LAC VERY RARE Parchment Vellum 1657 in the name of Pope Alexander VII
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LAC VERY RARE Parchment Vellum 1657 in the name of Pope Alexander VII:
$186.77
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VERY RARE Parchment Vellum 1657 in the name of Pope ALEXANDER VIIORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT IN LATINPope Alexander VIIFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThis article\'slead sectiondoes not adequatelysummarizekey points of its contents.Please consider expanding the lead toprovide an accessible overviewof all important aspects of the article. Please discuss this issue on the article\'stalk page.(June 2016)Pope
Pope Alexander VIIBishop of RomePortrait byGiovanni Battista GaulliPapacy began7 April 1655Papacy ended22 May 1667PredecessorInnocent XSuccessorClement IXOrdersOrdinationDecember 1634Consecration1 July 1635
byMiguel Juan Balaguer CamarasaCreated Cardinal19 February 1652
byInnocent XPersonal detailsBirth nameFabio ChigiBorn13 February 1599
Siena,Grand Duchy of TuscanyDied22 May 1667(aged68)
Rome,Papal StatesPrevious post
- Bishop of Nardò(1635–1652)
- Apostolic Nuncio to Germany(1639-1651)
- Cardinal Secretary of State(1651-1655)
- Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria del Popolo(1652-1655)
- Archbishop of custos(\"Mountain guardian\")Coat of armsOther popes named Alexander
Pope Alexander VII(13 February 1599– 22 May 1667), bornFabio Chigi, wasPopefrom 7 April 1655 to his death in 1667.[1][2]
He began his career as a vice-papal legate, and he held various diplomatic positions in theHoly See. He was ordained as a priest in 1634, and he becameBishop of Nardoin 1635. He was later transferred in 1652, and he becameBishop of Imola.Pope Innocent Xmade himSecretary of Statein 1651, and in 1652, he was appointed as aCardinal.
Early in his papacy, Alexander, who was seen as ananti-Nepotistat the time of his election, lived simply; later, however, he gave jobs to his relatives, who eventually took over his administration.
His administration worked to support the Jesuits. However, his administration\'s relations with France were strained due to his frictions with French diplomats.
Alexander was interested in architecture and supported various urban projects in Rome. He also wrote poetry and patronized artists who expanded the decoration of churches. His theological writings included discussions ofheliocentrismand theImmaculate Conception.
Contents[hide]- 1Biography
- 1.1Early life
- 1.2Papal Diplomat
- 2Secretary of State and Cardinal
- 3Papacy
- 3.1Election as pope
- 3.2Nepotism
- 3.3Urban and architectural projects in Rome
- 4Foreign relations
- 4.1Malta
- 4.2Sweden
- 4.3France
- 4.4Spain and Portugal
- 5Jesuits and Jansenism
- 6Death
- 7Works
- 7.1Theology
- 8See also
- 9References
- 10External links
Born inSiena, a member of the illustrious banking family ofChigiand a great-nephew ofPope Paul V(1605–1621),[3]Fabio Chigi was privately tutored and eventually received doctorates of philosophy, law, and theology from theUniversity of Siena.
Fabio\'s elder brother, Mario, married Berenice, the daughter of Tiberio della Ciala, producing four children, of whom two survived: Agnes and Flavio. Flavio (1631-1693) was created cardinal by his uncle on April 9, 1657. His brother, Augusto Chigi (1595-1651), married Olimpia della Ciaia (1614-1640) and continued the family line as the parents of Agostino Chigi, Prince Farnese. Fabio\'s sister Onorata Mignanelli married Firmano Bichi; their son Antonio was named Bishop of Montalcino (1652-1656) and then Osimo (1656-1659), and was named a cardinal by his Uncle Alexander VII (in pectore) on April 9, 1657 (made public on 10 November 1659).[4]
Papal Diplomat[edit]In 1627 he began his apprenticeship as vice-papal legateatFerrara, and on recommendations from two cardinals he was appointedInquisitorofMalta.[5][6]
Chigi was ordained a priest in December 1634. He was appointedReferendarius utriusque signaturae, which made him a prelate and gave him the right to practice before the Roman courts. On 8 January 1635, Chigi was namedBishop of Nardòin southern Italy and consecrated on 1 July 1635[7]byMiguel Juan Balaguer Camarasa,Bishop of Malta.[8]On 13 May 1652 he was transferred to theBishopric of Imola.[7]
Bishop Chigi was namednuncio in Cologne(1639–1651) on 11 June 1639. There, he supportedUrban VIII\'s condemnation of the heretical bookAugustinusbyCornelius Jansen, Bishop of Ypres, in the papal BullIn eminentiof 1642.[9]
Though expected to take part in the negotiations which led in 1648 to thePeace of Westphalia, Bishop Chigi (and other Catholic delegates) declined to deliberate with persons whom the Catholic Church consideredheretics. Negotiations therefore took place in two with intermediaries travelling back and forth between the Protestant and the Catholic delegates. Chigi, of course, protested on behalf of the Papacy, when the treaties were finally completed, against theTreaty of Westphaliaonce the instruments were finally completed.[10][11]Pope Innocent himself stated that the Peace \"is null, void, invalid, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect for all time.\"[12]The Peace ended theThirty Years\' War(1618–1648) and established the balance of European power that lasted until the wars of theFrench Revolution(1789).
