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Lorenzo Casoni and Papal Policy for the Church in France, 1682–1689

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Extract

The conflict between Louis XIV and the Papacy which centred round the régale and the decrees of the Assembly of the Clergy of 1682 has not lacked full treatment by church historians and its details are too well known to bear repetition. The Curia was not greatly concerned with the question of the régale; it was gravely affected by the decrees of the Assembly, which re-stated the historic Gallican view of the limitations on papal authority. By royal edict these decrees were to be taught in all colleges of every university and subscribed by all professors of theology. A crisis had arisen which had been feared by Rome as a possibility since 1516, especially since the last days of the Council of Trent, and the gravity of the situation was at once appreciated: the heresies of Basle and Constance had again raised their heads. The resulting deadlock lasted until the death of Innocent XI and by 1692 over forty episcopal sees in France were vacant. If the danger to papal authority was realised at Rome the effect of the crisis on Church order and discipline were appreciated in France. Both sides strove by all available means of diplomacy and propaganda to secure a victory.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1953

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References

page 77 note 1 Cf. Sŭsta, , Die römische Kurie und das Konzil von Trient unter Pius IV, Vienna 1904, ii. 82Google Scholar.

page 77 note 2 The reactions of the Curia to the Declaration of the Clergy are mainly to be found in the Fondo Albano of the Vatican Archives, an important collection of documents made by cardinal Albano, later Clement XI. Cardinal Albizzi, for example, described the Declaration as designed to separate the Church in France from Rome and to change its government from a monarchical to an aristocratic one: Albani 115 (138). Another curial official stressed the fact that the decrees were not enunciated as an opinion but to be held as ‘articles of faith’: Albani 117 (186).

page 77 note 3 Le Camus, bishop of Grenoble, wrote to Casoni on 29 February 1687: ‘Je regarde comme un tres grand malheur pour l'église de France quʼon ne puisse pourveoir les places vacantes; cela fait un renversement dans la discipline canonique qui ne peut avoir que de très facheuses suites.’ Vatican archives, Francia 317 H.1.a. (556).

page 78 note 1 Vat. arch, Francia 317 H.1.a. (501). Letter of 13 October.

page 78 note 2 Vat. Arch., Particolari 62. Letter of 11 December 1682.

page 78 note 3 Paris, Archives des Affaires Etrangères, Correspondence de Rome, cclxxxvi, cited in Michaud, Louis XIV et Innocent XI, ii. 390.

page 78 note 4 Vat. Arch., Francia 317 H.a. (647).

page 79 note 1 Vat. Arch., Francia 317 H.a. (647).

page 79 note 2 Paris, Aff. Etrang., Correspondence de Rome, cccxii, cited Michaud, op. cit., ii. 548.

page 79 note 3 Paris, Aff. Etrang., Correspondence de Rome, cclxxxv, cited Michaud, op. cit., ii. 413.

page 79 note 4 Vat. Arch., Francia 317 H.2.a. Letter of Lambert to Casoni, 16 February 1686.

page 79 note 5 Ibid. Letter to Casoni, 12 March 1683.

page 79 note 6 Rome, Archives of the German College; Corrisponden za di Mons. Casoni. Letter of Buonvisi to Casoni 9 May 1688.

page 79 note 7 Vat. Arch., Francia 317 H.2.a. (750). Letter to Casoni of 3 April 1684.

page 80 note 1 Ibid. (813). Letter to Casoni of 3 March 1687.

page 80 note 2 For Antoine Charlas see the monograph of Vidal, Castillon-en-Couserans, 1934.

page 80 note 3 In the Catalogues of the Victor Emmanuele Library in Rome Casoni is given as the author.

page 80 note 4 Vat. Arch., Francia 334. Letter of 3 September 1685.

page 80 note 5 Ibid., 317 H.1.a (620). Letter of 26 May.

page 80 note 6 Ibid., 334. Letter of 1 January.

page 80 note 7 Ibid. Letter of 19 June.

page 81 note 1 Ibid. Lauri to the Secretary of State, 24 October 1684.

page 81 note 2 Notably in Abelly's Medulla Theologica, Paris 1662Google Scholar, seventh edition, but also in Binsfeld, , Enchiridion, Lyons 1653Google Scholar, and Bonal, , Theologia Moralis, Toulouse 1674.Google Scholar

page 81 note 3 Acta Constantiensis concilii ad expositionem decretorum eiusdem Sess. 4. et 5 facientia, Rome 1686. It was a reply to Maimbourg, Traité historique de l'établissement et des prérogatives de l'Eglise de Rome, 1682.

page 81 note 4 Vat. Arch., Francia 317 H.1.a. Letter of 21 January 1686.

page 81 note 5 Ibid., 334 September 1683.

page 81 note 6 Ibid. Letter of Lauri to Cardinal Cybo, December 1684.

page 81 note 7 Osservazioni sopra il manifesto del Sig. Marchese di Lavardin, Genova 1688.Google Scholar

page 81 note 8 Vat. Arch., Francia 179 A (105–70), Rannuzzi to Casoni, March to July 1688.

page 82 note 1 Vat. Arch., Francia 179 A (214), 14 October.

page 82 note 2 Paris, Aff. Etrang., Correspondence de Rome, cccx, cited in Michaud, op. cit., iii. 236.

page 82 note 3 Ibid., Correspondence de Rome, cccx, cited Michaud, op. cit., iii. 69.

page 82 note 4 Vat. Arch., Francia 317 H.2.a (951), minutes of a letter from Casoni to Rannuzzi of 22 June 1688.

page 82 note 5 Ibid., 317 H.2.a (947), Casoni to Rannuzzi, 11 June 1688.

page 83 note 1 Lavisse, Histoire de France, viii (1), 297.