Papal Diplomacy

PAPAL DIPLOMACY
ESTABLISHMENT: POSTING
The nuncios’ posting has usually been decided by the pontifical secretariat. While the
nunciature existed, the German congregation participated as well in the process of
determination when it comes to the matters of Germany. To whom it concerned, the
nomination has been reported in the form of papal official letter or the official authorization.
At the moment of departure the nuncio has been receiving a number of the papal
official letters. The most important one has been the credential letter in the ceremonial form,
which has been addressed to the regent to whom the nuncio has been coming to introduce the
Pope. It contained the reason of the mission, the nuncio’s name, his titles and services, his
virtues, the eventual name of the nuncio he has been replacing and the professional sentence
such as: “on dubitamus nobilitatem tuam omnibus in rebus, de quibis et in adventu ipso et in
posterum tecum aget nostris verbis, omnem ei fidem tributuram”1
, or “cui integra fide
adhibebis in omnibus non secus ac si nos loquentes audires”2
, or resembling expressions. The
other introduction letters have been addressed to the regent’s wife, the eventual heir to the
throne, other court clerks, the bishops and the prelates. Some of the official letters have been
left untitled (brevia in albis), so the nuncio could add an addressee who has not been
anticipated earlier. The passport (passus) as well has been added in addition to these
documents.
1
"Diplomatic Academy Year-Book." Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Croatia,
International Symposium entitled “Hrvatska srednjevjekovna diplomacija”, 9-11 Sept. 1998,
Dubrovnik. Diplomatic Academy Year-Book: Hrvatska srednjevjekovna diplomacija. Zagreb:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Croatia, 1999., extracted from the article of dr. Silvano
Giordano “ Papinska diplomacija između 15. i 16. stoljeća” with the reference to Cf. L. van der
Essen a. Louant, Correspondance d Ottavio Mirto Frangipani, premier nonce in Flandre, 1596-1606
Analecta Vaticano Belgica. 2eme Serie. Nonciature de Flandre 1-3, Rome, Bruxelles, Paris
1924,1932,1942.
2
Giordano “ Papinska diplomacija između 15. i 16. stoljeća” with the reference to J. Rainer,
Nuntiatur des Germanico Malaspina, Publikationen des Osterreichischen Kulturinstituts in Rom. Abt
II Quelen. 2 Reihe, Wien 1973.

The pontifical secretariat has been preparing an instruction which has been supposed
to introduce the nuncio to the situation in the country he has been going to. The instruction
has been composed by the clerk of the secretariat, and, after the second half of the XVI
century, it has been signed by the cardinal-nephew. During the pontificate of Clement VIII
(1592-1605), the instructions have usually started with the preamble within which the
nuncio’s competence to the service has been introduced, the reliance the pope attends towards
him and the general purpose of the mission. The main part of the letter followed, with the
description of the political and the church problems with which he has been about to face, and
which has been often divided into several sections. At the end there have been series of
professional instructions regarding codes, postal service, credential letters and the letters of
the authorizations and the rules of greetings and blessings, the date, the signature and the seal.
The sources of the instructions have been various: the newest correspondence or the final
predecessor’s report have been the most important ones among them. In case of the mission
being timely close, the instructions given to the predecessor have been completely
undertaken. As regards to the composer, from 23 preserved sketches of the letters, five of
them belong to Minuccio Minucci, and ten to Lanfranco Margotti who have been working in
the service of Cinzi Aldobrandi. Clement VIII has actively participated in the composing, as
is demonstrated by the many corrections registered by the hand. The instruction has been
handed to the addressee by the cardinal-nephew in the presence of the public secretary, or the
pope himself. On that occasion, the verbal instructions could have been given and various
problems could have been solved; in some cases the instructions and the official papal letters
have been handed to the nuncio in case of the travel.

THE AUTHORIZATIONS
The nuncio’s action has been determined by the jurisdiction territory and the
authorities which have been active only during the mission and on the regent’s territory to
whom the nuncio has been sent to.3
The authorities have been related to the jurisdiction: the
nuncio, as the pope’s representative, has had the authorities given by the Christian superior.
Except with the local church authorities, their volume has provoked as well conflicts with the
civil authorities who have been trying to reduce their range. After the Vienna concordat
(1448), the princes in Germany have often complained about their implication: Gravamina
from 1522 have been complaining about their determination of their rights, for they have had
the possibility to acknowledge the illegimate sons, to dissolve the obligations contracted by
the oath and to share the benefices which have been intended for the pope. In the contract
with the Roman court from 1528, Spain has regulated the limits of the authorities, while in
France they had to be approved by the assembly.
The orderly nuncio’s authorities have been extending continually, at first in the
exceptional occasions, and more often afterwards, until the nuncio hasn’t gained the
authorities legata de latere; although he has never been equalized with the real and genuine
legate. For instance, Carl von Miltitz, the nuncio in the Habsburg empire, could have in 1518
canceled the barrier of the blood relationship regarding marriage three times, and release the
barriers of illegalities regarding the ordainment six times. Pietro Paolo Vergerio, who has
been sent to Germany in 1533, has had the authorities to legalize the illegimates, to use the
transferable altar, to serve or to give serve the mass during the prohibited time and before the
dawn, to select the confessor for himself, to dissolve from irregularities ex defectu corporis et
natalium, to change the vows, to release from the barriers of the third and fourth degree blood
relationships for the marriage, to read the forbidden books, which authorities, however, he
could not have been transmitted. Pietro Bertrano, the nuncio to whom the general authorities
have been adjudged by the bull from 27. of April 1551. and the papal letter from 4. of July
1551, has gained increased authorities which anticipated the ability of exemption of the
3
Giordano “ Papinska diplomacija između 15. i 16. stoljeća” with the reference to Arhivio Stato
Vaticano, Sec. Brev. Reg. 341, f352r 353r.

