The Nuns of Sant'Ambrogio: The True Story of a Convent in Scandal

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by Hubert Wolf


  77. Cf. for example Huguet, Geist, pp. 385–422, here the chapter “Übernatürliche Begebenheiten im Leben Pius IX.” On the veneration of the pope and the miracles his contemporaries ascribed to him, cf. Zinnhobler, Pius IX, pp. 386–432.

  78. The basis for criminal law in central Europe until well into the nineteenth century was the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina, the procedure for the judgment of capital crimes issued by Charles V and the Holy Roman Empire. There were different methods of execution for different crimes: arsonists, enchanters, witches, sodomites, and those who stole from churches were burned; traitors were quartered; murderers were beheaded or broken on the wheel. Until the end of the eighteenth century the death penalty was applied to a wide range of offenses. The first outspoken opponent of the death penalty was the Italian jurist Cesare Beccaria, whose work Dei delitti e delle Pene was published in Naples in 1764. Over the course of the nineteenth century, the death penalty was scrapped in many countries, and replaced by life imprisonment. However, it was still enforced during the wars that established the nation-states of Europe to secure power interests. Cf. Karl Hilgenreiner, “Todesstrafe,” in LThK, 1st ed., vol. 10 (1938), pp. 194–95; Oliver Michael Timothy O’Donovan, “Todesstrafe,” in TRE 33 (2002), pp. 639–46. The punishments generally meted out to priests can be found in Hinschius, System.

  79. See Gregory XVI, “Regolamento sui delitti e sulle pene,” September 20, 1832, in Sergio Vinciguerra (ed.), I regolamenti penali di Papa Gregorio XVI per lo Stato Pontificio (1832) (Padua, 2000), pp. 83–121, here pp. 88 and 111.

  80. The Privilegium fori was gained through the profession of vows. Cf. Sägmüller, Kirchenrecht, p. 740 and generally pp. 188–90. See also Richard Puza, “Privilegium fori,” in LexMA 7 (1999), pp. 228–29. On the legal situation in the Papal States, see Raffaele Ala, Il foro criminale, vol. 8 (Rome, 1826), pp. 131–34.

  81. Tribunale civile e correzionale di Roma, Comparsa conclusionale (concluding statement) by Severino Tirelli, October 23, 1871; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 w l. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text.

  82. The jail was housed in a building near the Baths of Diocletian. It had originally been built by Pope Clement XI in 1705 for the department of nutrition. The “Casa di detenzione alle Terme” diocleziane was opened in 1834 and housed men as well as women who had been sentenced to between one and three years’ imprisonment. From 1854, the women’s section was overseen by the Sisters of Divine Providence and the Immaculate Conception. Cf. Monica Calzolari, “La Casa di detenzione alle Terme diocleziane di Roma (1831–1891),” in Livio Antonielli (ed.), Carceri, carcerieri, carcerati. Dall’antico regime all’Ottocento (Soveria Mannelli, 2006), pp. 49–78; Carlo Luigi Morichini, Degli istituti di carità per la sussistenza e l’educazione dei poveri e dei prigionieri in Roma, vol. 3 (Rome, 1870), pp. 702–10.

  83. Tribunale civile e correzionale di Roma, Comparsa conclusionale by Severino Tirelli, Pro secreta Em.orum, undated [probably July 25, 1868]; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 w l.

  84. Tribunale civile e correzionale di Roma, Comparsa conclusionale by Severino Tirelli, Attestazione del Dr. Caetani, January 14, 1869; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 wl. “Dr. Caetani” was probably Placido Gaetani, who came from Alatri and worked as a doctor in the hospital of San Gallicano. Cf. Annibale Taddei, Manuale di notizie risguardanti le scienze, arti, e mestieri della città di Roma per l’anno 1839 (Rome, 1838), p. 62.

