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Caesar Baronius

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The Venerable

Cesare Baronio

C.O.
Cardinal Priest of Santi Nereo ed Achilleo
ChurchCatholic Church
Appointed21 June 1596
Term ended30 June 1607
PredecessorGianfrancesco Morosini
SuccessorInnocenzo Del Bufalo-Cancellieri
Other post(s)Librarian of the Vatican Library(1597 – 1607)
Orders
Ordination27 May 1564
Created cardinal5 June 1596
byPope Clement VIII
RankCardinal-Priest
Personal details
Born
Cesare Baronio

30 August 1538
Sora,Duchy of Sora
Died30 June 1607(1607-06-30)(aged 68)
Rome,Papal States
BuriedSanta Maria in Vallicella
Styles of
Caesar Baronius
Reference styleHis Eminence
Spoken styleYour Eminence
Informal styleCardinal

Cesare Baronio,C.O.(as an author also known asCaesar Baronius;30 August 1538 – 30 June 1607) was an ItalianOratorian,cardinalandhistorianof theCatholic Church.His best-known works are hisAnnales Ecclesiastici( "Ecclesiastical Annals" ), which appeared in 12 folio volumes (1588–1607). He is under consideration for sainthood and, in 1845,Pope Benedict XIVdeclared him "Venerable."

Life

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Cesare Baronio was born in theDuchy of Sora(present daySorain Italy) on 31 October 1538, the only child of Camillo Baronio and his wife Porzia Febonia. His family was of Neapolitan origin.[1]

Baronio was educated atVeroliandNaples,where he commenced his law studies in October 1556. Because of the fear of an imminent French invasion, he left Naples on 29 October 1557, and traveled to Rome, where he continued his legal studies and obtained adoctoratein utroque iurein 1561.[2]He took up residence in a house on the Piazza Duca, now thePiazza Farnese,not far from the church ofSan Girolamo della Carità,wherePhilip Nerilived. Baronio was soon drawn to the circle of Philip Neri, who opened a meeting place for churchmen and laity who were interested in intellectual discussions on religion and philosophy. The Bible, church reform, ethics, and liturgy were some of the main themes of their evening discussions. Among those who frequented the evening meetings at Neri's residence were some of the most influential church leaders of theCounter-Reformation-Charles Borromeo,Federico Borromeo,Jacopo Sadoleto,andGian Matteo Giberti,to name a few.

Contacts with such illustrioushumanist-reformers and the charismatic Neri brought about a dramatic change in the young Baronio. As a result he switched his main interest from law totheology.In 1557 Baronio became a member of theCongregation of the Oratoryfounded by Philip Neri,[3]and wasordainedto the subdiaconate on 21 December 1560 and to thediaconateon 20 May 1561. Ordination to thepriesthoodfollowed in 1564.[1]

Neri directed Baronius to focus his attention on the study and explanation of Church History. Baronius spent the next few years balancing his studies, lectures, and continued involvement in apostolic work. In 1588, he began to publish theAnnales.[4]He succeeded Philip Neri as superior of the Roman Oratory in 1593.[5]

Pope Clement VIII,whose confessor he was from 1594, made him a cardinale on 5 June 1596 and also appointed him to head theVatican Library.[5]Baronio was given the red hat on 8 June and on 21 June was assigned the title ofCardinal Priest of Santi Nereo e Achilleo.Baronio restored this titular church and in 1597 a procession was held to transfer there a number of relics.[6]Baronius also renovated the Church ofSan Gregorio Magno al Celio.[7]

At subsequentconclaves,Baronio was twice considered to bepapabile– the conclaves which in the event electedPope Leo XIandPope Paul V.On each occasion, Baronio was opposed bySpainon account of his work "On theMonarchy of Sicily",in which he supported thepapalclaims against those of the Spanish government.[5]In 1602 he commissioned the Oratorio di Santa Silvia inSan Gregorio Magno al Celio.[8]

Baronio's last days were spent in the Oratory atSanta Maria in Vallicella.He found solace in the humble surroundings of the Oratory and in the company of his fellow religious. There he died on 30 June 1607, and was buried in that same church. He was named "Venerable", an honor to whichPope Benedict XIVelevated him in 1745.[4]

Works

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Baronio is best known for hisAnnales Ecclesiastici.It was after almost three decades of lecturing atSanta Maria in Vallicellathat he was asked by Philip Neri to tackle this work, as an answer to a polemical anti-Catholic historical work, theMagdeburg Centuries.[5]Baronio was at first unwilling that the task should be given to him and tried to persuade Neri to entrust the work toOnofrio Panvinio,who was already working on a history of the Church. After repeated commands from Neri, however, Baronius changed his mind and spent the rest of his life devoted to this enormous task.