heresy. This fact has a double significance: the authority, as regards to the way it has been
given, could be considered exceptional, and at the same time the nature of the authority
defines for the nuncios the beginning of the counterreformation’s activity. This last
characteristic has been distressed and has obtained the final form in the nunciatures
established during the pontificate of Gregory XIII, and whose purpose has been to reintroduce
the territories exposed to danger to the catholism, so they could be finally pulled off from the
influence of the ancient religion: those have been the nunciatures of Casper Gropper and
Bartolomeo Prozi who has been succeeded by dominican Feliciano Ninguarda. The papal
official letter that has been addressed to the latter defines him as: ”nuntius cum facultate legati
de latere ad Dei laudem et catholicae Ecclesiae exaltationem haeresumque extirpationem”.
His authorities have been adjudged to Gropper by the bull “Romanum decet
pontificem” from 1 July 1573 giving him the capability of review and reform in order to
restore the church discipline and carry through the conclusions of the Trident council. Among
the juridical authorities there has been the right to cancel the oaths, to release in any cases -
except for those mentioned in the bull “In coena Domini” - of the apostasy (the priest’s escape
from the monastery); he could have released of all the illegalities, except of those descended
from the murders, the heresy, lesae maiestatis and the bigamy; he could have given the release
to those who are to be ordained as clericos arctatos, the clerics without their own bishop, even
extra tempora: thereby the nuncio performs the function of the bishop’s jurisdiction
substitution, which has been disabled in many bishoprics which have been progressed by the
protestant reform. Gropper has had the ability to absolve the blood relationship, to remove
public prohibition regarding already connected marriages, and those which are to be
connected, and those “impedimentum criminis, dummodo in mortem defuncti coniugis
quicquam machinati non fuerint”. He could erect monasteries and churches, establish
fraternities, approve cleric’s testaments, allow the mass to be served during the prohibited
time, give the absolution, dissolve the vows, except the pilgrimage’s vows, the purity and
church vows.
These jurisdictions, which have been typical for the post-trident time, have been
missing two authorizations which have been significant for the counterreformation: “facultas
absolvendi ab haeresi i licentia legendi libros prohibitos”. Gropper has requested those on 12
December 1573, as well as “facultas subdelegandi”. The German congregation has
contemplated the requests on 2 March 1574 and the permission has been notified to the

nuncio on 12 March 1574 by the official papal letter composed explicitly as the enlargement
of the general authorities which have already been given him. Gropper has gained the
authorities to dissolve in utroque foro all the heretics, schismatics, the founders of heresies
and similar “etiamsi ipsi in huiusmodi errors atque haereses post illarum abiurationem relapse
sint”; gaining the absolution has been stipulated even if with the secret oath. The authority of
the exemption of illegality which has descended from crimes has been related to it, and for
those to whom it has been forgiven to regain their rights, the authority could have been
transmitted either to the secular or the orderly clergy, but not longer than a year. Beside that,
he could give the permission to read the prohibited books to those whose integrity has been
investigated and with strenuous catholic religion, so they could endeavor on their refutation.
The bull “Romanum decet Pontifecem”, which has been given to Gropper, is used as
the sample for the following bulls with the authorities distributed to the nuncios; but it has
also been submitted to the changes. If we compare the authorities given to Gropper to those
given to Giovanni Francesco Bonomi, who has been sent to Germany in 1585, and Giovanni
Stefano Ferreri, who has been sent to the emperor in 1604, we shall discover a significant
reduction of the authorities, particularly regarding the absolution. For instance, relating to
Gropper, Ferreri has had no authorities to give the absolution to the ordained priests in case of
murder;4
Gropper could give the absolution all to the second blood relationship regarding
marriage, Bonomi only to the third, whereas Ferreri has had no rights regarding that matter
and he had to turn to Rome about that. As regards to the benefices, for Gropper there have
been no limitations (cuiuscumque annui valoris), whereas Ferreri could distribute up to the
value of 24 golden ducats of the annual income: in Bonomi’s case, the question hasn’t been
even taken in consideration. Such development of the situation could be comprehended in two
complementary ways: in one way it means gradual normalization of the church circumstances
which did not require the need of using the exceptional authorizations, and in the other way it
has been a sign of the pontifical centralization with which the court has been retaining the
right of executing certain authorities. The custom of giving the nuncio the similar authorities
as to his predecessor has been acknowledged by the chancery usage of the official letters: in
the sketches of the letters, the phrase: “sunt similes concesse” has been frequent, the
4
Vaticano, Sec. Brev. Reg. 341v

