3. Venice and Naples
A further part of a paper given at last year’s Theological Conference, somewhat enlarged. The previous part surveyed the progress of the Reformation in some of the Italian states. Page numbers in the text refer to Thomas M’Crie, History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in Italy in the Sixteenth Century, Edinburgh and London, 1856.
Venice was the safest state in Italy for Protestants; the Senate there consistently resisted attempts to set up the Inquisition locally and was cautious in implementing the edicts put out by the Vatican. The city of Venice was the centre for printing Protestant books in Italy and for distributing books printed in Switzerland and Germany. True doctrine made considerable progress in Venice between 1530 and 1542, so much so that those who were meeting for worship in private were now considering setting up congregations and meeting in public. In this they had the support of some members of the Senate. Reformed teaching was also having an effect in some territories controlled by Venice, including Padua and Verona. In 1545 the Pope was complaining to Venice that heresy was active in the city of Vicenza and that the local magistrates had repeatedly refused to intervene. And a letter to Luther, in a time of persecution, pointed out that “the harvest is truly great, but there are no labourers” (p 67).
As early as 1524, there were some followers of the Reformed faith in Milan. In 1536 Pope Paul III was instructing a bishop in Milan to investigate reports of “conventicles and heretics”, accusing them of “impure tenets of ancient heretics” and went on to direct the bishop to see that fitting “punishment was inflicted on the guilty” (p 68). But the accusation of heresy was inaccurate; it was the Pope’s way of describing Reformed teachings.
Celio Secundo Curione (also known as Curio) was born in Turin in 1503, the youngest of 23 children. While still young he began to read the Bible carefully and, when 19, he discovered the Reformers’ writings. As a result of reading them, he and two other young men set off for Germany; these two men later became “distinguished ministers of the Reformed Church” (p 69). On their way, they became involved in a religious argument, were reported to the authorities and thrown into prison. Curio was released through the efforts of his family and, when he was in danger of being arrested again, he fled to Milan. This was about 1530.
One day Curio went to hear a Dominican monk from Turin preach. The monk railed against the Reformers and give inaccurate quotations from Luther’s Commentary on Galatians. Curio happened to have a copy of the volume with him; he spoke to the monk after the service and read out the actual quotations in the presence of members of the congregation. They were so indignant at the misrepresentations that they drove the preacher out of town. Curio, however, was reported to the Inquisition, arrested and taken to Turin. He succeeded in escaping from prison, having “vowed to devote myself and all I possess to the service of Jesus Christ our Redeemer, and I prayed that I might not live according to my own desires, but be drawn by the Spirit towards Him and be used in His service as a chosen vessel for His glory”. But Curio had to move around from place to place in order to stay at liberty. For some time he taught in the University of Pavia, but his work, especially in the various places where he settled for a time – particularly around Milan – resulted in many having their eyes opened to the false doctrines and practices of Rome.
Quoted in M Young, The Life and Times of Aonio Paleario, London, 1860, vol 1, p 401.
He spent the last years of his life in Switzerland. In his will, he wrote, “I acknowledge and maintain that I am a Christian and that I live in the faith of God the Father, of His only begotten Son and of His Holy Spirit, and I believe that God will receive my soul. Upon His grace alone I rest all my hopes present and future; and in order that neither man nor devil may have anything to say against me, I declare that I entirely and completely believe in the Holy Scriptures contained in the Old and New Testament, and that I take Jesus Christ, the very Son of God and very man, for my only Lord and Saviour, and mediator between God and man, and that I at the same time repudiate and reject, abhor and abjure all teaching and interpretation contrary to this most holy doctrine. And I pray God with my whole heart so to grant me His Holy Spirit that I may never be moved away from this divine faith.” He died in 1569.
