This course is an introduction to select aspects of the social, cultural, intellectual and political history of the Papacy from the early modern period to the present. Put briefly, the seminar aims to analyze the human (as opposed to theological or strictly ecclesiastical) element in the Papacy. As such, the course through a case-study approach generally addresses trends in the social background of Popes over the past five centuries; the development of Papal claims to secular rule and the apparatus of political power; the formation and administration of the Papal States in central Italy; historical relations with other nation-states (including Papal attitudes toward militarism and neutrality); Papal arts patronage, building and preservation efforts, especially in Rome; aristocratic self-representation and assertion by Papal families; the promotion of popular devotion to the Pope; Papal responses to the unification of Italy, which led ultimately to the creation of the modern Vatican state; and the relationship of the Papacy to political events in current history.
There are few events in European or indeed world history in the period under consideration in which the Papacy has not played some role. To clarify the main lines of development, this seminar will focus in particular on a half-dozen pivotal Papacies and even more closely on one great Papal family, the Boncompagni Ludovisi—which (most unusually) produced two Popes in our period. This is the family of Popes Gregory XIII Boncompagni (1572-1585, who introduced the great calendar reform of 1582 that bears his name) and Pope Gregory XV Ludovisi (1621-1623, who canonized the first Jesuit saints and introduced the Society for the Propagation of the Faith), as well as eight additional Cardinals, and numerous other major figures prominent through the mid-twentieth century, many of them major figures in European and Italian politics and as patrons of the arts. The main line of the family, still very much extant, has the unusual distinction of being direct descendants of Pope Gregory XIII. The instructor has had a research collaboration with the family since 2010, with major funding by Rutgers starting in 2015.
About Professor T. Corey Brennan
Professor T. Corey Brennan is Associate Professor of Classics at Rutgers University. Raised in Scranton, PA, graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts. A Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, he continued to earn a Master of Arts from the University of Oxford and a Ph.D from Harvard University in 1990. He taught at Bryn Mawr from 1990-2000 when he began teaching at Rutgers. From 2009-2012 Brennan was appointed Andrew W. Mellon Professor-in-Charge of the School of Classics at the American Academy in Rome.
Brennan is the editor of the American Journal of Ancient History. As a scholar of Roman and Greek history, Brennan has appeared on several documentaries and television programs, including ones for the Discovery Channel, History Channel, and National Geographic.