Thepapal nobility are thearistocracy of theHoly See, composed of persons holding titles bestowed by thePope. From the Middle Ages into the nineteenth century, the papacy held direct temporal power in thePapal States, and many titles of papal nobility were derived fromfiefs with territorial privileges attached. During this time, the Pope also bestowed ancient civic titles such aspatrician. Today, the Pope still exercises authority to grant titles with territorial designations, although these are purely nominal and the privileges enjoyed by the holders pertain to styles of address and heraldry. Additionally, the Pope grants personal and familial titles that carry no territorial designation. Their titles being merely honorific, the modern papal nobility includes descendants of ancient Roman families as well as notableCatholics from many countries. All pontifical noble titles are within the personal gift of the pontiff, and are not recorded in the Official Acts of the Holy See.
TheRoman heritage of the papacy accounts for many of its traditions regarding ranks of nobility. As temporal ruler of the city ofRome, the Pope awarded civic titles of classical origin such asPatrician andSummus Senator. The Roman title ofDux originally applied to a military leader. During theByzantine period, it came to refer to the military governor of a certain district appointed by the Exarch. The Duchies ofRome,Perugia andPentapolis were established in this context. In 751 theExarchate of Ravenna fell to theLombards. Five years later,Pepin the Short, King of theFranks, defeated the Lombards and granted the lands of the Duchy of Rome to the Papacy.[1]
The Lombard Duchies ofSpoleto andBenevento existed within the future lands of the Papal States. Under the Carolingian empire, theCounty (also derived from a Roman precedent;Comes,Comitatus), was instituted as the basic jurisdictional unit centered on a fortified town or castle. Themarch or mark, ruled by amarquis (or "march count") was a border territory with defensive significance. The status ofCount Palatine also emerged for high officers of the Imperial household. Key to the military organization of theLombards andFranks was the free association between the local military leader and the warrior caste - hence the Germanic origin of the title ofBaron. Asfeudalism developed the old Byzantine, Lombard, and Frankish structures were worked into a hierarchy, and the old military and administrative offices became hereditary titles with fiefs attached.
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By the year 900, Frankish power inItaly had dissipated. The Popes assumed direct control in thePatrimony of St. Peter rather than creating intermediate feudatories. However, the Roman baronial families exerted enormous control. TheCounts of Tusculum held enormous influence over the papacy for a period, installing several of their own family members. Up through theRenaissance, the papacy was intermittently threatened by the violent struggle between the noble families.
Thelate middle ages were marked by a rivalry between theGuelphs and Ghibellines – the parties favoring Pope and Emperor, respectively – that roiled the cities of Northern Italy. Papal power was retained, but the Popes frequently fled Rome for the safety of Orvieto, Perugia and Viterbo. The instability of the communes gradually gave way to the stabilizing influence of thepodesta orsignoria. Gradually, magnates of certain powerful families (such as theOrdelaffi, theManfredi, theScaligeri, theMalatesta, theDa Polenta, theBentivoglio, thed'Este, and theDa Montefeltro) began to establish hereditary lordships and expand their power to neighboring towns. During the Papal exile,CatholicGil de Albornoz was commissioned byInnocent VI to subdue the independent states.
When the Pope returned to Italy at the end of the fourteenth century, he had to either overthrow or force the submission of the lords of the cities ofEmilia-Romagna,Le Marche andUmbria. TheMedici of Florence and other noble families set their sights on the papacy as a means of aggrandizing themselves and establishing dynastic goals through marriage, diplomacy and ennoblement.Cesare Borgia notably ousted many of the lords of Le Marche and established himself as theDuke of Romagna before being overthrown by his father's successorJulius II. Julius managed to marry his nephew,Giovanni Della Rovere, to the heiress of theDuchy of Urbino.Paul III created the Duchy of Parma out of conquered territory for theFarnese. Prominent families could purchase curial offices for their sons and regularly did, hoping that the son would rise through Church ranks to become abishop cardinal, or even Pope, from which position they could dispense further titles and positions of authority to other family members.[2] Bourgeois families found themselves, sometimes within only one or two generations, elevated to the Roman nobility when a relative was elected to the papal throne.[2] Modern Italy is dotted with the fruits of their success; various familypalazzi remain standing today as a testament to their sometimes meteoric rise to power.
