### AGNELLI, BENEDIZIONE degli
Moment of the blessing in the basilica of St. Agnes outside the walls – Rome.
In Roman law, *agnatio* (kinship through male lineage) ceased for the younger member who left the family through emancipation, and for anyone adopted by another *paterfamilias* (though Justinian distinguished between *adoptio plena* and *adoptio minus plena*, the latter of which did not remove the adopted person from their original family). On the other hand, it also included, for example, those adopted by the *paterfamilias*, who were not bound by the tie of *cognatio* with the other members of the family.
In Justinianic law, the civil bond of *agnatio* (which was generally considered primarily in relation to males) lost any legal significance, being effectively replaced by the natural bond of *cognatio*.
Even canonists, until the last century, used the two terms *agnatio* and *cognatio* in the same sense as they had in Roman law.
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### AGNELLI, BENEDIZIONE degli
On the feast day of St. Agnes, the celebrant, as the conclusion of the pontifical rite, blesses on the altar of the Saint two white lambs, whose wool is to be used for the making of the sacred *pallia* (v. PALLIO). This custom is already recorded as traditional in the Roman ceremonial prepared by Agostino Patrizi Piccolomini (d. 1496) in collaboration with Giovanni Burcardo (d. 1506), published in 1516 by Cristoforo Marcello, Archbishop of Corfu.
The two lambs constituted an annual tribute that the basilica of St. Agnes owed to the Lateran, but following the suppressions of the last century, this tribute lapsed. It is noteworthy that the Italian government paid for several years to the Chapter of the Lateran the sum of 35 lire for the purchase of two lambs and related expenses (Archivio Lat. O 95, letters 43, 1875, 1876). The burden of their offering, later voluntarily assumed for some time by a good Roman family, was taken up half a century ago by the Trappist Fathers of Tre Fontane. Their transport now takes place without special ceremonies, whereas in the past it was conducted in a picturesque manner, as evidenced by a document of 1550 published by Armellini and by the descriptions given by Nicola De Bralion and Domenico Macri in the 17th century. As for the rite of their presentation to the Pope, it should be noted that sometimes he gave them only a distant blessing (from a window of his apartment). As for their custody, various phases have occurred: initially they were entrusted to the care of the Apostolic Subdeacons, then to a monastery according to the Pope’s pleasure. At present, they are presented to the Pope by the Dean of the Sacred Rota, a Consistorial Advocate, the Chamberlains of the Lateran Chapter, a Trappist monk, and the Master of Papal Ceremonies. Subsequently, they are delivered to the Benedictine nuns of St. Cecilia, who are to spin the wool.
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### AGNELLI, GIUSEPPE
Jesuit, b. in Naples on 10 April 1621, d. in Rome on 8 September 1706, professor of moral theology, renowned as the companion of Segneri in opposing Quietism (cf. unpublished letters of Paolo Segneri, Cosimo III, and Giuseppe Agnelli regarding the condemnation of the Segnerian work *La Concordia*, published by P. Tacchi-Venturi in *Arch. Stor. Ital.*, 5th ser., 31 [1903], pp. 127-65). He was also rector of the colleges in Montepulciano, Macerata, and Ancona.
His works include: *Il Catechismo annuale* (Macerata 1657), republished under the title *Il parrocchiano istruttore*, 2 vols. in 4° (Rome 1677, Venice 1731); a commentary in 4 volumes on the *Exercises of St. Ignatius* (Rome 1685-93); and two somewhat unusual ascetical pamphlets for religious women: *Il verisimile finto nel vero: Pensieri suggeriti dal Direttore ad una religiosa novizia scontenta per disporla alla professione*; *Pensieri suggeriti ad una novizia ravveduta disposta alla solenne professione* (Rome 1702, 1703).