The Eightieth Annual Meeting of the American Catholic Historical Association

THE EIGHTIETH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION Report of the Chairman of the Committee on Program The eightieth annual meeting was held at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers, beginning with registration on Thursday afternoon, January 6, and the meeting of the Executive Council that evening. Seventy persons registered their attendance. Cool and sunny on the first day, the weather became ever warmer until the clouds arrived on Sunday. Twelve sessions were presented on the three days. On Friday morning a session on "Catholics, Republicans, and Papal Diplomacy in the Cold War Era" consisted of three papers. Richard Dominic Wiggers of Georgetown University spoke on "In the Service of Rome: An Expanded Role for American Catholics after 1945." John Donovan of Marquette University gave an account of "Father John Cronin, Richard Nixon, and the I960 Presidential Race." Lawrence J. McAndrews of St. Norbert College read a paper entitled "Late and Never: Ronald Reagan and Tuition Tax Credits." The chairman and commentator was R. Emmett Curran of Georgetown University. Concurrently in another room a session was devoted to "Religion, Humanism , and Philosophy in the Renaissance and Reformation." The chairman was David Rutherford of Central Michigan University. Christopher Celenza of Michigan State University spoke first, on"The Pre-Socratic Heritage and the Search for Ancient Wisdom in Early Modern Europe: Reuchlin and Agrícola." Celenza argued that Johannes Reuchlin in his De arte cabalística was tapping into an esoteric mentality forged in late Antiquity and revived in the late fifteenth century. He individuated five features around which he framed his treatment of Reuchlin: first, a certain approach to allegoresis; second, a specific set of soteriological concerns; third, a connection of texts with praxis and ritual efficacy; fourth, a recognition of the radical disjunction between the human and the divine ; and, fifth, a characteristic approach to the issue of information transfer. Arthur Field of Indiana University then spoke on "Religious Critiques of Humanism in Early Fifteenth-Century Italy." It is now commonplace to argue that the Renaissance humanists were not antireligious: textbooks and summaries label such notions as products of old-fashioned or Burckhardtian thinking. Yet a number ofreligious thinkers relentlessly criticized the humanist movement, accusing the humanists of outlandish opinions and an utter scorn for the Christian texts. Field's paper examined the nature of these criticisms and some humanist responses. Finally,John Monfasani of the State University ofNew York 273 274 THE EIGHTIETH ANNUAL MELTING OF THE AMERICAN CATHOUC HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION at Albany spoke on "The Augustinian Platonists in the Renaissance and Reformation ." The Platonism of the general of the Augustinians and cardinal Giles of Viterbo and his protégés has received much favorable notice in the historical literature . However, Giles's most substantial Platonic work, his commentary ad mentem Platonis on the first book of the Sentences, is a very problematic work. His most illustrious disciple, general of the Augustinians and cardinal in his turn, Girolamo Seripando, eventually turned his back on his early Platonism to concentrate on the theological problems of the Reformation. In sum, Giles's Platonism proved to be a dead-end for the Augustinian Order. There was a lively fifteen-minute open discussion at the end of the session. One of the three sessions held on Friday afternoon was entitled "Transcending Enclosure: Women Religious in Catholic Reformation Europe."Allyson Poska of Mary Washington College occupied the chair. Elizabeth Lehfeldt of Cleveland State University spoke first, on "The Struggle for Autonomy: Administration and Identity in Early-Modern Spanish Convents."This paper examined the impact of the Council of Trent on the institutional autonomy of convents. Convents in early-modern Spain possessed a profound sense of institutional identity that was tied inextricably to their ability to govern themselves with little interference from outside the cloister. Abbesses held and exercised the privileges of seignioral lords. Nuns serving as officers customarily administered significant patrimonies. Convents filed numerous lawsuits in the secular courts in an effort to protect their fiscal interests. The identity of nuns as both female and monastic , however, made their status as the managers of large estates complicated.As they answered to both cultural expectations of proper female behavior and monastic reform movements...