Editing Caesar Baronius (section)

==Works==
Baronio is best known for his ''[[Annales Ecclesiastici]]''. It was after almost three decades of lecturing at [[Santa Maria in Vallicella]] that he was asked by Philip Neri to tackle this work, as an answer to a polemical anti-Catholic historical work, the ''[[Magdeburg Centuries]]''.{{sfn|Taunton|1911}} Baronio was at first unwilling that the task should be given to him and tried to persuade Neri to entrust the work to [[Onofrio Panvinio]], who was already working on a history of the Church. After repeated commands from Neri, however, Baronius changed his mind and spent the rest of his life devoted to this enormous task.

In the ''Annales'', he treats history in strict chronological order and keeps [[theology]] in the background.{{sfn|Taunton|1911}} [[John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton|Lord Acton]] called it "the greatest history of the Church ever written".<ref>[[John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton|Lord Acton]] (1906). [[s:Lectures on Modern History|''Lectures on Modern History'']], "[[s:Lectures on Modern History/The Counter-Reformation|The Counter-Reformation]]", p. 121.</ref> In the ''Annales'', Baronio coined the term "[[Dark Ages (historiography)|Dark Age]]" in the Latin form ''saeculum obscurum'',<ref>Baronius, Caesar. ''[[Annales Ecclesiastici]]'', Vol. X. Roma, 1602, p. 647.</ref> to refer to the period between the end of the [[Carolingian Empire]] in 888 and the first inklings of the [[Gregorian Reform]] under [[Pope Clement II]] in 1046.

Notwithstanding its errors, especially in [[Greek history]] where he was obliged to depend upon secondhand information, Baronio's work stands as an honest attempt at historiography. [[Paolo Sarpi|Sarpi]], in urging [[Isaac Casaubon|Casaubon]] to write a refutation of the ''Annales'', warned him never to accuse or suspect Baronio of bad faith.{{sfn|Taunton|1911}}

Baronio also undertook a new edition of the [[Roman Martyrology]] (1586), in the course of his work he applied critical considerations to removed entries he considered implausible for historical reasons, and added or corrected others according to what he found in the sources to which he had access.{{sfn|Taunton|1911}} He is also considered as saying, cited in the context of the controversies about the work of [[Copernicus]] and [[Galileo]], "The Bible teaches us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go."<ref>Cerrato, Edoardo Aldo. [http://www.oratoriosanfilippo.org/galileo-baronio-english.pdf "How to go to Heaven, and not how the heavens go"]</ref> This remark, which probably Baronio (according to some) made in conversation with Galileo, before the controversy, as he died before it, was cited by the latter (without precise attribution) in his ''[[Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina]]'' (1615).

At the time of the [[Venetian Interdict]], Baronio published a pamphlet, ''Paraenesis ad rempublicam Venetam'' (1606). It took a stringent papalist line on the crisis.<ref name="Bouwsma1984">{{cite book|author=William J. Bouwsma|author-link=William J. Bouwsma|title=Venice and the Defense of Republican Liberty: Renaissance Values in the Age of the Counter Reformation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uMLy6Ht7fxEC&pg=PA379|access-date=12 September 2012|date=29 August 1984|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-05221-5|page=379}}</ref> It was answered  in the same year by the ''Antiparaenesis ad Caesarem Baronium'' of [[Nicolò Crasso]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Niccolò Crasso|title=Antiparaenesis ad Caesarem Baronium Cardinalem pro S. Venetia republica|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MMlEAAAAcAAJ|access-date=12 September 2012|year=1606}}</ref>