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Nuns as ‘Sponsae Christi’: The Legal Status of the Medieval Oblates of Tor de’ Specchi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2020

MAYA MASKARINEC
MAYA MASKARINEC*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Southern California, 3502 Trousdale Parkway, SOS 153, Los Angeles, Ca90089-0034, USA
*
E-mail: maskarin@usc.edu
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Abstract

This article examines the unusual history and legal status of the Tor de’ Specchi community, founded by Francesca Romana (d. 1440) in Rome, in the face of shifting expectations for religious women in Counter-Reformation Catholicism. It is argued that Francesca Romana had sought to carve out a religious path for women distinct from that of nuns as brides of Christ (‘sponsae Christi’). The article demonstrates the community's difficulties in maintaining this way of life in the face of Pope Pius V's 1566 bull Circa Pastoralis, which extended the Council of Trent's 1563 decrees on enclosure (clausura) to all nuns of every order.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 72 , Issue 2 , April 2021 , pp. 280 - 299
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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References

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2 de Azpilcueta, Martín, Consiliorum sive responsorum libri quinque iuxta ordinem decretalium dispositi, Rome 1590, 751–9Google Scholar, consilium 81. The most detailed discussion of the text, to my knowledge, is M. Sensi's ‘Tor de’ Specchi e il movimento religioso femminile nel Quattrocento’, in Romagnoli, A. Bartolomei (ed.), La canonizzazione di Santa Francesca Romana: santità, cultura e istituzioni a Roma tra medioevo ed età moderna, Florence 2013, 259–302 at pp. 286–300Google Scholar.

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12 Navarro references this outcome in his Consilium 81, at de Azpilcueta, Consiliorum, 760, which is likewise on behalf of the Tor de’ Specchi community, and argues for the community's right to elect its ‘president’ for life (rather than for a term of three years like other nuns).

13 De Azpilcueta, Consiliorum, 752, no. 81.1.

14 Ibid. 752–3, no. 81.2–3.

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19 ‘aut quocumque alio nomine appellentur’: Pius v, Circa Pastoralis (1566), Codicis iuris canonici fontes, i. 201–3, no. 112.1.

20 De Azpilcueta, Consiliorum, 753, no. 81.6.

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27 For this legend, with further bibliography, see Zarri, Recinti, 288–311.

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29 Sancta Birgitta, Revelaciones, bk i.7; see also i.20.

30 Ibid. bk i.26.

31 Klaniczay, Gabor, ‘The mystical pregnancy of Birgitta and the invisible stigmata of Catherine: bodily signs of supernatural communication in the lives of two mystics’, in Oen, M. H. and Falkeid, U. (eds), Sanctity and female authorship: Birgitta of Sweden and Catherine of Siena, New York–London 2020, 159–78 at pp. 168–70Google Scholar.

32 Sancta Birgitta, Revelaciones, bk. vi.88 at vol. iii. 155–6 at p. 155.

33 Ibid.

34 Elliott, Bride of Christ.

35 Makowski, Canon law, 126. See also p. 109.

36 P. Canisio, Summa doctrinae christianae, Salamanca 1570, fo. 70v, trans. and cited in Zarri, G., ‘Gender, religious institutions and social discipline: the reform of the regulars’, in Brown, J. C. and Davis, R. C. (eds), Gender and society in Renaissance Italy, London 1998, 193–212 at p. 208Google Scholar.

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38 Valier, Ricordi, ch. ii at pp. 17–19.

39 Ibid. ch. iv at p. 21.

40 Ibid. ch. vii at pp. 31, 33.

41 Ibid. ch. xiv at p. 56.

42 Ibid. ch. xii at pp. 50–1.

43 Lloyd, J. Barclay, ‘Saint Catherine of Siena's tomb and its place in Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome: narration, translation and veneration’, Papers of the British School at Rome lxxxiii (2015), 111–48 at pp. 123–4Google Scholar.

44 Visio xli, ed. A. Bartolomei Romagnoli, in Santa Francesca Romana: edizione critica dei trattati latini di Giovanni Mattiotti, Vatican 1994, 573–5; Giornetti, R. Incarbone, ‘Tractati della vita et delli visioni’ di Santa Francesca Romana, Rome 2014, 134–6Google Scholar.

