Synod of Pistoia

The Synod of Pistoia held in the church of S. Benedetto, Pistoia, 1786.

The Synod of Pistoia was a 1786 diocesan synod in the Catholic diocese of Pistoia, then part of the territory of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It was convoked by its bishop Scipione de' Ricci under the patronage and urging of the Habsburg-Lorraine Grand Duke Leopold. The synod adopted a series of decrees of Febronian or Gallican tendency, against the background of Enlightenment thinking. Leopold hoped the synod's resolutions would be taken up by a "national" council and increase state autocratic control over the Church in Tuscany. However, in 1787 a subsequent synod of bishops rejected the Pistoia decrees, and in 1794 Pope Pius VI condemned 85 of them, leading Ricci to recant.

Circular letter

On January 26, 1786 the Grand Duke issued a circular letter to the bishops of Tuscany, suggesting certain "reforms", especially in the matter of the revival of the holding of diocesan synods, the purging of the missals and breviaries of legends, the assertion of episcopal as against papal authority, the curtailing of the privileges of the monastic orders, and improved education for the clergy.

In spite of the hostile attitude of the great majority of the Tuscan bishops, on July 31, 1786 Bishop de Ricci issued a summons to a diocesan synod, which was solemnly opened on the September 18. In convoking the synod, he invoked the authority of Pius VI, who had previously recommended a synod as the normal means of diocesan renewal. It was attended by 233 beneficed secular priests and 13 regulars and decided with practical unanimity on a series of decrees which, had it been possible to carry them into effect, would have involved drastic changes in the Tuscan Church on the lines advocated by Febronius.

Decrees

The first decree (Decretum de fide et ecclesia) declared that the Catholic Church had no right to introduce new dogmas, but only to preserve in its original purity the faith once delivered by Christ to His apostles, and was infallible only so far as it conforms to Holy Scripture and true tradition; the Church, moreover was a purely spiritual body and had no authority in things secular. Other decrees denounced the supposed abuse of indulgences, of festivals of saints, and of processions and proposed revised regulations; others again enjoined the closing of shops on Sunday during divine service, the introduction of the vernacular tongue into the Roman Rite, the issue of editions of liturgical texts for the devotional use of the people that had parallel translations in the vernacular, and recommended the abolition of all monastic orders except that of St. Benedict, the rules of which were to be brought into harmony with modern ideas; nuns were to be forbidden to take vows before the age of 40. The last of the decrees proposed the convocation of a national council.

Overall, the synod's measures incorporated demands made previously by the Jansenist party, opposing for example devotion to the Sacred Heart, though the synod cannot be said to have been Jansenist in essence. Some of its proposals had already been Church law for centuries, others were moderate pastoral measures, others concerned matters well beyond the authority of any diocesan body and others were in any case more in the nature of "fillers" to make up a heady and high-sounding revolutionary manifesto. The driving force was the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty, as was evident to the clergy faced with the synod's draft proposals, who understandably took discretion to be the better part of valour. Bishop Ricci seized his moment, and seems to have adhered with enthusiasm to the event, but at the same time he had limited choice given the domination of the absolutist regime in Tuscany, a small state, but backed by the international power wielded by the Habsburg-Lorrainers.

Assembly in Florence

The synod's decrees were issued together with a pastoral letter of Bishop Ricci, and were warmly approved by the Grand Duke, at whose instance a "national" synod of the Tuscan bishops met at Florence on April 23, 1787. At this point, however, the plan stalled. The temper of this new assembly, like its composition, was wholly different. The bishops refused to allow a voice to any not of their own order, and in the end the decrees of Pistoia were supported by only three bishops.

Notwithstanding, as a propaganda tool in an ideological war, the acts of the synod of Pistoia were published in Latin and Italian at Pavia in 1788.

Pius VI commissioned four bishops, assisted by theologians of the secular clergy, to examine the Pistoia resolutions, and deputed a congregation of cardinals and bishops to pass judgment on them. These condemned the synod and declared eighty-five of its propositions to be erroneous and dangerous. The synod's teachings were finally condemned by the papal bull Auctorem fidei of August 28, 1794. De' Ricci, deprived of the personal support of the Grand Duke (who had in the meantime become Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II), under pressure from Rome, and threatened with mob violence as a suspected destroyer of holy relics, resigned his see in 1791, and lived in Florence as a private gentleman until his death. In May 1805, upon the return of Pope Pius VII from Paris, he signed an act of submission to papal authority.

Legacy

The Melkite Greek Catholic Church held a synod at Qarqafe Monastery in Beirut in 1806 which ratified and adapted the Synod of Pistoia for the Melkite church. Most of the synod fathers subsequently renounced their ratification of the propositions of the synod and in 1835, Pope Gregory XVI formally condemned them.

