Punishment and Penance: Two Phases in the History of the Bishop’s Tribunal of Novara by Thomas B. Deutscher (review)

Among the many actions taken by the bishop’s tribunal in the northern Italian Diocese of Novara between 1563 and 1799, both “punishment” and “penance” played an important role. Thomas Deutscher’s case study argues that the bishop’s tribunal employed both rigor and compassion in responding to the misbehavior of those who appeared before the episcopate. The tribunal was interested in both clergy and laypeople, but it responded with varying degrees of severity to each, depending upon the time period and the context. Deutscher suggests that, in the early phases (1563–1615), the tribunal actively pursued both sacred and secular transgressors. In the later period, however, the persecution of laymen dropped off dramatically, a testament to the growing power of secular justice and the concomitant decline in the authority of the bishop.

The Novara episcopate—particularly in the post-Tridentine period—was dominated by St. Carlo Borromeo, archbishop of Milan. Deutscher’s opening chapter surveys the geography and history of Novara, as well as the specific role of the vicar general and other offices within the diocese. The second chapter examines the extent of episcopal jurisdiction by focusing on how Novara interacted with other judicial bodies, including the Roman Inquisition, and especially on the oftcontentious relationship between the Lombard bishops and their secular counterparts in Milan. The next two chapters consider the immediate post-Tridentine period in detail, turning first to moral transgressions and criminal acts of the clergy (chapter 3) and then to similar failings of the laity (chapter 4). The reader’s impression is of a tribunal eager to intervene and to implement Catholic reform but stymied by a series of obstacles, including a lack of qualified replacements for misbehaving clergy, an overburdened vicar general, and a strong desire to forgive (if not always to forget). The final chapter looks far ahead to consider the actions of the tribunal in the period 1745–99. Deutscher explicitly chose a comparative approach to measure change over time. He recognizes that the extant records, although similar, are not identical, and thus precise head-to-head comparisons are not possible. Nevertheless, there is certainly sufficient material to draw conclusions about changes in the strength, success, and targets of the bishop’s tribunal.

It is clear from the introduction and opening chapters that Novara offers a good run of serial records, complemented by sources such as visitation acts; synodal decrees; a census of priests; and the extensive correspondence of Carlo Bascapè, Novara’s bishop and Borromeo’s close contemporary. Deutscher’s study is very much a local one; in the introduction and the notes he briefly mentions case studies that have been done elsewhere, but there are relatively few of these, making his level of detail and careful study a welcome addition to the history of local Catholicism.

One of the most fascinating elements of this study is the rich narrative about rogue priests and the seeming inability of the bishop’s tribunal to curb them. The introduction opens with the tale of Pier Paolo Burro, a curate in Novara who was charged with a dizzying and disheartening list of charges: concubinage, theft, gambling, avarice, assault, and failure to perform many pastoral duties. Despite the apparently overwhelming evidence, he escaped any serious punishment for nearly two decades before finally being suspended—but only for one year. These and other stories exemplify Deutscher’s point that the effectiveness of the bishop’s tribunal was often quite limited.