Indice dei fascicoli

Abstract:   «THROUGH THE USE OF A COUNCIL, THEY CONSPIRE TO DEGRADE THE POPE...»: THE PROTEST OF CARDINAL GASPARE BORGIA AGAINST PAPAL POLICY DURING THE THIRTY YEARS WAR   Interweaving and comparing Spanish and Roman documents, the article focuses on the specific event: the strong pretest that Cardinal Gaspare Borgia, Ambassador of the Catholic King, presented in a written document on March 8, 1632, in a secret Consistory. This document protested against the policy followed by Pope Urban VIII during the Thirty Years War, as it considered it detrimental to Catholicism. This gesture, the product of precise orders from Madrid, represented the first stage of a more complex operation, agreed upon by leading figures of the Sacred College, aimed at calling a Council to depose the Pope. This was perceived by the Secretariat of State, and more generally by contemporaries, as an actual conspiracy. The episode – an indication of a serious crisis between the Papacy and the Hapsburgs – modified the factional geography of the Sacred College to the advantage of the Spanish faction. It also elicited a decided Papal reaction that took form in a meticulous clarification of the limitations and obligations that were to determine a Cardinal’s behavior inn his role of exclusive pontifical minister. The article also examines the political language used in the sources, showing the crucial role played by information, but also how the event is elaborated and transformed in the interpretation and the account given of it.