predecessor’s name, along with the designation of the document which contains the letter. For
instance, when Giovanni Stefano Ferreri has been sent to the emperor at the beginning of
1604, a certain secretary notes: “Pro ep(iscop)o Vercellen. Nuntio ad imp(erato)rem.
Facultates solitae. Sunt similes concesse Philippo arciep(isop)o Rhodien”. And more: “ Sunt
similes expedetis ult(im)o loco pro R.mo Spinello”.5
The custom that some exceptional
authorities are given by the special official papal letters has been retained: Ferreri has gained
the permission: “conversandi cum haeretics et legendi libros prohibitos”, that is, the
permission to maintain the contacts with the heretics and schismatics, to eat with them, and to
posses, read and refute in writing the books which have been inserted into the index of the
competent congregation. Beside that, he has had the facultas absolvendi haereticos, among
which the relapses belonged.6
According to Michael F. Feldkamp, the papal official letter with the authorities given
to the orderly nuncios “Decet romanum Pontificem” from 1573, has been upheld to the
version prepared for Giovanni Francesco Bonomi, the nuncio in Köln from 1584. to 1587.
The scientist differentiates different categories of the authorities within it: the right of the visit
and the reform of already existing church institutions, with the expressed instruction to
respect the Trident resolution, the right of the church jurisdiction civil and criminal – except
on the first instance – on the persons who have been subjected to the bishop, with the
authorities of the threats with the church’s penalties and the opening of the process; the right
to dispense and dismiss when it comes to gaining the priestly order; the authority of
distributing the benefices; giving the permission for joining together in marriage; giving the
permission for the rent, or alienation of the church goods; the despatchment of literae
monitoriales et poenales; giving the absolution, performing the ceremony during the
prohibited time; the absolution on the fast and the abstinence; the authority of the execution
and the empowerment. Nevertheless, the nuncios have been, depending on the situation,
requesting the enlargement of the authorities, as did Antonio Albergati, the nuncio in Köln
5
Vaticano, Sec. Brev. Reg. 341, f363v.
6
Vaticano, Sec. Brev. Reg. 341, f364v, 365v, 366r, 369v.

from 1610 to 1621, especially when it has been about giving the benefices to the non-
Catholics in the expectation of the Roman provision.
THE CORRESPONDENCE

The relations between Rome and the nuncios have been kept by the systematic letter
exchange, within the certain time distances. During the pontificate of Paul III, the nuncio in
France has been writing to Rome at least every four days. That habit has been kept till the end
of the Ancien Régime, while in times of the intensified diplomatic activities the exchange has
been more frequent. The pontifical secretariat has been responding less frequent: when the
nuncio has been dispatching the general references, one letter would be often used as an
answer to a few of the dispatched ones. The nuncio’s letters addressed to the secretariat have
been keeping the routine scheme: right after the address, the eventual letters from Rome have
been mentioned, with the indication of their date and the day they have been received.
Afterwards the description of the work followed: in time a custom has been adopted, which
has become common at the end of XVI century, that every single question is discussed in the
separate letter, so within the same mail more letters have been dispatched to Rome. At the end
came the date and the nuncio’s name. Sometimes, for the different reasons – the respect or the
wish to add some detail in the last moment – the nuncio would finish the letter by his own
hand, which afterwards would be closed and sealed. Some letters have been bringing different
news, so-called “announces”, mentioned one after another and unsigned.
Antonio Albergati, the nuncio in Köln from 1610. to 1614, used to write the ordinary
letter of the general contest in which he has been notifying that he has received the deliveries
from Rome, has been describing the modalities of the answer which was contained in the
delivery and has been mentioning other news of the general character, and he has been adding
the letter with different reports regarding the events in the nunciature. Unlike his predecessor,
he hasn’t been dispatching the unsigned reports, but he has been bringing them forth in the
form of the letter. Beside that there have been letters with the description of different work,
and somewhat code has been used. The requests for the authorities, the supplements to the
particular letters and sometimes the letter written with his own hand followed. The reports of
the highest secrecy have been encoded: at the beginning Albergati used to insert encoded
words or paragraphs and afterwards he has been encoding all the letters.
The letters dispatched to him have been orderly dated on Saturday. Albergati’s
correspondence with Rome has been on weekly basis: the letters written in Köln have been
dated on Sundays, while those written in Liége have been dated on Fridays. That is related to