From the second half of the 16th century onwards, members of the higher clergy and the aristocracy connected to the papal court built a number of stately homes, or suburban villas in the countryside of Lazio.[3] TheVille Pontificie were designed by renowned architects. TheVilla Farnese inCaprarola was the work ofAntonio da Sangallo the Younger andBaldassare Peruzzi.[4] The homes were often decorated by noted artists.Taddeo Zuccari was commissioned to paint theHistories of Alexander for theCastello Orsini atBracciano.[5]
As modern statehood emerged and the boundaries between imperial and papal territory solidified, titles of nobility were proliferated as a means of establishing allies and friendly buffer states. The Emperor elevated the Duchies of Milan, Florence, Mantua, and Modena, and the Pope likewise elevated the Duchies of Urbino, Ferrara and Parma. From the late sixteenth century onward, with the papal territory relatively secure, noble families were enriched with the title ofPrince, their counties and marquisates were elevated to duchies, and the Medici were even madeGrand Dukes of Tuscany byPius V. Likewise, papal orders of knighthood and personal titles, sometimes attached to positions of honor in thepapal household, came into greater use.
The Napoleonic occupation of Rome led to the temporary abolition of noble titles. Upon restitution of sovereignty to the Papal States,Pius VII decided to abolish feudalism, transforming all the titles to honorifics disconnected from territorial privileges. In 1853,Pius IX put an end to the centuries-old duality between the papal nobility and the Roman baronial families by equating the civic patrichiate of the city of Rome with the nobility created by the Pope. In 1854 a complete list of Roman princely families was drawn up and entered into the Golden Book of the Capitoline nobility (established by theUrbem Romam constitution ofBenedict XIV of 1746). Both the civic nobles and the papal aristocracy thus obtained the title ofPatrician.
After theKingdom of Italy annexed thePapal States andcaptured Rome in 1870, the new kingdom recognized the existing nobility in its new territory. The pope remained a self-described "prisoner in the Vatican", supported by the so-called "black nobility" of families who remained loyal to the papacy rather than the Italian monarchy. TheLateran Treaty ended this dispute.
Pope Leo XIII ennobled French and American philanthropistJoseph Florimond Loubat as theDuc de Loubat. In 1902 he made Pennsylvania businessmanMartin Maloney a papal marquis, and two years later a member of the papal court as aChamberlain of the Sword and Cape. Among Maloney's various charitable activities was a home for the elderly in honor of his parents, donations to theCatholic University of America, and towards the refurbishment of theLateran Basilica.[6] In 1903, Leo created New York City socialite and benefactressAnnie Leary a Papal Countess, the first such title to have been bestowed upon a woman in the United States.[7]Pope Pius X named New York City builder John D. Crimmons a Knight of theOrder of St. Gregory the Great. A trustee ofSt. Patrick’s Cathedral, Crimmons establishedCorpus Christi Monastery atHunts Point in the Bronx for the Dominican Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.
On the occasion of the signing of theLateran Accords of 1929, the Italian government recognized the sovereignty of the Holy See and confirmed the pope's power to grant noble titles. It also recognized the titles granted by the Pope until that date and all future titles as equivalent to the noble titles of the Kingdom of Italy. This rule remained in force until the 1946abolition of the Italian monarchy. In 1969 theItalian Council of State determined that the provision of the Lateran Treaty concerning the recognition of papal titles that was incorporated into theItalian Constitution was still valid and therefore that their use in Italy was still licit. No provision, however, has been made for their use inItalian passports,identity cards or civil state registries.
Few Pontifical titles, other than personal nobility obtained by individual appointment into the severalPontifical equestrian orders, have been granted since the election ofPope John XXIII in 1958. In 1968,Paul VI reformed thepapal court via the apostolic letterPontificalis Domus, which reorganized the court into thePontifical Household. At this time he also declared that the papal nobility would no longer be a constituent body in the Pontifical Household.[8]
Although the custom of conferring noble titles such asprince,duke,marquis,count,viscount,baron,lord andknight has since essentially disappeared,Pope John Paul II ennobled several distinguished individuals during his pontificate, as didPope Benedict XVI, through theVatican Secretariat of State. John Paul II granted several noble titles toPolish compatriots at the beginning of his pontificate, but quietly and without their being published in theActs of the Apostolic See.[8]
The popes continue to awardknighthoods and other honors, which do not confer titled-nobility status, with the exception ofCount of the Sacred Palace of the Lateran.[9]
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Historically, papal nobility has included the titles ofprince,duke,marquis,count,viscount,baron,lord andknight.
At times, certain rulers paid a type of feudal homage to the papacy (Poland, 991;England, 1213). Inversely, the Pope claimed the authority to create and anoint rulers (Holy Roman Empire, 800, 962, etc.;Sicily, 1059;Aragon, 1204;Latin Empire of Constantinople, 1217; Sicily, 1265), to depose them (Holy Roman Empire, 1076, 1245;Portugal, 1247), to elevate them (Croatia, 925;Hungary, 1001; Sicily, 1130; Portugal, 1179;Tuscany, 1569), and to decide disputes between them (Corsica, 1217;Treaty of Tordesillas, 1493). The Pope also had strong claims to the feudal sovereignty of Naples-Sicily.
While some titles were traditionally linked to territorial privileges to a fief of thePapal States, others were associated only with privileges of court, notably,Prince Assistant to the Papal Throne.
