Dar mano alla semina

Luoghi, intuizioni, protagonisti agli inizi del Seminario

Abstract

As an institution geared towards the education and instruction of a clergy conformed to the Tridentine vision, the Seminary is an ecclesial fruit of a well mapped path, the steps of which merit further study concentrating on some places – Rome, London, Cordoba, Milan – in order to gather some intuitions and be introduced to the main characters of the maturing of the decisions of the Council which in July 1563 places the canon Cum adolescentium aetas among the decrees for the reform of the Church. Without exhausting
the subject, we will consider the ideal reference to Early Christianity, the contribution of monasticism, the rise of the Episcopal schools, the spread of the Universities, the signs of a long European reform, the liveliness of new Canons Regulars, the challenge posed by the beneficiary system. The necessity of having a seedbed – seminarium – of vocations imposes itself thanks to Cardinals Morone and Pole in dialogue with the Society of Jesus and with Charles Borromeo. From that of Larino onward, among the first foundations, the exemplarity of those in Rome and Milan stand out, the latter marked by the alternation of Jesuits and Oblates.