In theAnnales,he treats history in strict chronological order and keepstheologyin the background.[5]Lord Actoncalled it "the greatest history of the Church ever written".[9]In theAnnales,Baronio coined the term "Dark Age"in the Latin formsaeculum obscurum,[10]to refer to the period between the end of theCarolingian Empirein 888 and the first inklings of theGregorian ReformunderPope Clement IIin 1046.

Notwithstanding its errors, especially inGreek historywhere he was obliged to depend upon secondhand information, Baronio's work stands as an honest attempt at historiography.Sarpi,in urgingCasaubonto write a refutation of theAnnales,warned him never to accuse or suspect Baronio of bad faith.[5]

Baronio also undertook a new edition of theRoman Martyrology(1586), in the course of his work he applied critical considerations to removed entries he considered implausible for historical reasons, and added or corrected others according to what he found in the sources to which he had access.[5]He is also known for saying, in the context of the controversies about the work ofCopernicusandGalileo,"The Bible teaches us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go."[11]This remark, which Baronio probably made in conversation with Galileo, was cited by the latter in hisLetter to the Grand Duchess Christina(1615).

At the time of theVenetian Interdict,Baronio published a pamphlet,Paraenesis ad rempublicam Venetam(1606). It took a stringent papalist line on the crisis.[12]It was answered in the same year by theAntiparaenesis ad Caesarem BaroniumofNicolò Crasso.[13]

Biographies

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A Latin biography of Baronio by the oratorian Hieronymus Barnabeus (Girolamo Barnabeo or Barnabò) appeared in 1651 asVita Caesaris Baronii.[14]Another Oratorian, Raymundus Albericus (Raimondo Alberici), edited three volumes of Baronio's correspondence from 1759.[15]There are other biographies byAmabel Kerr(1898),[16]and byGeneroso Calenzio(La vita e gli scritti del cardinale Cesare Baronio,Rome 1907).[17]The works ofMario Borrellialso contributed to the biographia of Baronius.

Beatification

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Baronio left a reputation for sanctity, which ledPope Benedict XIVto approve the introductions of his cause for canonization; Baronio was proclaimed "Venerable" on 12 January 1745.[1]

In 2007, on the 400th anniversary of his death, a petition was presented by the Procurator General of the Oratory of St Philip Neri.[18]to reopen the cause for hiscanonization.

References

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  1. ^abcPeterson, John Bertram. "Venerable Cesare Baronius." The Catholic EncyclopediaVol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907Public DomainThis article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
  2. ^Pincherle 1964.
  3. ^Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Caesar Baronius".Encyclopedia Britannica
  4. ^ab"Venerable Caesar Cardinal Baronius, C.O.", Raritan Oratory
  5. ^abcdefgTaunton 1911.
  6. ^Cyriac K. Pullapilly,Caesar Baronius: Counter-Reformation Historian(1975), University of Notre Dame Press, p. 77.
  7. ^Touber, Jetze (30 January 2014).Law, Medicine and Engineering in the Cult of the Saints in Counter-Reformation Rome: The Hagiographical Works of Antonio Gallonio, 1556-1605: The Hagiographical Works of Antonio Gallonio, 1556-1605.BRILL. p. 96.ISBN978-90-04-26514-1.
  8. ^"Oratorio di Santa Silvia al Celio", Turismo Roma
  9. ^Lord Acton(1906).Lectures on Modern History,"The Counter-Reformation",p. 121.
  10. ^Baronius, Caesar.Annales Ecclesiastici,Vol. X. Roma, 1602, p. 647.
  11. ^Cerrato, Edoardo Aldo."How to go to Heaven, and not how the heavens go"
  12. ^William J. Bouwsma(29 August 1984).Venice and the Defense of Republican Liberty: Renaissance Values in the Age of the Counter Reformation.University of California Press. p. 379.ISBN978-0-520-05221-5.Retrieved12 September2012.
  13. ^Niccolò Crasso (1606).Antiparaenesis ad Caesarem Baronium Cardinalem pro S. Venetia republica.Retrieved12 September2012.
  14. ^Hieronymus Barnabeus (1651).Vita Caesaris Baronii ex congregatione Oratorii S.R.E. Presbyteri cardinalis et Apostolicae Sedis bibliothecarii.Casoni.Retrieved12 September2012.
  15. ^Gaetano Moroni (1846).Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica da S. Pietro sino ai nostri giorni...(in Italian). Tipografia Emiliana. p. 141.Retrieved12 September2012.
  16. ^Lady Amabel Kerr.The Life of Cesare Cardinal Baronius of the Roman Oratory,London, 1898
  17. ^(in Italian)treccani.it,Calenzio, Generoso.
  18. ^Zev, Elizabeth."A Saintly Chef: Cardinal Baronio's Canonization Cause Revived"Archived2012-03-16 at theWayback Machine

Sources

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