This week in Christian history: Synod of Pistoia, first US female minister ordained, Spanish inquisitor assassinated
Synod of Pistoia begins – Sept. 18, 1786
This week marks the anniversary of when a group of Italian Catholic Church leaders held the Synod of Pistoia, which aimed to advance the ideas of Jansenism within the denomination.
A popular yet polarizing movement in the Catholic Church at the time, Jansenism advocated for a predestination model for salvation and was sympathetic to restricting papal power.
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The Synod met for 10 days in the Italian city of Pistoia, with attendees championing things like having liturgy in the vernacular language, abolishing the Inquisition, and elevating the power of bishops to be comparable to the pope.
Although the Synod’s work would be repudiated by the overall Church leadership, historian Shaun London Blanchard of Marquette University argued that the synod helped lay the groundwork for Second Vatican.
“Nevertheless, many of the reforms implicit or explicit in the Pistoian agenda — such as an exaltation of the role of bishops, an emphasis on infallibility as a gift to the entire church, religious liberty, a simpler and more comprehensible liturgy that incorporates the vernacular, and the encouragement of lay Bible reading and Christocentric devotions — were officially promulgated at Vatican II,” wrote Blanchard.
