Baronius, Caesar (1538–1607)

Neapolitan historian of the Roman Catholic Church. A cardinal and librarian of the Vatican, Baronius is remembered for his 12-volume Annales ecclesiastici/Annals of the Church (1588–1607), a history of Christianity meant to counter contemporary Protestant histories, which challenged the papacy.

Baronius was born at Sora, Naples. He studied law and theology at Naples, and then in Rome, where in 1557 he joined the Oratory, eventually, in 1593, succeeding St Philip Neri as its head. He became confessor to Pope Clement VIII, who made him a cardinal in 1596 and librarian of the Vatican in 1597.

The full title of his history is Annales ecclesiastici a Christi Nato ad Annum 1198/Annals of the Church from the Birth of Christ to 1198. Written to challenge in particular the Lutheran Centuriators of Magdeburg, its main aim was to show that the doctrine of the church was identical with that of the early Christian church. Although poorly arranged and inaccurate, his history is a very valuable accumulation of historical sources drawn from the Vatican and leading Italian libraries. In 1586 he published a revised and corrected edition of the Roman Martyrology, a second edition following in 1589.

His support, on the basis of his studies, for the papal claim to Sicily against that of Spain may have lost him the papacy, due to Spanish opposition.