the mail despatchment day – the mail has been dispatched from Liége on Saturdays and from
Köln on Sundays. The letters have been paid by the one to whom they have been addressed to,
and they have been traveling by the following path: Köln – Frankfurt – Augsburg – Innsbruck
– Brenner – Trent – Mantua – Bologna – Rome. The time of the delivery has been different:
in the best case fourteen days would have passed from the day they have been dispatched to
the delivery day; if there would have been no standstill, the replies to the letters would have
been followed 22 days after their redaction.7
ORGANIZATION OF THE NUNCIATURES
7
Giordano “ Papinska diplomacija između 15. i 16. stoljeća” with the reference to W. Reinhard,
Nuntius Antonio Albergati, Munchen, Paderborn, Wien 1972.

Parallel with the affirmation of the permanent representations, the organizations of the
nunciatures have been improving as well, so the businesses, which they have been obliged for,
would have been more successfully performed. Its commencement, considering the provisory
of the mission entrusted to him, can be already seen at Girolamo Aleandro, the legate in the
Empire from 1538. to 1539. In his service he has had three or four clerks, Domenico de
Mussi, his personal secretary, has been the chairman of the chancery. In the negotiations with
the local representatives, he has been using the interpreter, who has been some Judocus
Slesius in 1538.
Later, the group of associates, so-called “The family” divided in the upper and the
lower family has been organized around the nuncio. The “Upper family” has been including
the administrative personnel, among which an uditor (the court jurist or junior), a letter
composer, a chamberlain, a clerk, chaplains, courtiers and the nuncio’s secretary. The “Lower
family” has been consisted of the servants: waiters, the cook, the kitchen personnel, grooms
and cleaners.
The administrative personnel have had the obligation for the work of the two
nunciature’s primary chanceries: the court and the chancery, which have been helping the
nuncio to perform his functions. The court has been conducting the civil and the criminal
processes in the questions regarding the Church, or those in which the clerics have been
involved, and the inquisitor informative processes regarding the bishop’s nomination. In
accordance with the Trident ordinances, the first-degree court has been within the bishop’s
competency, and the nunciature could have intervened only in case of the appeal of one of the
sides. The jurist, who has been presenting the nuncio in his function of the authorized judge of
the Holy Chair, has been presiding the court. It has been a cleric accustomed to the legal
matter, usually of Italian nationality, although he could have been elected in the region. The
nuncio has been accepting him as the closest associate, and he has often been taking him with
himself in occasion of performing different tasks which pontifical administration has been
entrusting him. As a papal servant, the salary has been paid by the apostolic chamber.
The chancery has had the task to compose the documents, either of the administrative,
or the judicial type, and it has been conducting the archives. It has been composing decrees,
proclamations, letters, copies of the documents, amnesties and all the documentation
regarding informative processes on the occasion of the bishop’s nomination and the abbots in

the monasteries whose confirmation has been under the authority of the Holy Chair. The
chancery has been conducted by the letter composer, it could have been an Italian who has
come with the nuncio, or the local cleric, who has been valuable for knowing the local
language, which the pontifical diplomats have known only superficially. Various secretaries,
transcribers, who have been able to compose a letter and documents on Italian, Latin or the
local languages, have been working under his administration.
The organization of the everyday life, not to ramble in the functions of the jurists and
the letter composers, has been entrusted to the “main chamberlain”, who has been responsible
for the ceremony and the servants. The nuncio’s small court has been supplemented by the
chaplains who have had the role of the theological advisers and the confessors. Outside of the
nunciature there have been acting informers, clerics or laics, sympathizers of the Holy Chair,
who have been providing for the nuncio news out of the official ones which he has been
getting from the bishop and the religious orders representatives on that territory.
Regarding the Köln nunciature, Michael F. Feldkamp has described the organization
of the nunciature in this manner:
The court members: a jurist, a judge commissioner, a plenipotentiary, lawyers.
The chancery members: a letter composer, a special nuncio’s secretary, clerks,
transcribers.
The notary has been in the service of both chanceries.
The household management: the main chamberlain, chaplains, the house
administrator, servants, a courier, the cook and the kitchen personnel, grooms,
cleaners, the superintendent.
The Swiss nuncio’s family has been organized in the similar way.
The organization of the nunciature in Madrid has been more complicated, for the
nuncio has been entrusted with the duty of a collector (of the taxes). Already the first nuncio,
Francisco des Prats, who has been nominated by Alexander VI, has been performing both
duties, but that duality has been evidenced after Jeronimo Sclede’s nomination in 1529, when
two official papal letters by which he has been given the rights of a nuncio and a collector,
have been handed to him. Clement VIII has given Sclede the right to receive the appeals of
the inhabitants of the monarchy of Spain, who have been earlier dispatched to Rome, and by

