The Diocese of Casale Monferrato (Latin: Dioecesis Casalensis) is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in northwest Italy, a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Vercelli which forms part of the ecclesiastical region of Piedmont."Diocese of Casale Monferrato" Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved January 30, 2016."Diocese of Casale Monferrato" GCatholic.org. Gabriel Chow. Retrieved February 14, 2016. The diocese, which adheres to the Roman Rite, was established on 18 April 1474 for political reasons, to transform the Marquisate of Montferrat into an ecclesiastic territory.
History Casale Monferrato, the ancient Bodincomagus, is a city in the province of Alessandria, Piedmont (Italy), on the River Po, and has been a stronghold since the time of the Lombards. Liutprand, King of the Lombards enlarged it,Cappelletti XIV, pp. 563-565. and, in 936, the Emperor Otto II made it the chief town of a marquisate, giving it to the sons of Aleran, Duke of Saxony.Cappelletti, p. 564. Later it was inherited by Emperor Michael VIII, Palaeologus, who sent thither his son Theodore. In 1533, the dynasty of the Palaeologi became extinct, and The Emperor Charles V gave Casale to the House of Gonzaga. From 1681 to 1706 it was in the hands of the French, from whom, in 1713, it passed to the House of Savoy.Ughelli IV, pp. 567-568.
The parish church of S. Evasius in Casale, and its college of Canons Regular of S. Augustine,Paul Fridolin Kehr, (1914), Italia pontificia : sive, Repertorium privilegiorum et litterarum a romanis pontificibus ante annum 1598 Italiae ecclesiis, monasteriis, civitatibus singulisque personis concessorum. Vol. VI. pars ii ( Berolini: Weidmann), p. 43, no. 5. is known from a grant made to them on 15 August 988. The Chapter was headed by a Provost, and the church was subject to the bishops of Vercelli.F. Gabotto & U. Fisso, Le carte dell'archivio capitolare di Casale Monferrato, Vol. 1 (Pinerolo 1907), pp. 2-4: "Canonica Sancti Euasii. quae est Plebs sita loco Casalis." The medieval church building was consecrated on 4 January 1107, by Pope Paschal II.Kehr (1914), p. 42, nos. 1-2.
Casale was created a diocese by the papal bull "In Eminenti" of 18 April 1474, by Sixtus IV; previously it belonged to the Diocese of Asti. The pope had been urged to action by Marchese Guglielmo Paleologo of Monferrat.Vincenzo de Conti, Notizie storiche della città di Casali del Monferrato, , Volume 4, pp. 249-251. The diocese was a suffragan of the metropolitan archdiocese of Milan, and its bishops attended the provincial synods of Milan.Cappelletti XIV, pp. 574-577. On 1 August 1474, Sixtus IV issued another bull, "Super Gregem," defining the boundaries of the new diocese.Cappelletti XIV, pp. 578-582.
Its first bishop was Bernardino de Tebaldeschi, a Roman related to the Orsini, though he was too young to be consecrated a bishop at the time of his appointment.Alessandro Vesme, "Matteo Sanmichele scultore e architetto cinquecentista," , in" Archivio storico dell'arte, Volume 8 (Roma: Danesi 1895), pp. 292-294. His successor was Gian Giorgio Paleologo (1517–1525), who also governed the marquisate for his nephew, a minor.Raffaele Tamalio, "Giovanni Giorgio Paleologo, marchese di Monferrato," , in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Volume 56 (2001). Among its noteworthy bishops were: the Dominican Benedetto Erba (1570), most zealous for the Christian instruction of children and the introduction of the Tridentine reforms, in which he was associated with Archbishop Charles Borromeo of Milan; he was also the founder of the monti di pietà. Another was Tullio del Carretto (d. 1614), who imitated other contemporary bishops and founded an oratory for priests. Scipione Pasquali (1615–1624) was the author of a history of the campaign of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy against Montferrat in 1613.Ughelli IV, p. 576. The work is apparently unpublished. When the plague was ravaging Casale (1630) during the struggle between the French and the Spanish,Clifford J. Rogers, The Military Revolution Debate: Readings on the Military Transformation of Early Modern Europe (N.Y: Routledge 2018), p. 219. H.G.R. Reade, Sidelights on the Thirty Years War, Volume 3 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1924), pp. lxvii, 488-490, 503-504. the bishop is said to have nursed the sick himself.
Napoleonic Piedmont In 1796, and again in 1798, armies of the French Republic entered Italy, and conquered Savoy. On 10 September 1798, the French established the Piedmontese Republic. After a brief occupation by Austrian troops, the French, under the First Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte, reconquered the Piedmont, and established the Subalpine Republic, which lasted only from June to September 1802. Thereafter the territory was annexed to the French Republic, and divided into the départements of Doire, Marengo, Pô, Sesia, Stura, and Tanaro. Casale became the capital of Marengo, and French law became the law of the land.Nicomede Bianchi, Storia della monarchia piemontese dal 1773 sino al 1861, Volume 4 (Torino: Bocca 1885), "Capitolo Sesto: Lo stato e la chiesa, ridornamento diocesano del Piemonte, L'Imperatore Napoleone, Pio VII, l'episcopato piemontese," , pp. 270-340.
