Product Code Database
The papal nobility are the aristocracy of the Holy See, composed of persons holding titles bestowed by the Pope in his capacity as the head of state of Vatican City (rather than his positions within the Roman Catholic Church). From the Middle Ages into the nineteenth century, the papacy held direct temporal power in the Papal States, and many titles of papal nobility were derived from fiefs with territorial privileges attached. During this time, the Pope also bestowed ancient civic titles such as patrician. Today, the Pope still exercises authority to grant titles with territorial designations, although these are purely nominal and the privileges enjoyed by the holders pertain to styles of address and heraldry. Additionally, the Pope grants personal and familial titles that carry no territorial designation. Their titles being merely honorific, the modern papal nobility includes descendants of ancient Roman families as well as notable Catholics from many countries. All pontifical noble titles are within the personal gift of the pontiff, and are not recorded in the Official Acts of the Holy See.
The Lombard Duchies of Spoleto and Benevento existed within the future lands of the Papal States. Under the Carolingian empire, the County (also derived from a Roman precedent; Comes, Comitatus), was instituted as the basic jurisdictional unit centered on a fortified town or castle. The march or mark, ruled by a marquis (or "march count") was a border territory with defensive significance. The status of Count Palatine also emerged for high officers of the Imperial household. Key to the military organization of the Lombards and Franks was the free association between the local military leader and the warrior caste - hence the Germanic origin of the title of Baron. As feudalism developed the old Byzantine, Lombard, and Frankish structures were worked into a hierarchy, and the old military and administrative offices became hereditary titles with fiefs attached.
The late Middle Ages were marked by a rivalry between the Guelphs and Ghibellines – the parties favoring Pope and Emperor, respectively – that roiled the cities of Northern Italy. Papal power was retained, but the Popes frequently fled Rome for the safety of Orvieto, Perugia and Viterbo. The instability of the communes gradually gave way to the stabilizing influence of the podesta or signoria. Gradually, magnates of certain powerful families (such as the Ordelaffi, the Manfredi family, the Scaliger, the Malatesta, the Da Polenta, the Bentivoglio, the d'Este, and the Da Montefeltro) began to establish hereditary lordships and expand their power to neighboring towns. During the Papal exile, Cardinal Gil de Albornoz was commissioned by Innocent VI to subdue the independent states.
From the second half of the 16th century onwards, members of the higher clergy and the aristocracy connected to the papal court built a number of stately homes, or suburban villas in the countryside of Lazio. "Villas of the Papal Nobility", UNESCO, January 6, 2006 The Ville Pontificie were designed by renowned architects. The Villa Farnese in Caprarola was the work of Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and Baldassare Peruzzi.Coffin David, The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome, Princeton University Press, 1979: 281–285 The homes were often decorated by noted artists. Taddeo Zuccari was commissioned to paint the Histories of Alexander for the Castello Orsini at Bracciano.
As modern statehood emerged and the boundaries between imperial and papal territory solidified, titles of nobility were proliferated as a means of establishing allies and friendly buffer states. The emperor elevated the Duchies of Milan, Florence, Mantua, and Modena, and the pope likewise elevated the Duchies of Urbino, Ferrara and Parma. From the late sixteenth century onward, with the papal territory relatively secure, noble families were enriched with the title of prince, their counties and marquisates were elevated to duchies, and the Medici were even made grand dukes of Tuscany by Pius V. Likewise, papal orders of knighthood and personal titles, sometimes attached to positions of honor in the papal household, came into greater use.
Pope Leo XIII ennobled French and American philanthropist Joseph Florimond Loubat as the Duc de Loubat. In 1902 he made Pennsylvania businessman Martin Maloney a papal marquis, and two years later a member of the papal court as a Papal gentleman. Among Maloney's various charitable activities was a home for the elderly in honor of his parents, donations to the Catholic University of America, and towards the refurbishment of the Lateran Basilica. In 1903, Leo created New York City socialite and benefactress Annie Leary a Papal Countess, the first such title to have been bestowed upon a woman in the United States. Pope Pius X named New York City builder John D. Crimmons a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great. A trustee of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Crimmons established Corpus Christi Monastery at Hunts Point in the Bronx for the Dominican Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.
On the occasion of the signing of the Lateran Accords of 1929, the Italian government recognized the sovereignty of the Holy See and confirmed the pope's power to grant noble titles. It also recognized the titles granted by the pope until that date and all future titles as equivalent to the noble titles of the Kingdom of Italy. This rule remained in force until the 1946 abolition of the Italian monarchy. In 1969 the Italian Council of State determined that the provision of the Lateran Treaty concerning the recognition of papal titles that was incorporated into the Italian Constitution was still valid and therefore that their use in Italy was still licit. No provision, however, has been made for their use in , or civil state registries.
Although the custom of conferring noble titles such as prince, duke, marquis, count, viscount, baron, lord, knight, Nobility and patrician has since essentially disappeared, Pope John Paul II ennobled several distinguished individuals during his pontificate, as did Pope Benedict XVI, through the Vatican Secretariat of State. John Paul II granted several noble titles to Polish people compatriots at the beginning of his pontificate, but quietly and without their being published in the Acts of the Apostolic See.
