NEPOTISM

NEPOTISM. The term "nepotism" (from Latin nepos, 'nephew') refers to the popes' practice of appointing a "nephew" to the curial office of cardinal-nephew. The term can also refer more generally to the appointment of a close relative or other favored person to an ecclesiastical position. Because clerical celibacy generally meant that prelates had no sons, siblings' sons or other close relations were chosen for positions requiring discretion and confidentiality. In the early modern era there were instances of a pope's natural sons filling such positions, as with Alexander VI's son Cesare Borgia (1475/1476–1507), who was made archbishop and later cardinal. (The term "nephew" might in fact be used to refer euphemistically to the natural son of a prelate.) Nepotism also refers to the practice of granting to family members, friends, or others ecclesiastical offices, benefices, preferment, and favors. Dispensing ecclesiastical offices and wealth as personal property to those one favored rather than those worthy to receive them was considered a serious abuse and was forbidden by canon law.

The genesis of the office of papal cardinal-nephew is obscure, but it can be traced back well into the Middle Ages. In the early modern papacy, the office of cardinal-nephew became crucial, as it safeguarded a papal family's control over finances, affairs of state, diplomacy, ecclesiastical appointments, theological issues, and matters pertaining to the papal family's social status. Cardinal-nephews looked out for the aggrandizement of the papal family (which was also their own) in the short duration of the pope's reign. Nephews held the ecclesiastical dignity of cardinal, but many were not ordained; they might also hold a clerical rank from cardinal-deacon to cardinal-archbishop. They often functioned as secretaries, advisers, managers, and supervisors over the affairs of the Papal States. Their responsibilities often varied greatly from one pontificate to another. Most cardinal-nephews interacted closely with other clerical officials, especially the secretary of state (who might also be a nephew). Based on the closest ties of kinship, the nephews' trustworthiness gave them privileged access to popes and to the inner circles of curial deliberations; it also provided opportunities for acquiring enormous wealth.

Though sometimes appointed very early in life, some cardinal-nephews proved to be highly competent, indispensable administrators. Among these were Carlo Borromeo (1538–1585), a nephew of Pius IV who later became archbishop of Milan, and Alessandro Farnese (1520–1589), grandson of Paul III. Others proved dissolute, and some, like Paul IV's nephew Carlo Carafa, who was executed for his shameless activities, were disastrous. The Barberini nephews of Pope Urban VIII, Francesco (1597–1679) and Antonio (1607–1671), caused a diplomatic crisis in 1634 when one became cardinal-protector of Spain, the other of France. Many cardinal-nephews were great patrons of the arts. Scipione Borghese, for instance, was patron of the young Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680). At the close of the seventeenth century, Innocent XII (reigned 1691–1700) eliminated the office of cardinal-nephew, as reformers pressed for popes who did not put family aggrandizement first. The cardinal-nephew's duties were subsumed by the secretary of state.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fragnito, Gigliola. "Il nepotismo farnesiano tra ragioni di stato e ragioni di chiesa." In Continuità e discontinuità nella storia politica, economica e religiosa: Studi in onore di Aldo Stella. Edited by Paolo Pecorari and Giovanni Silvano. Vicenza, 1993.

Ippolito, Antonio Menniti. "The Secretariat of State as the Pope's Special Ministry." In Court and Politics in Papal Rome, 1492–1700. Edited by Gianvittorio Signorotto and Maria Antonietta Visceglia. Cambridge, U.K., and New York, 2002.

Reinhard, Wolfgang. "Nepotismus: Der Funktionswandel einer papstgeschichtlichen Konstanten." Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 86 (1975): 145–185.

Reinhardt, Volker. Kardinal Scipione Borghese (1605–1633): Vermögen, Finanzen und sozialer Aufstieg eines Papstnepoten. Tübingen, 1984.

Robertson, C. "Il Gran Cardinale." In Alessandro Farnese, Patron of the Arts. New Haven and London, 1992.