Innocent VIII, pope between Sixtus IV (della Rovere) and Alexander VI (Borgia) is not one of the better-known fifteenth-century popes. However, his relatively brief pontificate allows for a snapshot of the business transacted by curial offices. In this case, the office was the Apostolic Penitentiary. Most of the registers of the Penitentiary use abbreviated forms for routine business, using the headings identified by Emil Göller. One category, De declaratoriis, contains more detailed records of official letters concerned with other topics. Most of these had to do with homicide, monastic life, or matrimony. A few documents dealt with excommunication, canonical irregularity, or mutilation of clerics. All of these supplications are relatively few, but they provide greater detail about matters treated by the Penitentiary. This book by Lusset and Pieyre treats those letters de declaratoriis issued under Innocent VIII that pertain to the kingdom of France--previous scholarship having already focused on Italy, Germany, England, and Scandinavia--with 287 letters transcribedin Latin and introduced with summaries in French.

Élisabeth Lusset provides an overview of the work of the Penitentiary in the Introduction. The table of regions represented in the supplication de declaratoriis from Innocent’s pontificate reveals that France was second only to the Italian peninsula in the number of supplications identifiable from Innocent’s papacy. Another table reveals the number of supplications received from each French diocese. Limoges tops the list with 21 supplications, but many sees appear only once. The map of dioceses on p. 18 indicates some which have no recorded supplications at all for the years covered by the project (e.g., Auch). Another table shows differences between ecclesiastical provinces, ranging from the archdiocese of Bourges with 53 to that of Aix with only a single document. Some of these differences in numbers may reflect the varying sizes of French dioceses and provinces. Most of these supplications were transmitted by secular clerics or religious. A table indicates the categories of clerics (200 clerics total) who solicited letters dealing with homicide. Priests appear in the largest number (144). Some pleaded self-defense as an explanation of the killings they reported, and many wanted to obtain or retain benefices. Other letters represent the lives of lay men and women. Many requests by the laity were concerned with matrimony, including legitimacy of children. Marriages could be annulled or reaffirmed by the Penitentiary.

Each of the 287 documents is presented according to a specific format, treated in the Principles of Edition. Each begins with the item number in this book, followed by the date in which it was recorded in Rome, then by its source, one of the registers of Matrimony and Diverse Matters. A summary in French follows. Then the Latin text, which often begins with references to Rome and a date, as well as the diocese from which the supplication originated. Both are found in the margins of the registers. After the record of the matter in Latin come notes about the decision made in the Penitentiary. Giuliano Maffei, regent of the Penitentiary, was involved in almost all of these supplications. The record of the decision can include a referral to the ordinary--the bishop--of the diocese from which the supplication originated (Committatur ordinario). The decision often depended on a local inquiry supporting the conclusion reached in Rome. These 287 documents often are annotated, and the notes may refer to other documents outside the project.

A review of some of the documents illustrate the variety of supplications the Penitentiary received. In one (no. 3), a priest of the diocese of Besançon, who served in a war between the king of France and the duke of Burgundy, asked that he avoid canonical irregularity, impeding his service as a priest, for any deaths he had caused. Another priest (no. 16) asked not to be considered irregular for killing a layman in self-defense. A monk of Marmoutier (no. 39) asked to continue in his monastic offices after being involved in the deaths of two looters. A supplication (no. 9) treats an unconsummated promise of future marriage which impeded the marriage contracted later by the petitioner, a layman. A layman of the diocese of Langres (no. 28) sought permission to marry a widow who had been the godmother of his adopted child. A marriage was affected when a priest rebaptized a child already christened by a midwife (no. 108), creating an unnecessary impediment to marriage between the godparents. A priest of Uzès (no. 280), having been asked to help a godfather by carrying an infant to the font, requested absolution from excommunication for violating diocesan statute for carrying a child to the font without the bishop’s permission. A widow (no. 19) asked to be free to enter religion after the death of the husband her parents had found for her despite her earlier religious vow. A cleric of Verdun (no. 62) had been forced into monastic profession and asked to be permitted to return to the world. The fiancé of a woman of Langres had to flee the region because of his crimes, and she wanted their engagement cancelled (no. 167).

Some petitions include disputes about tithes (nos. 7, 23, 38, 50, 99-102, 215). Others involve persons who had served a king of France, either Louis XIorCharles VIII (nos. 13-15, 36, 42, 71, 74, 90-91, 151, 195). Two documents are concerned with the marriage of René II of Lorraine, count of Vaudémont (nos. 12-13). One petition mentions a man who died from plague (no. 185). Several supplications (nos. 28, 44, 70, 85, 93, 103, 117, 121, 128, 133, 154, 169, 200, 232, 239, 265, 273) deal in part with prostitution.

The book ends with a Bibliography and three indexes, by place, persons or topics, as well as lists of the tables and figures employed in the book and a broad outline of the volume.