  85. According to a report by the German doctor Karl Finkelnburg at about the year 1866, the asylum, which was officially named “Manicomio Santa Maria della Pietà,” had stood on the right bank of the Tiber since 1728, and was significantly expanded under Pius IX to encompass the area around Giancolo, including the Villa Barberini. “The old main building, the entrance and front of which on the Via San Michele was gloomy and blackened with age, presenting a very unfriendly first impression to visitors, has also been expanded and completely renovated inside. Both of the strictly separated sections for men and women are now divided into four quarters corresponding to the character of their inhabitants: Tranquilli, Suicidi (unclean people), Agitati and Furiosi.… Dr. Viale, the pope’s personal physician, has been the medical head of the institution since 1860.… A prelate is naturally charged with the overall administration, and a small number of monks and nuns serve the house, and keep watch over the patients.… Viale conducts the medical treatment of the mentally disturbed entirely according to the principles of the French school—but his Traitement moral is characterized by great mildness, the rejection of any physical force, and ingenious attempts to bring out the patient’s moral sense of self.” Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie und psychisch-gerichtliche Medicin, herausgegeben von Deutschlands Irrenärzten 23 (1866), pp. 398–401.

  86. Tirelli came from Cerreto Guidi (Tuscany) and, having completed his baccalaureate in 1835, his diploma in Facultatis Juris Utriusque in 1838, and his law degree, he became a lawyer in the Papal States in 1850. See Annuario Ecclesiastico (Rome, 1898), p. 101; Annuaire pontifical catholique (Paris, 1899), pp. 376 and 458; La gerarchia cattolica la cappella e la famiglia pontificie per l’anno 1888 con appendice di altre notizie riguardanti la Santa Sede (Rome, 1888), p. 636; http://www.prometheos.net/immagini/cataloghi/…/udite.pdf (8/1/2012).

  87. See Zingeler, Katharina, pp. 167–168.

  88. Thurn und Taxis-Hohenlohe, Jugenderinnerungen, p. 83.

  89. At least, this is how Kleutgen painted it in retrospect. Letter from Kleutgen to Steinhuber, who was then rector of the Collegium Germanicum, May, 1883; ADPSJ section 47, no. 541, fol. 8.

  90. The sanctuary church of Santa Maria di Galloro was built between 1624 and 1633, with the convent connected to it being added between 1632 and 1634. Until 1798 it was occupied by the Vallombrosians. They returned in 1801 after the era of the Roman Republic, and remained until 1809. In 1816 the convent was given over to the Jesuits. Following a temporary return by the Vallombrosians, it was handed back to the Jesuits in 1824. They still occupy the building today, using it as a house of retreat. Cf. Giuseppe Boero, Istoria del santuario della beatissima Vergine di Galloro (Rome, 1842; 2nd ed., 1852; 3rd ed., 1863); Girolamo Pecchiai, Il santuario di Galloro e la miracolosa immagine di Maria Santissima che in esso si venera. Cenni storico-descrittivi (Rome, 1910); Francesco Petrucci, “Il Cavalier Gianlorenzo Bernini e il santuario di Galloro,” in Documenta Albana (Series II) 10 (1988), pp. 59–73; Schäfer, Kontroverse, p .66, note 53.

  91. Letter from Patrizi to Pius IX, undated, which refers to a plea from Beckx of October 16, 1863; ACDF SO St. St. B7 a, fascicle on Kleutgen. Peter Walter also found evidence that Kleutgen returned to Rome in 1863; Walter, “Zu einem neuen Buch,” p. 323. Deufel, Kirche, p. 63, assumes that Kleutgen remained in Galloro for two years. Kleutgen is known to have sent letters from Galloro between September 4, 1862, and May 8, 1863. Cf. Schäfer, Kontroverse. See also Imkamp, Studienjahre, p. 178, note 28; Lakner, Kleutgen, p. 196, note 59; Walter, Kleutgen, p. 146.

  92. Letter from Steinhuber to Langenhorst, May 1883; ADPSJ section 47, no. 541. Steinhuber quotes here from Kleutgen’s communication with him. The biography of Kleutgen that Langenhorst wanted to write, for which Steinhuber provided this information, was never published.

  93. See Wolf, Erfindung, pp. 236–59.

  94. According to Bischof, Theologie, pp. 95–105.

  95. Döllinger, Rede, pp. 25–59, here pp. 42 and 47–48.

  96. See Congar, Bref historique, p. 108; Congar, Tradition, pp. 218–19.

  97. Unterburger, Lehramt, p. 136.

  98. Döllinger, Rede, p. 58.

  99. Pius IX’s brief Tuas libenter, of December 21, 1863; complete Latin text in ASS 8 (1874), pp. 436–42; English translation of exerpts from Tuas libenter available in The Daughters of Saint Paul, Papal Teachings: The Church, Selected and Arranged by the Benedictine Monks of Solesmes (Boston, 1962).

