Captain_General_of_the_Church

Captain General of the Church

Captain General of the Church

Commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Papal States

The captain general of the Church (Italian: Capitano generale della Chiesa) was the de facto commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Papal States during the Middle Ages. The post was usually conferred on an Italian or other noble with a professional military reputation or (later) a relative of the pope.

The parallel office of gonfalonier was more a formal and ceremonial honor than the responsibility of a tactical military leader.[1] The office was at times made subordinate to temporary offices.[2]

For example, Pope Callixtus III appointed Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia (later Pope Alexander VI) as the chief and general commissary of the Papal Army. A number of such offices under many titles were used as ministers of war by popes, the captain general operated as a field commander under these offices. Pope Innocent XII removed both ranks and replaced them with the position of Flag-bearer of the Holy Roman Church (Vessilifero di Santo Romana Chiesa), which later became hereditary in the Naro Patrizi.[3]

It was traditional for the captain general to carry a baton of command blessed by the pope.[4]

List of captains general

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See also

Notes

  1. [1]
    Chambers, 2006, p. 28.
  2. [2]
    Chambers, 2006, p. 28.
  3. [3]
    Levillain, Philippe. The Papacy: An Encyclopedia. "Heraldry." Accessed 5 June 2010.
  4. [4]
    Chambers, 2006, p. 142.
  5. [5]
    The Historians' History of the World. 1909. p. 662.
  6. [6]
    Ronny O. Bodine and Thomas W. Spalding. 1995. The Ancestry of Dorothea Poyntz, Wife of Reverend John Owsley: Generations 1–12. R.O. Bodine & T.W. Spalding, Jr. p. 140.
  7. [7]
    Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope Boniface VIII" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  8. [8]
    Michele Amari, Francis Egerton Ellesmere. 1850. History of the War of the Sicilian Vespers. R. Bentley. p. 64.
  9. [9]
    Jonathan Simon Christopher Riley-Smith, Jonathan Riley-Smith. 2005. The Crusades: A History. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8264-7270-2. p. 267.
  10. [10]
    H. J. A. Sire. 1994. The Knights of Malta. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-06885-9. p. 42.
  11. [11]
    Paul R. Thibault. 1987. Pope Gregory XI: The Failure of Tradition. University Press of America. ISBN 0-8191-5462-8. p. 64.
  12. [12]
    Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911. "Rome". p. 681.
  13. [13]
    June Osborne, Joe Cornish. 2002. Urbino: The Story of a Renaissance City. Frances Lincoln Ltd. ISBN 0-7112-2086-7. p. 45.
  14. [14]
    Chambers, 2006, p. 162.
  15. [15]
    Joachim W. Stieber. 1978. Pope Eugenius IV, the Council of Basel and the Secular and Ecclesiastical Authorities in the Empire. BRILL. ISBN 90-04-05240-2. p. 195.
  16. [16]
    MacMillan's Magazine. "A King's Treasurer". p. 320.
  17. [17]
    Chambers, 2006, p. 49.
  18. [18]
    Maria Bellonci. 1939. The Life and Times of Lucrezia Borgia. Harcourt, Brace. p. 15.
  19. [19]
    Chambers, 2006, p. 59.
  20. [20]
    New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia. 1911. Funk and Wagnalls Company. p. 446.
  21. [21]
    Levillain, Philippe. 2002. The Papacy: An Encyclopedia. p. 799.
  22. [22]
    John William Bradley. 1888. A Dictionary of Miniaturists, Illuminators, Calligraphers, and Copyists. B. Quaritch. p. 291.
  23. [23]
    Julia Mary Cartwright Ady. 1920. Beatrice D'Este, Duchess of Milan, 1475–1497: A Study of the Renaissance. E. P. Dutton & co. p. 43.
  24. [24]
    Pastor, Ludwig. 1902. The History of the Popes. K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd. p. 276.
  25. [25]
    Mallett, Michael (1971). The Borgias: The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Denasty. London: Paladin. pp. 140–142.
  26. [26]
    Eliakim Littell, Making of America Project, Robert S. Littell. 1888. The Living Age. Living Age Co. p. 70.
  27. [27]
    Chambers's Encyclopaedia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge. "Borgia". 1901. J.B. Lippincott Company. p. 329.
  28. [28]
    Bradford, Sarah (1981). Cesare Borgia: His Life and Times. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. pp. 64–67. ISBN 0-297-77124-8.
  29. [29]
    The New Encyclopædia Britannica. 1983. p. 42.
  30. [30]
    Chambers, 2006, pp. 14–15.
  31. [31]
    James Dennistoun. 1851. Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. p. 340.
  32. [32]
    Chambers, 2006, p. 137.
  33. [33]
    [Apostolo Zeno, Piercaterino Zeno] (1721) Giornale de' letterati d'Italia, Tomo trentesimoterzo, parte I (volume 33, part 1). In Venezia MDCCXXI: Appresso Gio. Gabbriello Hertz. Con licenza de' superiori, e privilegio anche di N.S Clemente XI. (in Italian) p. 246. Accessed May 2013.
  34. [34]
    Christopher Hare, Marian Andrews, Baldassarre Castiglione. 1908. Courts & camps of the Italian renaissance. C. Scribner's Sons. p. 131.
  35. [35]
    Chambers, 2006, p. 148.
  36. [36]
    Chambers, 2006, p. 153.
  37. [37]
    Chambers, 2006, p. 163.
  38. [38]
    Setton, Kenneth M. 1984. The Papacy and the Levant: 1204–1571. DIANE Publishing. ISBN 0-87169-162-0. p. 643.
  39. [39]
    Hugh Bicheno. 2004. Crescent and Cross: The Battle of Lepanto 1571. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN 1-84212-753-5. p. 159.
  40. [40]
    Chambers, 2006, p. 176.
  41. [41]
    "Acsearch.info - Auction research".
  42. [42]
    Edward J. Olszewski. 2004. Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (1667–1740) and the Vatican Tomb of Pope Alexander VIII. DIANE Publishing. ISBN 0-87169-252-X. p. 111.

References

  • Chambers, D.S. 2006. Popes, Cardinals & War: The Military Church in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 1-84511-178-8.
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