It has an area of 128.641 sq. km. with a population of 1,250,000 inhabitants, of whom 1,220,000 are Catholics distributed in 152 urban and 85 extra-urban parishes. It has 804 diocesan priests and 710 religious; 2 seminaries, 102 male and 170 female religious communities.
Recent discoveries allow us to go further back regarding the age and the motherland to which the origin of the city was usually attributed, which were respectively the 8th century and the Chalcidians of Cumae. The existence of a inhabited centre is now attested for the Chalcolithic age. A Greek city, then, in language and institutions, and independent, it could not long remain aloof from Roman encroachment, and in 327 it was drawn into alliance with Rome. Having become a Roman municipium, it received from Caracalla (211–17) confirmation at least of the title of colony, if indeed it was Marcus Aurelius (161–80) who raised it to colonial status. Passing from the dominion of Odoacer to that of the Goths, captured by Belisarius in 536, reconquered by Totila in 542, in 553 Naples again became part of the Byzantine Empire. In the years 581, 592 and 599 it withstood, victorious, three Lombard sieges, and in the second half of the 7th century it was governed as a duchy, first strictly dependent on Constantinople, then autonomous in the second half of the 8th century. The Duchy of Naples ended in 1137. In 1139 it passed to the Normans; in 1194 to the Swabians; in 1266 to the Angevins; in 1442 to the Aragonese; in 1503 it fell under the dominion of Spain, which degraded Naples from capital of an independent kingdom to chief town of a viceroyalty. After two centuries, in 1734 it became once more the capital of an autonomous monarchy under King Charles III of Bourbon. Except for the two brief intervals of 1799–1806 and 1806–15, when Naples was first the Parthenopean Republic and then the French Kingdom, Naples remained under the Bourbons until October 1860, when it became part of the Kingdom of Italy.
I. The Church of Naples
The most important sources for the history of the Neapolitan Church from its origins to the 10th century are the Liber Pontificalis and the catacombs. The Liber Pontificalis, already known as the Chronicon or Gesta episcoporum Neapolitanorum, or of John the Deacon, is preserved in the mutilated codex Vat. lat. 5007. The first 100 folios are in uncial characters from the mid-9th century; ff. 101–30 in Longobard-Beneventan script from the early 10th century. From the point of view of content it can be divided into 4 parts: 1) a catalogue of popes which extended as far as Miltiades (d. 314), but now breaks off at Pope Clement; 2) the catalogue of Neapolitan bishops, from the 1st, Asprenus, to the 39th, Calvus (d. 762), with some folios missing; 3) the catalogue of bishops from the 40th, Paul II, to the 45th, Athanasius I (d. 872); 4) the beginning of the biography of the 46th, Athanasius II (d. 898); the last folios are lost. Of these four parts, the first two (ff. 1–100) are by an anonymous author; the other two belong, the first (Paul II–Athanasius I) to John the Deacon, the second (Athanasius II) to Peter the Subdeacon, two contemporary writers from the early 10th century. Of codex Vat. lat. 5007 there is a brief compendium in codex Laurentianus 604, from the first half of the 10th century, known as the Bianchini Catalogue, from Francesco Bianchini, its editor; it ends with the indication of the duration of the episcopate of Stephen III, successor of Athanasius II.II. Origins of Christianity
Hagiographical sources not earlier than the 9th century attribute the foundation of the Church of Naples to St Peter, who, coming from Antioch to Rome, is said to have stopped in Naples, where he baptised and consecrated the bishop Asprenus or Asprenate. The late and legendary character of the Vita s. Aspreni does not allow any reliance to be placed on the claim that the Church of Naples was founded by St Peter; nor does the Liber Pontificalis shed greater light, since it lists Asprenus as the first bishop, but does not say when he lived, and records the bishop Maximus, who died between 355 and 362, as the 10th bishop in the series; if this were true, Asprenus could not be earlier than the early 3rd century or at most the late 2nd, since the duration of ten consecutive episcopates could not reach 300 years. But there is absolutely nothing, on the other hand, that obliges us to consider the list in the Liber Pontificalis intact. On the contrary, it is demonstrably incomplete, as shown by two lines of reasoning: first, that the origins of the Neapolitan Church cannot be assigned to a period later than the end of the 1st century; second, that from the 1st to the mid-4th century Rome had 35 bishops, Antioch 27, Alexandria 20. The earliest Christian paintings in the catacomb of St Januarius of the Poor, with scenes