The eighteen papers included in this volume, based on a conference held in Rome in 2022, are grouped in four parts in roughly chronological sequence. They are preceded by “Notes on Contributors” and a reviewer-friendly introduction, which summarises the papers. However, it is strongly recommended to read them oneself.
As a whole, the book is a typical example of the “Companion” class in contrast to the traditional “handbook.” While the latter is meant to provide basic information, to cover its topic comprehensively and to include an overview of earlier research and an ample instead of a “select” bibliography, the former consists of a range of specialised contributions connected to the general theme, each of which might stand alone, as there is no tightly knitted structure anyway. From the point of view of an editor, and probably even more of the publishers, this has the advantage of allowing the collection to be sent to print even if not all the expected papers have been delivered, as frequently occurs.
Nevertheless, the volume in question covers a broad timespan, beginning in Late Antiquity and touching the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and introduces to a range of the Curia’s institutions and various political, religious and economic aspects. In the context of the book, the bibliography (337-383) borders on “ample,” but the very ample bibliographical sections in the Archivum Historiae Pontificiae and the volumes of the Bibliografia dell’Archivio Vaticano might have been mentioned. Thankfully, but not surprisingly in a volume with several contributors from Italy and others from France and Finland, the bibliography is not restricted to anglophone publications. What’s more, there seem to be no conspicuous mutilations of the foreign-language titles, although Stefan Weiß has been deprived of the authorship of his book Die Urkunden der päpstlichen Legaten von Leo IX. bis Coelestin III. (347).
Handbooks, Companions, and conference volumes have in common that authors are chosen according to their expertise on subjects the organisers want to have covered. This means that they are expected to write at least in part what they have written elsewhere before, to summarise their earlier research already published in books or papers, and to tailor it to shape and cut it to length to make it fit into the new publication. This is by no means easy, and updated summaries of this kind can make their results accessible to a less specialised readership and even provide some new points of view for specialists, emphasise the author’s most important arguments, or discuss reactions to the earlier works. These practices ought to be kept in mind when reading and using the present Companion.
The papers in first part, “The Early Evolution of the Structures of the Roman Curia,” have to struggle with a dearth of sources and only shady traces of what may be considered as the developing Curia, i.e., a structured household of the bishops of Rome, and the appearance of distinct bodies responsible for certain duties. Rosamond McKitterick in “The Versatility of the Early Medieval Papal Officials in the Light of the Liber pontificalis” (15-34) skims the collection of papal biographies to extract information on such functionaries, partly from the careers of those becoming popes themselves, partly from mentions in the latters’ entourage. As making and keeping written texts is essential for any information coming down to us, the origins or predecessors of what was to become the chancery, the archive, and the library have an increasing chance of visibility not only in early sources, but also in the other papers of this section. Both Rita Lizzi Testa in “The Bishop of Rome and His Entourage: the Origins of the Papal Curia” (53-72) and Dominic Moreau in “Ex codicibus et ex antiquis polypticis scrinii Sanctae Sedis Apostolicae: Collections and Archives of the Church of Rome in Antiquity” (73-92) are discussing them cautiously with different emphases and partly differing conclusions. Lizzi Testa puts one focus on the relations of secular and ecclesiastical scribes to the curial documentation, while Moreau reconsiders the origins of the papal registers. Bronwen Neil’s “Laying Down Papal Law: Archiving Controversy in the Letters of the Collectio Avellana” (35-52) shows the careful composition of the letter collections of Popes Gelasius and Hormisdas with deliberate omissions of controversial texts.
The second part “Forming the Medieval Curia” enters better-known ground. Contrary to what its title suggests, the papers do not deal with broad questions such as the “Papal Revolution” or the emergence of the Curia as Europe’s prime law court. “‘Time and Money’: Regulating Appeals to the Roman Curia in the Second Half of the Twelfth Century” (95-108) by Bruce Brasington starts when this role of the Curia was already established and the struggle to keep it manageable was under way. The Curia attempted to restrict time-consuming appeals by imposing time limits for the procedures and by prohibiting appeals regarding matters of minor value. Neither proved very effective. Danica Summerlin in “Papal Councils and the Curia in the ‘Long’ Twelfth Century, 1088-1215” (109-124) looks into the activities of the cardinals in summoning the councils, the proceedings, and the distribution of the decrees, none of which are easily traced. Donald S. Prudlo’s own contribution, “A Most Fortuitous Alliance: the Roman Curia and the Mendicant Orders in the Thirteenth Century” (125-140), shows the cardinals, including the later Popes Gregory IX and Innocent IV, as supporters and protectors of the Mendicant Friars, solving the legal balancing act between poverty, possessions, and privileges, and the friars’ employment in the Penitentiary.