Secretary of State and Cardinal[edit]Pope Innocent X(1644–1655) recalled Chigi to Rome. In December 1651 Pope Innocent named Cardinal ChigiSecretary of State. He was created cardinal by Innocent X in the Consistory of 19 February 1652, and on 12 March was granted the title ofCardinal-PriestofSanta Maria del Popolo.[13]In December 1651 Pope Innocent named Cardinal ChigiCardinal Secretary of State.[14][15]
Papacy[edit]Election as pope[edit]Papal styles of
Pope Alexander VIIReference styleHis HolinessSpoken styleSanct(issim)e PaterReligious styleHoly FatherPosthumous styleNoneMain article:Papal conclave, 1655When Innocent X died on 1 January 1655, Cardinal Chigi, the candidate favoured bySpain[contradictory], was elected pope after eighty days in theconclave, on 7 April 1655, taking the name of Alexander VII.[16]
Nepotism[edit]The conclave believed he was strongly opposed to thenepotismthat had been a feature of previous popes. Indeed, in the first year of his reign, Alexander VII lived simply and forbade his relations even to visit Rome. A contemporary,John Bargrave(having visited Rome during the period following his election and then later during his papacy) wrote the following:[17]
In the first months of his elevation to the Popedom, he had so taken upon him the profession of an evangelical life that he was wont to season his meat with ashes, to sleep upon a hard couch, to hate riches, glory, and pomp, taking a great pleasure to give audience to ambassadors in a chamber full of dead men\'s sculls, and in the sight of his coffin, which stood there to put him in mind of his death. [His] extraordinary devotion and sanctity of life I found was so much esteemed that the noise of it spread far and near. But so soon as he had called his relations about him he changed his nature. Instead of humility succeeded vanity; his mortification vanished, his hard couch was turned into a soft featherbed, his dead men\'s sculls into jewels, and his thoughts of death into ambition— filling his empty coffin with money as if he would corrupt death, and purchase life with riches.
The prose may be grossly exaggerated, as the view of a Protestant clergyman and nephew of the Dean of Canterbury, but, indeed, it is at least true that in theconsistoryof 24 April 1656 Pope Alexander announced that his brother and nephews would be coming to assist him in Rome. His nephew, Cardinal Flavio Chigi assumed the position ofcardinal-nephew. The administration was given largely into the hands of his relatives,[18]andnepotismbecame as luxuriously entrenched as it ever had been in the Baroque Papacy: he gave them the best-paid civil and ecclesiastical offices,[examples needed]and princely palaces and estates suitable to the Chigi of Siena.[citation needed]Cardinal Flavio began work on the Villa Chigi-Versaglia at Formello in 1664.[19]
Urban and architectural projects in Rome[edit]Fabio Chigi as Papal Nuntius to the Peace of Westphalia negotiations, byAnselm van Hulle(c. 1646)Alexander VII, by Domenico GuidiA number of pontifs are renowned for their urban planning in the city of Rome—for example,Pope Julius IIandPope Sixtus V—but Alexander VII’s numerous urban interventions were not only diverse in scope and scale but demonstrated a consistent planning and architectural vision that the glorification and embellishment of the city, ancient and modern, sacred and secular, should be governed by order and decorum.[20][21]
Central to Alexander’s urbanism was the idea ofteatroor urban theatre[22]whereby his urban interventions became the grand settings or showpieces appropriate to the dignity of Rome and the Head of the Catholic Church. Therefore, and although the scales are vastly different, the smallSanta Maria della Paceand its piazza are as much a teatro as the imposing monumental colonnade that formsPiazza San Pietroin front ofSt. Peter\'s Basilica.
