The Nuns of Sant'Ambrogio: The True Story of a Convent in Scandal (64 page)

16.
Relazione informativa con Sommario, Il Card. Vicario ordina alcuni esami; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text.

17.
On San Pasquale on the Via Anicia, see “Conservatorii di Roma,” in Moroni,
Dizionario
17 (1842), pp. 9–42, here pp. 23–25; Luigi Grifi,
Breve Ragguaglio delle Opere Pie di Carità e Beneficenza ospizi e luoghi d’istruzione della città di Roma
(Rome, 1862), p. 21. There was also a conservatory housed here, which served as a retreat for women.

18.
On the Gubbio Inquisition, see Menichetti,
Storia
, vol. 2, pp. 70–72; Adriano Prosperi, “Gubbio,” in
DSI
2 (2011), p. 741.

19.
On the convent of San Marziale in Gubbio, and the Church of Saint Andreas, see Menichetti,
Storia
, vol. 2, p. 49.

20.
Lettere e scritti del P. Leziroli Gesuita Consegnati dall’Em[inentissim]o Cardinal Vicario, here a letter from abbess M. Metilde to Patrizi, undated [1854], in which she complains of Agnese Eletta’s lack of respect toward Leziroli; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 a, fol. 4r–92r, here fol. 90rv.

21.
Esame della Priora di San Pasquale, October 17, 1859; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 a, fol. 52r–55r.

22.
Esame di Sr. Agnese Eletta, October 18, 1859; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 a, fol. 55r–59r.

23.
Letter from the prioress of San Pasquale, Maria Luisa di Gesù, to Sallua, October 19, 1859; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 a, fol. 58r.

24.
Esame di Sr. Agnese Eletta, October 21, 1859; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 a, fol. 59r–62v. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text.

25.
Friendships between nuns were prohibited as part of maintaining their vow of chastity. Nuns had to remain at a physical and emotional distance from each other. This rule was couched in terms of the exclusive dedication of nuns to their bridegroom, Christ. Cf. Brown,
Immodest Acts
, p. 8; Hüwelmeier,
Närrinnen
, pp. 18–196 (on the taboo of “particular friendships”); Schneider,
Zelle
, pp. 140–53.

26.
Card from the Mother Superior of San Pasquale, Maria Luisa di Gesù, to Sallua, October 30, 1859; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 a, fol. 64r.

27.
Esame di Sr. Agnese Eletta, November 3, 1859; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 a, fol. 63r.

28.
Foglio manoscritto consegnato dalla Sr. Agnese Eletta, undated [before November 3, 1859]; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 a, fol. 65r, 67v, 86rv. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text. Cf. also the printed summary in “Sommario del ristretto informativo,” no. XII, which underlines the significance of this document, at least in Sallua’s eyes. Ibid., B 7 c.

29.
Cf. Gousset,
Moraltheologie
, vol. 1, pp. 120–24 and pp. 278–96.

30.
Ibid., p. 280.

31.
Cf. Riegler,
Moral
, pp. 531–34.

32.
Cf. Reinhard,
Lebensformen
, pp. 61–67.

33.
Cf. Gousset,
Moraltheologie
, vol. 1, pp. 288–89. Tellingly, the term “il pessimo” arises in the case of Sant’Ambrogio for female same-sex acts: Relazione sommaria degli atti principali assunti nella causa contro le monache riformate in S. Ambrogio, Titolo VI: Complicità, massime e insinuazioni erronee dei PP.
Confessori Leziroli e Peters; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 e 1: “N. B. L’Inquisita nei suoi costituti grava specialmente la madre Maria Maddalena di enormi turpezze commesse con essa lei nell’età di 15 anni, e Maria Crocifissa come sua istitutrice in
rebus pessimis
facendo l’una e l’altra derivare cotali azioni e massime quali doni ed insegnamenti della beata Fondatrice.”

34.
Walkowitz,
Formen
, p. 444.

35.
The term “lesbian” is used here, although this is an identity that only came into being at the end of the nineteenth century. Cf. Judith M. Bennet, “ ‘Lesbian-Like’ and the Social History of Lesbianisms,” in
Journal of the History of Sexuality
9 (2000), pp. 1–24, in particular pp. 10–17; Gertrud Lehnert, “Lesbianismus/Lesbischer Feminismus/Lesbian Studies,” in Kroll (ed.),
Gender Studies
, pp. 230–32; Rich,
Heterosexuality
, pp. 139–68; Christine Steiniger, “Lesbische Liebe,” in Lissner et al. (eds.),
Frauenlexikon
, pp. 632–38.

36.
The Christian sexual morality of the nineteenth century prohibited any unusual satisfaction of sexual urges “absolutely and under threat of eternal damnation, with no advice for those who are not abstinent, other than to marry.” Cf. Stapf,
Moral
, p. 421. This is based on 1 Corinthians 6:9, according to which whores, idol worshippers, adulterers, effeminate men, and molesters of boys will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Any kind of fornication outside marriage was a “great sin against the Father,” which was why the Church and its lawmakers had always maintained an absolute prohibition of sexual satisfaction outside marriage. 1 Corinthians 7:9 says that those who cannot remain abstinent should marry. Cf. ibid., p. 422; Riegler,
Moral
, pp. 528–31. For a view of the Catholic position in a greater historical context, cf. Reinhard,
Lebensformen
, pp. 67–86.

