My name is Charles Bransom. I have been engaged in research on apostolic succession and episcopal lineages for more
than forty five years, in collaboration with colleagues in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. My published works include Ordinations
of U. S. Catholic Bishops, 1790-1989 (National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1990); "Philippine Episcopology" (Boletin
Eclesiastico de Filipinas); "Franciscan Bishops" (Franciscan Studies), "Sons of Don Bosco, Successors of the
Apostles, Salesian Bishops" (Journal of Salesian Studies, Vol. XII, n. 1, 2001), and "Les ordinations épiscopales
des évêques oblats" (Vie Oblate Life, Avril/April 2000). I have amassed a large data base on the episcopal ordinations
of Roman Catholic bishops going back more than five centuries. I am the editor and publisher of the Revue des Ordinations
Épiscopales (ISSN 1077-4459) which was founded in 1994.
THE REBIBAN SUCCESSION
More than ninety five percent of the approximately 5,100 Roman Catholic bishops alive
today trace their episcopal lineage back to one bishop who was appointed in 1541 - Scipione Rebiba. Why so many bishops trace
their lineages to this one bishop can be explained in great part by the intense sacramental activity of Pope Benedict XIII,
who ordained 139 bishops during his episcopate and pontificate, including many cardinals, papal diplomats, and bishops of
important dioceses who, in turn, ordained many other bishops. The bishop who ordained Benedict XIII gives us the direct link
to Scipione Rebiba. It is widely believed that Rebiba was ordained bishop by Gian Pietro Cardinal Carafa, who became Pope
Paul IV. However, no documentary evidence has been found to verify this hypothesis.
The lack of documentation of the episcopal ordination for the last bishop in any episcopal lineage should not be considered
as evidence that the lineage ends with that bishop or that the bishop in question never received episcopal ordination.
It simply means that the details of that bishop's episcopal ordination have not yet been found and that the bishop in question
is the last known bishop in that lineage.
A word of caution regarding episcopal lineages: until 1965 the lineages prepared for many bishops showed Pope Alexander
VII as the ordaining bishop of Cardinal Paluzzo Altieri in 1666, and those lineages went back to the early 1400`s. In the
mid 1960`s, a contemporary account of Cardinal Altieri`s episcopal ordination was found in the Gazette de France.
This account revealed that Pope Alexander VII became ill shortly before the ceremony and was replaced by Cardinal Ulderico
Carpegna. Any episcopal lineage which gives Pope Alexander VII as the consecrator of Cardinal Altieri is incorrect.
SCIPIONE REBIBA - A BIOGRAPHY
Thanks to two priests of the Diocese of Patti, we finally have a biography of Scipione Rebiba. Father Basilio Rinaudo,
Rector of the Seminary of the Diocese of Patti and a native of San Marco d'Alunzio - the birthplace of Scipione Rebiba - and
Father Salvatore Miracola, parish priest of San Marco d'Alunzio, have published an excellent biography of the bishop to whom
more than 92 percent of the current world-wide hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church trace their episcopal lineages.
Il Cardinale Scipione Rebiba (1504 - 1577), Vita e azione pastorale di un vescovo riformatore (L'Ascesa, 2007;
ISBN 978-88-903039-0-6) is a meticulously documented account of the life and pastoral activity of Cardinal Rebiba.
The authors have provided extensive footnotes in this two hundred page book which includes an eleven page bibliography
and documentary and photographic appendices.
While the book contains no new information on the consecration of Scipione Rebiba, it provides its readers with
a wealth of information on his life and works. We learn that his family's origins are French and that he was born in
San Marco (today called San Marco d'Alunzio). As a young priest, he quickly became a preferred member of the ecclesiastical
family of Gian Pietro Cardinal Carafa, the future Pope Paul IV. As a priest and bishop, he provided loyal and valuable
service to Carafa both before and after Carafa's election to the See of Peter. Rebiba's fidelity and dedication to the Church
never faltered. He died at Rome on 23 July 1577 and is buried in the Church of San Silvestro al Quirinale.
This biography makes Scipione Rebiba more than just a name at the end of an episcopal lineage. It tells the story
of a good, faithful, zealous successor of the apostles.
I thank the authors for providing us with this excellent work. Molte grazie !!!
I highly recommend this book.
Ordering information may be obtained by contacting Father Rinaudo at:
Seminario Vescovile
via Magretti, 147
98066 Patti (Me)
Italy
Fax: (39) 0941 21591
Some new
“old” books
In 1881, Dr Julian Pelesz,
a priest of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Lviv of the Ukrainians, rector of the Greek Catholic Central Seminary in Vienna,
and future Eparch of Stanislaviv (1885-1891) and of Przemysl (1891-1896) published Geschichte der Union der ruthenischen Kirche mit Rom,
a history of the union of the Ruthenian and Ukrainian Churches with the Holy See.