of Adam and Eve and the building of a tower inspired by the Shepherd of Hermas, are no later than the early 3rd century; but these paintings presuppose a Christian community in a phase of development and are found in a part of the catacomb that no longer has the characteristics of a gentilician sepulchre, but of a cemetery of a community that must already have had several decades of existence. Moreover, the name of the first bishop, Asprenus, of distinctly Roman stamp, frequent in the 1st century, begins to become rare at the end of the 1st and the beginning of the 2nd century. Nor is it conceivable that Christianity, already firmly established in Puteoli in 61, should have taken more than a century to take root in nearby Naples, which was in frequent contact not only with Puteoli but with the East. That the Church of Naples was already flourishing in the 4th century is suggested by the Roman Liber Pontificalis, which records that Constantine, under Pope Sylvester (314–35), had a basilica built in Naples to which he offered precious gifts. Most of the basilicas built by Constantine arose in Rome and the suburbicarian churches, while of all southern Italy only Naples and Capua were endowed by Constantine with a basilica. Capua was then the capital of Campania; the Church of Naples, therefore, must already have had no less importance than Capua, which was also renowned for its martyrs.III. The Martyrs
Naples has no native martyrs. St Januarius (v.), the principal patron of the city, the eponym of the largest of the catacombs, brought there and venerated, is a welcome exception. Of the other martyrs venerated in the ancient Neapolitan Church, Sosius is from Misenum; Eutyches, Proculus and Acutius from Puteoli; Festus from Benevento, Fortunata from Liternum; leaving aside martyrs whose cult appears late in Naples, such as Restituta, probably African localised at Lacco Ameno (Ischia), Castrese of Volturnum, Juliana of Cumae, Maximus of Cumae or Compsa, Potitus of Apulia; and the martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, of Ambrosian influence. The Campanian martyrs Festus, Desiderius, Proculus, Eutyches and Acutius, who died in different places and at different times, became, between the 5th and 6th centuries, companions of Januarius (v.).Until 1936, Saint Januarius, bishop of Benevento, who died in the persecution of Diocletian in 305, was clearly distinguished from a second Januarius, also bishop of Benevento, who attended the Council of Sardica in 343. In 1936, the hypothesis was advanced—though not without difficulties and still not universally accepted—that the Januarius of the *Passio* (i.e., of the Diocletianic persecution) is a legendary figure, while the historical figure would be the one present in 343 at the Council of Sardica, about whom nothing else is known. To explain how he was proclaimed a martyr as early as the beginning of the 5th century, it has been suggested that after the death of Emperor Constant in 350, Januarius was exiled by Emperor Constantius, a supporter of the theological stance opposed to that of Constant, and thus died in exile from mistreatment or violent death. This is plausible but not certain. What is certain, however, is that by the second or third decade of the 5th century, Naples venerated a recently transported martyr Januarius. This translation, dated April 13, is attested by the *Liber Pontificalis*, the Marble Calendar, and the Hieronymian Martyrology. Saint Januarius is a *martyr inventus*, like many others discovered in the East and West at the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th centuries. As elsewhere, a bishop, John I (414–432), discovered Saint Januarius, transported him to Naples, and deposited him in the catacomb that later took his name.
In 1737, a liturgical constitution of the archbishop of Naples, Giovanni Orsini, meticulously described the rite of the solemnity of Saint Januarius in the month of May; however, while it mentions the procession of the head of the most blessed Januarius, it makes no reference to the blood of the martyr or to the processions, whether in the morning or evening. The first mention of the blood of Saint Januarius and its liquefaction dates to 1389.
Closely related to Naples is a little-known martyr, though one worthy of great consideration: Rufinianus. He is mentioned in the *Libellus precum*, a letter sent in 383–84 by the priests Faustinus and Marcellinus to the emperors Valentinian II, Theodosius, and Arcadius. Between 355 and 359, Epictetus, bishop of *Centumcellae*, vented his Arian fury against Rufinianus, forcing him to run before his chariot, causing the rupture of his pulmonary arteries and hemorrhages. The blood of Rufinianus was preserved in Naples, and the possessed attested to its miraculous power. This testimony is significant for the cult of relics.
