
More than twenty years ago, David Lindberg and Ronald Numbers, both of
them professors in the Department of the History of Science at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, edited an important work in which an international
group of eighteen distinguished historians published essays on the relationship between Christianity and science from the time of the early church up to
the twentieth century. That work, God and Nature (1986), explicitly rejected
the commonly held thesis that science and Christianity have generally coexisted in a state of conflict or warfare. Building on the success of that earlier
volume, the two men later edited the work here under review, this time offering twelve case histories covering some of what they call “the most notorious,
most interesting, or most instructive instances of encounter between these
two powerful cultural forces” (p. 4). Once the essays were drafted, the editors
organized a conference that brought together the authors with a roughly equal
number of teachers and college students for the sole purpose of ensuring that
the essays had attained the desired level of accuracy and accessibility. The
final product, which includes more than fifty black-and-white illustrations and
eleven pages of annotated bibliography, has admirably met the editors’ goals.
In particular, the format of “case histories” allowed the contributors to avoid
sweeping, questionable generalizations and oversimplifications and to focus
instead on the uniqueness of each case, with its specific historical actors,
agenda, and social and cultural context.

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365

The issues examined in the twelve essays are arranged in chronological
order, with the opening piece dealing with the ways in which Augustine of
Hippo in the fourth and early fifth century and Roger Bacon in the thirteenth
thought the natural sciences could serve as “handmaidens” of theology and
religion. There follow studies of the Galileo affair, the rise of a mechanistic
understanding of the universe in the latter half of the seventeenth century, the
ways in which eighteenth-century natural philosophers understood the nature
of forces such as gravity and electricity, the effect of modern geology on
Christian interpretations of the biblical narratives of creation and the Noachic
deluge, debates over the antiquity of the human race, the varied responses to
Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, the possibility of miracles,
the response of Christians in the United States to Freudian psychoanalysis, the
way in which the Scopes trial became part of the fabric of American culture,
and the gradual transition from “godly natural philosophy” to “naturalistic
modern science” since the time of the Scientific Revolution.
In this short review, it is not possible to discuss each of these essays; instead,
I will briefly comment on three that struck me as especially noteworthy.
Lindberg’s “Galileo, the Church, and the Cosmos” is a masterful summary of the
Galileo affair. By studying the case in its seventeenth-century European context,
an era of increasing religious and political absolutism, he is able to demonstrate
that Galileo’s condemnation was a product “not of dogmatism or intolerance
beyond the norm, but of a combination of more or less standard (for the seventeenth century) bureaucratic procedure, plausible (if ultimately flawed) political judgment, and a familiar array of human foibles and failings” (p. 60).
In “Science, Miracles, and the Prayer-Gauge Debate,” Robert Bruce Mullin of
the General Theological Seminary in New York City examines the way in which
the Protestant Reformation affected the earlier, traditional understanding of
miracles and prayer and thereby led to the kind of controversy that emerged
three centuries later when the English physicist John Tyndall attacked belief not
only in miracles but also in those acts of “special providence”in which God was
believed to act in a hidden way in the regular course of nature.While developments in modern physics have led many scientists to question Tyndall’s strictly
deterministic model of the universe, Mullin notes in his conclusion that within
the past four decades there has emerged a new scholarly debate over the very
issues that the English physicist raised a century and a half ago.
Thirdly, in “Psychoanalysis and American Christianity, 1900-1945,” Jon H.
Roberts of Boston University traces the way in which many physicians in the
early twentieth century stopped attributing mental illness to pathological conditions in the brain or nervous system (the “somatic” view of the mind) and
adopted instead the position that such illness is rooted in psychological malfunctioning, especially in the inability of persons “to adapt effectively to their
cultural or social environments” (p. 227).While the resulting “psychotherapy”
was generally well-received by American religious thinkers in the first half of
the twentieth century, the psychoanalytic branch of the movement was

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viewed with much suspicion if not outright rejection, in part because of the
assaults on religion by professed Freudians, in part because of the psychoanalysts’ tendency to use the motif of “illness” rather than “sinful choices” when
describing a person’s capitulation to base desires.
With its concise, clearly written essays about these and similar topics,
including extensive endnotes that refer the reader to primary texts and important scholarly studies, this volume is a superb introduction to some of the most
fascinating episodes in the long history of the relationship between science
and Christianity.
The Catholic University of America
.

JAMES A.WISEMAN, O.S.B.

Index librorum prohibitorum: 1600-1966. Edited by J. M. De Bujanda with the
assistance of Marcella Richter. [Index des livres interdits, Volume XI.]
(Montreal: Centre d’Études de la Renaissance, Université de Sherbrooke,
Médiaspaul; Geneva: Librairie Droz. 2002. Pp. 980.)
After the publication of the ten volumes of Index of forbidden books,
which record all books prohibited by secular and ecclesiastical authorities in
Catholic Europe during the sixteenth century, this eleventh volume of the
series Index des livres interdits directed by J. M. De Bujanda registers the
books appearing only on the Roman Index, but it embraces a much wider span
of time. It lists approximately 5200 titles and 3000 authors, whose prohibition
was issued between 1600 and 1966, when the Roman Index was finally abolished by Pope Paul VI. To these impressive numbers, as De Bujanda stresses in
his introduction, must be added anonymous writings, titles that, though never
placed on the index, were not allowed to circulate for several reasons, and that
incalculable amount of books falling under the prohibitions of the general
rules, which concerned inter alia vernacular translations of the Bible, lascivious and obscene texts, controversial religious literature, astrological writings,
etc. De Bujanda, however, points out that a few authors and titles were withdrawn from the 1900 index following the reform of Roman censorship
decreed by Leo XIII. Interestingly enough, this revision was the consequence
of the harsh criticisms by F. H. Reusch, whose Der Index der verbotenen
Bücher was examined in 1885 by the Congregation of the Index in view of its
condemnation. Far from being prohibited, Reusch’s book prompted the censors to put order in the contradictory and messy contents of Roman catalogues (see Hubert Wolf, Storia dell’Indice. Il Vaticano e i libri proibiti [Rome:
Donzelli, 2006], pp. 199-214). Notwithstanding the inevitably concise biographical data on the authors and bibliographical data on the writings, as compared to the previous volumes, De Bujanda provides the reader with the indispensable elements of a given author or a given work, thus offering an
invaluable and hitherto lacking tool to scholars of censorship and to specialists of various disciplines. The major interest of this new volume, with respect
to the sixteenth-century catalogues, lies in its chronology, for it encompasses

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367

more than 350 years of activity of the three curial institutions involved in censorship—the Inquisition, the Congregation of the Index, and the Master of the
Sacred Palace. A bird’s-eye view of such a long period allows a deeper and
broader understanding both of the wide-ranging spectrum of topics, issues,
and disciplines at the center of Roman concerns and of the most significant
changes over time in the selection of targets. Having lost its battle against the
Reformation, Rome seems to have increasingly focused its attention on attacks
from domestic dissidents: defenders of State jurisdiction against the encroachments of the Church and the claims of the papacy, Jansenists, quietists, and
modernists. Meanwhile virtually every branch of knowledge, independently
from its theological implications, came under close scrutiny, and every discipline—from philosophy to history, medicine, sciences, law, biblical studies, literature, etc.—paid its toll to censorship. Condemnations, however, were accurately dispensed: the relevance attributed to the authors or to the writings
concerned was evidenced by the authority emitting them. The entries
include references to the official document (decree, bull, brief, encyclical,
edict), to the authority emitting it (pope, Inquisition, Index, Master of the
Sacred Palace, and in a few cases the Congregations of Rites and Indulgences)
and to the date. Though drawn from the 1948 index (the last catalogue published by the Roman Church), these data must be handled with caution, since
they do not always refer the correct date of the decisions taken by the
Inquisition or the Index or of the first publication of the prohibition. On the
other hand, they also reflect long-term disputes as to which institution should
cloak the condemnation of a book with its authority, a problem that needs to
be more carefully investigated and that may account for both the frequent
delays in condemning books and authors and for the contradictory instructions given to peripheral ecclesiastical authorities (nuncios, bishops, inquisitors), with the inevitable consequences on the actual practice of censorship.
Università di Parma

GIGLIOLA FRAGNITO

Hagia Sophia, 1850-1950: Holy Wisdom Modern Monument. By Robert S.
Nelson. (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 2004. Pp. xx,
278, 11 color plates. $65.00.)
This fascinating investigation of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul amasses a wealth
of documentation—some of it well known and some of it new—to document
and assess how it became a modern icon. It focuses on the people, writings,
and illustrations that illuminate this “reception history.” Intelligently and beautifully written, and well produced, with 119 figures and ten color plates, the
important monograph of the Byzantine art historian Robert S. Nelson should
appeal to the scholar and the general reader alike.
Nelson begins his inquiry with the completion of the last major restoration
of the building from 1847 to 1849 by the Swiss architects, the Fossati brothers, and concludes around 1950, a rather arbitrary date, as he admits. But the

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BOOK REVIEWS

century of his overview was crucial for the transformation of Hagia Sophia as
an artifact of the past—first as the cathedral and patriarchal church of
Constantinople and then as the sultan’s and the caliph’s principal mosque Aya
Sofya, into a monument of the present—since 1934 a museum seen by virtually all visitors to the city.We learn about the critics, poets, archeologists, architects, illustrators, photographers, philanthropists, government officials, and religious congregations who are tied to the fabric of Hagia Sophia’s modern
reception. The monograph is selective, focusing upon the European and
American reception of the building, and excluding interpretations by Turks of
the late Sultanate and early Republic, modern Greeks (except for some Greek
Orthodox communities who migrated to the United States and built
churches), and Orthodox Christians in late Czarist and early Soviet Russia.
Nelson’s narrative unfolds in eight chapters. In Chapter One he sketches
the lines of the Early Byzantine church of the sixth century, its postIconoclastic mosaic decoration, and the liturgical processions associated with
the building. Then he outlines the scornful attitudes about or neglect of the
building by late eighteenth and early nineteenth century writers. A few writers of the first half of the nineteenth century, however, offered positive
appraisals of Hagia Sophia. For example, in her popular illustrated travel book
The Beauties of the Bosphorus (London, 1838), Miss Julia Pardoe, who gained
admittance to Hagia Sophia, termed it “an architectural wonder” (p. 63).
Chapter Two analyzes how certain scholars and architects in Germany,
France, and England appropriated Byzantine architecture in the service of their
respective countries. The next chapter discusses the sympathetic attitude
toward Byzantine architecture in the writings of John Ruskin and how Ruskin
made it relevant to Victorian building. No matter that Ruskin never visited
Constantinople and based his grasp of Byzantine architecture on Venice, especially on architectural sculpture and mosaics in San Marco in Venice. Yet his
The Stones of Venice (1851-1853) launched a general reappraisal of Byzantine
architecture in general and Hagia Sophia in particular.
Chapter Four is to my mind the most important in the book. In the second
half of the nineteenth century both photographic images of the building and
its first scholarly studies appeared.The latter are well known in academic circles, but the photographs, engravings, and other reproductions gathered by
Nelson are less familiar.
The “superhero” of this period was the British artist James Robertson, who
moved to Constantinople in 1841 to modernize the Ottoman mint and who
within a decade had taken up photography. Robertson photographed the exterior of Hagia Sophia, and his photographs became widely known. They not
only inspired other photographers working in the city but were also transformed into engravings, lithographs, and etchings in newspapers and books on
Constantinople which were published in Western Europe.

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369

In fact, Robertson’s exterior views continued to influence photographers
and engravers as late as the 1920’s. Nelson’s research for this material took full
advantage of the resources of the J. Paul Getty Museum, especially the Pierre
de Gigord collection of some 6,000 photographs and other images of the
Ottoman Empire acquired a decade ago. Nelson provides an incisive analysis
of Robertson’s photography and its impact, and this represents a significant
contribution to the historiography of Hagia Sophia.
Overlooked by Nelson are the Messbildanstalt photographs of Hagia
Sophia. The Königliche Preussische Messbildanstalt was established in Berlin
by Albrecht Meydenbauer, who also founded photogrammetry. In 1902 and
1906 this institution took 186 photographs of Hagia Sophia, the building’s first
systematic photographic documentation.
One also wonders why Nelson did not consider early postcards of the church
and the city. Historic postcards of Istanbul began to appear in 1890, and they circulated widely and surely stimulated interest in the building among those who
wanted to possess a visual souvenir of its buildings and those who could not
afford to visit Constantinople. This aspect of material culture is surveyed in the
useful study by Robert Ousterhout and Nezih Basgelen, Monuments of Unaging
Intellect: Historic Postcards of Istanbul (Istanbul, 1995).
Chapter 5 offers a highly readable account of William Morris,W. R. Lethaby,
and Lord Curzon. In 1894 Lethaby and Harold Swainson published the first
scholarly monograph on Hagia Sophia, The Church of Sancta Sophia,
Constantinople. Here we read about “the most famous building in the world.”
Nelson also describes the ill-fated proposal by the diplomat Lord George
Curzon to oust the “Turk” from Constantinople and to restore Hagia Sophia to
Christian worship, further evidence of the status of the monument as an allimportant symbol in the West.
The next chapter analyzes Yeats’ well known poems “Sailing to Byzantium”
(1926) and “Byzantium”(1930). Nelson proposes possible art historical sources
for these poems and attitudes of the previous half-century that may have
shaped Yeats’ thought in general.
In Chapter Seven we read about Thomas Whittemore (1871-1950) and his
Byzantine Institute of America, which began uncovering Byzantine mosaics in
Hagia Sophia in the early 1930’s. Nelson reconstructs what is known about
Whittemore’s professional life and especially the lives of his wealthy American
patrons.
The last chapter discusses a number of late nineteenth-and twentieth-century churches in his country whose design was inspired to a greater or lesser
degree by that of Hagia Sophia. Appearing too late to be considered by
Nelson was J. B. Bullen’s Byzantium Rediscovered (2003), which paints a
much broader canvas, taking up in detail the Byzantine revival in Germany,

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Austria, France, and Britain, as well as this country. Nevertheless, Nelson discusses a number of neo-Byzantine American churches not cited by Bullen.
The path that Hagia Sophia followed into the canon of art history and
Byzantine studies generally is now more fully understood thanks to the careful and enthusiastic research in Nelson’s monograph.
Indiana University

W. EUGENE KLEINBAUER

Propaganda and the Jesuit Baroque. By Évonne Levy. (Berkeley: University of
California Press. 2004. Pp. x, 353. $55.00.)
The word “propaganda” summons up such a negative resonance that it
could well turn a reader away from this book. That would be a mistake, for it
is a learned and imaginative work.The author brings critical theory, sociological insight, cultural history, a discerning eye, and the nuances that only wide
and deep knowledge of actual works of art can provide.
An introduction and a concluding “postscript from Berlin” on Nazi architecture serve as the bookends of the study. Nazi architecture produces a troubling “affect,” as propaganda. Jesuit architecture and art on the other hand no
longer do so, since they have been neutralized as the “political heat,” especially
of the nineteenth century, on the Society of Jesus has vanished. But are art and
propaganda two distinct and unrelated possibilities, two mutually exclusive
categories? How did the “propagandistic” art and architecture of the Jesuit
Baroque actually function? Five chapters deal with those questions. Levy
argues that what was at stake there and then was, to use Louis Althusser’s term,
“interpellation,” or in “subject formation” the exchange of message between
two partners.
The first chapter deals with the emergence of the so-called “Jesuit Style” as
a pejorative term in the anti-Jesuitism of the 1840’s, especially in Germany and
France. The “Jesuit Style” proved to be a tenacious idea because of its political
currency. The second chapter deals with propaganda and rhetoric, both as
forms of persuasion. In some way this and the fourth chapter on the message
of propaganda are the most difficult ones in the book because of the way they
use theoretical constructs.
The third chapter on the propagandist deals with the Jesuit corporate culture of architecture and the individuals involved therein. How the chapel of
Saint Ignatius, 1695-1699, in the church of the Gesú in Rome was designed
amply demonstrates their interplay.
As the fourth chapter explains, the goal of a message is more important
than its specific content in defining propaganda, a definition that includes a
strong emotional appeal. Propaganda is “directed communication.”The aim of

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the Church’s message in the Baroque, to use Althusser’s insights on ideology,
was essentially the forming of subjects in their own responding to that message and in holding a mirror up to themselves. A series of examples makes
this clear. The first ones come from the various editions of Ribadeynera’s
biography of Saint Ignatius where “Ignatius becomes virtually synonymous
with the form of the Society of Jesus itself.” Other examples of images that
produce subjects and saints are cultic sites in Rome associated with Ignatius.
Excellent illustrations accompany the text here as also earlier and later in the
book. One could wish they had been printed in color; perhaps the publisher
thought it too expensive.
Finally the last chapter considers the diffusion of propaganda. It deals with
architecture and the work of subject formation and of architecture as theology.
In addition, Jesuit forms and Jesuit identity, the means of their diffusion in
prints, and subsequent copies and imitations, come in for detailed treatment,
again illustrated by examples.The book concludes with an extensive bibliography and an excellent index.
This is not a work for easy reading, in part because one of its great strengths
is also a weakness; it is almost overfilled with one original insight after another
through which it marches with great rapidity. But it is surely a volume that any
library concerned with art history and/or the Jesuits should have on its shelves
and of which anyone interested in those subjects should take serious account.
The Institute of Jesuit Sources
St. Louis, Missouri

JOHN PADBERG, S.J.

Dictionary of Basilian Biography: Lives of Members of the Congregation of
Priests of Saint Basil from Its Origins in 1822 to 2002. Second edition.
Revised and augmented by P. Wallace Platt. (Toronto, Buffalo, London:
University of Toronto Press. 2005. Pp. xxviii, 715. $125.00.)
“Let us now sing the praises of those great men.”Although the dedication
begins and the dust jacket ends this immense tome with Sirach, these 649
biographies are not eulogies. This is yet another reference work to join a
growing list of Canadian religious biographical dictionaries—notably the
Canadian Jesuit, Oblate, and Sulpician dictionaries. The Basilian dictionary
requires a review, because it has several points in its favor.
First, it is published by a university press and, while that is not an automatic
guarantee of better quality than other Catholic biographical dictionaries
(although it does reach university standards of research, writing, editing, and
publishing), it will reach a different audience through its own distribution network, guaranteeing a wider impact.
Second, it is a dictionary that includes every deceased Basilian priest, even
those who left the Congregation of Saint Basil. Only professed students who

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left before ordination are omitted. Other dictionaries rarely aspire to such comprehensiveness. Either the challenge is too great for very large Congregations,
forcing a selection of more noteworthy individuals, or the compilers ignored
those who left religious life. Few multi-volume efforts attempted comprehensiveness, even before legal worries of confidentiality, and they include only the
briefest of entries. Not this one.
Third, it is a dictionary than crosses national boundaries, and includes
French, English, Canadian, American, and a few other nationalities, as well as
careers that go even farther, into Mexico and the Caribbean. Researchers and
historians interested in the Catholic religious history of—in chronological
order—France (the Ardèche); Toronto, Windsor, and the Bruce Peninsula in
Ontario; Louisville, Kentucky; Algeria; Plymouth, England; Detroit, Michigan;
Waco and Houston, including Hispanic ministry in Texas; Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan;Rochester,New York;Gary (now Merrillville),Indiana;St.Joseph’s
College, Edmonton, in Alberta; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Oakland, California;
Cali, Columbia; and St. Lucia in the West Indies would be well-served.
Fourth, a team of researchers, writers, and editors worked over a decade to
build on the mammoth efforts of Robert Scollard’s 1969 first edition and doubled its size. Although the dictionary spans the nineteenth to the beginnings
of the twenty-first century, most of the entries relate to the twentieth century,
the era of the Basilians’ (and so many others’) greatest growth and size. Since
almost half of the book relates to individuals—almost all educators—who died
since 1969, the value of this book to the history of Catholic education in the
twentieth century is obvious.
Fifth, there is a brief introduction to the history of the Basilians, significant
dates of Basilian foundations, including high schools, colleges, and parishes, a
glossary of Basilian vocabulary, and—mainly of use to Basilians and their
friends—a calendar of the deceased. Although there is some duplication and
repetition given the restricted archival sources, a bibliography of archival and
published sources as well as publications by the individual after each entry
completes this massive work of painstaking scholarship. Taken together, this
book stands out from ordinary filiopiety.
One quibble: there is no index. Although dictionaries of this type are
already indexed alphabetically by name, and this dictionary has cross-referencing, an index of place names would make this dictionary much more valuable. Computer indexing has advanced so much that such a challenge can be
easily overcome. Perhaps this volume will be made available for computer
searching on the web?
Redemptorist Archives
Yorkton, Saskatchewan

PAUL LAVERDURE

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Ancient
Constantine and the Christian Empire. By Charles Matson Odahl. (New York:
Routledge. 2004. Pp. xviii, 400. $104.95.)
In his work Constantine and the Christian Empire, Charles Odahl strives
to present a biographical study of Constantine in a style that will be useful for
both the educated public and fellow scholars (p. ix). He begins the work with
a chapter on the ancient sources, followed by ten chapters that cover the era
of Constantine, with a final chapter dedicated to modern historiography.
Odahl’s stated aim is to incorporate the material sources of the period such as
coins, buildings, and monuments in order to add depth to the large body of
existing biographies of Constantine.
One highlight of this work is the detailed description of the political landscape of the late third and early fourth centuries. Chapters 2-5 provide a very
thorough and useful description of the Crisis of the Third Century, the tetrarchy of Diocletian, and other events leading up to the emergence of
Constantine as emperor in the west. Chapters 6-11 outline the reign of
Constantine, highlighting the role that his faith played in his imperial policies,
material building programs, and imperial coinage. The heavily-illustrated
chapters make clear Odahl’s emphasis upon the material sources and serve the
work well. In the final chapter on modern interpretations, Odahl situates his
work within recent studies on Constantine. In this chapter, he states that he
follows T. D. Barnes’ interpretation in Constantine and Eusebius (1981) that
Constantine was a religious reformer who intended to convert the empire to
Christianity (p. 283). The contribution of this book, according to the author,
is to augment Barnes’ work by providing a more complete biographical
account of the reign of Constantine.
The intended aim to meet the needs of both the educated reader and
scholar might explain some of the drawbacks of this work. For example,
the discussion of modern historiography would be more useful for scholars if placed at the beginning of the work. As it stands, scholars familiar
with the historiography of the period will recognize the influence of
Barnes’s interpretation of Constantine throughout the work. When this is
revealed in the final chapter, it comes as little surprise. This organizational
decision was a conscious one to make the work more “reader friendly” (p.
ix), but it limits the work’s usefulness for scholars in my view. An exploration of these “arcane” (p. ix) debates surrounding questions such as the
relationship between Constantine’s faith and his imperial policies and the
reliability of Eusebius as a source would add to the value of this work.
Similarly, the very detailed chronology of Constantine’s reign and his military campaigns, and the many detailed illustrations that make the work a
valuable introduction for scholars may be too detailed for a more general
audience. In the end, the attempt to satisfy both the educated public and

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scholars is an admirable one, but may prevent the work from being entirely
satisfying to either audience.
University of West Georgia

JUSTIN STEPHENS

Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an
Age of Transition. By Claudia Rapp. [The Transformation of the Classical
Heritage.] (Berkeley: University of California Press. 2005. Pp. xii, 346.)
The European Enlightenment has proven remarkably successful in convincing later generations not only that religious matters can be separated from
secular ones, but that such a distinction is natural. This has hampered scholarly efforts to understand societies in which that distinction is foreign. Claudia
Rapp here successfully draws a systematic portrait of episcopal authority in
late antiquity which consciously eschews the binary secular/religious model.
Her model, based on late antique discussions of leadership, is that late antique
bishops exercised leadership through three modes of authority: spiritual, ascetic, and pragmatic. Spiritual authority is a divine gift of the Spirit, of which
individuals are passive recipients. Ascetic authority is achieved through the
personal efforts of individuals to improve and perfect themselves. Pragmatic
authority arises from the deeds individuals do on behalf of others. Whereas
anyone can gain ascetic authority through proper personal conduct, only
those with the material resources to undertake actions benefiting others can
gain pragmatic authority.
This model is an attempt to take seriously the contemporary terminology
used to discuss the ideal characteristics of bishops. Ascetic authority is the
lynch-pin in this system. Rapp’s most forceful point is that bishops strove to
practice asceticism and were praised by their contemporaries insofar as they
succeeded. They endeavored to conform to the same ideals of behavior as
monks and, like monks, gained authority through their ascetic achievements.
Successful practice of asceticism was considered a sign that one possessed
gifts of the spirit and hence had spiritual authority.Ascetic authority was also
the “motivation and legitimation” of pragmatic authority (p. 18). Rapp successfully makes the case that “pragmatic authority never seems to exist on its own
but is embedded in a larger context where spiritual and ascetic authority also
play their part” (p. 131). Rapp’s reminder that most major bishops went
through a period of ascetic practice before taking up office is an important
corrective to common perceptions.
Rapp takes on an extensive chronological sweep from the third to the sixth
century. By thus straddling the reign of Constantine she undermines a second
persistent scholarly dichotomy between the “primitive” Church and the postConstantinian “imperial” church. Her analysis charts gradual evolutions within
the ideals of episcopal authority.

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Much of the source material utilized discusses the nature of the priesthood
and ideals of priestly behavior, with bishops entering the picture as an extension of that conversation. Through the theory of apostolic succession, ordination itself was seen as bestowing spiritual authority on priests.The authority
which came through ordination is most often evident in absolution of penitents (p. 94). Rapp emphasizes the adoption of monastic values by priests. In
part she is exposing the distinction in expected behavior between monks and
priests as a medieval phenomenon. A key distinguishing feature of priestly as
opposed to monastic holiness in late antiquity was the injunction of priests to
preach and educate their communities. Rapp highlights the presumption that
a priest was always a teacher.
Throughout, Rapp exhibits a stunning knowledge of the source material
and scholarship. In addition to the finely crafted argument, Rapp provides an
invaluable survey of information and sources describing the nature of episcopal authority in late antiquity. For this reason alone the book should be considered essential reading for anyone studying late antiquity or the development of Christianity. Her case that bishops were able to lead effectively
through an intertwining of spiritual, ascetic, and pragmatic authority is made
with sufficient force that it will likely set the agenda for scholarly discussions
of late antique authority for some time to come.
The Catholic University of America

LEONORA NEVILLE

Medieval
The New Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. I: C. 500–c.700. Edited by Paul
Fouracre. (New York: Cambridge University Press. 2005. Pp. xviii, 979.
$180.00.)
With the publication of Volume I, the New Cambridge Medieval History is
now complete (seven volumes in eight), a decade after publication began with
Volume II in 1995.As the editor candidly points out in his preface, there were
many delays along the way. Some chapters were submitted as early as 1990
(and had to be updated), while others, for various reasons, were produced
more recently. The result is a volume that is a bit uneven, dated in some areas
and up to the minute in others, but that overall can be judged a worthy beginning (and conclusion) for the series.
It is instructive to compare the organization of this volume with that of its
nearest Cambridge counterparts: Volume XIV of the Cambridge Ancient
History, which covers the imperial and post-imperial Mediterranean world
between 425 and 600, and Volume II of the NCMH: C. 700–c. 900. The centrality of the Roman empire in CAH XIV and of “Carolingian Europe” in NCMH
II gives those volumes a geographical and political unity that was not available
to the planners of NCMH I. They instead organized their subject chronologically and regionally, with thematic chapters at the beginning and end.

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Following the editor’s introduction and further introductory chapters on the
later Roman empire, barbarian invasions, and sources for the period (chaps.
1–3), part I (chaps. 4–10) is devoted to the sixth century; it moves from the
eastern empire to Italy, Spain, and Gaul, and from there to the Celtic and AngloSaxon kingdoms. Part II (chaps. 11–19) goes over the same regions in the seventh century, with the addition of a chapter on Muhammad and Islam and
without a chapter that had been planned on Lombard Italy (see pp. xiii–xiv);
in its final two chapters, added later (p. xiii), Scandinavia and the Slavs are
treated. Part III (chaps. 20–28) surveys Jews, kingship, the economies of the
Mediterranean and northern seas, and money and coinage; it then closes, as do
CAH XIV and NCMH II, with chapters on the church, education and learning,
and art and architecture. (Unlike these volumes, however, NCMH I has no conclusion by the editor.) The book ends with a list of primary sources, extensive
chapter bibliographies, and a thorough index.
Much of this book contains exactly what readers will expect: engaging and
balanced surveys of events, institutions, problems, ideas, and themes written
by experts and furnished with riveting details and ample citations of the textual and material evidence. Some chapters go even further. An excellent example is Michael Toch’s chapter, “The Jews in Europe, 500–1050,” which is
intended to serve the needs of the first three volumes of the NCMH. By a skeptical review of the evidence, it questions “the significance out of proportion”
that “historians have usually accorded” to the Jews of Gaul, Spain, and Italy (p.
547). If Toch is correct, many documents will have to be re-considered, for
instance, the twelfth canon of the council of Vannes (ca. 465), which, in warning clerics to avoid Iudaeorum convivia, had seemed to provide early evidence for the presence of Jews in the furthest reaches of Gaul. It is the inclusion of chapters like this that makes Volume I of the NCMH not just a reliable
but also a thought-provoking guide to the beginnings of the Middle Ages.
Production errors are few and far between.There are typos on pages 146
and 679, and Handley (2003), cited on page 88, is missing from the bibliography. One suspects it should have read: Handley, M.A. (2003), Death, Society,
and Culture: Inscriptions and Epitaphs in Gaul and Spain, AD 300–750,
Oxford.There is also an incorrect caption for plate 10, an illustrated page from
the Vienna Dioscorides.The
page shown is not fol. 20r, but rather fol. 268r, and
,
does not depict
␣␳␶␧␮␫␴␫
´
␣
␮␱␯ó␬␭␻␯␱␵ (Artemesia spicata) but rather
,
␲␧␳␫␴␶␧␳␧␻`␯ ␱␳␤␱´␵ (traditionally Verbena officinalis), a plant discussed in
Dioscorides, De materia medica 4.59 (ed. Wellman). Despite the error, the
illustration still serves the point it was meant to: at the upper left of the drawing, one can see the plant’s name “translated” into miniscule (p. 783).
The Catholic University of America

WILLIAM E. KLINGSHIRN

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The Christian World of the Middle Ages. By Bernard Hamilton. (Stroud,
Gloucestershire, UK: Sutton Publishing. 2003. Pp. xxvii, 256. $29.95.)
This book attempts to fill a gap in the knowledge of students—and teachers—whose training has given them a Eurocentric view of medieval
Christianity, by surveying the varieties of Christian churches throughout the
world in the Middle Ages. In this sense, the book is a companion to the author’s
earlier Religion in the Medieval West, a primer in the beliefs and practices of
medieval Europeans intended for students (and even teachers) who often lack
a rudimentary understanding of the basic tenets and practices of the Christian
faith.As with this earlier work, Hamilton’s claim to originality in The Christian
World of the Middle Ages lies not in new interpretations but in the very conception of the book, since “there is not any single general history written in
English of the Church throughout the world in the medieval centuries” (p. xi).
While Hamilton is concerned to correct a Eurocentric view of Christianity
in the Middle Ages, the Catholic or Western Catholic Church is nevertheless the
point of reference, and so, after a discussion of institutions and doctrines in
Late Antiquity, Hamilton begins his tour of the medieval Christian world with
a survey of developments in western Europe during the Middle Ages. He then
turns to the Byzantine Church and areas Christianized under Byzantine influence; the variety of Christian communions in the diverse and politically unstable region of the Levant and the Caucasus; the Churches of medieval Africa;
and finally the Church in medieval Asia, figuring in the western imagination in
the enigmatic person of Prester John.
For each region he surveys, Hamilton presents chronologically the major
institutional developments and divisions, and gives some idea of the distinctive
characteristics of a particular church’s liturgy, monastic life, and other aspects
of its religious culture. Among recurring themes is the relationship of local
churches to the Roman Catholic or Byzantine Churches, the effect of largescale political change on Christian communities, and the effect in the
Byzantine Empire and Africa of the emergence of Islam and of dynastic
changes within the Islamic world.
The weaknesses of this book are limitations of its form. Hamilton covers an
enormous amount of terrain in just over 200 pages; so the book is by necessity
and design an overview. It is strong on institutions and the major doctrinal, linguistic, and cultural divisions. Hamilton includes a sprinkling of anecdotes and
quotations, but does not offer a more textured presentation of the religious cultures of the large variety of regions and peoples he surveys.There is also little
sense of the historical debates and questions of interpretation in the fields he
surveys, which makes Hamilton’s summary judgments on a few occasions jarring. For instance, he states as a simple fact that the Cathars “were a western
branch of the Byzantine Bogomils,” a judgment that reflects Hamilton’s own
considerable expertise on the subject, but with which not all scholars would

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agree. That this might be a point of scholarly contention will not be noticed by
readers who are not already familiar with the scholarly terrain.
Such matters aside, The Christian World of the Middle Ages is a lucid, gracefully written introduction to its subject. It accomplishes its goal of providing a
basic guide to the Christian world beyond western Europe, and is thus a useful
starting point for correcting some of the parochialism in the standard presentation of the religious history of the Middle Ages. It is a book I will recommend
to students, and I am sure I will turn to again myself for orientation in the relative terra incognita of Christianity in the larger world of the Middle Ages.
Tulane University

F. THOMAS LUONGO

A Heritage of Holy Wood:The Legend of the True Cross in Text and Image. By
Barbara Baert. Translated from the Dutch by Lee Preedy. (Leiden: Brill.
2004. Pp. xxxiv, 527; 30 pages of color plates. $260.00.)
Byzanz, der Westen, und das “wahre” Kreuz. By Holger Alexander Klein.
(Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag. 2004. Pp. xii, 402. €58,00.)
Within the last two years two scholars, one Belgian, the other GermanAmerican, have published books on the True Cross, apparently without being
aware of each other’s work. Each views his or her subject from a different perspective. A joint, comparative review seems appropriate.
Barbara Baert is professor of art history at the Catholic University of Leuven
in Belgium. She comes to her subject exceedingly well prepared. The rich
documentation provided throughout her book and the lengthy bibliography
(pp. 455-503) indicate her familiarity with a vast body of both primary source
material and secondary literature. Jan Willem Drijvers, himself author of
Helena Augusta (Leiden, 1992), has given this book his enthusiastic endorsement in a foreword.
The introduction provides a digest of the body of the book:“The legend of
the Cross ...comprises three distinct traditions,each of which originated at a different time, which were fused into one in the high Middle Ages”(p. 1), and again:
“A Heritage of Holy Wood presents the synthesis of one of the most important
apocryphal beliefs of the Middle Ages” (p. 13). Upon having finished the book,
readers might do well to return to this introduction for a second reading.
In Chapter One the author is concerned not with the inventio of the Cross
itself, but rather with the hagiographic and iconographic tradition thereof (pp.
15, 23, and 37). In Chapter Two readers will find a detailed description and
masterly interpretation of three illuminations found in three separate manuscripts of the eighth and early ninth century and of several pieces of art dating
from the twelfth century and originating in the region of the Meuse and in the
Rhineland: the famous Stavelot triptych in New York’s Pierpont Morgan Library

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is one of them (pp. 80-97). Chapter Three describes the earliest depiction of
the restitutio or exaltatio crucis in Western iconography, namely, in the
Sacramentary of Mont Saint-Michel which dates from 1066 and is also in the
Pierpont Morgan Library (pp. 144-149) and of two cycles of pictures, both
dating from the middle of the thirteenth century.
In Chapter Four Baert observes that “in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the iconography of the Legend the Cross reached its quantitative peak.”
The chapter begins with an excellent account of three texts which facilitated
this spread of the legend of the Cross in the late Middle Ages: the Legenda
Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine, the anonymous legendary titled Der Heiligen
Leben, and a miracle play known as the Augsburger Heiligkreuzspiel. The
same chapter describes somewhat more summarily a number of fifteenth-century German works of art which further demonstrate the point.
In Chapter Five Baert gives an account of the “complex literary history” (p.
348) of the wood of the Cross. The legend of the wood of the Cross, we learn,
evolves through different guises (p. 289) and occurs in many variants (p. 306),
while the paths of transmission are unclear (p. 307). The subject of Chapter
Six is the “iconographic assembly” of the legends of the Cross (the wood, the
inventio, and the restitutio) in fifteenth-century painted cycles in Italy,
Germany, and Switzerland.
Baert has set specific geographic and chronological limits to her study. She
realizes that “the start of the sixteenth century did not see an end to the iconographic interest in the figures of Constantine, Helena and Heraclius” (p. 449).
Her final word to her readers:“How many Legends of the Cross are still waiting to be discovered?”
The strength of this book lies in its topical, chronological, and geographical
scope and in its broadly interdisciplinary approach. Baert addresses questions
of history, theology, liturgy, literature, and iconography; she links the traditions
of the East with those of the West and the legend of the wood of the Cross
with the legends of the inventio and the restitutio. She explores more new
ground, cites more sources, and discovers more links than Borgehammar or
Drijvers or this reviewer have done before her. She makes use of many Dutch
and Belgian sources which hitherto have received little attention from others.
As one might expect from an art historian, she is at her best in matters of
iconography; here no detail seems to escape her, and nothing of theological or
liturgical significance is overlooked.
The numerous illustrations are carefully chosen and carefully captioned; all
of those in color and most of those in black and white are of good quality. The
nine diagrams, three accompanying Chapter Three and six accompanying
Chapter Six, are particularly helpful. There is an index of works, and also an
index of names. There are, unfortunately, many errors of detail. There was, for
instance, no such thing as a “translation of the relics of Justinian II from

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Radegund to Poitiers” (p. 59); rather Radegund received a relic of the True
Cross from Justin ll. In Trier there was a monastery of St. Maximin(us), not St.
Maximus (pp. 108 and 109). Prudentius was of the fourth century, not the
ninth (p. 340). Pausanias was not a Byzantine author, and he did not die in 470
(p. 348). The meaning of some of the numerous Latin titles and quotations is
obscured by textual errors. Surely Athanasius did not write Interpretatione ex
vetus testamentus (p. 455).
The bibliography is admirable in its range but often faulty in form. The
bibliographical information given in the footnotes is at times incomplete; at
other times readers are referred to secondary literature when a reference to
a primary source would be more helpful. I have counted more than 250
typographical or minor grammatical errors, in the text, the footnotes, the
bibliography, and the indices. More attention should have been given, especially, to citing German titles in their correct form. The translator has, in
general, done admirable work, but on not a few occasions allows herself unidiomatic expressions.
It is much to be regretted that author, translator, and editor have committed
or overlooked too many errors of both substance and form to allow this book
to make fully the contribution to scholarship which it could have made. A
second, corrected edition would be welcomed by many.
Holger A. Klein is a native of Limburg/Lahn, earned his Ph.D. degree at the
University of Bonn in 2000, and is associate professor of art history and archaeology at Columbia University. He writes both in German and in English. In addition to the book here under review he has published Restoring Byzantium:The
Kariye Camii in Istanbul, also in 2004, and a dozen of substantial articles. He is
currently engaged in archaeological work at Vize, Marmara region of Turkey.
The present book is a slightly revised and expanded version of Klein’s doctoral dissertation. It differs from Baert’s book in scope and purpose. There is
little or no concern here with the “prehistory” of the Cross, with the depiction
of the inventio, verificatio, or exaltatio of the Cross in manuscript illuminations, altar paintings, or frescoes, or with the various legends of the Cross in literature. Klein’s work is thus less interdisciplinary and more exclusively art-historical in nature. He intends to examine the “Rezeption” (acceptance) of
Byzantine reliquaries of the Cross in the West. There is a multitude of studies
which examine individual reliquaries, but no comprehensive study of them, he
points out. (Even Anatole Frolow’s two books, although valuable, do not qualify.) It is not his intent to meet that desideratum, he modestly says (p. 16), but
it is clear that he does just that.
Klein begins with a consideration of the “Byzantine Question,”i.e., the question of the relative value of Byzantine civilization and the role played by
Byzantium in the development of Western art. Next he relates the history, and
the legend, of the True Cross from the inventio to the conquest of Jerusalem
by the Arabs. In Constantinople, he goes on, a relic or relics of the True Cross

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existed from the fourth century on, and a cult of the cross certainly was practiced by the end of the seventh century. During the century of iconoclasm the
sign of the cross was recognized by both iconoclasts and iconodules as the
central symbol of the Christian faith (p. 48) and the veneration of the relic of
the Cross was not put into question.The relic of the Cross, indeed, saved the
city from being taken by enemies of Byzantium in 822, as it had once before,
in 717. In the tenth century the proper use of the relics of the Cross in the
liturgy of the church in Constantinople was prescribed by the Emperor
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (913-959) in his On Ceremonies.
The first relic of the True Cross to reach Rome was, supposedly, deposited
by Constantine in the Church of S. Croce in Gerusalemme, according to an
untrustworthy report in the Liber Pontificalis. Other relics followed, and we
know of several occasions when they were carried in papal petitionary processions. Of the relics which reached other places in the West that sent by
Paulinus of Nola to Sulpicius Severus at Primulacium/Prémiliac (southwest
Gaul) in 402/403 and that sent by Emperor Justin II to Queen Radegund at
Poitiers in 569 receive special mention (pp. 22, 77, and 178-180).
Having provided the necessary historical background, Klein devotes
Chapter III to a study of cross reliquaries from late antiquity to the high Middle
Ages. He distinguishes between the usually large and sumptuously decorated
reliquaries used in churches and monasteries and the smaller, humbler reliquaries meant for personal use. Cross reliquaries can take the form of a chest
or a cross, and there are even reliquary crowns. The earliest cross reliquaries
are no longer extant, and we depend for their description on literary sources.
Among Byzantine reliquaries Klein gives special attention to the tenth-century
Constantinopolitan staurotheke which was carried off, along with other valuable objects, by the German knight Heinrich von Ulmen in 1207 (“Beutekunst”
in a more modern context) and is now in the Dom - und Diözesanmuseum in
Limburg/Lahn (Klein’s native place; passim). An examination of Western cross
reliquaries produced during the same time period leads Klein to the conclusion that in the West the relic of the True Cross never assumed the central role
which it played in Byzantium (p. 171).
Chapter IV explores the “Rezeption” of Byzantine cross reliquaries in the
West, first from late antiquity to the Latin conquest of Constantinople and then
from that conquest to the end of Byzantine rule. Byzantine emperors sometimes sent relics of the Cross in precious reliquaries as gifts to the West; the
oldest extant such reliquary is the Crux Vaticana in the treasury of St. Peter’s,
sent by Justin II to Rome.
New impetus was given to the cult of the cross by the discovery of another
particle of the True Cross in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1099, shortly
after the conquest of Jerusalem by the crusaders. In this context we must place
the Stavelot triptych, a triptych in the Church of Notre Dame in Tongres
(Belgium), and another cross reliquary in the Church of Saint Sernin in Toulouse.

