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Catholic reformers cited pluralism and absenteeism as the chief sins of elite clergy and the cause of the church's ignorance and poverty. Reformers encouraged bishops to reside in their dioceses, educate their flocks, and investigate both theological and behavioral abuses. This line of argument ignored the practical realities that drove pluralism and absenteeism and those clergy who pursued reform mandates in their dioceses and benefices. Paris de' Grassi (ca. 1460-1528), the bishop of Pesaro, was a reforming pluralist whose expertise and ambition were financed by his work as the papal master of ceremonies in Rome. This prevented him from residing in his bishopric, but influenced his understanding of the bishop's responsibility as an educator and reformer of liturgical practice. This article shows how de' Grassi contributed intellectually as an author of liturgical guides and locally as a liturgical patron to the church of SS. Celso and Giuliano in Rome, substituting these reforming activities for a presence in his see. The notion of the reforming pluralist expands the definition of reform, as not all reformers considered their own pluralism and absenteeism to be abuse, nor did their reforms focus exclusively on the diocese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1598, the year that Duke Cesare d'Este (1562-1628) lost Ferrara to papal forces and moved the capital of his duchy to Modena, the papal Inquisition in Modena was elevated from vicariate to full inquisitorial status. Despite initial clashes with the duke, the tribunal began not only to prosecute heretics and blasphemers, but also professing Jews. Such a policy towards infidels by an organization appointed to inquire into heresy ("inquisitio haereticae pravitatis") seems unusual. How did the papal Inquisition come to assume authority and prosecute Jews in early modern Italy? Examination of trial procedure of Jews as opposed to that of Christians will help decide if there is anything distinctive about the Holy Office's treatment of Jews. It will be argued that inquisitorial tribunals were disarming the Jewish threat to Christian society, not for its own sake, but as an attempt to impose social and religious discipline on the Christian community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dispute between social versus religious interpretations of anti-Semitism pervaded the whole history of scholarly research. Whereas socio-historical interpretations had underlined the social aspects, current studies on anti-Semitism focus on religious motifs. The thesis that anti-Semitism was a result of a religious conflict, however, is far more alleged than substantially proved by the sources. So it seems necessary to go back to the sources. Therefore this paper analyzes the language of the Venetian Catholic newspaper II Veneto Cattolico/La Difesa from the foundation of the newspaper in 1867 up to the First World War. Just a few years before the term anti-Semitism was coined, Catholic journalists of Venice had created the new semantic of secular anti-Semitism. They turned back to religious issues when they tried to systematize their anti-Jewish sentiments. Thus one can observe in the coverage of the Venetian Catholic journals the invention of an anti-Semitic tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the origin and development of Salesians of Don Bosco, a Catholic organization which started in Turin, Italy. It recounts the early life and struggle of St. John Bosco, the founder of Salesians. It relates the expansion of the Italian religious community in Australia and the Pacific. It discusses the partnership of Salesians with families during crisis in Sydney.

In recent years scholars have attempted to reconsider the place of religion within Italian Futurism. A tendency to secularize the avant-garde has ensured that Futurism is often assumed to be in opposition to religion. This paper reassesses this notion by examining the religious dimension of the work of the Futurist artist Umberto Boccioni. In particular, it examines the mother images the artist produced during the early years of the Futurist movement. The paper argues that in Boccioni's 1912 work Matter (Materia) the maternal figures of the Virgin Mary and the Catholic Church coalesce through a process akin to what Sigmund Freud described as "condensation." During the years preceding the work's execution, Boccioni was recording the development of the Catholic Modernist Crisis in his diary. This crisis culminated in 1907 with the papal encyclical Pascendi Dominici Greg is. At this time, the Catholic Church was experiencing increasing pressure to adapt to new ways of thinking about ecclesiastical history. In this paper, Matter is reread as an investigation into the place of the Catholic Church in the modern world. In seeking to account for the religious significance of Boccioni's maternal imagery, this paper challenges the claim that the early Futurist movement was wholly anti-Christian in orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article announces an upcoming 22 to 24 My 2013 international conference on the national churches in Rome, Italy, from 1450 to 1650.