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52. - ENCYCLOPEDIA CATHOLICA. - VIII.
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NAPLES, ARCHDIOCESE OF - Christ giving the law; and symbol of the Evangelist Matthew. Mosaic from the Baptistery (4th–5th centuries) - Naples, church of Saint Restituta.
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IV. EPISCOPAL SUCCESSION
The series of bishops of Naples is divided into four periods: I, from the origins to the elevation of the Church of Naples to a metropolitan see; II, from its elevation to an archdiocese to the Avignon schism; III, the period of the schism; IV, from the end of the schism to modern times. For the period from the origins to the mid-4th century, the *Liber Pontificalis* records ten names of bishops: Asprenas, Epit. mutus, Maro, Probus, Paulus, Agrippinus, Eustathius, Ephebus, Fortunatus, and Maximus. The name of a Fortunatus appears in the address of the letter of the Eastern bishops contained at Sardica in 343; and if the reconstruction made of the altered text preserved in the manuscript tradition of the *Fructus* of Saint Hilary were reliable, Fortunatus would have been bishop of Naples. However, the original address of that letter contained only the names of the bishops; those of the sees are an addition, the work of a forger, who identifies the Symphorion mentioned there with Symphorius, bishop of Salona at the end of the 4th century. Thus, it cannot be stated with certainty, as has been done until now, that the Fortunatus of the encyclical of Sardica is the same as the homonymous bishop of Naples; therefore, it cannot be affirmed with certainty that he sat in Naples in 343. More reliable, however, is another chronological reference concerning Maximus, successor of Fortunatus, the 10th in the series of the *Liber Pontificalis*, provided by the aforementioned *Libellus precum*, in which it is read that Maximus, for his steadfastness in the faith, was tormented and exiled by Constantius, and died in exile as a martyr in the peace of the Lord. Maximus was exiled at the same time as Dionysius of Milan, Eusebius of Vercelli, Lucifer of Cagliari, Hilary of Poitiers, and Rodonius of Toulouse, thus between 355 and 356. The bishops were later recalled from exile by Julian the Apostate in February 362. Therefore, for the episcopate of Maximus, two certain dates are available: 355 and February 362, the *terminus ante quem* of his death. The 14th in the series, John I, died on Holy Saturday, April 2, 432. The 15th, Nostrianus, energetically supported Pope John VIII of Ravenna. The bishop of Naples ranked third after the Pope. During the episcopates of his two successors, Athanasius II (876–898) and Stephen III (898–907), Auxilius and Vulgarius flourished in Naples, defenders of Pope Formosus (891–896), known for their writings and the literary influence they exerted in the city.Naples was not yet an archdiocese in 966, but by 990 Sergius was already called archbishop. It is highly probable that this elevation did not occur long after the identical elevation of Capua (966) and Benevento (969). However, the Church of Naples, until it became the capital of a vast kingdom, suffered, in territorial constraints, the same fate as the Duchy, stifled and often humiliated by the principalities of Capua and Benevento. Moreover, throughout southern Italy, the ecclesiastical province conformed to the civil province. The *Liber Censuum* of the Roman Church lists as suffragans of Naples: Aversa, Nola, Pozzuoli, Cuma, and Ischia. In 1121, Pozzuoli became a suffragan of Capua; Nola, in 1143, of Salerno; and only in 1179 was it clearly designated as a suffragan of Naples. Aversa was initially contested between Naples and Capua, but in 1120, by Callistus II, it was declared subject to Rome; Albinus and Cencio, Innocent III in 1198, and Honorius III in 1225, recognized it as a suffragan of Naples. In 1179, Acerra was also a suffragan of Naples. In 1207, the Church of Cuma was united with that of Naples, with the territory passing in greater part to Pozzuoli and in lesser part to Aversa. Among the archbishops of the 11th and 12th centuries, John II (1071) and Marino deserve mention; the latter played a major role in the establishment of the Norman monarchy. Special mention should be made of the blessed James of Viterbo (d. c. 1308).