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Yet another milestone in the history of the cult of the cross is the conquest
of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, which brought a large number of relics
of every kind to the West. Churches or monasteries in Trier, Mettlach (Saar
valley), Cologne, and Florennes (Belgium) were among those which benefited.
The annotation is ample and thorough. A detailed table of contents and a
generous index facilitate the use of the book as a reference source.A concise
final résumé, a lengthy list of sources, and a lengthy bibliography further
enhance its value. The photographs, 213 in number, are of uniformly high
quality. The book is beautifully produced, a pleasure to consult. Professor Klein
is to be congratulated on having written a work of impeccable scholarship.
State University of New York at Albany

HANS POHLSANDER

Landscapes of Monastic Foundation: The Establishment of Religious Houses
in East Anglia, c. 650-1200. By Tim Pestell. [Anglo-Saxon Studies, 5.]
(Rochester, New York:The Boydell Press. 2004. Pp. xvi, 280. $85.00.)
This volume presents a revised version of a Ph.D. thesis begun under the
supervision of the archaeologist Roberta Gilchrist and completed in 1999
under the direction of the landscape historian Tom Williamson.The author is
known to archaeologists and historians from a number of articles and in particular for the excellent volume on productive sites which he co-edited with
Katharina Ulmschneider (2003). The study under review shows the influence
of both advisers in its conception, both the theoretical and spatial interests of
Gilchrist and the strongly regional approach of Williamson, but the author
treads very much his own path, aiming “to combine both documentary and
material evidence without giving either primacy” (p. 17). We should think of
this volume, perhaps, as a regional study along the lines of John Blair’s investigations of early Surrey and Oxfordshire and Peter Sawyer’s of Lincolnshire, in
which the authors attempt to review the totality of extant evidence. Pestell’s
goal is at once more limited and more wide-ranging: not simply the region but
its ecclesiastical structures, not simply the church, but monastic foundations, a
focus which leads him beyond the Norman Conquest into the much better
charted territory of the twelfth century.
Pestell begins with a chapter on approaches to what he calls “Monastic
Studies,” identifying as its prevailing trends architectural reconstruction, which
he brands “antiquarian,” and center-by-center studies. Even within these few
brief pages one would expect to see much greater account taken of previous
work on the location of monasteries in their agrarian contexts, in both institutional studies, notably that of Christopher Dyer, and regional surveys like D. H.
Williams’ work on the Welsh Cistercians (neither referenced in the bibliography). Such work relies on relatively rich deposits of documentary evidence,
and Pestell properly draws attention to the volume of literature about the
Cistercians, no doubt a reflection of just this phenomenon. Pestell’s aim, and in

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part his achievement, is very different: to attempt to work against the grain of
the evidence and to look at the East Anglian landmass as a geological and topographical whole, investigating the place of monasteries within it. He looks in
turn at the siting of monasteries before the first Viking age (chapter 2), evidence for monastic survival during it (chapter 3), new foundations in the
tenth-century reform (chapter 4), before a lengthy consideration of postConquest foundations (chapter 5), ending with reflections on the general
trends observed.
The approach brings its own problems.As the author notes, few monastic
sites have been excavated in East Anglia; documentary resources are poor and
even more poorly distributed, and generalization is hazardous. Nevertheless,
consideration of the location of monasteries, discussion of artifactual remains,
and reports on the author’s own metal-detecting and field-walking lead to
interesting observations about the siting of monasteries in old and new locations, their accessibility by boat, the use of island locations, and the identification of monastic sites archaeologically. The most conservative and least satisfactory chapter concerns the monastic reform movement where Pestell is
deprived of artifactual and archaeological data, and regional historical evidence simply does not respond to his frame of reference. His synthesis would
have been the stronger had he paid fuller attention to the diversity of ecclesiastical structures in and historical evidence from pre-Conquest England, and
had he devoted more space to a discussion of his own method and how it
relates to the work of others.Traditionalists might have appreciated an appendix in the form of a brief gazeteer of sites. This is a book brimming with ideas,
many of which deserve to be followed up, and its unevenness is in part the
inevitable consequence of its ambition.
University of Exeter

JULIA CRICK

Guidance for Women in Twelfth-Century Convents. Translated by Vera Morton
with an interpretive essay by Jocelyn Wogan-Browne. [Library of Medieval
Women.] (Rochester, New York: D. S. Brewer. 2003. Pp. x, 203. $70.00.)
This aptly titled volume introduces and translates writings of four men—
Goscelin of St. Bertin, Peter Abelard, Peter the Venerable, and Osbert of Clare—
addressed to nuns and their communities. There are six chapters: four letters,
a sermon, and excerpts from Goscelin’s sketches of the abbesses of Barking.
Little of the material has been translated into English before and all of it is
packed with fascinating glimpses into the lives of medieval religious women
and the men who acted as their mentors and advisers. Morton offers good
guidance herself in introducing the material with care and even humor, as
when she remarks, “Life for the young women of [the convent of] Marcigny
must have been rather like life in a strict and well-run, but rather snobbish, lifelong boarding school” (p. 97). The sheer variety of materials and subject

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matter makes this book (which I hope will emerge in a more affordable paperback version) an excellent choice for advanced undergraduate and even graduate students and their teachers.
The writers talk about virginity, history, heroism, miracles, the body, education, martyrdom, marriage; they teach, they preach, they warn, they sympathize, and they remember—and they do not speak with one monolithic voice.
The book opens with Osbert of Clare’s letter to Abbess Adelidis of Barking,
where an expression of gratitude for recent hospitality turns into a long, complex tract on exemplary women of the past, including Judith and the Vestal
Virgin Silvia. (This must be the longest thank-you note in history.) Peter the
Venerable scolds his nieces for a letter containing medicine, which smacks not
of Christ’s pupils but the schools of Hippocrates, while Abelard, in the traces
of St. Jerome, offers guidance on the education of women and stresses its great
importance. Osbert writes about mystical marriage of nuns with Christ in strikingly vivid and physical terms, and Abelard makes the case that the model of
monasticism is the early church in Jerusalem in which women were such
active participants—after women were, of course, the first to see the resurrected Jesus. Goscelin and Osbert assume their readers know their Bede;
Osbert presents complex, even crabbed interpretive arguments, and Abelard
does not simplify his prose style; all the authors assume their readers’ mastery
of the Bible and early Christian literature and casually quote Horace, Ovid, and
Virgil without explaining the references. As Morton cannily remarks, that men
would write nuns dense letters on elevated subjects shows that although
Heloise, with her knowledge of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, was extraordinarily
accomplished, she represents one end of a spectrum rather than a special case.
This is a salutary reminder that despite persistent assumptions to the contrary,
many women participated fully in the spiritual, political, and literary life of the
twelfth-century church.
An excellent subject index facilitates comparative examination of the
themes named above and encourages an approach to that most complicated
of questions: what did these men think about women and gender anyway?
Osbert urges women to be manly in spirit, despite their sex, and then in the
next breath says that in the “downfall of the human race the woman more
easily sinks to ruin (p. 40).” Abelard also praises female heroism and simply
assumes that Heloise can guide her nuns to the same kind of mastery of
ancient languages she has achieved, while also flatly stating that women are
weaker than men.There is much to ponder here, and Jocelyn Wogan-Browne
provides a model for reading the texts as a group in an essay called “Dead to
the World? Death and the Maiden Revisited in Medieval Women’s Convent
Culture,” which touches on practical and spiritual aspects of death and remembrance in the Middle Ages with careful attention to gender.
With regret, I must sound a note of caution. Morton has done a great service to make these materials available to those with little or no Latin, offering

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a lucid version of Osbert’s head-cracking letter to Abbess Adelidis and chopping Abelard’s vast periodic sentences into manageable pieces. But scholars
cannot rely on this translation for their own work. To take the example of
Peter the Venerable’s letter: translating the salutation quicquid est salutis et
gratiae as “all greetings and thanks” (p. 98) fails to express the predominantly
spiritual overtones of the formula, which is more like “all salvation and grace”;
there is no reason to translate sanctis sororibus as “lay sisters” (p. 107); and
the system of punctuation and reference (in which there are some errors,
e.g., note 27 on p. 102 incorrectly ascribes a phrase to Augustine’s treatise on
virginity) does not make it sufficiently clear that well over half the letter is
comprised of direct quotations from the writings of Cyprian, Ambrose,
Augustine, and others. Those engaged in close textual analysis will need to
consult the originals.
University of Pittsburgh

BRUCE L.VENARDE

Leadership in Medieval English Nunneries. By Valerie G. Spear. [Studies in the
History of Medieval Religion, Vol. 24.] (Rochester, New York: Boydell and
Brewer. 2005. Pp. xix, 245. $90.00.)
Spear identifies more than two hundred abbesses and prioresses who oversaw the sixteen nunneries that she uses—without clearly explaining why—as
the “core group” for her study of the period from 1280 to 1540. None of the
women are household names, not even in the households of medievalists.Yet,
as Spear rightly states, these religious superiors had an unusual degree of “independent authority” in “an era noted for its subjugation of females” (p. xiii). How
much independence and what kind of authority is the focus of Spear’s study.
Spear assembles and assesses with diligence, competence, and lucidity all
the known surviving references to these women. She concludes that few were
from aristocratic families: their authority came from their office, not their background. To evaluate their relations with their bishops, Spear primarily has to
rely on documents dealing with exceptions, the crises that required special
attention;she finds that some bishops gave financial aid,others adjudicated controversies, but most, even during their mandated episcopal visits, did not object
to the women’s “leadership.” Similarly, though Spear identifies a few kings and
popes who aided nunneries—and expected benefits in return—she concludes
that the abbesses and prioresses typically acted independently from their overlords until the Dissolution, a period she treats with particular sensitivity.
The surviving records detail financial matters more often than spiritual
ones. Still, finding very little criticism of the superiors’ piety, Spear sensibly concludes that, for the most part, they capably offered spiritual guidance. Spear
locates “only one confirmed case and one possible case of sexual immorality
among more than two hundred nunnery superiors in the core group” (p. 153).
Repeatedly Spear points out how her findings contrast with Eileen Power’s

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classic 1922 study of English nunneries during this same time period. Spear’s
book puts another nail in the coffin of that now dated picture of worldly and
incompetent nuns.
Spear also considers literary references to religious superiors, contrasting in
detail Chaucer’s portrayal of the fictional Prioress Eglentyne and the eulogy in
Wherwell Cartulary for its Abbess Euphemia (d. 1257). The eulogy, reprinted in
full, praised Euphemia for increasing the number of nuns from forty to eighty,
aiding their “sanctification and honour,” adorning “the church with crosses, reliquaries, precious stones, vestments, and books,” and being “zealous in works of
charity.” In addition to renovating the abbey manor courtyard, rebuilding the bell
tower, and constructing a farmery, watercourse, mill, and chapel, Euphemia is said
to have ordered the leveling of the presbytery of the church, which was in “imminent danger”of “complete collapse,” specifying that “the damp soil”be “dug out to
a depth of twelve feet till firm and dry ground was found”(pp.217-218). Treating
this eulogy as hagiography intent on describing a model abbess,not an actual one,
Spear uses the ideal to challenge Chaucer’s portrayal of his Canterbury pilgrim.
When a religious superior is named in an economic charter, it’s often
unclear whether she was the active negotiator or simply the official whose
approval was mandated. For the most part, Spear assumes the former, repeatedly presenting the abbess as a “leader” and a “power broker.” Spear is aware
that she is anachronistically applying these modern terms to superiors following the Benedictine Rule—the rule used in almost all her core nunneries—
who had to be both authoritative and humble, withdrawn from secular society
and engaged with it, able to assume control, and willing to submit to correction. Spear’s exploration of these inherent tensions in the notion of the nuns’
“leadership” gives additional analytical depth to her study.
Wellesley College

SHARON K. ELKINS

Women of God and Arms: Female Spirituality and Political Conflict, 13801600. By Nancy Bradley Warren. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press. 2005. Pp. x, 264. $55.00.)
I must preface my review of Women and God and Arms by stating that I
am an historian and the author is a literary scholar. My comments therefore
reflect my expectations as a historian. In this book,Warren explores the “. . . central roles played by ‘women of God’—female saints, devout lay women, and
monastic women—as ‘women of arms’—rulers, fighters, diplomats and participants in propaganda” (p. 2). Using primarily literary sources, she argues that the
roles were interdependent, for female spirituality was explicitly or implicitly
used by women for political and sometimes military goals.
The book covers a wide range of women, from Colette of Corbie, Margaret
of York, Anne d’Orléans, Margaret of Anjou, Christine de Pizan, Isabel of Castile,

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Elizabeth Barton (the Nun of Kent) to Elizabeth I. These are important case
studies to test Warren’s hypothesis that notions of female spirituality empowered political figures, but the choice of subjects was not obvious to me as an
historian. Warren emphasizes Spain, England, and Burgundy, with forays into
France. Why not the Italian peninsula? By simply pushing the coverage dates
back a bit, she could have added Saint Catherine of Siena. Joan of Arc, who is
mentioned in a chapter title, seems to fit perfectly with the goals of the book,
and yet her role is limited to serving as the “missing link” between Christine de
Pizan and Margaret of Anjou.Why not explore Joan, like Isabel of Castile, as a
woman who embodied spiritual, military, and political goals? I suspect the
answer is that Joan of Arc does not fit Warren’s classification—instead of
employing symbols of female spirituality to gain power, Joan combined nongendered religious symbols and beliefs with the emblems and accessories of
knighthood and chivalry.
Warren explores at length the concept of symbolic capital, by which
women could use spiritual power to serve political and even military ends.
That women in power (of any sort) used such symbolic capital is not in doubt,
and Warren provides excellent examples. Similarly, she demonstrates the discomfort level this could provoke in men. As an historian I would like to have
seen more non-literary sources used to support what is essentially a historical
argument about politics and gender.
The strongest of the case studies is Warren’s Chapter 4, on Isabel of Castile
and the construction of queenship, which examines in greater depth areas she
explored in Isabel the Queen: Life and Times. The author argues that Isabel
cultivated “. . . a persona of pious queenship . . . [and that] female spirituality
and sanctity served to clothe Isabel’s political power in a non-threatening
guise and to make it culturally acceptable”(p. 89). She analyzes the importance
of Martín de Córdoba’s Jardín de nobles donzellas, which helped Isabel present and re-present herself at critical time periods during the reign.The Jardín
speaks of female inferiority; yet by using the list of qualities Martín de Córdoba
offers as appropriate to pious women, Isabel is able to be a “shining example”
who acts as a “holy warrior on a mission from God.”The juxtaposition of pious
feminine virtues counterbalances the potentially threatening image of the warrior queen.
In the final chapters, Warren uses sixteenth-century English examples to
show that “. . . the medieval past persisted in animating the present into the seventeenth century, even among Protestants. “[M]anifestations of medieval
female spirituality continued to shape contemporary political relations and to
provide a battleground upon which conflicts to define identities were fought”
(p. 167). I agree fully that medieval prototypes of holy women and warriors
continued to shape gender representations at the highest levels among both
Catholic and Protestant women. To some degree, however, I would suggest
that Warren does not give enough credit to the actual power of some of the
women she studies. While using literary exemplars to extend and legitimize

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their power, many exercised real power with all its accoutrements. Focusing
too much on literary legitimization seems to undermine the real power of at
least some medieval and early modern women. With these qualifications, this
is an important collection of case studies on how women used literary exempla to shape a pious self-image that allowed them to transgress the limitations
of gender.
Colby College

LARISSA JULIET TAYLOR

The Medieval Crusade. Edited by Susan J. Ridyard. (Rochester, New York:
Boydell and Brewer, Inc. 2004. Pp. ix, 177.)
The Medieval Crusade comprises ten papers presented at the Sewanee
Medieval Colloquium, April 2001, on the theme “Crusades and Crusading in the
Middle Ages.” Robert Chazan examines different modalities of Jewish response
to crusading; Jay Rubenstein provides a fresh consideration of apocalypticism
as a dynamic of the First Crusade; Christopher MacEvitt examines crusaderArmenian relations in Edessa; Thomas F. Madden and Alfred J. Andrea investigate the Fourth Crusade, in terms, respectively, of Venetian-Papal relations and
Innocent III’s apocalyptic convictions; Jonathan Riley-Smith treats the trial of
the Templars;William E. Rogers finds in the C-revisions of Piers Plowman evidence of criticism of late medieval crusading, and Kelly De Vries explains why
Philip the Good of Burgundy never fulfilled his promise to crusade.
Jonathan Phillips introduces the papers as “a thoughtful and stimulating
cross-section of modern crusading research.”With only ten papers from eight
contributors, the cross-section is, necessarily, limited, confined mainly to the
war-politics-and-religion perspective. Nonetheless, the volume contains valuable, new critical insights.
Few would suppose that anything original remains to be said about the trial
of the Templar Order. Modern consensus is that the knights were railroaded
through fabricated charges, and that many of the alleged confessions, extracted
under torture, were not truthful. Riley-Smith is cautious about this, and he
makes clear the pitfalls of supposing that the Templar case is closed. He argues
that whatever the nature of the knights’ guilt, the Order needed reform.
Comparing its organizational structure with that of the successful Hospital,
Riley-Smith details defects that would have attracted suspicion and might have
served to cloak, even foster the unsavory secretive rites and abuses of which
the knights were accused. Moreover, by the early fourteenth century the
Temple was not only inefficient; it was also redundant with respect to the new
aspirations of Christian society. Its exclusively martial raison d’être was obsolete, and after the loss of Ruad in 1302, the once glorious Order had little left
to do. Without judicial suppression, the Temple, Riley-Smith concludes, was
headed, anyway, toward demise. This is institutional history at its best.

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Robert Chazan’s studies of Jewish responses to crusading reach out to
modern-day issues surrounding religious violence. Crusading was violent, and
in 1096 Rhineland Jews became the crusaders’ first victims. Martyrdom was
the response of very many of these Jews, and Chazan and his Hebrew source,
the Mainz Anonymous, ask why. Chazan reads his source frankly, arguing that
the martyrdoms were “innovative, radical, audacious and creative,” and that
their singularity is rendered intelligible by reference to the equally singular
phenomenon of the First Crusade. Jewish martyrdoms mirror the crusade;
both, Chazan says,“were part and parcel of the spiritual ambience [of the late
eleventh century] that produced the crusade and its radical tendencies.”There
is a sense here of violence as ennobling, and Chazan elucidates this by comparing the Mainz Anonymous with the Christian Gesta Francorum. Both
sources, he finds, saw history as an unfolding drama of heroic action. God was
present, and both the Jewish martyrs and the Christian crusaders were alive to
the divine imperative. But the sources also reveal that what they perceived to
have shaped the extraordinary events of 1096 was not so much God as man,
not divine will, but human willpower: the time was somehow unique, and crusaders and martyrs were heroes in a conflict of faiths, clashing in triumphant
violence upon the historical stage. Chazan amplifies this compelling interpretation by describing how the conflict, with its theological-historical dissonances and resonances, subsequently gave rise to the new genre of Jewish antiChristian polemic.
Trinity College, Toronto

PENNY J. COLE

Église et pouvoir dans la Péninsule Ibérique. Les ordres militaires dans le
royaume de Castille (1252-1369). By Philippe Josserand. [Bibliothèque de
la Casa de Velázquez,Volume 31.] (Madrid: Casa de Velázquez. 2004. Pp. xxii,
912. €56.00.)
The “Great Reconquest” placed most of Islamic southern Spain under
Christian rule, doubled the size of Castile-Leon in the process, and was capped
with the occupation of Seville in 1248. The Latin Chronicle describes how it
had began twenty-four years earlier, when young king Fernando III (12171252) unexpectedly decided to attack his southern neighbors. But first he
sought the advice of the masters of Calatrava and Santiago, the Spanish Military
Orders founded half a century earlier. Only then did he summon his vassal
army and, together with the Orders, marched against the South (Chronica
latina regum Castellae, ed. C. Brea [Turnhout, 1997]; §44). As the conquest
progressed, the armed friars received huge territories from the Crown, rewards
that climaxed when Calatrava, Santiago, Alcantara, the Hospitalers, and the
Templars obtained a significant share of the Seville farmlands allotted by
Fernando III before his death in 1252.
Josserand begins his study of the Castilian Military Orders at this point,
when their main raison d’être seemed to vanish as “reconquest” seemed no

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longer possible or necessary. He then traces their fortunes over the hundred
plus years which span the reigns of Alfonso the Wise (1252-1284) and his last
legitimate descendant, Peter the Cruel (1350-1369). From the start he adopts a
justified and refreshing polemical stance. He rejects the notion of decadence
often applied to the Orders at this period and shows instead how they managed to adapt to their new conditions, moving from conquest to defense, from
monastic to a secular ethos, from a predatory war economy to one based on
the encomienda system—later to be exported and adapted in the Americas.
Had they remained faithful to their origins, the Orders would have
imploded. Instead, Josserand shows how they refashioned themselves after
1252, maintaining their social relevance as sentinels against Islam. And then,
when a succession of dynastic conflicts weakened the Crown in 1282-1326,
they attracted the younger children of noble families and were embraced by
the aristocracy. Contrary to received wisdom, the book argues that the Orders’
scope of action on the Castilian political stage was enhanced, rather than
diminished at this time. Their own success, in turn, made them a force too
powerful to be ignored by the Crown.Alfonso X, whose saintly father was not
above meddling in episcopal elections, had no qualms about placing loyal servants at the heads of Orders which remained ecclesiastical in nature. The
dynastic troubles of 1282-1326 partially interrupted the trend, but it regained
momentum with Alfonso XI and continued unabated under his son with the
enthusiastic acquiescence of the fighting friars. They had by now lost most of
their original identity, but had grown richer with the encomiendas, worldlier
with the nobility, and more powerful under the Crown’s tutelage. As the
Modern Era was about to dawn, they were fully awake and ready to go.
This masterful book shakes up many historiographic myths and brilliantly
illuminates an area of Spanish history woefully unattended until now. Église et
pouvoir represents an exhaustive survey and revision of earlier scholarship,
with a bibliography of more than one hundred and thirty pages, and, more
importantly, a fresh reappraisal of the evidence, represented by many literary
texts and over six thousand documents, many previously unpublished or little
used. Josserand responsibly shifts, synthesizes, and often surpasses his predecessors, who are thoughtfully challenged with original evidence when warranted. Judicious and convenient footnotes firmly anchor his arguments.
As a final gift, the author offers an edition of the Order of Santiago’s earliest preserved statutes, well known to scholars, but inexplicably never printed
before.
Carleton University, Ottawa

FRANCISCO J. HERNÁNDEZ

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Aelred of Rievaulx:The Historical Works. Translated by Jane Patricia Freeland;
edited, with an Introduction and Annotations, by Marsha L. Dutton.
[Cistercian Fathers Series, Number 56.] (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian
Publications. 2005. Pp. xii, 306. Paperback.)
This book includes translations of four texts by Aelred of Rievaulx:
Genealogia regum Anglorum (as well as the Lamentatio David Regis Scotie,
which appears in manuscripts in tandem with the GRA), Vita sancti Edwardi,
and De bello standardii. Although it has always been known that Aelred, the
great twelfth-century English Cistercian abbot, wrote historical works as well
as spiritual treatises, scholarship on his historical writings has no doubt been
impeded by the lack of translations. Prior to Freeland and Dutton’s book, an
English translation of Aelred’s Life of Edward the Confessor was available
(although not widely disseminated), but there were no full translations of the
Battle of the Standard or Genealogy of the English Kings texts. A more or
less acceptable Latin text (and modern English translation) of the Lament
could be found embedded in the editions of both John of Fordun’s Scottish
history and Walter Bower’s Scotichronicon (given that Fordun incorporated
Aelred’s Lament, basically faithfully, into his own history and that Bower later
relied on Fordun), but reading a text at one or two steps removed like this has
hardly been ideal, particularly if one has wanted to engage in close reading
analyses rather than general reading. Hence, the very fact that English translations of Aelred’s histories have been so lacking means that this book will necessarily become the first port of call for many researchers, and certainly for students. The translations are in modern English, have biblical quotations and
reminiscences noted, and provide biographical notes to people mentioned in
the texts. The Lament translation is taken directly from a contemporary manuscript source—as mentioned, hitherto there has been no completely acceptable Latin edition, let alone English translation, of this work, so the Lament
translation here is certainly a boon to scholarship. The other three translations are made from the Patrologia Latina and Rolls Series editions. Dutton’s
Introduction is particularly helpful on the questions of dates. For too long
scholars have simply copied earlier scholars in assuming certain dates for
Aelred’s compositions. Dutton’s earlier date for the composition of De bello
standardii (?1153-54, not the hitherto accepted 1155-57) is important in terms
of the political influences behind, and consequences of, Aelred’s historical
writing. As Dutton shows, all four of the texts presented here were, in their
ways,“mirrors for kings,” and it is clear that there is more to learn about the
ways in which Aelred (for so long misread by modern commentators as an
ascetic in retreat from the world, as opposed to the politically shrewd abbot
he clearly was) used the written word to agitate for Christian kingship and to
influence royal affairs precisely at the time when England was in transition to
the Angevins. This set of translations, then, should facilitate the study of the
political nature of Aelred’s history writing. Finally, readers may be interested to
note that the companion to this book (Freeland and Dutton’s translation and
notes on Aelred’s remaining historical works—The Life of Ninian, The Book

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of the Saints of the Church of Hexham, and the miraculous story of the nun
of Watton—focusing in these instances on ‘northern’ history as opposed to
more widely ‘national’ English history) was published in 2006, also by
Cistercian Publications.
University of Tasmania

ELIZABETH FREEMAN

Becket’s Crown: Art and Imagination in Gothic England 1170-1300. By Paul
Binski. (New Haven:Yale University Press. 2005. Pp. xvi, 343; 80 colored and
210 black and white illustrations. $65.00.)
This is an intensely serious and ambitious book which sheds much light on
English art in its European context over a period which might be characterized as the long thirteenth century. It is beautifully produced with well-chosen
and apposite illustrations close to the text in which they are discussed. Binski
claims with complete justification that he has consistently attempted to alert
the reader to the sustained exegetical and textual density of English Gothic, its
ethical sophistication, its urbanity and unconventionality, and its prizing of stylistic virtuosity. Similar epithets might be applied to the book. It is skillfully
written; it glitters with brilliant aperçus; and it can be witty as well as serious.
At times the writing is a trifle ornate, and the reader who encounters an obvious synechdochal train of thought about Becket’s wounded head is in for an
occasionally bumpy ride. But the consistent intellectual seriousness and the
close engagement with the theological and liturgical context is very welcome.
The book is articulated in parts. The first concerns Becket and the architectural and ideological consequences of his brutal murder. After the new
work at Canterbury the cathedrals of Lincoln and Salisbury are examined in
detail. The second section scrutinizes the solutions arrived at in Ely and Wells
and the pervasive impact on the English episcopate of Becket’s martyrdom in
all its complexity. The physical and ideological context established, Binski
examines the way in which religious life and its setting was regulated, externally through the legislation of the Fourth Lateran council, and internally
through synodalia and the growing genre of pastoralia. The final focus is on
the expressive range of English Gothic, its ability to smile and grimace, and the
centrally formative role of music in imagery and spatial organization. This
impressively wide sweep allows the author to discuss such topics as the development of the three-nail crucifix, vernacular devotion, and much else. Binski is
unafraid to take up the cudgels when he feels it necessary, and his reasoned
disagreements with scholars such as Panofsky, Southern, Belting, and Wolfgang
Kemp are invariably cogent.
Canterbury was the seminal building in its architecture, its symbolism, and
its martyrial coloration. Its range of reference was huge, stretching from late
antique imperial mausolea and mediaeval Roman spolia to Saint-Denis. The
ethical charge of the new episcopal initiatives was great and markedly

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Aristotelian. Of supreme importance was Archbishop Stephen Langton, like
Becket exiled, and a close associate and collaborator of Pope Innocent III.
Lincoln, Ely, and Wells cathedrals are all carefully scrutinized and an impressive range of tools brought to the analysis, stylistic, liturgical, botanical, and
musical. Binski draws suggestive analogies between the foliate borders of the
Benedictional of St. Ethelwold, the flowering Cross of the Psalter of Robert of
Lindsey, and the celebrated capitals of Southwell chapterhouse, although the
apse mosaic of San Clemente might also have figured in this argument. He
makes penetrating comments on holy bishops and their role in the transformation of English Gothic architecture. His ascription of a highly significant
influence to St. Bernard and the Cistercians might have been tempered had he
read Donald Matthew’s measured criticisms of Conrad Rudolph’s hypotheses,
and Marc Dykmans would have rounded out his arguments on the elevation of
the Host, but it is difficult to fault the range and alertness of his reading.
Bishops were expected after the Fourth Lateran Council to be controls, and as
such were naturally concerned with ornamenta. Binski here makes a fundamental contribution to this discussion, rightly stressing the English contribution, for which he draws splendidly on a published documentation unrivaled
elsewhere in Europe. He makes extensive and sensitive use of synodalia. Not
everyone will follow him in claiming a pioneering role for Becket in the development of the Vita-retable, but the arguments are certainly suggestive. The virtually total destruction of early mendicant painting in England and France
makes such arguments almost intrinsically undemonstrable. His discussion of
pastoralia is important, and like much else the English evidence here should
be carefully weighed by European scholars. Binski makes interesting comments on the adoption of the three-nail crucifix iconography. There are innumerable things to ponder: Henry III’s jocund cherubim (cum hyllari vultu et
jocoso) ordered in 1240, the influence of Reims, and the provocative suggestion that Villard de Honnecourt served as a spy for the designers of Cambrai.
He makes illuminating comments on the collusive nature of the marginal in
Gothic. Becket’s Crown is indisputably a very important book, a landmark in
the study of Gothic art in England, and essential reading for those working
elsewhere in the period.
University of Warwick

JULIAN GARDNER

A Short History of Thomism. By Romanus Cessario. (Washington, D.C.: The
Catholic University of America Press. 2005. Pp. xiv, 106. $19.95 paperback.)
Originally published in French as Le Thomisme et les Thomistes, Romanus
Cessario’s A Short History of Thomism fills a gap in the history of philosophy
and theology. As Cessario points out (p. 33), it is the first attempt at a complete history of the Thomistic movement since 1859. At the same time, he
makes it clear that his purpose in writing is “provisional,” i.e., to provide “a

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sketch of the history of Thomism that will be useful until that day when some
scholar with the required time and resources undertakes to research and write
the multi-volume history of Thomism that this important school of thought
both merits and requires” (p. 34). He even expresses the hope that his short
work might prompt the undertaking of such a full-length study.
This provisional purpose may explain why forty percent of the book is
devoted to the questions of whether and how one should write a history of
Thomism. After a rapid biography of Thomas Aquinas himself, the first chapter considers the objection that Thomism as a movement is too fragmented to
constitute a unified subject of historical inquiry. Cessario responds by following J. A.Weisheipl’s definition of Thomism as well as his distinction between
“wide”Thomism and “eclectic”Thomism: wide Thomism includes anyone who
claims to follow the spirit and basic insights of St. Thomas and manifests an
evident dependence on his texts, while eclectic Thomism shows a willingness
to import large portions of other philosophical and theological systems leading to the relativization of the principles and conclusions that constitute the
Thomism of Thomas Aquinas. Finally, Cessario provides a summary of the
philosophical tenets that distinguish a Thomist from adherents of other
schools, according to most modern authors.
After reviewing various attempts to divide the history of Thomism, Cessario
concludes that it is better not to identify intervals or periods within the larger
history of Thomism. Thomists have engaged too great a variety of issues and
worked in too many geographical areas to allow for such simplification.
Moreover, the periods of decline that might seem to mark off an era within
Thomism are usually explainable in terms of outside influences such as the
Black Death or the French Revolution that affected intellectual endeavor generally rather than Thomism in particular. Consequently, Cessario gives his
account of the history of Thomism in the second chapter as a continuous narrative without subheadings.
However, Cessario’s emphasis on continuity does not mean that he fails to
structure his account in any way. The swift-paced narrative slows down to
emphasize the importance of Capreolus, Princeps Thomistarum, and then
stops altogether at the dawn of the Reformation while Cessario offers a summary of the theological tenets that distinguish Thomists from adherents of
other theological traditions. Then the pace picks up again, and the reader
encounters a rich variety of names and accomplishments leading up to the
French Revolution. Chapter three, titled “After the French Revolution,” traces
the events leading up to the Church’s strong endorsement of Thomism under
Leo XIII and describes the major figures in the Thomistic revival from that
point to the present.
Beginners in Thomistic thought will find in A Short History of Thomism an
easily understandable guide that identifies major figures such as Capreolus and
Cajetan and important resources for research, as well as minor figures like

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Peter of La Palu. The index of names makes this information all the more
accessible. Experienced Thomists will find Cessario’s rapid summary helpful
for achieving a unified view of the whole history, and may even discover here
resources they had not known about. If Cessario’s intention was to whet our
appetites for a more thorough study, he has succeeded.
Ave Maria University
Naples, Florida

JEREMY HOLMES

Theologia Deutsch—Theologia Germanica. The Book of the Perfect Life.
Translated with an Introduction and Notes by David Blamires. [Sacred
Literature Series of the International Sacred Literature Trust.] (Lanham,
Maryland:AltaMira Press, a Division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
2003. Pp. viii, 103. $69.00 clothbound, $19.95 paperback.)
The International Sacred Literature Trust provides modern English translations of “sacred texts” held in esteem in different faith traditions. The translations are geared toward a wide audience, with helpful brief introductions to
the texts, their authors, and their relevant contemporary traditions.
The Theologia Deutsch has been a most influential and widely read, most
continuously published German religious text from the Middle Ages. Dr. David
Blamires introduces the reader to the work via a succinct, yet eclectic, introduction to the medieval German mystical tradition (Meister Eckhart, Mechtild
of Magdeburg, Heinrich Suso, and Johann Tauler) and lifts up recurring themes
in the time’s mystical literature, without elaborating on connections with the
Theologia Deutsch. In just a few pages he characterizes the book and its intent
and language. The “skeletal” characterization of the book’s theology does beg
a question as to why this particular text has been selected for this series as a
representative of the gems of Christian spirituality. That said, Blamires’ brief
survey of two centuries of German mystical writing lifts up the richness of that
tradition and suggests (without explicit arguments on the matter) its importance to the evolving theology of its most famous editor, Martin Luther.
Actually, the use of the book by Luther and his contemporaries would be a
topic of further interest, in light of the fact that the Reformer chose to edit this,
and most faithfully so. Blamires’ brief review of the existing editions and available English translations is helpful and corrects some persistent misunderstandings—e.g., about the author (not Luther!) and the title of the text.
Luther produced two editions of the text that originates from an unknown
priest and possibly a knight of the Teutonic order: first one in 1516 (partial
text) without a title and another in 1518 with a title Eyn deutsch Theologia.
Luther’s input undoubtedly enhanced the book’s continuing appeal and
repeated publication.What makes Blamires’ lucid translation timely and different from previous ones is the pool of sources he had at his disposal: since the

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1843 discoveries (Reuss) of the 1494-1497 manuscripts and the resulting 1851
edition by Franz Pfeiffer and the English translation by Susanna Winkworth in
1854, the most important editions available so far have been Bengt Hoffman’s
1980 English translation “misleadingly titled” the Theologia Germanica of
Martin Luther (which uses Luther’s second edition, published in the “Classics
of Western Spirituality”) and Wolfgang von Hinten’s 1982 critical edition in
German (uses eight manuscripts from 1453 to 1497, in particular the Dessau
manuscript of 1477, and Luther’s texts) (pp. 1-2). Blamires translates the book
from von Hinten’s text, decidedly not trying to modernize or “clarify” the
medieval text and logic too much.
The translation shows the unsystematic and incomplete nature of the book
that in plain language wishes to instruct the reader on the central spiritual
issues: what is perfection; what is goodness; how is God in relation to creation;
how does one/creature love and know God; what is sin and disobedience; how
do obedience, humility, and detachment unite one to the source of goodness
and being; how does God “draw” souls to the Godhead; what is “das Christus
leben” about (Christ-like living); how does Christ work as the paradigm for
Christian living and how can Christians come into union with God; and lastly,
how does one separate truth from falsehood.
As Blamires states, the book is “not a totally original work in its ideas. It is,
rather, an attractive epitome of the mystical understandings of the time, almost
certainly coming towards the end of the creative period.” Not a “set of sermons” or an “account of personal experience,”“it is rather a loosely formulated
manual or textbook of mystical theology and practice.” Making the mystical
insights of the period and the culmination of the teachings of the “via mystica” available to a wide audience, its short fifty-three chapters “provided a
useful practical guide to the fundamentals of the mystical life” (p. 24).
Furthermore, in the context of flourishing mystical activity by men and
women,“The aim of The Book . . . was to encounter this tendency and situate
mystical experience firmly within an orderly Christian context” (p. 25). That
Martin Luther chose to publish the text twice, and the direction to which his
Word theology and Christology took him, indicates this book’s weighty importance not only in medieval Catholic spirituality but also in the ensuing
“reformed” spiritualities, Catholic and Protestant.The otherwise pleasant translation could have addressed the “gender issue” by avoiding the exclusive use
of “man” and “he” for God and human beings, especially since the book is
meant for modern users.
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg

KIRSI STJERNA

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Truth and the Heretic: Crises of Knowledge in Medieval French Literature. By
Karen Sullivan. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2005. Pp. xii, 281.
$35.00.)
In Truth and the Heretic, Karen Sullivan sheds much light on the process
of constructing medieval heresy as a social threat. On the basis of a wide selection of historical records and literary texts, she persuasively argues that the
heterodox believer was perceived as destabilizing the status of truth, certainty,
authority, law, testimony, and evidence in Christian society. She juxtaposes
competitive portrayals of heresy in didactic and literary writings to suggest
that literature could express the truths about religious and social dissidence
that were inaccessible elsewhere.
The book draws its strength from associating heterodoxy with the epistemological anxieties of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The need to reestablish or revisit truth as a religious, social, and linguistic category lies at the
heart of a large body of contemporary didactic, polemical, courtly, and popular works. As Sullivan demonstrates, the secretive and duplicitous heretics,
concealing their errors with lies and ambiguities, left their imprint on much
Catholic writing, troubadour lyric, Arthurian romance, and comic tale.
Because the Cathars and the Waldensians defied their orthodox adversaries
through secrecy and dissimulation, and while they denied and circumvented
accusations of heresy, persecution of religious dissidence was hampered by a
need to redefine what constituted evidence of error and what served as a
basis for condemnation. Literature did not remain indifferent to the epistemological challenges posed by groups embracing heterodox interpretations
of Christianity. Sullivan justly relates this negotiation of evidence in clerical
writings to the celebration of ambiguity and indeterminacy as a source of
pleasure in literary works.
However, while it is compelling for both historical and literary analysis to
position heresy within the contemporary debate about the nature of truth, I
think that the author misjudges how the two phenomena are related in suggesting that the appearance of heresy brought about the epistemological crisis
recorded in didactic and fictional literature. It may be more accurate to perceive heresy (whether real or constructed) as itself produced by the crisis that
underlay other large-scale intellectual and social developments we observe in
the twelfth century (such as the Gregorian reforms). The heterodox Christian
was without doubt a dangerous figure for Catholic authors, but orthodoxy and
truth were at that time intensely tested and reshaped also within the Church.
Similarly, Sullivan’s reading of marginalized and subversive characters in literary works loses its momentum when it looks too hard for encoded references to heresy. These deviant characters are multi-faceted figures, and if one
sees a reflection of the heretic in them, this perhaps evinces less directly an
embedded commentary on the religious persecution of the Cathars and the

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Waldensians than it does an aspiration of vernacular writers to write outside
of the clerical canon. By interpreting the impact of heterodoxy on literary
imagination in isolation from other concerns of courtly and popular authors,
the book concludes, I believe unconvincingly, that literature affirmed and celebrated heresy. Just as criticism of the Inquisition should be carefully separated
from claims of heresy (and Sullivan’s otherwise insightful discussion of troubadour lyric is in my view weakened by following this path), so the interest of
texts in the instability of social truths should only very cautiously be read as
an affirmation of deviance.
Despite this tendency to channel broader questions into the single problem
of heresy, Sullivan’s exploration of heresy as an interpretative challenge is a
remarkable and much-needed study. It speaks to multiple audiences, and it
speaks beautifully to them. Karen Sullivan has to be commended for producing not only an illuminating and provocative, but also a pleasurable, book on
the difficult topic of religious persecution.
Providence College

EWA SLOJKA

Heresy in Transition: Transforming Ideas of Heresy in Medieval and Early
Modern Europe. Edited by Ian Hunter, John Christian Laursen, and Cary J.
Nederman. [Catholic Christendom, 1300-1700.] Burlington, Vermont:
Ashgate Publishing Company. 2005. Pp. xii, 205. $99.95.)
Ideas of heresy are indeed in transition, not only across the chronological
span indicated in the title of this stimulating collection of essays, but also
within the modern academy. Intellectual and temporal divisions once considered self-evident (such as the boundary between heresy and orthodoxy, or
between medieval and early modern) are disintegrating under new
approaches and analyses. Particularly irksome to scholars in recent years has
been the traditional emphasis on disjuncture between the Catholic medieval
and the Protestant early modern, a division which has artificially severed
important continuities and unhelpfully polarized an otherwise diverse spectrum of reform, religiosity, and repression. According to the editors of this
volume, the crucial transformations that unfolded between the years 1300 and
1700 demand sustained diachronic attention, challenging “the scholarly imagination to recover medieval understandings of heresy and then to chart their
transformation during the early modern period.” By tracking the single potent
concept of heresy across hitherto divided centuries and confessions, the contributors offer an important new perspective on a vital subject.
This is not a book about heretics: its subject is instead those who thought
about heresy, and how their ideas changed over time. As lively discussions
continue over the ethics (or even the possibility) of “finding heretics” in the
past, the essays here both sidestep and contribute to the debate by charting