The third part, on “Roman Church Governance in the Late Medieval Period” begins with Sandro Carocci’s contribution on a somewhat informal but integral aspect of governance, “Nepotism and the Papal Curia between the Eleventh and the Fifteenth Centuries” (143-158), which he presents not as simple abuse, but as an established “behavioral pattern” in the sense of Bourdieu’s habitus (145). The Curia’s efforts to obtain competent personnel, which led to the establishment of a studium generale, soon provided primarily by Mendicants, are discussed by Anthony John Lappin in “From the lectores curie romane to the Magistri Sancti Palatii: Education at the Medieval Roman Curia” (159-174) (in the text more convincingly Sacri Palatii). Peter D. Clarke explains the origins, duties, competences and functioning of “The Papal Penitentiary in the Later Middle Ages” (175-190), and Barbara Bombi returns to “Administrative and Diplomatic Practices at the Papal Curia between the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries: the Chancery” (191-206) with a compact description of its working and a careful assessment of its character, rejecting its mystification as the source of European bureaucracy and downsizing it to “household status” and a “patriarchal community” (206). This does not detract from its importance throughout Christianity. Kirsi Salonen’s “Sacra Romana Rota – the Papal Tribunal of Tribunals?” (207-223) traces the medieval history and organisation of this institution which, due to the loss of archival material, is often perceived as an early modern one.
This period is covered in the last part “The Curia in the Early Modern World.” Miles Pattenden is “Locating the Renaissance Curia, c.1420-c.1530” (227-244) and analyses the re-establishment of the popes and the Curia in Rome after the Great Schism, and their impact on the city. Elena Bonora in her paper “Europe and the Roman Curia: Conflicts of the Counter Reformation” (245-262) shows the interaction of the challenges by the Reformation and inner developments in Rome, leading to the foundation of new Congregations, especially the Sacrum Officium and the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, which did not happen without conflicts within the Curia. New means were also needed to meet financial demands, especially for subsidies paid to powers fighting Protestants and Ottomans. Massimo Carlo Giannini explains in “Two Bodies and One Soul: Papal Finances in the Modern Age (1564-1800)” (302-320) how the Monte della Fede worked by selling bonds on both ecclesiastical and temporal papal revenues, which could be traded by the buyers, and how the system met its limits. Finally, the wider world comes into view. Another congregation, presented in Maria Teresa Fattori’s “The Congregation of the Council and the Worldwide Provincial Councils, 1564-1622” (263-283), supervised the regular synods demanded by the decrees of Trent, including those in the American colonies. Cesare Santus, “The Roman Curia and the Eastern Churches, 1500-1800: Diplomacy, Cultural Policy, Mission, and Confessional Control” (284-301), finds visitors from the East in Rome, but also Catholic missionary efforts, attempted compromises in liturgical practices, and care for Christians under Muslim rule. In “The New World by Francesco Ingoli, First Secretary of Propaganda Fide” (321-336), Giovanni Pizzorusso outlines the description of America in Ingoli’s Relazione delle quattro parti del mondo (1631) and his theological interpretations.
As shown, the volume presents many single aspects of the Curia and its institutions throughout the centuries, but hardly a synthesis. It succeeds in placing the institutional developments and the increasing complexity firmly in the respective periods, and in demonstrating how the Curia struggled to answer new demands and necessities, not better or worse than the emerging secular states, but well enough to survive. Common to all papers is a very sober approach, styling the Curia neither as a centre of innovation following an elaborate masterplan nor as a backward bureaucratic monster, placing it within local contexts and general developments, allowing for internal powerplay and measures taken ad hoc, and sparing the readers moral comments. While it is sensible to present new aspects and phenomena deserving due appreciation in each period, it would have been interesting to see how the earlier institutions, such as the Chancery, the Rota, the Penitentiary and the studium, changed and fared under changing conditions. However, this would have made the book longer and even more expensive than it already is.