Souverain et Pontife: Recherches prosopographiques sur la Curie Romaine à l'Âge de la Restauration (1814-1846) (review)

This hefty volume is not for the casual reader. But it provides a wealth of information for researchers on nearly any subject dealing with the Papacy and the Roman Curia during the Restoration period of the nineteenth century. As the title indicates, the Popes of that period were not only pontiffs, but sovereigns as well, princes of the second largest of the pre-unification Italian states.

Boutry's work provides the reader with a highly detailed study of the Papal Government of that age, from the restoration of Pius VII in 1814 until the election of Pius IX in 1846. Because of the idiosyncratic nature of the Papal administration, the regime had both spiritual and political aspects, not always clearly distinguished from one another. One of the most troublesome issues that Pius IX faced was how to acquit his duties to his secular subjects in the Papal States, while still maintaining his position as head of the Universal Church.

Boutry sets out to present the details of this intricate organization in two phases. He portrays the Roman Curia in all its labyrinthine complexity, then gives a thumbnail biography of each cleric or layman who held one or more positions in those offices. Although the book appears at first to be just a complicated profile of an outdated bureaucracy, it also provides a fascinating glimpse of a unique ecclesiastical state which has vanished forever. Although this society disappeared less than two centuries ago, the close blending of Church and State gives it an "other worldly" look to the modern reader. It is also a pleasant surprise that the author maintains a great deal of clarity in such a multifaceted study.

In the first section, the author describes the structure of the Papal government, with a capsule explanation of the history and function of each office, as well as a precise, dated list of all those prelates who served in those offices during the Restoration period. This section fills about 300 pages. In addition to the Sacred College of Cardinals, the list includes a large number of Congregations (permanent and temporary), Tribunals, Curial Secretariats, and such institutions as the Pontifical Chapel and Pontifical Family. The catalogue concludes with a detailing of the Legates and Delegates (who were the clerical governors of the civil provinces), and of the thirteen foreign Nunciatures.

It is in this first section that the careful reader will reap the most interesting reward. Some of the Congregations (State, Holy Office, Index, and Propaganda Fide) are familiar, but others reflect the secular side of the Papal States. There is a Congregazione di Buon Governo, resulting from a 1588 reform of Sixtus V to provide the communes near Rome with officials who were more interested in efficient government than political careerism. There are departments to oversee water supply and road maintenance, as well as the military administration for the Papal army. There were presidencies to supervise the grain supply and the oil and cooking fats for the city of Rome, which had more hungry mouths than the local farmers could easily feed. The administrative governors of the State's twenty-one provinces were all clerics. The five most important provinces were called Legations, each governed by a Cardinal Legate. The others were Delegations, governed by a Delegate, who had to be a bishop. The Pontifical Chapel included the Latin Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. But there were also the Prince Assistants to the Pontifical Throne, including hereditary members of the Orsini and Colonna families, as well as the ceremonial Senator of Rome. Finally, there were the appointments of Apostolic Preacher, always a Capuchin, the Confessor to the Pontifical Family, always a Servite, and the Sacristan of His Holiness, always an Augustinian Canon.

In the second section, the author provides a more detailed biographical portrait of each...