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Synod of Pistoia — Held 18 to 28 September, 1786, by Scipio de' Ricci, Bishop of Pistoia and Prato. It marks the most daring effort ever made to secure for Jansenism and allied errors a foothold in Italy. Peter Leopold, created Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1763, emulated the example of his brother, Emperor Joseph II, in assuming to control religious affairs in the domain. Imbued with Regalism and Jansenism he extended a misguided zeal for reform to minutest details of discipline and worship. In two instructions of 2 August, 1785, and 26 January, 1786, he sent to each of the bishops of Tuscany a series of fifty-seven "points of view of His Royal Highness" on doctrinal, disciplinary, and liturgical matters, directing that diocesan synods be held every two years to enforce reform in the Church and "to restore to the bishops their native rights abusively usurped by the Roman Court". Of the eighteen Tuscan bishops but three convoked the synod; and of these his only partisan was Scipio de' Ricci in whom he found a kindred spirit. Born in 1714 of an eminent family, de' Ricci gave early promise of worth and eminence. Made Bishop of Pistoia and Prato, the most populous of the Tuscan dioceses, 19 June, 1780, he planned and energetically pursued, with the encouragement of Pius VI, the work of much-needed reform, but influenced by the times, his zeal came to be marked by reckless audacity. He condemned devotion to the Sacred Heart, discouraged the use of relics and images, undervalued indulgences, improvised liturgy, and founded a press for Jansenistic propaganda. On 31 July, 1786, de' Ricci, in convoking the synod, invoked the authority of Pius VI who had previously recommended a synod as the normal means of diocesan reform. With characteristic energy and prevision he prepared for the council by inviting from without his diocese, theologians and canonists notorious for Gallican and Jansenistic tendencies, and issued to his clergy pronouncements which reflected the dominant errors of the times. On 18 September, 1786, the synod was opened in the church of St. Leopold in Pistoia and continued through seven sessions until 28 September. De' Ricci presided, and at his right sat the royal commissioner, Guiseppe Paribeni, professor at the University of Pisa, and a regalist. The promoter was Pietro Tamburini, professor at the University of Pavia, conspicuous for his learning and for Jansenistic sympathies. At the opening session 234 members were present; but at the fifth session 246 attended, of whom 180 were pastors, 13 canons, 12 chaplains, 28 simple priests of the secular clergy, and 13 regulars. Of these many, including even the promoter, were extra-diocesans irregularly intruded by de' Ricci because of their sympathy with his designs. Several Pistorian priests were not invited while the clergy of Prato, where feeling against the bishop was particularly strong, was all but ignored.

The points proposed by the grand duke and the innovations of the bishop were discussed with warmth and no little acerbity. The Regalists pressed their audacity to heretical extremes, and evoked protests from the papal adherents. Though these objections led to some modifications, the propositions of Leopold were substantially accepted, the four Gallican Articles of the Assembly of the French Clergy of 1682 were adopted, and the reform programme of de' Ricci carried out virtually in its entirety. The theological opinions were strongly Jansenistic. Among the vagaries proposed were: the right of civil authority to create matrimonial impediments; the reduction of all religious ourders to one body with a common habit and no perpetual vows; a vernacular liturgy with but one altar in a church etc. Two hundred and thirty-three members signed the acts in the final session of 28 September, when the synod adjourned intending to reconvene in the following April and September. In February, 1787, the first edition (thirty-five hundred copies) of the Acts and Decrees appeared, bearing the royal imprimatur. De' Ricci, wishing the Holy See to believe that the work was approved by his clergy, summoned his priests to pastoral retreat in April with a view to obtaining their signatures to an acceptance of the synod. Only twenty- seven attended, and of these twenty refused to sign. Leopold meantime summoned all the Tuscan bishops to meet at Florence, 22 April, 1787, to pave the way for acceptance of the Pistorian decrees at a provincial council; but the assembled bishops vigorously opposed his project and after nineteen stormy sessions he dismissed the assembly and abandoned hope of the council. De' Ricci became discredited, and, after Leopold's accession to the imperial throne in 1790, was compelled to resign his see. Pius VI commissioned four bishops, assisted by theologians of the secular clergy, to examine the Pistorian enactments, and deputed a congregation of cardinals and bishops to pass judgment on them. They condemned the synod and stigmatized eighty-five of its propositions as erroneous and dangerous. Pius VI on 28 August, 1794, dealt the death-blow to the influence of the synod and of Jansenism in Italy in his Bull "Auctorem Fidei".

Atti e Decreti del Concilio Diocesano di Pistoja (2nd ed., Florence, 1788); tr. Schwarzel, Acta Congregationis Archiepiscoporum et Episcoporum Etruriae, Florentiae anno 1l787 celebratus (7 vols., Bamberg, 1790-94); Denzinger-Bannwart, Enchiridion (Freiburg, 1908), 397-422; Ballerini, Opus Morale, I (Prato, 1898), li-lxxxii; Gerodulo, Lettera critologica sopra il sinodo di Pistoia (Barletta, 1789); La voce della greggia di Pistoja e Prato al suo pastore Mgr Vescovo Scipione de' Ricci (Sondrio, 1789); Lettera ad un Prelato Romano dove con gran vivezza e con profunda dottrina vengono confutati gli errori de' quali abbonda il Sinodo di Mgr de' Ricci, Vescovo di Pistoja (Halle, 1789); Seconda lettera ad un Prelato Romano sull' idea falsa, scismatica, erronea, contradittoria, ridicola della chiesa formata del Sinado di Pistoja (Halle, 1790); Considerazioni sul nuovo Sinodo di Pistoja e Prato fatte da un paroco della stessa diocesi (Pistoia, 1790); Picot, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire du 18^e siecle (Paris, 1855), V, 251 sq.; VI, 407 sq.; Gendry, Pie VI, sa vie-son pontificat, II (Paris, 1907), 451-83, documented from Vatican archives; Scaduto, Stato e Chiesa sotto Leopold I (Florence, 1885); De Potter, Vie et Mémoires de Scipion de' Ricci (Paris, 1827), 1 sq.; Parsons, Studies in Church History, IV (New York, 1897), 592-600; Scipio de' Ricci in Dublin Review (March, 1852), XXXII, 48- 69.

External links

• Papal Bull Auctorem Fidei condemning the Synod of Pistoia