The popes continue to award knighthoods and other honors, which do not confer titled-nobility status, with the exception of Count of the Sacred Palace of the Lateran.Philippe Levillain, ed. John W. O'Malley, tr. The Papacy: An Encyclopedia (2002) vol. ii s.v. "Nobility, Roman".
At times, certain rulers paid a type of feudal homage to the papacy (Poland, 991; England, 1213). Inversely, the Pope claimed the authority to create and anoint rulers (Holy Roman Empire, 800, 962, etc.; Sicily, 1059; Crown of Aragon, 1204; Latin Empire of Constantinople, 1217; Sicily, 1265), to depose them (Holy Roman Empire, 1076, 1245; Portugal, 1247), to elevate them (Croatia, 925; Hungary, 1001; Sicily, 1130; Portugal, 1179; Tuscany, 1569), and to decide disputes between them (Medieval Corsica, 1217; Treaty of Tordesillas, 1493). The Pope also had strong claims to the feudal sovereignty of Naples-Sicily.
While some titles were traditionally linked to territorial privileges to a fief of the Papal States, others were associated only with privileges of court, notably, Prince Assistant to the Papal Throne.
Within the ecclesiastical hierarchy cardinals are referred to as princes of the Church, and are considered analogous to temporal princes within a kingdom. Historically, many popes have designated a member of their family as an official cardinal-nephew. Certain offices of the Papal Curia and the Papal Household carry honorifics, such as the style monsignor.
Just as Catholic monarchs sometimes exercised veto powers in papal elections, bishops and abbots were historically represented in the or "estates-general" (legislative and consultative assemblies) of many countries. The archbishops of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne served as ex officio of the Holy Roman Empire. Within the Empire, , and often held territorial privileges.
Recipients of such honours included both Italians – especially those close to the papacy (some of whom were/are papal relatives) – and prominent non-Italian Catholics, including Irish tenor John McCormack, Irish art historian and politician George Noble Plunkett, American financier George MacDonald, American philanthropist Katherine E. Price, and Rose Kennedy (mother of U.S. president John F. Kennedy). "How to... join the papal nobility", The Catholic Herald, July 11, 2019 American Francis Augustus MacNutt was a papal marquis, and Argentine Mercedes Castellanos de Anchorena was a papal marchioness. During the 1920s, Genevieve and Nicholas Frederic Brady of New York were granted papal . All pontifical noble titles are within the personal gift of the pontiff, and they are not recorded in the Official Acts of the Holy See.
Structure
Titles
Historically, papal nobility has included the titles of prince, duke, marquis, count, viscount, baron, lord, knight, nobile and patrician.
Counts and countesses
Count/countess () is one of the noble titles still granted by the pope as a mark of personal distinction without any territorial entailment. The holder is styled "Count(ess) Surname" and may be informally referred to as a papal count/ papal countess or, more rarely, as a Roman count/ Roman countess. The comital title, which can be for life or hereditary, has been awarded in various forms by popes and Holy Roman emperors since the Middle Ages, and the pope continued to grant the comital and other noble titles even after 1870, when the Papal States were taken from the pope.
Count of the Sacred Palace of the Lateran
The title "Count of the Lateran Palace" is an honour that is granted ex officio and ad vitam to those who have been created Pontifical Chamberlains (now styled as Gentlemen of His Holiness) as attendants to the Pontifical Court. Additionally, the honour was collectively granted to the Spanish chapters of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, the only purely noble chapters of the order. Their members enjoy several heraldic privileges in addition to the right to use the Comital title. This tradition can be traced back to the Reconquista, in which the Order played an important role. According to heraldic expert Lord Manuel de Mata, the Spanish Members of the Order are allowed to use both the full title of Count of the Sacred Palace of the Lateran as well as just the title of Count before their names. The rights were recorded in the Memorias de la Academia Mallorquina de Estudios Genealógicos and approved by King Alfonso XIII of Spain.
Fiefs of the State of the Church
From the sixteenth century forward, strong statehood developed in Italy and vague, overlapping territorial claims were gradually determined and settled through conquest and treaty. Although temporal rule in Italy was theoretically shared with the Holy Roman Emperor, the papacy held most of Lazio, Umbria, Marche, and parts of Emilia-Romagna directly from the Carolingian period to the Risorgimento by right of treaty or donation from secular rulers (Donation of Sutri, 728; Donation of Pepin, 756; Otto IV, 1201; Rudolf I, 1278). Within this territory, known as the State of the Church, the pope had authority to dispose of certain hereditary fiefs, notably:
Noble houses
Examples of Italian Dynasty of the papacy include:
House of Aldobrandini Camillo Aldobrandini Prince of Meldola and Sarsina Altieri family Extinct in 1955 Barberini Francesco Barberini House of Borghese Scipione Virginio Flavio Giacomo Antonio Maria Borghese Prince of Sulmona, Rossano, Montecompatri, Vivaro, Sperliga e Manganelli, etc. Braschi family Giovanni Angelo Theodoli-Braschi House of Chigi Mario Chigi House of Colonna Marcantonio Colonna (Paliano line) Cybo Extinct in 1790 House of Doria-Pamphili-Landi Extinct in 2000 Massimo family Fabrizio Massimo Arsoli House of Mattei Extinct in 1801 Duke of Giove Orsini family Domenico Napoleone Orsini Ruspoli family Francesco Ruspoli
See also
|
|