  100. Jakob Frohschammer was born in 1821 and ordained in 1847. He became professor for philosophy in Munich in 1855, was suspended in 1863, and died in 1893. Se
e Pahud de Mortanges, Philosophie.

  101. Gregor von Scherr was born in 1804 and ordained in 1829. He professed his vows in the Benedictine monastery of Metten in 1833, and in 1838 he was made prior. He became the abbott there in 1840. From 1856 until his death in 1877 he was archbishop of Munich and Freising. See Anton Zeis, in Gatz (ed.), Bischöfe, pp. 654–56.

  102. Jakob Frohschammer, Ueber den Ursprung der menschlichen Seelen. Rechtfertigung des Generatianismus (Munich, 1854).

  103. Kleutgen, votum on Frohschammer, Ueber den Urspung …, November 19, 1855; ACDF Index Prot. 119 (1854–1857), fol. 443r–446v.

  104. On the whole trial, see Pahud de Mortanges, Philosophie, pp. 33–69. Subsequent information also taken from this text.

  105. Angelo Trullet was born in 1813. He was a Franciscan, and became a consultor of the Congregation of the Index in 1854. He died in 1879. See Wolf (ed.), Prosopographie, pp. 1505–8.

  106. Bernard Smith was born in 1812. He was a Benedictine, and became a consultor of the Congregation of the Index in 1852. He died in 1892. See ibid., pp. 1390–98.

  107. Johann Baptist Hirscher was born in 1788. He became a priest of the diocese of Rottenburg in 1810, and a professor of moral theology in Tübingen in 1817. He moved to Freiburg in 1839, when he also became a capitular. Hirscher was caught up in a number of indexing trials and was persecuted by the new scholastics for his liberal, Enlightenment thinking. He died in 1865. See Köster, Hirscher.

  108. Kleutgen, second votum on Frohschammer, Ueber den Ursprung …, February 7, 1856; ACDF Index Prot. 119 (1854–1857), fol. 758r–794v. Subsequent information also taken from this text.

  109. Trullet, votum on Frohschammer, Ueber den Ursprung …, August 26, 1856; ACDF Index Prot. 119 (1854–1857), bound after fol. 799r, unpaginated, 222 pp. in a secret printing.

  110. Froschammer’s piece “Einleitung in die Philosophie und Grundriss der Metaphysik. Zur Reform der Philosophie” (Introduction to the Philosophy and Outline of Metaphysics: On Reforming Philosophy) was published in 1858, and his “Ueber die Freiheit der Wissenschaft” (On the Freedom of Science) in 1861. On both texts, see Pahud de Mortanges, Philosophie, pp. 72–140. See also Frohschammer’s “Autobiographie,” in Adolf Hinrichsen (ed.), Deutsche Denker und ihre Geistesschöpfungen (Berlin, no date [1888]), pp. 35–45.

  111. Piotr Adolf Konstanty Semenenko was born in 1814, and was a member of the Congregation of the Resurrection. He became a consultor of the Congregation of the Index in 1857, and a consultor for the Holy Office in 1873. He died in 1886. See Wolf (ed.), Prosopographie, pp. 1361–65.

  112. Semenenko, votum on Frohschammer, Ueber die Freiheit …, November 29, 1861; ACDF Index Prot. 122 (1862–1864), no number, 36 pp., printed document, esp. fol. 3. Cf. Pahud de Mortanges, Philosophie, pp. 206–19.

  113. Ibid., pp. 263–91. Pius IX’s brief Gravissimas Inter of December 11, 1862; complete Latin text in ASS 8 (1874), pp. 429–35.

  114. Walter, Kleutgen, p. 146.

  115. See Deufel, Kirche, p. 63, note 246. Cf. Kleutgen’s letters from Rome, in which he began to distance himself from the city to a certain extent from the 1860s onward. Kleutgen, Briefe.

