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L’arcivescovo, il diavolo e le streghe. Un racconto agiografico delle visite pastorali del cardinale Federico Borromeo nelle Tre Valli ambrosiane nel 1608 e nel 1613

par Sansterre, Jean-Marie
Référence Quaderni grigionitaliani, 91, 2, page (73-91)
Publication Publié, 2023-09-01

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Résumé :

In 1656, the learned Milanese canon Francesco Rivola published the Life of Cardinal Frederick Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan from 1595 until his death in 1631, second successor in this position to his famous cousin, Cardinal Charles Borromeo († 1584). The work was commissioned from Rivola by the curators of the Ambrosiana in the vain hope of the beatification of the founder of their library. One episode with a strongly hagiographic tones shows the cardinal triumphing in Italian Switzerland over the devil and witches. The paper returns to it both for the story itself and for the the author's silence on the fate of the witches. This silence takes on its full significance when compared with the explicit mention of a witch-hunt by hagiographers of Charles Borromeo. In Rivola's view it is no longer a question of conversion and punishment, but rather of the supernatural triumph over the devil of a holy archbishop in the very exercise of his episcopal office.