Ordaining the Catholic Reformation: Priests and Seminary Pedagogy in Fiesole, 1575–1675, and: Collegij a forma di Seminario: Il sistema di formazione teologica nello Stato di Milano in età spagnola (review)

Ordaining the Catholic Reformation: Priests and Seminary Pedagogy in Fiesole, 1575-1675. By Kathleen M. Comerford. [Biblioteca della Rivista di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa, Studi XII.] (Florence: Leo S. Olschki. 2001. Pp. xxii, 161. Lire 38,000 paperback.)

Collegij a forma di Seminario: Il sistema di formazione teologica nello Stato di Milano in età spagnola. By Simona Negruzzo. (Brescia: Editrice La Scuola. 2001. Pp. 535. Lire 75,000;(€38.74 paperback.)

Of the many reforms initiated by the Council of Trent (1545-1563) perhaps the most important was the call for the establishment of diocesan seminaries for the education of the clergy. In the past year, two volumes have appeared which throw considerable light on the development of seminaries in the Italian peninsula. Despite their common subject matter, the two studies differ in approach and in conclusions. Kathleen Comerford's book, which is a reworking of her 1995 doctoral dissertation, approaches the topic from the point of view of a single seminary, viewed for the most part as a free-standing entity. Her main objectives are to determine "what the educational function of the seminary was, how many men were educated in this school, and what difference they made in the life of the diocese" (p. 37). Although a first attempt to found a seminary was made in 1575, instructions did not begin until sixty years later, in 1635-6. From 1635 to 1675 the number of seminarians rose from twelve to over sixty, making Fiesole's seminary the largest in Tuscany, surpassing those of Florence and Pisa. Comerford correctly observes that seminary training was not required of all candidates for the priesthood, but follows with the rather pessimistic conclusion that the seminary of Fiesole and by implication Tridentine seminary legislation had a minimal impact on the clergy and parishioners of the diocese, at least in the seventeenth century. The main reasons for her conclusion are that only 416 of 1013 priests who were ordained in the diocese between 1635 and 1675 studied for any length of time at the seminary (p. 73), that only twenty-eight percent of seminarians attended the institution for three years or more (p. 99), and that seminary instruction was rudimentary, with only enough theology to prepare ordinands to administer the sacraments and conduct the cure of souls. The seminary library, which Comerford discusses in some detail, reflected these shortcomings in that it was very small. Although Comerford is probably correct in pointing out the pedestrian nature of seminary instruction, one wonders whether her basic conclusion about the lack of impact of the seminary and of Tridentine seminary legislation is too negative. That 416 of 1013 priests attended the seminary does seem to be a significant proportion. As well, Comerford says little about where the other 597 priests may have studied, or about the possibility that alumni of the seminary may have attended other institutions as well. One assumes that some sort of examination would have been administered before ordination, and that the candidates who had not attended the seminary would have found alternatives to seminary study. In short, Comerford's book tells only part of the story of clerical formation in seventeenth-century Tuscany.

Offering a panorama of nine dioceses in the state of Milan, Simona Negruzzo gives a broader, more balanced, picture of clerical formation in Italy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. She argues that diocesan seminaries should not be viewed in isolation but as part of a system of education which included the colleges of the new religious orders and congregations (Jesuit, Barnabite, and Somaschi), the schools of the medieval orders, the University of Pavia, and the instruction provided by private teachers and by...