BARONIUJS, CAESAR (1538-1607), ecclesiastical his torian, was born at Sora and educated at Veroli and Naples. At Rome he joined the Oratory in 1557 under St. Philip Neri (q.v.) and succeeded him as superior in 1593. Clement VIII., whose confessor he was, made him cardinal in 1596 and librarian of the Vatican. At two conclaves he was nearly elected pope, but at both was opposed by Spain on account of his work On the Mon archy of Sicily, in which he supported the papal claims against the Spanish. His Annales Ecclesiastici were undertaken in reply to the Magdeburg Centuries; after nearly 3o years of lecturing on the history of the Church at the Vallicella and being trained by St. Philip as a great man for a great work, he began to write, and produced the 12 folios (1588-1607) of the Annales. In spite of errors, especially in Greek history, in which he had to depend upon secondhand information, the work of Baronius is an honest attempt to write history. Sarpi, in urging Casaubon to write against Baronius, warns him never to suspect Baronius of bad faith, for no one who knew him could accuse him of disloyalty to truth. Baronius makes his own the words of St. Augustine : "I shall love with a special love the man who most rigidly and severe ly corrects my errors." He also undertook a new edition to the Roman martyrology (1586), which he purified of many inac curacies.