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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
John, Salvador Miranda's useful site on cardinals states that Cesare received minor orders and diaconate on 26 March 1494, and that he was never ordained priest or consecrated bishop: <http://www2.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios1493.htm#Borgia> (you have to page down a bit). He was made protonotary apostolic in his childhood (1482), which is a more plausible scenario than being ordained a priest at 8, as you have said. So, if Miranda is credible -- he gives a solid bibliography but not footnotes for particular statements -- the answer to your original question is that Cesare was ordained a deacon. I don't have the resources to check further.

Some of the defects of Cheney's site which you point out are due to its tabular database format and see-by-see structure. So, for example, the "Archbishop Emeritus" tag seems to be merely an indication that the person did not die in the particular office recorded in that entry. Cesare's childhood nomination as protonotary appears to have been misleadingly recorded in the ordination field. "Half-witted" may be a bit harsh, but it's a salutary warning of the shortcomings of the format. -- Paul


On 9 April 2011 01:00, John Briggs <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

On 08/04/2011 15:49, Paul Chandler wrote:

It's hard to know why you would say "the whole entry is demonstrably
inaccurate" and then not demonstrate anything. Cheney's site seems to be
based on the usual sources, Gams, Eubel, and so on, so some argument would
seem necessary before dismissing an entry out of hand.

(a) It lists Cesare as resigning as Archbishop of Valencia on 17 Aug 1498, but not as Cardinal [the whole point was that he was resigning *all* his ecclesiastical offices. He is famous for being the first cardinal to resign.]
(b) It states "Note/Previous Titular See: (renounced holy orders)" which is compatible with neither (a) nor the claim that he was ordained priest.
(c) It describes him as "Archbishop Emeritus of Valencia" - which is half-witted at best.


John Briggs


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Paul Chandler, O.Carm.
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