How many people remember the Synod of Pistoia? If you have never heard about it, or forgotten all about it, here are twobrief articles that call fill you in.
The Synod of Pistoia was the work of two men. One was the Bishop of Pistoia, Scipione de Ricci, and the other Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany (brother of Marie Antoinette, and later Leopold II of Austria). Leopold, like his brother Emperor Joseph, had advanced ideas about Church reform coupled with a passion for minutiae, and he found a kindred spirit in the Bishop. The Synod was called in 1786 with a view to “modernising” the Church.
