More than ninety percent of the more than 5,000 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.

 

 

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

email: seminario@diocesipatti.it

 

 

 

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

 

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.

In his recently published work on the Bishops of Legnica, Sukcesja swiecen biskupich pasterzy Kosciola Legnickiego. Szkice Legnickie, XXVIII (2007), 317-328, Dr. Prokop announced this change, citing an unpublished biography of Bishop Gembicki by Father Jerzy Karol Kalinowski, a priest of the Diocese of Torun, and thanking Father Prof. Anastazy Nadolny, Director of the Archives of the Diocese of Pelplin, who sent him the information concerning this episcopal ordination.

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 have been made until today, September 1, 2008.  The principal details of the consecration of Pope Julius III have been discovered in a book published in 1843 and a new page has been added with the information. 

OTHER LINES OF SUCCESSION

The other active lineages include the della Rovere lineage (taken from Giuliano della Rovere, Pope Julius II), ending between 1479 and 1483 and counting quite a few French bishops in its ranks; the von Bodman lineage, which ends in 1686 and includes several Indonesian bishops; and the de Bovet line (1789) which includes several Asian prelates.

 

The della Rovere line was previously called the Gesualdo line which ended in 1564 with Alfonso Gesualdo. Recently, the identity of Cardinal Gesualdo`s consecrator was discovered and that discovery allowed the extension of this lineage back to Pope Julius II. 

 

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.

 

I have recently added the episcopal lineages of the popes of the past five hundred years to this site.  For the period from 1503 to 2005, the details of the consecrations of only four popes are missing and undoubtedly the most important of those four is Pope Julius II, Giuliano della Rovere. Fifteen other popes are found among his episcopal descendants.

 

Ironically, if Pope Alexander VII had not been ill on the morning of Paluzzo Altieri`s consecration, more than ninety-two percent of living Roman Catholic bishops would trace their lineages back to Giuliano della Rovere instead of Scipione Rebiba, and ten other popes would be among the episcopal descendants of Pope Julius II.

 

 

My good friend Andreas Brender has created a website about the Roman Catholic bishops of China: Katholische Bischöfe in China.  It is an excellent website, providing biographical details of the bishops of China from the nomination of the first bishop up to the end of the pontificate of Pope Pius XII, and it includes the portraits of many of the bishops.  The url is listed below in the section on recomended websites.  My warmest congratulations to my good friend on the creation of an excellent, interesting, and well-documented website. 

 

Since the middle of the twentieth century, there have been many works on the episcopates of various nations and on the members of religious orders and congregations who have been raised to the episcopal dignity. 

 

 

It is in the same style as his Dictionnaire biographique des évêques catholiques du Canada.  Les diocèses catholiques canadiens des Églises latine et orientales et leurs évêques; repères chronologiques et biographiques, 1658-2002 (Wilson & Lafleur. Montréal.  2002.  ISBN 2-89127-000-0). 

 

Father LeBlanc`s Dictionnaire is the finest work on the Catholic bishops of Canada to date and it would be difficult for anyone to surpass his excellent work.  He has brought together in one place a wealth of information on the Canadian Catholic bishops. I highly recommend this book.

 

Monsignor Francis J. Weber, Archivist of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, has gifted historians, both ecclesiastical and secular, and those who have an interest in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in California with numerous books, monographs, and articles on this area of church history. His published works are too numerous to list in this brief space, but his biographies of James Francis Cardinal McIntyre - His Eminence of Los Angeles. James Francis Cardinal McIntyre. 2 vols  St. Francis Historical Society.  Mission Hills, California.  1997 - and Timothy Cardinal Manning - Magnificat: The Life and Times of Timothy Cardinal Manning. Kimberly Press, Inc. Santa Barbara, California.  1999 - are among the finest biographies of twentieth century U. S. cardinals. I highly recommend these books. 

 

The late Cardinal Carlos Oviedo Cavada, O. de M., Archbishop of Santiago de Chile (1990-1998) was an historian of the Chilean episcopate and of his religious order, the Mercedarians.  He was the author of Los Obispos de Chile  1561-1978 (Santiago de Chile, 1979); Los Obispos de Chile (2d ed  Editorial Andrés Bello. Santiago de Chile. 1996); and Los Obispos Mercedarios (Santiago de Chile, 1981). His collaborative work Episcopologio Chileno 1561-1815 (4t. Santiago de Chile, 1992) provides an in-depth look at the Catholic Church in Chile and its bishops for that period. These are the seminal works on the Catholic bishops of Chile and on the Mercedarian bishops. 

 

Two late Spanish priests have provided us with three episcopologios of the Church in Spain for the years 1500 to 1985. Monsignor Lamberto de Echeverría published his Episcopologio Español Contemporáneo (1868-1985) in Salamanca in 1986. Father Vidal Guitarte Izquierdo, a former student of Lamberto de Echeverría, gave us Episcopologio Español (1700-1867) (Castellón, 1992) and Episcopologio Español (1500-1699) (Castellón, 1994). These three works chronicle the episcopal ordinations of the bishops of and from Spain for a period of almost five centuries.

 

There are many other excellent works on the episcopate, but they are too numerous to list here.

 

 

I highly recommend the following sites:

 

Revue des Ordinations Épiscopales http://mysite.verizon.net/res7s476/