Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Thursday 19 February 2015

Pope Paul IV, Cardinal Pole and the allegation of heresy


There is an interesting post by New Catholic at the Rorate Caeli website which is a translation of an article by Roberto de Mattei about the theological factions within the College of Cardinals in the 1550s and 1560s, including the allegations of heresy or error brought against the English Cardinal Pole.

The article can be read at Paul IV and the Heretics of His Time

The text of Pope Paul IV's Bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio, referred to in the article, can be read in translation here.

There is an online account of the Pope at Pope Paul IV, and of one of the other principal figures in the article which can be read at Giovanni Morone.

Paul IV.jpg

Pope Paul IV

Image: Wikipedia

In recent years there has been quite an amount of academic work done on Pole, with at least two biographies, and a re-evaluation of his achievements as Legate and Archbishop in the reign of Queen Mary I. The Mattei article gives the Roman context for the pressing issues facing the respective Popes and Cardinals in these decades, and the more general point as to how to address suspicions of heresy at the heart of the Church.

Cardinal Reginald Pole.jpg 

Cardinal Reginald Pole

Image:Wikipedia





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