V. PERIOD OF THE WESTERN SCHISM
The events of civil history had more serious repercussions on the Neapolitan Church during the Western Schism. Subject to Joanna I of Anjou when the schism broke out in 1378, then passing under the Durazzeschi in 1381, and returning under the Angevins after the death of Charles of Durazzo (1386) with Louis II until 1399, and then under Charles' son, Ladislaus of Durazzo (d. 1414), Naples endured the vicissitudes of this alternating dynastic rule. Nor did these rulers maintain a consistent religious policy. Joanna I was opposed to Urban VI and, against the sentiments of the people, supported Clement VII; then she was driven out by Charles of Durazzo, who, by previous agreements, was devoted to Urban; followed by Charles' break with Urban, and thus again the alignment of the Neapolitan court in favor of Clement; nor did the situation change with the arrival in Naples of Louis II of Anjou, a supporter of Clement. Thus, in Naples there were initially two "obediences" from 1378 to 1411: the Roman obedience, with five archbishops, and the Avignon obedience, with four archbishops; and then, from 1411 to 1415, the Pisan obedience with two archbishops.
Archbishops from the end of the Schism to the present day include Alessandro Carafa, who in 1497 transferred the body of St. Januarius from Montevergine to Naples; Gian-Pietro Carafa (1549–55), later Pope Paul IV; Alfonso Carafa, who immediately after the Council of Trent, in 1565, held the first diocesan Synod and demonstrated broad-mindedness and firm resolve in establishing the discipline of the Reformation; the Blessed Paolo Burali d’Arezzo (1577); Ascanio Filomarino, who played a major role in quelling the disturbances of the so-called “revolution of Masaniello” (1647); Antonio Pignatelli (1686–91), later Pope Innocent XII; Giuseppe Spinelli (1734–54), patron of Alessio Simmaco Mazzocchi; Sisto Rario Sforza (1848–77), a contemporary of the period when Pius IX resided in Naples as an exile from Rome, and of the great political upheavals in the Kingdom of Naples and in Italy. He was an example of unwavering firmness both in his dealings with civil authorities and in the administration of the archdiocese.
VI. CULTURE
The Church of Naples has had three notable periods in the history of culture: the Carolingian period; the second half of the 18th century; and the second half of the 19th. The latter period saw, with the splendor of humanistic culture and mastery of Greek and Latin letters, the rise and flourishing of Christian archaeology, through the work of Gennaro Aspreno Galante, who founded the Neapolitan archaeological school. The second period was distinguished in classical archaeology by the monumental output of Alessio Simmaco Mazzocchi and, to name but one other, his worthy pupil Nicola Ignarra. The first period, far less well known, begins when Bishop Stephen II (767–800) sent some of his clergy to the school of Paul the Deacon at Montecassino. A century later, two Roman literary figures, Ausilio and Vulgarius, took refuge in Naples, and it was at Ausilio’s school that John the Deacon, the greatest medieval historian of Naples, received his training. Literary culture extended into the hagiographical field, and in the second half of the 9th and the 10th centuries flourished such figures as Paul the Deacon, Bishop Athanasius II, Guarimpotus, Peter the Subdeacon, the priest Orso, and the archpriest Leo.Around the mid-9th century, an anonymous churchman compiled the first part of the *Liber Pontificalis* from its origins to 767, drawing on Jerome, Marcellinus, Gregory of Tours, Isidore, Bede, the Roman *Liber Pontificalis*, Paul the Deacon, as well as the *Epistola Uranii de obitu Paulini* and the *Vita Sancti Severini* by Eugippius. He was thus a learned man with access to a library.