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the historical foundations of such scholarship itself. Imitating its object, the
volume is organized to “straddle the transition” between medieval and early
modern constructions of heresy. The thirteen essays proceed with disciplined
regularity across the Middle Ages and sixteenth century up through the
Enlightenment, in many cases overlapping in productive and provocative
ways. This chronological organization allows thematic shifts and their implications to emerge gradually: first, constructions of heresy up through the fifteenth century (Paul Antony Hayward, Sabina Flanagan,Takashi Shogimen, Cary
Nederman); second, the uses of heresy as an intellectual tool or productive
concept (Constant Mews, Thomas Fudge, Craig D’Alton, Conal Condren); and
third, reception and reconstructions of heresy in early modern historiography
(Thomas Ahnert, John Christian Laursen, Ian Hunter, Gisela Schlüter, Sandra
Pott).While regionally focused on Germany and England, the essays explore a
fine network of interpretive contexts, ranging from post-Conquest political
rhetoric to Staatskirchenrecht in the German Enlightenment, and from thirteenth-century notions of madness to eighteenth-century strategies of scholarly impartiality. Figures such as Otto of Freising, William of Ockham, Nicole
Oresme,Aeneas Sylvius, John Colet, and Baruch Spinoza figure prominently, as
do the familiar heretical constructs of Albigensian, Lollard, and Hussite. The
volume concludes with Sandra Potts’s study of the meaning of Albigensians in
ecclesiastical texts between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, an analysis that neatly hinges medieval practice with modern cultural memory, thus
providing a fitting endpoint for the study.
The picture which emerges from the thirteen individual essays is simultaneously general and detailed. The reader gains an impression of heresy’s gradual transition from a technical juridical construct to a widely applicable cultural charge and historical category, but is also forced to confront the
complexity of specific models and moments along the way which evade
simple classification. As set forth in the volume’s brief but thoughtful introduction, there is a difference between medieval and early modern notions of
heresy, but the transition is far more subtle and complex than simple chronological or confessional frameworks might suggest. For this reason, the volume
might have been strengthened by a final essay that offered some preliminary
conclusions about ideas of heresy across pre-modern Europe. On the other
hand, the interpretation of such changes is (as the editors note) profoundly historical and no doubt subject to further change. Perhaps it is thus too early for
sweeping generalizations, and the editors have done well to give readers a
starting point from which to construct their own ideas of heresy in transition.
University of Minnesota, Morris

JENNIFER KOLPACOFF DEANE

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Early Modern
Alejandro VI y los Reyes Católicos. Relaciones político-eclesiásticas (14921503). By Álvaro Fernández de Córdova Miralles. [Dissertationes, Series
Theologica XVI.] (Rome: Edizioni Università della Santa Croce. 2005. Pp. ii,
838; 10 maps, 2 plates. €60.00 paperback.)
One of the main virtues of this lengthy book is the broad range of issues it
covers. It provides a systematic examination of diplomatic and political relations between the pope and the Spanish monarchs, of Spanish intervention in
Italy, of Alexander’s interest in and involvement in expansion into the New
World, and the defense of the Mediterranean against Ottoman expansion, as
well as of ecclesiastical relations, provisions to benefices, conflicts of jurisdiction, fiscal matters, and reform of the Church and of the clergy of the Spanish
kingdoms.
Chronologically, it ranges throughout the reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella, so
despite the title of the book, it has much material concerning the pontificates
of Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII as well—during which Alexander as a cardinal
was vicechancellor of the Church—and something on the pontificate of Julius
II. New material used by the author helps him to provide a detailed picture of
the relations between Ferdinand and Isabella and Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia,
which seem in significant ways to have set the pattern for relations between
the monarchs and the pope. Although strained at times, he concludes, ultimately the relationship benefited both parties, and they shared an interest in
ecclesiastical reform and the expansion of Christianity. He examines closely the
process of obtaining the bulls solicited after Columbus’s first discoveries in the
New World, bulls which he argues the monarchs viewed as confirming, not conferring, their rights to these territories. Alexander’s interest in the evangelization of the New World is stressed.Yet Fernández de Córdova Miralles also makes
it clear that most of the political and ecclesiastical benefits the monarchs
obtained from the papacy were conferred during the years around the French
campaign to conquer Naples in 1493-1495, when Alexander wanted Spanish
diplomatic and military support. Papal bulls backing the monarchs’ efforts to
promote reform in the Spanish church were granted in return for concessions
to the family interests of the pope. He is candid about the openly-expressed disapproval of Ferdinand and Isabella for Alexander’s zeal, as cardinal and as pope,
for the promotion of his family, and of the greed and corruption of the Curia.
While he makes it clear that the monarchs were as skilled and versatile in
negotiation as the pope, and both were ready to mingle the secular with the
sacred, little criticism is leveled at Ferdinand and Isabella, compared with that
of the policies and motives of the pope. The whole book is written from a
Spanish perspective, rather than a Roman one. So great is his concentration on
Spanish diplomatic and military interventions in Italy, at the expense of their
wider context, that it results in a distorted view of negotiations and events, and

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of the relative importance and influence of Spain in Italian affairs. He attributes
Alexander’s election to the papacy in large part to the support of Ferdinand
and Isabella, arguing that the accounts of his election being greeted with disapproval at the Spanish court were developed later in, for example, Pietro
Martire d’Anghiera’s revision of his own letters for publication. Heavy reliance
on the letters of Pietro Martire and on the Spanish chronicler Zurita may
account for some at least of the errors to be found in the book (the description of Siena and Lucca as subject to Florence, for example). It is not always
evident that Fernández de Córdova Miralles has read some of the many works
he cites (the bibliography runs to over a hundred pages).
Nevertheless, there is much to recommend this book, which will be a valuable work of reference and a starting-point for any future consideration of the
relations between the Catholic kings and the Borgia pope.
University of Cambridge

CHRISTINE SHAW

Miguel Servet: Obras completas. Edited, introduction, and notes by Ángel
Alcalá.Vol. I: Vida, muerte y obra. La lucha por la libertad de consciencia.
Documentos. [Col. Larumbe: Clásicos Aragoneses 24; Historia y pensamiento] (Zaragoza: Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza. 2003. Pp. clviii,
388. Each volume: €21.00 paperback.). Vol. II-1: Primeros escritos teológicos (translations). (2004. Pp. cx, 490.) Vol. II-2: Latin texts. (2004. Pp. 491878.) Vol. III: Escritos científicos. (2005. Pp. cxiv, 532. ) Vol. IV: Servet frente
a Calvino, a Roma y al luteranismo. (2005. Pp. c, 444.)
These are the four volumes of the projected six of a project to publish all
the works of Michael Servetus which were either previously published or
remain as manuscripts together with documents related to his life, death, and
influence on the further development of ideas in Europe. The edition
includes the works and documents in their original Latin together with translations into Spanish.A few of the Servetus works were translated into Spanish
previously: Geography of Ptolemy, 1932; Syrups, 1943, 1995; Astrology, 1981;
The Restoration of Christianity, 1981. Into English, there were translated
only his On the Errors of the Trinity, 1932, and his geographical and medical
works in 1953. When Servetus was burned alive in Geneva on October 27,
1553, all copies of his major work, Christianismi restitutio, went up in smoke
together with him. Today only three surviving copies of the original publication are known: (1) one in the National Library of Austria in Vienna; (2) one
in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (this copy was most likely used by
Germain Colladon, attorney acting on behalf of Nicolas de la Fontaine
during Servetus’ trial in Geneva); and (3) one copy in the library of the
University of Edinburgh. The latter lacks the first sixteen pages and the title
page. These were replaced by manuscript pages reproduced in the sixteenth
century from another manuscript.

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Restitutio was circulated after Servetus’ death in the form of copied manuscripts. In 1790 the German erudite, Dr. Christoph Gottlieb von Murr, a follower of Unitarianism, made a handwritten copy of the exemplar from the
National Library in Vienna and published almost an exact replica of the original book in Nürnberg. There are about fifty-three exemplars of this publication in various libraries. The Murr reprint was reproduced in 1966 by a
new photographic technique and serves today as the research tool for
Servetian studies. A reprint of selected fragments from Restitutio concerning the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of the Antichrist, pedobaptism and
circumcision, was also published by Giorgio Biandrata in Transylvania in
1569. The first translation of a small tractate attached to the Restitutio and
titled Sixty Signs of the Antichrist was made by Grzegorz Pawe /l in Poland in
1568. The book was translated into German in three volumes by Bernhard
Spiess from 1892 to 1896 and into Spanish by Ángel Alcalá in two separate
volumes in 1980 and 1981. Except for a fragment of a few pages concerning
the famous discovery of pulmonary circulation, the book was never translated into English.The present bilingual edition of all the works of Servetus
together with pertinent documents is an ambitious and long-overdue project.The last two volumes containing a new edition of Christianismi restitutio are due to appear in 2006.
Servetus remains an obscure figure in history mainly due to the fact that
his memory was erased from historical annals by his opponents; his works
were destroyed and were never translated before the twentieth century. He
is, however, a key figure for the evolution of culture and religion in Western
Europe. He saw that the Reformation with all its positive sides did not go far
enough in overhauling the Christianity of his epoch, corrupt morally and
ideologically. Just as Anabaptists and other reformers demanded radical
changes in the social structures of society and doctrines of the Church, so
Servetus demanded a radical evaluation of the entire ideological religious
system of assertions and dogmas imposed on Western Europe since the
fourth century. He built single-handedly a new Christian religion which he
claimed was closer to the Christianity of the first century. Among the doctrines which Servetus propounded there are two which stand out, especially from the perspective of our position and our hindsight. One is his
antitrinitarianism based on a critical evaluation of the doctrine of the Trinity
as having no biblical, historical, or rational basis, and as being a Greek religio-philosophical accretion to the Christian story; the other is his doctrine
of justification, which emphasizes human natural capabilities of recognizing
moral values and making moral judgments. This is the outstanding expression of Servetus’ humanism in realizing that human nature is not depraved
or corrupt as all Christian dogmas from the Catholic to the Calvinist
claimed. This trait of Servetus’ thought unites him with the ancient optimistic humanism as well as with the modern outlook on the human condition supported by modern studies in the history of ethics and its rational
and natural origin.

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It is hoped that this edition will provide easily accessible original sources for
the scholars and the texts in Spanish for the Spanish-speaking public. It is worthwhile to mention here that the English translation of the major work of Servetus
is being prepared and the first volume should appear at the end of 2006.
Texas Southern University, Houston

MARIAN HILLAR

Dove non arriva la legge. Dottrine della censura nella prima età moderna.
By Lucia Bianchin. [Annali dell’Istituto storico italo-germanico in Trento:
Monografie, 41.] (Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino. 2005. Pp. 389. €25.50
paperback.)
The book analyzes the ideas about censorship expressed by Jean Bodin,
Pierre Grégoire, Justus Lipsius, Johannes Althusius, and Johann Angelius
Werdenhagen. The views of these authors on a subject crucial to late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Europe were not influenced by the
actual organization of the papal control system on culture and book circulation, but relied mostly on a reappraisal of ancient Roman censorship. The
moral and political censorship implemented by the Roman republic was generally described, in the texts here examined, as a powerful means to enforce
social discipline and to prevent conflicts and dissent fatal to the state.
Bianchin outlines first the historiographical background of her research,
discussing some recent contributions concerning the processes of confessionalization and social-disciplining in both Catholic and Protestant areas,
between the Peace of Augsburg and the Thirty Years’ War. She then compares
the Catholic censorship system—intended to prevent printing and reading of
books dangerous to the faithful—and the Protestant one, instrumental in
enforcing strict religious obedience through the control of moral and social
behavior. The third chapter turns upon the ancient Roman magistrate called
censura, charged with maintaining the census—a list of the citizens and of
their properties compiled for fiscal and military purposes—and supervising
public morality. Neglected in medieval legal tradition, the ancients’ model met
with a revival during the sixteenth century. At the beginning of the earlymodern period, Bianchin points out, legal literature testifies to a new interest
in the iudicium censorium, a sort of judgment founded on equity, sanctioning
vices, bad habits, and moral infringements not subject to the law. But only in
the first chapter of the sixth book of Bodin’s République (De la censure) does
the account of the establishment and development of the Roman censura lead
to a doctrine of censorship that entrusts to the state the task of imposing
moral discipline and restraining offenses like gambling, idleness, drunkenness,
vagrancy, and licentiousness.
The Bodinian idea of moral control—easy to connect to the rigorous concept of state sovereignty asserted in the République—provided a basic reference to later writers dealing with the role of censorship in the organization of

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the state. In his Syntagma juris universi (1582), then in the De Republica
libri sex et viginti (1596) the French canonist Pierre Grégoire follows faithfully Bodin’s argument, claiming moreover for the government a wider control
over private life and marriage. He, nevertheless, warns against the excesses of
censores, the cause, in his opinion, of the ruin and disuse of the Roman magistrate. A contemporary of Grégoire, just as dismayed by religious struggles as
Grégoire, was Iustus Lipsius, also a resolute advocate of censorship, charged
with keeping orthodoxy and public order. Loyal to his strictly political point
of view, he urges, however, the prince to a wise and shrewd use of such a hateful and frightening means. In the Politica methodice digesta of Johannes
Althusius, the discussion on censorship loses any scholarly mood and couples
with the Calvinist model of discipline, closely connecting civil and religious
power. Althusius is not only a political writer. The third edition of his main
work (1614) reflects his experience as syndic and elder of Emden, the
Calvinist city in Eastern Frisia known as the “Geneva of the North,” where he
died in 1638. In chapter XXX of the Politica the role of censorship as a complementary and arbitrary judgment on a number of moral and social faults
reaches its fullest extent, supported by the strengthening of the inquisitorial
action and by a penalty system including fines, the brand of infamy, and imprisonment in workhouses. Concerned with the unavoidable abuses of rulers,
Althusius argues anyway for a censura regum, entrusted to the collective magistrate of the ephors. So a doctrine of censorship attains to the status of a
system of constitutional limitation on royal power.
The survey of Bianchin concludes with the remarks upon Bodin’s R publique
by the Lutheran Johann AngeliusWerdenhagen,drawn up in 1635 and revised ten
years later. In the middle of the Thirty Years’ War,Werdenhagen aims at restoring
the distinction between civil law and moral rules, through a radical narrowing of
the field of the iudicium censorium . According to his comments, censorship
recovers the former fiscal and financial functions, while losing the role of moral
direction of the subjects, now committed to education of the youth.
The detailed analysis of political and legal treatises carried on in the book by
Bianchin, the reader could object, is occasionally lenghty and repetitive.
Moreover, some main questions arise. Is it possible, for example, to ascertain the
specific part played by secular moral censorship within the general process of
social disciplining, going with the establishment of the domain of the public
administration and the development of a Polizeiwissenschaft?The themes the
author deals with are,however,crucial to the understanding of early modern history. The debate on censorship here investigated really meets with the changing relationship between the public and private sphere, among conscience,
ethics and law, as well as the new perspectives unfolded by the end of the confessional era. So the work of Bianchin offers a good amount of new information
and cues and will no doubt arouse further interest in these key problems.
Universit di Napoli

ANTONELLA BARZAZI

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The Mercurian Project: Forming Jesuit Culture (1573-1580). Edited by
Thomas M. McCoog, S.J. [Biblioteca Instituti Historici Societatis Iesu,
Volume 55; The Institute of Jesuit Sources, Series III: Original Studies
Composed in English, No. 18.] (Rome: Institutum Historicum Societatis
Iesu; St.Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources. 2004. Pp. xxx, 992. $80.00 cloth;
$60.00 paperback.)
Everard Mercurian (1514-1580) was superior general of the Society of Jesus
for the last seven years of his life.While the period 1573-1580 of Jesuit history
is the focus of this massive volume—a book comprising a thousand pages and
some thirty essays, in English, with summaries in Spanish and in the original
language of each essay—Mercurian himself sometimes remains but in the
background. A wide range of issues and persons receive attention, including
how Jesuits adapted to an era when direct, personal connections with their
founder, Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), began to fade. By the mid-1570’s, the
Order was growing ever larger, and ever more international. Many were the
friends and supporters of the Jesuits, but so too were the enemies and opponents. McCoog’s collection of essays offers a wealth of interesting insights into
what we might call the growing pains of the second generation of Jesuits.
Elected superior general at the third general congregation of the Society of
Jesus, Mercurian, born in the prince-bishopric of Liège, was the first nonSpaniard to lead the Jesuits. Questions of nationality emerge in several essays
in this volume, and they are set in the larger context of late sixteenth-century
political and religious tensions. Protestants and some Catholics lambasted the
Jesuits for their links with Spain, and, it was alleged, their links with the
Habsburg monarchs. Certain Catholics favorable to the Jesuits saw a need for
making clear the international nature of the Society of Jesus; for instance, Pope
Gregory XIII (reign 1572-1585) advertised his desire for the election of a Jesuit
superior general of a nationality other than Spanish. Mercurian’s election
pleased Gregory. But election of a non-Spaniard did not mean an end to all controversies. Indeed, the Iberian Peninsula was the locus of multiple problems in
the 1570’s. The Portuguese Jesuits were divided between those wanting a
penitential model of piety, and those advocating a gentler and more worldaffirming form of religious observance. José Vaz de Carvalho’s essay examines
the peace-making efforts of Simão Rodrigues, sent by Mercurian to pacify the
Portuguese province. A. D.Wright’s essay, on relations between the Society of
Jesus and other religious orders in Spain, shows Mercurian’s era to be one of
intense rivalry between Jesuits and Dominicans (and other mendicants).
Ronald Cueto’s essay makes clear how Jesuits were blamed for Portugal’s loss
of its own royal house.
Several authors explore the successes and failures of Jesuit activity in
Europe and around the world. Philippe Lécrivain’s essay on Juan Maldonado
shows how a brilliant Spanish Jesuit theologian met with varied responses
when he taught in Paris. John Patrick Donnelly’s essay on Antonio Possevino

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considers an Italian Jesuit who labored as a diplomat in distant parts of
Europe, Sweden among them. Dennis Flynn shows how an English Jesuit,
Jasper Heywood, embarrassed the Society of Jesus in Germany. Heywood
worked for a time in Bavaria, where he went to extremes in denouncing what
he considered usury, even though the practices in question were not considered such by most Catholics. Brazil is the topic Alida Metcalf treats; she finds
Jesuits under attack from Huguenot pirates, epidemics such as smallpox and
measles, and from Portuguese colonists whose priority was financial gain, no
matter the consequences for the native population of the Americas. In 1573
Mercurian appointed an Italian Jesuit, Alessandro Valignano, as visitor to Jesuits
in the East Indies. Essays by John Witek and M. Antoni J. Üçerler show the
extraordinary importance of Valignano in moving Jesuits in Asia toward a more
respectful approach to the cultures they encountered.
This volume also illuminates both how education became an ever greater
focus of Jesuit resources, and yet how the difficulties in establishing or maintaining a school, or in working in older, established educational institutions,
were often daunting. Paul Grendler examines the pattern of obstacles faced by
Italian Jesuits seeking to teach at a university level. For one thing, most universities in Italy paid little attention to theology—giving their attention instead
to law and medicine—and the Society of Jesus was not able to change that. But
Francesco Cesareo’s essay sets forth Jesuit educational successes in Rome,
enhanced in Mercurian’s era by Gregory XIII’s support of the Roman College,
the German College, and the English College. Susan Mobley’s essay shows how
Jesuits in Bavaria depended heavily on intervention from the Duke to make a
place for them at the University of Ingolstadt.
Philip Endean’s excellent essay on Jesuit prayer returns the focus of this
volume to the superior general of the Jesuits. Endean shows convincingly that
Henri Bremond and other historians of spirituality have wrongly saddled
Mercurian with an oppressive effort to stamp out mystical and contemplative
prayer in favor of asceticism and authoritarianism. Rather, Mercurian promoted
an “Ignatian pluralism” (p. 381) in ways of praying.
Thomas McCoog deserves praise and gratitude for his editing of this valuable work. An essay that might have been added to this fine collection is one
specifically on Pope Gregory XIII. He is mentioned in several essays, and it is
clear that his pontificate was critically important for the growth and success
of the Jesuits in the late sixteenth century. Mercurian’s generalate fell entirely
within Gregory’s pontificate (1572-1585). In the years just after Mercurian’s
death, the Jesuit Christopher Clavius would play a key role in creating the calendar that bears Gregory’s name. Perhaps not only is an essay on Gregory and
Mercurian called for, but also a book on Gregory XIII and the Jesuits.
College of the Holy Cross

THOMAS WORCESTER, S.J.

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Missionary Tropics:The Catholic Frontier in India (16th–17th Centuries). By
Ines G. Županov. [History, Languages, and Cultures of the Spanish and
Portuguese Worlds.] (Ann Arbor:The University of Michigan Press. 2005. Pp.
xvi, 374. $75.00.)
This book addresses the uniqueness of Jesuit/Portuguese missionary activities in India during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The title of the
book, Missionary Tropics, is a bit bewildering to the reader, at the outset, but
toward the middle of the introduction the author gives two explanations for
this: one,“to evoke the fact that, historically, the climate was considered part of
the difficulty in converting the natives because of its humoral connection with
idolatry”; two, because of the linguistic vernacularization (or tropicalization) of
the Christian message, church rites, and social customs associated with conversion.”The first reason is not at all convincing as there is no established connection between climate and idolatry. The second reason is indeed valid as
there certainly was an integration of native religious beliefs and rituals with
the liturgies and devotions the missionaries introduced among the natives.
What strikes the reader as admirable is the richness of resources the author
used in putting together this well written book. They include every relevant
archive, collection, or published work available: the Jesuit Archives (Rome), and
every other archive, library, or collection in Rome, Lisbon, Oxford, the British
Museum, the State Library in Panaji (Goa), the eighteen volume Documenta
Indica edited by Josef Wicki, S.J., and the Epistolae S. Francisci Xavierii aliaque ejus Scripta, edited by G. Schurhammer, S.J., and J.Wicki, and several hundred published works and manuals which either exclusively or partially deal
with Jesuit/Portuguese activities in India.
The book is divided into three parts.The first entitled “Tropical Saints and
Relics” has two chapters, the first, with the heading “The Sacred Body: Francis
Xavier the Apostle, the Pilgrim, the Relic,” deals in much detail with the apostolate of Saint Francis Xavier in India and in Japan, his death in the island of
Sanciam, overlooking the Chinese coast, the arrival of the miraculously preserved body, fresh and full blooded, to Goa in 1554, ensuing public veneration
of the body, the flow of pilgrims to venerate the body and the mutilation of the
sacred body, starting with Isabel de Carom biting off the little toe of his right
foot and other pieces of the body given away as gifts to powerful Portuguese
officials and families, and finally his right arm divided and distributed to be
enshrined in the Jesuit Church of the Gesu in Rome, and the shrines in Cochin,
Melaka, and Japan.
Chapter II deals with Portuguese efforts to discover the burial place of Saint
Thomas the Apostle, their success not only in discovering the tomb but also
the bones of the Apostle, the building of a new church, enclosing the tomb of
the Apostle, and the founding of Sao Thome de Meliapur as a commercial and
pilgrimage center.

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Part II of the book has the overall theme of “Tropical Virtues and Vices” and
in three chapters it covers the following topics: “Fervors and Tropics,” which
deals with the career of Antonio Gomes, who served in India between 1548 and
1554 as Jesuit Superior. Gomes, who was headstrong, fervent, passionate, and
ambitious, was seen as an asset and at the same time a problem for the Jesuit
Mission. For this reason Francis Xavier wrote to Gomes urging him to be moderate as his Superiors in Europe moved him from place to place frequently.
The next chapter, titled “The Art of Dying in the Tropics, Jesuit Martyrs in
India,” deals with the ambition of young Jesuits, aspiring to be missionaries in
far away places to become martyrs as well as the stories of a few Jesuit martyrs, in India, such as Antonio Criminali.
“Tropical sins and sins of Hinduism” are the themes of the next chapter.
The author addresses the issues of “sex, lust and sociability,”“uses and abuses
of the Malabar marriage customs,”and “pollution, free will, and Indian Christian
Marriage,” largely based on the correspondence, accounts, and historical writings left behind by two Jesuit missionaries, Jacome Fenicio (late sixteenth century) and Diogo Goncalves (early seventeenth century) critiquing the customs, manners, and religious rituals of the Hindus and native Christians of the
Malabar Coast, contrasting them against prescriptions of the Council of Trent
that were being widely publicized in Europe at that time.
Part III of the book deals with two Portuguese missionary enterprises: a
medical mission in Goa and the gradual replacement of the Portuguese language by local vernaculars in missionary presentations and some parts of the
liturgy. The author also gives a detailed analysis of the positive and negative
results of vernacularization in the Portuguese efforts to Christianize the local
population and their culture.
On the whole the book is well researched, well written, and well structured,
and I congratulate the author for it. I must, however, point out one huge lapse
in the book, that is, the author’s casual treatment of the violent Latinization of
the Saint Thomas Christians of Malabar by Dom Foey Aleixo de Menses,
Archbishop of Goa, using military force and burning the Aramaic liturgical
books from their churches and forcing on them the decrees of the Synod of
Diamper (1599), which he himself wrote and which mandated the use of Latin
liturgical texts, translated into Aramaic, in all liturgies, including sacraments and
sacramentals, removing all vestiges of native culture. What transpired in the
aftermath of the Synod were the following: nearly half of the elders of the
Syromalabar community took an oath, symbolically touching on a cross (since
there were several thousand of them,they tied ropes to the cross and had everyone hold on to the ropes) that they will not obey the Portuguese religious
authorities. A good number of them joined with schismatic Jacobite bishops
who came to Malabar from Antioch. Others continued in the old tradition. Of
the Jacobites, a good number broke away and formed the Marthomite Church,
with liturgies similar to that of the Anglican High Church. Of the remaining

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Jacobites a good number returned to Catholicism when in 1930 their
Archbishop, Mar Ivanios, gained permission from Pope Pius XI to form a new
Rite, named the Syro Malankara Rite, and to continue to use the liturgies they
had been using since they became Jacobites.The Malabar Church, founded by
Saint Thomas the Apostle, according to tradition and the testimonies of foreign
visitors from early Christian centuries, has been thus split up into four different
churches, two Catholic and the other two non-Catholic, thanks to the violent
incursion of Archbishop Meneses. Certainly it was a momentous event with
very serious consequences, which should have been treated in some depth
rather than being given a mere mention as the good Archbishop’s effort to
enforce the tenets of the Council of Trent.The Council of Trent did not legislate
anything pertaining to the Malabar Christians. Besides, Eastern Churches had a
separate code of Canon Law, as they do even now, which was revised in 1959
as was the Canon Law of the Western Church.
Saint Mary’s College
Notre Dame, Indiana

CYRIAC K. PULLAPILLY

Joannes della Faille, S.J.:Mathematics, Modesty and Missed Opportunities.By Ad
Meskens. [Institut Historique de Belge de Rome, Bibliothèque, LIII.] (Brussels:
Institut Historique Belge de Rome. 2005. Pp. 177. €36.00 paperback.)
This book describes the life of Joannes della Faille (1597-1652) and provides commentary on his mathematical work. Ad Meskens makes meticulous
use of earlier scholarship and archival sources, including previously unstudied
material held privately by the della Faille family. Meskens seeks to raise awareness of della Faille’s mathematical accomplishments, published and unpublished, judging that a proper assessment would lead to recognition in the same
company as more celebrated contemporaries such as Blaise Pascal (16231662) and Girard Desargues (1591-1661).
Meskens situates the life of della Faille within the civil and religious strife
in the Low Countries during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Joannes, son of a wealthy Flemish merchant, was born and raised in
Antwerp, at that time under Spanish rule and a center of the CounterReformation.The young della Faille attended the Antwerp Jesuit College, early
exhibiting both an attraction to a religious vocation and a talent for mathematics. His initiation into the Jesuit tradition of mathematical scholarship was
accomplished especially through the instruction of Gregorius a Sancto
Vincentio (1584-1667), himself a student of Christopher Clavius (1537-1612),
a pioneer investigator in infinitesimal calculus.
Della Faille, ordained in 1621, was dispatched to Madrid in 1629, where
King Philip IV had encouraged the Jesuits to found the Estudios Reales of the
Colegio Imperial in an effort to build up Spanish technical expertise.While in
Madrid della Faille published his only book, a short treatise deriving the center

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of mass of a sector of a circle. This was a tour de force of geometric reasoning, explicated by Meskens in one of his chapters.
Della Faille’s skills were recognized at the highest level of the Spanish
court. In 1646 he became mathematics tutor to Philip IV’s son, Don Juan of
Austria, and later accompanied the latter’s military expeditions in the
Mediterranean. Della Faille died in Barcelona in 1652, shortly after Don Juan
had suppressed a rebellion in that city.
Gregorius a Sancto Vincentio asserted that della Faille may have written as
many as thirty unpublished mathematical manuscripts. Meskens is unable to
confirm such a large number, but has found several such manuscripts, of which
he gives special attention to those on conic sections, composed of carefully
crafted sequences of theorems without proofs. Meskens has succeeded, with
considerable ingenuity, in providing anachronistic proofs by means of analytic
geometry, and he expresses his confidence that della Faille was in possession
of synthetic geometrical proofs.While acknowledging that della Faille was not
so audacious an innovator as Desargues, Meskens is eager to credit della Faille
with anticipating later developments in projective geometry, and urges that his
name be attached to theorems usually associated with Pascal and William
Braikenridge (ca. 1700-1762). These claims on behalf of della Faille’s prowess
cannot be incontrovertibly supported by the available evidence, but Meskens
makes a plausible case.
Meskens concludes by musing provocatively, albeit superficially, on the conditions contributing to della Faille’s obscurity in the history of mathematics.
Factors mentioned include the relative weakness and isolation of Spanish
mathematical activity during della Faille’s time, the failure of Don Juan to
memorialize properly his tutor, and (as alluded to in the subtitle of the book)
della Faille’s Jesuit spirituality that urged modesty.
The book is produced in a handsome paperback volume with numerous
illustrations, including a cover reproducing the notable portrait of della Faille
by Anthony Van Dyck. There are a few typographical errors, awkward phrasings, and missing words, but the most distracting blemish is provided by the
exceedingly mechanical right justification of the text, resulting in numerous
unconventional hyphenations.
Prince George’s Community College

DAVID LINDSAY ROBERTS

Sodomy in Reformation Germany and Switzerland, 1400-1600. By Helmut
Puff. [The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society.] (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press. 2003. Pp. ix, 311. $24.00 paperback.)
Helmut Puff’s book, part of “The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History and
Society,”is an extraordinary example of how a social history of language can lead
to a contextual understanding of sexuality and communal identity. Tackling an

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oft ignored and marginalized topic, Puff demonstrates how a careful analysis of
“multifarious relationships between acts and words” (p. 11) leads to a nuanced
understanding of the changing usage of the various terms, including, sodomy
(sodomia), sinning “against nature” (contra naturam or wider die nature),
heresy (Ketzerei), and florencing (florenzen), to describe male same-sex sexual
acts in late medieval southern Germany and Switzerland. Combining extensive
archival research with a well-grounded understanding of contemporary literary
theory and historical method, Puff proposes that the discursive rhetoric surrounding sodomy played a significant role in creating a unique state, religious
and social identity in German-speaking lands during the Reformation.
Part One,“Acts and Words,” shows how sodomy accusations and trials had
more to do with local conflicts than sustained effort by secular or ecclesiastic
authorities to control same-sex sexual behavior. Puff, however, asserts that the
medieval “Church’s relative lack of interest in homosexual behavior” should
not be equated with “tolerance” (p. 21) and that seeming inaction itself can
constitute action when scrutinized closely. In Chapters One and Two, Puff
argues that while those convicted of sodomy were severely punished, trials
themselves were “episodic” rather than “systematic” (p. 30). He finds that class
issues rather than concern about sexual behavior dominated sodomy prosecution, since most cases pursued by civic authorities dealt with upper-class
men or clergy until the Reformation. Particularly fascinating is Puff’s discussion in Chapter Three of “tropes of unspeakability” (p. 57) in theological tracts,
confessional manuals, and printed sermons and catechisms, and of how the
presentation subtly shifted according to audience. This convincing section
illustrates how an absence of direct descriptive discussion of sodomy and the
use of silence was intentional in confronting the “silent sin.” Chapter Four
traces how this rhetoric of unspeakability found its way into legal trials and
public denouncement of sodomy during the early sixteenth century.
Part Two,“Acting Words,” demonstrates that polemical use of sodomy, often
presented as an extreme of Reformation discourse, was not a new phenomenon, but rather had historical and rhetorical precedent in fifteenth-century
slander and defamation. Chapter Five traces how verbal allegations became “a
popular vehicle to circulate concepts associated with sodomy” (p. 107) in fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century Switzerland. Defamation and slander were
largely directed at foreigners and elites, thus “venting social and political dissatisfaction”(p. 116). Chapter Six outlines how German humanists used a slanderous and violent rhetoric of sodomy to differentiate themselves from their
Italian counterparts and how this “rhetoric of inversion” created a “geography
of perversion.” Chapter Seven describes how civic authorities and Reformminded theologians, including Martin Luther, utilized the term “sodomy”
during the Reformation to contrast their reforms with “sodomite activities” of
the Catholic, and Italian, Church. This brought the “unspeakable sin” fully into
the rhetorical repertoire and created a powerful polemical tool. Chapter Eight
suggests how this rhetorical contrast pushed Protestant reformers to advocate

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marriage as the only acceptable sexual norm for all, including clergy, since “celebration of marriage as well as sodomiphobia were particularly successful as
Protestant rallying points because both accorded with and could be mapped
onto values held by communities before the Reformation” (p. 176). Thus, Puff
proposes how the concept of sodomy, originally defined as sexual “heresy,”ultimately transformed into a rhetoric of inclusion and difference creating communal identity in the German-speaking regions of Switzerland and Germany
during the Reformation.
Western Kentucky University

BETH PLUMMER

L’armonia contesa: identità ed educazione nell’Alsazia moderna. By
Simona Negruzzo. (Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino. 2005. Pp. 396. €29.50
paperback.)
Its history makes Alsace an attractive laboratory for exploring some major
themes of European history, something Simona Negruzzo is very aware of in
her study of Alsatian schools during the early modern period. A point of cultural intersection, Alsace was a German principality until taken over by France
in 1681 and for centuries a site of competition between Protestants and
Catholics. That history has drawn a good deal of scholarly attention (attested
to here by the eighty-two pages of bibliography). Still, a study of schooling
might reveal a lot about the concrete effects of changes in language, culture,
rulers, and religion.
Negruzzo begins with the Protestant schools of Strasbourg in the sixteenth
century. The central figure is Johann Sturm, who was placed in charge of city
schools in 1538 and whose humanistic curriculum remained dominant
through the century. He himself embodied something of Strasbourg’s liminal
position between cultures, Catholic and Protestant, French and German.
Educated at Louvain, in touch with leading intellectuals in Paris (where he had
spent several years), he maintained close contact with important German
reformers and humanists. Strasbourg’s city fathers put considerable resources
behind the elementary schools and gymnasium Sturm directed. Students
(mainly German-speakers) came from the local elite and from much farther
away, and Sturm’s schools were models adopted in cities from Poland to France
and especially in Switzerland and Germany. His gymnasium, having weathered
the transformation from association with the ideas of Martin Bucer to a stricter
Lutheranism, in 1566 won from Emperor Maximilian the title of academy and
the right to grant degrees, tantamount to the university status fully granted in
1622. To this general picture, Negruzzo’s research adds considerable detail,
about the students (their number shrank in the seventeenth century), the
organization of the faculty (quite conventional), and the subject matter (always
addressed through a fairly conservative humanism that tended to ignore the
latest discoveries in science or geography).

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Counter-Reformation competition came from the Jesuits, who in 1580
established a school in Molsheim (given university status by emperor and
pope in 1617) and rapidly established other schools in towns encircling
Strasbourg. Adopting the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum, these schools, too, had a
humanist curriculum; and in fact the two sets of strikingly similar schools influenced each other, although the Protestant ones excelled in singing, the Jesuits
in theater. On the organization of these schools and enrollment in them and
on the continuing contestation through pamphlets and theater, this account is
very informative. That is one of its strengths.
Another is awareness of the larger picture. Schooling suffered as religious
conflict grew more violent in the seventeenth century and from the effects of
the plague and the Thirty Years’War. French rule brought a certain calming as
well as a greater French presence and cultural influence. While favoring
Catholic institutions, including the Catholic university, the French monarchy
also recognized and supported the Protestant one. Catholics and Protestants
studying law and medicine continued to do so together at the still-Protestant
University of Strasbourg, and foreign visitors continued to note surprising similarities in the religious practice of the two denominations. The growth of
Catholicism in Alsace was primarily due rather to Jesuit and Capuchin campaigns of preaching, devotional missions, and pilgrimages—effective expressions of Counterreform piety that reached a broad public and further distanced Protestants from Catholics.
These strengths invite a certain disappointment, however. The size of
schools, languages used, treatises written, literacy achieved, and much else
clearly set forth were certainly related to the issues of identity, religion, social
structure, and politics that make Alsace so interesting. That connection,
although rhetorically asserted, is not effectively probed.The interesting information about schooling does not much modify the received picture of the
larger historical trends.We learn little of the process by which they and local
institutions shaped each other and almost nothing of the anguish, anger, and
bloodshed that process involved. The details that documents chose to reveal
are carefully culled and soberly assembled, with more information added in
footnotes that crawl up the pages like ivy. But an abundance of facts can, like
ivy, both embellish and obscure the structure that supports them. By the
eighteenth century Alsace was very different from what it had been two hundred years earlier; and the achievement of this study is to suggest that study of
education ought to reveal something more while reminding us of the factors
that produced those changes, of their European scope, and of the centrality of
Alsace in early modern history.
University of Michigan

RAYMOND GREW

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Konfessionskampf und fremde Besatzung. Stadt und Hochstift Hildesheim
im Zeitalter der Gegenreformation und des Dreißigjährigen Krieges
(ca. 1580-1660). By Christian Plath. [Reformationsgeschichtliche Studien
und Texte, 147.] (Münster: Aschendorff Verlag. 2005. Pp. xiv, 732, €89,00
paperback.)
Christian Plath has studied the Protestant city of Hildesheim and the
Catholic territory around it during the period of the Counter-Reformation and
the Thirty Years’ War. Like a number of recent works, Plath compares the
Catholic and Protestant communities, with an eye toward understanding their
“experience” (Erfahrung) of both religious reform and war. The concept of
“experience” comes out of the German tradition of Alltagsgeschichte (history
of everyday life) and seeks to give a social dimension to historical events like
the Thirty Years’War. This effort is commendable and, for the most part, Plath
succeeds in this endeavor.
The book is divided into two main parts, the first on the “CounterReformation” and the second on the Thirty Years’War. The two parts are connected, since Catholic efforts to recapture institutions and populations for the
Church occurred during the war itself. On the other hand, each part more of
less stands on its own and each has rather different concerns. The first part
reads a lot like a traditional study of Tridentine reform. Plath examines the
work of bishops and their officials, the influence of the Jesuits, the use of
synods and visitations. A strength of this study is that it also examines these
developments from the perspective of the Protestant elite and the wider population. We read about Protestant as well as Catholic polemicists in the years
leading up to the war, the efforts of the Protestant City Council of Hildesheim
to resist the Edict of Restitution (1629), and the development of new forms of
piety, in both confessions, in the later years of the war.
Plath’s discussion of the Thirty Years’ War makes several important points.
The war had its particular turning points and rhythms at the local and regional
level and the experience of the population was neither uniform nor continuously horrible. In the Hildesheim region, the Edict of Restitution was one turning point, the Swedish invasion (1631-32) a second one, and the Peace of
Goslar in 1643 a third. Plath emphasizes that the confessional conflict of the
pre-war period meant that both Catholics and Lutherans experienced the early
years of the war, until the mid 1630’s or so, as a Konfessionskrieg, or religious
war. By the 1640’s, survival strategies dominated everyone’s day-to-day life. At
the same time, the experience of the Thirty Years’ War varied considerably
across social classes and between the confessions. Co-operation between soldiers and civilians and between Catholics and Protestants was not unusual and
increased as the war dragged on.
Plath’s study is firmly rooted in extensive archival research and based on
vast amounts of secondary reading, although regrettably little in non-Germanlanguage scholarship.The work is full of interesting stories about the experi-

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ences of real people—peasants and artisans, students and teachers, priests and
pastors, bishops and town councilors. This is its greatest strength.
Connecticut College

MARC R. FORSTER

Souls in Dispute: Converso Identities in Iberia and the Jewish Diaspora,
1580-1700. By David L. Graizbord. [Jewish Culture and Contexts.]
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2004. Pp. viii, 263. $47.50.)
David Graizbord’s book examines the plight of “renegade conversos” in
Spain and Portugal during the long seventeenth century. Conversos, or “New
Christians,”were baptized Christians of Jewish descent, and while a majority of
them had been assimilated into Christian society (although to what degree
remains a point of contention), a small minority of “renegades” chose to return
to their ancestral faith, fleeing Christian Iberia and integrating themselves into
Jewish communities abroad. A still smaller minority returned to the Iberian
peninsula and often found themselves at the mercy of the Holy Office, and in
some cases actively collaborated with inquisitional authorities as informers.
Graizbord sets out to account for these unconventional behaviors and in the
process provides an investigation into the vagaries of religious identity and a
study of “cultural liminality.”
Graizbord situates his analysis of these geographic and spiritual border
crossers in opposition to a traditional historiography that sought to reveal the
“truth” of converso identity in relation to reified national and confessional categories. Rejecting this kind of essentialism, Graizbord adopts a socio-cultural
approach that facilitates a more nuanced appreciation of the varied psychological and economic forces at work in shaping the religious experiences of
Iberian conversos.
One of the great strengths of Graizbord’s Souls in Dispute is its detailed
description of the complex networks within which his subjects circulated. By
the mid-seventeenth century numerous Spanish and Portuguese conversos
had fled the Iberian peninsula and settled in southwestern France, where
many of them reverted to Judaism and participated in the refugee kehillot.
An active trading relationship between Bayonne and Madrid, however, provided both motive and opportunity for some of these renegade conversos to
return to Spain for extended periods. In doing so, they aroused the suspicions
of both the Jewish and Christian communities. In Spain these returnees were
bound to transgress Jewish law if they wanted to remain inconspicuous
among the Christian flock, and thus their commitment to Judaism was questioned by their fellow expatriates. If, on the other hand, they were apprehended by Spanish or Portuguese authorities, they faced a barrage of interlocking prejudices: fears of judaizing, a widespread resentment of “wealthy”
merchants, and xenophobia in general.