37.
Cf. Cattaneo, “Vitio,” pp. 55–77; Pierroberto Scaramella, “Sodomia,” in
DSI
3 (2010), pp. 1445–50.

38.
Cf. Louis Crompton, “The Myth of Lesbian Impunity. Capital Laws from 1270 to 1791,” in
Journal of Homosexuality
6 (1980/81), pp. 11–25.

39.
Reinhard,
Lebensformen
, p. 87. Cf. also Brooten,
Love
; Rich,
Heterosexuality
, pp. 1445–50.

40.
Thomas Aquinas,
Summa theologiae
II-II, Quaestio 154, article II.

41.
According to the Italian jurist Prospero Farinacci (1554–1618); quoted in Brown,
Immodest Acts
, p. 14.

42.
Cf. Gousset,
Moraltheologie
, vol. 1, p. 292.

43.
According to the Italian priest Ludovico Maria Sinistrari, toward the end of the seventeenth century; quoted in Brown,
Immodest Acts
, p. 18.

44.
Esame di Sr. Agnese Eletta, November 3, 1859; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 b, fol. 63r, 65r, 67v, 68rv (original files). Subsequent quotations also taken from this document. A printed version of the interrogation can be found in “Sommario del ristretto informative,” no. XII; ibid., B 7 c.

45.
Nicola Benedetti was born in 1807 and entered the Society of Jesus in 1826. In 1843 he took up the office of spiritual. He died in 1866. Cf. Mendizábal,
Catalogus
, p. 62.

46.
Memorie di tutte le cose più rimarchevoli occorse in questo nostro S. Istituto
nelle diverse epoche incominciando dal principio della fondazione; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 s 1, fol. 576.

47.
Annuario Pontificio 1860, p. 32.

48.
Relazione sommaria degli atti principali, Titolo VI: Complicità dei PP. Confessori; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 e 1.

49.
Maurus Wolter to Sallua, September 17, 1859; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 a, no folio [after fol. 47v].

50.
This was Theodor Caspar Heinrich Wegener from Coesfeld. He was born in 1831 and ordained as priest in 1855. He went to Rome to study in 1859. Cf.
Schematismus der Diözese Münster 1860
(January) (Münster, 1860), p. 131. There he “probably entered the circle of those devotees of Emmerick, who paid for her headstone in the Dülmen cemetery.” Cf. Franz Flaskamp, “Theodor Wegener,” in
Heimatblätter der Glocke
, no.135, May 16, 1963, Supplement, p. 537. Wegener may have returned to his home city of Münster in 1861: on June 19, 1861, he was admitted to the Congregation of the Virgin Mary, Consoler of the Afflicted of Kevelaer. Cf.
Schematismus der Diözese Münster
1864 (August) (Münster, 1864), pp. 10 and 96. In March 1866, he was finally transferred to Haltern. Cf.
Schematismus der Diözese Münster
1872 (January) (Münster, 1872), pp. 38 and 139. In Haltern he funded the creation of a Via Crucis on the Annaberg, and wrote the prayerbook
Annabüchlein oder Andacht zur heiligen Anna
(two editions, 1884 and 1890). In 1885 he entered the Augustinian order as Padre Thomas Villanova, and from then on devoted himself to research for the beatification process of Anna Katharina Emmerick. Cf.
Chronik Annaberg
, online:
http://eservice2.gkd-re.de/bsointer160/DokumentServlet?dokumentenname=160l3ss3776.pdf
(7/13/2012). Wegener died in 1917.

51.
On the Campo Santo in the nineteenth century, cf. Erwin Gatz,
Anton de Waal und der Campo Santo Teutonico
(Römische Quartalschrift Supplementheft 38) (Rome, 1980), pp. 8–35.

52.
The Church of San Nicola in Carcere lies on the Via del Teatro di Marcello, on a spot where a jail was situated in the Middle Ages. Cf. Armellini,
Chiese
, pp. 475–82.

53.
Letter from the priest of San Nicola in Carcere to Sallua, October 11, 1859; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 a, fol. 50rv.

54.
The art historian Ludwig Pollak recalled that most residents of the Via di Monte Tarpeo rented rooms. “In the winter of 1893–1894, I lived in the tallest house on this narrow street, number 61 (?), on the top floor, and for what was admittedly a very sparsely furnished room that was impossible to heat, I paid 30 Lire a month.” Ludwig Pollak,
Römische Memoiren: Künstler, Kunstliebhaber und Gelehrte 1893–1943
, ed. Margarete Merkel Guldan (Rome, 1994), pp. 93–94. “The Via di Monte Tarpeo rose along the front of the Church of the Consolazion, with a flight of steps. It then bent to the right, and descended again at the south-west point of the Tabularium. This street, descending to the Campo Vaccino, was opened under Gregory XIII, as the inscription on the slope shows, where the famous verses of the Aeneid describing what were then the new buildings of the capital are also written.” Cf. Ernst Platner,
Beschreibung der
Stadt Rom
. Vol. 3:
Die sieben Hügel, der Pincio, das Marsfeld und Trastevere
(Stuttgart/Tübingen, 1837), p. 26.