The kingdom of Naples was at this time ruled by Spain. In 1536 King Charles V charged his Viceroy in Naples, Don Pedro de Toledo, to punish all infected with heresy, and even those inclined to it. Don Pedro’s secretary was Juan Valdés, a Spaniard and a Protestant. He did not preach but, in private, influenced many in favour of the truth. One of them found him “entirely taken up with the study of the Holy Scriptures”. Another attributed Valdés’ influence to “the sweetness of his teaching and the holiness of his life”.
McNair, Peter Martyr in Italy, Clarendon Press, 1967, p 28.
Valdés wrote some books which were placed on the Index of prohibited books. One publication, little more than a tract, was described as “one of the sweetest, gravest and most pious and useful books which can anywhere be found”. It speaks of pardon “through Christ, [God’s] beloved Son,” and states, “If we believe in this pardon, in His promises, and so trust in Him . . . He will restore us to His favour and receive us into the kingdom of eternal life”. A sympathetic contemporary commented on this piece of writing being placed on the Index: “I cannot imagine they have done this from any other reason but from the desire of concealing the very point on which our salvation turns – to extinguish . . . every light, whether it be small or great, by which men may see and understand the love of God shown forth in Christ”.
This comment sums up the motivation behind a great deal of the persecution of those who adopted scriptural views, especially that the way of salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone. The same contemporary continued with a contrast: “They condemn those who teach and preach Jesus Christ sincerely and prudently, and allow everyone to read . . . a certain little book called Barletta, which professes to teach how to preach, though it contains nothing but the greatest folly, ignorance and impiety that ever was written. It teaches when the preacher is to pull his cap over his eyes, when he is to look at the wooden crucifix with a gentle look, and when with a stern expression; it next teaches what fables are to be related at Easter.”
Quoted in Young, Life and Times of Aonio Paleario, vol 1, p 237.
Among the others influenced by Valdés were Bernardino Ochino and Peter Martyr Vermigli. Ochino was born in 1487 in Tuscany. Later he wrote, “When I was a young man, I was under the dominion of the common error by which the minds of all who live under the yoke of the wicked Antichrist are enthralled; so that I believed that we were to be saved by our own works, fastings, prayers, abstinence, watchings and other things of the same kind, by which we were to make satisfaction for our sins and purchase heaven, through the concurring grace of God”.
So, “being anxious to be saved”, he considered what manner of life he should follow “and, believing that those modes of religion were holy which were approved by the Roman Church,” which he “regarded as infallible”, he became a Franciscan friar. He found it difficult to reconcile his views with what Scripture teaches “about salvation being the gift of God through the redemption wrought by Christ. But the authority of the Church silenced these scruples, and in proportion as concern for my soul became more intense, I applied myself with greater diligence and ardour to these bodily exercises and mortifications which were prescribed by the doctrine of the Church. Still, however, I remained a stranger to true peace of mind, which at last I found by searching the Scriptures, and such helps for understanding them as I had access to” (p 72). Ochino now became satisfied with these three truths: (1.) Christ, by His obedience and death, has merited salvation for the elect. (2.) Religious vows (by a monk, for example) are harmful and wicked. (3.) The Roman Church is unscriptural and abominable in the sight of God.
Ochino was a natural orator and his preaching was much admired. Even Charles V attended his preaching when he was in Naples and commented, “That man would make the stones weep” (pp 73-74). A cardinal wrote enthusiastically about Ochino’s preaching, but M’Crie comments, on the basis of his future conduct, that the cardinal “would have felt and spoken very differently had he been told that the doctrine to which he listened . . . was essentially Protestant” (p 75). Among the changes that took place in Ochino’s preaching were: he now appealed directly to Scripture in support of the doctrines he proclaimed; he exhorted the people to make the infallible authority of Scripture the basis of what they believed, and to build their hope of salvation on the obedience and death of Christ alone. Yet, for some time, Ochino did not preach against Roman Catholic errors and superstitions. He was afraid for his own safety and assumed his hearers were not yet ready to face up to the truth about their Church. When he came to Naples, Juan Valdés soon recognised the Protestant flavour of Ochino’s preaching, became his friend and brought him to the private meetings held by those who had adopted biblical doctrines.