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1. Definition and introductionNepotism (from the Latin  nepos, “grandson,” “nephew,” “descendant,”) denotes a policy of preferring the criterion of personal kinship in the bestowal of offices and benefits. Used in a very general sense today in relation to cronyism in business and politics, the word began life in early 17th-century Rome referring to a very specific historical phenomenon: the practice of the popes’ preferring their own relations (usually, given the commandment of celibacy, nephews rather…

1. History 1.1. Antiquity and Middle Ages 1.1.1. Claim and characterCiting the quotation attributed to Christ, “Thou art Peter [Greek Pétros, “rock”], and upon this rock I will build my church” (Mt 16,18), the papacy saw itself as an institution founded by Jesus Christ, in which the implicit seniority of Peter among the group of the Apostles was perpetuated in the form of a hierarchical supreme head of the Roman Catholic Church, equipped with exclusive powers. Seen in terms of historical development, however, this …