45 Fra Ippolito, ‘Beata Francisca illustris: la vita di Santa Francesca Romana scritta da fra Ippolito, 1453 circa’, ed. G. Lunardi with an introduction in 1384–1984: Ieri e oggi. Francesca Romana segno dei tempi, Rome 1984, 41–54, <http://www.gliscritti.it/blog/entry/682> (I have not been able to consult the printed version of this text). Once, at her deathbed, Fra Ippolito refers to her as the bride of Christ.

46 Vita 1, ed. Bartolomei Romagnoli, Santa Francesca Romana, 329–30; ed. Incarbone Giornetti, ‘Tractati’, 1–2; Fra Ippolito, Beata Francisca illustris; referenced by S. Nanni, ‘Sant'Alessio e Roma’, Mélanges de l’École française de Rome: Italie et Méditerranée modernes et contemporaines cxxiv/2 (2012), <https://journals.openedition.org/mefrim/916>, ¶21.

47 For an introduction to the cult of St Alexius in Rome see Nanni, ‘Sant'Alessio e Roma’.

48 Giornetti edn, 7.

49 ‘Nel segno dell'oblazione: Francesca Romana e la Regola di Tor de' Specchi’, ed. A. Bartolomei Romagnoli, in Romagnoli, Francesca Romana: la santa, 87–160, 155–6, no. 1; ‘L'istituzione delle oblate di Tor de’ Specchi secondo i documenti’, ed. Placido Lugano, Rivista storica benedettina xiv (1923), 272–308 at pp. 274–5, no. 1.

50 Visio xxiv (20 Mar. 1432) (Romagnoli edn), 495–8; (Giornetti edn), 77–80.

51 ‘Nel segno’ (Romagnoli edn), 146–7, no. 2.

52 De Azpilcueta, Consiliorum, 758, no. 81.22.

53 The papal bull dates from 1433 and was directed to Archbishop Gaspare, the vicar of Rome, who was to verify the situation and see to its execution: Latin ed. Bartolomei Romagnoli, ‘Nel segno’, 147–8, no. 3; Italian ed. Lugano, ‘L'istituzione’, 279–81, no. 2; it was succeeded by a bull issued by Gaspare to the oblates: ed. Bartolomei Romagnoli, ‘Nel segno’, 149–51, no. 4; ed. Lugano, 281–4, no. 3.

54 De Azpilcueta, Consiliorum, 756, no. 81.14.

55 P. Marchetti, ‘Architettura a Tor de’ Specchi’, in Romagnoli, Francesca Romana: la santa, 161–86, 175–85. In the years after Francesca's death these buildings were combined under one roof. I am grateful to an anonymous reader for advising consideration of this spatial perspective.

56 Brenda Bolton, ‘Daughters of Rome: all one in Christ Jesus’, in W. J. Sheils and D. S. Wood (eds), Women in the Church (Studies in Church History xxvii, 1990), 101–15 at pp. 109–15; ‘S. Domenico e S. Sisto’, in Monastic Matrix, A scholarly resource for the study of women's religious communities from 400 to 1600 ce, <https://monasticmatrix.osu.edu/monasticon/s-domenico-e-s-sisto>. For the architecture and archaeology of female monastic space more generally see Gilchrist, Roberta, Gender and material culture: the archaeology of religious women, New York 1994Google Scholar.

57 Lugano, ‘L'istituzione’, 275–6.

58 Romagnoli, Santa Francesca Romana, introduction at pp. 29–55.

59 Ibid. 221–3.

60 As in Visio lxx (Mary presents Christ at the temple), (Romagnoli edn), 675–6 at p. 675; (Giornetti edn), 206–7 at p. 206.

61 Cf. the visions from Dominican convents in fourteenth-century Southern Germany: Hale, Rosemary, ‘Imitatio Mariae: motherhood motifs in devotional memoirs’, Mystics Quarterly xvi (1990), 193−203Google Scholar.