  116. Letter from Kleutgen to Steinhuber, August 29, 1869, quoted in Deufel, Kirche, pp. 286–88, here p. 286.

  117. Ibid., p. 63, note 246.

  118. Walter Steins was born in 1810. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in Nijvel in 1832, and was ordained in 1842. In 1852 he went to India as a missionary, where he was made bishop of Calcutta. Steins died in 1881. See the Biografisch Archiv van de Benelux, Steene-Stekke, Fiche 646, pp. 444–46.

  119. Cf. Mai, Bischof, p. 126; Mansi 53, pp. 286–331; Schatz, Vaticanum I, vol. 2, pp. 313–55; Walter, “Zu einem neuen Buch,” p. 325.

  120. Vaticanum I, dogmatic constitution Dei filius on the Catholic faith, April 24, 1870. English translation online: http://www.inters.org/Vatican-Council-I-Dei-Filius (11/17/2013).

  121. Andreas Steinhuber was born in 1825. He was ordained in 1851 and entered the Society of Jesus in 1857. After spending some time as a professor of dogmatics in Innsbruck, and rector of the Collegium Germanicum, he embarked on a classic Curia career before dying in 1907. See Wolf (ed.), Prosopographie, pp. 1415–18.

  122. Letter from Steinhuber to Langenhorst, April 1883; ADPSJ section 47, no. 541, fol. 10f.

  123. Mansi 53, p. 313 A.

  124. Beumer, Konstitution, p. 354, note 60. See also [Kleutgen], Lehrgewalt.

  125. Letter from Kleutgen to Steinhuber, January 7, 1871, quoted in Deufel, Kirche, p. 69.

  126. Letter from Kleutgen to Steinhuber, February 24, 1872, quoted in ibid., p. 71.

  127. Kleutgen’s itinerary: ibid., pp. 78–79.

  128. Letter from Pastor Glatz to Father Felchlin, March 6, 1883, quoted in ibid., p. 72.

  129. Cf. Deufel, Kirche, p. 74.

  130. Leo XII’s encyclical Aeterni Patris of August 4, 1879; Latin text in ASS 12 (1879/80), pp. 436–42. English translation online: http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Leo13/l13cph.htm (11/17/2013).

  131. Steinhuber even claimed Kleutgen had written a “draft” of this. Letter from Steinhuber to Langenhorst, April 1883; ADPSJ section 47, no. 541. Winter states that “the 1st draft probably” came from Kleutgen: Eduard Winter, “Kleutgen,” in LThK, 1st ed., vol. 6 (1934), p. 46. Walter, on the other hand, says it is “uncertain” whether he was involved in the preparations: Peter Walter, “Kleutgen,” in LThK, 3rd ed., vol. 6 (1997), p. 135.

  132. Letter from Kleutgen to Steinhuber, September 12, 1879, quoted in Deufel, Kirche, p. 75.

  133. Pastor Glatz from Lengmoos remembers this expression of Kleutgen’s in the retrospective written in 1883; ibid., p. 76.

  134. Letter from Kleutgen to Schneemann, July 16, 1881, quoted in ibid., p. 77.

  135. Cf. Finkenzeller, Kleutgen, p. 324.

  136. The text of the Latin inscription can be found in Hertkens, Kleutgen, p. 90; Lakner, Kleutgen, p. 200.

  137. Lakner, Kleutgen, p. 200.

  138. The first dogmatic constitution on the Church of Christ Pastor aeternus of July 18, 1870; English translation online: http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Councils/ecum20.htm#Chapter 4. On the infallible teaching authority of the Roman pontiff.

  EPILOGUE The Secret of Sant’Ambrogio as Judged by History

  1. Cf. Civiltà Cattolica, May 25, 1861, pp. 621–23.

  2. See http://www.romafelix.com/sambrmass.htm (11/24/2013).

  3. Cf. Bischof, Theologie, pp. 62–105.

  4. Cf. Wolf, Syllabus, pp. 115–39.

  5. See Quirinus [Ignaz von Döllinger], Römische Briefe vom Concil (Munich, 1870), p. 286. These letters were first published as articles in the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, and were later published by Döllinger in book form.