pleasing the explicit demand of Cortes di Toledo, which have been assembled in 1525. The
nuncio has had the right to “summarie simpliciter et de plano, sine strepitu et figura iudicii,
sola facti veritate inspecta audiendi et fine debito terminandi” the court trial by the formula
which has been approved by the pontifical jurisdiction, which has been enabling the prompt
coming to the end of the process. The nuncial court in Madrid has begun to operate in the
same manner. It has been exceptionally important for the significant enlargement of the
nuncio’s authorities as well. Likewise, the chancery whose characteristics are fully known by
the preserved census of Nicola Ormaneti, who has been representing the Pope at the Catholic
king’s court from September 1572. to July 1577, has been established in the first years of the
XVI century. Besides the usual authorizations which have been primarily consisted of the
distribution of the indulgences and the absolution, the nuncio has had the authority, within the
months which have been reserved for the Pope, to distribute the unfilled benefices which
haven’t been going over the annual income of 24 golden ducats.
The collector’s duty has been including the collection of the contributions and the
incomes sede vacante. These incomes have been valuable for the Apostolic chair and during
the time of Grugru XIII and Sixto V have been amounted to 23 % of all the incomes. The
importance of the collections has been accentuated by the fact that in 1560. the Holy Chair
has separated the collector’s office from the nuncio’s office, entrusting the task to Francisco
de Aragon, who has been nominated on 11 March 1560. On the request of Fillip II two offices
have been reunited in April 1596 during the pontificate of Clement VIII in the person of
Camillo Caetani.
The special organization of the Madrid nunciature has been influencing on the
nuncio’s salary. Around 1545 it has been amounted to 170 golden crowns monthly, and
during the time of nuncio Ormaneti in 1572, it has ascended up to 300, to which the Pope has
added another 120, considering the collector’s duty. With the arrival of Clement VIII the
salary has been canceled, and the nuncio has been receiving 6 % of the collected tax amount,
which has resulted with more efficient reimbursement. In order to bring the misuses to an end,
nuncio Decio Carafa has published in 1611. the set of rules of the nunciature’s court out of
which we are able to learn the composition of the personnel: a jurist, a letter composer, a
secretary, an executor, an archivist, judges, clerks, the official letters secretary, agents, a
plenipotentiary and a notary.

Despite the large political importance, the nuncio in France has had a few authorities,
which Ranuccio Scotti, the nuncio from 1639. to 1641, has concluded in the following
manner: to give the papal blessing to the king, the queen and the entire nation; to absolve of
the heresy, the excommunication and the illegality raised from the heresy, to give the
permission to read the prohibited books and to conduct informative processes upon the
bishops and the abbots who are appointed by the king, and related to their confirmation for the
cardinal’s assembly. Unlike the Spanish nuncio, there has not been neither the legate nor the
tax collector; thus limited authorities have conditioned the administrative organization of the
nunciature and its incomes which have had no significance.
THE NUNCIOS

During the XVI century the professional diplomatic corpus has been created within the
service of the Holy Chair. While the election has been performed by the same principles by
which the medieval diplomats have been sent at the beginning of the century, in time, as the
diplomatic representations have been established and consolidated, the criterion has been
gradually more demanding and distinct.
During the first half of the century a number of diplomats have been laics, or simple
clerics, and after the Trident council, the election has been gradually more directed to the
candidates for the bishop, the residents or the nominated ones, in order to perform with the
entire right the jurisdiction authorities entrusted to them and to be the apostolic emissaries in
the anticipated events, and to be, with the church dignity, on the level of the bishops in front
of which they represent the Holy Chair.
Klaus Jainter has performed a systematic study of the geographic and social origin, the
career and the education of the nuncios who have been performing the function during the
time of Clement VIII, that is, during the time when the system has reached its maturity. The
scientist separates the pontifical emissaries in the following manner: seven legati de lateres,
twenty-eight orderly nuncios, nine tax collectors and inquisitors, four vice-emissaries in
Avignon, six general commissioners, thirty-five extraordinary nuncios and emissaries.
Regarding the orderly nuncios, they have been originating: three in Toscana, five in
Lazio, eight in Lombardy, one in Savoy, four in Venice, one in Bologna, four in the kingdom
of Naples, two in Umbria. Therefore, fourteen nuncios have been coming from northern Italy,
ten from mid Italy and four from southern Italy. Eight of them have been coming from the
papal state, eight from Lombardy and four from the kingdom of Naples, the territories under
Spanish administration, totally twelve, while eight of them have been coming from the
independent states of Toscana (three), Savoy (one) and Venice (four).
Regarding the social origin, ten of them have been belonging to the nobility, fourteen
to the patrician families and four to other social classes. Their education has usually been
church and juridical one: twenty of them have been jurists, one has been a humanistic
philosopher, two have been theologians and five others have had different education. Almost
70 % of the nuncios have started their careers at the Curia as referendario utriusque
signaturae, to thereafter continue within the pontifical administration or the Curia’s offices.

