Caesar Baronius

Church historian, born in Sora, S Italy. He was one of the first pupils of St Philip Neri, and attached himself to his Congregation of the Oratory, becoming its superior in 1593. He wrote the first critical Church history, the Annales Ecclesiastici (1588–1607). He became a cardinal in 1596, and was made Vatican librarian.

At subsequent conclaves he was twice nearly elected pope, but on each occasion was opposed by Spain on account of his work on the Monarchy of Sicily, in which he supported the papal claims against those of the Spanish government. Baronius is best known by his Annales Ecclesiastici, undertaken by the Order of St. Philip as an answer to the anti-Catholic history, the Magdeburg Centuries. After nearly thirty years of lecturing at the Vallicella on the history of the Church and being trained by the Order as a great man for a great work, he began to write, and produced twelve folios (1588–1607).

In the Annales he treats history in strict chronological order and keeps theology in the background. In spite of many errors, especially in Greek history, in which he had to depend upon secondhand information, the work of Baronius stands as an honest attempt to write history, marked with a sincere love of truth. Baronius makes use of the words of St Augustine: "I shall love with a special love the man who most rigidly and severely corrects my errors."