and Metropolitan of the province, wanted to latinize the Church of Nardò completely; but the Pope would not let him. The See of Nardò, after many vicissitudes, was restored finally in 1413. In the sixteenth century Fabio Fornari again made an effort to abolish the Byzantine, or mixed, rite in his diocese. But the Byzantine canons appealed to the Congregation for Eastern rites. At that time the prefect of this Congregation was Cardinal Santoro, Archbishop of St Severina.[1] He was himself of the Roman rite; but he deserves to be remembered as, with Cardinal Sirlet,[2] the great protector of the Byzantine rite in Italy in the sixteenth century. His answer is quoted in full by Rodotà. He refuses to allow the latinization of those
- ↑ Cardinal Julius Antony Santoro (in Latin sometimes "Sanctorius," 1532-1602) was a famous person of great merit. He was Archb. of S Severina, Cardinal in 1570, and a member of the Holy Office. In 1577 he became one of the five first protectors of the Greek College at Rome. In 1585 he succeeded Sirlet as protector of the reformed Order of St Basil (p. 132). In the same year he became president of the Congregation for Eastern rites. It was Santoro who composed Clement VIII's Instruction for the Italo-Greeks in 1595. He also arranged a Roman "Rituale seu Sacerdotale," printed at Rome in 1586, but never published. This is the chief source of our present Ritual (published by Paul V in 1614). In the Constitution Apost. sedis in the preface of our Ritual, is a reference to this work of Santoro, "Iulius Antonius S.R.E. Card. S Seuerinæ nuncupatus."
- ↑ William Sirlet (Sirletus, Sirleto, 1514-1585) is the other, even greater, friend and protector of the Italo-Greeks in the sixteenth century. He was a Calabrian, very learned in Greek, but himself of the Roman rite. He was one of the chief consultors of the Council of Trent (1545-1563), one of the editors of the Sixtine Vulgate, president of the Commissions for the reform of the Calendar (1582), for the new editions of the Missal, Breviary, and Martyrology, one of the "Correctores romani" of the C.I. Can., and author of many treatises, chiefly on liturgical matters. He was a member of the Commission for " the reform of the Greeks," one of the first protectors of the Greek College at Rome, chief author of the reform of the Basilian monks in Italy, and first protector of the new Congregation (p. 132), Vatican Librarian from 1570 to his death. In 1565 Sirlet was made a Cardinal with the title of St Lawrence in Panisperna. In 1566 he was ordained Bishop of San Marco in Calabria by Pope Pius V himself; two years later he was transferred to Squillace; but he did not reside much in his diocese. He lived at Rome, consulted by learned men all over Europe, while his nephew, Marcellus Sirlet, administered his diocese in his name. At the Conclave of 1585 he nearly became Pope. He was a friend of St Charles Borromeo; his death-bed (October 6, 1585) was attended by St Philip Neri. He is buried in his titular church, San Lorenzo in Panisperna, at Rome.
First Sirlet, then Santoro were consulted, and had a decisive voice in all the affairs of the Italo-Greeks in their time.