One of the policies of the French government was the reduction in the number of dioceses both in metropolitan France and in its annexed territories. The French pointed out that there were sixteen dioceses and one metropolitan (Turin) in the Piedmont, of which five were without bishops at the time and three whose bishops had just resigned. They demanded that the sixteen be reduced to eight with one metropolitan."Gravissimis Causis' § 1: "ab eodem gubernio postulari, ut Nos in hoc rerum statu apostolica auctoritate Nostra praefatas sexdecim ecclesias episcopales, atque unam metropolitanam ad octo redigere dignemur, nimirum a dunam metropolitanam et septem ejus suffraganeas...." In the bull "Gravissimis Causis" of 1 June 1803, Pope Pius VII authorized the papal legate to First Consul Bonaparte, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Caprara, to suppress a number of dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Piedmont, including Casale.Bullarii Romani Continuatio, Tomus XII (Rome: Apostolic Camera 1846), pp. 23-27. Caprara carried out his instructions in a decree of 23 January 1805.Bulletin des lois de l'Empire français 4e Série, Tome troisième (Paris: Imprimerie impériale, An. XIV ), pp. 69-92, at p. 70: "supprimimus, annullamus, ac perpetuo extiguimus, titulum, denominationem, totumque statum præsentem, supradictarum ecclesiarum Secusina, Pineroliensis, Fossanensis, Albensis, Derthonensis, Bobiensis, Casalensis, Bugellensis et Augustana...." The assets of Casale, human and material, were transferred to the diocese of Alessandria, as were those of the dioceses of Tortona and Bobbio.
On 17 March 1805, Napoleon established the Kingdom of Italy, and on 23 May he had himself crowned King of Italy by Cardinal Caprara in the cathedral of Milan. During the rest of the year, he continued to adjust the political arrangements of Piedmont and Lombardy. Having decided that Alessandria needed to be strengthened as a military stronghold and arsenal for his control of the area, he announced on 17 May 1805, his decision to transfer the seat of the bishop of Alessandria to Casale. On 7 July 1805, Cardinal Caprara obligingly carried out a new circumscription, restored the cathedral in Casale to its cathedral status, and moved the bishop to Casale.Raccolta di leggi, decreti, proclami, manifesti ec. Pubblicati dalle autorità costituite. Volume 20 (Torino: Davico e Picco n.d. [1806?], pp. 318-320. On 23 December 1805, Bishop Villaret was officially transferred to Casale, and the diocese of Alessandria was suppressed.Notizie per l'anno 1806 (Roma: Cracas 1806), p. 6. Fulvio Vditullo, "Monsignor Villaret vescovo “napoleeonico” di Casale," in: La Provincia di Alessandria 21 (1974), pp. 8-12.
After the defeat, abdication, and exile of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna agreed to the restoration of the Kingdom of Sardinia. King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia invited Pope Pius VII to restore the good order of the Church in his kingdom, which had been disrupted by the French occupation. On 17 July 1817, the pope issued the bull "Beati Petri", which began by establishing de novo the ten dioceses which had been suppressed under the French, and delimiting the extent of each in detail,Bullarii Romani Continuatio XIV, pp. 345-351 § 4-22. including Casale.Bullarii Romani Continuatio XIV, p. 349 § 16 and 18. In the same document, the pope also released the diocese of Vercelli from being a suffragan of the metropolitan of Turin,"...praevia illius omnimoda solutione et exemptione a quocumque metropolitico jure, dependentia ac subjectione archiepiscopali ecclesiae Taurinensi, cui ad praesens suffragatur...." and elevated the diocese to the rank of metropolitan archdiocese. The new metropolitan archdiocese had as suffragans the dioceses of Alessandria, Biella, and Casale.Bullarii Romani Continuatio XIV, pp. 351-352 § 16 and 18.
Cathedral
Among the churches of Casale are the cathedral, a monument of Lombard architecture, and the church of Sant’Ilario (Hilary of Poitiers).History section taken originally from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia article on Casale Monferrato which is unfortunately strewn with errors.
Synods
A diocesan synod was an irregularly held, but important, meeting of the bishop of a diocese and his clergy. Its purpose was (1) to proclaim generally the various decrees already issued by the bishop; (2) to discuss and ratify measures on which the bishop chose to consult with his clergy; (3) to publish statutes and decrees of the diocesan synod, of the provincial synod, and of the Holy See.
On 23 April 1571, Bishop Benedetto Erba (1570–1576) held a diocesan synod; he held a second synod on 19 October 1574, and a third on 25 June 1576.Biblioteca storica italiana, Volume 4 (Torino: Reale deputazione di storia patria/Bocca 1892), p. 88. Bishop Ambrogio Aldegati presided over a diocesan synod on 28 April 1568.Constitutiones synodales reverendissimi domini Ambrosii Aldegati, episcopi Casalensis de anno 1568, die 28 aprilis. Cappelletti XIV, p. 584. Bishop Tullio Carretti held a diocesan synod on 4 September 1597.Constitutiones Tullii Carretti, episcopi Casalen. In prima dioecesana Synodo promulgatae anno Domini 1597, iiij septembris. (Casale: Bernardus Grassi 1597). Biblioteca storica italiana, 4 (1892) p. 88.
On 8 April 1622, Bishop Scipione Pasquali (12 Jan 1615 – 1624) presided over a diocesan synod and published its decrees and other materials.Promptuarium ecclesiasticum casalensis dioecesis in partem septem distributum : quarum prima continet secundae dioecesanae synodi constitutiones anno 1622. VIII idus aprilis promulgatas, Scipione Pascalio episcopo (Casale: apud Pantaleonem Goffium 1622. Biblioteca storica italiana, 4 (1892) p. 89. On 9 December 1658, Bishop Francesco Mirolio held a diocesan synod.Speculum Ecclesiasticum dioecesis Casalensis propositum ab illustr . et reverendissimo D. D. HIERONYMO FRANCISCO MIROLIO, Episcopo Casalen ., et Comite etc., in Synodo Dioecesana habita Casali anno MDCLVIII. (Casale: Franciscum Martam 1658). Biblioteca storica italiana, 4 (1892) p. 89.