VII. ANCIENT MONASTERIES
Monastic life begins in the 4th–5th centuries. Bishop Severus (363–409) established a monastery dedicated to a martyr of Apulia, St. Potitus, and another to St. Martin. Gregory the Great also mentions this latter monastery; another was founded by Gaudiosus, the African bishop of Abitine, a refugee from the Vandal persecution. Monasteries for men and women are recorded by Gregory the Great. There were numerous Greek monasteries, the most important being those of SS. Sergius and Bacchus, SS. Samonas, Guria, and Abibus, of St. Gregory of Armenia, and of St. Theodore. Of ducal foundation were the monasteries of SS. Cyriacus and Julitta, founded by Duke Antimo around 811 with an attached diaconia, and of St. Marcellinus, founded by Theodonanda, widow of Antimo, in the early years of the episcopate of Tiberius (821–42). More distinguished than all was the Lucullan monastery, founded around 492 with the arrival in Naples of the body of St. Severinus. This was succeeded by the monastery of St. Severinus, established in the heart of the city during the episcopate of Athanasius II (877–98), and in 902 the body of the saintly abbot of Noricum was transferred there.A disciple of St. Severinus was Eugippius (q.v.), abbot of the Lucullan monastery, where he established an important library containing, as the subscription of the well-known Epernay codex of the Gospels suggests, St. Jerome’s biblical translations in the original. The Lindisfarne Gospels (q.v.) came from Naples to England. The oldest known Neapolitan Capitulary, probably from the 7th rather than the 8th century, placed at the beginning of the said codex, contains no Marian feasts except the dedication of a basilica to *Sanctae Mariae*. The sanctoral is extremely simple: apart from St. Januarius, who was also commemorated with a vigil, no saint, Neapolitan or Campanian, appears. Nor does it include the missionary martyr St. Sassinus; Pope Symmachus honored him with an oratory and a poem in Rome between 501 and 506. Of the six basilicas already existing in Naples before the end of the 6th century, only the feast of the dedication of one, the Stefania, is recorded: *In dedicatione basilica Stephani*. If the *Dedicatio sanctae Mariae* refers to the Neapolitan church of Pomponiana (c. 509–37) rather than, as some have thought, to a Roman basilica, then a second such feast would exist; otherwise, no other important feasts have been found. Among the surviving texts of pre-baptismal liturgy, the *traditio* of the psalms on the third Sunday of Lent is unique: *psalmos accipiunt*. The *traditio* of the *Pater* took place on the fourth Sunday, and that of the Creed on the fifth. Lent is preceded by the Sundays of Septuagesima and Sexagesima. In 581 the episcopal residence also had its library; Bishop Reducendus enriched it with a codex of the florilegium of the writings of St. Augustine compiled by Eugippius.
VIII. DEACONS: see the relevant entry (vol. IV, col. 1527).
IX. MONUMENTS
For the ancient period, the catacombs, basilicas, the Baptistery, the *consignatorium*, and the marble calendar should be noted.
1. CATACOMBS
Three catacombs remain: St. Januarius, St. Gaudiosus, and St. Euplus (more correctly, Euphebus). The first is the most extensive and best known. It originated in a noble burial area, traces of which have not entirely vanished. The earliest bishop known to have been buried there is Agrippinus in the second half of the 3rd century. Between 414 and 432, the martyr St. Januarius was buried there. The adjacent buildings housed Bishop Paul II in 762–64, when he was driven from the city by the iconoclast faction. With the translation of St. Januarius to Benevento in 831 by Duke Sicone, the catacomb began to decline. Nevertheless, it continued to be used for burials, including those of Bishop Tiberius (d. 842), John (849), Athanasius, on 1 August 877, and Duke Stephen (d. 832). Iconoclasm left its mark, but decoration continued at least until the 10th century. The oldest frescoes, from the 2nd century, are decorative in nature; those from the early 3rd century depict biblical scenes such as Adam and Eve, and a scene unique in early Christian painting: the building of a tower, taken from the *Shepherd* of Hermas. Later, art drew on Roman symbolism and the cult of the saints. In the 5th and 6th centuries, frescoes included the Lord between two Apostles (though this fresco was in the attached basilica), the Apostles Peter and Paul, and the martyrs Laurence and Januarius (see related illustration). Later paintings feature portraits of the deceased, images of St. Januarius and companions, Christ, and the Crucifixion. The history of painting from the 2nd to the 10th century can be traced here. In the second half of the 9th century, Bishop Athanasius I had a monastery built there with an abbot at its head; in the mid-15th century, the Benedictines left. The liturgical rites of the Constitution of 1337 do not strictly refer to the catacomb but to the basilica. Testimony to visitors of the catacombs dates at least from the early 15th century.No less important, in some respects, even if not so ancient, is the catacomb of St Gaudioso. The arcosolium tomb is still preserved, with remains of mosaic decoration, and the inscription of St Gaudioso, bishop of Abitine in Proconsular Africa, a refugee from the Vandal persecution. Other notable arcosolia with mosaic decoration include one with a cross crowned and adored by two lambs, and a 6th-century fresco with a jeweled cross between the first deacon Stephen and the local martyr deacon Sasso.
Very little remains of the catacomb of St Efebo and of another funerary complex; only one important burial chamber with three arcosolia has come down to us.
1639
NAPLES
(1st Photographic Cabinet of the Superintendency of the Galleries of N.)