Caetani (Gaetani)

CAETANI (GAETANI). - According to a family tradition the C. would trace back to the consuls (hypatoi) and dukes of Gaeta; but their certain genealogy begins with the 12th century; and already at that time they are found divided into three main branches: that of Naples, which found support in the Angevin court, but had no historical importance and disappeared in the 15th century; - that of Pisa, from which came ALDOBRANDINO, cardinal from 1216 to 11 Jan. 1223, and other prelates, and which took part in the vicissitudes of that republic; from it was born that banker Giacomo Sciarra (d. 1342) who was on familiar terms with Boniface VIII; - that of Anagni, related by marriage to the barons of the Campagna, whose progenitor was LOFFREDO I, father of

BONIFACE VIII and of LOFFREDO II, senator of Rome in 1290-92, appointed count of Caserta by Charles II of Anjou. This appointment was confirmed to PIETRO (d. 1308), who was appointed by his uncle the pontiff rector of the Patrimony and marquis of the March of Ancona and succeeded in building up a vast and powerful barony that included Sermoneta, Ninfa, an immense latifundium from the slopes of the Volsci to the sea through the Pontine marshes, S. Felice Circeo, Carpineto, Sgurgola and other castles of the Campagna, besides those of the Sabina. With these acquisitions the C. family was by then in a position to stand up, as a bulwark of the Guelph party, to the Ghibelline party represented by the House of Colonna; and indeed it fought against it for five lustra until the peace concluded in 1327.

Brother of Pietro was FRANCESCO, created cardinal by his uncle on 17 Dec. 1295, d. at Avignon on 16 May 1317, who labored so much to safeguard the memory of Boniface VIII on the occasion of the famous trial under Clement V. He bought from the Gabelluzzi on 14 March and 19 July 1302 the possession of Cecilia Metella on the Appian Way and built the related castle; but he held it for only a few years. Of Boniface's kin in those years were BENEDETTO C., iunior, created cardinal in the first half of 1295, d. on 14 Dec. 1296, and GIACOMO STEFANESCHI (v.) created cardinal together with Francesco.

LOFFREDO III, son of Pietro, enlarged the domains with the vast and rich lordship of Fondi and of Traetto.

Rodolfo Sommaruga

The vicissitudes of the nephews and great-nephews of Boniface VIII unfold in continuous contact with those of the Campagna and Marittima of the Papal State and of Rome itself and with those of the kingdom of Naples. An important part in them was played by NICCOLÒ, a captain of singular ability, and in particular by ONORATO I (b. ca. 1336), his son by Giacoma Orsini, count of Fondi, whom we find at the court of Naples in 1352. In 1358 together with his brother GIACOMO he received from the citizens the lordship of Anagni; in 1367, in league with other lords, he seized Ferentino, but was driven out of it soon afterwards and was even excommunicated by Urban V. Gregory XI in 1377 made him rector of Campagna and Marittima. After the death of Gregory XI, he refused to recognize the election of Urban VI and adhered to the rebel cardinals. After defeating the Romans at Ponte Salario on 16 July 1378, he withdrew to Fondi where, under his protection, on 20 Sept., in the Cathedral, Robert of Geneva (v.) was elected and crowned pope by the schismatics under the name of Clement VII.

From the antipope he received the government of Campagna and Marittima, taken from him by Urban VI, but for this he was struck by the excommunication hurled at him by the latter. He found support for his policy in Joanna queen of Naples until Charles III of Durazzo ascended the throne and sided with the true Pope. He fought for a long time both against Charles III and, and with greater violence, against Ladislaus who succeeded his father in 1386. He was forced into a truce, in 1390, which he renewed also with the new pope Boniface IX, but which he broke in 1397. Finally defeated by the combined forces of the Pope and the king, he was forced to sue for peace. He died on 20 Apr. 1400, leaving as heir his only daughter Jacobella of what remained to him after his unfortunate vicissitudes.

GIACOMO II (d. in 1423) did not take part in the turmoils stirred up by his brother Onorato, and inherited from Jacobella his niece what remained to her of their father's inheritance. From Sveva Sanseverino he had GIACOMO III, to whom he assigned the possessions situated within the Papal State; to CRISTOFORO, who was a valiant captain, he assigned the properties located in the Kingdom; and indeed the latter later had a great part in its vicissitudes and gave origin to the branch of the C. of Aragon, who continued their father's tradition in the service of the Aragonese kings. A third brother was ANTONIO who entered the ecclesiastical career. B. around 1360, he was in 1387 archdeacon of Bologna and in 1390 he is found as prior of S. Giacomo sopr'Arno in Florence. In 1395 he aspired to the archdiocese of Patras; instead in Feb. 1395 he obtained the patriarchate of Aquileia, at a difficult moment due to the internal discords of the country. With the help of his brother Cristoforo he was able to enter Friuli and Istria, of which, besides being metropolitan, he was also feudal lord, and he governed the country with great ability. He left Friuli at the beginning of 1401 to go to the Kingdom, and on 27 Feb. 1402 Boniface IX created him cardinal of S. Cecilia, upon his renunciation of the Patriarchate.