62 Visio xii (Romagnoli edn), 435–8; (Giornetti edn), 38–9.

63 Visio xiii (Romagnoli edn), 438–42; (Giornetti edn), 39–42.

64 Visio lxxxi (St Stephen's day, 26 Dec. 1439), (Romagnoli edn), 700–3; (Giornetti edn), 225–6.

65 Visio lxvi (Christmas 1433) (Romagnoli edn), 666–7 at p. 667; (Giornetti edn), 201–2.

66 Visio xlix (Christmas 1432; the vision in which Francesca receives communion from St Peter) (Romagnoli edn), 610–16 at pp. 611–12; (Giornetti edn), 160–4 at p. 161.

67 Visio lii (1 Mar. 1433) (Romagnoli edn), 623–6 at p. 624; (Giornetti edn), 169–71.

68 Visio xlv.4 (Romagnoli edn), 586.

69 Visio xlv (23 Sept. 1432) (Romagnoli edn), 585–90; (Giornetti edn), 144–8. In another instance where the vernacular text refers to Christ as Francesca's spouse (‘la beata vedeva lo suo divino sposo’), the Latin text has changed this to ‘Dei humilis ancilla suum spetiosissimum Dominum et dilectum preclare speculabatur’: Visio xii (Romagnoli edn), 436; (Giornetti edn), 38.

70 This conclusion is based on the entry for ‘Gesù Cristo’ as ‘Sposo’, in Romagnoli's index (p. 973).

71 ‘Ordinationi Statuiti per la Beata Francesca’, ed. G. Lunardi, in ‘L'istituzione di Tor de'Specchi’, in G. Picasso (ed.), Una santa tutta romana: Saggi e ricerche nel VI centenario della nascita di Francesca Bussa dei Ponziani (1383–1984), Siena 1984, 71–93 at pp. 87–93 (Appendix). These are translated by S. M. Scanlan in ‘Doorways to the demonic and divine: visions of santa Francesca Romana and the frescoes of Tor de' Specchi’, unpubl. PhD diss. Brown 2010, 176–83, appendix A.

72 ‘Ordinationi Statuiti’, 2 (Lunardi edn), 87.

73 Ibid. 38, 40 (Lunardi edn), 87–8.

74 Ibid. 43 (Lunardi edn), 88.

75 Ibid. 36, 49, 67 (Lunardi edn), 89, 90, 92.

76 See the documents in Romagnoli, ‘Nel segno’, and Lugano, ‘L'istituzione’.

77 Ed. Bartolomei Romagnoli, ‘Nel segno,’ 157–8, no. 8; ed. Lugano, ‘L'istituzione’, 300–3, no. 8.

78 Kaftal, G., ‘Three scenes from the legend of Santa Francesca Romana’, Journal of the Walters Art Gallery xi (1948), 51–61Google Scholar; Scanlan, ‘Doorways’, 17–61.

79 For an overview of the cycle see Rossi, A., ‘Le opere del monastero di Tor de' Specchi in Roma’, Bollettino d'arte i/8 (1907), 4–22Google Scholar. For discussion of these and the following frescoes see also Scanlan, ‘Doorways’, with reference to older bibliography.

80 Marchetti, ‘Architettura’, 166.

81 Ibid. 167.

82 Ibid. 168–73 with plan at p. 167, Fig. 5.

83 For the bull see Lugano, P., ‘Santa Francesca Romana nella memoria dei contemporanei e dei posteri’, Rivista storica benedettina iii (1908), 40–200 at pp. 166–76Google Scholar.

84 Barone, G., ‘La canonizzazione di Francesca Romana (1608): la riproposta di un modello agiografico medievale’, in Zari, G. (ed.), Finzione e santità tra medioevo ed età moderna, Torino 1991, 264–79Google Scholar, and ‘Francesca Romana santa della riforma cattolica’, in Romagnoli, La canonizzazione, 125–38.

85 Orsino, Giulio, Vita della B. Francesca Romana Roma, Rome 1608Google Scholar.

86 Ibid. 1.2, p. 16.

87 Ibid. 3.4, p. 182.

88 Visio C (undated), (Romagnoli edn), 720–1; (Giornetti edn), 235.

89 Orsino, Vita 5.27, p. 502.

90 Lucetta Scaraffia, ‘Il registro della memoria: per una storia delle oblate di Tor de’ Specchi’, in Romagnoli, La canonizzazione, 335–62 at p. 348.