On March, 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, was chosen by the College of Cardinals as the 266th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. The first non-European pope in almost 1,300 years, and the first member of the Order of Jesus to be elected, he took the name Francis and has elicited both excitement and anxiety among Catholics, as he condemns a global economy that neglects the needs of the poor, draws attention to the urgent challenge of global climate change, and promises a thorough reformation of the Church and a more collegial style of governance.
All of this raises a number of important questions. How much impact can a pope have on the lives of Catholics and non-believers at the beginning of the third millennium? What are the limits of his authority in the spiritual and civil spheres? And just how constrained is any individual pope by the decisions and actions of his predecessors, and how free to innovate in response to changing circumstances?
To try to answer these questions, this course will attempt the impossible task of telling the story of the Roman Papacy. Story is at the heart of papal claims to authority. The Popes claim to represent an unbroken tradition that can be traced back through the apostles Peter and Paul to Jesus Christ. But in order to tell the story of that tradition, from the leaders of a semi-legal religious community in Rome to the accession of Francis, we will have to confront gaps and misrepresentations in the historical evidence, dubious claims to sanctity, slanderous attacks on papal morals, competing claims to the papal throne, astonishing generosity and bare-faced greed, outrageous beauty and orgiastic indulgence, heroic self-sacrifice and cold-blooded murder. At times epic, at other times farce, (and on at least one occasion a Gothic tale of horror), it is a story that challenges belief and defies the incredulous.
Except for the first day of class, each session will begin with an hour-long lecture based on the reading assignment made the previous day, followed by an hour of detailed discussion. The main text for the course will be Roger Collins’, Keepers of the Keys of Heaven: A History of the Papacy (Basic Books, 2009). This will be heavily supplemented by primary texts, many of which can be found at the following sites:
Internet History Sourcebook Projects (http://legacy.fordham.edu/Halsall/index.asp).
Papal Encyclicals Online
(http://www.papalencyclicals.net/index.htm)
We will also make use of the buildings and monuments of the city of Rome as evidence of papal patronage and papal rule in the Eternal City. Students will be expected to visit and report on three sites chosen from the list below.
1) The Roman necropolis in Vaticano (aka "scavi")
2) Mithraeum, domus, and basilica of San Clemente
3) Catacombs and Basilica of Saint Agnes and mausoleum of Princess Constance
4) Pantheon and Santa Maria sopra Minerva
5) Basilicas of San Giovanni in Laterano and Santa Maria Maggiore
6) Basilica of St. Peter in Vaticano
Entrance fees for site visits are the responsibility of the each student.
Schedule:
The following is a schedule of lecture titles with topics that will be touched upon. It is subject to revision, so please be in touch and stay informed.
1. May 22: Introduction and Searching for Origins: Peter, Paul, Christ
2. May 23: The Search for Origins: Peter, Paul, Christ
a. Collins (pp. 1-21)
b. Gospels (excerpts)
c. Acts of the Apostles (excerpts)
d. Paul (excerpts)
e. 1 Clement (excerpt)
3. May 24: An Out-Law Church: Fabian, Cornelius, and Stephen I
a. Collins (pp. 22-34)
b. Hermas, Shepherd
c. Irenaeus, Against Heresies (excerpt)
d. Cyprian. Letters (excerpts)
4. May 25: When the Emperor Becomes Christian: Sylvester I
a. Collins (35-57)
b. Damasus, Letters (excerpts)
c. Damasus, Inscriptions (excerpts)
d. Jerome, Letters (excerpts)
5. May 29: Gregory I
a. Gregory, Pastoral Care (excerpt)
b. Gregory, Letters (excerpts)
c. Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People (excerpt)
6. May 30: Turning Westward: Leo III and Nicholas I
a. Collins (117-165)
b. Acts of Sylvester (excerpt)
c. Donation of Constantine (excerpts)
d. Einhard, Life of Charlemagne (excerpt)
e. Nicholas 1, Letters (excerpts)
7. May 31: Cadavers and Whores: Stephen VI and John XII
a. Collins 166-194
b. Gregory I, Dialogues (excerpt)
c. Liutprand of Cremona, Antapodosis (excerpts)
