Liber de Concilio. Eiusdem de baptismo Constantini magni imperatoris. Reformatio Angliae. Ex decretis eiusdem. Venice, exofficina Iordani Zileti, 1562. [Bound with:] CONTARINI (Gasparis), Cardinal. De potestate pontificis. Venice, ex officina Iordani Zileti, 1562
POLE, (Reginald), Cardinal
Printer's device on both title-pages and at end.
2 works in one vol. 8vo. 128, [8] ff. (last blank). 34, [6]ff. 18th century speckled calf (neatly rebacked). 1562
I. Published in the same year as Paulus Manutius' first editions the Liber de Concilio and Reformatio Angliae of Cardinal Reginald Pole together tell the story of the Reformation and Counter Reformation in England and in Europe.
Schenk begins his biography of Pole with the remark: "It was the inescapable destiny of Reginald Pole to be either the friend or the foe of Henry VIII" (W. Schenk, Reginald Pole, Cardinal of England (London 1950). Henry and Pole were cousins and each felt a deep respect and affection for the other. However, the matter of the King's divorce caused a rift between the men that was never to heal. Henry desired the support of his cousin, as a respected scholar and devout Catholic, which Pole, in all conscience, could not give. After several unsuccessful attempts at reconciliation, Pole, who became a cardinal in 1536, was forced to live abroad, particularly in Italy and Rome, for much of his life and was a close advisor to Pope Paul III. In 1542 he was one of three legates appointed by Paul to open the Council of Trent, however, due to delays, the council did not actually commence until 1545. Pole spent some of the interval in composing the treatise De concilio. The council had come to be regarded as a political event and, in De concilio, Pole criticises the interference of secular rulers in the affairs of a General Council. Schenk comments: "'The King's good servant but God's first': Thomas More's last message, confirmed by much bitter experience in the intervening ten years, was the gist of this burning exhortation" (p. 113).
With the death of Edward VI in 1553 Henry's Catholic daughter, Mary, became queen of England. Pole, who was once more made welcome in England, preached moderation and Pole continued to devote himself to the Catholic reform movement in England. He convoked a national synod of the bishops and clergy of both Provinces. The ideas which Pole expressed at this synod were brought together in the Reformatio Angliae. Pole was particularly concerned with the ignorance of the clergy, which he believed was the natural breeding-ground of heresy, and advocated educational reforms. This treatise was not published until 1562, on the eve of the Tridentine decrees on seminary training. Two hundred copies were reportedly sent for use at the Council with the result that Pole's reforms were incorporated almost verbatim into the Canones et Decreta Concilii Tridentini (see J. O'Donohue, Tridentine Seminary Legislation (Louvain, 1957) p.144ff and Barberi, Manuzio e la Stamperia del Popolo Romano , p.112).
II. First published in Florence, 1558, this being the second edition.
I. BMSTC (Italian), p. 529. Adams P1745. Censimento CNC 40970. II. Censimento CNC 13135. Adams C2574. Not in BMSTC (Italian).
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