This important historical
work contains, inter alia, the episcopal ordinations of Ukrainian, Ruthenian, Romanian,
and Croatian Byzantine bishops .
Concerning
the use of the name Ruthenian in the title of the book, it should be noted that both Ukrainian and Ruthenian eparchs and eparchies
were regularly called Ruthenian in Roman documents prior to the twentieth century.
This excellent work is available
free on Google books:
http://www.google.com/books?id=29UCAAAAQAAJ
Another new old book is Les
Syriens catholiques et leur Patriarche Mgr Ant Samhiri published in 1855 by l'abbé Jean Mamarbaschi, the secretary of
the Patriarchate of Antioch. This small (24 page) book recounts the entry of the future Patriarch of Antioch of the
Syrians into full communion with the Holy See, as well as that of other Syrian Orthodox (then called Jacobite) bishops and
faithful. This book is also available for free download at:
http://books.google.it/books?id=ZcIAAAAAcAAJ
Finally, we have a book written
in 1852 by the Rev. George Percy Badger, an Anglican priest: The Nestorians and their Rituals (with the narrative of a
mission to Mesopotamia and Coordistan in 1842-1844). This book describes the profession of faith of Archbishop Mar Youhannan
VIII Hormizd, a future Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, who was consecrated on May 22, 1776 by his uncle Patriarch Eliya
XII Denha. This book is available at:
http://books.google.com/books?id=cnURAAAAYAAJ&oe=UTF-8
I wish to thank Father Glen
J. Pothier, DTh, JCL, Adjutant Judicial Vicar of the Diocese of Palm Beach, for bringing these valuable works to my attention. Father Pothier is tri-ritual (Latin, Ruthenian, and Melkite rites).
THE END OF A LINE OF SUCCESSION : THE
REBIBAN LINE ABSORBS ANOTHER LINE
The line of succession which recently became known as la Chaîne Polonaise - la ligne Rangoni (the Rangoni
line), formerly known as la Chaîne Polonaise - the Uchanski line - has become part of the Rebiban line.
A correspondent on the Italian Catholic forum Cattolici Romani alerted me to an article on the consecration
of Bishop Claudio Rangoni of Reggio Emilia and Professor Giuseppe Giovanelli, editor of "Memoria Ecclesiae" provided me with
a copy of the article. My thanks to both of them for their kind assistance.
Father Roberto Fornaciari, OSB Cam, is the author of "Notizie sulla Elezione e Consacrazione del Vescovo Claudio Rangone"
which was published in the December 13, 2008 issue of "Memoria Ecclesiae", the historical supplement of the Reggio Emilia
diocesan weekly newspaper La Libertà.
Thanks to Father Fornaciari`s research, we now know that Bishop Claudio Rangoni of Reggio Emilia was ordained
bishop on 10 January 1593 in Rome, in the chapel of the Palazzo, by his uncle Cardinal Girolamo Bernerio, O.P.,
Bishop of Ascoli, assisted by the Archbishop of Spalato, Giovanni Domenico Malcoto detto Foconio, O.P., and the Bishop of
Como, Feliciano Ninguarda, O.P.
Father Fornaciari has made his study available on the website of the Istituto Superiore
di Scienze Religiose "Beato Gregorio X" di Arezzo:
Coming from the ranks of the nobility of Modena, Claudio Rangoni was named Bishop of Reggio Emilia on 16 December 1592
and was Apostolic Nuncio to Poland from 1598 to 1607. He died on 2 September 1621.
As previously noted, episcopologists had believed that Wawrzyniec Gembicki, Bishop of Chelmno, had received
episcopal ordination in 1601 from the hands of Archbishop Stanislaw Karnkowski of Gniezno and we knew that Archbishop Karnkowski
had been ordained Bishop of Wloclawek on 25 January 1568 by Archbishop Jakub Uchanski of Gniezno.
Thanks to the eminent historian of the Polish episcopate, Dr Krzysztof Rafal Prokop, we found that Bishop Wawrzyniec
Gembicki was not consecrated by Archbishop Karnkowski, but by Bishop Claudio Rangoni, Bishop of Reggio Emilia and Apostolic
Nuncio to Poland, on Laetare Sunday, the first of April 1601.
Dr. Prokop gives a detailed account in his recently published Stan badan nad problematyka sakr biskupich XVI- i XVII-wiecznych
metropolitów gnieznienskich, Studia Gnesnensia XXIII (2009) 315-316.
Interestingly, there was another bishop by the same name, also from the nobility of Modena, who was a contemporary of this
bishop of Reggio Emilia. The second Claudio Rangoni was named Bishop of Piacenza on 2 December 1596 and died on 15 September
1619.
