NEPOTISM

The practice of popes and other ecclesiastics (and hence of any person in a position of authority) of showing special favor to relatives or other interested parties. It is associated particularly with certain popes, some of whom understandably placed their relatives in positions of trust in times of crisis. First-degree papal nepotism, or the selecting of a nephew or relative for curial office, goes back to Pope Adrian I (722–795), who made a nephew primicerius, or senior "Judge Palatine." Examples occur more thickly from the 10th century onward; thus Innocent III (1198–1216) turned to his own family, particularly to his brother Richard, in order to bring the fractious Roman commune to heel. Dante (Inf. 19.31) characterized Pope Nicholas III (1277–80) as "greedily advancing" the orsini family; more justifiably, perhaps, he also attacked (Inf. 19.52–81; 27.85–129) Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303), since Boniface's pontificate was notably preoccupied with the aggrandizement of the gaetani family and the relentless harrying of the rival Colonna family. Thus in early 1295 he made his favorite nephew Benedetto Gaetani a Cardinal, at the end of the year honoring similarly two other nephews, Giacomo Gaetani Tommasini, a Franciscan, and Francesco Gaetani, a married man separated from his wife, as well as another relative, the curial poet james gaetani stefaneschi. The Avignon cardinals and popes, particularly Clement V and Clement VI, consolidated the tradition [see B. Guillemain, La Cour pontificale d'Avignon (Paris 1962) 156–164, 171–175], to the great disgust of Petrarch [Epistulae sine nomine 11, ed. P. Piur, Petrarcas Buch ohne Namen und die päpstliche Kurie (Halle 1925)]. However, if the development of papal provision aided the popes in beneficing relatives, it must be remembered that one of the less well-known complaints against the system was that it cut across "episcopal nepotism"; as Bp. Grandison of Exeter (1328–69) put it, "I have for many years been unable to provide for my nephews and retainers" [A. J. Bannister, The Cathedral Church of Hereford (London 1924) 182 n.2]. The golden age of nepotism came with the Renaissance popes: Callistus III (1455–58) called the borgias from Spain; Sixtus IV (1471–84) spread his favors among della rovere, Sansoni, Bassi, and riario relatives; the Borgia, Alexander VI (1492–1503), made his son Cesare chancellor of the Church and sought to carve for him a hereditary state in central Italy; Leo X (1513–21) impoverished the Church in attempting to conquer Urbino for his nephew Lorenzo de' medici. The trend was stemmed to some extent by the bull Admonet nos of Pius V (1567), but second-degree nepotism, or the conferring of favors instead of offices, was to continue until the constitution Romanum decet pontificem (1692) put an end to its grosser aspects; in the meantime papal families such as the aldobrandini, borghese, barberini, and Pamphili had benefited hugely.

Bibliography: p. ferraris, a. mercati, and a. pelzer, Dizionario ecclesiastico, 3 v. (Turin 1954–58) 2:1123. g. schwaiger, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 7:878–879.

[l. e. boyle]