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How did refugee conversos negotiate this welter of competing allegiances
and identities? The Inquisition cases Graizbord examines contain fascinating
testimony in which returnees sought to justify their tortuous religious trajectories. In some instances the accused ended up converting back to
Catholicism and helping their inquisitors ferret out other crypto-Jews. Were
these defendants mere opportunists, telling the authorities what they wanted
to hear? Graizbord argues that this was not necessarily the case. Instead,
according to Graizbord, this kind of “renegade behavior” involved a “complex
process of self-fashioning” (p. 167) in which “the movement of individual conversos from one purportedly impermeable community of faith to another and
back was not a stratagem, but an earnest choice born of a specific historical
context and guided by a pragmatic religious mentality firmly rooted in that
context” (p. 171).
Graizbord’s use of the concept of “self-fashioning” to describe the contingency of converso identities is never fully elaborated. It would be helpful to
have a more explicit discussion of how self-fashioning applies to the material
presented here, or even to see some engagement with recent critiques of the
self-fashioning paradigm, such as John Martin’s Myths of Renaissance
Individualism. Indeed, Martin’s notion of the “prudential self” bears a striking
resemblance to the kinds of identity formation described in Souls in Dispute.
To be fair, the author did not undertake to provide an analysis of early modern
selfhood in general, and it is perhaps a testimony to the richness of his subject
matter that one can envision many possible comparisons to be made and
directions for further study. In the final analysis, Graizbord has written a superb
book that will be of interest to Hispanists in general as well as specialists in
Jewish History and scholars of the Inquisition.
University of Alabama at Birmingham

ANDREW KEITT

Correspondance du Nonce en France: Gasparo Silingardi, Évêque de
Modène (1599-1601). Edited by Bertrand Haan. [Acta Nuntiaturae Gallicae,
17.] (Rome: École française de Rome and Université Pontificale
Grégorienne. 2002. Pp. xxxvii, 598. Paperback.)
In the study of papal diplomacy in early Bourbon France, Gasparo
Silingardi’s brief tenure as papal nuncio between 1599 and 1601 has been
overshadowed by that of his contemporary Cardinal Roberto Ubaldini.
Nevertheless, Silingardi’s presence coincided with a critical juncture for the
Bourbon monarchy and the Catholic Church in France. In 1598 Henry IV’s
nearly decade-long campaign to secure political and military control of his
kingdom paid important dividends when the last major unreconciled Leaguer
noble, the duc de Mercoeur, submitted to his authority and the Peace of
Vervins brought to a conclusion open hostilities with Spain. In the same year
Henry also took an important step toward securing religious peace in his king-

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dom through the promulgation of the Edict of Nantes. These developments,
along with the absolution of Henry IV by Pope Clement VIII in 1596, stabilized
the kingdom and set the stage for a more lasting religious and political peace.
Silingardi’s correspondence provides critical and sustained commentary on
the efforts of Henry and his ministers to build on the political successes of
1598. Silingardi is especially revealing on the evolving religious settlement that
the promulgation of the Edict of Nantes inaugurated. Thus, his correspondence provides detailed coverage of the controversies, including that surrounding Du Plessis-Mornay’s tract L’Institution de l’Eucharistie and the
related conference at Fontainebleau, through which the French monarchy
sought to arbitrate a more lasting peace. His correspondence also provides the
best single source for the examination of papal religious policy in France
during this period. In his dispatches Silingardi reveals the sustained papal
effort to secure confirmation and publication of the decrees of the Council of
Trent, Clement VIII’s unsuccessful attempts to organize an international crusade against the Turks, and, on a more successful note, papal efforts to lay the
groundwork for the rehabilitation of the Society of Jesus in France.
With Silingardi’s correspondence having so much to offer scholars,
Bertrand Haan’s commendable annotated volume of his letters is a welcome
addition to the field. Haan’s edition, the seventeenth volume in the Acta
Nuntiaturae Gallicae series, is the most complete of Silingardi’s correspondence to date. It includes 343 letters along with a number of additional memoirs and instructions. These letters are accompanied by impressive supporting materials. As someone who has read the original manuscripts of this
correspondence, I appreciate Haan’s careful annotations. They will save
future scholars considerable time and effort both in identifying figures mentioned in letters and in verifying and offering further references to events that
feature in the correspondence. But perhaps most useful is the substantial introduction of over 200 pages. It provides the most up-to-date and accessible study
of Silingardi’s life and career to date. In this introduction, Silingardi’s whole
biography is examined and through this biography a picture of Silingardi as an
associate of Carlo Borromeo, committed Tridentine reformer, and experienced
administrator of his diocese comes into focus. This biography ultimately
shapes how one reads the letters that follow.When one considers Silingardi’s
earlier career, it is clear that he was more of a dedicated Catholic reformer than
a papal diplomat. This may explain why, unlike his more famous successor
Cardinal Ubaldini, he found himself at several crucial moments on the margins
of diplomatic negotiations between the French crown and the more dedicated
papal diplomatic figure, the cardinal nephew Pietro Aldobrandini.
Missouri State University

ERIC NELSON

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Redefining Female Religious Life: French Ursulines and English Ladies in
Seventeenth-Century Catholicism. By Laurence Lux-Sterritt. [Catholic
Christendom, 1300-1700.] (Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate Publishing
Company. 2005. Pp. viii, 236. $99.95.)
The historiography of religious women has come a long way. Shaking off the
victimhood described by Diderot and passing through the status of near-invisibility accorded it in official church histories of the past, it emerged into daylight
as women’s history took hold. Nuns, it was discovered, were not all sad little persons of limited import; indeed, some of them, like Teresa of Avila and Mary Ward,
were veritable Amazons in the faith. The fact that they opened new horizons for
religious women proved that feminism could take root,even within the convent.
It is frustrating, though, that the enhancement of our empathy for these
women of the past takes place at the very time when our understanding of the
values inherent in their way of life has dwindled almost to zero. It means that
we have difficulty in seeing where they are coming from. As Lux-Sterritt
points out, “Since cloistered piety has all but disappeared from modern life,
physical isolation and immobility have, on the whole, come to represent passivity and inactivity, notions the twenty-first century is quick to dismiss as useless” (p. 178). In the early seventeenth century, however, the contemplative life
was still highly prized. The intense activism of the Counter-Reformation did
not diminish respect for the monastic tradition; if anything, it enhanced it.
This is the point that the author is making. Various groups of women
appeared on the scene, anxious to do their part in the re-Catholicization of the
world.The difficulty was that the work they chose to do required them to be
present in that world—and this offended all sorts of sensibilities, both ecclesiastical and societal. In short order they were forced back toward the cloister.
Their reactions differed. Mary Ward, foundress of the English Ladies, refused outright—and she suffered for it, being imprisoned for some time as a condemned
heretic.Yet her institute survived, and continued to operate outside the cloister.
The Ursulines of Toulouse (the author’s principal subjects) behaved more circumspectly, accepting clausura while insisting on the right to continue teaching outsiders. Militant on the one hand, modest on the other, but, as the author
argues, together they were of “momentous importance,”“because, despite working from within the patriarchal confines imposed upon them . . . they managed
to lay the foundations of a new system of education for women; indeed, their
activities enlarged the pre-existing feminine roles within the Church” (p. 27).
Despite their pioneering work, however, they were not rebels defying the
established order. “In fact, sources have shown that most apostolic women
demonstrated a spiritual affinity for the cloister and that they all respected the
religious values it represented” (p. 8). The difficulty for them came from “the
ambiguous relationship” between the values of the contemplative life and
those of the apostolate. As they stepped out into their new ministry, they still
had one foot planted firmly in the old monastic tradition.“[T]hey should not

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be regarded as feminist ‘loose cannons’ within the Catholic Church but rather
as women whose seventeenth-century vocation operated a rich transvaluation
of medieval asceticism and inscribed a teaching apostolate within a traditional
religious and penitential context” (p. 193).
This is a point worth remembering. Different people prod the Church forward; some of them are her most loyal members.
University of Ottawa

ELIZABETH RAPLEY

Vincent de Paul: The Trailblazer. By Bernard Pujo. Translated by Gertrud
Graubart Champe. (Notre Dame, Indiana: The University of Notre Dame
Press. 2003. Pp. xiii, 329. $40.00.)
For more than three centuries, most biographies of Vincent de Paul have
been distorted by tenacious hagiographic myths. Untangling the Vincent of
myth from the Vincent of history, and understanding the Vincent of history
within the context of his faith, life, and times in seventeenth-century France
has been an elusive achievement.
Bernard Pujo has written a popular biography of Monsieur Vincent that
presents him as a “Trailblazer.” The work’s greatest strengths emerge in the
author’s descriptions of the political realities of seventeenth-century France.
For example, his explanations of the Fronde, and France’s interminable continental warfare are particularly well done.
While the author gives wonderfully vivid accounts of Vincent’s trailblazing,
a realistic and convincing portrait of the trailblazer as a person, priest,
reformer, founder, and servant of the poor is not achieved. This failure to
come to grips with the complexities of the trailblazer’s personal story weakens the story of his trailblazing.
The work’s other faults are the result of a non-specialist writing in an area
in which he is only marginally acquainted, while uncritically relying on a relatively small number of largely French sources.
Pujo correctly portrays the young Vincent de Paul as an ambitious, intelligent, talented, ecclesiastical climber of average faith and unremarkable piety
hailing from a modest farming family with modest connections. Pujo’s story of
how this unremarkable Vincent de Paul became the great Monsieur Vincent is
in the end an entirely unconvincing rehashing of the myths dating from the
saint’s first biographer, Louis Abelly. These myths have been largely discredited by contemporary Vincentian historians.
One example is the saint’s famous “Tunisian Captivity” based on Vincent’s
autograph accounts of his capture by the Barbary pirates and his being held as
a slave in North Africa for two years, before a miraculous escape in a skiff

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across the Mediterranean. Pujo comments,“At first, one may be tempted to call
Vincent’s story unlikely, but a more attentive re-reading gradually overcomes
the reflex of incredulity. . . .”
However, a “reflex of incredulity”would have been an appropriate response
if only in light of scholarship on Christian slavery in North Africa during this
period. Indeed, Pujo’s entire analysis of the traditional stories surrounding
Vincent de Paul’s conversion would have benefited from a “reflex of
incredulity.”
Also absent is a basic analysis of the spiritual and material conditions of the
un-reformed French Church, or the dynamic and successful Tridentine reforms
emerging from the fabled French school of spirituality and the Devots. If
Vincent de Paul was a trailblazer, he was surely a Tridentine one, not only in
terms of his charity but also in his theology, spirituality, priesthood, reform of
the clergy, and systematic re-evangelization of the countryside.
Pujo does make excellent and moving use of Vincent’s letters to illustrate
the attractive personalism that characterized his relationships. The author
also rightly acknowledges, if only in passing, the pioneering roles of Louise de
Marillac, the Ladies of Charity, and the Daughters of Charity as indispensable
collaborators in Vincent’s trailblazing activities
Before a modern critical biography of Vincent de Paul can be written an
author must have deep understanding of seventeenth-century France, especially from a religious perspective. Another indispensable element will be a
non-hagiographic approach to Vincent de Paul’s life story. Using both these
approaches will finally produce a compelling portrait of this trailblazing saint.
DePaul University

EDWARD R. UDOVIC, C.M.

John Baptist de la Salle: The Spirituality of Christian Education. Edited by
Carl Koch, Jeffrey Calligan, FSC, and Jeffrey Gros, FSC. [The Classics Western
Spirituality.] (New York and Mahway, New Jersey: Paulist Press. 2004. Pp.
xvi, 266. $26.95 paperback.)
This slim paperback volume on the writings of John Baptist de la Salle, the
founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, is part of a
larger series on the “Classics of Western Spirituality.” It contains an elegantlywritten preface by Thomas H. Groome, a pithy biographical sketch, and an introduction to his spirituality, but it is devoted mostly to de la Salle’s “foundational”
writings and letters. The most important of them is a collection of meditations
he wrote for his Brothers during the time of annual retreat.They express best
of all his advanced thoughts on the vocation of lay religious to announce the
Gospel to the poor, comparing their role to that of the early apostles and to
their descendants the bishops. Other documents such as Rules, memoranda,
and personal notes and letters are of considerable historical value and interest,

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but do not pertain directly to matters of theology and spirituality. The translations of the documents reprinted in this book are scrupulously faithful to the
original texts, which is both their strength and their weakness, if only because
de la Salle’s own prose style was lawyer-like, sometimes convoluted, and only
rarely poetic. His personal letters to his confreres, as the editors rightly note,
were “brisk”and even “curt,”in contrast to his longer treatises. Readers will have
to transport themselves back to the spirituality of seventeenth-century France
to fully appreciate both the theology and vocabulary of the selections included
in this volume. Although de la Salle made an original contribution to the life
and ministry of the Church by founding a religious order composed exclusively
of consecrated lay religious, the bulk of his of his writings were directed to
grammar school teachers who are warned against “teaching truths with scholarly words”; and urged to serve as “substitutes” for the mothers and fathers of
their students. Today in the United States, the Christian Brothers teach mainly
in college preparatory high schools and in liberal arts colleges and universities.
Indeed, the editors, two of whom are Christian Brothers and one a former
Brother, all hold numerous advanced degrees, including doctorates, a development that would have shocked de la Salle, who explicitly forbade his followers
to learn Latin and Greek, which in his day meant studying the classics or the liberal arts. Although essential components of de la Salle’s theology of teaching
may still apply to men and women even at the highest levels of education, they
will need to be restated and adapted to an academic environment that stresses
critical thinking, freedom of thought, and advanced scholarship. This is the
challenge facing the present-day followers of an educational reformer whose
revolutionary ideas got him constantly in trouble with the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of his time and place.
Saint Mary’s College of California

RONALD EUGENE ISETTI

Treatise on Monastic Studies, 1691. By Dom Jean Mabillon. Translated with
an introduction by John Paul McDonald. (Lanham, Maryland: University
Press of America, Inc. 2004. Pp. xxii, 340. $45.00 paperback.)
Into the arena of large personalities that populated the French Church
during the reign of Louis XIV stepped Dom Jean Mabillon, the father of the
field of palaeography. Unlike some of his contemporaries, this Benedictine of
the Congregation of Saint-Maur did not make his mark upon the Church and
the era with firebrand sermons or a puritanical rejection of the worldly. Rather,
his humble dedication to the fulfillment of the command labora through
scholarship, especially the critical assessment of ancient texts and sources,
earned him renown among clergy and laity alike. Not all of his ecclesiastical
peers approved of cenobitic erudition though. While Mabillon meticulously
annotated the works of St. Bernard and composed his treatise on diplomatics,
Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé advocated a back-to-basics monastic
movement. Claiming that only through intense physical labor and extreme cor-

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poral mortification could a monk truly satisfy his vows, Rancé denounced
intellectual advancement as unsuitable for contemplative orders.
Few among the regular clergy were better qualified to respond to this
invective than the middle-aged Maurist. In his Treatise on Monastic Studies,
which John Paul McDonald has translated into English, Mabillon not only
defended the appropriateness of scholastic achievement for monks. He also
described how greater knowledge of religious and secular topics, of Christian
and non-Christian—and sometimes heretical—authors, could foster the virtues
of humility and charity, at the very core of the monastic ideal. In fact, when
examined through the lenses of faith and obedience to one’s superiors, these
works could effect the transformation into “that new man for whom Our
Savior gave us the model.” Instead of a direct defense against Rancé’s attacks,
Mabillon chose to expound on this theme in the format of a detailed plan of
study for young brothers, to whom he dedicated his Treatise. He did not
engage directly in Rancé’s debate; rather, he used this as an opportunity to reaffirm, in a positive yet “serene” (as Mc Donald describes him) way, the Maurist
commitment to scholarship.
With this English translation, Dom Mabillon’s rational and eloquent
defense of academic pursuits within a religious context resonates once again.
Although the Congregation of Saint-Maur formed a vital part of Gallican
Catholicism, few works by or about the Maurists have been translated into
English. As a result, their history and contributions to academia remain
open for exploration by modern scholars. McDonald’s translation provides a
step toward greater treatment of this order and thus furnishes a necessary
piece of the panorama of seventeenth-century church history. But this volume
should appeal not only to historians and theologians. Anyone engaged in
education at religious institutions would find this work enlightening and edifying. Dom Mabillon cogently justified the indispensability of scholarship
within a sacred setting and enjoins such establishments to provide learning
that encompasses religious and secular courses of study. As Dom Mabillon
delineated in his Treatise and exemplified in his life, cultivating such intellectual pursuits with a faith that seeks understanding will create the Pauline
“new man.”
Lourdes College
Sylvania, Ohio

MARY K. COONEY

The Enlightenment and the Intellectual Foundations of Modern Culture. By
Louis Dupré. (New Haven, Connecticut:Yale University Press. 2004. Pp. xvi,
397. $45.00.)
Reminiscent of his previous work, Passage to Modernity: An Essay in the
Hermeneutics of Nature and Culture (1993), Louis Dupré scores highly in
this, his latest analysis of the Enlightenment epoch.“To investigate what is new

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in the basic concepts of this later period of modernity and to find out how it
has affected our own culture has been the purpose of this study,” he writes.
Dupré’s erudition saturates every page.There are few elements of the period
he passes over—philosophy, science, history, aesthetics, social theory, religion,
are all given a thorough inspection.What this yields is not simply an answer to
the question,“Is the Enlightenment project still valid?”The question suggests,
for Dupré, “that the problems of the Enlightenment are due not to a subsequent deviation from the original plan, but rather to an inadequate conception
of that plan.”
Central to these problems is the nature of the self, as both a “knowing subject and the substance to be known,” a problem lifted up by Descartes and still
with us today. How can we know ourselves? Locke altered the problem by
asking how language related to meaning.To be sure, these are very old questions, and Dupré traces their genesis to Plato, Augustine, and Aquinas. But he
also stipulates that “not before Herder and Hamann in the second half of the
eighteenth century does the notion that language conditions thinking as much
as thinking conditions language make its appearance.”The role of symbol, not
merely in language but especially in art, took on new form and the author’s
insight here is as penetrating as his exposition is elegant. In a poignant line
describing Jean-Baptiste Chardin (1699-1779), Dupré calls the artist “the loving
observer of ordinary objects and domestic intimacy,” who “succeeds in directly
conveying the touch of velvet, the shine of polished brass, the smell of freshly
baked bread.” Where Renaissance artists crafted their vision in accord with
classical aspirations, the Enlightenment artist found inspiration in the familiar.
Yet for thinkers like Jean le Rond d’Alembert (1717-1783), the creative
impulses of these artists were hardly differentiated from more “scientific” inclinations since for many the sciences were classed by faculty—memory, reason,
imagination. Rationalists chose to downplay imagination, including Samuel
Johnson, who called it “a licentious and vagrant faculty.” Nevertheless, the
process and product of the imagination can often yield that which is beautiful
and true. This led Dupré to delve into the aesthetic theory of Anthony Ashley
Cooper, Lord Shaftesbury (1671-1713), for the connections between genius
and the sublime.
The beautiful and the true are allied with the good, and Dupré takes up
Kant’s question of whether feelings can ever determine the course of moral life
(for Kant, they cannot). Kant idealized the fullness of human being
(Humanität), however unattainable. We are hemmed in by the vicissitudes of
competing rights and the ebb and flow of history itself. Here Providence comes
under scrutiny. Decades before Kant, Giambattista Vico (1668-1744), asserted
that the hand of the divine is in eternal history, an amalgamation of the cyclic
histories of known civilizations. For Dupré, this arouses the suspicion that Vico
was a theological determinist.“He who is not pious cannot be truly wise,”Vico
wrote in The New Science (1725). There are further echoes of this sentiment
in Herder and, one might add, in the thought of the present pope.

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Admittedly, this all too brief summary of this book’s contents can hardly do
justice to the grand sweep of Dupré’s narrative, which amounts to mature
reflections on the pantheon of heroes who, each in their own way, bequeath
to the modern age all that gives life meaning, joy, and integrity.
St. John’s University, Staten Island, New York

PATRICK J. HAYES

Late Modern
Le secolarizzazioni nel Sacro Romano Impero e negli antichi stati italiani:
premesse, confronti, conseguenze / Säkularisationsprozesse im Alten
Reich und in Italien: Voraussetzungen, Vergleiche, Folgen. Edited by
Claudio Donati and Helmut Flachenecker. [Annali dell’Istituto storico italogermanico in Trento. Contributi/Beiträge, 16. ] (Bologna: Società editrice il
Mulino. 2005. Pp. 337. €24.00.)
The secularization of Church property in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, its motives and causes, the way in which it happened, and its
results and implications add up to a theme of immense importance.The year
2003 saw many conferences and exhibitions held to mark the bicentenary of
one of the two largest instances, the seizure by states of all church property
except that of parishes under the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss [RDHS]
promulgated in 1803, bringing an end to virtually all church-states, monasteries, and other major Catholic foundations throughout Germany. This collection of papers derives from a meeting held at Bressanone on March 6-8, 2003.
As is to be expected from the list of contributors, the quality of the contributions is high, and the theme is treated broadly. Claudio Donati’s introductory
essay, while whetting one’s appetite for the later pieces, also contains valuable
remarks on defining the concept of “secularization” understood more generally, both as involving more countries and as referring to a vast process of “disenchantment” (Entzauberung, disincantamento) affecting other religions,
Continents, and periods. These general issues are taken up again in the final
essay, by Paolo Prodi, which battles with their significance today in the broadest terms, not excluding globalization. Harm Klueting’s essay distinguishes
with his customary clarity between the processes of taking over church property in many countries from the Reformation onwards. Six essays (Dell’Oro,
chiefly on the kingdom of Sardinia; Brambilla on ecclesiastical tribunals in the
center and North; Montanari and Del Torre on Venetian bishops, Mazzoni on
the Legations, and Nequirito on Trent) focus on Italy. Two, Andermann’s and
Flachenecker’s are concerned with the origins of the German secularization,
in southwest Germany and southern areas respectively. Elsewhere varied
themes are explored: the impact of the RDHS on the aristocracy of the Austrian
Empire (Godsey), the career of Archbishop Hohenwart of Vienna (Trampus),
and then more general questions,“the transformation of parishes” (Gatz) and
the economic, social, and theological effects of the process (Burkard).

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All of these essays deal admirably with their themes, in many cases with real
originality; and the more general ones are first-rate introductions to their subjects, for example,Andermann on the merits of the German church states and
Burkard on the very difficult issue of defining exactly what was different about
the post-1803 Catholic Church in Germany as compared with the old Church.
Of course, there are themes that might have been treated more fully: the
role of the papacy, the impact of religious toleration, and the effects on church
music are three. In relation to church jurisdiction the nuncios seem to have
escaped attention. But of all the many collections produced to commemorate
1803 this is one of the best structured and most thought-provoking.
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge

DEREK BEALES

Religión y sociedad en España (siglos XIX y XX). Edited by Paul Aubert.
[Collección de la Casa de Velázquez, Volume 77.] (Madrid: Casa de
Velázquez. 2002. Pp. xiv, 292. €45 paperback.)
The essays contained in this volume were first presented at a seminar held
at the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid during 1994 and 1995. The contributors
are for the most part well-known Spanish and French scholars who have published extensively on the role of religion and the Church in modern Spain,
including Paul Aubert, Gérard Dufour, José Manuel Cuenca Toribio, Manuel
Revuelta González, and Manuel Suárez Cortina The book’s focus is not on the
social history of Catholicism and the Church. It does not consider questions
such as popular religions, clerical demography, or the resurgent organizational
activities of the Church from the late nineteenth century onward. It concentrates on the broader question of the place of religion and the Church within
a society affected by the political changes introduced by liberalism, the emergence of new secularizing intellectual currents, and the social tensions introduced by capitalist economic development.
Three themes predominate. Four essays concentrate on relations between
Church and state from the concordat of 1753, a triumph for the strongly regalist government of the day, through the transition to democracy following the
death of Franco in 1975. Taken as a whole, these essays provide a compact
and well-documented survey of what was a complex and ongoing attempt to
define the precise place of the Church within a state that was officially
Catholic until the 1931 constitution of the Second Republic separated church
and state for the first time in the nation’s history.
A set of three essays discusses the second theme, the ideological struggle
waged in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries over the place of religion and, by extension, of the Church within society. In the work of figures
such as Donoso Cortés and Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, a new and more
sophisticated Catholic conservative ideology emerged to replace, at least in

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part, an older tradition based on the historic identification of Throne and Altar
under absolute monarchy. The new direction taken by conservative Catholic
thinkers did not go unanswered as intellectuals moved by a commitment to
rationalism and progress saw religion and the Church as an obstacle to the realization of this grand design. Between these opposing views a debate began
that would persist well into the twentieth century.
A third set of essays considers the development of anticlericalism during
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The authors note the complex and sometimes contradictory sources of modern anticlericalism in
Spain. They argue persuasively that the primarily political anticlericalism of
nineteenth-century liberal governments and occasional outbursts of violent
popular anticlericalism, primarily between 1834 and 1843, moved in new
directions after 1898 and became an essential part of reforming projects
advanced by politicians, intellectuals, social reformers, and revolutionaries.
Anticlericalism and the corresponding reaction to it of the Church and its
supporters became central to debate over the nation’s future and finally
emerged in passionate discussion and violence following the proclamation of
the Second Republic in 1931.
The essays in this volume set a high standard. They provide an intelligent
and well-argued survey of some of the key questions involving the place of the
Church within modern Spain.
University of Toronto (Emeritus)

WILLIAM J. CALLAHAN

Erzbischof Johannes Dyba. “Unverschämt katholisch”. Edited by Gotthard
Klein and Monica Sinderhauf. [Quaestiones NON Disputatae, Band VI.]
(Siegburg:Verlag Franz Schmitt. 2002. Pp. 592.)
Archbishop Johannes Dyba (1929-2000) was an “agitator” for the Catholic
faith:“unabashedly Catholic.” He declared that he always wanted to be a priest,
not an administrator. Trained in law and having served as a Vatican diplomat
for over twenty years, he was elevated to the Archbishopric of Fulda in 1983.
He developed a habit of speaking with deliberate disdain for conventional
“correctness.” The editors’ biographical sketch presents a man who chose to
be a godly provocateur. A Social-Democrat politician’s accusation of “publicist
fanaticism” and an “aggressiveness” that was “dangerous” because Dyba
accepted that he hurt his opponents is followed by Cardinal Ratzinger’s
acknowledgment that Dyba was never an opportunist and did not mince
words, but that the frequent and vicious attacks upon him caused him to
suffer, and that he did it all for his faith.
The selections from Dyba’s sermons, homilies, speeches, and interviews are
organized chronologically, to give the reader a realistic view of life in Church

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and society during the seventeen years of Dyba’s archiepiscopate (1983-2000).
There is no attempt at a comprehensive listing of the Archbishop’s recorded
utterances or of his papers. Topics in the selections may be traced through
the detailed subject index (although eighty undifferentiated entries on
“Papacy” are not as helpful as the editors no doubt intended).
At his inauguration as Archbishop of Fulda in 1983, Dyba remarked upon
the many unhappy, bitter, fear-distorted faces among his affluent German compatriots and challenged his hearers to reflect to the world the joyful knowledge of being God’s children destined for eternal salvation. He demanded
acceptance of Christian fundamentals: trust in God’s gift of peace as the fruit
of faith, the practice of true brotherhood as a personal contribution to peace,
and faith in God’s promise of eternal life. And he related Christian teaching to
contemporary issues. When students opposed to defensive measures against
Soviet nuclear missiles challenged him to agree that the Sermon on the Mount
must surely be in force, as in “turning the other cheek,” he agreed and asked
them whether they practiced this in their personal lives, and whether they
advocated this for management-labor relations, to both of which, of course,
they could only say “no,” and then he convicted them of proposing to turn the
other cheek to the Soviets but not the Americans.
Dyba does not resolve the contradiction between confidence in God’s
mercy on the one side, and mass suffering and killing on the other.When the
question was put to him,“if there was a God, why did he allow mass murder?”
(the “Auschwitz Question”), he answered that God had given humans free will;
but he would insist that God had not merely created humans and had then left
them entirely to govern themselves in autonomy, but that He clearly instructed
them in what they must do. His ultimate answer was always Faith.
Apparently Dyba never worked in theology. The bibliography lists remarkably few of his publications, the most learned ones being two dissertations on
international treaties. Dyba insisted on fundamental values, but he was not a
stern and inflexible theologian. He knew that there was no abstract justice, but
that principles were modified by circumstance:“Thou shalt not kill”referred to
illegitimate killing, not to killing in a war. The forty index entries for “sin”
reveal general references. Although Dyba constantly spoke about some of the
Seven Deadly Sins, he did not list them as an explanation of what was wrong
with society. Although he was constantly concerned with the moral teaching
of the Church, his references to the sin of abortion, for example, were flexible,
not apodictic: he condemned a “holocaust” against unborn children, but
allowed that women might despair and see no alternative to abortion, and he
believed that God would forgive them.
McGill University

PETER HOFFMANN

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The Wayward Flock: Catholic Youth in Postwar West Germany, 1945-1965. By
Mark Edward Ruff. (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina
Press. 2005. Pp. xvi, 284. $49.95.)
The Wayward Flock provides new insight into German Catholicism on the
eve of Vatican Council II, and it summarizes well a large field of research.
Focused primarily on the Cologne Archdiocese with solid comparative research
in southern Germany and particularly Lower Franconia, it examines the decline
of the Catholic milieu from the vantage point of a ministry where many placed
their hopes for the future of the Church and Germany.As the author notes, the
Catholic youth movement of the 1920’s and 1930’s claimed nearly two million
members, and German Catholics could—and still do—point to their youth
organizations as some of the most vital resistance cells of the Nazi period.
Church leaders expected a dramatic return of Catholic youth work in the postwar era and a new age of religious revival. Monsignor Ludwig Wolker, a key
figure in this book, launched a massive effort to bring all Catholic youth organizations under one impressive body, the League of German Catholic Youth
(Bund der Deutschen Katholischen Jugend), and simultaneously to integrate
Catholic sports clubs into the Deutscher Sportbund, an all German sports federation. Similarly, Mark Edward Ruff examines the efforts to revitalize Catholic
girls’ organizations, young worker associations, and rural youth initiatives. So,
why did these vigorous efforts fail so profoundly by the late 1950’s and 1960’s?
Ruff notes that the return to practices and leaders of the prewar era created a notable generation gap in Catholic youth work.The times had become
more attuned to “individualistic forms of expression,” while church leaders
sought to rebuild the all-encompassing, closed “integralist” community. They
then watched young men and women leave in droves. Ruff is careful to note
variations in the Catholic milieu’s breakdown, such as the persistence of
stronger Catholic organizations in rural areas and the tendency of girls and
young women to stay longer in the organizations. The overall downward
trend in membership was unmistakable, however, no matter what efforts
were made to accommodate contemporary society. The decline, Ruff argues,
is due partly to the outmoded organizational model of the German Verein
(association). With the new culture of consumption, the Verein simply lost
out, rooted as it was in authoritarianism, subordination, and tradition. Ruff also
asserts that “consumption was a vehicle for the transformation” from authoritarianism to an individualistic democracy and the “ethos of individualism.”
But, as he notes, Catholic youth ministry was also a victim of postwar Catholic
political success.With the rise of Christian Democracy and the welfare state,
Catholic separatism lost its relevance. Finally, Ruff concludes, the in-fighting
between church leaders over the direction and control of youth ministry
absorbed far too much time and energy.
Ruff helps clarify some historical realities of Catholicism on the eve of
Vatican II. Efforts to adapt youth and young adult ministry to new cultural and

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social trends reaped few rewards.What the author does not recognize fully in
this work, however, is that debates over the direction and purpose of youth
ministry reflected old rifts in Catholic society as much as any new ones. The
reader should also contextualize this study in decline: This is the decline of
modern organizational structures, many that were part of the Church for less
than a century. Historians need to be careful as well not to equate these institutions with the Catholic population as a whole. As Ruff points out in the
beginning of his work, only about 30% of young Catholics participated in
church programs of the period. What should we as Catholic historians know
about the other 70%?
University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point

ERIC YONKE

Der Französische Exilklerus im Fürstbistum Münster (1794-1802). By
Bernward Kröger. [Veröffentwicklungen des Instituts für Europäische
Geschichte Mainz,Abteilung für Abendländische Religionsgeschichte, Band
203.] (Mainz:Verlag Philipp von Zabern. 2005. Pp. xii, 299. €39.90.)
Although a dissertation for the University of Münster, this work is worthy
of a mature scholar. It is extensively researched and well written. More importantly, it fills a gap in our knowledge and understanding of the impact of the
French Revolution on neighboring portions of Europe, in this instance the
“kleine Vaterland” in Westpahlia, the Bishopric on Münster.
The Bishopric of Münster was, during the period in question, and for much
of the preceding century, joined in personal union with the Electorate of
Cologne, and held at this time by the youngest son of Empress Maria Theresa,
Maximilian Franz of Austria. His chief minister in Cologne was Franz Wilhelm
von Spiegel, his vicar general in Münster was Franz von Fürstenberg. Both were
in clerical orders, and members of the cathedral chapter of Münster, but they
differed significantly in outlook and influence. This was pertinent to the
reception of the clergy who streamed across the frontiers from persecution in
revolutionary France.
Kröger provides the reader with sufficient background concerning the situation in France from the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789 to the intense
persecution suffered by the clergy during the Reign of Terror. He then discusses the reception of those who fled into exile as a consequence of that persecution. In addition to the two individuals named above, one of the exiles
himself played a role in organizing and furthering the reception of the exiled
clergy in the Westphalian bishopric. This was Claude-Joseph de Sagey, vicar
general of the diocese of LeMans. Sagey argued that the exiled clergy were
defending universal Catholicism, and thus Catholics everywhere had a moral
obligation to support and assist them. This attitude was very similar to that of
Fürstenberg, who carried the cathedral chapter and local sentiment in this

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direction. In addition, the Westphalian argued that Christian charity required
extending help to all who suffered for the Faith. Spiegel, on the contrary,
opposed an extensive presence of French clergy in the Bishopric, arguing that
they were responsible for their own troubles, as the clergy had sided with the
Third Estate against the nobility at the outbreak of the Revolution, and they
were, further, a drain on resources needed to prosecute the war against France.
The Prince, Max Franz, pursued a middle road, accepting the exiles as a matter
of Christian duty, but not being very happy about it.
Once the question of acceptance was settled, many others arose. What
about financial support? What about faculties for administering the sacraments? Could such exiles hold a benefice in Münster? These, and other issues
are thoroughly explored. A statistical section provides interesting data, such
as a total of 2,186 exiled French clergy residing in the small Bishopric (which
had a total population of about a quarter million). Of these, by far the greatest
number (1,283) were parish clergy, supplemented by 338 members of religious orders. Sixteen of the exiles were bishops. Another interesting piece of
information concerns the age of the exiles. At the height of the Terror in 1795,
when the numbers of clergy in exile were greatest, most of the exiles in
Münster were in what one might consider the prime career years of the clergy
(or anyone else), between 31 and 60, with a total of 1,676 individuals falling in
this range. Most of these exiles came to Münster from the dioceses of northeastern France.
Our author provided his readers with chapters full of specific examples
and general observations on the life and death of the French clergy in exile,
and some of the reaction of the native Westphalians to their guests. He ends
with the decisions facing the clergy with the Concorday of 1801 between
Pope Pius VII and First Consul Bonapate, which ended the formal schism and
the legal enmity between the Church and the revolutionary regime, but not
the matters of conscience for a good many of the exiles.
On the whole, the example of Münster is one of solidarity among Catholics
across national and political boundaries, to their mutual benefit. Ironically, only
months after the proclamation of the Concordat, allowing most clergy to
return to France, Prussian troops marched into Münster, bringing an end to the
ecclesiastical principality.
Tennessee Technological University, Emeritus

WILLIAM C. SCHRADER

Consuming Visions: Mass Culture and the Lourdes Shrine. By Suzanne K.
Kaufman. (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. 2005. Pp. viii, 255.
$34.95.)
Suzanne Kaufman’s Consuming Visions challenges two ways of looking at
the history of France and French Catholicism: The first maintains that there

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were “two Frances,” one Catholic and antimodern, the other Republican, anticlerical and in tune with the modern world of science and commerce. The
second contends that French Catholicism became “feminized” in the nineteenth century, and, as a consequence, “privatized,” its practices and rituals
removed from the public sphere.When historians of Lourdes complicate these
dichotomies, they assert that the promoters of the shrine used the instruments
of modernity—the railroads, the press, and “medical proofs”—to bolster an
essentially reactionary political agenda and devotional practice.
Kaufman presents a brilliant, well-researched, clearly written argument that
the development and practices of the Lourdes shrine are modern. Medieval
pilgrimages, of course, had their share of buying, selling, and profit-mongering.
But Lourdes had more: a proliferation of standardized commodities, modern
transportation, and urban renewal, a panoply of developments that made
Lourdes not only a tourist site, but a crucial regional economic asset. The
shrine, Kaufman also contends, introduced the largely rural female influx to
the modern wonders of consumption and spectacle. Lourdes was a spectacle
both by design and because of the controversies it evoked. Organizers (the
religious and lay orders) standardized the rituals surrounding the sick who
came to the shrine hoping for a miraculous recovery: the stretchers at the
train; the baths; the Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, during which the
multitudes chanted for a cure; and the crowds around the Bureau of Medical
Verification awaiting the declaration that a miracle had been scientifically validated. This spectacle was communicated to the rest of France, and eventually
the world, through the mass press (especially the Assumptionist La Croix),
best-selling books, guidebooks, and when photography became cheaper, postcards. Finally, the cured themselves became a spectacle, in Kaufman’s words,
“sacred celebrities,” often women who used their ephemeral fame as a means
to assert their moral authority.
The mixture of commerce and religion, and the presence of women worshipers, spectators and shoppers made both supporters and detractors of
Lourdes uneasy. Even Republicans wanted money separated from worship.
Catholic moralists like Léon Bloy and aesthetes like J. K. Huysmans railed against
the ugliness and commercialization. And both sides were willing to blame
women, who, they said, were prone to various excesses, including hysteria.
Kaufman devotes two chapters (“Scientific Sensationalism and the Miracle
Cure” and “Public Wager: Publicity and the Truth of the Cure”) to the most fundamental controversy: whether the cures at the shrine proved divine intervention. Catholic and secular doctors alike used the mass media to take their
case to the public. Fraud and slander were among the charges and countercharges played out in a sensationalist press; so was the contention, from secularists, that all cures were “mind cures.” In the end secular doctors could not
reach any consensus about certain famous cases, and when anti-clerical legislators tried to close Lourdes down in 1903 they were thwarted by many in

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their own camp whose economic interests were too entwined in keeping the
shrine open. Today, Lourdes remains the most popular pilgrimage site in
Europe, about which Kaufman has written (to use a modernist term) a spectacular book.
University of Oregon

BARBARA CORRADO POPE

Elisabeth Leseur: Selected Writings. Edited, translated, and introduced by Janet
K. Ruffing, RSM. [The Classics of Western Spirituality.] (New York and
Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press. 2005. Pp. xvi, 319. $27.95 paperback.)
This volume introduces Anglophone readers to the life and writings of
Elisabeth Leseur (1866-1914), an upper-class, well educated French woman
whose diary was warmly received in Catholic circles when it was first published in French in 1917, three years after her death from breast cancer. It was
translated into English in 1919, and later into several other languages. The
translation presented here, however, is a new one by Janet Ruffing, who uses
more modern language. It is accompanied by material previously unavailable
in English, primarily Elisabeth’s correspondence during her last years of suffering with her friend and spiritual advisor, Sister Marie Goby. The texts translated are preceded by an extensive and very useful introduction by Ruffing.
One reason for the initial success of Leseur’s diary was the extraordinary
story behind its publication. Several years after marrying a militant atheist,
Elisabeth rediscovered an ardent belief in the Catholicism of her youth. She
entered into a pact with God, to live her life as a witness to the power of faith
and in prayer for the salvation of her beloved husband, Félix. Her suffering
became dedicated to him, gaining a purpose and justification.While she originally planned to destroy the journal, which records her dialogue with God and
her reactions to the pleasures and pains of her daily life, she ultimately decided
to leave it for Félix to read after her death. When he did so, he was not only
converted, but became a Dominican priest and spent the rest of his life working for his wife’s beatification and canonization (a process that is still ongoing). The evidence submitted included his conversion, her exemplary
Christian life of heroic yet modest suffering, and the positive effects of her
writings (in the form of thousands of letters) on many others.
I first came across this journal when working on a study of posthumously
published diaries by French women of the nineteenth century. My initial reading of it (as a non-believer) was somewhat hostile, since the diary seemed to
me to have served as a weapon of posthumous blackmail. However, Ruffing’s
sympathetic and knowledgeable presentation of the context in which the
diary and the letters were produced has given this reader, at least, a much more
positive view of the author. Ruffing undertook considerable research into
Leseur’s writings, including locating some of them, and her translation is both
meticulous and readable. She also provides an excellent explanation of the

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social, political, and religious milieu in which the Leseurs lived. Elisabeth’s
ideas on the communion of saints (including transferable credits toward a
place in heaven) appear in a less mercenary light, when understood in more
spiritual terms.
For her time and place, she was in fact very enlightened in wishing to
combine faith and democracy, participation in social life and an inner mysticism. Her love of learning and desire for more education for women mark her
as a rebel against a powerful patriarchal ideology as well as its defender. As
the author of the preface points out, her diary is of particular interest because
it portrays an attempt to live as a religious or a saint, while maintaining a
“normal” family life and social engagements. To her sorrow, Elisabeth had no
children, but in her writings she left a bequest to others who suffer physical
pain and emotional isolation, one of courage and hope that is to be appreciated whether or not one shares her faith. This book therefore occupies an
important place in representing a certain type of feminine lay spirituality in
the Paulist Press’s series “The Classics of Western Spirituality.”
University of British Columbia

VALERIE RAOUL

The Tragic Tale of Claire Ferchaud and the Great War.By Raymond Jonas.(Berkeley: University of California Press. 2005. Pp. xiv, 217. $21.95 paperback.)
In March 1917, at the height of World War I, Claire Ferchaud, a peasant girl
from the pious region of western France, managed to arrange a meeting with
Raymond Poincaré, the president of the French Third Republic. Based on a
series of visions of Jesus she had experienced over the past several months,
Claire asked that Poincaré dedicate France to the Sacred Heart and place its
image on the French tricolor, long-standing Catholic requests that needed to
be fulfilled if the nation were to win in its war against Germany. Ray Jonas’
study provides the biographical, political, and religious contexts that explain
how such an unlikely meeting could have occurred, and thereby opens up a
fascinating new perspective on the war.
Jonas opens with two chapters that serve as context for Claire’s story. In the
first he reviews some of the different visions of war circulating in Europe
before 1914, and suggests that Claire’s sense of its meaning merits comparison
with the ideas of the artists and statesmen who are generally more familiar to
historians. After a brief overview of the early stages of the war Jonas shifts his
focus to the personal story of Claire. Extremely devout, Claire claimed to have
had visions and conversations with Jesus even as a child of three. Her spiritual
development was encouraged by a friendly local priest, Father Audebert,
whose support led her to further clerical connections. By the end of 1916 her
visions of Jesus and her call for the dedication of France to the Sacred Heart
had generated extensive publicity in the local press and a pilgrimage movement which was bringing thousands to her small village of Loublande. An

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episcopal investigation chaired by Bishop Humbrecht of Poitiers interviewed
Claire in December 1916, but produced no definitive ruling, and thereby
encouraged the popular movement surrounding her campaign.With the help
of a local politician, Claire finally reached Paris in February 1917, a stay which
culminated in her interview with Poincaré, who listened politely, but took no
action in response to her request.
In the second half of his study Jonas concentrates on a variety of initiatives
coming from the French episcopacy and laity aimed at accomplishing the
same goal generated by Claire’s visions. As Jonas writes, Claire’s campaign
“was merely one manifestation of a popular movement that had pursued victory from the opening weeks of the war” (p. 86). Jonas describes the devotion
of the Sacred Heart for Catholic women on the home front, but also for the
many soldiers who used its image to ward off death in battle. Claire’s visions
thus intersected with and gained power from their connection with a deeply
rooted spiritual tradition that experienced a wartime revival, as people
responded to a devotion that seemed to offer both personal and collective
redemption. Claire’s story ends somewhat anticlimactically. Even before the
official Vatican disapproval of 1920 some French clergy had expressed their
reservations. Claire lived on until 1972 at the center of a small but marginalized congregation of women. In his epilogue Jonas recounts his 1998 meeting
with an elderly priest in Loublande who had dedicated himself to Claire’s
memory, preserved in her house which also serves as a shrine, although not
apparently one that draws many visitors.
Jonas tells Claire’s story with sympathy and sensitivity, and through it illuminates a spiritual dimension of World War I that has not been sufficiently
acknowledged, despite the work of scholars such as Annette Becker, Stéphane
Audoin-Rouzeau, and Jay Winter. In his desire to be fair to Claire, however, Jonas
sometimes describes her as an almost heroic figure, driven by her vision to
battle against her own shyness and public authorities. During a retreat in 1916
that served as a turning point in her career, for example, Claire is described as
achieving autonomy, free for the first time “to contemplate her life on her own
account and on her own terms” (p. 33). But Jonas notes as well the importance
of her spiritual advisor, Father Bourget, and towards the end of his account
acknowledges that her supporters “labored hard to shape her message and
image” (p. 153). Claire emerges from Jonas’ work as a troubled visionary, acting
on the basis of divine inspiration, but also as a tool or (less pejoratively) an
instrument of a long-standing and controversial spiritual and political agenda
controlled by the clergy. Jonas has written an accessible and dramatic narrative
that allows us to see into the troubled spiritual condition of France during
World War I. He leaves open for the reader to judge how to assess the visions
of Claire, which occurred at the intersection of a powerful religious sensibility
with a Catholic milieu that was deeply politicized and which shared in the
trauma brought on by World War I.
University of Notre Dame

THOMAS KSELMAN

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Jacques and Raïssa Maritain: Beggars for Heaven. By Jean-Luc Barré.
Translated by Bernard E. Doering. (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre
Dame Press. 2005. Pp. xvi, 496. $50.00.)
I much prefer autobiographies over biographies, and, in the case of
Maritains, I never thought anything could supersede Raïssa’s We Have Been
Friends Together and her Adventures in Grace. But Jean-Luc Barré’s Jacques
and Raïssa Maritian: Beggars for Heaven has proven me wrong. Barré’s coverage is obviously longer than Raïssa’s, but it is also more in-depth on a host of
points: Jacques’ father and mother; the death-bed conversion of Raïssa’s father;
Jacques’ spiritual combat with the homosexuality of so many of the French literary elite, e.g., Maurice Sachs; the personage of Vera, Raïssa’s sister; Jacques’
help of French and Jewish refugees in World War II; his relation with Charles
de Gaulle; and the persistent Vatican doubts about Integral Humanism which
the Second Vatican Council put to rest.The strength of Barré’s narrative is that
it possesses the immediacy of an autobiography because of its abundant and
judicious citation of letters by all the personages mentioned.
This is not a work to read to garner an understanding of Maritain’s
Thomism. It is more personal. Coming through its pages is a Maritain devoted
in deep love to his fellow man—especially the artists, intellectuals, and the
poor. Repeatedly Barré quotes the first-time reactions of those of other persuasions to Maritain. They all mention Maritain’s gentleness, his ability to
listen, and his uncanny ability to perceive the essence of a discussion. In short,
his friendship. One cannot read these reactions without measuring one’s life
to Maritain’s.
Yet Barré also depicts a Maritain riddled by doubt, almost to the end, about
what God wanted of him. Hence, a wanderer continually reinventing, but not
compromising, himself to meet the needs of the apostolate. He apparently
failed to convert the French elite to Catholicism. Also, Maritain could not dent
clerical support for the Fascistic governments of Franco in Spain and Petain in
wartime France. During his ambassadorship to the Holy See after World War II,
Maritian failed to get from Pius XII stronger ecclesiastic condemnation of the
persecution of the Jews. Finally, Maritain received no invitation to participate
in the sessions of the Second Vatican Council.
Barré’s account of Maritain’s last years is particularly painful to read. Despite
all the honors, e.g., the ambassadorship to the Vatican, the posting to Princeton,
his receiving from Paul VI the Vatican Council’s message to the intellectuals of
the world, Maritain was like a dinosaur. Both the world and Catholicism had in
fact moved beyond Maritain’s Thomism.Yet if Maritain was a dinosaur, he was
more like a ferocious tyrannosaurus than a mild brontosaurus. In his The
Peasant of the Garonne (1966) Maritain looked the times in the face, took their
measure, and without any second thoughts judged them fiercely in the light of
his beloved faith and Thomism. An inspiring desperado to the end.

