Papal nobility
To "papal nobility" are noble families who either their feud in the former Papal States or had their titles of nobility in the form of needle letters from the Pope received. This mainly, but not exclusively, affects families of the Italian nobility .
development
As everywhere in Europe, a distinction must also be made between the medieval prehistoric nobility and the modern letter nobility with the “papal nobility” .
Feudal nobility in the Papal States
The imperial coronation of Charlemagne by Pope Leo III. on Christmas Day 800 established the special protective relationship between the empire of the Carolingians and the gradually forming Papal States . The Exarchate of Ravenna was donated to it , and by 787 Sabina , southern Tuscia and some smaller territories were added. In 962 the "Pippin donation" was confirmed by Emperor Otto I in the Privilegium Ottonianum . In 1201 the Duchy of Spoleto was added, in 1213 Emperor Frederick II officially recognized the Papal States in the gold bull of Eger . In the 15th century further areas were added around Parma , Modena , Bologna , Ferrara , Romagna and Perugia . The popes also had enclaves in southern France ( Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin ). In these areas there were aristocratic manors as everywhere in Europe (see feudalism , feudalism ). By acquiring these territories , the Pope became the feudal lord of these noble landlords ( vassals ), who were often in competition with the communes and the patricians who ruled them.
In the city of Rome itself, during the saeculum obscurum around the turn of the millennium, various leading clans and their supporters rivaled for power, wealth and, above all, for the chair of Peter, especially the Crescentians against the Tusculans . The latter continued in the Colonna family , which had competed with the Orsini since the 12th century . The centuries-long struggle of these clans for power in the Papal States encouraged nepotism in the Holy See . Various popes first raised their families to the rank of ducal , with simultaneous enfeoffment with the corresponding territories. Some papal nephews succeeded in advancing into the ruling nobility , such as the Della Rovere , who not only provided numerous cardinals, but also became inheritance in the Duchy of Urbino through marriage into the da Montefeltro family . Similarly, the Farnese received the Duchy of Parma newly created by their papal grandfather , while the Borgia soon failed after a rapid rise.
Julius II regulated the rights of feudal lords in his bull Pax romana of 1511. Pius V decreed in the bull Admonet nos 1567 rules for the transfer of fiefs by inheritance as well as for the repeal of settled fiefs. Titles such as Prince ( Principe ), Herzog ( Duca ), Margrave ( Marchese ), Graf ( Conte ), Baron ( Barone ) and "Lord of" ( Nobile ) followed the fiefdoms and passed with them to other families, if heirs or Renewal led to changes of ownership. In the case of sales, the buyer had to have the title confirmed by the Holy See. The two highest titles (the duke and the prince) could only be inherited according to the law of the firstborn together with the majorate , the younger sons of the princely families mostly assumed lesser titles from other property of the family. Pius VII abolished the feudal system in the Papal States by means of an apostolic letter ( motu proprio ) in 1816 , but left the titles linked to the fiefs to their owners as hereditary nobility titles. The Borghese and their side line Aldobrandini , the Barberini , Boncompagni-Ludovisi , Caetani , Chigi , Colonna , Conti , Doria-Pamphilj , Lante della Rovere, are among the most famous royal houses of the Roman papal high nobility , from which the popes themselves often emerged . Massimo , Odescalchi , Orsini , Pallavicini , Riario Sforza , Rospigliosi , Ruspoli and Torlonia .
Papal post office
In modern times , the popes, like all other monarchs, conferred titles of nobility through letters of nobility to various functionaries and people who were not feudal recipients. The popes distributed evidences of favor in the form of letters of nobility and very numerous elevations of rank to their followers. A cardinal, for example, communicated his personal nobility to his entire family, all higher military degrees brought with them the title of count or baron, higher dignities in the order of knights also resulted in high titles. Academic dignities also resulted in ennobling, for example for doctors and lawyers at the University of Bologna or the University of Avignon . Benedict XIV issued the Apostolic Constitution Urbem Romam in 1746 , in which the approx. 180 urban Roman aristocratic families were listed who had risen to the nobility through assignment of functions or nobility letters, 60 of them being appointed as the class of "coscritti" patricians of Rome.
The popes did not limit their titles and ranks to their territorial subjects, but awarded titles of nobility to Catholic families throughout Europe and around the world until the 20th century . In the 19th and 20th centuries, 529 titles were awarded to French families alone, 197 of them hereditary, 90 of which are still in use today (these families come together in the Réunion de la noblesse pontificale ), in Spain this is 31, in Belgium around 30, in Poland at least 3, in Malta 2, in the Netherlands and Sweden one each. The motivation for the awards was originally often in military services to the Papal States, later mostly in charitable works, ideal or political support for the rights and teachings of the Catholic Church, its religious orders or in other special services. So around 1950 Rose Kennedy was from Pius XII. raised to countess. The Italian Republic abolished the nobility in Article 41 of its 1948 Constitution, but tolerates the use of titles in official documents as well. In Article 41 of the Concordat on the Lateran Treaty of 1929, the Italian government undertook to recognize all papal titles of nobility conferred since 1870. The Italian President confirmed this in a decree in 1961 with regard to 115 papal awards since 1870 and 30 more since the motu proprio of 1827. Even today, the Holy See - as a particular subject of international law not to be confused with the Vatican State - can still confer nobility (like the Republic of San Marino ), but has been practicing this since the pontificate of John XXIII. no more.