The various urban and architectural projects carried out during Alexander’s reign were recorded in engravings byGiovanni Battista Faldaand the first volume was published in 1665. The volumes were published byGiovanni Giacomo de Rossiunder the titleIl Nuovo Teatro delle fabriche et edificij in prospettiva di Roma moderna sotto il felice pontificato di N.S. Alessandro VII.[23]A rival publication documenting these projects was published by Rossi\'s cousin Giovanni Battista de Rossi who employed the youngFlemisharchitectural draughtsmanLieven Cruylto produce drawings of Rome, 10 of which were published in 1666 under the titleProspectus Locorum Urbis Romae Insignium.[24]
His preferred architect was the sculptor and architectGianlorenzo Bernini[25]but he also gave architectural commissions to the painter and architectPietro da Cortona. Of the three leading architects of the Roman HighBaroque, onlyFrancesco Borrominifared not so well under Alexander; this may be because he thought Borromini’s architectural forms willful but also Borromini could be notoriously difficult. Nonetheless, Alexander’s family heraldic emblems of the mons or mountains with stars and oak leaves, adorn Borromini’s[26]church ofSant\'Ivo alla Sapienzaand many other works of his reign.[27]
Alexander took a keen personal interest in his urban and architectural projects and made notes of these in his diaries.[28]His projects in Rome included: the church and piazza atSanta Maria della Pace; theVia del Corso,Piazza Colonnaand associated buildings; reworking of thePorta del Popolo, thePiazza del PopoloandSanta Maria del Popolo;Piazza San Pietro,[29]theScala Regiaand interior embellishments in theVatican PalaceandSt. Peter\'s;Sant\'Andrea al Quirinale; part of thePalazzo del Quirinale; the obelisk and elephant inPiazza della Minerva; and the Palazzo Chigi.[30]The Palazzo Chigi in Rome is not to be confused with the Palazzo Chigi in S. Quirico d\'Orcia in Tuscany,[31]or the Palazzo Chigi di Formello.[32]
Foreign relations[edit]Drawing of Pope Alexander VII byAndrea SacchiMalta[edit]Before being elected as Pontiff, Chigi served as Inquisitor on the Island of Malta where he resided mostly at TheInquisitor\'s Palacein Birgu (alias Città Vittoriosa). At that time Malta was a fiefdom of the Knights Hospitallers of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta.
Sweden[edit]This section needs expansion.You can help byadding to it.(September 2016)The conversion of QueenChristina of Sweden(1632–1654) occurred during Alexander VII\'s reign. After her abdication the queen came to reside in Rome, where she was confirmed in herbaptismby the Pope, in whom she found a generous friend and benefactor, onChristmas Day, 1655.
France[edit]In foreign policy his instincts were not ashumanistor as successful. Alexander VII\'s pontificate was shadowed by continual friction withCardinal Mazarin, adviser toLouis XIV of France(1643–1715), who had opposed him during the negotiations that led to the Peace of Westphalia and who defended the prerogatives of theGallican Church. During the conclave, he had been hostile to Chigi\'s election, but was in the end compelled to accept him as a compromise. However, he prevented Louis XIV from sending the usual embassy of obedience to Alexander VII, and, while he lived, he foiled the appointment of a French ambassador to Rome, diplomatic affairs being meantime conducted by cardinal protectors, generally personal enemies of the Pope. In 1662, the equally hostileDuc de Crequiwas made ambassador. By his abuse of the traditional right of asylum granted to ambassadorial precincts in Rome, he precipitated a quarrel between France and the papacy, which resulted in Alexander VII\'s temporary loss ofAvignonand his forced acceptance of the humiliatingtreaty of Pisain 1664.[33]
Spain and Portugal[edit]This section needs expansion.You can help byadding to it.(September 2016)He favored theSpanishin their claims againstPortugal, which had reestablished its traditional independence in 1640. His pontificate was also marked by protracted controversies with Portugal.
