Miracles, Science, and Testimony in Post-Tridentine Saint-Making

Bibliographic Data

ID4516055
AuthorsF Vidal (0000-0002-2956-8607, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume20
Issue3
Pages481-508
Publication date2007-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience in Context (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0269-8897 • E-ISSN: 1474-0664
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0269889707001391
OpenAlexW2166223366
LanguageEN
Citations received20
References cited17

ArgumentSeeing a prodigious cure happen and then testifying about it certainly differs from attending an air pump experiment in order to bear witness to it. Yet early-modern saint-making and the "new" or "experimental philosophy" shared juridical roots, and thereby an understanding of the role of testimony for the establishment of "matters of fact" and for the production of legitimate knowledge. The reforms carried out after the Council of Trent, especially during Urban VIII's pontificate (1623-1644), of the juridical procedures for saint-making in the Catholic Church implied a new attitude towards the examination of proposed miracles. Most of these miracles were healings. While the appeal to medical expertise had long been common, and skepticism had often manifested itself regarding cures or extraordinary bodily phenomena, both were now given formal status. Miracle inquests henceforth leaned towards refuting miraculousness by means of natural explanations. The procedure was systematized in a treatise published in the 1730s by Prospero Lambertini (later pope Benedict XIV). The combination of Lambertini's work with the canonization causes in which he acted as the "devil's advocate" in charge of disputing arguments favorable to a sainthood candidate allows for a reconstruction of the interplay between the juridical and scientific economies of saint-making, and of the role of testimony in the production of trust and evidence

Appeal · Art history · Epistemology · Miracle · Natural law · Political science · SAINT · Skepticism · Witness · Chemistry · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity

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