£1,850.00
A mid-seventeenth-century study of the history and authority of the cardinals of the Holy See, exploring the political and theological tensions surrounding French influence within the international Roman Church.
Single volume. Contemporary calf, red edges. Binding heavily worn with losses; internally sound; multiple early and later inscriptions.
Year: 1665
Publisher: Pierre ab Egmont, Cologne
A mid-seventeenth-century examination of the origins, authority, and historical development of the cardinals of the Holy See, with particular attention to the position of French prelates. Works of this nature belong to the period when questions of jurisdiction, precedence, and national influence within the Roman Church were matters of intense political and theological concern.
Printed at Cologne for circulation beyond France, the treatise reflects the international character of ecclesiastical debate. It gathers historical argument, legal precedent, and ceremonial detail in order to clarify how power within the Church had evolved.
This copy bears several early and later ownership inscriptions, showing centuries of scholarly consultation and preserving a tangible chain of custody from early modern Europe into nineteenth-century readers.
The constitutional history of the College of Cardinals lies at the heart of early modern church politics. Texts analysing origin and privilege were tools in wider struggles between Rome and national churches. Copies retaining evidence of historical readership provide valuable material for scholars tracing those debates.
