Papers by Christopher F Black
The Journal of Modern History, Dec 1, 1997
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Apr 1, 2015
Re-forming the Church in Italy and creating a more respectable Christian society, as desired by r... more Re-forming the Church in Italy and creating a more respectable Christian society, as desired by reformers from, say, Girolamo Savonarola, G.M. Giberti, Angela Merici and Girolamo Miani to Gregorio Barbarigo and Paolo Segneri, was daunting, and none would have been too complaisant about ‘success’ by the time of the great Jesuit preacher Segneri’s death in 1694. Most would have concurred that the Church was more effectively structured than in Savonarola’s day, with greater value attached to Christian morality, possibly a more caring society, and not threatened by a theological revolution. Barbarigo, Segneri and a Pope like Innocent XI, knew they must continue reforming, combat human frailty; they had the enthusiasm to cajole others to continue campaigning.
Control over society and religious life took many forms, and we have already encountered facets o... more Control over society and religious life took many forms, and we have already encountered facets of this in considering the powers of bishops and their vicars, in the increased influence of parish priests, with charitable institutions that could restrict as well as comfort, and in the educational policies and practices of Sunday schools. However, the Inquisition is most associated with Catholic repression, and judged the chief weapon of the ‘Counter Reformation’. The Inquisition tribunals could be brutally repressive, but some of their procedures can be positively interpreted as re-education towards a better Christian life, eradicating superstitions and attempts at magical practices that few would welcome continuing. The first trial of the miller Menocchio (Domenico Scandella), and the early trials of the Friulian benandanti, night-battlers, can be seen both as learning processes for inquisitors, and re-education exercises to induce right thinking in the accused.1 Some activities of the early Inquisition featured in Chapter 1, while Chapter 3 outlined the basic structures of the Roman Inquisition. This chapter will look more closely at procedures, targets, effects and interactions with society.
Catholic Historical Review, Mar 1, 2022
Renaissance Quarterly, 2006
religious controversy. While articulating a conventional late medieval piety, the bardic poets we... more religious controversy. While articulating a conventional late medieval piety, the bardic poets were focused primarily on the preservation of Gaelic political and social traditions. Micheál MacCraith posits the pragmatism of Catholic political writers in their response to shifting diplomatic circumstances in the early Stuart period, as they wrestled with the problem of accepting King James I as lawful ruler of Ireland in matters temporal. And in a colorful account of early seventeenthcentury Drogheda, Brian Jackson explains how a dispute among the Catholic clergy there raised searching questions about rights of property and jurisdiction in the milieu of the Tridentine renewal. In his concluding reflection, John Morrill stimulatingly aerates the thematic content of the book, suggesting his own chronology for the Catholic response to the Reformation. He is rightly warm in his welcome for this contextualizing of early modern Irish religious history within British archipelagic and European continental historiography. The success of this collection lies not so much, perhaps, in its elucidation of contemporary sectarian tensions, but rather in its conveying of the texture of relations between and within the confessions in early modern Ireland. This is achieved through an appropriately proportionate colligation of religious issues with those concerning politics, race, and culture. As Morrill well says, “If this book has not answered that central question in Irish historiography, ‘why did the Reformation fail?’, it has at least changed the question” (236). COLM LENNON National University of Ireland, Maynooth
The Sixteenth century journal, 1990
... Titles of confraternities and other institutions are not translated and churches, saints and ... more ... Titles of confraternities and other institutions are not translated and churches, saints and personal names are given in their Italian form (eg S. Rocco, Carlo Borromeo), except in obvious cases where the anglicised version is very well known (eg St Peter's). ...
Renaissance Quarterly, 2008
The Council of Trent, operating in three separate periods (1545–47, 1550–51 and 1562–63), was one... more The Council of Trent, operating in three separate periods (1545–47, 1550–51 and 1562–63), was one of the major Councils of the Church, but historically one of the most significant attempts to produce a body of legislation. It was and is important, whether one criticises or praises it for what it did or did not do. It has been heavily attacked on all sides. For some, a general council of the Church was inaugurated to attempt reconciliation between ‘Protestants’ and the Roman Catholic Church. It certainly concluded in general as an affirmation of the most conservative theological doctrines, intransigent against doubters, and with norms for ensuring that such views and practices prevailed in its aftermath. Protestants might have deemed it irrelevant as well as a betrayal, but they had to take cognisance of it as it guided the Roman Catholic opponents’ behaviour against them, and philo-Protestants within the Catholic areas. Catholics have diversely criticised the legislation for being too weak or too authoritarian.
This book is primarily concerned with the period after the closure of the Council of Trent, and t... more This book is primarily concerned with the period after the closure of the Council of Trent, and the response to the reformations once the Council had set guidelines. However, the impact of the Reformation ideas and attitudes earlier has to be considered to understand the real or perceived threats in the eyes of the hierarchies, or lesser anti-Protestant campaigners. The impact and perceptions affected the course and rulings of the Council, the activity of control and repression independent of the Council, and policies post-Trent, whatever their relationship to Trent. Also an understanding of the real extent of Protestant appeals within Italy up to the 1560s will help us comprehend the nature of the ‘success’ of the Tridentine Reform.