Restriction of court offices
On March 28, 1968, Pope Paul VI changed (1897-1978), as part of the reforms after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the structures in the Apostolic Palace . With the six-page motu proprio " Pontificalis Domus " he renamed the papal court to the papal house and determined in § 3 the deletion of the following traditional court offices : the cardinals and prelates of the papal palace (the court master - Maggiordomo - His Holiness, the papal chief chamberlain - maestro di Camera -, the Auditor of His Holiness), the Magister of the Holy Hospice, the Grand Furier of the Papal House, the Chief Stable Master, the General Postmaster, the bearers of the Golden Rose, the Legation Secretary, the Exemte Tribune of the Pontifical Nobel Guard, the Honorary Chambermen, the Honorary Chambermen " extra Urbem ”(outside Rome), the secret chaplains, the secret chaplains of honor, the secret chaplains of honor“ extra Urbem ”, the secret clergy, the ordinary chaplains, the confessor of the papal“ family ”, the secret food taster. The motu proprio of March 1968 came into force immediately. One of the first innovations a few days later was the invitation to the celebrations of Holy Week. It was no longer delivered to those affected in Latin by the “papal runners”, but appeared as a simple “announcement” in the “Osservatore Romano” - in Italian.
Pope Francis announced in 2013 that he had decided not to appoint any more Gentiluomo di Sua Santità and thus temporarily overruled § 7 of the Pontificalis domus
"Black Nobility"
The “black nobility” (Italian: Aristocrazia nera or Nobiltà nera ) was the name given to that part of the Italian nobility who opposed the Risorgimento in the Italian Wars of Independence and, in particular, after the military conquest of the papal state (the Lazio region and the Capital Rome) by Italian troops in 1870 and its incorporation into the Kingdom of Italy on the side of Pope Pius IX. posed. The latter refused to recognize the new kingdom and described himself as a "prisoner in the Vatican". In solidarity with him, numerous families, mostly belonging to the papal nobility, refused to accept the new kingdom and its institutions. Almost the entire papal high nobility were considered "black princes", but also small Roman civil servant families remained loyal to the Pope, such as the Pacelli, whom Pius XII. (whose nephews in 1939 - as the last papal family so far - were raised to the prince status, but not to the papal, but at Mussolini's suggestion into the hereditary Italian).
As a sign of mourning, the aristocrats closed their salons, as did Pius IX. in the holy year 1875 the portals of the four Basilicae maiores kept closed. They avoided the royal court of the House of Savoy in the usurped papal summer palace on the Quirinal and refused to accept positions as senators and the like on the instructions of the papal bull Non expedit , while they continued their ancestral (often hereditary) offices as papal chamberlains or officers of the Nobel Guard and the palating guard. This opposition only ended in 1929 with the creation of the Vatican State by the Lateran Treaties , which resolved the Roman question . Many families of the “black nobility” received not only Italian but also Vatican citizenship as thanks and recognition and were therefore able to keep their titles officially even after the nobility in Italy was abolished in 1946.
literature
- Enciclopedia Italiana di Szienze, Letteri et Arti , Volume XXIV., Roma MDCCCCXXXVI - XIII.
- Volker Reinhardt (Ed.): The great families of Italy (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 485). Kröner, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-520-48501-X .
- Francesco Pericoli Ridolfini, Titoli Nobiliari Pontifici Ricosnosciuti in Italia , Rome, 1963.
- Giovanni Filipucci-Giustiniani, La noblesse du Saint-Siège in L'Ordre de la noblesse … tome 3, pp. CXXXIX-CLIV, Paris: Jean de Bonnot, 1979.
- Annuario della Nobiltà Italiana , a cura di Andrea Borella, Teglio (Lombardy, Italy): SAGI, 2007–2010; this edition contains 5 parts, of which the third Nobiltà pontificia contains entries from over 1030 families. However, the second (Italian nobility) also contains numerous papal noble families whose ranks were confirmed or taken over by the Kingdom of Italy.
- Sebastian Beck, On the conferment of titles of nobility by the popes in the 19th and 20th centuries, in: Archive for Family History Research 12, 2008, Issue 2, pp. 14-15.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Francesco Pericoli Ridolfini: Titoli nobiliari Pontifici , 1963
- ↑ PAOLO VI LETTERA APOSTOLICA MOTU PROPRIO PONTIFICALIS DOMUS - VIENE CAMBIATO L'ORDINAMENTO DELLA CASA PONTIFICIA [1]
- ↑ March 30, 2018, Johannes Schidelko, How the Pope broke the power of the nobility in the Vatican, entry on: World History Pope Paul VI. [2] , accessed April 29, 2019
- ↑ The Prince and the Pope's noblemen: "Their abolition is correct, but Paul VI made a mistake", entry on Katholisches-Magazin für Kirche und Kultur [3] , accessed on April 29, 2019
- ↑ PAOLO VI LETTERA APOSTOLICA MOTU PROPRIO PONTIFICALIS DOMUS - VIENE CAMBIATO L'ORDINAMENTO DELLA CASA PONTIFICIA [4]