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Barré’s narrative is so wonderfully stirring and multifaceted that it generates its own lacunae in the minds of readers. Garrigou-Lagrange comes off
quite badly (perhaps slanderously in the book’s proximity between Maritain’s
criticism of Garrigou-Lagrange’s support for Vichy and Vichy’s support for the
deportation of Jews, pp. 375-376). Nothing is ever said of the long and warm
collaboration between Maritain and Garrigou-Lagrange with the Cercle
thomiste. Also, I wish that the coverage of Gilson and Toronto had equaled the
coverage of Hutchins and Chicago. Finally, last but not least, readers owe
Bernard Doering a deep debt of gratitude for a superb translation.
University of St. Thomas
Houston, Texas

JOHN F. X. KNASAS

The Diocese of Meath Under Bishop John Cantwell, 1830-1866. By Paul
Connell. (Dublin: Four Courts Press. 2004. Pp. xii, 285. $50.00.)
One of the more useful historical fruits from the extensive work done on
the Irish Catholic Church in the nineteenth century in recent decades by the
likes of Donal Kerr, S. J. Connolly, Patrick Corish, David Miller, and Emmet
Larkin, are diocesan “case studies” such as this one, informed by our sharpened
understanding of the wider cultural and ecclesiastical transformations of the
era. Paul Connell’s introduction, in which he conceptualizes the subject of his
study, interestingly, not as the “place” of the Meath diocese, or the “person” of
Cantwell, but, rather, the “process” of change in the diocese over time, does a
respectable job of relating his study to this developing historiography. Connell
describes how the challenges of these crucial decades in Irish history (encompassing the rise of O’Connellism, the famine and its aftermath, and the changes
in the Church after the Synod of Thurles and the ascendancy of Paul Cullen as
the first among equals among the Irish bishops) played out in this part of the
Church (p. 7). In that sense, this book should be seen as heavily contextualized
ecclesiastical history, alongside Ambrose Macauley’s work on Patrick Dorian
and William Crolly, Bishops of Down and Conor; Ignatius Murphy’s study of the
diocese of Killaloe;Thomas Magrath’s studies of James Doyle, Bishop of Kildare
and Leighlin; and Thomas Morrissey’s recent examination of the career of
Thomas O’Dwyer, the Bishop of Limerick. Connell promises, and largely delivers, a rich study focused on both elite clerical culture and the political and pastoral concerns and imperatives that emerged during these years.
Connell might have made a more explicit case for the particular value of his
study, however, as Cantwell’s perspective from Meath was central, geographically and ideologically, to the issues of the day. Cantwell, as Connell describes,
was inclined over the course of his career to play both sides of many issues,
and his close friendship with Paul Cullen did not prevent him from making
common cause with Cullen’s frequent antagonist and ecclesiastical beatenoire, John McHale, the Archbishop of Tuam. Moreover, Cantwell’s career was

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nicely representative of the emerging “modern” generation of clergy in early
nineteenth-century Ireland—professionalized, Maynooth-educated, increasingly rooted in the strong farmer class, and possessed of discipline, élan, confidence, and, along with an ultramontane sensibility, an activist patriotism.
The book is divided into eight thematic chapters, which consider Cantwell
himself, an overview of pastoral issues during his episcopacy, and the developing relationship between the Irish bishops. Three central chapters treat
relations between Cantwell and his priests and the evolution of church-state
relations between 1830 and 1866, while two final chapters review Cantwell’s
relations with the swelling ranks of sisters and brothers, and, interestingly, provide an overview of the development of the laity. While this structure allows
Connell to focus his historical attentions, it also leads to a great deal of repetition, as stubborn issues such as the controversy over university education or
the national school system are introduced multiple times in different contexts.
In general, Connell suggests that, at least in Meath, Catholicism was a thriving enterprise from the beginning of Cantwell’s episcopacy. While acknowledging that Cantwell presided over a period of tremendous growth of physical plant, in numbers of supported vocations to the priesthood and religious
life, and the rapid expansion of educational and charitable enterprises, he
insists that progress was gradual, rejecting the idea that the post-famine church
was a qualitatively different one in relation to clerical discipline, Mass attendance, and popular devotional practice, from its pre-famine predecessor.
There is some tension here, not only in regard to the historiography of the
devotional revolution, but also within the work itself. Connell certainly documents Cantwell’s remarkable reforming energy and his relentless and often
successful attempts to improve his diocese. Meath was, however, an unusual
diocese in many respects, including its relative prosperity and the notable zeal
and pastoral abilities of Cantwell’s predecessor, Patrick Plunkett. In the end,
Connell’s work is more valuable for the insight it provides into the workings
of Cantwell’s episcopacy in Meath than into the overall state of the pre- and
post-famine Catholic Church.
University of North Carolina Wilmington

PAUL TOWNEND

Christians in the Warsaw Ghetto. An Epitaph for the Unremembered. By
Peter F. Dembowski. (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press.
2005. Pp. xii, 160. $18.00.)
In the writings about the Warsaw Ghetto, little is made of the some five
thousand Christians of Jewish origin, mostly Catholics, who shared this plight.
Jewish contemporary observers ignored this small group, or made disparaging
comments about them. Afterwards, political factors dominated the writing of
histories of these events. Archival sources were unavailable, and survivors
were often too intimidated to speak out. So it has been left to Peter

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Dembowski, as an eye-witness, to describe the complexity and perils of their
lives and deaths in the Warsaw Ghetto.
These Jewish Christians were a minority within a minority. Most of them
had no sense of belonging to the Jewish community, and were only forced to
accept this designation when expelled to the ghetto in February, 1941. There
they shared the fate of 300,000 full Jews in being murdered in the series of
enforced deportations to Treblinka in the summer of 1942. In Dembowski’s
view the Jewish Christian community ceased to exist in the early stages of the
Nazi Aktion.
Within the largely Jewish part of northern Warsaw, there already existed
three Catholic parishes: St. Augustine, where the priests lived outside the
ghetto, but were later forbidden to enter, and services ceased;All Saints, which
was the largest church building in Warsaw, built in an imposing classical style;
and the Church of the Nativity, whose courageous priest resided there
throughout the ghetto period, refusing to leave and helping Jews where he
could. Like many others, these priests did not consider “their” Catholics to be
Jews at all, and were shocked by the Nazi decision to include them in the ruthless isolation and persecution.
Since most of the Jewish Christians were educated and assimilated to Polish
society, they were often resented as “enemies of Israel” by the Yiddish-speaking
majority of full Jews. But Dembowski, who knew many of them personally,
takes a more favorable stance. For their part, the Jewish Christians, usually of a
higher social class, sought to maintain their former contacts in Polish Catholic
society, attended the church services with diligence, and avoided contact with
the majority of Yiddish-speakers around them. For those who had lost any contact with their Jewish roots, or had not been aware that they had any, the shock
of being thrust into the ghetto was traumatic.
Another feature of the distance between the two groups can be seen over
the plans made by the Catholic clergy to rescue Jewish children by finding
places for them to hide in monasteries or convents. These efforts were misinterpreted as “soul snatching,” or in order to gain extra income for these institutions. Jewish observers had a long memory of such Catholic attempts to
gain converts. They were rarely convinced by the priests’ assurances that
these children would not be subject to proselytism. In fact, even though
giving assistance to Jews of any age was punishable by death according to
Nazi rules, the evidence is that many children were rescued, especially in
1942. Far more was at stake for these “righteous Gentiles” than monetary gain
or conversionary fervor.
One moving testimony is the memoir, as yet untranslated in English, of the
prominent Jewish Christian doctor, Ludwig Hirszfeld. His career was suddenly
cut short by the Germans in 1939, but he was allowed for a few more months
to practice in his hospital for typhus patients until forced to relocate to the

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ghetto.There he became one of the leading personalities in All Saints parish,
and a great admirer of the selfless work of the priest Father Godlewski. Luckily
he was able to escape just before the deportation Aktion of July-August 1942,
when the remaining members of this parish were transported to their deaths
in Treblinka. In her post war novel Hana Krall recalled, “When the Germans
cleared the church of all the Christian Jews, there was only one Jew left in the
church: the crucified Jesus above the altar.”
Dembowsi is well aware that the converts held an ambiguous position,
often resented by both Catholics and Jews, and unable to convince others of
the genuineness of their spiritual motivations. Forty-five post war years of censorship, self-censorship, half-truths,“official” truths, lies and silences have made
discussions of this difficult problem in Polish-Jewish relations highly problematic. But the fact that these Christians from the Warsaw Ghetto were murdered
along with their fellow Jews undoubtedly affected the basis of the church-synagogue relationship. Today’s fully altered attitude in the Christian Church
towards Judaism may be said to be the most fitting epitaph for these unremembered martyrs.
University of British Columbia

JOHN CONWAY

Church and State in Late Imperial Russia. Critics of the Synodal System of
Church Government (1861-1914). [Minnesota Mediterranean and East
European Monographs, No. 13.] (Minneapolis: Modern Greek Studies,
University of Minnesota. 2005. Pp. xii, 214. $40.00 paperback.)
This monograph examines contemporary discussion of Church-state relations from the mid-nineteenth century to the outbreak of World War I. The
focus is not the actual interaction, but the discourse about these relations—
primarily from the perspective of ecclesiastical, bureaucratic, and secular
elites. The goal is to consider how these different groups regarded the existing system and what kind of changes they deemed essential. Behind this discourse was of course an escalation in church-state tensions, driven partly by
clerical fears of dechristianization, by high officials seeking to mollify the nonOrthodox, and by the attempt of emperors (especially Nicholas II) who sought
to resacralize and thereby relegitimize autocracy. This study provides a competent overview and reliable compendium of ecclesiastical, official, and intellectual views.
This monograph, while reviewing well-known territory (e.g., the views of
Metropolitan Filaret and Konstantin Pobedonostsev) and making only nominal
use of archival materials, does make some useful contributions. Certainly the
most valuable is the exegesis of publications by canon lawyers, who confronted—and debated—the canonicity and legitimacy of the Synodal system
and its subsequent evolution. Historians often cite this literature (on such
issues as marriage and divorce); it is important to know how the writers’ views

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on specific questions—which were extremely controversial and widely discussed at the time—fit into the larger discourse on canon law and the Church.
The author is also careful to disaggregate “groups,” such as bishops, and to
show how they in fact differed substantially in their diagnoses of crucial problems and their prescriptions for reform. The author also provides a brief
overview of the decade following the 1905 revolution, focusing on two issues
vitally important for the Church and fiercely contested in the State Duma: religious toleration and primary education.
While this volume is a useful introduction, much remains to be done.
Above all, it is critical to analyze not only the opinion of elites (ecclesiastical
or secular), but also the lesser social orders—ordinary parish clergy and believers themselves. In post-emancipation Russia power was moving downward,
not only in state and society, but also in the Church; what priests and parishioners had to say was affecting not only behavior but also discourse at the top.
Hence one must analyze the “Church” in the broadest sense, not merely in
terms of prelates and procurators; it is essential to reflect on the ecclesiology
of Orthodoxy, especially as “Church” acquired an increasingly demotic, not narrowly hieratic, meaning. Hence we need to go beyond the traditional historiography, which focuses on the intellectual and legal history of church relations, not the quotidian; despite what top bureaucrats and bishops wrote, the
everyday interaction is more important for understanding what Church-state
relations really were, not how they were represented by elites. All this affects
the source base: one must go beyond the printed sources, which, while important, have their limits, especially in an age of ecclesiastical censorship. To
explore this subject (even for elites), it is imperative to draw on the personal
and administrative archives.
While all that is on the agenda for future researchers, they will find here a
reliable introduction to official elite views.
Brandeis University

GREGORY L. FREEZE

Dall’Oronte al Tevere. Scritti in onore del cardinale Ignace Moussa I Daoud
per il cinquantesimo di sacerdozio. Edited by Gianpaolo Rigotti.
[Congregazione per le Chiese Orientali: Edizioni «Orientalia Christiana».]
(Rome: Pontificio Istituto Orientale, Edizioni “Orientalia Christiana.” 2004.
Pp. viii, 310. Paperback.)
The work is a Festschrift, a collection of articles published on the fiftieth
anniversary of the priestly ordination of His Beatitude, Ignace Moussa I Daoud,
Patriarch Emeritus Antioch for the Syrian Catholic Church and Prefect of the
Congregation for the Eastern Churches since 2000. There are three sections
in the work: the first section treats the life and ministry of the cardinal prefect;
the second section comprises articles treating the activity of the Congregation

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for the Eastern Churches; and the third section is a collection of studies on miscellaneous orientalia.
The first article, written by Théophile Georges Kassab (Daoud’s successor
as Archeparch of Homs), is a brief biography of Moussa Daoud until his
appointment as prefect. Moussa Daoud was born near Homs, Syria, in 1930 and
was ordained a priest in 1954. In 1977, he was elected as bishop of Cairo and
was appointed as archbishop of Homs in 1994. Elected as head of the Syrian
Catholic Church in 1998, his tenure as patriarch was brief because in
November 2000, Pope John Paul II appointed Daoud as prefect of the
Congregation for the Eastern Churches. Maurizio Malvestiti, in his chronicle,
offers insights into the role of the prefect. Activities include traveling with the
Pope on apostolic visits as well as “follow-up visits” to those countries with
Eastern Catholic hierarchies, meetings with Eastern Catholic hierarchs on their
ad limina visits and newly-elected patriarchs, oversight of institutes for the
formation of priests and religious women and men and the Pontifical Oriental
Institute, and participation in the canonization of saints.
The second section encompasses topics relating to the Congregation. It
opens with a detailed study by Michel Berger of Byzantine iconography, especially the iconostasis of Pimen Sofronov and the murals and the iconostasis
executed by Jérôme Leussink in the Byzantine Chapel of the Congregation.A
memoir of Lucian Lamza details the events that occurred during his long
tenure at the dicastery. Francesco Brugnaro describes the challenges facing the
Congregation in the formation of church leaders subsequent to the collapse of
communist regimes and throughout the decades of turmoil in the Middle East.
Krzysztof Nitkiewicz provides a sympathetic biography of Wladyslaw Cardinal
Rubin, who served as prefect from 1980 to 1985. From its inception in 1917
until 1967 the pope himself presided over the Sacred Congregation for the
Eastern Church (as it was then called). The superiors of the Congregation
held the titles of cardinal secretary, assessor, and substitute (counterparts to
today’s titles of prefect, secretary, and under-secretary). Gianpaolo Rigotti provides brief biographies of four Eastern prelates who held the positions of secretary or under secretary. Dimitri Salachas presents an expansive canonical
study of the role of the Congregation in ecumenical and missionary matters.
In the third section of the book, François Akl studies the historical relationship between the Maronite patriarch and the various civil authorities who
exercised hegemony over the region throughout the century. Jihad Battah provides a brief description on the College of Saint Ephrem for Arabic-speaking
priests studying in Rome, and Gisele Harb provides a brief history of the Latin
rite Congregation of the Rosary. Bernard O’Connor analyzes the concept of
unity as articulated in the 1995 apostolic letter Orientale lumen and its resonance in papal allocutions to the diplomatic community from 1990 to 1999.
As a canonist, I cannot overlook the imprecise use of the term “rite” in the
author’s concluding remarks. The erudite and insightful article of Luigi

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Padovese on the tenure of Angelo Roncalli as nuncio in Turkey and administrator of the Vicariate of Istanbul is timely in light of the visit of Pope Benedict
XVI to this country. Over the years, the Congregation has performed an invaluable service by publishing Eastern liturgical texts. Olivier Raquez provides a
detailed examination of the publication of the Greek Anthologhion (19671980) and an overview of the Byzantine liturgical cycles. The final inclusion
in the work is a presentation given by Michel van Parys in Tblisi on the foundation of a Georgian monastery (Ivoron) on Mount Athos and the contribution
of monasticism to European identity, especially in the preservation and translation of patristic authors.
A slight criticism of the work: the articles might have been better arranged
within their respective sections and a few could have been omitted, being
more “page fillers” than “page turners.” Nevertheless, the work is a valuable
resource regarding the mission of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches
during the past seven decades and a fitting homage to a man of the Church
who has served the people of God with love, dedication, and zeal for more
than five decades.
New York

JOHN D. FARIS

“Because He Was a German!” Cardinal Bea and the Origins of Roman
Catholic Engagement in the Ecumenical Movement. By Jerome-Michael
Vereb, C.P. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2006. Pp. xxvii, 332. $35.00.)
Rather than being another biography of Cardinal Augustin Bea, this book is
a specialized study of the connections between the German ecumenical movement after World War II and establishment of the Secretariat for Promoting
Christian Unity in the spring of 1960. Jerome-Michael Vereb, a former member
of the staff of the Secretariat (as it was then called), explains how the adversities of the Hitler years brought Protestants and Catholics together and aroused
in some of them ardent hopes for an eventual reunion. In particular Vereb discusses the work of Archbishop (later Cardinal) Lorenz Jaeger of Paderborn,
who relied heavily on the staff of the Johann Adam Möhler Institute at the
Paderborn seminary.Another priest of the archdiocese, Monsignor Josef Höfer,
providentially stationed in Rome, helped Bea to sort out the apparent discrepancies in Pius XII’s teaching on church membership in the encyclicals Mystici
Corporis and Mediator Dei.This problem was a major ecumenical issue, and
drew much attention at the Council.
The idea of a Roman office responsible for ecumenical affairs was already
broached by Patriarch Maximos IV Saigh in a letter to Pope John XXIII on May
23, 1959, but the letter, passed on to the prefect of the Congregation for
Oriental Churches, Eugène Cardinal Tisserent, was ignored.A further stimulus

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came from the so-called Rhodes incident of August 1959.Two Catholic priests,
Johannes Willebrands and Christophe Dumont, were present as “journalists” at
a meeting of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches.When
the two Catholics invited some members of the Orthodox representative to a
friendly social meeting, the invitation was interpreted in World Council circles
as an attempt to entice the Orthodox to abandon their membership in the
World Council.The Holy Office in Rome, angered by the incident, proceeded
to cancel other Catholic-Orthodox encounters, to the distress of ecumenists
such as Jaeger. He and Bea, in private correspondence, agreed on the necessity
of having a responsible ecumenical office for the Holy See.
The pièce de résistance of Vereb’s book is a letter of March 4, 1960, drafted
by Eduard Stakemeier of the Möhler Institut, revised and signed by Jaeger, and
personally delivered to Pope John XXIII by Cardinal Bea. This letter formally
recommended the establishment of a “Pontifical Commission to Promote
Christian Unity” in the Roman Curia. Delivered on March 11, the letter
prompted the Pope to set up what soon became the Secretariat for Promoting
Christian Unity.
For readers who are seeking a full account of the scholarly activities of
Cardinal Bea, the massive biography of Stjepan Schmidt, S.J., may still be recommended. Vereb’s book, as I have explained, deals with a limited aspect of
Bea’s career, and devotes almost as much attention to Cardinal Jaeger as it does
to Bea.
Cardinal Bea in this account appears less as a theologian than as a consummate ecclesiastical diplomat, strongly committed to move forward on the
ecumenical front. He is characterized as a gradualist, free from the utopian illusions of some of his cohorts, but nevertheless courageous, optimistic, and
determined.
Father Vereb’s study is replete with interesting details that cannot be enumerated in this brief review.The book is well researched, although a few names
are misspelled (Valkenburg, Dambouriena, Semmelroth). The ordering of the
material in the book is somewhat confusing. It often departs from the chronological sequence and falls in unnecessary repetitions. But Vereb tells an interesting story that fills in many facts about the background and genesis of the
Secretariat for Promoting Unity.
Fordham University

AVERY CARDINAL DULLES, S.J.

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American
Indians, Missionaries, and Merchants: The Legacy of Colonial Encounters
on the California Frontiers. By Kent G. Lightfoot. (Berkeley: University of
California Press. 2005. Pp. xviii, 338. $55.00 clothbound; $24.95 paperback.)
Recently, Indian lands have become identifiable through the presence or
absence of gambling casinos. Professor Lightfoot, a well-known archaeologist,
following years of fieldwork has come to question the notable absence of land
holdings and federal recognition of Indian groups of coastal California
between Santa Rosa and San Juan Capistrano and to research the causes.
Through a multi-disciplinary approach, employing an exhaustive bibliography
of English-language published sources in ethnohistory, ethnology, archaeology,
and oral history, he analyzes the past to explain the present.
An introduction sets forth his intent, and following chapters present
Lightfoot’s general areas of comparison between Franciscan mission and
Russian commercial colonies of coastal California in policies of enculturation,
relocation, social mobility, labor, and interethnic unions involving natives, and
demographic change, with a survey of established prehistory of the region.
More detailed information regarding the six points of comparison within the
mission field follows, with a well-balanced, succinct, overview of mission history and archaeology, concluding that neophytes, after several generations, lost
traditional identification with geographic areas and, thereby, cultural identity.
There follows a chapter providing views of missions from Indian informants
and archaeological evidence, demonstrating continuity of various pre-contact
social, dietetic, and manufacturing traditions reflecting an underground indigenous culture.
Similarly an overview for the Russian-American Company at RossRumiantsev is presented. Interest in California was restricted to acquiring sea
otter pelts and agriculture to supply permanent colonial holdings in Alaska.
Thus, enculturation and relocation did not exist, and other factors of RussianPomo/Miwok contact were generally insignificant. Russian presence was less
than half that of the Franciscans, with Indians retaining most of their traditional culture. Indians at Ross lived freely outside the fort, labored seasonally
for the Russians, sometimes involved themselves in liaisons with Aleut otter
hunters from Alaska, and few converted to Orthodox Christianity. Given her
tenuous position in Spanish territory, Russia sought to allow natives maximum
options, creating an impression of friendly occupation.
After presenting this parallel view of both systems, Lightfoot then specifically compares them. In the area of enculturation Russian policy was nil
and Spanish incomplete; relocation, nil and congregation and mixture of
groups; labor, free and exploitive as opposed to obligatory with sustenance
and some training; social mobility, inconsequential versus open to change

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through marriage, skills, and native governance; interethnic relations,
common [not with Russians!] and brief, and in missions neophytes could
assimilate into the Euro-American population; and, finally, Russian presence
had little documented impact on demography, and congregation at missions, over double the time period, had disastrous impact. Following abandonment of both systems, California Indian populations were dispersed,
forced off lands by growth of ranches and pressure of the Gold Rush, while
U.S. allocations of land were restricted to southern coastal and interior
regions. In the twentieth century, land grants were extended to the extreme
north and included Pomo, but groups between Santa Rosa and San Juan
Capistrano were forced off their occupied lands. Finally, anthropological
study of California natives established at the University of California alienated coastal people considered to be “culturally extinct” and “missionized,”
without traditional culture or recollection. Because of this, Miwok, Ohlone,
Esselen, Salinan, Chumash, and Gabrielino became identified as “Mission
Indians.” Thus, the U.S. Government must go beyond retained political and
cultural autonomy by considering more complex factors to establish equitable policies.
Excellent and appropriate maps, tables, and contemporary illustrations
enhance the text. Lengthy explanatory notes, thorough English-language bibliography, and an analytical index complete the volume. This is a very well
developed interdisciplinary study and an important addition to the literature
of contemporary California ethnohistory.
El Colegio de Jalisco

W. MICHAEL MATHES

Guadalupe and Her Faithful: Latino Catholics in San Antonio from Colonial
Origins to the Present. By Timothy Matovina. [Lived Religions Series.]
(Baltimore:The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. Pp. xviii, 232. $60.00
hardcover, $22.95 paperback.)
From its founding in 1718, San Antonio,Texas, has been an ethnically mixed
and culturally diverse community that has undergone numerous transformations to produce today’s colorful and distinctive city. At its heart—literally—
has been San Fernando parish, Timothy Matovina’s focus area in his study of
Hispanic Catholics in the Alamo City. The choice of San Fernando is natural,
since it was Texas’s principal Catholic parish from Spanish colonial times well
into the nineteenth century. As San Antonio grew and new parishes opened,
and even following San Fernando’s elevation to cathedral in 1874, the parish
remained firmly rooted in its Mexican ethnicity and its Guadalupan devotion.
Over time the expression of that devotion changed in response to circumstances, including in the parish’s ecclesiastic leadership, which included
French and Spanish clergy before the appearance of Mexican American priests
and bishops in recent times.

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Blending social and religious history, Matovina binds everything up in a
sympathetic analysis of “lived religion” among San Antonio’s Mexican
Americans. In a useful introduction, he provides an overview of the controversy regarding the Virgin’s 1531 apparition to the Indian Juan Diego, who subsequently brought Bishop Juan de Zumárraga proof in the form of the image
venerated today at Tepeyac. While scholars may debate what the absence of
any reference to the apparition in Bishop Zumárraga’s writings might mean,
“Millions of devotees have no doubt about the authenticity of the apparition
narrative and the miraculous origins of the Guadalupe image” (p. 3). There
follow discussions of how the Guadalupan tradition has evolved over the centuries and how it has manifested itself in San Antonio. A separate chapter
frames the rest of the work through a description of the nationally televised,
December 12, 2003, celebrations.
The real meat of the book is the four chronologically organized chapters
that follow. Chapter 2 covers Spanish and Mexican Texas (1731-1836) and
emphasizes how Guadalupan devotion became a central element in community life. The next chapter focuses on the remainder of the nineteenth century, a time when Texans of Mexican heritage became a minority population
and the Guadalupe feast became a mechanism through which they could reaffirm their ethnic distinctiveness. In chapter 4, which treats the twentieth century up to World War II, the role of the Mexican immigrant community in the
religious life of San Fernando comes to the fore. Chapter 5 brings the story into
the twenty-first century, emphasizing the continuities and discontinuities of
Catholic practices and devotion in the post-Vatican II world.
The increasingly prominent role of women, the growing presence of
Protestantism among Mexican Americans, and the tensions between Mexican
immigrants and Mexican Americans are interwoven throughout the narrative.
A more complete study would have resulted from fuller discussion of relations
between San Fernando and other San Antonio Catholic communities, for
instance the emergence of new parishes, particularly ethnic ones, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. More attention to the challenges of discrimination within the parish would also have strengthened the work. These are
minor quibbles, however, for in Guadalupe and Her Faithful we have a well
researched and readable examination of a vibrant faith community that is a
worthy follow-up to the author’s earlier work Tejano Religion and Ethnicity:
San Antonio, 1821-1860 (1995).
Texas State University–San Marcos

JESÚS F. DE LA TEJA

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447

The Plundering Time: Maryland and the English Civil War, 1645-1646. By
Timothy B. Riordan. (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society. 2004. Pp. xii,
388. $35.00.)
Timothy Riordan, chief archaeologist at historic St. Mary’s City, has written
an unusual book, one that will appeal to both academic historians and to
those whose interest in history is more casual. The Plundering Time carefully
reconstructs in vivid detail the story of what is usually known as Ingle’s
Rebellion, the “year of plunder” that devastated and nearly destroyed the
infant Maryland colony in the early 1640’s. Casual readers will find this tale of
revenge, violence, collapse into anarchy, and successful struggle to recover,
fascinating, while professional historians will learn much from Riordan’s fresh
perspective on an important yet poorly understood period of early American
history. Riordan argues that to understand Ingle’s Rebellion, we should begin
by abandoning the label. Too often the event, as the label implies, is viewed
as a simple act of revenge by a hot-tempered ship captain striking back at
Maryland for what he thought was an unjust arrest. In reality it was much
more complex than that. The plundering time cannot be understood unless
early Maryland is placed in its global context and attention is paid to several
sources of political instability in early Maryland. One of the strength’s of this
book is Riordan’s careful analysis of the roots of that instability, an analysis
that reveals much about life in the early Chesapeake colonies.Those sources,
which together account for Maryland’s near collapse during the plundering
time, include conflict with Virginia and with local Indians, the absence of
institutions such as dense kinship networks and effective local government
that would eventually help stabilize life in Maryland, religious tensions, not
only between Catholics and Protestants, but among Catholics, especially
between Lord Baltimore and the Jesuits, differences among the colonists over
the future of the colony, and, most important, the tendency of political disputes in England to cross the Atlantic and create turmoil in the Americas.To
Riordan’s list, I would add the conflict between the Calvert family and great
colonial merchants of England who were giving shape to the emerging
empire.Those merchants disliked proprietary colonies.Their political power
lay in England and they preferred colonies under the control of Whitehall,
where their influence permitted them to protect their interests. Although
focused on Maryland, Riordan has a lesson for historians of colonial America
in general.There is a tendency to see early Maryland, and the colonies in general, as largely self-contained and isolated from other world events. As The
Plundering Time makes clear, our understanding of colonial history can be
enriched if we take a broader “Atlanticist” approach to early America. In sum,
Timothy Riordan has written an important book, nicely written, impressively
researched, and persuasively argued, one that greatly enriches our understanding of early Maryland, and that has an important message for students of
British America in general.
University of Minnesota

RUSSELL R. MENARD

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Community of the Cross: Moravian Piety in Colonial Bethlehem. By Craig D.
Atwood. (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. 2004. Pp. xii,
283.)
In Community of the Cross: Moravian Piety in Colonial Bethlehem, Craig
Atwood examines the connections between theology, ritual, and social organization in colonial Bethlehem by focusing on the Moravians’ devotion to the crucified Jesus. The book opens by setting Bethlehem in the context of religious
diversity in Pennsylvania and its transatlantic connections. Atwood turns to the
christocentric theology of the Moravians’ leader, Count Zinzendorf, particularly
the devotion to Christ’s wounds. The author examines leadership and crisis in
colonial Bethlehem, ritual life, and social organization, ending with a chapter on
the Litany of the Wounds. Atwood traces connections between Zinzendorf’s
theology of Christ’s bodily suffering and the social body of colonial Bethlehem
and the religious body of the Moravians there.
Atwood, who is on the faculty of Wake Forest Divinity School, has
researched extensively the primary sources in their original languages. He
offers a thorough interpretation of Zinzendorf’s theology through his sermons, liturgical works, and correspondence. Atwood presents this complex
material in a lucid manner, explaining unique Moravian vocabulary.
Atwood seeks to rescue the Litany of the Wounds from dismissal by some
past historians. Atwood argues that the litany “should not be dismissed as a
product of Sifting Time fanaticism” (p. 103) nor should it be blamed for the economic and social crisis of 1748-1752 in Bethlehem. He moves the litany to the
center of understanding Zinzendorf’s theology of Christ’s incarnation and suffering. Atwood argues convincingly that the litany,whose authorship is not fully
known, is central to Zinzendorf’s mature theology, not just the result of
metaphorical excesses from a problematic period known as the Sifting Time at
the Moravian community in Herrnhaag, Germany. He explains this concept to
the uninitiated and limits it to a short period of 1748-1749, unique to Herrnhaag.
Atwood credits broader economic woes among the Moravians as the cause for
problems at Bethlehem after 1748, rather than Moravian contemplation on
Christ’s wounds at the neglect of needed work. Atwood’s explanations place
the Litany of the Wounds in a more organic position within Moravian theology
and social and ritual life at Bethlehem than has previously been thought.
In some more provocative passages,Atwood explores Christ’s circumcision
as a wound that “establishes the holiness of the penis” (p. 89). Yet he admits
some liabilities of Zinzendorf’s emphasis on the maleness of Christ. Atwood
considers the side wound of Jesus as the “organ of spiritual birth in
Zinzendorf’s theology,” resulting in a kind of “feminization of Christ” (p. 110).
Thus the side wound becomes “the breast that pours forth nourishment for the
believer” (p. 110). These images are reinforced by the centrality of the
Eucharist for Moravians as a source of union with Christ.

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Atwood relates this quest for union with Christ to Zinzendorf’s sometimes
ambivalent constructions of gender and sexuality.While Zinzendorf esteemed
marital sex as a “sacramental expression of spirituality and worship of God,”(p.
185) the soul’s union with Christ took priority over marriage partners.
Atwood sees this theology as the reason for spouses living separate in samesex housing in Bethlehem until after 1758.
Given the book’s scholarship, one can overlook an occasional small oversight, such as locating Conrad Beissel with the Inspired in Wittgenstein rather
than Wetteravia and misspelling his name (pp. 37, 187) or identifying J. G.
Gichtel as a Dutch mystic (p. 120), rather than as a German living in the
Netherlands.
Craig Atwood has successfully interpreted a difficult component of
Moravian liturgy, shedding light on colonial Bethlehem in the process. Roman
Catholic readers may well be intrigued by this Protestant group’s devotions to
Christ’s wounds. Atwood’s Community of the Cross persuasively interprets
the unique conclusions that the Moravians drew from this devotion.
Bethany Theological Seminary
Richmond, Indiana

JEFF BACH

North American Foreign Missions, 1810-1914: Theology, Theory, and Policy.
Edited by Wilbert R. Shenk. [Studies in the History of Christian Missions.]
(Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2004.
Pp. xiv, 349. $45.00 paperback.)
This collection of papers and essays joins an impressive array of volumes
that make up Eerdmans’s “Studies in the History of Missions,” a series that
aptly epitomizes the historiographical renaissance that has flowered around
the subject of missions in recent decades. North American Foreign
Missions, like some of the other books in the series, emerged out of the
North Atlantic Missiology Project; it incorporates material that was delivered
at NAMP consultations in 1997 (University of Wisconsin) and 1998 (Fuller
Theological Seminary), as well as additional chapters solicited by the editor.
The title of this compilation is misleading—the main themes are limited
entirely to Protestant missionary endeavor. Roman Catholic missions are virtually ignored.
Reflecting the two distinct consultations, the volume is divided into
major sections that cover two historical periods: 1810-1865 and 1865-1914.
Part I focuses primarily on the Congregationalist missionary enterprise,
which was initially driven by the Haystack Prayer Meeting of 1806 and the
formation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in
1810. David Kling of the University of Miami, Florida, sets an appropriate

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tone for the book by demonstrating the profound impact of New Divinity
theology on the ABCFM, which ultimately points to the largely unexplored
missionary legacy of Jonathan Edwards. In one of the most insightful
papers, Paul Harris of Moorhead State offers a nuanced analysis of nineteenth-century missiologist Rufus Anderson; he convincingly argues that the
Andersonian model for stimulating indigenous churches overseas was
marked by significant cultural insensitivity. Another essay, by Dana Robert
of Boston University, provides a provocative overview of the role conflicts
that were experienced by the wives of Baptist missionaries in Burma and
their Congregationalist counterparts in Hawaii. Other contributors in this
section examine the influence of millennialism on Protestant missions
(Richard Lee Rogers), the effects of the slavery debate on missions (Charles
Maxfield III), and the impact of racial issues on Presbyterian efforts in
Liberia (Susan Wilds McArver).
Part II likewise contains three pieces that merit special citation. First,
Wendy Deichmann Edwards (United Theological Seminary) effectively connects home and foreign missions in her masterful assessment of Josiah Strong,
the Congregationalist social gospeler who helped to bring a Manifest Destiny
impulse to Protestant missionary endeavor. Second, Samford University’s Carol
Ann Vaughn astutely portrays the cultural transformation that was wrought in
the career of Martha Foster Crawford, a long-term Southern Baptist missionary
in China who struggled to transcend some of the limitations of her rural
Alabama roots and marriage to a controversial Landmarker. Third, Canadian
scholar Alvyn Austin, whose parents labored with the China Inland Mission,
traces the historical and institutional development of this important faith mission in both its British and North American contexts. Additional authors cover
Canadian Presbyterian women missionaries in India (Ruth Compton
Brouwer), the social gospel’s relationship to foreign missions (Janet Fishburn),
and the mission ideology of Presbyterian missionary leader Robert Speer (John
Piper, Jr.).
This important collection serves to highlight some key issues relating to
missions history, including the impact of theological ideas on the missionary
movement, the strategic role of individuals and institutions on the home front,
and the place of women in overseas mission work. Catholic historians may
well benefit from reading about the experiences of a limited circle of North
American Protestant missionaries and mission promoters. At the same time,
this book needs a sharper comparative perspective that would allow its valuable findings and conclusions to have wider applications.
Union University
Jackson, Tennessee

JAMES A. PATTERSON

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451

Edward Barron, 1801-1854: Unsung Hero of the Mission to Africa. By Seán
P. Farragher, CSSp. (Blackrock, Co. Dublin: Blackrock College. 2004. Pp. xii.
226. €20.00 paperback.)
Father Farragher’s biography of Edward Barron, the leader of the American
Catholic Church’s first mission to Liberia, clearly can be considered a missionary hagiography as Farragher focuses on the events of Barron’s life. In that
respect, this volume is not a “life and times” that uses biography as a lens
through which to examine a specific period.2
The book is divided into five chapters. The first chapter provides extensive information on the Barron family history in County Waterford, Ireland (the
family tree would be useful), Edward’s formative years and schooling in
England, France, and Rome, and his ordination and work at St. John’s College
in Waterford. Chapter 2 deals with Barron’s life from his arrival in Philadelphia
as Francis Patrick Kenrick’s vicar general in 1837 to his decision to volunteer
for the ill-fated mission to Liberia, his arrival at Cape Palmas in February 1842,
and his subsequent departure for the United States and Europe two month
later to find additional missionaries for the mission. The next chapter follows
Barron in his travels through Italy, France, England, and Ireland, his efforts to
secure funding and personnel for the mission, his meeting and collaboration
with Francis Libermann and the Missionaries of the Immaculate Heart of
Mary—seven of whom volunteered for the West African mission, and their
departure for Cape Palmas in August 1843. Chapter 4 details the failure of the
mission to Liberia including the deaths of seven of the eleven missionaries, the
abandonment of Cape Palmas in favor of French trading centers on the West
African coast, and Barron’s resignation as vicar apostolic. It also briefly discusses developments that resulted in successfully implanting the Catholic
Church in West Africa under Libermann’s direction. Chapter 5 narrates the
events of Barron’s return to the United States, his pastoral work in
Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Savannah, where he died during a yellow fever epidemic in September 1854.
Farragher’s work is the first monographic study related to the church’s mission to Liberia in twenty-five years.3 It is exceedingly well researched, as
Farragher has consulted numerous archives in Europe and the United States.
He did not, however, consult the papers of the American Colonization Society
or the Maryland State Colonization Society or standard works on the expatria-

2
For excellent examples of such studies in African history see Brian Willan, Sol
Plaatje: South African Nationalist, 1876-1932 (London: Heinemann, 1984), and Tim
Couzens: The New African: A Study of the Life and Work of H.I.E. Dhlomo (Johannesburg: Raven Press, 1985).
3
Edmond Hogan, Catholic Missionaries and Liberia: A Study of Christian
Enterprise in West Africa, 1842-1950 (Cork: Cork University Press, 1981).