They have all been promoted to bishops, except Camillo Caetani and Maffeo Barberini who
have had received sedi titolari, the other twenty-six of them have been placed to sedi
residenziali, despite the Trident decrees.
THE SALARY

While in the diplomatic service, the nuncio has had to support himself and to take care
of the associates salaries. Regarding the costs, the location has been an important issue, for
usually there has been no building in the property of the Holy Chair within which the
nunciature would have been placed, it has been needed to rent the premises for living and the
chanceries. During the first half of the XVI century, the situation has been more complicated
for the nuncios by the Catholic king and the Emperor, because of the court’s great mobility. In
the year 1538, during his stay in Vienna, cardinal emissary Girolamo Aleandro says that he
has “had to pay the rent for the sad and almost unfurnished premises in the amount of six
hundred pounds yearly”.
The activity of the first nuncio in Köln, Giovanni Francesco Bonomi (1584-1587) has
been characterized by the great mobility: he has been going to the Episcopal elections, visiting
the church institutions, appointing the Episcopal assembly. Only just his successor Ottavio
Mirto Frangipani has stopped in Köln, although the nunciature hasn’t had a permanent
residence. At the beginning of the XVII century only the large nunciatures like Paris, Madrid
and Vienna have had their own buildings within which the chanceries, representative premise
and residences for twenty to thirty persons have been placed.
The sources from which the nuncio has been supporting himself have been various: the
monthly salary which he has been receiving from the Curia, the sum for the travel costs
reimbursement, the incomes for performing judicial authority, own church revenues, the
personal property. Still at the end of the XV century, pontifical employees have been
receiving a specific amount in the moment of leaving Rome, and they have been financing
their own missions with the incomes received on the bases of their authorities and with the
money received from the collectors. If the mission has been prolonged, the apostolic Chamber
would be sending them additional amounts, or it would be paying them off by their return.
One of the first permanent salaries which we have information of and which have been paid in
advance is the amount of 125 pounds per month, paid to the nuncio in France, bishop Melfia
from 1500. to 1503.
In the first half of the XVI century the information about the nuncios’ incomes have
been fragmented. During the time of Julio II, the nuncio in Venice has been living in the
palace of the duke of Ferreira and has been receiving 100 ducats monthly; in the year 1524-
1525 nuncio Aleandro has received 525 ducats in four months. According to Charles-Martial

De Witte, by the end of the pontificate of Clement VII, the nuncios in England, Germany and
France have been receiving from 120 to 200 ducats monthly, and the same amounts have been
paid out during the pontificate of his successor Paul III. His predecessor Campeggi, beside the
provision, has been having the use of the revenues’ monthly incomes, in the amount of 500
crowns; in July 1539 Aleandro has calculated that in ten foregoing months he has received
totally 367 crowns. It has probably been the consequence of the protestant reform progress.
For the second half of the century we have more exact information. The list of the
salaries paid to the Curia’s employees in 1575 amounts:
The nuncios in Savoy 115 crowns monthly
The nuncios in Toscana 155 “ “
The nuncios by the Emperor 230 “ “
The nuncios in Venice 230 “ “
The nuncios in Poland 230 “ “
The nuncios in France 345 “ “
Caspar Gropper 115 “ “
Bartolomeo Porzia 230 “ “
Bonomi (Vienna) 300 “ “
The cardinal emissaries have been usually receiving 500 crowns monthly, the amounts
which have sometimes been doubled. The salaries of the Venice emissaries who have in those
years been receiving around 200 crowns monthly could be mentioned in comparison.
About ten years later the usual salary of the nuncio by the Emperor has been
amounting to 230 crowns monthly. Bonomi has been receiving 300 crowns in Prague: before
and after him the salary has been amounting to 230. His predecessor Germanico Malaspina
has been receiving 230 crowns and he has been paid the last time on 25 January 1586, the
same amount has had Filippo Sega as well. From the 25 September 1585 the same salary has
been defined for the nunciature in Köln. The nuncio in Graz, Giovanni Andrea Caligari,
bishop Bertinora, has been receiving 115 crowns monthly which have been paid out to him up
until 25 December 1586, when the nunciature has been temporarily closed.