55.
Sallua’s note, November 5, 1859; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 a, fol. 69rv.

56.
Sallua speaks of “una denunzia assai grave e corredata di molti argomenti di verità.” Ristretto informativo con Sommario; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c. He also speaks of a “denunzia assai gravante e circostanziata.” Notes for the congregation of cardinals, November 16, 1859; ibid., B 6 b.

57.
It is difficult to say whether Sallua was using “more solito” as a specifically legal term, or just a turn of phrase. On the legal term, see Gerhard Dilcher, “Das mittelalterliche Stadtrecht also Forschungsproblem,” in Jörg Wolff (ed.),
Kultur- und rechtshistorische Wurzeln Europas
(Mönchengladbach, 2006), pp. 227–42, here p. 237, where customary law is described as “more solito, more maiorum, secundum antiquam consuetudinem.” Cf. also Simon Teuscher,
Erzähltes Recht: lokale Herrschaft, Verschriftlichung und Traditionsbildung im Spätmittelalter
(Historische Studien 44) (Frankfurt am Main, 2007), p. 178, which explains “more solito” and also “more consueto” as a legal mode established through custom. As a turn of phrase, it means “as usual”: “more solito ‘secondo il solito costume,’ in base alla solita consuetudine, come di consueto,” Paride Bertozzi,
Dizionaria dei brocardi e dei latinismi giuridici
(Assago, 6th ed., 2009), p. 123.

58.
Cf. Friedrich Münter,
Gemischte Beyträge zur Kirchengeschichte
(Copenhagen, 1798), p. 155: “Everyone who enters the Congregation, whether as a cardinal or a consultor, must take an oath of secrecy, from which they only have dispensation when they learn of matters that would damage and spoil the Inquisition itself or could hinder the course of proceedings. Breaking this silence carries a sentence of
Excommunicatio latae sententiae
, which the pope alone can revoke. Otherwise, this transgression is viewed and punished as a personal offense against the pope.” Cf. also Maria Pia Fantini, “Segreto,” in
DSI
3 (2011), pp. 1490–91. The phrasing of the oath can be found in ACDF SO St. St Q 2 c, fol. 15r–16r: “Ego N de N &c. constitutus coram vobis Rev.mo P. Sac. Theologiae Mag.o F. N de N Inquisitore N tactis per me Sacrosanctis Dei Evangeliis coram me propositis, iuro ac promitto fi deliter exercere munus, & officium Vicarii, vel, Consultori—Sanctae Inquisitionis huius civitatis N., & non revelare, nec loqui, aut tractare—verbo, vel scriptis, aut alias quovis modo de iis, quae concernent causas Sancti Officii, nisi cum dominis Consultatoribus aliisque Officialibus dicti S. Officii, sub poena periurii, & excommunicationis latae sententiae, a qua non nisi ab Eminentissimis, & Reverendissimis Dominus Cardinalibus Inquisitoribus generalibus absolvi possim. Sic me Deus adiuvet, & haec sancta illius Evangelia, quae propriis manibus tango.”

59.
Fogli consegnati dal Sig. Cardinale Vicario Patrizi al P. Sallua, November 5, 1859; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 a, fol. 73r–92r. Individually: fol. 74r–75v, no. 1, letter from Abbess Maria Agnese Celeste della Croce to Cardinal Vicar Patrizi, October 6, 1848; fol. 76r–77v, no. 2, letter from Abbess Maria Agnese Celeste della Croce to Cardinal Vicar Patrizi, December 30, 1848; fol. 78r–79r, no. 3, letter from Abbess Maria Agnese Celeste della Croce to Cardinal Vicar Patrizi, March 30, 1849; fol. 80r–81v, no. 4, note from Padre Leziroli to Cardinal Vicar
Patrizi, undated; fol. 82r–83r, no. 5, letter from Leziroli to Cardinal Vicar Patrizi, July 9, 1849; fol. 83v, Leziroli’s reply to Cardinal Vicar Patrizi, relating to text no. 4, July 9, 1849; fol. 84rv, no. 6, letter from Sister Maria Metilde de’ dolori di Maria SS.a to Cardinal Vicar Patrizi, undated; fol. 85r–87v, no number, probably from Leziroli to Cardinal Vicar Patrizi, unsigned; fol. 88r, no number, letter from Leziroli to Cardinal Vicar Patrizi, July 29, 1849; fol. 90rv, no number, letter from Sister Maria Metilde de’ dolori di Maria SS.a to Cardinal Vicar Patrizi, [no month] 11, 1854; fol. 91rv, no number, letter from Agnese Eletta of the Holy Family to Cardinal Vicar Patrizi, undated; fol. 92r, no number, letter from Sister Maria Metilde de’ dolori di Maria SS.a to Cardinal Vicar Patrizi, [no month] 21, 1854.