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tion of freed American slaves (e.g., P. J. Staudenraus, The African Colonization
Movement, 1816-1865, or Penelope Campbell, Maryland in Africa). There is
no bibliography, and so the reader must track references through the extensive
endnotes following each chapter.
Historians of Africa will be frustrated with Farragher’s book. There is virtually no African perspective or cultural context in which to understand
European missionaries’ responses to African actions. In the few instances
where African actions can be read back from missionary records Farragher
raises several issues that are significant in studies of religion—particularly
Christianity—in Africa but does not engage them meaningfully, such as the
issue of African inculturation of Christian doxy and praxis versus “backsliding,”
or whether missionary presence was the cutting edge for European imperialism and colonialism, or the possibility of African cultural beliefs and practices
influencing Europeans and their institutions.
Most problematic, however, is Farragher’s contention that Barron was the
“unsung hero of the mission to Africa.” Given the overwhelming failure of
Barron’s mission, and the fact that he spent most of his two years as vicar apostolic in Europe, John Kelly of the Diocese of New York—who spent two years
developing relatively positive relations with American colonists and local
Grebo communities and carrying on the quotidian affairs of the mission—
would be a more likely candidate. Farragher contends that Barron was the progenitor of the missiology adopted and implemented with great success by
Libermann and the Spiritans across the African continent. If so, this could very
well be the greatest contribution of this biography. Unfortunately, Farragher
does not develop this topic significantly, nor does he provide adequate discussion concerning the origins of Barron’s missiology.
Ohio University

NICHOLAS CREARY

Around the Family Altar: Domesticity in the African Methodist Episcopal
Church, 1865-1900. By Julius H. Bailey. [The History of African-American
Religions Series.] (Gainesville: University Press of Florida. 2005. Pp. xii, 152.
$59.95.)
The jacket cover of this 112-page historical study of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church proclaims that the author, Julius H. Bailey,“presents a new
understanding of family life in American religious history.” I truly wish that this
were true. Around the Family Altar: Domesticity in the African Methodist
Episcopal Church, 1865-1900, is not a completely lacking study of some
aspects of the Church as written about by some few privileged individuals,
mostly men. Indeed, Professor Bailey, on faculty at the University of the
Redlands in California, has culled an arena of historical research previously not
widely considered.

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Within the few pages of this book, plus its notes to chapters, bibliography,
and index, the reader will be introduced to writings in AME Church publications that engage the general discourse on issues of domesticity in the United
States between 1865 and 1900. Bailey sets his sites specifically on “moments of
intense interest in the family and the most outspoken (my emphasis) advocates and opponents of domestic ideology, especially those that invoked a particularly strong response in AME periodicals such as the Christian Recorder.”
Equally, Professor Bailey’s self proclaimed concern is only in exploring “ways
contributors to nineteenth century AME literature imagined and presented the
ideal black family and home to advance causes large and small in the church
and American society” (p. 7).
I admit that I thought Dr. Bailey’s book would be a deep historical exploration of the AME Church and issues of domesticity. To my surprise, as early as
page 15, he begins probing the larger, white U.S. society for ideas on the subject. To a certain extent this is necessary because African Americans are integral citizens and participating members of the nation. Bailey accepts this also
but allows his conceptual focus to rely too heavily on positions, contentions,
and visions from white America. Even when he encounters contesting ideals,
images, and practices in the black community, Bailey refuses to give intentionality to that African American community.
For example, Bailey categorizes contestations about a universal white concept of womanhood as “Images of Black Victoria.” He does not appear to read
through his textual data to a reality of an alternative vision of womanhood
contained in the ideal type of “race woman.” As the author says, “Although
employing the language of domesticity, post-Reconstruction witnessed a
subtle shift from measuring black women against the images found in white
domestic literature to an emphasis on the ways their attributes contributed to
racial uplift.” I kept wondering why this overt indication of African American
distinctiveness in criteria and definition of womanhood could not have been
the focal concept for exploring domesticity in AME Church literature?
Advocates and proponents of “race woman” could have been equally
explored.The results could even have been compared and contrasted to the
white idea of domesticity. I’m certain there are data within the AME literature.
Bailey himself states, “the exact characteristics of the ideal ‘race woman’
remained a contested notion in the AME Church” (p. 68). Instead, this author
chose to forge ahead for forty-four more pages, insisting that an African
American phenomenon belonged within a Euro-American concept; a round
ball not fitting in a square hole?
Michigan State University

JUALYNNE E. DODSON

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Creative Fidelity:American Catholic Intellectual Traditions. Edited by R. Scott
Appleby, Patricia Byrne, C.S.J., and William L. Portier. [American Catholic
Identities: A Documentary History.] (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books.
2004. Pp. xxviii, 330. $50.00.)
This book is part of the series “American Catholic Identities,” whose general
editor is Christopher J. Kauffman. With other titles in the series, this volume
provides an outstanding service to historians and others interested in the history of American Catholicism, by presenting a wide array of significant and
often inaccessible primary documents.
Describing a volume such as this as “balanced” may be trite, but it is also
high praise, which this collection fully deserves. To take one example, it is
common to think of John Courtney Murray as the single significant American
Catholic thinker on the issue of church and state. The editors rightly offer
space to Murray’s direct opponent (Joseph Clifford Fenton) as well as to an
important earlier author, John A. Ryan.
This is not to say that the editors, in section and selection introductions, do
not display a particular perspective. That perspective is one that celebrates
the “dizzying and wonderfully creative explosion of world theologies, liberation theologies, ecumenical theologies, feminist theologies, mujerista theologies, and so on” (p. xxvii) that occurred after Vatican Council II. It is also one
that exhibits the widespread tendency among historians of American
Catholicism to overstate the negative intellectual impact of papal actions. In
one selection introduction, Pope Pius XII’s Humani Generis is deplored for
casting a “chill in Catholic intellectual circles.”The frost could not have been
too severely damaging because, as the next sentence notes, the condemned
ideas were “refined and incorporated into the theology informing the documents of the Second Vatican Council. . . .” Indeed, the very passage introduced
by this comment is from a theologian’s 1951 Theological Studies article,
which praises the encyclical. Many Catholic intellectuals have considered
papal directives to be aids rather than obstacles to their work, as the contents
of this volume illustrate.
Turning to the meat of the book, its documents, the arrangement, instead of
being strictly chronological, is chronological within each thematic section
(e.g., education, social thought, spirituality, and art). This approach possesses
both advantages and disadvantages but on the whole it is compelling. The
breadth of topics and personalities covered is excellent. Documents date from
1787 to 1997 and include selections that treat both substantive intellectual
problems, such as church and state, as well as the organizational aspects of
intellectual life, such as the establishment of schools and seminaries.
Every reader will consider this or that gem within this treasure trove of historical documentation to be most valuable, but a strong case can be made for

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the long excerpt on education from the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. It
is a crucial piece of American education history that is often cited but not readily accessible in its full text.
Two stimulating pieces appear in the spirituality and art section. The first
is Justine Ward’s 1908 analysis of liturgical chant and the other is Flannery
O’Connor’s 1969 discussion of Catholic fiction. These selections indicate the
broad and eminently justifiable approach to intellectual life taken by the editors, an approach that not only encompasses music and literature but also
demonstrates that American Catholics had interesting things to say about those
subjects.
The weaknesses as well as the strengths of Catholic intellectual life in the
United States are on display in this volume, and it is worth noting that neither
the weaknesses nor the strengths are confined to one period or to one side in
the debates. The editors’ and publisher’s provision of such a revealing and
valuable set of documents is to be highly commended.
Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty

KEVIN SCHMIESING

American Catholics and the Mexican Revolution, 1924-1936. By Matthew A.
Redinger. (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press. 2005. Pp.
xii, 260. $45.00 clothbound; $22.00 paperback.)
This book provides a detailed account of the various methods by which the
American Catholic hierarchy, clergy, and laity attempted to influence official
U.S. policy toward the Mexican government’s anticlericalism in the years following the Revolution of 1910-20. Redinger skillfully analyzes the interplay
among different institutional levels within the far-from-monolithic Church of
this period. The study is based solidly on American Catholic archives and U.S.
diplomatic papers, and on unfortunately too few Mexican sources.
The book begins with a useful survey of key events: the restrictions on religious practice and education imposed by the Mexican Constitution of 1917;
the enforcement of these provisions by the 1924-28 Calles administration; the
popular “Cristero” rebellion of disaffected Catholics in the western highlands;
the 1929 Church-state modus vivendi brokered by U.S. ambassador Dwight
Morrow, and the lessening of overt anticlericalism in the middle 1930’s. In its
reaction to the Mexican crisis, the American Catholic hierarchy was badly split:
leading archbishops’ responses ranged from withdrawing U.S. diplomatic
recognition from Mexico, economic boycotts and formal protests, to open support for successive U.S. administrations’ largely passive policies. In particular,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ambassador Josephus Daniels brought out
these divisions.While some prelates praised them, others demanded the electoral defeat of the former and the removal of the latter for their acquiescence
towards Mexico’s more radical religious and educational reforms. According

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to Redinger, these mixed signals were responsible for the hierarchy’s failure to
improve concretely the lot of Mexican Catholics (p. 34).
More effective than most of the archbishops was Monsignor John J. Burke,
C.S.P., who as general secretary of the Church-sponsored National Catholic
Welfare Conference helped negotiate the 1929 modus vivendi and obtained
an informal protest from FDR to the Mexican ambassador in 1935. Individual
clerics also contributed to American Catholic mobilization, although their
stances were so divergent that Redinger cannot generalize about them other
than to comment, rather vaguely, that they reflected a “Thomist unity between
Americanism and Catholicism” (p. 115).
The two chapters of lay organizations and leaders are the most interesting
and original part of the book.The national Catholic organization, the Knights
of Columbus, failed to achieve its stated goals that FDR replace Ambassador
Daniels and publicly condemn the anti-Catholic persecution, but did increase
U.S. government interest in the issue and helped induce informal recommendations to Mexican representatives. Like the leaders of the episcopate, spokespeople for the laity did not articulate a consistent viewpoint, but created a climate of “official interest” that facilitated the settlement of the crisis (p. 169).
The book concludes with an assessment that Catholic leaders and organizations “influenced Coolidge’s and Roosevelt’s consciousness,” although they did
not cause an overt change in official policy (p. 183).
If there is any flaw in Redinger’s excellent monograph, it is that he rarely
employs Mexican primary or secondary sources. He takes official revolutionary anticlericalism at face value, despite published research showing that legal
enforcement varied regionally as to its duration and intensity. The inconsistent application of the 1917 Constitution may have factored into the U.S. government’s failure to take a stronger stand. Further, it is not clear what Catholic
protests achieved, as the “consciousness” of U.S. presidential administrations
amounted to little in practice. Nevertheless, the book is a fine survey of religious mobilization at different institutional levels, and illustrates well the problems of creating a unified policy within the diverse American Catholic community of the early twentieth century.
Whittier Law School
Costa Mesa, California

PETER L. REICH

Crusader in the Cold War:A Biography of Fr. John F. Cronin, S.S. (1908-1994).
By John T. Donovan. (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc. 2005. Pp. xiv,
245. $67.95.)
John T. Donovan has written a wide-ranging biography of one of the foremost anti-communist Catholic clerics of the Cold War. From 1945 to 1967,
Father John F. Cronin, a member of the Society of St. Sulpice, served as Assistant

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Director of the Social Action Department of the National Catholic Welfare
Conference. During the height of the Cold War, Cronin served as a behind-thescenes labor expert and priest-politico dedicating the resources of his department to the solution of labor problems and the eradication of domestic communism.Through his scholarly writing,“blind” speech and pamphlet writing,
and advice to bishops and politicians, Cronin became the intellectual pointman on communism for the U.S. bishops throughout the early Cold War.
Cronin’s career exemplifies the alliance of the U.S. bishops with secular politicians dedicated to the “rollback” of communism in Europe and the swing
within the Cold War U.S. hierarchy to view political anti-communism as a
divinely sanctioned imperative. These trends are exhibited most succinctly
through Cronin’s exclusive and extensive contacts with both the Federal
Bureau of Investigation and the office of Vice President Richard Nixon.
Cronin’s contacts and information-sharing with the Federal Bureau of
Investigation reached the highest levels of the bureau, with its director J. Edgar
Hoover periodically reviewing and passing judgment on Cronin’s activity and
usefulness. In late 1945, Hoover permitted the bureau to pass untraceable raw
data from their investigative files to Cronin for use in preparation of a U.S.
bishops’ report entitled “The Problem of American Communism in 1945.” John
T. Donovan ably chronicles the import of this report, showing how Cronin’s
work assumed the status of a White Paper on how U.S. bishops were to understand domestic communism. Donovan traces Cronin’s verbatim integration of
FBI field intelligence into his report. One area left unconsidered is how the
twelve pages of word-for-word FBI information on “Negro” involvement with
the Communist Party USA may have shaped the thinking of the new generation of postwar U.S. bishops. FBI RACON (Racial Conditions) files were often
tinged with disparaging racial analysis, and further investigation here would be
interesting, since a real contribution of Donovan’s work is his account of
Cronin’s work in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s as a progressive Catholic
voice for civil rights. Did FBI material in Cronin’s 1945 report reinforce existing prejudices and make his later push for change more difficult?
Donovan also provides an account of Cronin’s personal relationship with
Richard M. Nixon. With the arrival of this book, there can be no doubt that
Cronin was the primary speech writer for Vice President Nixon. Donovan,
however, seems more intent on solving the investigation into Cronin’s ghostauthorship of Nixon’s speeches than on analyzing of the content or socio-political import of the speeches themselves. More will need to be written on the
fact that a Roman Catholic priest largely constructed Richard Nixon’s early
political persona.
The analytical lacuna encountered in the Cronin-Nixon relationship exemplifies a shortcoming of this otherwise data-driven biography. While Cronin’s
furtive secular political work mirrors that of other Cold War anti-communist
clerics such as the Anglican Archbishop Cyril Forster Garbett, the Jesuit

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Edmund A.Walsh, and Aloisius Cardinal Muench—all subjects of recent scholarly biographies—there is little indication that Donovan views Cronin within
the emerging historiography ably mapped out by Peter Kent in his book The
Lonely Cold War of Pope Pius XII. For Kent and others, regional Catholic leadership was given an urgent green light to work for the advancement of secular political anti-communism precisely because non-extremist anti-communism was viewed as possessing inherent theological value. Donovan, on the
other hand, sees Cronin’s anti-communism as holding equal footing with his
genuine wish for “a more just society as expressed in his work on labor and
race relations” (p. 4). More difficult to assess is Donovan’s assertion that
Cronin’s furtive work with government security agencies and high-level politicians was engaged due to the priest’s “gee-whiz” fascination with espionage
and because Cronin “must have found working with ‘G-men’ to be more electrifying than preparing reports for the bishops” (p. 163).
Stylistically, the author’s lack of transitional sentences and paragraphs
makes the reading bumpy and in some spots outright jolting. Historians interested in the Catholic Church and the civil rights movement will find valuable
material here regarding how Cronin’s office edged the U.S. bishops toward
civil rights reform and acceptance of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s struggle. There
is also an intriguing and consequential chapter on Cronin’s attitudes concerning the extreme religious right in the early 1960’s.
College of the Holy Cross

CHARLES R. GALLAGHER, S.J.

A Vision, A Voice, A Presence: A History of the First Forty Years of the
Michigan Catholic Conference. By Maxine Kollasch, I.H.M.. (Sterling
Heights, Michigan: Lesnau Printing Company for the Michigan Catholic
Conference. 2005. Pp. 105.)
The Reverend John J. Burke, General Secretary of the National Catholic
Welfare Conference (the predecessor of our current United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops), wrote a doctoral student who described the NCWC as a
“pressure group” in national politics. Burke objected to this appellation and
instead noted that the NCWC acted according to Catholic principles to promote the integrity of government and in that sense was not a lobby group
(Archives of the National Catholic Welfare Conference,Administration Files 42,
Burke to Henry,Washington, D.C., January 28, 1930). Sister Kollasch articulates
the same concern as she recounts the 1978 efforts of the Michigan Catholic
Conference to exempt religious groups from a pending state lobbying bill:
“Unless exempted, MCC and other religious groups working on behalf of the
common good were subject to the law just as lobbyists representing special
interests were” (p. 41).Whether it is the national organization of Catholic bishops or the various state organizations of Catholic bishops, the self-understanding is the same: their purpose is the common good, a truly Catholic obligation,
an essential role for the Church in the public forum.

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459

Marie T. Hilliard (“State Catholic Conferences: A Canonical Analysis of Two
Constitutions and Bylaws,” Licentiate in Canon Law Thesis, The Catholic
University of America, 2003) concludes that the current thirty-four State
Conferences in the United States “provide a mechanism for [the diocesan bishops in a state] to exercise a collegial teaching function in matters of public
policy” (p. 49). David Yamane (The Catholic Church in State Politics:
Negotiating Prophetic Demands and Political Realities [Lanham: Rowman
and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2005]) indeed focuses his study on “the political advocacy of state Catholic conferences” (p. 7), though this emphasis should
not be narrowly understood as mere lobbying. Indeed, the earliest scholar of
these structures, now Archbishop Michael Sheehan (“The State Catholic
Conference: A New Development in Interecclesial Cooperation in the United
States of America,” Doctoral Dissertation in Canon Law, Pontifical University of
the Lateran, 1971 [see “State Catholic Conferences,” The Jurist 35 (1975):431454, for summary]) sees them as manifestations of “interecclesial communion”
(p. 42) flowing from the Vatican II principles of communio, lay involvement in
the mission of the Church, church care for the community, and ecumenical cooperation, as well as the practical need to communicate with political entities.
All of these scholars note that the Michigan Catholic Conference (MCC) is
unique among its institutional colleagues, which focus solely on collaboration
with state officials, because of the MCC’s large pension and health insurance
programs for the dioceses of the State of Michigan. Started as the Catholic
Charities of Michigan in 1958, it was transformed in 1963 into the MCC and
reorganized in 1968, and considered by some as a model for the United States
Catholic Conference established in 1968 (see John F. Neill, The Michigan
Catholic Conference: Development of a New Church Decision-Making
Structure [Chicago: University of Chicago, 1970]). Archbishop John Dearden
of Detroit headed both the state and national organizations.
The beautiful anniversary book under review highlights this more varied
activity of a state conference and thus serves as an example and perhaps a
challenge to those state conferences which may be more limited to engaging
the political arena. This is a celebratory volume including quotations from
various figures involved in the MCC’s past and present, as well as a section
describing their new building in Lansing, Michigan. In addition, there is a brief
history of the activities of the conference, including the many forays into the
political arena, instruction in the Church’s social teachings, the insurance and
retirement programs instituted for employees of the Church in Michigan, and
the investing board for parish and diocesan funds. The text does situate this
history into the context of the American social and political scene. It does not
deal with the theological issues surrounding this episcopal co-operation on
the state level, nor does it offer a comparison with the other state conferences
or an account of other comparable religious organizations in the state, all of
which would have enhanced the text.
Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit, Michigan

EARL BOYEA

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Black, White, and Catholic: New Orleans Interracialism, 1947-1956. By R.
Bentley Anderson, S.J. (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. 2005. Pp. xx,
292. $45.00.)
In Black, White, and Catholic: New Orleans Interracialism, 1947-1956,
Father Anderson achieves several great historical feats. First, he accomplishes
what no other civil rights history to date has attempted to do and that is to
address the important ways in which Catholics worked both for and against
civil rights for African Americans prior to the famous Catholic involvement in
the Selma campaigns of 1965. Second, he identifies interracial Catholic cooperation and advocacy for civil rights for African Americans as the origin of
Catholic dissent in the twentieth century. In the case of New Orleans interracialism black and white Catholics who were working together for racial justice
often did so without the support and often in defiance of their clerical leaders. And, thirdly, Anderson’s study is unique and praiseworthy because it
shows the agency of black Catholics who on the one hand possessed a fierce
love and commitment to the Catholic Church but on the other hand were not
afraid to challenge the practices of racism that they experienced on a daily
basis in their own church. In this history, the voices and actions of black
Catholics figure as prominently in Anderson’s thesis and historical account of
the time as do those of white Catholics. In this history, black Catholics are not
objects in the history but very clearly the subjects of the history.
Father Anderson brings this time, 1947-1956, this culture, New Orleans
Catholicism, and these people, black and white Catholics, to life for the reader
by carefully and engagingly developing the personalities of the major black
and white Catholic figures involved on the side of racial justice as well as those
of Catholics adamantly opposed to interracialism. The reader can hear the
hope and conviction in the interracial efforts of the black and white Catholic
college students at Xavier University, Loyola University, Ursuline College, the
College of the Sacred Heart, and Dominican College led by Father Joseph H.
Fichtner, S.J., can feel the strident opposition to interracialism led by figures
such as Father Sam Hill Ray, S.J., and can sense the tentative quality of
Archbishop Rummel’s response to this movement in his archdiocese.
Father Anderson is able to convey all of this through his excellent use of
the archival sources made available to him, through his astute understanding
of the historical period and the unique culture of New Orleans Catholicism,
and through his interviews with subjects of this history. All of these factors
work together to allow Anderson to reveal the radical nature of things that we
take for granted today like attending Mass in an integrated setting, sitting
down for breakfast with men and women of different races, or attending lectures where the presenters are not all white. Yet in New Orleans in the late
1940’s and in the rest of the South, throughout much of the Midwest, and in
parts of the North, none of these things was the norm and engaging in them
was countercultural. But these were the tactics and strategies black and white

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461

Catholics in New Orleans employed to defy Jim Crow, to live what they
understood to be truly Christian lives, and ultimately to begin to transform
their church and their culture.
Black, White, and Catholic: New Orleans Interracialism, 1947-1956, is a
welcome addition to civil rights history, United States Catholic history, and
African American studies. It is also a wonderful choice for undergraduate and
graduate courses in these areas. Its highly readable quality makes it appropriate for non-specialists and its novel thesis and unique view on the role of the
Catholic Church in the civil rights movement makes it especially engaging for
specialists as well. I believe it should be and will be viewed as a landmark study
in United States Catholic history.
CECILIA A. MOORE

University of Dayton
Latin American

Colonial Saints: Discovering the Holy in the Americas, 1500-1800. Edited by
Allan Greer and Jodi Bilinkoff. (New York and London: Routledge. 2003. Pp.
xxii, 317. $24.95 paperback.)
Colonial Saints is an outstanding compilation of fourteen essays by scholars
in history, art history, and literature from Canada, Latin America, and the United
States.The collection offers a series of historical and cultural readings that point
toward the relevance of saints in the understanding of the colonial political and
spiritual culture in the American hemisphere. The essays offer new examples
of transatlantic continuity and hemispheric connections. With an interdisciplinary approach, religious spirituality is viewed in terms of a cross-cultural conquest that transcended time, influenced politics, and shaped cultural identity.
Many essays demonstrate that Colonial sainthood was a religious, social, and
political construction that played a major role in colonial history (e.g. religious
contact, conversion, and resistance to Christianity). Some essays underscore the
relevance of saints’ lives on issues of gender, race, and class. In many cases we
learn how these categories help define local culture and early national ideals.
The excellent introduction by Jodi Bilinkoff provides an overview of the
Western cult of saints that led to the proliferation of hagiographies and popular religious manifestations during the early modern period. Against the
Middle Ages, she explains how the emergence of the printing press and the
Counter-Reformation were fundamental in the reproduction of saints lives
and their inscription in the early modern worldview. The introduction justifies the selection of essays and brings to the forefront common themes across
the Americas that tend to be studied in isolation. A key statement that should
resonate with scholars of religious colonial culture is that while we try to
understand the “spiritual conquest” of the Americas we must also acknowledge the “conquest” of Christianity. Transculturation occurred both ways, and

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BOOK REVIEWS

the study of colonial religious culture and its present legacy certainly demonstrates this experience.
The articles are grouped into three sections. The first section, “Cultural
Mixing,” explores how the manifestations of the sacred in the Americas must
be studied within a wider cultural context that is not only white and Christian.
Villaseñor Black presents a comparative study of the maternal archetype found
in the depiction of St. Anne, mother of Mary. She links the Mexican emphasis
placed on St. Anne with its deep cultural and political roots. Another piece
from this section, by Ronaldo Vainfas, in a similar manner looks at the colonial
legacy and transformation and appropriation of St.Anthony in colonial Brazil.
Blurred boundaries between indigenous and Christian beliefs, a theme found
in several essays of the collection, are explored in Tuer’s excellent reading of
the Creole Jesuit Antonio Ruiz de Montoya’s La conquista espiritual del
Paraguay. In this section the essays explore compelling Amerindian and
African appropriations.
Essays in the second group,“Holy Women, Holy Men,” shed light on martyrdom and male and female holiness. Jodi Bilinkoff, for example, engages the
hagiography of Gregorio Lopez by Francisco Losa to show the complexities of
life-writing within the context of the Counter-Reformation and the common
thread of transference that can be reproduced in hagiographies and biographies between author and subject. In the last section,“The Uses of the Sacred,”
the essay by Julia Boss explores the relationship that seventeenth-century
Catholics in New France constructed between hagiographies and accounts
and relics. Two other outstanding essays study independently two crucial
icons, the Mexican Guadalupe by William Taylor and Santa Rosa de Lima by
Kathleen Myers. Regardless of the vast literature on these two figures, they are
able to shed more light with an insightful analysis on the politics of hagiographies in the process of canonization (Myers) and the role of financial records
on the centuries-long debate on the apparitions of Guadalupe (Taylor).
Colonial Saints is a well balanced, comparative, and interdisciplinary collection. These elements compete to offer an insightful and comprehensive
view of saintliness in the Americas and diverse approaches for its study.
Florida State University

SANTA ARIAS

Visions of Paradise: Primordial Titles and Mesoamerican History in
Cuernavaca. By Robert Haskett. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
2005. Pp. xi, 420. $49.95.)
The Catholic conversion of the native peoples of Mexico remains one of
the most fascinating stories in the cultural and religious history of the early
Americas. Traditionally, historians have told the story of (what has been

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463

called) the “spiritual conquest” of Mexico from the perspective of the friars—
their methods, accomplishments, and sacrifices—based on letters, reports, and
church histories written by the friars themselves. In recent decades, scholars
have utilized other sources to seek out the experiences and perspectives of
the indigenous peoples who were the objects of the friars’ activities, including
the wealth of documentation from early Mexico written in indigenous languages. These sources include ecclesiastical literature such as catechisms,
model sermons, and confessional guides; mundane legal records such as testaments and acts of donation; and the complex “primordial titles” (títulos primordiales) that form the documentary basis of the study under review here.
Visions of Paradise is based on a substantial corpus of primordial titles
originating in Cuernavaca, a region located just south of the Valley of Mexico,
and written in Nahuatl—the major language of central Mexico at the time of
the Spanish conquest. Primordial titles are alphabetic texts (with pictorial elements) composed by (male) town leaders in the late seventeenth century in
the context of escalating land conflicts. (Many primordial titles have been
found among the court records of land disputes.) They narrate detailed
descriptions of a community’s territorial boundaries (replete with such sacred
markers as churches, crosses, and chapels) and the “foundational events” of the
colonial-era community, both secular and religious. They recount how
Spanish officials arrived to initiate tribute payment, mark off community lands,
and resettle local populations into compact communities. Catholic clergy
came to introduce the faith and were eagerly received by the locals who constructed the first churches, erected crosses, staged festivities in honor of the
patron saints, and witnessed miraculous apparitions. Heroic cultural leaders
actively participated in these founding acts, all telescoped into one moment in
time, when the primordial community was formed. Primordial titles thus do
not conform to Western notions of “history” but draw on oral history and older
pictorial and alphabetic texts to present a kind of collective cultural memory
that speaks to the timeless sovereignty and autonomy of the local community
and the legitimacy of its rulers. In doing so, they shed light on indigenous
views of the history of Spanish colonialism, including the introduction, reception, and practice of Christianity, hardly found in other types of documentation
and virtually unavailable for other parts of the Americas.
Visions of Paradise constitutes a major scholarly contribution. It represents
the first monograph to study a substantial corpus of primordial titles; it will
become the classic to which all later work will refer. With its sophisticated
engagement with the theoretical literature on history, myth, and cultural
memory, it also sets the debate in terms of interpretive approach. It argues that
primordial titles represent “true history,” indeed, true history in Mesoamerican
terms; thus, it extends and deepens the argument that Mesoamerican traditions
influenced colonial ones that increasingly characterizes the field based on
indigenous-language documents.The research is extensive and first-rate, especially evident in the three central chapters on boundary descriptions, founda-

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tional acts and figures, and religious acts and practices. Throughout, Robert
Haskett demonstrates his deep knowledge of Mesoamerican ethnohistory as
well as colonial Cuernavaca and the cultural world of its indigenous inhabitants. And he demonstrates his excellent command of colonial Nahuatl, especially crucial for a project on primordial titles, arguably the most linguistically
difficult and idiosyncratic of Nahuatl documentary genres.
With its fine scholarship, engaging prose, and concern with cultural
memory and colonialism, Visions of Paradise will find a broad and diverse
audience, including the indigenous communities and local historians of
Cuernavaca, Mesoamerican ethnohistorians, postmodern and postcolonial theorists and, of special concern here, scholars of Catholicism and Christianity.
University of Utah

REBECCA HORN

Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego: The Historical Evidence. By
Eduardo Chávez. Translated from the Spanish by Carmen Traviño and
Veronica Montaño. [Celebrating Faith: Explorations in Latino Spirituality
and Theology.] (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishing
Group. 2006. Pp. xxxviii, 173. $60.00 clothbound; $22.95 paperback.)
The campaign for the canonization of Juan Diego, the visionary of the
Guadalupe tradition, between 1995 and 2002, revived a long-standing controversy over the authenticity of the tradition and the reality of Juan Diego himself. During that time a small group of scholars, including both priests and laity,
tried to dissuade the Vatican from canonizing a person whose existence was
at best questionable, while proponents of the cause sought the opposite with
vigor and success. The campaign was marked by vitriol and virulence, quite
similar to the previous Guadalupan controversy of 1880-1896.
One of the principal advocates of the canonization was Father Eduardo
Chávez, a founding member and currently rector of the Instituto Superior de
Estudios Guadalupanos. He was postulator of the cause from 2001 until the
canonization in 2002. He is a founding member of the Instituto Superior de
Estudios Guadalupanos, an honorary canon of the basilica of Guadalupe, and
first rector of the Catholic University Lumen Gentium of the Archdiocese of
Mexico. Currently he is rector of the Pontifical College of Mexico. Father
Chávez has impressive credentials for writing a book on the historical evidence for both the apparitions and the figure of Juan Diego. This makes the
present volume all the more disappointing.
The title and the jacket note give the impression that this is an historical
study of the questions surrounding the apparitions of Guadalupe and the
reality of Juan Diego based on available evidence. A large part of the book,
however, is actually devotional and exegetical rather than historical.The sections that deal with history contain significant gaps, and so the work is

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notable as much for what it omits as for what it presents. Chávez repeats
some of the standard apparitionist arguments but without noting the many
difficulties involved.
The author makes the fundamental error of assuming that any reference to
Guadalupe prior to 1648 authenticates the apparition tradition, even though
nothing is said about the apparitions. He does not distinguish between the
shrine at Guadalupe, which was established about 1555-1556, and the apparition story, which was not attached to the shrine until 1648.Thus, in chapter 8
he cites numerous wills and testaments, even though these say nothing about
Juan Diego or the apparitions.
He accepts a number of ideas that are not supportable in the light of current research: the mass conversion of Indians after 1531; the total destruction
caused by the Spanish conquest; Antonio Valeriano’s authorship of the first
native-language account of the apparitions; the preservation of the image as a
sign of its supernatural origin, despite the fact that in 1982 an investigation
shows signs of extensive deterioration. He fails to address the inconsistent tradition of whether Juan Diego’s wife died before or after the apparitions or
whether they had issue.
The book is not helped by a translation that is simultaneously awkward
and inaccurate. It appears to have been done by persons with a limited
knowledge of English and of the various technical terms in colonial and
modern Spanish. What is one to make of “She requested through Juan Diego
to be constructed in that place, a house, home for all” (p. xxi)? Or:“The historian must not say something that is false, but must reminded either hide
something that is true. . . .” (p. xviii)? Examples abound, for example, Ermita is
translated throughout as “hermitage,” though it actually means a rural chapel
of ease. “[B]eggar-bishops controversy” is presumably the conflict between
the bishops and the mendicants (p. 86).
The notes on the back cover quote Sister Rosa Maria Icaza of the Mexican
American Cultural Center as saying, “If there was any doubt about the historicity of the event or about the identity of Saint Juan Diego, this book erases
that doubt.” Unfortunately, that is not true. This book has little to offer the
serious historian or scholar and contributes nothing of substance to the ongoing controversy over the person of Juan Diego.
Los Angeles, California

STAFFORD POOLE, C.M.

The Guadalupan Controversies in Mexico. By Stafford Poole, C.M. (Stanford,
California: Stanford University Press. 2006. Pp. xvi, 318. $65.00.)
Stafford Poole’s new book makes a sequel to his 1995 Our Lady of
Guadalupe: The Origins and Sources of a Mexican National Symbol, 1531-

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BOOK REVIEWS

1797 (University of Arizona Press, Tucson). In that volume he traced the early
history of the Mexican devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, elucidating the lack
of historical records for the devotion’s foundation story before its 1648 publication, and outlining early opposition to the apparition tradition. (In the foundation story, the Virgin appears four times, in 1531, to an Indian neophyte
named Juan Diego, sending him to the bishop, Juan de Zumárraga, to request
that a shrine be built for her and leaving her image imprinted on his cloak.)
The Guadalupan Controversies summarizes that early period and then follows the story through 2002, when John Paul II canonized Juan Diego. Poole
reviews the Guadalupan literature, pro- and anti-apparitionist, scholarly and
not, that appeared throughout the period, but focuses on two key moments:
the movement by Mexican churchman in the late nineteenth century to have
Rome authorize a coronation of the image and approve a new proper Mass and
Office, and the movement, a century later, for the beatification and canonization of Juan Diego.
Both make sordid tales. The movements arose not from surges of popular
devotion but from ambitious, elite priests skilled at self-promotion, back-biting,
and fudging and misrepresenting history. For the coronation controversy Poole
digs up detailed records of the actions and career paths of a colorful cast of
characters; their efforts are ultimately successful but leave a trail of recrimination and ruined careers. The primary victim in this round is the distinguished
historian Joaquín García Icazbalceta. Researching his biography of Zumárraga,
García Icazbalceta found no evidence of his subject’s supposed role in the
Guadalupan event. A devout Catholic, García Icazbalceta chose simply to say
nothing about the matter in his book, but was soon called to task by proapparitionists. In a private letter to the archbishop of Mexico he detailed the
absence of the apparition in the sixteenth-century historical record. One of
the actors in the coronation drama stole a copy of this letter and published it;
García Icazbalceta was then so vilified that he quit writing history. His letter
remains an excellent summary of the evidence; Poole translates it into English
in an appendix.
Reluctant Vatican officials faced another onslaught from Mexico in the late
twentieth century, now surrounding Juan Diego’s historicity and holiness. The
recentness of the events and Poole’s own involvement make this an even more
engrossing story than that of the coronation. The primary victim now is
Monsignor Guillermo Schulenburg Prado, abbot of the basilica of Guadalupe,
who was pilloried in the Mexican press and obliged to leave his post after stating that Juan Diego was a symbol, not a historical personage. Poole joined
Schulenburg and some other Mexican priests and scholars in petitioning the
Vatican to delay the canonization, and found his own research vilified. (At
Poole’s request I wrote to Vatican officials explaining that my own investigations of indigenous Mexican Christianity contradict the apparition tradition.)
The opponents were never allowed to defend their position in Rome; Juan
Diego became a saint on July 30, 2002.

