Overview

Building on recent revisionist histories of the quality and ability of the late medieval clergy, this is a comprehensive survey of the ordinations of priests at the Roman curia during the pontificates of Pius II (1458-1464) and Paul II (1464-1471). This period has often been presented as one of stasis within the Catholic Church, falling between the conciliar movement of the first half of the fifteenth century and the Protestant Reformation and counter-reformation of the sixteenth century. However the authors argue that this period was one of gradual reform, whereby the Church attempted to define and control the quality of the clergy. The study analyses archival documentation to reconstruct exactly how young men entered a clerical career, and also what influence practices at the curia had on wider clerical ordinations. The book concentrates especially on the role of the Apostolic Penitentiary in controlling the quality of priest candidates and on the role of Camera Apostolica in carrying out ecclesiastical ordinations in the papal curia. In considering the rules of who could enter the clerical career, and also why and how these rules might be circumvented, this book sheds new light on the late medieval clergy.

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9781138275003

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Reviews

'Salonen and Hanska have written a very meticulous, well argued case for the state of the Catholic Church in the fifteenth century, pre-Reformation era. The most engaging sections are the particular case studies and the presentation of possible arguments for how and why the postulant requested certain absolutions. Fascinating and expertly argued.' Catholic Books Review '[Salonen and Hanska] meticulously explain the statutory prescription, the competence and the function of the respective offices as well as the procedure that had to be observed by the petitioners, and provide relevant source quotations in Latin with an English translation... May both authors provide us with more such high-quality studies. An index of persons and places concludes this sound book.' Journal of Ecclesiastical History '... an important study of the impact of papal institutions on clerical careers in the mid-fifteenth century.' Speculum 'This is an important book that takes an intriguing approach to discerning the quality of clergymen in fifteenth-century Europe, a question that has been debated since the fifteenth century itself.' European History Quarterly

Author Information

Kirsi Salonen is Tenure Track Professor in Medieval and Early Modern History in the School of History, Culture and Art Studies at the University of Turku, Finland and external lecturer of Medieval History at the University of Tampere, Finland. Jussi Hanska is external lecturer of Medieval History at the University of Tampere and of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Helsinki, Finland.

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