The Life of Benedict XV
Type
Book
Authors
Category
Papacy
[ Browse Items ]
Publication Year
1959
Publisher
The Bruce Publishing Company, United States
Pages
321
Description
Walter Peters' "Life of Benedict XV" is as thorough as it is interesting: it sheds considerable light on this great, but forgotten, man and on many of the subtle, complicated issues with which he dealt during his long years in the Vatican.
Until (seven years before his election as pope) he was named archbishop of Bologna, Giacomo della Chiesa's career was spent behind the scenes. Naturally retiring, keenly intelligent but physically unattractive, meticulously proper, the future Benedict XV could not match, nor did he care to, the dramatic image of the brilliant figures around him: Cardinal Rampolla, Leo XIII, Pius X, Merry del Val. Rather, in his office at the secretariat of state or elsewhere in the Curia, he worked quietly and competently in the background, always close to important events, seldom in public view. By their very indifference, della Chiesa's anonymous years as a Vatican insider lend mute eloquence to his heroic dedication, self-effacement, and distant, but authentic, warmth. They reveal the man; and their recounting affords an excellent summary of epochal events in Church history.
The most important of these, as well as the most distressing, was the crisis of modernism. Much has been written of the legitimate severity of Rome's initial reaction to modernism. Less is known, however, of the ecclesiastical excesses which followed in its wake. Benedict XV's courageous efforts to repress the self-appointed intellectual gestapo which had grown up within the Vatican (and whose narrow-minded zeal did not lack the support of such highly placed prelates as Merry del Val) is an exciting and important chapter in his life. His action in this senseless, but instructive, internecine feud is characteristic of the delicacy and decisiveness of Benedict's spirit.
When, in 1914, della Chiesa was named pope, World War I had already begun. The war and its hectic aftermath cast its shadow over his entire reign. Indeed, the pressing concerns of battle are perhaps one reason why Benedict XV has been so easily forgotten. The author's careful evaluation of the difficult circumstances of his pontificate and of his important papal acts does much to rectify the forgetfulness of history. His "Life of Benedict XV" is the most authoritative available.
Until (seven years before his election as pope) he was named archbishop of Bologna, Giacomo della Chiesa's career was spent behind the scenes. Naturally retiring, keenly intelligent but physically unattractive, meticulously proper, the future Benedict XV could not match, nor did he care to, the dramatic image of the brilliant figures around him: Cardinal Rampolla, Leo XIII, Pius X, Merry del Val. Rather, in his office at the secretariat of state or elsewhere in the Curia, he worked quietly and competently in the background, always close to important events, seldom in public view. By their very indifference, della Chiesa's anonymous years as a Vatican insider lend mute eloquence to his heroic dedication, self-effacement, and distant, but authentic, warmth. They reveal the man; and their recounting affords an excellent summary of epochal events in Church history.
The most important of these, as well as the most distressing, was the crisis of modernism. Much has been written of the legitimate severity of Rome's initial reaction to modernism. Less is known, however, of the ecclesiastical excesses which followed in its wake. Benedict XV's courageous efforts to repress the self-appointed intellectual gestapo which had grown up within the Vatican (and whose narrow-minded zeal did not lack the support of such highly placed prelates as Merry del Val) is an exciting and important chapter in his life. His action in this senseless, but instructive, internecine feud is characteristic of the delicacy and decisiveness of Benedict's spirit.
When, in 1914, della Chiesa was named pope, World War I had already begun. The war and its hectic aftermath cast its shadow over his entire reign. Indeed, the pressing concerns of battle are perhaps one reason why Benedict XV has been so easily forgotten. The author's careful evaluation of the difficult circumstances of his pontificate and of his important papal acts does much to rectify the forgetfulness of history. His "Life of Benedict XV" is the most authoritative available.
Number of Copies
2
