156 Early-modern Catholic self-fashioning “Spanish style”: aspects of Tadhg Ó Cianáin’s Rome Mícheál Mac Craith O n 29 May 1608, the third anniversary of his coronation, Pope Paul V canonised Santa Francesca Romana in the basilica of St Peter’s in Rome. The pope obviously regarded this event as one of the highlights of his pontifi- cate, for that it was chosen, alongside the canoni- sation of St Charles Borromeo in 1610, as one of the achievements to be depicted in bas relief on his funerary monument in the Cappella Paolina in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Hugh O’Neill and Rory O’Donnell both attended the canonisa- tion as honoured guests of his holiness, and their chronicler, Tadhg Ó Cianáin, wrote a vivid account of the occasion and the subsequent celebrations. In order to gain a proper appreciation of Ó Cianáin’s description, it will be helpful to investigate the na- ture and frequency of canonisations in early mod- ern Europe, as well as the contemporary impact of the newly canonised saint. Our understanding of Ó Cianáin’s narrative is further enhanced by com- paring it with other descriptions of the same event in English and Italian. The public veneration of saints in the Chris- tian Church goes back at least as far as the second century. The local community had particular ven- eration for those who gave the ultimate witness to their religious belief in shedding their blood for the faith. The word ‘martyr’ itself means ‘witness’ and the faithful generally believed that a person who died for the faith was certainly in heaven and could intercede for those who invoked his/her interces- sion. When the era of persecution and martyrdom ceased, however, a different kind of saint, confes- sor fidei, came to the fore, the term denoting one who lived for the faith, professing it, defending it, even suffering for it, but not compelled to give the ultimate witness of dying for his/her beliefs. This group gradually expanded to include missionaries, teachers, and those worthy of veneration in conse- quence of their exemplary charity or asceticism. In the early years of Christianity the local community, vox populi, ultimately decided a person’s worthiness for veneration. While the faithful in general could decide to visit a saint’s tomb, implore his interces- sion or proclaim his miracles, this informal pro- cedure was deemed insufficient. Something more authoritative was needed, and this was initially provided by the approbation of the local bishop. By the eleventh century many felt that the sta- tus of a local saint could be further enhanced if his or her cult received formal papal sanction. In 993, Pope John XV raised St Udalricus/Ulric in the first known papal canonisation. Liutolf, Ulric’s successor as bishop of Augsburg, presented a book of his life and miracles to a council at the Lateran. The council examined this work, and the pope subsequently canonised the saint. The following centuries saw the elaboration of formal procedures and the provision of authenticated documents that would help to overcome the danger of abuses present in the informal spontaneous approach to the veneration of saints. In 1234 Pope Gregory IX finally sanctioned the norms regarding the meth- ods of investigating the life and miracles of candi- dates for sainthood. By the sixteenth century, however, the cult of the saints came under attack from both humanists and reformers alike. The reformers claimed that the intercessory power of the saints had no basis in Scripture and that it undermined the role of Jesus Christ as unique mediator between humanity and God. Although Luther had sharply criticised the 5,005 relics in the chapel of Frederick the Wise at Wittenberg, he later tried to control his followers who smashed images: ‘Of course there are abuses, but are they eliminated by destroying the objects abused? Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we then prohibit wine and abolish women? Such haste and violence betray lack of confidence in God’. 1 While he advocated the removal of imag- es of saints who had not received biblical sanction, he did not in any way condone their destruction: ‘Crucifixes, manger scenes, and apostles could stay; Saints Ursula, George and Christopher, along with myriad others, must ultimately go’. 2 ‘Ultimately’ is the operative word in the above quotation. Luther hoped his followers could be gradually weaned away from reliance on the saints, in parallel with his own religious development. 3 He envisaged a similar process regarding the use of images. Writing to Nikolaus Hausmann in 1522, he suggested that images would fall on their own