Within the ecclesiastical hierarchyCardinals are referred to asPrinces of the Church, and are considered analogous to temporal princes within a kingdom. Historically, many popes have designated a member of their family as an officialcardinal-nephew. Certain offices of theCuria and thePapal Household carry honorifics, such as the stylemonsignor.
Just as Catholic monarchs sometimes exercised veto powers in papal elections, bishops and abbots were historically represented in theparliaments or "estates-general" (legislative and consultative assemblies) of many countries. The archbishops ofMainz,Trier, andCologne served asex officioprince-electors of theHoly Roman Empire. Within the Empire,prince-primates,prince-bishops andprince-abbots often held territorial privileges.
Count/Countess is one of the noble titles still granted by the Pope as a mark of personal distinction without any territorial entailment. The holder is styledCount X/Countess X and may be informally referred to as apapal count/papal countess or, more rarely, as aRoman count/Roman countess. The comital title, which can be for life or hereditary, has been awarded in various forms by popes andHoly Roman Emperors since the Middle Ages, and the pope continued to grant the comital and other noble titles even after 1870, when thePapal States weretaken from the pope.
Recipients of such honours included both Italians – especially those close to the papacy (some of whom were/are papal relatives) – and prominent non-Italian Catholics, including Irish tenorJohn McCormack, Irish art historian and politicianGeorge Noble Plunkett, American financier George MacDonald, American philanthropistKatherine E. Price, andRose Kennedy (mother of U.S. presidentJohn F. Kennedy).[10] AmericanFrancis Augustus MacNutt was a papalmarquis, and ArgentineMercedes Castellanos de Anchorena was a papal marchioness. During the 1920s,Genevieve andNicholas Frederic Brady of New York were granted papaldukedoms. Pontifical noble titles, like marquis Silva de Balboa, also as count of Urquijo. All pontifical noble titles are within the personal gift of the pontiff, and they are not recorded in the Official Acts of the Holy See.[10]
The title "Count of theSacred Palace of the Lateran" is an honour that is grantedex officio andad vitam to those who have been created Pontifical Chamberlains (now styled asGentlemen of His Holiness) as attendants to the Pontifical Court. Additionally, the honour was collectively granted to the Spanish chapters of theOrder of the Holy Sepulchre, the only purely noble chapters of the order. Their members enjoy severalheraldic privileges in addition to the right to use the Comital title. This tradition can be traced back to theReconquista, in which the Order played an important role. According to heraldic expert Lord Manuel de Mata, the Spanish Members of the Order are allowed to use both the full title of Count of the Sacred Palace of the Lateran as well as just the title of Count before their names. The rights were recorded in theMemorias de la Academia Mallorquina de Estudios Genealógicos and approved by KingAlfonso XIII of Spain.[11]
From the sixteenth century forward, strongstatehood developed in Italy and vague, overlapping territorial claims were gradually determined and settled through conquest and treaty. Although temporal rule in Italy was theoretically shared with theHoly Roman Emperor, the papacy held most ofLazio,Umbria,Le Marche, and parts ofEmilia-Romagna directly from theCarolingian period to theRisorgimento by right of treaty or donation from secular rulers (Donation of Sutri, 728;Donation of Pepin, 756;Otto IV, 1201;Rudolf I, 1278). Within this territory, known as theState of the Church, the pope had authority to dispose of certain hereditary fiefs, notably:
Examples of Italiannoble houses of the papacy include:
| Noble house | Coat of arms | Current head | Titles |
|---|---|---|---|
| House of Aldobrandini |  | Camillo Aldobrandini | Prince of Meldola and Sarsina |
| House of Altieri |  | Extinct in 1955 | |
| House of Barberini |  | Francesco Barberini |
|
| House of Borghese |  | Scipione Virginio Flavio Giacomo Antonio Maria Borghese | Prince of Sulmona, Rossano, Montecompatri, Vivaro, Sperliga e Manganelli, etc. |
| House of Borgia | .svg) | Extinct in 1748 | Numerous titles |
| House of Borromeo |  | Vitaliano XI Borromeo | |
| House of Braschi |  | Giovanni Angelo Theodoli-Braschi |
|
| House of Chigi | .svg) | Mario Chigi | |
| House of Colonna |  | Federico Colonna(Paliano line) | |
| House of Cybo |  | Extinct in 1790 |
|
| House of Doria-Pamphili-Landi |  | Extinct in 2000 | |
| House of Massimo |  | Fabrizio Massimo Arsoli |
|
| House of Mattei |  | Extinct in 1801 | Duke of Giove |
| House of Medici |  | 3 cadet branches | |
| House of Orsini |  | Domenico Napoleone Orsini | |
| House of Ruspoli |  | Francesco Ruspoli |
|
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