Renaissance Quarterly, Jun 21, 2007
Heresy, Culture, and Religion in Early Modern Italy: Contexts and Contestations. Edited by Ronald... more Heresy, Culture, and Religion in Early Modern Italy: Contexts and Contestations. Edited by Ronald K. Delph, Michelle M. Fontaine, and John Jeffries Martin. [Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies Series, 76.] (Kirksville, Missouri: Truman State University Press. 2006. Pp. xiv, 265. $4995.) This handsome volume is a Festschrift in honor of Elisabeth Gleason. As such, one might expect essays reinforcing her fairly traditional approach to early modern Italian religious history, but it contains some surprises in the introduction and twelve collected essays. In the opening pages, John Martin abstracts the contributions, but adds the argument that an intellectual "tyranny" of traditional monolithic images about early modern Italian history, not to mention the radical oversimplification they require, has now been overcome. The images are well known: victimized spirituali, proto-totalitarian intransigenti, 1542 as the history turning point, et cetera. Instead, historians have found and adopted a "complexity," Martin suggests, for which there was "little room" in early histories of the Counter-Reformation. Part one, "Reformers and heretics: new perspectives," then follows with pieces by Massimo Firpo, Michelle Fontaine, and Paul Murphy. These hold together nicely, showing three different reasons why old categories about who was or was not a heretic, when heresy grew or was repressed in Italy, and when it was not, simply no longer work. In his essay, Firpo speculates-in the absence of evidence-on the reasons behind Lorenzo Lotto's entry, just before his death, into an oblate community at the Holy House of Loreto. Readers of Firpo's other works will likely find his insistence that "overly rigid categories" don't work in explaining Lotto more than a little remarkable. Fontaine's study on the rapid weakening of heretical thought in Modena after 1550-well before the so-called intransigenti allegedly seized control of the direction of the Church-is excellent. This piece, plus Murphy's treatment of inconsistent supervision over preachers in Mantua under Ercole Gonzaga, a bishop considered an "iron" ruler even by Ludwig von Pastor, will leave readers craving more. Part two, on the cultural contexts of reform, which features contributions by Ronald Delph, Frederick McGinness, Paolo Simoncelli, Paul Grendler, and Marion Leathers Kuntz, is less coherent. These essays show the broad context of reform action, but the subjects are disparate. Delph illustrates the attractiveness of humanist notions of restoration among supporters of dredging operations on the Tiber, where ideological motivations mixed with more mundane economic concerns. Grendler shows why the standard notion of early modern universities as bastions of traditional learning resistant to change needs revision. Students driven to attend the University of Padua by tradition, like Gasparo Contarini, later took part in decidedly non-traditional reform, promoting new learning. Kuntz delineates the union of ideal political and religious justice in the doge of sixteenth-century Venice, returning to the written works of Guillame Postel, which, over the years, she has mined so thoroughly. …
The American Historical Review, Oct 1, 1991
... Titles of confraternities and other institutions are not translated and churches, saints and ... more ... Titles of confraternities and other institutions are not translated and churches, saints and personal names are given in their Italian form (eg S. Rocco, Carlo Borromeo), except in obvious cases where the anglicised version is very well known (eg St Peter's). ...
Confraternitas, Jul 19, 2015
Cambridge University Press eBooks, 2017
The Catholic Church appealed to the senses, as well as — or instead of — the intellect. Even in u... more The Catholic Church appealed to the senses, as well as — or instead of — the intellect. Even in using the Word, and commenting on the Word, preachers summoned up images, just as the Spiritual Exercises encouraged visualisation. If some early Catholic Reformers wanted simplicity, clarity and asceticism, much of the Catholic reforming effort from the later sixteenth century encouraged both spiritual uplift and education through the eyes and ears. The church environment should be fit for hearing and seeing; paintings be narratives to educate, or visual encouragement to contemplation; statues would enhance the cults of old and new Saints; music should move the soul, and accentuate the emotion of key words. Outside the churches a religious community spirit could be celebrated by colourful and noisy musical processions. The faithful were entertained and enticed by singing, theatrical action or display. This chapter will consider some aspects of the sensual and environmental enticement, education and occasionally fearful admonition. Rome in particular, under the papal leadership of especially Sixtus V, Paul V, Urban VIII and Alexander VII, was at the forefront of an expensive campaign to conquer through display and involvement. Alexander VII in particular wanted Rome to be seen as the Religious Theatre for the Catholic Church.1
In early modern Italy the parish was not a standard fixed concept, or unit, controlling the relig... more In early modern Italy the parish was not a standard fixed concept, or unit, controlling the religious life of people within a clearly defined area. The Council of Trent aimed to create this, from a mess of systems.1
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Papers by Christopher F Black