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Poole writes as a priest who tried to prevent an embarrassing canonization and promote devotion to Christ and the Virgin over devotion to a fictional character and an old painting—sympathetic though he is to the
Mexican people’s love for Guadalupe. He also writes careful, thorough, evidence-based history. Unlike García Icazbalceta, Poole kept writing in the face
of criticism, and his book is a valuable record of some crucial events in
Mexican Church history.
SUNY at Albany

LOUISE M. BURKHART

BRIEF NOTICES

Hülser, Tina. Aufbau und Intensivierung kirchlicher Verwaltung im
Erzbistum Köln im 17. Jahrhundert: An Beispielen aus der Amtszeit des
kölner Generalvikars Paul von Aussem. [Beiträge zur Kirchen- und
Kulturgeschichte, 16.] (Frankfurt: Peter Lang. 2005. Pp. 126. $30.95 paperback.)
In the Historical Archive of the City of Cologne are preserved 159 volumes
of the records of the General Vicariate of the archdiocese for the years
between 1662 and 1825. In this thesis presented for the Staatsexamen at the
University of Düsseldorf, Hülser analyzes the volume for 1675 under the vicariate of Paul von Aussem. Focused narrowly on the institutional and administrative development of the Archdiocese of Cologne, Hülser argues that the
institutional history of the Catholic Church in Cologne was characterized by
the continuous jurisdictional disputes between different institutional organs.
Her major conclusion is the expanded task and competence of the General
Vicar, who grew in administrative importance in the process of implementing
the Tridentine decrees.The role of the Episcopal Official, the senior ecclesiastical officer for jurisprudence, lost importance relative to this new development.The records of the General Vicariate document numerous jurisdictional
disputes between the General Vicar and the Official, and between the
Archdeacon and the rural deacons.This continuous friction between different
organs of the archdiocese reflected the tenacious resistance to Tridentine
reform and its concomitant centralization of power at the central episcopal
administration. Some two-thirds of all matters recorded in the 1675 protocol
involved jurisdictional disputes and marital dispensations, demonstrating that
the implementation of the Tridentine decree Tametsi was far from completed.
R. PO-CHIA HSIA (Pennsylvania State University)
Pelton, Robert, C.S.C. (Ed.) Archbishop Romero: Martyr and Prophet for the
New Millennium. (Scranton: University of Scranton Press. Distributed by
the University of Chicago Press. 2006. Pp. xxii, 89. $12.00 paperback.)
This volume represents the latest fruit of perhaps the most sustained
North American reflection on Archbishop Oscar Romero by one institution,
the University of Notre Dame’s annual “Romero Lectures.” It contains seven
essays generated from a conference to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of
Romero’s 1980 assassination. These essays not only assess Romero’s legacy,
but consider the present and future import of that legacy in the areas of law,
theology, and history.
The editor’s preface provides an important recounting of the 2004 U.S.
District Court case that found Alvaro Rafael Savaria legally liable for his involve468

BRIEF NOTICES

469

ment in Romero’s assassination. He rightly points out how this outcome will
have important precedence for future cases in which perpetrators of human
rights violations seek to hide behind plausible deniability.
Kevin Burke, S.J., and Barbara Reid, O.P., offer theological reflection on the
ecclesiological import of remembering Romero’s life and the prophetic nature
of his preaching, respectively.The next two essays present the best material for
a more properly historical assessment of Romero’s legacy. Written by Bishop
Gregorio Rosa Chávez, Auxiliary Bishop of San Salvador since 1982, and by
Ricardo Urioste Bustamante,Vicar General to Romero, these essays utilize personal anecdotes and reference to magisterial documents that help Romero
studies move from the hagiographical to a more considered claim about
Romero’s episcopacy. Far from a romantic, rebellious, or heterodox figure,
Archbishop Romero emerges as a priest and bishop influenced deeply by
ecclesial documents of Vatican II, Paul VI, and CELAM. Moreover, Romero represents a model of the type of bishop described in John Paul II’s reflections
and needed in this period of globalization.
The book concludes with both Lawrence Cunningham’s illuminating essay
on the shift in understanding necessary in cases like Romero where martyrs
are killed by other Christians rather than for an odium fidei, and Margaret
Guider’s set of reflections on pastoral application of the conference’s themes.
While not a groundbreaking study on Romero, this volume demonstrates the
value of continuing reflection on an important martyr-bishop. MICHAEL E. LEE
(Fordham University)

NOTES AND COMMENTS

Anniversaries and Exhibitions
On December 13, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI marked the eightieth anniversary
of the founding of the Vatican Publishing House, the Libreria Editrice
Vaticana.While Sixtus V established the Vatican Printing Press in 1587, it was not
until 1926 that Libreria Editrice was constituted as an autonomous organization
with the mission of publishing official Vatican documents and works on Catholic
doctrine, liturgy, and culture. On February 7, 2007 it opened the John Paul II
International Bookstore in St. Peter’s Square for the sale of its publications.
On February 23, 2007 an exhibition entitled “Tu es Petrus—the Basilica of
St. Peter in the Medals of the Popes” opened at the Villa Chiassi on the via Cola
di Rienzo in Rome to help commemorate the five-hundredth anniversary of
the foundation of the new St. Peter’s Basilica. Among the depictions of the
Basilica are that of Bramante’s design (1506), Sangallo’s project, Michelangelo’s
design with the dome, Maderno’s façade, and Bernini’s cathedra. Once the
exhibition closes on April 22, it will move to the Hermitage Museum in St.
Petersburg and be open there in the months of May and June.
The Museo di Roma is sponsoring an exhibit “Portraits in Purple” that displays seventy images of cardinals from the Renaissance to today, some portraits
painted by such famous artists as Raphael, others photographs taken by Mario
Delogu. Among the cardinals represented are the two Alessandro Farneses
(father and grandson), Carlo Borromeo, Scipione Borghese, Ludovico Ludovisi,
Francesco Barberini, Pietro Gasparri, Giovanni Battista Montini, Francis Arinze,
and Josef Ratzinger.
Archaeological Find
On December 11, 2006 the Vatican archaeologist Giorgio Filippi formally
announced the unearthing of the sarcophagus of St. Paul found three years earlier under the pavement of the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls in
Rome.The sarcophagus dates from the reign of emperor Theodosius and bears
the inscription “Apostle Paul Martyr.”After the fire of 1823 it had been enclosed
in a large block of cement. With the removal of the cement it is now visible
through a glass window laid into the floor.Whether the sarcophagus contains
the bones of St. Paul has yet to be determined.
Conferences and Workshops
On March 1, 2007 a conference was held in Sora, Italy to commemorate the
four-hundredth anniversary of the death of Cesare Baronio (1538-1607), the
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471

disciple of St. Filippo Neri, cardinal, and librarian of the Church, whose
Annales Ecclesiastici covering the years up to ll98 was published in twelve
volumes (1588-1607). Edoardo Aldo Cerrato presented a paper “Cesare Baronio
discepolo e primo successore di san Filippo Neri.”
On March 9, 2007, in conjunction with the meeting of the Texas State
Historical Association in San Antonio, the Texas Catholic Historical Society presented a panel entitled “The Movimiento and the Catholic Church,Texas Style,
1965-1972.” It consisted of three papers: “Caution and Compassion: The
Catholic Church and the Early Chicano Movement in Houston” by Robert R.
Treviño,“San Antonio Women Religious and the Chicano Movement: Resisting
the Challenge and Challenging the Resistance” by Maria Eva Flores, CDP, and
“Researching and Archiving the Catholic Church’s Response to the
Movimiento Chicano in South Texas” by Gilberto M. Hinojosa. On March 10,
2007 the Society presented a workshop in Laredo, Texas on “Teaching Texas
Catholic History.”It featured three talks:“Spanish Missions in Texas”by Gilberto
M. Hinojosa, “Catholic Social Justice and Archbishop Robert E. Lucey” by
Thomas W. Jodziewicz, and “The Catholic Church in Laredo, 1755-1911” by Jose
Roberto Juarez. For further information, please contact Professor Jodziewicz at
tjodz@udallas.edu.
On April 12-14, 2007 the Calvin Studies Society Colloquium presented “John
Calvin and Roman Catholicism” in the McKenna Hall, University of Notre
Dame. Among the papers presented were “The French Roman Catholic Lives
of Calvin from Bolsec to Richelieu:Why the Interest?” by Irena Backus,“Calvin
and the Nicodemites” by George H. Tavard, “John Calvin, Accidental
Anthropologist: How Calvin Stumbled on a Theory of Religion by Studying
Catholic Primitives” by Carlos Eire,“Friend and Foe: Reformed Genevans and
Catholic Neighbors in the Time of Calvin” by Karen Spierling, “Rules of
Engagement: Catholics and Protestants in the Diocese of Geneva, 1580-1625”
by Jill Fehleison, “In partibus infidelium: Calvinism and Catholic Identity in
the Dutch Republic” by Charles Parker, “Reviving the Reform: What Calvin
Learned from Dialogue with the Roman Catholics” by Randall Zachman, and
“Sacramentality in Calvin? A Catholic Perspective” by Dennis Tamburello. For
more information, visit www.CalvinStudiesSociety.org.
From May 25 to June 3, 2007, the 76th Congress of the Humanities and
Social Sciences will meet at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.
Among the societies participating in the congress are the Canadian Society of
Patristic Studies, the Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies, the Canadian
Society of Medievalists, the Canadian Society of Church History, and the
Canadian Catholic Historical Association. For more information, visit
www.fedcan.ca/congress2007.
From June 25 to July 13, 2007, the National Endowment for the
Humanities will sponsor an institute entitled “Teaching the Reformation in a
Pluralist Age” at the H. Henry Meeter Center at Calvin College in Grand

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Rapids, Michigan. A group of thirty faculty members from American colleges
and universities will discuss current trends in Reformation studies and try to
set the issues in the wider context of global struggles over the relationship
of religion and society. Stipends are available to cover the cost of travel,
accommodations, and subsistence. For further information, please contact
Dr. Karin Maag at Calvin College.
From July 5 to 7, 2007 the French subcommission of the International
Commission of the Comparative History of Christianity will hold at various
universities of Paris sessions dedicated to six themes. (1) “From faith to rite: the
birth and evolution of Christian liturgies” with the following papers:
“Légendier romain et rituel baptismal: entre hagiographie et liturgie”by Michel
Perrin, “La réforme du bréviaire par le pape Pie V” by Clément Meunier, “La
Congrégation des Rites et les mutations du culte en France aux XVIIe et XVIIIe
siècles” by Bernard Dompnier, “L’idée de la ‘primitive église’ et les aménagements liturgiques en France aux XVII e et XVIII e siècles” by Mathieu Lours, and
one on the theme “Tradition and traduction après Vatican II” by Florian Michel;
(2) “The cultic assemblies” with the following papers: “La chapelle royale
comme assemblée cultuelle au Moyen Age et au début de l’époque moderne,
en Pologne, France, Angleterre, Portugal” by Urszula Borkowska, “La
République liturgique au début du XVIIIe siècle: essai de topographie” by
Xavier Bisaro, “La liturgie au service de la dissidence? L’Eglise catholique
française de l’abbé Chatel (1831-1840)” by Jean-Pierre Chantin,“Liturgies mariales, XIXe-XXe siècles. L’exemple français” by Claude Langlois,“La suppression
de la prière du Vendredi saint ‘pour le Juif perfide’. Une bataille politique du
Congrès juif mondial après guerre” by Catherine Pujol; ( 3) “The sacraments
and the ‘sacramenta’” with the following papers:“Du rite à la foi? Influence de
la prière eucharistique sur le développement des christologies antiques” by
Matthieu Smyth,“L’exorcisme des possédés, un nouveau baptême? Liturgies de
l’intégration et liturgies de la réintégration dans l’Eglise médiévale”by Florence
Chave-Mahir,“Aspects liturgiques du culte des reliques dans l’Occident médiéval” by Andre Yauchez,“‘Ubi missa, ibi mensa’: les leçons d’un adage ecclésiastique” by Jacques Benoist, “La liturgie catholique des enfants morts en age
d’innocence. L’évolution du sentiment de l’enfance (XVII e-XXe-siècle)” by
Régis Bertrand,“L’eucharistie comme symbole social au XIX e et au début du
XX e siècle” by Jeremy Morris; (4) “The confessional and regional differences”
with the following papers:“La Liturgie et les langues cultuelles dans les Pays
Roumains aux XIII e-XV e siècles” by Emilian Popescu,“La liturgie dans l’église
rurale en Europe du Centre-Est (Pologne, Bohême XIV e-XV e siècles)” by
Stanislas Bylina,“Variations liturgiques et paraliturgiques en Corse: entre tradition romaine et pratiques régionales” by Michel Casta,“‘Romaniser’ la liturgie
lyonnaise au XIX e siècle. Les conditions d’une alliance entre Lyon et Rome” by
Bruno Dumons,“L’invention d’une liturgie des funérailles dans les Eglises réformées de la Charente-Inférieure au XIX e siècle” by Nicolas Champ, “Liturgie
romaine et liturgies orientales dans la 2 e moitié du XIX e siècle” by Brigitte
Waché,“L’Eglise catholique, l’Etat nippon et le jinja shinto: comment le Saint-

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Siège admet le caractère non-religieux des ‘rites chinois’(1890-1939)?” by
Olivier Sibre; (5) “The liturgical objects” with the following papers:“Le Liber
ordinarius et l’élaboration d’un catalogue des ordinaires liturgiques manuscrits conservés dans les bibliothèques publiques de France” by Pascal
Collomb,“L’objet liturgique contemporain, objet beau, objet utile” by Bernard
Berthod, “L’art scout, témoin et support du Mouvement liturgique” by Anne
Fachinat and P. Geoffroy Bovens,“L’espace liturgique catholique après Vatican
II” by Anne Perrin,“L’évolution de l’art liturgique après 1960” by Isabelle SaintMartin; (6) “The word and the music” with the following papers:“Les drames
liturgiques au Moyen Age” by Nils Holger Petersen,“Pratiques des plains-chants
dits musicaux en France (XVII e--XIX e siècles)” by Cécile Davy-Rigaux, “La
musique liturgique en usage dans les missions indiennes du Canada aux XVII eXVIII e siècles” by Paul-Andre Dubois, “Cent-cinquante ans de discours
solesmien sur le rapport texte-musique dans le rite chrétien, 1840-1990, de
Dom Prosper Guéranger à Dom Eugène Cardine” by Dominique-Marie Dauzet,
“Musique, fête et territoire: espaces virtuels et frontières musicales dans un village maltais” by Giovanna Iacovazzi,“Songs and Songwriters in an Ecumenical
Decade:The Church Music Revolution in England in the ‘Long 1960s’” by Ian
Jones and Peter Webster. For further information and registration, please contact Dr. Jacques-Olivier Boudon, professeur à l’Université de Paris IV, 1 rue
Victor Cousin, 75230 Paris cedex 05. Email: joboudon@noos.fr.
From September 6 to 10, 2007 at the John Paul Catholic University of Lublin
the Polish and Ukrainian Sub-Commissions of the International Commission of
the Comparative History of Christianity will sponsor a congress devoted to the
religious life of East-Central Europe. The following is a listing of the proposed
panels, their themes and chairpersons and/or participants: The Early Polish
and Czech Parish (Zofia Kurnatowska and Libor Jan), Religious Culture of
Medieval East-Central Europe (Urszula Borkowska), First Attempt to Handle
Synthetically the History of Christianity of East-Central Europe: From the
Ninth/Tenth to the Twentieth Century (André Vauchez, Marc Venard, JeanMarie Mayeur, and Jerzy Kl/oczowski),The Bishoprics of East-Central Europe in
the Middle Ages (Józef Szymański and Henryk Wa˛sowicz), Preaching as an
Instrument of Catechetical Instruction in the Middle Ages and Early Modern
Period (Krzysztof Bracha and Stanis /law Bylina),The Churches of Podolya until
1795 (Tadeusz Trajdos), Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy in East-Central Europe in
a Comparative Context (Pawe /l Kras), Canon Law and Synodal Legislation:Their
Importance for the Church and Society of East-Central Europe (Henryk Streit),
Religious Spaces in East-Central Europe:A Comparative Illustration (Zbigniew
Pilat), Structural Organization of Religious Communities in the FifteenthCentury East-Central Europe (Krzysztof Kaczmarek), The Franciscan
Movement in East-Central Europe from the Thirteenth to the Eighteenth
Century (Henryk Gapski), The University and Intellectual Culture of EastCentral Europe in the Middle Ages (Krzystof Ożóg and Krzysztof Stopka), A
Postulative Model of Christianity in East-Central Europe, in the Light of
Hagiography until the Fourteenth Century (Józef Dobosz and Edward

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Skibiński), Evangelical Churches in East-Central Europe in the Sixteenth to the
Eighteenth Century (Wojciech Kriegseisen), Members of Male Religious
Communities in the Pastoral Activities of the Church in East-Central Europe in
the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Century (Adam Żurek), Eastern Christianity in the
Polish Commonwealth in the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century (Hanna
Dyla˛gowa and Andrzej Gil), Typical Features of the Monastic Life in Eastern
Christianity in East-Central Europe (Antoni Mironowicz), Religious Justification
of Political Power in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Europe (Hubert
L/aszkiewicz), Eastern and Western Christianity in the Nineteenth Century in
the Territories of the Former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: Church
Structures and Their Functions (Daniel Olszewski), The Religious Life and
Culture of the Christian Emigrants from East-Central Europe to North America,
Christianity in East-Central Europe in the Period 1918-1939 (Etienne
Thevenin), The Attitude of Christian Churches to the Population Migrations
during World Wars I and II (Mariusz Korzeniowski), Survival Strategies of
Churches in East-Central Europe under the Communist Regime (Tomasz
Schramm and Konrad Bial/ecki), Female Religious Orders in East-Central
Europe in Struggle with the Nazi and Communist Totalitarianisms (1939-1989)
(Agata Mirek and Krystyna De˛bowska), Sacral Space in Poland: Legal
Regulations and Practice (Marian Kallas), Present Situation in the Field of
Religion in East-Central Europe:A Comparative Approach (Piotr Cywiński and
Marcin Przeciszewski),The European Border Areas Between the Byzantine and
the Roman Worlds (Ihor Sevcenko), Cohabitation of National and
Denominational Minorities in the Times of the Second Republic of Poland
(Interwar Period) (Janusz Kania), Mutual Influences of the Christian and
Jewish Communities in East-Central Europe (Jacob Goldberg), Religious
Orders in the Municipal Space:The Example of Poznań (Jacek Wiesiol/owski),
An Attempt at a History of Catholic Dioceses in Today’s Perspective (Jacek
Wiesiol/owski), and from the Croatian Sub-Commission four proposals: The
Church in the Croatian Lands and Its Reaction to the New Religious and Social
Movements (Franciscans and Dominicans), The Croatian Church Confronted
with the Ottoman Invasion, Laity within the Church during the Eighteenth to
Nineteenth-Century Revolutions, and The Croatian Church Independent from
the Hungarian Church. There is planned a cartographic exhibition entitled
“The Socio-Religious Space of East-Central Europe.” For more information,
please contact Jerzy Kl/oczowski of the Instytut Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej
in Lublin at instesw@platon.man.lublin.pl.
The American Cusanus Society is trying to sponsor a series of panels dedicated to the theme “Reassessing Reform: Gerhart Ladner’s The Idea of Reform
Fifty Years Later.” It hopes to organize papers and panels at the biennial conference of the American Cusanus Society at Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary in
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, October 10-12, 2008; at the International Congress of
Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in May of 2008 and 2009; and at the
American Historical Association meeting in New York, January 2-5, 2009. For
further information, please contact Professor Christopher Bellitto of Kean

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475

University at cbellitt@kean.edu or Professor Zach Flanagin of St. Mary’s College
of California at zachflanagin@hotmail.com.
Canonizations
Pope Benedict XVI has authorized the canonization of four saints: the
Polish Szymon of Lipnica, O.F.M. (1439-1482), the Brazilian Antonio of Santa
Ana, O.F.M., Disc. (born Antonio Galvao de Franca) (1739-1822), the Dutch
Charles of St. Andrew, C.P. (born Johannes Andreas Houben) (1821-1893), and
the French Marie Eugénie de Jésus (born Anne-Eugénie Millerte de Brou)
(1817-1898), foundress of the Institute of Sisters of the Assumption of the
Virgin Mary.The pope has also authorized the beatification of sixty-nine martyrs killed during the religious persecutions in Spain (1934-36) and four killed
in Brazil (1924, 1931, and 1993).
Publications
Seven articles in the Annali dell’Istituto storico italo-germanico in
Trento—Jahrbuch des italienisch-deutschen historischen Instituts in Trient
for 2005 (Volume XXXI) are devoted to the theme “Il dibattito storiografico
sulla figura di Pio XII. Punti di arrivo e problemi aperti,” as follows: Giovanni
Miccoli, “Santa Sede, guerra, e Shoah: una proposta di discussione” (pp. 227259); Philippe Chenaux,“Il cardinale Pacelli e la questione del nazismo dopo
l’enciclica ‘Mit brennender Sorge’ (1937)” (pp. 261-277); Emma Fattorini,“Pio
XI, Mussolini, Hitler e Pacelli (1937-1939)” (pp. 279-317); Anna Foa, “Le due
leggende. Riflessioni sulla storiografia su Pio XII e gli ebrei” (pp. 319-331);
Hubert Wolf,“Pius XII. als Nuntius in Deutschland. Pacellis Schlussrelation vom
November 1929” (pp. 333-353); Heinz Hürten, “Die Briefe Pius’ XII. an die
deutschen Bischöfe zur Kriegszeit. Eine zentrale Quelle für seine
Amtsauffassung?” (pp. 355-365); and Matteo Luigi Napolitano, “I documenti
diplomatici come fonte per il dibattito storiografico su Pio XII” (pp. 367-394).
An abstract in English is printed at the beginning of each article.
The Passionist Heritage Newsletter,Volume 13, Issue 4 (Fall 2006), pages
1-6, contains an article “Praying the Steps:An Historical Understanding of the
Passionists at Holy Cross-Immaculata Church on Mt. Adams, Cincinnati,
Ohio,” from an interview of Father Richard Parks, C.P., by Father Robert
Carbonneau, C.P.
At the Fourteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies, held at
Oxford in August, 2003, the Athanasius-Arbeitsstelle of Erlangen organized a
workshop on Athanasius of Alexandria. The papers presented there are now
published in Volume 10 (2006) of the Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum—
Journal of Ancient Christianity: Charles Kannengiesser, “The Dating of
Athanasius’ Double Apology and Three Treatises against the Arians” (pp. 1933); Kelley McCarthy Spoerl,“Athanasius and the Anti-Marcellan Controversy”

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(pp. 34-55); Joseph T. Lienhard, “Two Friends of Athanasius: Marcellus of
Ancyra and Apollinaris of Laodicea” (pp. 56-66); Hanns Christof Brennecke,
“Zwei Apologien des Athanasius an Kaiser Constantinus II.” (pp. 67-85);
Annette von Stockhausen, “Athanasius in Antiochien” (pp. 86-102); Uta Heil,
“Athanasius und Basilius” (pp. 103-120); and Winrich Löhr,“Arius Reconsidered
(2.Teil)” (pp. 121-157).
“Tod und Bestattung in der frühchristlichen Welt” was the theme of the
Römische Tagung zur frühen Kirche held at the Priesterkolleg Campo Santo
Teutonico on May 19-21, 2005.The papers resulting from those days are now
published in Number 3-4 of Volume 101 (2006) of the Römische
Quartalschrift für Christliche Altertumskunde und Kirchengeschichte:
Bertram Stubenrauch,“Auferstehung des Fleisches? Zum Proprium christlichen
Glaubens in Motiven patristischer Theologie” (pp. 147-156); Theofried
Baumeister,“Die montanistischen Martyriumssprüche bei Tertullian” (pp. 157172); Heike Grieser, “Das christliche Idealisierung des Sterbens—
Beobachtungen anhand einiger griechischer Viten des 4. und 5. Jahrhunderts”
(pp. 173-193); Peter Bruns,“Reliquien und Reliquienverehrung in den syro-persischen Märtyrerakten” (pp. 194-213); Sebastian Ristow,“Grab und Kirche. Zur
funktionalen Bestimmung archäologischer Baubefunde im östlichen
Frankenreich” (pp. 214-239); Winfried Weber, “Vom Coemeterialbau zur
Klosterkirche—Die Entwicklung des frühchristlichen Gräberfeldes im Bereich
von St. Maximin in Trier” (pp. 240-259); Achim Arbeiter, “Grabmosaiken in
Hispanien” (pp. 260-288); and Jutta Dresken-Weiland, “Vorstellungen von Tod
und Jenseits in den frühchristlichen Grabinschriften des 3.-6. Jhs. in Rom,
Italien und Afrika” (pp. 289-312).
The editors of the Annales de Bretagne et des Pays de l’Ouest, Daniel
Pichot and Florian Mazel, have devoted their third number for 2006 (Volume
113) to the study of “Prieurés et sociétés au Moyen Âge.” It contains the following articles: Daniel Pichot, “Prieurés et société dans l’Ouest, XI e-XIII e
siècle. Éléments d’historiographie et premier bilan d’une enquête” (pp. 9-32);
Sébastien Legros, “Les prieurés de Château-Gontier et l’établissement d’une
seigneurie chatelaine dans le comté d’Anjou (fin du X e siècle–fin du XI e
siècle)” (pp. 33-59); Jean-René Ladurée,“Le prieuré de la Ramée dépendant de
l’abbaye d’Évron: un prieuré rural exemplaire” (pp. 61-72); Jérôme Beaumon,
“Implantation et expansion d’un réseau de prieurés à l’époque féodale: l’exemple des prieurés de l’abbaye Saint-Florent de Saumur dans le diocèse de
Rennes et la seigneurie de Dol-Combourg (XI e-XIII e siècle)” (pp. 73-91); Étienne Mathieu,“La naissance des prieurés de l’abbaye feminine Saint-Georges
de Rennes (1024-1047)” (pp. 93-104); Florian Mazel, “Seigneurs, moines et
chanoines: pouvoir local et enjeux ecclésiaux à Fougères à l’époque grégorienne (milieu XI e-milieu XII e siècle)” (pp. 105-135); Florian Mazel,“Armelle Le
Huërou, Actes de l’abbaye de Marmoutier concernant le prieuré de la Trinité
de Fougères, XI e-XII e siècles: edition et traduction” (pp. 137-165); Cécile
Treffort,“Moines, monastères et prieurés charentais au Moyen Âge. Quelques

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477

réflexions autour d’un projet collectif en cours” (pp. 167-188); Laurent Ripart,
“Moines ou seigneurs: qui sont les fondateurs? Le cas des prieurés bénédictins
des Alpes occidentals (vers 1020-vers 1045)” (pp. 189-203); and Philippe
Racinet,“Cluny et les autres: L’exemple des prieurés” (pp. 205-221).
Going beyond American history, the U.S. Catholic Historian has devoted its
issue for winter, 2007 (Volume 25, Number 1) to the theme “Pascendi
dominici gregis: 1907-2007.” It contains the following “Centennial Essays on
Responses to the Encyclical on Modernism”: C. J. T. Talar, “Introduction:
Pascendi dominici gregis: The Vatican Condemnation of Modernism” (pp. 112);William L. Portier,“Pascendi’s Reception in the United States:The Case of
Joseph McSorley” (pp. 13-30); Lawrence Barmann,“The Pope and the English
Modernists” (pp. 31-54); C. J. T. Talar, “The French Connection: The Church’s
‘Eldest Daughter’ and the Condemnation of Modernism” (pp. 55-69); Giacomo
Losito,“Ernesto Buonaiuti and Il programma dei modernisti” (pp. 71-96); and
Michael Kerlin, “Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange: Defending the Faith from
Pascendi dominici gregis to Humani generis” (pp. 97-113).
In observance of the three anniversaries celebrated by the Jesuits in 2006
the editors of the Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft und Religionswissenschaft have devoted their double number (3-4 of Volume 90) for that year to
the missionary activity of the Society of Jesus. Following an introduction by
Michael Sievernich, S.J., there are seven articles: Santiago Madrigal, S.J.,“«Servir
a Dios» y «ayudar a las animas»: Misión, eclesiología ignaciana y misiones” (pp.
165-182); Philippe Lécrivain, S.J.,“«Non sufficit orbis . . .» Les missions jésuites
aux XVI e et XVII e siècles” (pp. 183-195); Mariano Delgado,“Alonso Sánchez SJ
und José de Acosta SJ in der Kontroverse über die Conquista und
Evangelisation Chinas am Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts” (pp. 196-209); Claudia
von Collani, “Der Ritenstreit und die Folgen für die Chinamission” (pp. 210225); Klaus Schatz, S.J., “Jesuitenmission in der neuen Gesellschaft Jesu
(19./20. Jh.)” (pp. 226-248); Karl Markus Kreis, “Die nordamerikanischen
Indianermissionen der Jesuiten im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert” (pp. 249-262); and
Franz Magnis-Suseno, S.J.,“Missionar in Indoensien. Erfahrungen, Reflexionen,
Ausblicke” (pp. 262-274).
The Verein für würrtembergische Kirchengeschichte along with the
Geschichtsverein der Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart held its annual meeting of
2002 on September 11-15 of that year in the Catholic Academy of Weingarten
on the theme “Säkularisationen und Säkularisierung im deutschen Südwesten”
to commemorate the bicentenary of that historic event.The papers presented
on that occasion have now been published in the volume (104) for 2004 of the
Blätter für würtembergische Kirchenschichte as follows: Hartmut Lehmann,
“Die Entscheidung des Jahres 1803 und das Verhältnis von Säkularisation,
Säkularisierung und Säkularismus” (pp. 11-25); Hermann Ehmer, “Die
Kirchengutsfrage in der Reformation” (pp. 27-45); Eike Wohlgast,
“Säkularisationen und Säkularisationspläne im Heiligen Römischen Reich
Deutscher Nation vom 16. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert” (pp. 47-71); Klaus Ganzer,

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“Die Kirchenreform nach dem Konzil von Trient” (pp. 73-89); Dieter Breuer,
“Katholische Aufklärung und Theologie” (pp. 91-109); Erich Garhammer,
“Pastoralstrategie im Übergang vom 18. bis 19. Jahrhundert: Von der
»Säkularisierung« zur »Sakralisierung« aufgezeigt am Priesterbild und
Priesterbildung” (pp. 111-129); Konstantin Maier,“Säkularisation, Finanzen und
Ökonomie. Überlegungen zur Säkularisation der Benediktiner-Reichsabtei
Ochsenhausen (1803-1806)” (pp. 131-150); Karl Hausberger, “»Untereinander
und mit dem Oberhaupte der Kirche enge geeint«. Dalbergs Pläne für die
Neuordnung der deutschen Kirche nach der Säkularisation” (pp. 151-172); and
Henning Pahl, “Folgen der Säkularisation: Zu Stellung und Stellenwert der
Religion in der ländlichen evangelischen Gesellschaft des 19. Jahrhunderts”
(pp. 173-193).
As its fourth number for 2006 (Volume 57) the Münchener Theologische
Zeitschrift has published a thematic issue entitled “München 60 Jahre nach
Kriegsende.” It contains the following articles: Peter B. Steiner,“Zerstörung und
Wiederaufbau der Kirchen Münchens” (p. 291-304); Rita Haub,“‘Es fordert den
ganzen Menschen’—Zeugen des Glaubens: P. Rupert Mayer SJ (1876-1945) und
P. Alfred Delp SJ (1907-1945)” (pp. 305-319); Manfred Weitlauff, “Die Leitung
der Erzdiözese München und Freising in Kriegs- und Nachkriegszeit: Die
Erzbischöfe und Kardinäle Michael von Faulhaber (1869-1952) und Joseph
Wendel (1901-1960)” (pp. 320-346); Manfred Weitlauff, “Die Theologische
Fakultät der Universität München unter der nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft”
(pp. 347-375); Stephan Leimgruber,“Seelsorge und Religionsunterricht in und
um München in der Kriegs- und Nachkriegszeit” (pp. 376-385); and Peter
Neuner, “Michael Schmaus und der Neubeginn der Theologie an der
Universität München nach 1945” (pp. 386-398).
Personal Notices
Dr. Nelson H. Minnich of the School of Theology and Religious Studies and
of the History Department of The Catholic University of America was
appointed on February 5, 2007 by Benedict XVI as a member of the Pontificio
Comitato di Scienze Storiche.
Obituaries
Dr. Charles F. Fleener, professor of history at Saint Louis University, died on
November 27, 2005, aged 67. Dr. Fleener’s undergraduate degree in foreign
affairs was from Georgetown University (1960) and he received his master’s
in 1963 and doctoral degree in 1969 in Latin-American history from the
University of Florida. In 1966 he joined the Saint Louis University faculty,
where he served for almost forty years as teacher, advisor, and administrator. In 1984 after a term as chair of the History Department he became director of the Pre-Law program. Dr. Fleener gave dedicated direction to this program and developed it to a point of excellence through his twenty years in

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the directorship. As a professor and especially as director of Pre-Law he was
dedicated to the students and their needs in pursuing law careers. At the
request of students he organized the Mock Trial program, became its moderator, and got university funding for it. Mock Trial became part of the curriculum with credit in the college. He traveled with the team regularly and gave
of his time and energy to further the program. The Pre-Law program has
received numerous awards over the years for the performance in Mock Trial
competitions. In 1996 the Midwest Association of Pre-Law Advisors recognized and honored Dr. Fleener at their national meeting for his contributions
to Pre-Law. In October of 2005 he received the Outstanding Pre-Law Advisor
of the Year award from the National Association of Pre-Law Advisors.
Dr. Fleener was highly respected as a teacher. He brought history to life
with his engaging lectures, making him a much-sought-after instructor
among students. His service to many students as an advisor earned him the
Advisor of the Year award in the College of Arts and Sciences. Although the
History Department no longer had a graduate program in Latin American history, he regularly taught upper division courses in this specialty to provide
another perspective to student majors. Fluent in the Spanish language, he frequently taught at the Saint Louis University Madrid campus, where he also
served as acting dean in 1992. His scholarly research was done primarily in
the archives of Latin America found in various depositories in Spain. He was
a life member of the American Historical Association and of the American
Catholic Historical Association.
Dr. Fleener was dedicated to Saint Louis University, to its students, and to its
mission as a Catholic Jesuit institution of higher learning. Much of his Latin
American study and research dealt with the work of the Catholic Church and
the Jesuits. He donated more than 10,000 volumes to the University library
dealing with United States and Latin American history, film and film theory, and
another of his interests, the stage.The mission of Jesuit universities is to form
men and women for others. Dr. Fleener himself embodied this mission of the
University in his unsparing dedication to Saint Louis University—the students,
and the furtherance of the institution.
Saint Louis University

ELIZABETH KOLMER,A.S.C.

In an essay after her death in January, 2007, at the age of 65, Robert P.
George, Princeton Professor of Jurisprudence, wrote: “Elizabeth Fox-Genovese
was a scholar as notable for her bravery as for her brilliance.”This is remarkable homage from a highly regarded ethicist. Surely, her intellectual genius
should have been enough reason to commend this brilliant historian whose
career included prestigious assignments at Harvard, the University of
Rochester, the State University of New York at Binghamton, and, finally, Emory
University, where she contributed richly to the field of history from 1986 until
her death.The daughter of historian Edward Whiting Fox of Bostonian lineage,

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NOTES AND COMMENTS

she was viewed by some to be a “patrician”; her social grace and intellectual
command of both history and French literature seemed to demand it. Her first
degree, cum laude, at Bryn Mawr College and her advanced degrees from
Harvard University foretold that she would add much to academia. Yet, her
unlikely marriage in 1969 to the Sicilian, Brooklyn-born, and often sharptongued, Marxist historian, Eugene Genovese, hinted that there would be
another contribution to life and scholarship that this talented woman would
provide.Together this erstwhile “royal couple of radical academia” became, in
George’s words, a “force field” of Christian love as well as remarkable major
contributors to the historical analysis of antebellum Southern culture. Their
collaborative studies not only inspired scholars but resulted in magisterial
studies on the phenomenon of the Southern master-slave society. Elizabeth’s
particular insight was maximized with regard to the consequences of slavery
upon women. One of her monographs, Within the Plantation Household:
Black and White Women of the Old South (1988) proved a penetrating analysis of the effect of slavery upon the family. It received both commendations
and impressive awards. Fox-Genovese’s talents as a teacher and mentor were
equally evident; so, too, were her administrative capabilities. At Emory, she
developed offerings in women’s history, founding the Institute for Women’s
Studies.Within a few years, this program became the first in the nation to offer
a doctoral degree.
For all her earlier success, the Marxist perspective that had originally given
Fox-Genovese intellectual leverage began to fail her as she observed the ethical directions that women’s studies was taking by the late 1970’s. She believed
that the penchant for what she termed “radical, upscale feminism” was wrongminded, and she began to reject mainstream academic, feminist beliefs. The
fault line of this feminist critique, she came to realize, was its embrace of abortion. In her words,“no amount of past oppression can justify women’s oppression of the most vulnerable among us.” It was not long before she began publicly to articulate the flaws she found in what she called the “unreflective”
assumptions of this school of thought. How countenance abortion? Why, furthermore, reject women’s “special roles as bearers and rearers of children”?
Two trenchant monographs, Feminism Without Illusions: A Critique of
Individualism (1991) and Feminism Is Not the Story of My Life (1996) put
these considerations, especially those regarding an overemphasis on the rights
of individuals, into the public arena.The result for her was notoriety. From this
point on, she had to endure the labels of “pariah”and deserter from former colleagues—even the charge of harassment. To her death, however, she never
flinched from the conviction that feminism had taken a deadly, wrong turn.
During the last dozen years of her life, Fox-Genovese began to reconstruct
her personal life and her career. In intellectual circles, she joined “conservative” groups. But something (Someone) also compelled her attention. This
former “unbelieving Christian” began a solitary spiritual journey that led her
to accept Jesus Christ as her personal savior. In 1995 she fulfilled that aim,

NOTES AND COMMENTS

481

receiving five sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church on the same day. A
week later, her husband followed her example, returning to the Church into
which he had been baptized. During this phase of her life, she took on different intellectual responsibilities, now joining boards of conservative organizations, including the Washington, D.C.-based Women’s Freedom Network
and the Board of Consulting Scholars associated with the James Madison
Program in American Ideals. In 2001, she became a member of the American
Catholic Historical Association. Impressed with the new perspectives that
now guided her, still other organizations invited her to offer her expertise.
Thus, she was named to the editorial board of First Things, was asked to join
the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, the G.K.Chesterton Institute, and the
Institute for Faith and Reason. Awards from other sectors now came her way.
In 2003, she received the prestigious Cardinal Wright Award; the same year,
President Bush awarded her the National Humanities Medal, which recognized her as a “defender of reason and servant of faith.” Each award seemed to
be yet another reminder of both the bravery and brilliance that had become
the hallmark of her life.
A scholar whose academic work will surely stand the test of time, FoxGenovese should also be remembered as a superb model of women in the
Church. Common sense had brought her to the faith. Armed with new understanding, she had been outspoken in her concerns that radical feminism had
failed to see the danger of abortion and its impact on family and marriage. As
Robert George so correctly quipped, “If her pro-life advocacy angered many
liberal intellectuals, her outspoken defense of marriage and traditional norms
of sexual morality made them apoplectic.” When one reads of her Godinspired life, one cannot help but agree. She had overturned the tables upon
which the feminist critique was posited. She may well be remembered longer
for her bravery—her heroic adherence to the teachings of her newfound
Church—than for her equally impressive historical analyses. Regardless, her
death remains a great loss to all of us. Our deepest sympathies go especially to
her husband, Eugene, who always saw in her someone who would not only
illumine minds but, more importantly, transform hearts. Indeed, her life’s story
may soon invite another nomination, namely, that of joining the ever-lengthening list of saints and scholars.
Holy Apostles Seminary
Cromwell, Connecticut

DOLORES LIPTAK, RSM

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

General and Miscellaneous
I sinodi fra storia e teologia. Giuseppe Ruggieri. Cristianesimo nella Storia,
XXVII (May, 2006), 365-392.
Against Forgetting: Memory, History, Vatican II. Stephen Schloesser, S.J.
Theological Studies, 67 (June, 2006), 275-319.
“The Times They Are a’Changin’”: A Response to O’Malley and Schloesser.
Neil J. Ormerod. Theological Studies, 67 (Dec., 2006), 834-855.
Des encycliques de Léon XIII aux concordats de Pie XI: une nouvelle problématique des relations Église–État.Yves-Marie Hilaire. Mélanges de Science
Religieuse, 63 (4, 2006), 33-42.
Il generalato (1971-1977) di fra Peregrine M. Graffius.Vincenzo Benassi. Studi
Storici dell’Ordine dei Servi di Maria, LV (2005), 125-159.
Der Einsatz von Bildern in der Hochschuldidaktik der Kirchengeschichte.
Wolfram Kinzig and Ulrich Volp. Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 117 (23, 2006), 266-288.
S. Giulia a Lucca: la chiesa e il culto della santa. Gianni Bergamaschi. Nuova
Rivista Storica, XC (Sept.-Dec., 2006), 763-782.
The Cult of Saints among Filipino Catholics: A Study of Inculturation. Jannel
Abogado, OP. Philippiniana Sacra, XLI (Sept.-Dec., 2006), 499-541.
L’importance de l’œuvre de Paul Ricœur pour la pratique historienne. François
Dosse. Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire du Protestantisme Français, 152
(Oct.-Dec., 2006), 647-664.
Pilgrimage, Place, and People: A History of the Locations of Mennonite World
Conference Assemblies, 1925-2003. Nancy R. Heisey. Church History, 75
(Dec., 2006), 849-879.
Ancient
Ouverture et résistance. Deux approches de la relation de l’Église avec l’extérieur aux II e-III e siècles. Frédéric Chapot. Revue des Sciences Religieuses,
81 (Jan., 2007), 7-26.
Philosophy as Training for Death: Reading the Ancient Christian Martyr Acts as
Spiritual Exercises. Nicole Kelley. Church History, 75 (Dec., 2006), 723-747.
L’élaboration du discours antihérétique dans l’Antiquité tardive. Benoît
Jeanjean. Heresis, No. 44-45 (2006), 9-36.
Antioch, Jerusalem, and Rome: The Patronage of Emperor Constantius II and
Architectural Invention.W. Eugene Kleinbauer.Gesta, XLV (2, 2006), 125-145.
482

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

483

Der Tomus ad Antiochenos (362) und die Vielfalt orthodoxer Theologien im 4.
Jahrhundert. Peter Gemeinhardt. Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 117 (23, 2006), 169-196.
Basile de Césarée face aux divisions de l’Église d’après sa correspondance.
Françoise Vinel. Revue des Sciences Religieuses, 81 (Jan., 2007), 79-93.
The Antiochene Biblical Canon 400 A.D. Robert Carter, S.J. Orientalia
Christiana Periodica, 72 (II, 2006), 417-431.
Imitatio Christi, Imitatio Stephani. Augustine’s thinking on martyrdom based
on his sermons on the protomartyr Stephen. Anthony Dupont.
Augustiniana, 56 (1-2, 2006), 29-61.
Tolerancia e intolerancia en los escritos antidonatistas de Agustín. Pedro Langa
Aguilar. Augustinus, LI (July-Dec., 2006), 293-321.
Monks and lay communities in late antique Gaul: the evidence of the Eusebius
Gallicanus sermons. Lisa Bailey. Journal of Medieval History, 32 (Dec.,
2006), 315-332.
Barsauma von Nisibis und die Aufhebung der Klerikerenthaltsamkeit im
Gefolge der Synode von Beth-Lapat (484). Peter Bruns. Annuarium
Historiae Conciliorum, 37 (1, 2005), 1-42.
St. Martin and St. Nikolaus als Repräsentanten eines spätantiken Heiligentyps:
die Bischöfe der konstantinischen Reichskirche als Tatbekenner des
Christentums. Hendrik Breuer. Ecclesia Orans, XXIII (2, 2006), 189-220.
«Petrine primacy» and Gregory of Tours. Alberto Ferreiro. Francia, 33 (1,
2006), 1-16.
Medieval
The pavement of Haghia Sophia in Nicaea. Christina Pinatsi. Byzantinische
Zeitschrift, 99 (1, 2006), 119-126.
–r. Un monastère au rayonnement exceptionnel. La réforme
Rabban-Ša–pu
–za–ye–. Florence Jullien. Orientalia
d’Abraham de Kaškar dans le Be– th-Hu
Christiana Periodica, 72 (II, 2006), 333-348.
The Performative Icon. Bissera V. Pentcheva. Art Bulletin, LXXXVIII (Dec.,
2006), 631-655.
Building Churches in Armenia: Art at the Borders of Empire and the Edge of
the Canon. Christina Maranci. Art Bulletin, LXXXVIII (Dec., 2006), 656-675.
La vie métrique de saint Laumer (BHL, 4735) copiée par Orderic Vital. Monique
Hincker. Analecta Bollandiana, 124 (Dec., 2006), 261-333.
Adomnán and the abbacy of Clonmacnois: historical needs, literacy narratives.
Thomas Owen Clancy. Innes Review, 57 (Autumn, 2006), 206-215.
Clotaire II, prince idéal des hagiographes mérovingiens et carolingiens (VII eIX e siècles). Sabine Savoye. Revue Bénédictine, 116 (Dec., 2006), 316-351.