He was the only great and illustrious prelate of his house between the group of the 13th-14th centuries and that of the 16th and 17th. As for the schism in which he found himself implicated, he had the constant concern of providing for its extinction in the Conclaves in which he participated. He held in commendam the monastery of Sts. Alessio and Bonifacio (1404); he was major penitentiary, archpriest of the Lateran Basilica, bishop of Palestrina (1405), abbot of Farfa (1407). In 1408 he separated himself from the obedience of Gregory XII and promoted the Council of Pisa in the hope of ending the schism. He then participated in the election of Alexander V and adhered to that of John XXIII. He died on 11 Jan. 1412 in Rome and was buried in the church of the Minerva.

Pio Paschini

During the 15th century, the relations of the C. of Sermoneta with the great Roman families were active, in connection with the policy of Eugene IV, especially, and with that of Sixtus IV.

A critical moment for them came when Alexander VI, taking occasion from the continuous struggles they had with those of Sezze, intervened against them with a bull on 22 Sept. 1499 and adjudicated their patrimony to the Camera.

ENRICO C., b. at Sermoneta in 1550, studied at Perugia and entered the Curia as apostolic referendary. Appointed patriarch of Alexandria on 29 July 1585, he was created cardinal by Sixtus V on the following 18 Dec. and camerlengo on 26 Oct. 1587; from 1586 to 1587 he was also legate at Bologna. After the assassination of Henry III king of France (1 Aug. 1589), Sixtus V sent C. to Paris on 25 Sept. with the task of providing for the defense of Catholic interests in the succession of the kingdom and of preventing the national Council. C., who was accompanied by St. Robert Bellarmine as theologian, showed himself too favorable to Spain, contrary to the intentions of the Pope, and opposed the Catholic partisans of Henry of Navarre, the future sovereign. He died in the Curia on 13 Dec. 1599 and was buried in the sumptuous family chapel at S. Pudenziana which he had had built. In the see of Alexandria he had been succeeded by his brother CAMILLO who he was nuncio at the imperial court, then, in Oct. 1592, ordinary nuncio in Spain.

Maria Morseletto

A member of the Sacred College was also ANTONIO C. (b. 1566), of the dukes of Sermoneta. He studied law at Bologna and Perugia and accompanied his uncle Enrico on his legations. On 31 Aug. 1605 he succeeded Cardinal Bellarmine in the see of Capua, and in 1606 he was sent as nuncio to Germany, to the emperor. Having returned to Rome in 1611, he was immediately sent as nuncio to Spain. Created cardinal of St. Pudenziana on 19 July 1621, he died in the Curia on 17 March 1624 and was buried at St. Pudenziana.

Emma Santovito

Last in this group of prelates comes LUIGI C., b. at Piedimonte in July 1565, also of the branch of Sermoneta; patriarch of Antioch on 14 March 1622, he was created cardinal on 19 Jan. 1626. He was coadjutor at Capua to Cardinal Antonio and succeeded him in that see; he died in the Curia on 15 Apr. 1642 and was buried at St. Pudenziana.

Pio Paschini

With the decline of the seventeenth century the fortunes of the C. of Sermoneta also declined, until MICHELANGELO C. arose to give them new lustre, duke of Sermoneta and prince of Teano, son of Enrico and of Teresa de Rossi, b. at Rome on 20 March 1804, d. there on 12 July 1882. A witty spirit, of singular intelligence and vast culture, he cultivated especially Dante studies and, under the guidance of Tenerani and Minardi, sculpture and painting. In his ancestral palace, "the hermitage of the Botteghe Oscure," he generously welcomed to his house eminent men from every country, from Stendhal to Taine, from Balzac to the Prince of Wales, from d'Azeglio to Gregorovius. A moderate liberal, he distrusted too facile enthusiasms ("The ignorance of Italians in political matters - he lamented in 1848 - is beyond all belief. Everyone contributes to the obstruction of all legality") and called for well-considered and gradual reforms. Gladdened by the election and the first acts of Pius IX, he supported his policy as president of the Roman Circle (Dec. 1847) and as minister of police in the Bofondi ministry (12 Feb. 1848). After the fall of the Roman Republic he devoted himself more than ever to his beloved studies and to political-cultural relations with the finest of European intellectuals, even after the blindness that struck him in 1865. On the morrow of the plebiscite of Oct. 1870, as president of the Provisional Government Junta, he officially brought its results to Victor Emmanuel II.

Alberto M. Ghisalberti

Son of Michelangelo was ONORATO, b. 18 January 1842; a deputy for several legislatures, he was also mayor of Rome, president of the Royal Geographical Society (1879-1887) and promoted African explorations and left writings on geographical subjects. Minister of Foreign Affairs in March-July 1896, he died on 25 Sept. 1917. His son was LEONE C.: he attempted a political career, but won fame for his special expertise in Islamic studies and in particular for the Annali dell'Islam, which he published in 10 vols. from 1904 to 1906, and for an Onomasticon arabicum of which only one volume appeared at Rome (n.d.), compiled in collaboration with G. Gabrielli.

His brother GELASIO, a skilled engineer, restored with great skill the castle of Sermoneta; he published in a lordly manner a series of volumes on the vicissitudes and documents of his house; and having reconstituted the family archive, he arranged for it to be kept in the Vatican archive. He was also ambassador to Washington.

Pio Peschini