Synod of Pistoia

[3] On January 26, 1786 the Grand Duke issued a circular letter to the bishops of Tuscany, suggesting certain "reforms", especially in the matter of the revival of the holding of diocesan synods, the purging of the missals and breviaries of legends, the assertion of episcopal as against papal authority, the curtailing of the privileges of the monastic orders, and improved education for the clergy.

[4] It was attended by 233 beneficed secular priests and 13 regulars and decided with practical unanimity on a series of decrees which, had it been possible to carry them into effect, would have involved drastic changes in the Tuscan Church on the lines advocated by Febronius.

Other decrees denounced the supposed abuse of indulgences, of festivals of saints, and of processions and proposed revised regulations; others again enjoined the closing of shops on Sunday during divine service, the introduction of the vernacular tongue into the Roman Rite, the issue of editions of liturgical texts for the devotional use of the people that had parallel translations in the vernacular, and recommended the abolition of all monastic orders except that of St. Benedict, the rules of which were to be brought into harmony with modern ideas; nuns were to be forbidden to take vows before the age of 40.

Some of its proposals had already been Church law for centuries, others were moderate pastoral measures, others concerned matters well beyond the authority of any diocesan body and others were in any case more in the nature of "fillers" to make up a heady and high-sounding revolutionary manifesto.

Bishop Ricci seized his moment, and seems to have adhered with enthusiasm to the event, but at the same time he had limited choice given the domination of the absolutist regime in Tuscany, a small state, but backed by the international power wielded by the Habsburg-Lorrainers.