Crema, Diocese of

CREMA, Diocese of. - In Lombardy, province of Cremona; before 1580 the territory of Crema was divided among three dioceses: Cremona, Lodi, Piacenza.

The church of Crema has bound its origin to the name of Gregory XIII, who by his bull Super universos, of 11 April 1579, at the request of the Republic of Venice, under whose sovereignty Crema and its territory lay, erected the little town into a diocese, assigning it as a suffragan to the metropolitan see of Milan, but very soon subjected it, by a subsequent bull of 20 October 1582, to Bologna; only a little more than a century ago, precisely in 1835, Crema returned to being subject to Milan.

The spread of Christianity in the territory of Crema falls within the plan of evangelization of the regions of upper Italy; the oldest traces can be traced back to the 4th century and in all likelihood the first evangelizers came from nearby Milan at the time of the episcopate of St. Ambrose (374-397); a notable influence was exercised there, in that same century and in the next, by Piacenza, during the episcopate of St. Savinus (380-420), and by Lodi under the episcopate of St. Bassianus (381-409).

Archaeological finds, the antiquity and the name of the church, document that the cradle of Christianity in the land of Crema was Palazzo Pignano, a locality not very far from Crema, historically much older and more important than it.

Crema, certainly earlier than the 6th century, to which someone has wished to assign its foundation by inserting it into the legendary enterprise of Count Cremete, who in the second half of that century would have fortified it rather than founded it, owes its prestige to the period of the glorious Italian communes; today it has 25,000 inhabitants, and is the most industrial center of the province of Cremona.

The episcopal series of Crema is distinguished by fine names; it suffices to recall Dalmazio Minoretti, who governed it from 1915 to 1930, afterwards archbishop of Genoa and cardinal.

The diocese of Crema, the smallest in Lombardy, has 59 parishes, with a population of 70,853 inhabitants. The clergy consists of 133 diocesan priests (1948). The seminary, recently built, accommodates 80 students. In the diocese several male religious Institutes carry on their activity: the Capuchins and the Sons of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Verona, and various congregations of sisters, who have 40 religious houses there.

In the Middle Ages flourishing religious communities with churches, convents and hospitals thrived there.

Among the historical monuments mention should be made of the ancient parish church of Palazzo Pignano of the 10th century with relics of the earlier basilica dating from before the 8th century.

The Cathedral dedicated to the Most Holy Virgin Assumed, a distinguished monument of art, is one of the most beautiful examples of 14th-century Lombard architecture, the work of the Comacine masters, begun in the last quarter of the 13th century and brought to completion around the middle of the following century; of Gothic-Lombard style, it nevertheless preserves some parts, such as the portal of the more ancient Romanesque-style cathedral, destroyed by Frederick Barbarossa in the famous siege of 1159.

Famous is the sanctuary of S. Maria della Croce, a little outside the city, a building with a centralized plan by the architect Giovanni Battagio of Lodi, a disciple of Bramante, who began it in 1490, taking his inspiration from the temple of the Grazie in Milan by the great master; it was then brought to completion in 1500 by G. A. Montanaro of Crema; L. Beltrami and E. Gussalli in the restoration of 1903 completed it, according to the original design, with the minor domes.

Felice Zanoni

CONTROVERSY OF C

This is the customary name for a sacramental controversy that took place in the 18th century and which originated from the following event. A canon, Giuseppe Guerrieri, in 1737 was celebrating daily at an altar of the cathedral of C., giving Communion infra Missam to his penitents. This caused a delay that made it impossible for the other priests to celebrate all the Masses assigned to that altar; and therefore the administrators of the legacies forbade Guerrieri to continue in his practice.

Guerrieri, presumptuous and prone to novelty, wrote a pamphlet, which seemed to denote a subtle infiltration of Lutheran thought, to demonstrate the existence in the faithful of a true right to receive Communion with particles consecrated in the Mass they have attended, not in a previous Mass (already earlier, precisely in C., another pamphlet had appeared by Cesare Benvenuti [1669-1746], Sacerdos ad altare celebrans in Missa privata [1726], which concerned the right to communicate at all Masses with particles consecrated in them, deriving it from the desire expressed without limitations by Trent in sess. XXII, c.6). The will of God was therefore to be placed before that of the testators. Having been refuted, he replied. Resisting even the episcopal summonses, he left C. in search of support at Bergamo and Milan. Thus the dispute was kindled and sharpened: sub gravi the priest is bound to give Communion to those present at the Mass who wish to participate in the Sacrifice. A Cassinese monk, Fr. Oronzio Stabili, defended the thesis with patristic references. The discussion was referred to the Holy Office by the bishop of C. Benedict XIV reserved the question to himself and decided it in the opposite sense to that advocated by Guerrieri with the encyclical Certiores to the bishops of Italy, on 13 Nov. 1742. Cardinal Querini in two Pastorali commented on the encyclical, and this served to mitigate the controversy, to which the contemporary theologians G. L. Berti, G. B. Gattico, R. Sala, F. Berlendi make reference in their works. In 1766 at Rome Pasquale Copeto, taking occasion from a series of publications and disputes on the subject, returned to the question, which was then taken up again and carried in 1770 to its ultimate consequences by the Dominican Fr. Michele Maria Nannaroni (v.). He became the systematic theologian of the controversy, either anonymously or under the pseudonym of Anastasio Teofilo. His works, proscribed first by the bishop of C., at his denunciation were placed on the Index together with other pamphlets (decree: 18 Aug. 1775). In them it was affirmed that liturgical Communion, infra Missam, is an intrinsic, connatural, inseparable and substantial part of the sacrifice of the Mass, without which it cannot be perfect, and that priests are obliged to administer it in the actual celebration by divine-ecclesiastical precept, except in the case of grave necessity or of viaticum. The faithful therefore have an equal right to receive it. Communion extra Missam is «a private repast at the Reservoir of the preconsecrated particles»; introduced by the Jesuits, it is not in conformity with ecclesiastical tradition and therefore to be abolished. He was refuted by Fr. Giuseppe Maria Elefante, also a Dominican. In his favor an anonymous writer arose at Padua, but the one who personified its doctrine and defense was in 1779 Fr. Carlo Maria Traversari (v.), a Servite, who had his work condemned (decree: 3 Dec. 1781). P. Tamburini (v.) at Pavia professed the same ideas, and ably insinuated them also into the publications favored by Scipione de' Ricci, bishop of Pistoia, and into the very decrees of the Pistoian synod, sess. IV, on the Eucharist. In 1794, in the 28th proposition of the bull Auctorem Fidei, this theory was condemned (Denz-U., n. 1528), and in Italy it was no longer spoken of. There remained only in the people and the clergy a preference for Communion infra Missam, moreover in conformity with the liturgical spirit, without exclusion of Communion outside Mass. - See plate L.

Benvenuto Matteucci