Jesuits and Jansenism[edit]Further information:Formulary controversyAlexander VII favoured theJesuits. When theVenetianscalled for help inCreteagainst theOttoman Turks, the Pope extracted in return a promise that the Jesuits should be permitted back in Venetian territory, from which they had been expelled in 1606. He also continued to take the Jesuit part in their conflict with theJansenists, whose condemnation he had vigorously supported as advisor toPope Innocent X. The French Jansenists professed that the propositions condemned in 1653 were not in fact to be found inAugustinus, written byCornelius Jansen. Alexander VII confirmed that they were too, by the bullAd Sanctam Beati Petri Sedem(16 October 1656) declaring that five propositions extracted by a group of theologians from theSorbonneout of Jansen\'s work, mostly concerninggraceand thefallen nature of man, wereheretical, including the proposition according to which to say \"thatChristdied, or shed His blood for all men\" would be asemipelagianerror. He also sent to France his famous \"formulary\", that was to be signed by all the clergy as a means of detecting and extirpating Jansenism and which inflamed public opinion, leading toBlaise Pascal\'s defense of Jansenism.
Death[edit]Thetomb of Pope Alexander VII, by Gianlorenzo BerniniAlexander VII died in 1667 and was memorialised in aspectacular tombby Bernini. It is famous for the skeleton holding a gilded hourglass, just above the doors. He was succeeded byPope Clement IX(1667–69).
Works[edit]Alexander VII disliked the business of state, preferringliteratureandphilosophy; a collection of hisLatinpoems appeared at Paris in 1656 under the titlePhilomathi Labores Juveniles. He also encouraged architecture, and the general improvement of Rome, where houses were razed to straighten and widen streets and where he had the opportunity to be a great patron forGian Lorenzo Bernini: the decorations of the church ofSanta Maria del Popolo,titular churchesfor several of the Chigi cardinals, theScala Regia, theChair of St. Peterin the Vatican Basilica. In particular, he sponsored Bernini\'s construction of the beautiful colonnade in thepiazzaofSt. Peter\'s Basilica.
Alexander VII wrote one of the most authoritative documents related to theheliocentrismissue. He published hisIndex Librorum Prohibitorum Alexandri VII Pontificis Maximi jussu edituswhich presented anew the contents of theIndex of Forofferden Bookswhich had condemned the works of Copernicus and Galileo. According to Rev. William Roberts, he prefaced this with thebullSpeculatores Domus Israel, stating his reasons: \"in order that the whole history of each case may be known.\" \'For this purpose,\' the Pontiff stated, \'we have caused the Tridentine and Clementine Indices to be added to this general Index, and also all the relevant decrees up to the present time, that have been issued since the Index of our predecessor Clement, that nothing profitable to the faithful interested in such matters might seem omitted.\"[34]Among those included were the previous decrees placing various heliocentric works on the Index (\"...which we will should be considered as though it were inserted in these presents, together with all, and singular, the things contained therein...\") and using his Apostolic authority he bound the faithful to its contents (\"...and approve with Apostolic authority by the tenor of these presents, and: command and enjoin all persons everywhere to yield this Index a constant and complete obedience...\")[35]Thus, Alexander turned definitively against the heliocentric view of the solar system. After Alexander VII\'s pontificate, theIndexunderwent a number of revisions.[36]\"In 1758 the general prohibition against works advocating heliocentrism was removed from the Index of prohibited books, although the specific ban on uncensored versions of theDialogueand Copernicus\'sDe Revolutionibusremained. All traces of official opposition to heliocentrism by the church disappeared in 1835 when these works were finally dropped from the Index\".[37]The Index was abolished entirely in 1966.[38]
Theology[edit]Alexander VII\'sApostolic Constitution,Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum(8 December 1661),[39]laid out the doctrine of theImmaculate Conceptionof the Blessed Virgin Mary in terms almost identical to those utilized byPope Pius IXwhen he issued his infallible definitionIneffabilis Deus; he cites Alexander VII\'s bull in his footnote 11.
LAC VERY RARE Parchment Vellum 1657 in the name of Pope Alexander VII:
$186.77
- 1Biography