NCJ Number
169793
Date Published
1996
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This analysis of violent crimes in Naples, Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries focuses on the attitudes and roles of the church tribunals and the government courts and the conflicts between the two regarding their relationships to citizens and responses to crimes.
Abstract
During at least the last few decades of the 16th century, the Italian church and government were involved in a kind of territorial struggle that mandated the development of a new relationship not only in the administration of criminal justice but also in the control of sexuality, the organization of work and family life, and many other basic aspects of human existence. The struggle involved the reorganization of the inquisitional and other ecclesiastical courts. The available data indicate that ecclesiastical justice in criminal cases began to function uniformly with respect to its objectives, procedures, and punishments only beginning with this period of counter-reformation after the Council of Trent of 1545-63. Beginning in the late 16th century the Neapolitan church redefined its presence in the city and diocese by reorganizing and intensifying its control over crimes committed by clerics. Government courts apparently handled most cases common crimes by the clergy in the first half of the 16th century, whereas ecclesiastical forums increasingly handled them later. The actions of the ecclesiastical courts regarding common crimes tended to be temperate, probably based on concern about the clergy's overall image. During the same period the Inquisition began implementing flexible repressive strategies designed to build consent rather than destroy dissent; this comparative analysis of the two courts of the Neapolitan Curia further confirms the tendency of the Curia's criminal court toward a cautious and measured handling of common crimes committed by ecclesiastics. Reference notes