8. June 1: Popes Reforming and Crusading: Gregory VII and Urban II
a. Collins 195-219
b. Gregory VII, Dictatus Papae
c. Henry IV, Letter to Gregory VII
d. Gregory IV, Bans on Henry IV and Lay Investiture
e. Robert the Monk, account of Urban II’s speech at Clermont
9. June 5: “More than Human, Less than God”: Innocent III (FIRST SITE VISIT REPORT DUE!)
a. Collins 220-271
b. Innocent III, Letters (excerpts)
c. Bonaventure, Legenda Maior (excerpt)
d. Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Sun
e. Hildegard of Bingen (excerpt)
f. Bernard of Clairvaux (excerpt)
10. June 6: Avignon and Babylon: Boniface VIII, Clement V, and Clement VI
a. Collins 272-296
b. Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam (excerpt)
c. Marsilius of Padua, Defensor Pacis (excerpt)
d. Bridget of Sweden, Works and Revelations (excerpts)
e. Catherine of Siena, Letters (excerpts)
11. June 7: The Papacy Splintered: Urban VI and Gregory XII
a. Collins 297-316
b. Manifesto of the Cardinals (excerpt)
c. Manifesto of the University of Paris (excerpt)
d. Decrees of the Council of Pisa (excerpts)
e. Decrees of the Council of Constance (excerpts)
f. Jean Froissart, Chronicles (excerpt)
g. Catherine of Siena, Letters (excerpts)
12. June 8: MIDPOINT EXAM
13. June 12: Patrons of the Arts and War: Pius II, Alexander VI, and Julius II (Second Site Visit Due!)
a. Collins 317-342
b. Lorenzo Valla, Treatise on the Donation of Constantine (excerpt)
c. Pius II (Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini), Commentaries (excerpts)
d. Alexander VI, Inter Caetera (excerpts)
e. Erasmus, Julius Excluded from Heaven (excerpts)
f. Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists (excerpts)
14. June 13: Reformed and Unrecognizable: Leo X, Paul III, and Pius V
a. Collins 343-367
b. Martin Luther, 95 Theses (excerpts)
c. Leo X, Exsurge Domine (excerpt)
d. Sanuto, The Diaries (excerpts)
e. Paul III, Regimini mililtantis ecclesiae (excerpt)
f. Acts of the Council of Trent (excerpts)
g. Pius V, Regnans in Excelsis
15. June 14: The Papacy in an Expanding Universe: Urban VIII, Clement XI, and Pius VII
a. Collins 368-413
b. Condemnation of Galileo
c. Clement XI, Ex illa die (excerpt)
d. Kangxi, Decree (excerpt)
e. Pius VII, Diu Satis (excerpts)
f. Pius VII, Il trionfo (“The Triumph”)
16. June 15: The Prince Without a Country: Pius IX and Leo XIII
a. Collins 414-447
b. Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus (excerpts)
c. Pius IX, Syllabus of Errors (excerpts)
d. Pius IX, Respicientes (excerpts)
e. Acts of the First Vatican Council
f. Leo XIII, De Rerum Novarum (excerpts)
17. June 19: The Problem of Modernism: Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI (Third Site Visit Due!)
a. Collins 448 – 473
b. Pius X, Oath Against Modernism
c. Pius X, Pascendi Dominici Gregis (excerpts)
d. Pius X, Praestantia Scriptura (excerpts)
e. Benedict XV, Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum (excerpts)
f. Lateran Treaties (excerpts)
g. Pius XI, Mit brennender Sorge (excerpt)
18. June 20: Wars Hot and Cold: Pius XII, John XXIII and Paul VI
a. Collins 474-500
b. Pius XII, Divino Afflatu (excerpt)
c. Pius XII, Humani Generis (excerpt)
d. John XXIII, Pacem in Terris (excerpt)
e. John XXIII, Speech at the Opening of the Second Vatican Council
f. Paul VI, Populorum Progressio (excerpt)
g. Paul VI, Humanae Vitae (excerpt)
19. June 21: Pilgrim and Scholar: John Paul II and Benedict XVI
a. John Paul II, Centessimus Annus (excerpt)
b. John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor (excerpt)
c. On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons
d. Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate
e. Benedict XVI,
20. June 22: From Now On: Francis
June 23: FINAL REVIEW