19/12/22, 11'50 Théologiens, savants, érudits : images et réalités dans la Rome de la fin du XVIIe siècle Pagina 2 di 17 https://journals.openedition.org/mefrim/7011 knowledge, by analyzing the identity discourses and scholarly practices of theologians in seventeenth-century Rome. After recalling the relatively weak place of theology in the Roman careers, but also in the Roman system of sciences, it highlights the rise of ecclesiastical scholarship in the 17 th century, with a new appreciation of the skills of historians in the curia, but also a form of dilution of theology as knowledge. The twisting of the figure of the theologian as scholar in the direction of erudition joins a supranational model of the man of knowledge. Theologians accept the new criteria of the hierarchy of knowledge, especially literary criteria. In the Society of Jesus, too, a form of marginalization of theology is emerging, yet according to specific logics.