COMMENDONE
156
COMMENDONE
occupied by religious communities. Often these com-
mendatory abbots were laymen, vassals of the kings,
or others who were authorized to draw the revenues
and manage the temporal affairs of the monasteries in
reward for military services. While the notorious
Marozia was influential in Rome and Italy, and during
the reigns of Henry IV of Germany, Philip I of France,
William the Conqueror, William Rufus, Henry I and
II of England, the abuse reached its climax. The
most worthless persons were often made commenda-
tory abbots, who in many cases brought about the
temporal and spiritual ruin of the monasteries. When
in 1122 the dispute concerning investiture was settled
in favoiu' of the Church, the appointment of laymen
as commendatory abbots and many other abuses were
abolished. The abuses again increased while the
popes resided at Avignon (1309-1377) and especially
during the schism (1378-1417), when the popes, as
well as the antipopes, gave numerous abbeys in com-
mendam in order to increase the number of their ad-
herents.
After the eighth century various attempts were made by popes and councils to regulate the appoint- ment of commendatory abbots, still the abuses con- tinued. Boniface VIII (1294-1303) decreed that a benefice with the cure of souls attached should be granted in commendam only in great necessity or when evident advantage would accrue to the Church, but never for more than six months (c. 15, VI, De elect., 1, 6). Clement V (1305-14) revoked benefices which had been granted by him in commendam at an earlier date (Extr. comm., c. 2, De praeb., 3, 2). The Council of Trent (Sess. XXV, cap. xxi, de Regulari- bus) determined that vacant monasteries should be bestowed only on pious and virtuous regulars, and that the principal or mother-house of an order and the abbeys and priories founded immediately therefrom should no longer be granted in commendam. The succeeding Bull "Superna" of Gregory XIII, and the Constitution "Pastoralis" of Innocent X greatly checked the abuses, but did not abolish them entirely. Especially in France they continued to flourish to the detriment of the monasteries. Finally, the French Revolution and the general seciJarization of monas- teries in the beginning of the eighteenth century de- stroyed the evil with the good. Since that time com- mendatory abbots have become very rare, and the former abuses have been abolished by wise regula- tions. There are still a few commendatory abbots among the cardinals, and Pope Pius X is Commenda- tory Abbot of the Benedictine monastery at Subiaco near Rome. The powers of a commendatory abbot are as follows: If the monastery is occupied by a religious commimity where there is a separate mensn abhatialis, i. e. where the abbot and the convent have each a separate income, the commendatory abbot, who must then be an ecclesiastic, has jurisdiction in foro exlerno over the members of the community and enjoys all the rights and privileges of an actual abbot, and if, as is generally the case, the monastery has a special superior, he is subject to the commendatory abbot as a claustral prior is subject to his actual abbot. If there is no separate mensa abhatialis, the power of the commendatory abbot extends only over the tem- poral affairs of the mona.stery. In case of vacant monasteries the commendatory abbot generally has all the rights and privileges of an actual abbot.
I MOMABSIN, Vetus ct uova Ecdeaim discipline circa bmeficia (Vonite. 1730). Pt. II, lib. II. capp. x-xxi; Bacmer, Johannes MabiUon (Augabure, 1892), 31 sqq.; Gatrio, Die Ablei Mur- hnrh (Strasbure, 1895) II, 247 sqq.; Szc/.vriiELSKV. Liber pen- Ihicus de commcndatariis reatdarium prcelatis (Wilna, 16S1); Devoti, Inslilul. ainon. (Ghent, 18.')2), I, 683 sqq.
Michael Ott.
Oommendone, Giovanni Francesco, Cardinal and Papal Nuncio, b. at Venice, 17 March, 1.523; d. at Padua, 26 Dec, 1584. After receiving a thorough
education in the humanities and in jurisprudence at
the University of Padua, he came to Rome in 1550.
The ambassador of Venice presented him to Pope
Julius III, who was so favourably impressed by the
unusual learning of the youthful scholar that he
appointed him one of his secretaries. After suc-
cessfullj' performing various papal missions of minor
importance, he accompanied Cardinal Legate Dandino
to the Netherlands, whence Pope Julius III sent him in
1553 on an important mi.ssion to Queen Mary Tudor,
who had just succeeded Edward VI on the English
throne. He was to treat with the new queen concern-
ing the restoration of the Catholic Faith in England.
Accompanied by Penning, a servant and confidant of
Cardinal Reginald Pole, Commendone arrived in Lon-
don on 8 Aug., 1553. Though Mary Tudor was a
loyal Catholic, she was surrounded at court by numer-
ous opponents of papal authority, who made it ex-
tremely difficult for Commendone to obtain a secret
interview with her. By chance he met John Lee, a
relation of the Duke of Norfolk and an attendant at
court, with whom he had become acquainted in Italy,
and Lee succeeded in arranging the interview. Mary
received Commendone kindly, and expressed her desire
to restore the Catholic Faith and to acknowledge the
spiritual authority of the pope, but considered it pru-
dent to act slowly on account of her powerful oppo-
nents. Commendone hastened to Rome, arriving
there on 11 September, and informed the pope of the
joyful news, at the same time handing him a personal
letter from the queen. Commendone continued to
hold the office of papal secretary under Paul IV, who
esteemed him very highly and in return for his services
appointed him Bishop of Zante in 1555. In the sum-
mer of 155G he accompanied Cardinal Legate Scipione
Rebiba on a papal mission to the Netherlands, to the
courts of Emperor Charles V and King Philip II, the
consort of Queen Mary of England. Commendone
had received instructions to remain as nuncio at the
court of Philip, but he was recalled to Rome soon
after his arrival in the Netherlands. On 16 Septem-
ber of the same year the pope sent him as extraordi-
nary legate to the Governments of Urbino, Ferrara,
Venice, and Parma in order to obtain help against the
Spanish troops who were occupying the Campagna
and threatening Rome.
In 1560, when Pius IV determined to reopen the Council of Trent, Commendone was sent as legate to Germany to in^^te the Catholic and Protestant Es- tates to the council. He arrived in Vienna on 3 Jan., 1561, and after consulting with Emperor Ferdinand, set out on 14 January for Naiunburg, where the Prot- estant Estates were holding a religious convention. He was accompanied by Delfino, Bishop of Lesina, who had been sent as papal nuncio to Ferdinand foiu- months previously and was still at the imperial court. Having arrived at Nauraburg on 28 Januarj', they were admitted to the convention on 5 February and urged upon the assembled Protestant Estates the necessity of a Protestant representation at the Coun- cil of Trent in order to restore religious union, but all their efforts were of no avail. From Naumburg, Commendone traveled northward to in^^te the Es- tates of Northern CJermany. He went by way of Leipzig and Magdeburg to Berlin, where he arrived on 19 February and was well received by Joachim of Miinsterberg, the Elector of Brandenburg. Joachim spoke respectfully of the pope and the Catholic Church and expressed his desire for a religious recon- ciliation, but did not promise to appear at the council. Here Commendime met al.so the son of Joachim, the young Arehbislicip Sigismund of Magdeburg, who promised to appear at the council but did not keep his word. Leaving Berlin, Commendone visited Beeskow, WollVnbjittel, Hanover, Hildesheim, Iburg, Paderborn, Cologne, Cleves, the Netherlands, and Aachen, inviting all the Estates he met in these