  6. See the article “Gottes eigenes Konzil. Zweitausend Jahre Apostel, Päpste und Politik im Namen Christi” in Der Spiegel, no. 43, October 24, 1962.

  7. There is a collection of articles from this period in ADPSJ section 47, no. 541.

  8. On Old Catholicism, see Conzemius, Katholizismus; Schulte, Altkatholizismus.

  9. Deutscher Merkur. Organ für katholische Reformbewegung, no. 12, March 22, 1879, pp. 95–96. See also Hertkens, Kleutgen, p. 81–82. In his history of the First Vaticanuum Friedrich therefore also mentioned the “infamous Jesuit Kleutgen”; cf. Friedrich, Geschichte, vol. 3/2, p. 757.

  10. Giovenale Pelami was born in 1819, and became the Holy Office’s substitute notary in 1844. He was its chief notary from 1870 to 1886, and died in 1888. See Wolf (ed.), Prosopographie, p. 1151.

  11. Neue Zeitung für das katholische Deutschland, no. 63, March 14, 1879. Cf. also Deufel, Kirche, p. 62. Latin text in [Dr.] Liesen, “P. Joseph Kleutgen,” in Der Katholik 63 (1883), first half, pp. 523–43, here p. 529; also Hertkens, Kleutgen, p. 82.

  12. Neue Zeitung für das katholische Deutschland, no. 64, March 15, 1879.

  13. Cf. Deufel, Kirche, p. 62.

  14. Johann Hertkens was born in 1843. He was a chief p
astor, biographer, and teacher of homiletics. He died in 1909. See Herrmann A. L. Degener (ed.), Wer ist’s? Zeitgenossenlexikon enthaltend Biographien nebst Bibliographien (Leipzig, 4th ed., 1909), p. 573; Biographisches Jahrbuch und deutscher Nekrolog, vol. 14 (Berlin, 1909), p. 36*.

  15. Ludwig Lercher was born in 1864, entered the Society of Jesus in 1891, and was a professor of dogmatics at the University of Innsbruck. He died in 1937. See Franz Daxecker, “Lercher,” in BBKL (online); Koch, Jesuiten-Lexikon, vol. 2, p. 1098.

  16. See Hertkens, Kleutgen, pp. 77–80.

  17. Ibid., p. 81.

  18. Theodor Granderath was born in 1839, entered the Society of Jesus in 1860, and was professor of dogmatic theology at the Gregorian University and the Saint Ignatius College in Valkenburg. He died in 1902. See Koch, Jesuiten-Lexikon, vol. 1, p. 723.

  19. Granderath, Geschichte, vol. 2, pp. 363–64, note 6. Schäfer still took up Granderath’s position in 1961 (Kontroverse, p. 47, note 90).

  20. Lakner, Kleutgen, p. 195–96. Franz Lakner was born in 1900, and entered the Society of Jesus in 1922. He was ordained in 1929. He later became professor of dogmatic theology in Innsbruck, and died in 1974. See Klaus Schatz, “Lakner,” in NDB 13 (1982), p. 424.

  21. Koch, Jesuiten-Lexikon, p. 998. Ludwig Koch was born in 1878 and entered the Society of Jesus in 1897. He was a writer and editor, editing the Sunday newspapers Leo and Sonntagsstimmen. He also worked for the Stimmen der Zeit. He died in 1936. See Paul Duclos, “Koch,” in BBKL 4 (1992), pp. 220–21.

  22. “Cronaca Contemporanea,” in Civiltà Cattolica, Series XII 1 (1883), pp. 633–36.

  23. “Un Ristoratore della Filosofi a scolastica. Giuseppe Kleutgen S. J. (9 aprile 1811–13 gennaio 1883),” in Civiltà Cattolica 62 (1911), pp. 34–45.

  24. Zingeler was born in 1845, took his final exams as an external candidate in Bonn, and went on to study philosophy. The hereditary prince Leopold von Hohenzollern employed him in 1871 as tutor to his two eldest sons, and brought him to Sigmaringen. Later, he became head of the royal archive there. In this role, he produced several works about the house of Hohenzollern. He died in 1923. See Chr. Zingeler, “Karl Theodor Zingeler, 1845–1923,” in Zollerheimat 2 (1933), pp. 40–42.

 

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