484

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

État de la recherche sur l’histoire des ordres monastiques et religieux en Italie.
Giancarlo Andenna. Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 49 (Oct.-Dec.,
2006), 317-335.
Smaragdus of St. Mihiel and the Carolingian Monastic Reform. Matthew D.
Ponesse. Revue Bénédictine, 116 (Dec., 2006), 367-392.
Pitying the Desolation of Such a Place: Rebuilding Religious Houses and
Constructing Memory in Aquitaine in the Wake of the Viking Incursions.
Anna Trumbore Jones. Viator, 37 (2006), 85-102.
Libres et non-libres sur les terres de Saint-Remi de Reims: la notice judiciaire
de Courtisols (13 mai 847) et le polyptyque d’Hincmar. Jean-Pierre
Devroey. Journal des Savants (Jan.-June, 2006), 65-103.
Observations on the A of Charlemagne in the Treasure of the Abbey of
Conques. Walter Cahn. Gesta, XLV (2, 2006), 95-107.
Monastic Identity and Sodomitic Danger in the Occupatio by Odo of Cluny.
Christopher A. Jones. Speculum, 82 (Jan., 2007), 1-53.
Deux fondations exceptionnelles de collégiales épiscopales à la frontière du
comté de Flandre: Marœuil et le Mont-Saint-Éloi (milieu du X e siècle).
Brigitte Meijns. Revue du Nord, 88 (Apr.-June, 2006), 251-273.
Politisches Handeln mit dem hl. Adalbert von Prag. Mittelalterliche
Vorstellungen von der civitas sancta. Lukas Wolfinger. Mitteilungen des
Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, 114 (3-4, 2006), 219250.
Omnes qui coram hac imagine genua flexerint . . . La vénération d’images de
saints et de la Vierge d’après les texts écrits en Angleterre du milieu du XI e
siècle aux premières décennies du XIII e siècle. Jean-Marie Sansterre.
Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 49 (July-Sept., 2006), 257-294.
Silences et mensonges autour d’un concile. Le concile de Sutri (1046) en son
temps. Jacques van Wijnendaele. Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire,
83 (2, 2005), 315-353.
Weitere Fälschungen unter den päpstlichen Privilegien für die Abtei Montieren-Der? Ludwig Falkenstein. Francia, 33 (1, 2006), 101-118.
Saint-Florent of Saumur and the origin of the «Bayeux» Tapestry. George T.
Beech. Francia, 33 (1, 2006), 17-32.
Reform in the Localities: The Council of Valence (May 1079). Kriston R. Rennie.
Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum, 37 (1, 2005), 43-55.
The Origins of the English Hospital. Sethina Watson. Transactions of the Royal
Historical Society, XVI (2006), 75-94.
A Supposed Letter of Archbishop Lanfranc: Concepts of the Universal Church
in the Investiture Contest. Patrick Healy. English Historical Review, CXXI
(Dec., 2006), 1385-1407.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

485

L’au-delà du soi. Métamorphoses sigillaires en Europe médiévale. Brigitte
Miriam Bedos-Rezak. Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 49 (Oct.-Dec.,
2006), 337-358.
Canon 2 of the Council of Clermont (1095) and the Goal of the Eastern
Crusade: “To liberate Jerusalem” or “To liberate the Church of God”? Paul E.
Chevedden. Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum, 37 (1, 2005), 57-108.
Il Liber di Raimondo d’Aguilers e il ritrovamento della Sacra Lancia
d’Antiochia. Luigi Russo. Studi Medievali, XLVII (Dec., 2006), 785-837.
Least of the laity: the minimum requirements for a medieval Christian. Norman
Tanner and Sethina Watson. Journal of Medieval History, 32 (Dec., 2006),
395-423.
L’histoire des croisades et des pèlerinages au XX e siècle. Franco Cardini.
Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 49 (Oct.-Dec., 2006), 359-372.
The Missionary and the Moorslayer: James the Apostle in Spanish Historiography from Isidore of Seville to Ambrosio de Morales. Katherine Elliott Van
Liere. Viator, 37 (2006), 519-543.
Negotiating the Boundaries of Gender in Religious Life: Robert of Arbrissel and
Hersende, Abelard and Heloise.Constant J.Mews.Viator,37 (2006),113-148.
Rome in the Twelfth Century: Urbs fracta and renovatio. Dale Kinney. Gesta,
XLV (2, 2006), 199-220.
Context, Continuity, and the Creation of National Memory in Paris, 1130-1160:
A Critical Commentary.William W. Clark. Gesta, XLV (2, 2006), 161-175.
The Priest in the House of Conscience: Sins of Thought and the TwelfthCentury Schoolmen. Susan R. Kramer. Viator, 37 (2006), 149-166.
Performing Penance and Poetic Performance in the Medieval Welsh Court.
Catherine McKenna. Speculum, 82 (Jan., 2007), 70-96.
Editing the Cloisters Cross. Elizabeth C. Parker. Gesta, XLV (2, 2006), 147-160.
The Bruce dynasty, Becket and Scottish pilgrimage to Canterbury, c.1178-c.1404.
Michael Penman. Journal of Medieval History, 32 (Dec., 2006), 346-370.
Il Super unum ex quattuor di Pietro Cantore ed i primi valdesi. Proposta di
rilettura. Francesca Tasca. Cristianesimo nella Storia, XXVII (May, 2006),
393-416.
Bodies of Unsurpassed Beauty: “Living” Images of the Virgin in the High
Middle Ages. Katherine Allen Smith. Viator, 37 (2006), 167-187.
Kreuzzugsprojekt und Kaisersturz. Eine übersehene Quelle zu den staufischbyzantinischen Verhandlungen zu Jahresbeginn 1195. Rudolf Pokorny.
Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters, 62 (1, 2006), 65-83.
Le legs de Baudouin V de Hainaut à la cathédrale Saint-Lambert de Liège: une
générosité inexpliquée. Alexis Wilkin. Revue du Nord, 88 (Apr.-June,
2006), 275-290.

486

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

Letzter Wille? Das Höchste Angebot Kaiser Heinrichs VI. an die römische
Kirche. Matthias Thumser. Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des
Mittelalters, 62 (1, 2006), 85-133.
Discovering a Military Order of the Crusades: The Hospital of St. Sampson of
Constantinople. Dionysios Stathakopoulos. Viator, 37 (2006), 255-273.
Per l’autenticità della Admonitio XXVII e il lessico di frate Francesco: una
risposta a Jan Hoeberichts. Carlo Paolazzi, ofm. Collectanea Franciscana, 76
(3-4, 2006), 475-504.
Implantacão do Franciscanismo em Portugal. Henrique-Pinto Rema, O.F.M.
Itinerarium (Braga), LI (Jan.-Dec., 2005), 265-296.
Una nuova impresa sulla letteratura francescana. Leonhard Lehmann.
Cristianesimo nella Storia, XXVII (May, 2006), 547-597.
Philip the Chancellor and the Heresy Inquisition in Northern France, 12351236. David A.Traill. Viator, 37 (2006), 241-254.
Montségur et Rennes-le-Château: la convergence de deux mythologies.
Christian Raynaud. Heresis, No. 44-45 (2006), 267-300.
Un symptôme: le concile provincial de Riez en 1286 et les redéfinitions de
l’officium episcopi en Provence. Thierry Pécout. Annuarium Historiae
Conciliorum, 37 (1, 2005), 109-138.
Lesser Brothers: Franciscan Mission and Identity at Assisi. Amy Neff. Art
Bulletin, LXXXVIII (Dec., 2006), 676-706.
The Painted Chamber at Westminster, Edward I, and the Crusade. Matthew M.
Reeve. Viator, 37 (2006), 189-221.
Clashing Functions/Clashing Elites Negotiating Hospital Functions in PreModern Poland (13th-18th Centuries). Wladyslaw Roczniak. The Polish
Review, LI (3-4, 2006), 283-305.
The earliest Library Catalogue of the Franciscan Convent of St. Fortunato of
Todi (c.1300). Neslihan S,enocak. Archivum Franciscanum Historicum,
99 (July-Dec., 2006), 467-505.
Satan’s Body: Religion and Gender Parody in Late Medieval Italy. Jeffrey Ruda.
Viator, 37 (2006), 319-350.
The Real Presence of Mary: Eucharistic Disbelief and the Limits of Orthodoxy
in Fourteenth-Century France. Wendy Love Anderson. Church History, 75
(Dec., 2006), 748-767.
Reliques et résistance chez les Béguins de Languedoc. Louisa Burnham.
Annales du Midi, 118 (July-Sept., 2006), 353-368.
Julian’s Audacious Reticence: Perichoresis and the Showings. Daniel Pinti.
Anglican Theological Review, 88 (Fall, 2006), 499-517.
A new and disputable text-edition of the decree Haec sancta of the council of
Constance (1415). Michiel Decaluwe. Cristianesimo nella Storia, XXVII
(May, 2006), 417-444.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

487

Lollardy and Social Status in East Anglia. Maureen Jurkowski. Speculum, 82
(Jan., 2007), 120-152.
Due nuovi testimoni dello Specchio dei religiosi. Giorgia Bisio. Archivum
Franciscanum Historicum, 99 (July-Dec., 2006), 507-526.
A Point “Ceaselessly Pushed Back”: The Origin of Early Netherlandish Painting.
Amy Powell. Art Bulletin, LXXXVIII (Dec., 2006), 707-728.
Communal Reconciliation in Pre-Reformation England: Lessons from the
Seven-Sacrament Fonts of East Anglia. Tom Elich. Studia Liturgica, 36 (2,
2006), 138-165.
Romnähe und Klosterreform oder Warum die erste Druckerpresse Italiens in
der Benediktinerabtei Subiaco stand. Uwe Israel. Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, 88 (2, 2006), 279-296.
Il movimento francescano germanico sotto l’occhio della Penitenzieria
Apostolica al tempo di Sisto IV (1471-1484). Cesare Cenci, O.F.M.
Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, 99 (July-Dec., 2006), 551-565.
Gold, Ruhm und Evangelium. Der Wiederentdecker Amerikas als Verkörperung
der europäischen Expansion. Gernot Volger. Archiv für Kulturgeschichte,
88 (2, 2006), 323-354.
Sixteenth Century
Incorporarse a Jesucristo: prácticas sacramentales y penitenciales entre los
dominicos castellanos en el siglo XVI. Guillermo Nieva Ocampo. Hispania
Sacra, LVIII (Jan.-June, 2006), 39-67.
Michelangelo’s Drawings for Apostle Statues for the Cathedral of Florence.
Michaël J. Amy. Viator, 37 (2006), 479-517.
Per una storia delle “apparizioni”: la Madonna di Tirano. Giorgio Cracco. Rivista
di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa, XLII (1, 2006), 25-63.
Die Innerlichkeit Franz Xavers. Zum 500. Geburtstag des Francisco de Javier.
Javier Melloni. Geist und Leben, 79 (Nov.-Dec., 2006), 423-439.
Thomas Murner in Frankfurt (1510-1513). Roman Fischer. Collectanea
Franciscana, 76 (3-4, 2006), 505-522.
Renaissance Revisions:A Brief Analysis and Critical Edition of Cincinnius’s Vita
S. Idae. A Revision of BHL 4143. David Collins. Analecta Bollandiana,
124 (Dec., 2006), 335-358.
Le origini dei cappuccini: una rilettura delle fonti. Giuseppe Bartolozzi,
ofmcap. Collectanea Franciscana, 76 (3-4, 2006), 523-551.
Ludwig Hätzers ,,Kreuzgang“ (1528-29): Ein Zeugnis täuferischer Bildpropaganda. Alejandro Zorin. Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 97 (2006),
137-164.

488

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

Zur Auffindung der ältesten Augsburger Kirchenordnung von 1534. Mit einer
Edition der Handschrift. Sabine Arend. Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte,
97 (2006), 6-27.
Das Itinerar des Wolfgang Musculus (1536). Henning Reinhardt. Archiv für
Reformationsgeschichte, 97 (2006), 28-82.
‘All our books do be sent into other countreys and translated’: Henrician
Polemic in its International Context.Tracey A. Sowerby. English Historical
Review, CXXI (Dec., 2006), 1271-1299.
Aux origines de la polémique anticopernicienne (II). Michel-Pierre Lerner.
Revue des Sciences Philosophiques et Théologiques, 90 (July-Sept., 2006),
409-454.
Mort et mémoire: les portraits de réformateurs protestants au XVI e siècle.
Olivier Christin. Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte, 55 (4, 2005),
383-400.
Filius Perditionis:The Propagandistic Use of a Bible Motif in Sixteenth-Century
Spanish Evangelical Bible Translations. Rady Roldan-Figueroa. Sixteenth
Century Journal, XXXVII (Winter, 2006), 1027-1055.
Il Beato Pietro Fabro. Carlos Coupeau, S.I., and Hans Zollner, S.I. La Civiltà
Cattolica, 157, IV (Dec. 16, 2006), 534-547.
L’oratoria funeraria nel Cinquecento. Le composizioni di Benedetto Varchi nei
loro aspetti culturali e politici. Maria Fubini Luezzi. Rivista Storica Italiana,
CXVIII (Aug., 2006), 351-393.
Théodore de Bèze, pasteur et défenseur de la Foi (1519-1605). Jean-Marc
Berthoud. La Revue Reformée, LVII (Nov., 2006), 1-20.
Katharina Schütz Zell and Caspar Schwenckfeld: A Reassessment of Their
Relationship. Elsie Anne McKee. Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 97
(2006), 83-105.
Father Cancianus Tartarinus or Tarracinus, OSM (d.1608), Probably the Last
Servite Friar from the Reformation Period in Germany. Christopher A. M.
Mooney. Studi Storici dell’Ordine dei Servi di Maria, LV (2005), 19-54.
Sobre el nacimiento y procedencia de San Juan de Dios y su obra. José Luis
Martínez Gil. Hispania Sacra, LVIII (Jan.-June, 2006), 69-100.
The Passions of the Marian Martyrs: Lessons for the Anglican Communion.
Andrew Atherstone. Churchman, 120 (Autumn 2006), 199-212.
An Unequal Apportionment: The Conflict over Space Between Protestants and
Catholics at the Beginning of the Wars of Religion. Jérémie Foa. French
History, 20 (Dec., 2006), 369-386.
Holy Restraint: Religious Reform and Nuns’ Music in Early Modern Rome.
Kimberlyn Montford. Sixteenth Century Journal, XXXVII (Winter, 2006),
1007-1026.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

489

Schwäche und schöner Schein. Das Rom der Päpste im Europa des Barock 15721667.Wolfgang Reinhard. Historiche Zeitschrift, 283 (Oct., 2006), 281-318.
«Pittura detestabile». L’iconografia dell’eretico e dell’ateo tra Rinascimento e
Barocco. Luisa Simonutti. Rivista Storica Italiana, CXVIII (Aug., 2006),
557-606.
La circolazione dei libri e delle idee nella Provincia dei Cappuccini di Cosenza
tra Cinque e Seicento: la formazione culturale e il catalogo delle biblioteche.Vincenzo Criscuolo. Laurentianum, 47 (3, 2006), 439-571.
Mille Maeandris: Nicholas Owen, 1606-2006. Michael Hodgetts. Recusant
History, 28 (Oct., 2006), 177-191.
William Bishop as Roman Catholic Theologian and Polemicist. W. Brown
Patterson. Recusant History, 28 (Oct., 2006), 209-224.
“Spared not from tribulation”: Children in Early Modern Martyrologies. Sarah
Covington. Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 97 (2006), 165-183.
Was Adam the First Heretic? Diego de Simancas, Luis de Páramo, and the
Origins of Inquisitorial Practice. Kimberly Lynn Hossain. Archiv für
Reformationsgeschichte, 97 (2006), 184-210.
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Cas de conscience et affaires d’État: le ministère du confesseur royal en
Espagne sous Philippe III. Isabelle Poutrin. Revue de l’histoire moderne &
contemporaine, 53 (July-Sept., 2006), 7-28.
De la paix à la coexistence: la mise en œuvre de l’édit de Nantes en Normandie
au début du XVIIe siècle. Luc Daireaux. Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 97 (2006), 211-248.
Religious Toleration and Confessional Identity: Catholics and Protestants in
Seventeenth-Century Orange. S. Amanda Eurich. Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 97 (2006), 249-275.
The Statutes of Iona: text and context. Martin MacGregor. Innes Review, 57
(Autumn, 2006), 111-181.
Epigrammata contro Paolo Sarpi durante la ‘guerra delle scritture.’ Gian Luigi
Betti. Studi Storici dell’Ordine dei Servi di Maria, LV (2005), 173-188.
The Jacobean Diplomatic Fraternity and the Protestant Cause: Sir Isaac Wake
and the View from Savoy. Vivienne Larminie. English Historical Review,
CXXI (Dec., 2006), 1300-1326.
The long way from Atrecht college to Pope’s college: The Louvain theology
professor John Schinckelius before the Jansenist controversy 1611-1639.
Toon Quaghebeur. Augustiana, 56 (1-2, 2006), 93-121.
In luce et theatro totius orbis: The unsuccessful condemnation of De Dominis
by the Theological Faculty of Louvain (1616-1624). Toon Quaghebeur.
Cristianesimo nella Storia, XXVII (May, 2006), 447-469.

490

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

Mary Ward’s English Institute: The Apostolate as Self-Affirmation? Laurence
Lux-Sterritt. Recusant History, 28 (Oct., 2006), 192-208.
Les œuvres astrologiques de Padre Lodovico Zacconi (1555-1627) face à la censure ecclésiastique. Laurence Wuidar. Bulletin de l’Institut Historique
Belge de Rome, LXXV (2005), 5-26.
Notizie Historiche (continuazione). Giancarlo Caputi. Archivum Scholarum
Piarum, XXX (No. 60, 2006), 3-96.
Les guerres de Rohan (1620-1629) et la construction de l’identité cévenole.
Valérie Sottocasa. Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire du Protestantisme
Français, 152 (Oct.-Dec., 2006), 625-644.
Trinità, anima e apologia scientifica in Marin Mersenne. Natacha Fabbri. Annali
della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa,VIII (1-2, 2003), 53-82.
L’Escola Pia i els goigs. Joan Florensa i Parés. Archivum Scholarum Piarum,
XXX (No. 60, 2006), 103-119.
Chinese,Western, autograph and printed documents by Ferdinand Verbiest, s.j.
in Roman libraries, past and present (with special regard to astronomical
materials). Noël Golvers. Bulletin de l’Institut Historique Belge de Rome,
LXXV (2005), 27-56.
Henschen et Papebroch à Paris en 1662. Bernard Joassart. Analecta
Bollandiana, 124 (Dec., 2006), 359-400.
Profesión de fe de Cosme Maurudes, Obispo de Citio (Chipre) [1674]. José M.
Floristán Imízcoz. Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 72 (II, 2006), 349-381.
Tyrannie et tyrannicide selon Pierre Jurieu. Jean Hubac. Bulletin de la Société
de l’Histoire du Protestantisme Français, 152 (Oct.-Dec., 2006), 583-609.
La registrazione delle messe tra normativa generale e prassi locale: l’esempio
delle Province umbre dell’Osservanza francescana. Andrea Maiarelli.
Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, 99 (July-Dec., 2006), 527-550.
Judas-Friars of the Popish Plot: The Catholic Perspective on Dryden’s The
Spanish Fryar. Anne Barbeau Gardiner. Recusant History, 28 (Oct., 2006),
225-244.
William Talbot and Church Parties, 1688-1730. William Gibson. Journal of
Ecclesiastical History, 58 (Jan., 2007), 26-48.
La querelle quiétiste et l’exil de Fénelon. Georges Dole. Nouvelle Revue
Théologique, 129 (Jan.-Mar., 2007), 87-93.
Documentação Inédita de fins do século XVII sobre os Franciscanos em
Portugal. António Montes Moreira. Itinerarium (Braga), LI (Jan.-Dec.,
2005), 297-315.
La Chiesa e la lettura nell’Italia del Settecento. Patrizia Delpiano. Rivista
Storica Italiana, CXVIII (Aug., 2006), 394-445.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

491

Bishop Gilbert Burnet and Latitudinarian Episcopal Opposition to the
Occasional Conformity Bills, 1702-1704. Martin Greig. Canadian Journal of
History, 41 (Autumn, 2006), 247-262.
The Catholic London District in the Eighteenth Century. David Butler.
Recusant History, 28 (Oct., 2006), 245-268.
Die ,,fünfte Kolonne“. Geheimprotestanten im 18. Jahrhundert in der
Habsburgermonarchie und deren Inhaftierung in Konversionshäusern
(1752-1775). Martin Scheutz. Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische
Geschichtsforschung, 114 (3-4, 2006), 329-380.
La jurisdicción eclesiástica de la Real Capilla de Madrid (1753-1931). Beatriz
Comella. Hispania Sacra, LVIII (Jan.-June, 2006), 145-170.
Franciscanos Varatojanos acodem a Lisboa no Terramoto de 1755. António de
Sousa Araújo. Itinerarium (Braga), LI (Jan.-Dec., 2005), 371-409.
The Transformation of Female Orthodox Monasticism in Nizhnii Novgorod
Diocese, 1764-1929, in Comparative Perspective. William Wagner. Journal
of Modern History, 78 (Dec., 2006), 793-845.
El colegio jesuítico de San Juan Bautista de Monterrei-Verín: memorial del proceso de una expulsión. José Ramón Hernández Figueiredo and José David
Penín Martínez. Hispania Sacra, LVIII (Jan.-June, 2006), 101-141.
A reforma antijesuítica de Universidade Portuguesa pelo Marquês de Pombal.
José Eduardo Franco. Itinerarium (Braga), LI (Jan.-Dec., 2005), 411-444.
John Bede Brewer: Priest and Property. Janet E. Hollinshead. Recusant History,
28 (Oct., 2006), 269-284.
Un importante patrimonio ecclesiastico del Regno di Napoli: gli armenti della
SS. Annunziata di Sulmona. Alberto Tanturri. Nuova Rivista Storica, XC
(Sept.-Dec., 2006), 653-670.
P. Stefano Quadri de San Carlos. XXII Prepósito General de la Orden de las
Escuelas Pías (1720-1792). Adolfo García-Durán. Archivum Scholarum
Piarum, XXX (No. 60, 2006), 121-186.
The Building of Bristol’s First Post-Reformation Catholic Church and the Bitter
Struggle for Control. Kenneth Hankins. Recusant History, 28 (Oct., 2006),
285-309.
The Sacred, Secular Regime: Catholic Ritual and Revolutionary Politics in
Avignon, 1789-1791. Eric F. Johnson. French Historical Studies, 30 (Winter,
2007), 49-76.
Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Territorialkirchengeschichte. Theoretische und methodische Überlegungen zu
einem Forschungskonzept am Beispiel Deutschlands und Österreichs für
das 19. und frühe 20. Jahrhundert. Frank-Michael Kuhlemann. Zeitschrift
für Kirchengeschichte, 117 (2-3, 2006), 211-230.

492

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

Padre Bonfiglio Mura, OSM: la formazione, gli studi, i primi anni d’insegnamento (1825-1847). Odir Jacques Dias. Studi Storici dell’Ordine dei Servi
di Maria, LV (2005), 57-94.
Adolphe Monod (1802-1856), «La voix du Réveil». [No author.] La Revue
Reformée, LVII (Nov., 2006), 20-30.
Un début d’inculturation en Chine au dix-neuvième siècle. Le père Joseph
Gonnet, jésuite (1815-1895). Bernadette Truchet. Mémoire Spiritaine, No.
23 (1, 2006), 59-79.
Doctrinal Development and the Demons of History: The Historiography of
John Henry Newman. James Matthew Wilson. Religion and the Arts, 10 (4,
2006), 497-523.
Notre agent à Corfou ou les adventures ioniennes du père Lœvenbruck (18481849). René Charrier. Mémoire Spiritaine, No. 23 (1, 2006), 31-58.
The Fantasy of Reunion: The Rise and Fall of the Association for the Promotion
of the Unity of Christendom. Mark D. Chapman. Journal of Ecclesiastical
History, 58 (Jan., 2007), 49-74.
Le pere Augustin Planque (1826-1907) et la création du vicariate apostolique
du Dahomey, confié à la société des Missions Africaines. Pierre Trichet.
Mémoire Spiritaine, No. 23 (1, 2006), 10-30.
The Burgos Manifiesto: The Authentic Text and Its Genuine Author. John N.
Schumacher, S.J. Philippine Studies, 54 (2, 2006), 153-304.
Scots Pilgrimages to Rome (1877-1903): Educational fieldwork for Victorians
and Edwardians? Raymond McCluskey. Innes Review, 57 (Autumn, 2006),
182-205.
Les lectures de l’art chrétien en France et en Europe au tournant des années
1880-1920. Autour du médiévalisme. Daniel Russo. Cahiers de civilisation
médiévale, 49 (Oct.-Dec., 2006), 373-380.
«La obediencia constante y leal a la autoridad pública». León XIII y el comienzo
de la regencia de María Cristina. Andrés Martínez Esteban. Hispania Sacra,
LVIII (Jan.-June, 2006), 171-222.
Católicos y Liberales. La Iglesia en el cambio de siglo (1885-1914). Andrés
Martínez Esteban. Revista Española de Teología, LXVI (Apr.-June, 2006),
225-298.
En des lieux et en des temps agités, un missionnaire comme beaucoup
d’autres: le père Eugène Ehrhart (1865-1949). Gérard Vieira. Mémoire
Spiritaine, No. 23 (1, 2006), 80-113.
Potere e religione negli studi di Michele Rosi sulla prima età moderna. Simone
Ragagli. Archivio Storico Italiano, CLXIV (4, 2006), 713-752.
The Baptist Union of Southern Africa and Apartheid. Frederick Hale. Journal of
Church and State, 48 (Autumn, 2006), 753-777.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

493

The Malolos Congress of 1898 and the University of Santo Tomas. Fidel
Villarroel, OP. Philippiniana Sacra, XLI (Sept.-Dec., 2006), 481-498.
Generations of Decline: Religious Change in 20th-Century Britain. Alasdair
Crockett and David Voas. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 45
(Dec., 2006), 567-584.
«De la valeur historique du dogme» (1905). L’epilogo del confronto di Maurice
Blondel con lo storicismo critico di Loisy. Giacomo Losito. Cristianesimo
nella Storia, XXVII (May, 2006), 471-510.
L’Ottavo Concilio Provinciale Milanese (1906) tra la difesa dell’antico e l’apertura al nuovo: il rifiuto del pensiero liberale e l’impulso delle iniziative
sociali. Carlo Pioppi. Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum, 37 (1, 2005), 139225.
Das historische Institut der Dominikaner-Provinz Teutonia: Eine Spurensuche.
Klaus-Bernward Springer. Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 117 (2-3,
2006), 231-265.
Pio XI e Mussolini. Primi Provvedimenti del Governo in favore della Chiesa.
Giovanni Sale, S.J. La Civiltà Cattolica, 157, III (Sept. 16, 2006), 457-470.
Le «dimissioni» di don Sturzo da segretario del Ppi. Giovanni Sale, S.J. La Civiltà
Cattolica, 157, IV (Oct. 21, 2006), 114-126.
Da «Maria Weißenstein» a «Santa Maria di Pietralba». Note sulla storia del santuario e convento dei Servi di Maria (con particolare attenzione agli anni
1925-1931). Martin M. Lintner, OSM. Studi Storici dell’Ordine dei Servi di
Maria, LV (2005), 97-122.
L’attentato a Mussolini e la violenza contro le associazioni cattoliche. Giovanni
Sale, S.I. La Civiltà Cattolica, 157, IV (Dec. 2, 2006), 425-447.
Luigi Stefanini e la censura del S. Offizio del 1929. Stéphane Oppes, O.F.M.
Antonianum, LXXXI (Oct.-Dec., 2006), 615-632.
Il Fondo Marega: contenuti, potenzialità e significati della collezione di un
singolare missionario-nipponista. Laura Moretti. Salesianum, LXVIII (Oct.Dec., 2006), 745-781.
The Dominicans and the Journal L’Art sacré. Aidan Nichols, O.P. New Blackfriars, 88 (Jan., 2007), 25-45.
Alois Hudal—ein Anti-Pacelli? Zur Diskussion um die Haltung des Vatikans
gegenüber dem Nationalsozialismus. Dominik Burkard. Zeitschrift für
Religions– und Geistesgeschichte, 59 (1, 2007), 61-89.
Tears, Protocols and Actions in a Wartime Triangle: Pius XII, Roncalli and
Barlas. Dina Porat. Cristianesimo nella Storia, XXVII (May, 2006), 599-632.
«Wohlan mit Gott, zum Siege oder Tod!» Zum Stellenwert der Religion in der
militärischen Propaganda der Schweiz während des Zweiten Weltkriegs.
Christof Dejung. Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte, 55 (3, 2005),
307-324.

494

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

La etapa madrileña de Ignacio Errandonea (1941-1947). Jesús Sanjosé Del
Campo. Miscelánea Comillas, 64 (July-Dec., 2006), 451-501.
Le père Jean Morizur et la formation du clergé indigène en Afrique Équatoriale
Française (1946-1953). Côme Kinata. Mémoire Spiritaine, No. 23 (1, 2006),
114-146.
Le cardinal Eugène Tisserant, témoin de la charité. Paule Hennequin. Bulletin
de Littérature Ecclésiastique, CVII (July-Sept., 2006), 297-306.
I rapporti tra cattolici e ortodossi russi nell’impegno del gesuita Paul Mailleuz.
Constantin Simon. La Civiltà Cattolica, 157, IV (Dec. 2, 2006), 437-447.
Il ruolo del monastero di Chevetogne al Concilio Vaticano II. Emmanuel Lanne,
O.S.B. Cristianesimo nella Storia, XXVII (May, 2006), 513-545.
El clero contestatario de finales del franquismo. El caso Fabara. Pablo Martín de
Santa Olalla Saludes. Hispania Sacra, LVIII (Jan.-June, 2006), 223-260.
15 Jahre kirchengeschichtliche DDR-Forschung im wiedervereinten Deutschland—ein Rückblick und Ausblick. Claudia Lepp. Theologische Rundschau,
70 (Nov., 2005), 455-503.
American and Canadian
«Le Ciel et la Terre nous ont parlé». Comment les missionnaires du Canada
français de l’époque coloniale interprétèrent le tremblement de terre de
1663. Lynn Berry. Revue d’Histoire de l’Amérique Française, 60 (SummerAutumn, 2006), 11-35.
E Pluribus Unum? Quaker Approaches to Plurality and Unity in Pennsylvania
(1682-1764). Stephen W. Angell. Quaker Religious Thought, Nos. 106-107
(Nov., 2006), 55-67.
Jesuits, Huguenots, and the Apocalypse: The Origins of America’s First French
Book. Evan Haefeli and Owen Stanwood. Proceedings of the American
Antiquarian Society, 116 (1, 2006), 59-119.
The Origins of Southern Evangelicalism: Revivalism in South Carolina, 17001740.Thomas J. Little. Church History, 75 (Dec., 2006), 768-808.
The Southern Way of Death: The Meaning of Death in Antebellum White
Evangelical Culture. Randy J. Sparks. The Southern Quarterly, XLIV (Fall,
2006), 32-50.
Fighting Quakers: A Jet Black Whiteness. Jennifer Connerley. Pennsylvania
History, 73 (Autumn, 2006), 373-411.
“The New Epoch of Belief”: The Radical and Religious Transformation in
Nineteenth-Century New England. David M. Robinson. New England
Quarterly, LXXIX (Dec., 2006), 557-577.
Irish Nationalism and Orange Unionism in Canada: A Reappraisal. Robert
McLaughlin. Éire-Ireland, XLI (Fall-Winter, 2006), 80-109.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

495

Textual Healing: Mainstream Protestants and the Therapeutic Text, 1900-1925.
Pamela E. Klassen. Church History, 75 (Dec., 2006), 809-848.
Rembert Sorg and King of Martyrs Priory: Part I. James Flint, O.S.B. American
Benedictine Review, 57 (Dec., 2006), 410-454.
A Mission Account—Argentina 1921-1941. Gerhard P. Huebner. Concordia
Historical Institute Quarterly, 79 (Fall, 2006), 138-159.
Bridging the Gap between the Sacred and the Secular in the History of
American Foreign Relations. Andrew Preston. Diplomatic History, 30
(Nov., 2006), 783-812.
Religion and Politics at the Border: Canadian Church Support for American
Vietnam War Resisters. Donald W. Maxwell. Journal of Church and State,
48 (Autumn, 2006), 807-829.
Ronald Reagan and the Splintering of the Christian Right. David John Marley.
Journal of Church and State, 48 (Autumn, 2006), 851-868.
Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush: Faith, Foreign Policy, and an Evangelical
Presidential Style. D. Jason Berggren and Nicol C. Rae. Presidential Studies
Quarterly, 36 (Dec., 2006), 606-632.
The Common Ground Initiative: A Historical Perspective. Martin Zielinski.
Chicago Studies, 45 (Fall-Winter, 2006), 280-297.
Latin American
Apuntes de Historia para una mejor comprensión del México Contemporáneo
(Cuarta Parte). Elizabeth Serna Monroy. Efemérides Mexicana, 24 (MayAug., 2006), 227-257.
Stone, Mortar, and Memory: Church Construction and Communities in Late
Colonial Mexico City. Matthew D. O’Hara. Hispanic American Historical
Review, 86 (Nov., 2006), 647-680.
Pilgrimage and Patronage in Brazil: A Paradigm for Social Relations and
Religious Diversity. Sidney M. Greenfield and Antonio Mourão Cavalcante.
Luso-Brazilian Review, 43 (2, 2006), 63-89.

OTHER BOOKS RECEIVED

Amarante, Alfonso V., Antonio Donato, Adam Owczarski (Eds.). Bibliografia
Gerardina (1811-2005). (Materdomini: Editrice San Gerardo. 2006. Pp. 228.
Paperback.) A bibliography of St. Gerardo Maiella (1726-1755).
Aubert, R. (Ed.). Dictionnaire d’Histoire et de Géographie Ecclésiastiques:
Fascicule 171: Krafft-Kutschker. (Paris: Letouzey et Ané. 2006. Cols. 7691024. €52.80 paperback.) The longest article in this fascicle is the one on
the Kulturkampf by R. Lill (cols. 970-983). Thomas J. Shelley has contributed articles on Cardinal John Krol (cols. 862-867) and the Ku Klux Klan
(cols. 960-962).
Bales, Susan Ridgely. When I was a Child: Children’s Interpretations of First
Communion. (Chapel Hill:The University of North Carolina Press. 2005. Pp.
xiv, 257. $55.00 clothbound; $19.95 paperback.)
Bergant, Dianne, C.S.A. Israel’s Story: Part One. (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical
Press. 2006. Pp. viii, 99. $9.95 paperback.)
Bruce, Susannah Ural. The Harp and the Eagle: Irish Volunteers and the
Union Army, 1861-1865. (New York: New York University Press. 2006. Pp.
xiii, 308. $22.00 paperback; $70.00 clothbound.)
Carrere, Ernest Daniel. Creating a Human World: A New Psychological and
Religious Anthropology in Dialogue with Freud, Heidegger, and Kierkegaard. (Scranton: University of Scranton Press. [Distributed by the
University of Chicago Press.] 2006. Pp. xxii, 281. $30.00 paperback.)
Chavalas, Mark W. (Ed.). The Ancient Near East: Historical Sources in Translation. (Oxford and Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing. 2006. Pp. xxii,
445. Paperback.)
Dawson, Christopher. The Movement Towards Christian Unity in the Nineteenth Century. Edited by Rene Kollar. A Wimmer Memorial Lecture.
(Latrobe, Pa.: Saint Vincent Archabbey Publications. 2006. Pp. 66. $8.75
paperback.) Dawson delivered this lecture in 1960.
Empereur, James, and Eduardo Fernández. La Vida Sacra: Contemporary
Hispanic Sacramental Theology. (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers, Inc. 2006. Pp. viii, 336. $65.00 clothbound; $27.95 paperback.)
Flynn,Vinny. 7 Secrets of the Eucharist. (Stockbridge, Mass.: MercySong. 2006.
Pp. xx, 126. Paperback.)
Fyson, Donald. Magistrates, Police, and People: Everyday Criminal Justice in
Quebec and Lower Canada, 1764-1837. (Toronto, Buffalo, and London:
University of Toronto Press. 2006. Pp. xviii, 468. $65.00 clothbound.)
496

OTHER BOOKS RECEIVED

497

Gelpi, Donald L. Closer Walk: Confessions of a U.S. Jesuit Yat. (Lanham, Md.:
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 2006. Pp. ix, 418. $49.95
paperback.)
Huebner, Chris K. A Precarious Peace: Yoderian Explorations on Theology,
Knowledge, and Identity. (Waterloo, Ontario, and Scottsdale, Pa.: Herald
Press. 2006. Pp. 248. $18.99 paperback.)
Knirck, Jason K. Imagining Ireland’s Independence: The Debates over the
Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,
Inc. 2006. Pp. xii, 202. $24.95 paperback; $72.00 clothbound.)
Lorandini, Cinzia. Famiglia e impresa: I Salvadori di Trento nei secoli XVII e
XVIII. (Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino. 2006. Pp. 383. €25,00 paperback.)
Mackey, James P. Christianity and Creation: The Essence of the Christian
Faith and Its Future among Religions. [A Systematic Theology.]. (New York
and London: Continuum. 2006. Pp. xix, 401. $120.00 clothbound; $34.95
paperback.)
McClay,Wilfred M. (Ed.). Figures in the Carpet: Finding the Human Person in
the American Past. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing
Company. 2007. Pp. x, 506. $25.00 paperback.)
Moore, John C. Pope Innocent III (1160/61-1216): To Root Up and to Plant.
[The Medieval Mediterranean: Peoples, Economies and Cultures, 400-1500,
Volume 57.] (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers. 2003. Pp. xx, 316. $114.00;
€39.)
Musto, Ronald G. Apocalypse in Rome: Cola di Rienzo and the Politics of the
New Age. (Berkeley: University of California Press. 2003. Pp. xx, 436.
$60.00.)
Nickelsburg, George W. E. Resurrection, Immortality, and Eternal Life in
Intertestamental Judaism and Early Christianity. [Harvard Theological
Studies, 56.] Expanded Edition. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press. 2006. Pp. xxi, 366. $27.95 paperback.) Originally published in 1972.
Niemier, Roch, O.F.M. In the Footsteps of Francis and Clare. (Cincinnati: St.
Anthony Messenger Press. 2006. Pp. xvi, 208. $19.95 paperback.) A guide to
the holy places in Assisi, Rome, etc.
Pearce, Joseph. Small is Still Beautiful: Economics as if Families
Mattered. (Wilmington, Del.: ISI [Intercollegiate Studies Institute] Books.
2006. Pp. xx, 336. $18.00 paperback.)
Riesen, Richard A. Professor A.C.Cheyne. An Appreciation.(Edinburgh: Scottish
Church History Society. 2006. Pp. v, 110.) Cheyne was a minister of the
Church of Scotland and professor of ecclesiastical history in the University
of Edinburgh from 1964 to 1986.

498

OTHER BOOKS RECEIVED

Robinson, Thomas A. Mastering New Testament Greek: Essential Tools for
Students. (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers. 2007. Pp. ix, 230. $19.95
paperback.) CD Rom included.
Sacré, Theodericus, Iosephus Tusiani, Thomas Deneire (Eds.). Musae Saeculi
XX Latinae—Acta Selecta. [Institut Historique Belge de Rome, Bibliothèque, LVIII.] (Brussels: Institut Historique Belge de Rome. 2006. Pp. 374.
Paperback.)
Schallenberg, Peter. Liebe und Subjektivität: Das Gelingen des Lebens im
Schatten des „amour pur“ als Programm theologischer Ethik.
[Münsterische Beiträge zur Theologie, Band 62.] (Münster: Aschendorff
Verlag. 2003. Pp. vi, 281. €39.)
Schnettger,Matthias,and Marcello Verga (Eds.).L’Impero e l’Italia nella prima età
moderna: Das Reich und Italien in der Frühen Neuzeit. (Bologna: Società
editrice il Mulino. 2003. Pp. 497. €32,00 paperback.) Among the articles published here are “Reichsitalien als Thema in den Beziehungen zwischen Kaiser
und Papst. Der Fall Borgo Val di Taro,” by Alexander Koller (pp. 323-345), and
“La concessione del titolo di granduca e la «coronazione» di Cosimo I fra
papato e Impero (1569-1572),” by Alessandra Contini (pp. 417-438).
Seidel Menchi, Silvana, and Diego Quaglioni. Coniugi nemici: La separazione
in Italia dal XII al XVIII secolo. [Istituto trentino di cultura, Annali
dell’Istituto storico italo-germanico in Trento, Quaderni, 53. I processi matrimoniali degli archivi ecclesiastici italiani,Vol. I.] (Bologna: Società editrice
il Mulino. 2000. Pp. 570. €33,05.)
Sellner, Albert Christian. Immerwährender Päpstkalender. (Frankfurt am
Main: Eichborn Verlag. 2006. Pp. 422. €30,00 clothbound.) A pope with a
biographical sketch is assigned to each day of the year beginning with
Gregory XIII on January 1 and ending with St. Sylvester I on December
31. A glossary, a chronological list of the popes, a select bibliography, and
an alphabetical index complete the volume.
Silverblatt, Irene. Modern Inquisitions: Peru and the Colonial Origins of the
Civilized World. (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. 2004. Pp. xvi, 299.
$79.95 clothbound; $22.95 paperback.)
Sing, Susan Saint. Francis and the San Damiano Cross: Meditations on
Spiritual Transformation. (Cincinnati: St. Anthony Messenger Press. 2006.
Pp. xii, 104. $9.95 paperback.)
Stein, Edith. An Investigation Concerning the State. Ed. and Trans. Marianne
Sawicki. [The Collected Works of Edith Stein, Sister Teresa Benedicta of
the Cross, Discalced Carmelite, 1891-1942,Volume Ten.] (Washington, D.C.:
ICS Publications. 2006. Pp. XXX, 202. $13.95 paperback.)
Suzuki, Mihoko, and Roseanna Dufault (Eds.). Diversifying the Discourse: The
Florence Howe Award for Outstanding Feminist Scholarship, 19902004. (New York: Modern Language Association. 2006. Pp. xxvii, 342. $22.00
paperback; $40.00 clothbound.)

OTHER BOOKS RECEIVED

499

Sweeney, Douglas A., and Allen C. Guelzo (Eds.). The New England
Theology: From Jonathan Edwards to Edwards Amasa Park. (Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic. 2006. Pp. 320. $29.99 paperback.)
Tomko, Jozef Cardinal. On Missionary Roads. Translated by Lubomír J.
Strečok, Sister Mercedes Voytko, SSCM, and Sister Anna Catherina Melichar,
O.S.F. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press. 2006. Pp. xii, 390. Paperback.) Cardinal
Tomko was prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of the
Peoples from 1985 to 2001. The book is divided by continents and countries and is profusely illustrated with color photographs and maps.
Walsch, Neale Donald. Home with God: In a Life That Never Ends. (New
York: Atria Books, a trademark of Simon and Schuster, Inc. 2007. Pp. x,
326. $14.00 paperback.)
Walsh, Jerome T. Ahab: The Construction of a King. [Interfaces.] (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press. 2006. Pp. xv, 125. $14.95 paperback.)
Walsh, Michael (Ed.). Pocket Dictionary of Popes. (London and New York:
Burnes & Oates, A Continuum imprint. 2006. Pp. xvi, 168. Paperback.) The
pontiffs are listed in alphabetical order, each with a brief biographical
sketch. There are no bibliographical references, but there is an eight-page
glossary at the end.
Woods, Thomas E., Jr. The Church Confronts Modernity: Catholic Intellectuals
and the Progressive Era. (New York: Columbia University Press. 2007. Pp.
228. $22.00 paperback.) Originally published in 2004 and reviewed by
Margaret Mary Reher ante, XCI (April, 2005), 393-394.