was important, and the new methods of verification greatly influenced who was chosen to be put forward as a saint and whether or not such promotion was ultimately successful.
HOW TO BECOME A SAINT
The early modern process of canonization involved a series of investigations carried out at a local level, followed by multiple reexaminations of the evidence in Rome. Much of this process had been in place by the late Middle Ages.29 Yet as the papacy worked to centralize canonization procedures, it also enacted a variety of new regulations designed to verify, before the Church canonized an individual, that he or she was indeed a saint. These included new phases in the process of canonization, more careful evaluation of evidence, and greater oversight by officials in Rome.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, canonizations still normally began at a local level with the first—or ordinary—process opened by a bishop. In most cases, the bishop was responding to a swell of popular support. After interviews of an initial set of witnesses had established the prospective saint’s holy life and miracles, the bishop then sent the dossier of testimony and other evidence for canonization to Rome. There, the Tribunal of the Rota and then the Congregation of Rites decided whether there was sufficient evidence to continue with a canonization. If these authorities approved, they sent their recommendation to the pope, who gave the command to issue remissorial letters deputing officials to carry out the second, or apostolic, phase. The Rota Tribunal usually drew up these letters.30
Although frequently many of the same testators from the ordinary process would be called during the apostolic, during this period the apostolic phase was made completely distinct from the ordinary. That is, whereas in the past the same documents and testimonies might simply be reused as evidence during this new phase, after Trent the entire process was carried out again. By redoing all the interviews and other evidence collection, the papacy clearly distinguished papal from local authority when it came to canonization. The apostolic phase proceeded with questions drawn up in Rome, with judges selected by the papacy, and across any number of locations where the prospective saint lived for an extended period of time.31 Furthermore, the apostolic process frequently was split itself into two phases during this period: in genere, which sought to demonstrate an individual’s saintly reputation, and in specie, which examined specific virtues and miracles attributed to the holy person.32 During the in specie phase of the apostolic process, a number of new methods of verification, including medical examination of the corpse, were required as early as the turn of the seventeenth century.
At the completion of the apostolic phase, the dossier of testimony was sent back to the Tribunal of the Rota in Rome for additional consideration. If the Rota was convinced that the prospective saint possessed both the requisite pious life and evidence of miracles, its members approved the canonization process. The Rota then created a summarized compendium on the deceased that they forwarded to the pope and the Congregation of Rites.33 The cardinals in the Congregation of Rites reviewed this summary. They then pronounced on whether or not they deemed the individual fit for beatification and sent their recommendation to the pope. After receiving initial approval from the Rites and Rota, the pope could beatify an individual without further consultation.34 Beatification, or becoming “blessed,” was a term without clear meaning until the seventeenth century.35 Over the course of the early seventeenth century, though, it came to designate an individual who had received preliminary approval from the Church and therefore could be venerated by local believers or within a certain religious community, such as a religious order.36
To proceed from beatification to canonization required an addendum to the apostolic phase to verify any new miracles that might have occurred in the intervening years, since frequently at least a decade passed between beatification and canonization.37 The Congregation of Rites reassessed both these new miracles and the saints’ previous virtues and miracles. If the saint’s qualities were deemed sufficient, the pope convened a series of three consistories to discuss the prospective saint’s merits. Eminent cardinals and prelates of the Holy See attended these consistories in which speakers, generally consistorial lawyers, prepared orations on the virtues and miracles of the candidate in question. At the last consistory, the assemblage voted on whether or not the individual should be canonized. If the vote was positive, the pope set a day to proclaim the canonization in a ceremony at Saint Peter’s.38 Such canonizations resulted in huge festivities, both inside and outside Rome. The promoters of the individual’s sanctity printed vitae of the saint, and a variety of imagery circulated that proclaimed the sanctity of the individual.39 Thus, a large propaganda effort that attempted to spread veneration of the saint across the Catholic world followed canonization. In this way, local belief was integrated, made official, and turned into universal veneration.
In general, the process of canonization constituted an extremely complicated bureaucratic and legalistic procedure. But underpinning the various iterations of the canonization process there were a few, central elements that unified every successful canonization: the enthusiasm of believers, the continued support of a patron, and the successful navigating of the various legal criteria for sainthood.
MANAGING THE ENTHUSIASM OF BELIEVERS
Despite the modifications to canonization in the early modern period, one important aspect of sanctity remained unchanged: for a canonization proceeding to begin, the basic requirement was people who believed in the holiness of the deceased individual. Yet local enthusiasm for a holy individual was not a simple matter. Even when it already existed at a person’s death, those who favored canonization sought to manipulate, stoke, and channel it in ways that could be productive for canonization efforts. When such fame and enthusiasm were not manifest, promoters of a saint went to great lengths to generate it. Others also attempted to capitalize on the fame of a saint in order to play on local divisions or for goals other than canonization. Thus, the first stage in canonization—the belief that an individual was holy—represented a moment in which the raw power of faith could be harnessed to agendas that might either be beneficial or detrimental to Church unity. It was exactly this power of faith that concerned Clement VIII in 1602, when he convened the meeting with which this chapter began.
A number of late sixteenth-century cases demonstrate how the fame of a holy individual could create intense emotion and devotion, which could be difficult for the papacy to control. When Filippo Neri died in 1595, for example, contemporary avvisi, or newsletters, from Rome reported that a “huge concourse of people” formed along the processional route that Neri’s body traversed in Rome. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to touch the body.40 His fellow Oratorians displayed his cadaver for a full day after his death, during which time a great throng of Romans came to see the deceased. Giacomo Bacci, one of Neri’s first hagiographers, describes the crowd’s frenzy: “Some cut off pieces of his [Neri’s] vestments, though the fathers [members of Neri’s Order, the Oratorians] did all they could to hinder it; others cut off some of his hair, or of his beard, and even portions of his finger-nails, which they kept by them as relics. Among the crowd were many ladies who out of devotion drew the rings from their fingers and put them on the fingers of the Saint, and then replaced them on their own.”41 Clearly, Romans viewed Neri as an especially holy person. Neri’s supporters encouraged such displays of emotion by creating situations in which veneration could flourish. His well-staged autopsy that night, which is explored in the next chapter, further stoked the flames of devotion to the deceased Oratorian.42 It was due to such clear enthusiasm for Neri that Clement VIII specifically listed his cult as one that concerned him in 1602.43
In another case, after Felice of Cantalice died in Rome in 1587, his fellow Capuchins encouraged the massive enthusiasm for the saint by managing access to his body. Initially, the Capuchins laid out the corpse in their Church of San Bonaventura and invited the populace in, allowing them to interact with the body. An enormous crowd responded, excited to be able to touch the deceased friar. Some mourners kissed the hands, feet, and face of Felice while others, who may have been more concerned with relics, tore off pieces of his clothes, tufts