The contribution focuses on the dissemination of vernacular Bible translations in late medieval Italy. After a short description of the status questionis in the research of vernacular Bible in Italy, the contribution will illustrate which processes of cultural transmission and translation contributed to the diffusion of the biblical texts. "the essay will also evaluate the role played by lay people in reading and writing activities connected to the biblical text and in the 'domestication' of biblical knowledge: the use of biblical manuscripts and early prints in domestic, private, and semi-private space. Far from being passive recipients, lay people were involved in every stage of the dissemination of the Holy Writ: as dedicatees of the translations, as scribes, as collectors, as distributors, and as readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During his pontificate, Pius xi (1922–39) vigorously promoted the ‘export’ of the Italian model of Catholic Action to the rest of the Church as the organisational blueprint for Catholic lay activism, particularly in the battle against atheistic Communism. He was assisted by Mgr, later Cardinal, Giuseppe Pizzardo, the head of Italian Catholic Action. The successes and failures of this campaign are tracked through documents available since the opening of the files of the apostolic nunciatures and delegations and the Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs section of the Secretariat of State for Pius xi's pontificate in the Vatican Archives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article traces by a process of synthesis the developments which led Pope Paull III, the last and one of the most significant representatives of the Renaissance papacy, to suppress all forms of religious dissent in Italy, in the hardest and most unyielding manner – without, however, combating the abuses of ecclesiastical discipline and benefices critizised by the Protestant Reformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the parallels between the role played by the Church, first during the Crisis of the Liberal State in the early twentieth century and then during the transition from the Christian Democratic regime to the ‘bi-polar’ Second Republic more than 70 years later. It explores both the particular, contingent forces at work in each, and the underlying explanations as to why the Church was able to successfully exploit these two processes of transition in the political history of Italy to its advantage. It concludes by arguing that the experience of these two crises demonstrates that the Church is not only a powerful force in Italian civil society but also effectively ‘a state within a state’ in relation to the functioning of Italy's political structures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

At the turn of the twentieth century the Catholic Church promoted women's associations in an attempt to reassert Christianity in a struggle against its liberal and socialist adversaries. Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum novarum (1891) called on Catholics to address a raft of serious problems resulting from social and economic transformations. This gave rise to a Christian Democratic movement and, within it, to Catholic feminism. Focusing on two Catholic women's periodicals, L'azione muliebre and Pensiero e azione, the author studies the emergence and the nature of Catholic feminism as well as its suppression by the Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The histories of two Bolognese monastic houses, Santa Maria del Monte della Guardia and Santa Caterina, reveal the complex relationships between some religious women's communities and monastic orders. They began as communities in small, regional congregations; became Augustinian in the mid-thirteenth century due to papal intervention; and were Dominican by the fifteenth century. Amid these changes, both communities attempted to retain elements of their early status and practices rather than accepting integration into larger orders. Whereas much scholarly attention rightly has been paid to convents that strove for incorporation into the religious orders, examinations of communities with more fluid affiliations can complement these studies and provide a fuller picture of medieval religious women's lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sixteenth-century writer Ortensio Lando (ca. 1512-ca. 1553) wrote many of his works pseudonymously and borrowed liberally from the works of others. Part of a community of professional writers who experimented with collaborative modes of literary production, Lando was also deeply invested in the currents of religious reform that swept through sixteenth-century Italy. In his extensive literary recourse to female personas, Lando privileged contemporary women who shared his own heterodox religious views. This essay examines Lando's female impersonations with particular attention to his use of Lucrezia Gonzaga da Gazzuolo (ca. 1521-76), whose complex literary relationship with Lando is illustrated by her presence throughout his literary corpus, and by his role in the book of Lettere published under her name. It argues that the relationship between these two figures can be best understood as a literary and spiritual partnership, one that meshed Lando's editorial expertise with Gonzaga's fame as a woman of extraordinary virtue and spiritual authority, a reputation that Lando himself helped to create. In an era when print publication by women was still far from common, such collaboration constituted an alternative path to literary expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay presents an in-depth analysis of the printing and publishing practices of 16th century Italy, particularly focusing on the Roman Catholic mass chanting element of the Gradual. The history of choral choir book publishing in the era is overviewed. The sundry and subtle variations undergone by the style in printed editions throughout the century is examined. The author supports the understanding that music was very rigidly adhered to at the time.

Discusses the ways in which 15th-century nuns financed, shaped and used works of arts and architecture at the Benedictine convent of San Zaccaria in Venice, Italy. Involvement in two major episodes of building and decoration in the 15th century; Contributing factors to the nuns' outrage and disillusionment during the period; Imposition of radical reforms on the nuns' communities during the period.

Focuses on elections of abbesses and notions of identity in 15th- and 16th-century Italy, particularly in Venice. Anatomy of an election of 1509 by a nun from San Zaccaria in Venice; Nuns' election practices during the period; Visual representation of various abbesses from Florence, Pavia and Venice.

The article announces several pending conferences on Christian church history, including the Byzantine Studies Conference of Sofia, Bulgaria on August 26, 2011, the international workshop "Jews in the Ecclesiastical, Roman-Barbarian, and Byzantine Law (Sixth to Eleventh Centuries)," in Fontevraud Abbey, France on October 17-18, 2011, and the lecture "Cristiani d'Italia," by Norman Tanner and Alberto Melloni at Gregorian University of Rome, Italy on December 6, 2011.

The article announces the collaborative project Ricerca sull'Inchiesta della Congregazione dell'Indice (RICI), directed by scholar Roberto Rusconi, which surveys books held by Italian religious orders in the sixteenth century, with more information at http://ebusiness.taipropora.it/bib/index.asp.