Synod of Pistoia - Assembly in Florence

Assembly in Florence

These decrees were issued together with a pastoral letter of Bishop de' Ricci, and were warmly approved by the grand-duke, at whose instance a national synod of the Tuscan bishops met at Florence on April 23, 1787. The temper of this assembly was, however, wholly different. The bishops refused to allow a voice to any not of their own order, and in the end the decrees of Pistoia were supported by a minority of only three. They were finally condemned at Rome by the bull Auctorem fidei of August 28, 1794. De' Ricci, deprived of the personal support of the grand-duke (now the emperor Leopold I), exposed to pressure from Rome, and threatened with mob violence as a suspected destroyer of holy relics, resigned his see in 1791, and lived in Florence as a private gentleman until his death. In May 1805, on the return of Pope Pius VII from Paris, he signed an act of submission to the papal decision of 1794.