The Cause of Venerable Cardinal Caesar Baronius.

The Cause of Venerable Cardinal Caesar Baronius

Early Life

• b. October 30, 1538 in Sora, ancient city in Kingdom of Naples

• Only son of Camillo Barone & Portia Foebonia

• A noble and pious family

• Caesare: gifted, generous, serous

• Father arranged for him to study law in Naples

Decision for Rome

• Leaves for Rome in 1556 at the age of 18 (same age as St. Philip)

• The most important decision of his life

• Meets Philip Neri shortly thereafter

• By 1558 completed give to the Oratory and St. Philip

• Baronius frequently the victim of Phillip’s sense of humor (Miserere at wedding)

Philip Neri and the Oratory

• Philip and daily Oratory

• Baronius starts speaking at the gatherings at the age of 20

• Favorite topics: death, judgment, hell

• Philip changes his topic: church history

• Baronius utterly loyal and obedient to Philip

 Presented the course on church history 7 times in its entirety

 The ground work for the Annales

 Baronius not attracted to the topic; done out of pure obedience

 Becomes the Father of Church History

The Annales Ecclesiastici

• A vital service to church countering the Magdeburg Centuries

Tried to prove that papacy deformed the church and that

Protestantism was a pure restoration of the faith

• Not only the challenge of writing but also finding documents

• Would work on these the remainder of his life up until shortly before his death (12 vols. 1588-1607)

• First systematic attempt to write the history of the Church

• Provided the material needed to refute the Reformers

• Doing this while at the same time exercising pastoral obligations and leadership of Oratory after Philip (1593)

• Caesare Baronius semper coquus

• Assessment of Bl. John XXIII (Pullapilly, p. 55)

The Cardinal

• Philip Neri avoided becoming a Cardinal but not his two best disciples

• Named a Cardinal by Clement VIII on June 4 1596

• Actively worked against this; no desire for it

• Thought suggesting Tarugi would get him off the hook: both made Cardinals

• Twice nearly elected Pope

Last Years

• A much respected advisor to the popes

• Fearless in defending the church even if it cost him advancement

• Began vol. XIII of Annales but never finished

• 1607 serious illness forces him to give up his activities

• Joyfully returns to his beloved Oratory and dies on

Let me die in Rome. It is not proper for a Cardinal to die on a farm,

And I wish more than anything else to close my days and my eyes

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