During the time of Gregory XIII, the nuncio in Switzerland has been receiving 100 or
125 crowns; Giovanni Battista Santonio has been receiving 150 up until 1587, as a sign of a
special papal affection; the same salary has as well been receiving Ottavio Paravicini, bishop
Alessandrio, Santonio’s successor, from 1 November 1587. The nuncio in France has been
receiving 345 crowns monthly, the nuncio in Poland 230, the nuncio in Savoy 115, the nuncio
in Florence, mons. Corbazio only 50 or 57,50 crowns; to his successor Matteucci, the
archbishop of Ragusa, at the end of 1587 has been paid the amount of 200 crowns. Cardinal
Ippolito Aldobrandini, who has been sent to Poland in 1588, has received a monthly income
of 500 crowns. If a nuncio would have been promoted in a cardinal during the time of service,
his salary would have been automatically equalized with the cardinal emissary’s salary.
During the pontificate of Clement VII there is a list of the “Orderly payments
transacted every month in the general deposit”,8
from 1600. to 1605, which indicates that the
amounts in total haven’t changed relating to those paid out in the foregoing decades:
The nuncio by the Emperor 240 crowns
By the Catholic king 260 “
By the king of Poland 230 “
In Germany 220 “
In Köln 230 “
In Switzerland 230 “
In Flanders 230 “
In Venice 150 “
In Florence 57,50 “
During the pontificate of Paul V, even though the date cannot be precisely affirmed,
there is an even more complete list of payments transacted to the nuncios every month:9
8
Vaticano, Fondo Borghese, serie I, 715, f. 139r.
9
"Diplomatic Academy Year-Book." Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Croatia, International
Symposium entitled “Hrvatska srednjevjekovna diplomacija”, 9-11 Sept. 1998, Dubrovnik. Diplomatic
Academy Year-Book: Hrvatska srednjevjekovna diplomacija. Zagreb: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the
Republic of Croatia, 1999., extracted from the article of dr. Silvano Giordano “ Papinska diplomacija
između 15. i 16. stoljeća” with the reference to Arhivio Stato Vaticano, Fondo Borghese, serie I, 715, f.

By the Emperor 200 golden crowns monthly
France 300 “ “ “
Poland 230 crowns in banknotes
Graz 230 “ “
Köln 230 “ “
Flanders 230 “ “
Switzerland 230 “ “
Venice 150 “ “
Savoy 100 “ “
Florence 57 “ “
The nunciatures in Spain and Naples and the tax collection in Portugal haven’t been
mentioned for they have been supporting themselves from the collections’ incomes in those
countries.
During the travel, the advanced payment for the necessary costs has been paid: Fabio
Mirto Frangipani has received 400 crowns for the travel to France; the nuncio in Savoy has
received 100 crowns: and Bonomi has received for the travel from Prague to Köln 500
crowns; cardinal Aldobrandini has received 1000 crowns for the travel to Poland.
Regarding the incomes, it has been considered that Giovanni Battista Santonio, the
nuncio in Switzerland from 1586. to 1587, has been receiving the amount of 2000 crowns
yearly. This high amount justifies the fact that in that time the church jurisdiction has been
almost entirely in the nuncio’s hands in seven catholic cantons. The incomes of Giovanni
Francesco Bonomi, the nuncio in Köln from 1584 to 1587, have been smaller, because on his
nanciature’s territory the bishops have had the orderly jurisdiction, and Bonomi himself has
repeatedly claimed that he performs the authorities given to him by Rome for free.
Considering that in his service has been twenty-four – twenty-five nunciature’s employees
and house personnel, it is almost certain that he has been supporting himself from his
bishopric’s incomes or from the private property.
139r.
.

In the second part of the XV century, along with other Curia chanceries, the secretariat
as well has adjusted to the new administrative needs. In the year 1456 Calisto III has regulated
six secretarii participantes with secretarius domesticus on head which has been responsible of
the secretariat. In the year 1487 Innocent VII has composed the secretarii apostolici council
with twenty-four official venalia vacabila.
The pontifical secretariat has been entrusted with the duty of composing diplomatic
letters, correspondence with the princes, giving the instructions and urgent letters to the
nuncios, by the papal order. It has been about the first original organization, after the ideal of
already existing models in other Italian cities. Innocent VIII has ordered the activity of the
chancery by the bull Non debet reprehensible from 31 December 1487, giving the official
form to a person secretariusa domesticusa, as has been established in the earlier years. And
indeed, during the pontificate of Sixtus IV and the first years of the pontificate of Innocent
VIII, Leonardo Griffo who became bishop Gubbia in 1472 and archbishop Beneveta in 1482,
has been performing that duty. The secretary has been staying in the apostolic palace, has
always been in the servility for the Pope and has been managing the secretariat’s businesses.
During the pontificate of Leon X (1513-1521) to the secretarius domesticus,
secretarius intimus has been joined; he has been performing all the pontifical correspondence,
but always in the inferior position. In the following decades, particularly during the
pontificate of Paul IV (1555-1559), various secretaries have been subordinated to a person
cardinale padrone, the duty which appeared during the pontificate Sixtus IV (1471-1484), and
has been coincided with the papal acceptance of nepotism, with the effort to find the logical
associates within his own family. Cardinale padrone, who has had the title of the
“superintendent of the church state”, had represented the head of the pontifical administration,
and beside the administrative jurisdiction, he has been authorized for the questions for
external politics as well. Nevertheless, the true quality of the individual cardinal-nephews has
been depending exclusively on their ability and experience gained during the career at the
Curia, and some of them, who have been either too young or too inexperienced, have only had
the incidental representative role.10
10
Giordano “ Papinska diplomacija između 15. i 16. stoljeća” with the reference to P. Richard,
Origines et developpement de la secreterie d’etat apostolique 1417-1823, Revue d’histoire
ecclesiastique 11, Paris 1919.

