History
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adding to it. (October 2016)
On 23 August 1059, Pope Nicholas II (1059–1061) held a council in Melphi, with more than one hundred bishops in attendance. In the council, he deposed the bishop of Montepeloso for simony and adultery; the bishop of Tricarico for being underage; Bishop Johannes of Trani; and the Bishop of Ascoli Puglia. He also invested Robert Guiscard as duke of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily.[3]
The pope made the diocese of Melfi immediately dependent on the Holy See; its first bishop was Baldwin. Its cathedral, a work of Roger Borsa,[citation needed] son of Robert Guiscard (1155), was destroyed by the earthquake of 1851.
The second council to be held at Melfi was presided over by Pope Alexander II (1067–1073) in 1067, during the episcopacy of Bishop Balduinus. Guillaume, the son of Tancred, was excommunicated, along with his soldiers, for having conquered Salerno.[4] Bishop Balduinus was later suspended from his episcopal office by Pope Alexander, but was restored in March 1076, after due penance for his excesses, by Pope Gregory VII.[5]
In September 1089, Pope Urban II (1088-1099) held his first council at Melfi.[6] It legislated against simony and against clerical marriage.[7] The Norman Roger Borsa took an oath of fealty to Pope Urban, who invested him with the duchy of Apulia and Salerno.[8]
Pope Paschal II confirmed, in a bull of 29 September 1101 (Per Apostoli Petri), the privilege granted to the bishops of Melfi of being consecrated by the Roman pontiff.[9]
In 1528, Clement VII, in view of the scarcity of its revenues, united the Diocese of Rapolla to that of Melfi, "aeque principaliter".[10]
Bishop Lazzaro Carafino (1622–1626) held a diocesan synod in Melfi in 1624.[11] Bishop Deodato Scaglia (1626–1644) presided over a diocesan synod of Melfi and Rapolla in 1635.[12] A diocesan synod was held in Melfi on 11–13 October 1725 by Bishop Mondilio Orsini (1724 –1728).[13]
Diocesan reorganization
The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), in order to ensure that all Catholics received proper spiritual attention, decreed the reorganization of the diocesan structure of Italy and the consolidation of small and struggling dioceses. It also recommended the abolition of anomalous units such as exempt territorial prelatures.[14] These considerations applied to Melfi and to Rapolla, as the population migrated in the post-war period away from agriculture to jobs on the coast.
On 18 February 1984, the Vatican and the Italian State signed a new and revised concordat. Based on the revisions, a set of Normae was issued on 15 November 1984, which was accompanied in the next year, on 3 June 1985, by enabling legislation. According to the agreement, the practice of having one bishop govern two separate dioceses at the same time, aeque personaliter, was abolished. Instead, the Vatican continued consultations which had begun under Pope John XXIII for the merging of small dioceses, especially those with personnel and financial problems, into one combined diocese. On 30 September 1986, Pope John Paul II ordered that the dioceses of Melfi, Rapallo, and Venosa be merged into one diocese with one bishop, with the Latin title Dioecesis Melphiensis-Rapollensis-Venusina. The seat of the diocese was to be in Melphi, and the cathedral of Melfi was to serve as the cathedral of the merged dioceses. The cathedrals in Rapolla and Venosa were to become co-cathedrals, and the cathedral Chapters were each to be a Capitulum Concathedralis. There was to be only one diocesan Tribunal, in Melfi, and likewise one seminary, one College of Consultors, and one Priests' Council. The territory of the new diocese was to include the territory of the former dioceses of Melphi, Rapolla, and Venosa.[15]
On 11 February 1973, Pope Paul VI had promoted the diocese of Potenza e Marsico Nuovo to the status of an archdiocese, and made it immediately subject to the papacy, rather than to some other archdiocese in the regions of Basilicata or Lucania. It had been suffragan to the archdiocese of Acerenza. The bishop was given the rank of archbishop, and granted the right to use the processional cross and the pallium.[16] The diocese of Melphi-Rapolla-Venosa was made a suffragan of Potenza-Muro Lucano-Marsico Nuovo.
Chapter and cathedral
The cathedral of Melfi, dedicated to the Taking Up of the Body of the Virgin Mary into Heaven (Assumption), was administered by a Chapter, composed of four dignities (the Cantor, the Primicerius, the Treasurer, and the Vice-Cantor) and sixteen canons.[17] In 1748, there were four dignities and twenty-two canons.[18]
The cathedral Chapter of Rapolla had three dignities and five canons.[19]
In 1764, Venosa had a population of about 4,000 persons. Its cathedral, dedicated to S. Andrew, had a Chapter composed of four dignities and twenty canons.[20] When Venosa became united to the diocese of Melfi in 1986, it had a population of less than 34,000, with only twenty priests to serve them.[21]
