Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/384

 MINT

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MINT

Minsk suffciT(l imu'li fnmi the violent attempts at prosolytism <m the part of Emperors Nicholas I and Alexander II, by wliom the Uniat Lithuanians and Ruthenians were driven out. After the death of Bishop Hermann Woitkiewicz (lSo'2-9) no successor was appointed, owing to governmental opposition, and since then the diocese has heen administered by the Archbishop of MohilelT. According to the census of the Archdiocese of MohilelT for 1910, the Diocese of Minsk contained 51 parishes, with 77 priests and 22,- 374 faithful. The Uniat Ruthenian See of .Minsk was erected by Phis VI, 9 August, 1798, but has been left vacant on accoimt of the opposition of the Russian Government. (See Russia.)

Joseph Lins.

Mint, Pap.\l. — The right to coin money being a soNcreign prerogative, there can be no papal coins of earlier date than that of the temporal power of the popes. Nevertheless, there arc coins of Pope Zach- arias (741-.')2), of (iregory III (Ficoroni, "Museo Kircheriano"), and, po.ssibly, of Gregory II (715-741). There is no doubt that these pieces, two of which are of silver, are true coins, antl not merely a species of medals, like those which were distributed as " presby- terium" at the coronation of the popes since the time of Valentine (S27). Their stamp resembles that of the Byzantine and Merovingian coins of the seventh and eighth centuries, and their square shape is also found in Byzantine pieces. Those that bear the in- scription GREii p.\PE — SCI PTR (Grcgorii Papa? — Sancti Petri) cannot be attributed to Pope Gregory IV (827—14), because of the peculiarity of minting. The existence of these coins, while the popes yet recognized the Byzantine domination, is explained by Hartmann (Das Kimigreich Italien, Vol. Ill), who believes that, in the eighth century, the popes received from the emperors the attributes of "Pra^fectus Urbis". Under the empire, coins that were struck in the provinces bore the name of some local magistrate, and those coins of Gregory and of Zacharias are simply imperial Byzantine pieces, bearing the name of the first civil magistrate of the City of Rome. There are no coins of Stephen III or of Paul I, who reigned when the Duchy of Rome was already intlependent of the Eastern Empire; the first true papal coins are those of Adrian I, from whose time until the reign of John XIV (984) the popes coined money at Rome.

There is no pontifical money of a date between the last-named year and 130.5; this is explained, in part, by the fact that the Senate of Rome, which sought to replace the papacy in the temporal government of the city, took over the mint in 1143. On the other hand. Prince .\lberic had already coined money in his own name. The coins of the Senate of Rome usually liear the in.scription " roma caput mundi ", or, s. p. Q. R,, or both, with or without emblems. In 1188 the mint was restored to the pope (Clement III), with the agreement, however, that half of its profits should be assigned to the sindacn, or mayor. The Senate, meanwhile, continued to coin money, and there is no reference, on the coins of that time, to the papal authority. In the thirteenth century the Sindaco caused his own name to be stamped upon the coins, and, consequently, we have coins of Branca- leone, of Charles I of .\njou, of Francesco Anguillara, viceroy of Robert of Naples, etc.; so, also, did King Ladislao. Cola di Rienzi, during his brief tribunate, likewise struck coins, with the in.scription: n. tribun. august.: ROMA CAPU. Mr. Papal coins reappeared with the removal of the pontifical Court to .\vignon, although there exists a single coin that is referred to Benedict XI (1303-4), with the legend coitat. ven.\- .sin; as, however, this pope never resided in Venaissin, which had belonged (o the Holy See since 1274, the coin should be referred to Benedict XII. There are coins of all the popes from John XXII to Pius IX.

The popes, and .also the Senate when it coined money, appear to have u.sed the imperial mint of Rome, which was on the slope of the Campidoglio, not far from the ."Vrch of Septimius Severus ; but, in the fifteenth century, the mint was near the bank of Santo Spirito. Finally, in 1665, Alexander VII moved it to the rear of the apse of St. Peter's, where it is at present. Bernini invented for it a machine to do the work more rapitUy, and Francesco tiirardini furnished a very sensit ive balance ; so that the mint of Rome was technically the most perfect one of those times. In 1845 Pius IX equipped it with the most modern appliances. The administration of the mint was at first entrusted to the cardinal camcrlengo; direct supervision, however, was exercised by the senate, from the time at least when that body took possession of the mint, until the reign of Martin V. The sindaco and the conservators of the Camera Cavitiilitia appointed the masters of the mint, while the minting was witnessed bv the heads of the guild of g.ildsmitlis and silversmiths. In 1322 John XXII created tlie ofhce of treasurer for the mint of Avignon, and its incumbent, little by little, made himself in- dependent of the camerlengo. Later, the office of prelate president of the mint was created. According to Lunadori (Relaz. della Corte di Roma, 1646), the estalilishments for the coining of money were in charge of a congregation of cardinals.

Rome was not the only city of the Pontifical States that had a mint: prior to the year 1000, there existed at Ravenna the former imperial mint, which was ceded in 996 to .\rchbishop (ierberto by (iregory V; there were mints also at Spoleto and at Benevento, former residences of Lombard dukes. The Archbishop of Ravenna, who was a feudatory of the emperor rather than of the pope, coined money as long as his temporal power over that city and its territory lasted. The mint of the Emperor Henry VI was established at Bologna in 1194, and nearly all of the coins struck there bear the motto bononia docet, or bononia mater studioru.m. The haiocrhi of Bologna were called bolngnini, while the gold bolognino was equiva- lent to a gold sequin. The lira, also a Bolognese coin, was worth 20 bolognini. These coins were struck in the name of the commune; it is only from the time when Bologna was recovered by the Holy See, under Clement VI, that Bolognese coins may be regarded as papal.

Other cities had mints because they were the capi- tals of principalities subject to the Holy See, or in virtue of a privilege granted them by some prince; and when these feudal states fell to the Holy See, they retained the mints as papal establishments. This was so in the case of Camerino (from Leo X to Paul III), Urbino, Pesaro and Gubbio (under Julius II, Leo X, and Clement XI), Ferrara (from Clement VIII), Parma and Piacenza (from Julius II to Paul III). There were other cities to which the popes granted a mint for limited periods of time, as Ancona (from Sixtus IV to Pius VI), Aquila (1486, when that city rebelled against Ferdinand I of Naples and gave its allegiance to Innocent VIII; its coins, which are very rare, bear the inscription aquilana liber- TAs), Aseoli (from Martin V to Pius VI), Avignon (from Clement V on), Carpentras (under Clement VIII), Venaissin (from Boniface VIII), Fabriano (under Leo X), Fano (from Innocent VIII to Clement VIII), Fermo (from Boniface IX, 1390, to Leo X), The Marches (from Boniface IX to (iregory XIII), Macerata ffrom Boniface IX to Gregory XIV), Modena (under Leo X and Clement VII), Montalto (imder Sixtus V), Orvieto (under Julius II), the "Patrimony" (from Benedict XI to Benedict XII), Perugia (from Julius II to Julius III), Ravenna (from Leo X to Paul III, and under Benedict XIV), Recanati (imder Nicholas V), Reggio (from Julius II to Adri.an VI), Spoleto (under Paul II), Duchy of