I wish to express my congratulations to Father Fornaciari on the publication of his article. Likewise, I wish to
express my sincere thanks to Father Fornaciari for his diligent research which has provided us with the details of the
episcopal ordination of Bishop Claudio Rangoni of Reggio Emilia.
At the same time, my sincere thanks to Dr Krzysztof Rafal Prokop for his diligent research which revealed that Bishop Wawrzyniec
Gembicki was consecrated by Bishop Rangoni and for his other excellent research on the Polish episcopate. I cannot fail
to thank two others who are responsible for the research on the line of succession from Pope Pius XI back to the Polish
bishops in the seventeenth century: Hofrat Dr. Manfred Dieter Kierein of Vienna, Austria, and Brother Josef Grünstäudl,
S.M., of Tragwein, Austria.
THE END OF A SMALL BUT INTERESTING LINE
The little known Balkan-Ukrainian-Ruthenian line came to an end on December 6, 2008 with the death of Bishop Ivan Semedi,
Bishop emeritus of Mukachevo. This line has been traced back to Archbishop Athanasius of Achrida who made a profession
of faith around the year 1660. He ordained Archbishop Onofrio Costantini of Derbe in 1665 and this line of succession
was passed on first to bishops of Italo-Albanian origin who ministered in the Balkans, eventually counting several bishops
of the Eparchies of Presov, Hajdudorog, and Mukachevo, including Blessed Theodore Romzha, the martyred Apostolic Administrator
of Mukachevo, and several clandestinely ordained bishops, among them Bishop Semedi.
ANOTHER PAPAL CONSECRATION ADDED
Since the addition of papal episcopal lineages to this site, no changes were made until September 1, 2008.
The principal details of the consecration of Pope Julius III were discovered in a book published in 1843 and a new page was
added with the information. Subsequently, the merger of the former Uchanski line with the Rebiba line was noted and
on March 17, 2011 the first details of the consecration of Giuliano della Rovere, Pope Julius II, were added, thus extending
that line to the year 1440 and renaming it the d'Estouteville line.
OTHER LINES OF SUCCESSION
The other active lineages include the d'Estouteville line, ending in 1440; the von Bodman lineage, which ends
in 1686; the Lencastre line (1671); and the de Bovet line (1789).
The d'Estouteville line was previously called the della Rovere line, ending between 1479 and 1483, and prior to
that it was called the Gesualdo line which ended in 1564 with Alfonso Gesualdo. The identity of Cardinal Gesualdo`s
consecrator was discovered and that discovery allowed the extension of this lineage back to Pope Julius II. Now the consecrator
of Giuliano della Rovere has been discovered and the line extends to 1440 and Cardinal Guillaume d'Estouteville, O.S.B.
The Maronite, Greek Melkite, Chaldean, and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Churches account for the majority of Eastern Catholic
lineages. However, there are several Eastern Catholic bishops who belong to the Rebiban succession and there are some Roman-rite
bishops who belong to the Maronite and Chaldean lineages.
THE CURRENT STATE of EPISCOPAL LINEAGES (27 November 2011)
As of late November 2011, there are approximately 5,135 living Roman Catholic bishops; that is,
bishops in communion with the Bishop of Rome.
The overwhelming majority of these bishops trace their orders to Scipione Rebiba who was named a bishop in 1541.
Approximately 168 bishops belong to lines of various Eastern churches in communion with Rome: Chaldeans, Maronites, Melkites,
Syriacs, Syro-Malankars, and Ukrainians. Among this small number of bishops nine Roman-rite bishops belong to the Maronite
line and eleven Roman-rite bishops belong to the Chaldean line.
The bishops of the Armenian, Bulgarian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Ruthenian, Slovak, and Syro-Malabar sui iuris Churches
belong to the Rebiban line with the exception of one Slovak bishop who belongs to the Ukrainian line. In addition, one Maronite
bishop - a former nuncio - and eight Ukrainian bishops belong to the Rebiban line.
In addition to the majority Rebiba line, there are four active Roman-rite lines which account for a total of 53 bishops.
Those lines are:
*the Lencastre line, with four living members
*the de Bovet line, with twelve living members
*the von Bodman line, with twelve living members
*the d'Estouteville line, with twenty five living members
A list of the bishops belonging to these four lines as well as examples of these lineages can be found on this website
by accessing the appropriate hyperlinks in the menu to the left.
Research is ongoing to find information which will extend these lines as well as the Rebiba line.
In summary, 95.6% of Roman Catholic bishops belong to the Rebiba line; 3.3% belong to one of the several Eastern
lines; and 1.1% belong to one of the other four active Roman-rite lines.
