Published in Rebecca Messbarger, Christopher M.S. Johns, and Philip Gavitt, eds., Benedict XIV and the Enlightenment: Art, Science, and Spirituality (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2016), 151-174. www.utppublishing.com/Benedict-XIV-and-the-Enlightenment-Art-Science-and-Spirituality.html PLEASE REFER TO AND QUOTE EXCLUSIVELY FROM THE PUBLISHED VERSION MODERNIZING THE MIRACULOUS BODY IN PROSPERO LAMBERTINI’S DE SERVORUM DEI Fernando Vidal ( * ) The book on miracles of Prospero Lambertini’s De Servorum Dei Beatificatione, et Beatorum Canonizatione (1734–8) has been hailed as “the first survey of Catholic paranormology” and as the work that gave the Catholic Church its definitive “medical code.” 1 Although preternatural characterizes better than paranormal the range of phenomena Lambertini dealt with, code is the right word. Indeed, Lambertini’s goal was to offer rules for assessing whether or not extraordinary events, especially healings, were to be considered miraculous. 2 This was in line with his perspective as a canon lawyer and with the legal offices he held at the Roman Curia, those of consistorial advocate and Promotor Fidei. 3 It has been noticed that, to attain his goal, Lambertini substantially reduced the field of possible miracles in connection with “nervous and mental illnesses.” 4 Thus, he has also been praised for clearly ( * ) ICREA (Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies) / CEHIC (Center for the History of Science, Autonomous University of Barcelona), fernando.vidal@icrea.cat 1 Alessandrini, “Creder tutto ... creder nulla,” cxvi; Gorce, L’Œuvre médicale de Prospero Lambertini, 114. 2 Lambertini, De Servorum Dei Beatificatione, et Beatorum Canonizatione Vol. 4. Unless otherwise indicated, “De Servorum Dei” refers only to Book IV.I. “DSD” stands for De Servorum Dei, and “DI” for DSD, Liber IV, Pars I (In qua agitur de Miraculis), caput ultimum (De Imaginatione, et ejus viribus). 3 Consistorial advocates plead causes before ecclesiastical courts. The Promotor Fidei (“devil’s advocate”) used to examine and question the evidence on virtues and miracles submitted in beatification and canonization processes. Its function was redefined in John Paul II’s 1983 apostolic constitution Divinus Perfectionis Magister and the accompanying New Laws for the Causes of Saints, which eliminated the adversarial character of the canonization process and downgraded the Promotor of the Faith’s role to that of a sort of secretary. 4 Maragi, “Psichiatria e guarigioni miracolose,” 214.