The important novelty which Gregory XIII has introduced to the pontifical
administration has been Tolomeo Galli’s (1526-1607) nomination, called cardinal Coma as
well, by the birth town, to the duty of cardinale padrone in which he has entered during the
pontificate of Pius IV. Gregory XIII has been avoiding to promote his relatives, and he has
entrusted him with wide authorities, by which the function of the public secretary in modern
sense has been mentioned for the first time, and because he hasn’t been blood-related to the
Pope, but only by the personal confidence relationship and because his influence hasn’t been
limited to only one pontificate. It has surprised many contemporaries who have been used to
see the change of the administration group by every new election of the Pope. For the first
time they have been faced with a certain continuation of the church and political titles.
Under the administration of Tolomeo Galli, the public secretariat has continued
performing the correspondence with the nuncios, composing and dispatching the instructions.
At the beginning of the pontificate of Gregory XIII the tasks have been distributed round
geographical territories. Galli himself has been writing a number of official letters and has
been directly engaged with the Italian princes: the viceroy of Sicily, the viceroy of Naples, the
duke of Parma, the duke of Urbino and the spiritual authorities. Germany, Switzerland,
Sweden, Poland, Eastern Europe and Venice have had northern and eastern part. The letters
have been addressed to the orderly nuncios, or the extraordinary legates, or the visitors. It has
been secretary Giovanni Battista Mazza di Canobio’s responsibility, who has been, beside
that, engaged with Milan and Genoa, and the correspondence with some persons like the
coadjutor of Vilna. Western department has been engaged with the businesses of Spain and
Portugal. North-western department has been performing the correspondence with France,
Avignon, Savoy, Toscana, and later Naples. It has been conducted by Aurelio Savignani, who
has along with Canobia been a man of trust to Gregory XIII. The secretariat of codes has been
conducted by Cristoforo Turettini, and his main task has been to code the deliveries in posting
and to encode those which arrive. Turettini has been a secretary for special businesses of the
cardinal from Coma as well, a kind of “private secretary of the public secretary”. He has been
responsible of the correspondence with Marittimo and the other cities, Cittá di Castello for
instance, and with the Naples nunciature for a while.
In October 1591 Innocent IX has divided the public secretariat in three departments:
France and Poland, Iberian Peninsula and Italy, and Germany, on head of which he put

Giovanni Andrea Cagliari, Giovanni Francesco Zagordi and Minuccio Minucci as public
secretaries. With the arrival of Clement VIII, Zagordi has left the scene, and the duties have
been distributed differently. Cagliari has been entrusted with France, Italy and Spain, and
Minuccio with Germany and Poland. 12. of September 1592. Clement VIII has nominated his
nephews Pietro and Cinzi as supremi secretari and has distributed the jurisdictions among
them: Cinzio has been entrusted with the nunciatures in the Empire, Köln, Graz, Switzerland,
Poland, Florence, Venice and Naples: beside that he has had to take care of the relations with
Urbino, Parma, Lucca, Genoa, Milan, Mantua, Sicily and Levant. Minuccio has been his
secretary. At first Pietro has had France, Spain and Portugal, Savoy and Avignon, but a little
later, he has been entrusted with Italian states as well, and he put Giovanni Battista Canobi as
a secretary.
In spring 1596, after Canobi’s death and Minuccio’s nomination to the archbishop of
Zadar, Sannesi has replaced Canobi, up until April 1597 when he has been replaced by
Eminio Valenti, and Minuccio by Lanfranco Margotti. Two prelates together have been
conducting the public secretariat up until the end of the pontificate. Valenti, who has been
nominated to a cardinal on 9 June 1604, has been a public secretary during a brief pontificate
of Leon XI and during the first weeks of Paul V, until after the nomination to bishop Faenze
on 3 August 1605 when he has left Rome to conduct his bishoprics, and his place has been
taken by the new Pope’s nephew, Scipione Caffarelli Borghese.
Diplomatic organization of the Holy Chair of modern time has practically been
defined during a century and a half, from the second half of XV to the end of XVI century, as
a system which has had a goal to make the pontifical activity in Europe present, either in
specifically spiritual, or within diplomatic frames, inasmuch that activity is possible to be
separated in the pontifical diplomacy, considering the fact that it has been turning exclusively
to the catholic regents, trying to act on their conscience. Its successes and failures have
narrowly followed the oscillations of papal prestige, up until the fall of the ancién régime,
when the change of political organizations has been requiring the use of new resources in the
international relations.

Papal Diplomacy

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