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Grace and Justification: Some Italian Views of the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

O. M. T. Logan
O. M. T. Logan
Affiliation:
Lecturer in the School of European Studies, University of East Anglia
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Extract

In 1544, one Francesco Colonna, making his testament in Venice, wrote: ‘I recommend to Almighty God my being and my soul, and when it is his pleasure to remove me from this life, I am content; knowing that in this life I can do no good thing, but rather that I shall always offend his majesty. If I have ever said a word or performed a deed that was pleasing to him, I know that I have always been impelled and moved by the Holy Spirit, when I have had any good thought, desire or wish, I have always recognised it to be from him and through his grace alone and whenever I have willed to conduct myself by my blind judgment, presumptive wisdom and diabolical spirit, I have always done the contrary and offended his divine majesty. I leave all, therefore, to God, the Supreme Father … and should he wish to take away all that he has given me, there would remain my sins alone, for these sins are mine and all other things are his; if I go with these sins before God, I am damned, if I wish to make satisfaction, I cannot. Indeed there is no saint who can take my sins for his and satisfy and placate the wrath of God, nor is there anyone who can do so save Jesus Christ. To him, therefore, I leave all my wretched thoughts, desires and acts and all my sins, past, present and future. I make a bundle of them and give them to Jesus Christ my Lord, with the certain faith and constant hope that he will, out of sublime charity, accept them for his.’

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , April 1969 , pp. 67 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

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References

page 67 note 1 Archivio Di Stato, Venice (henceforth referred to as A.S.Ven.). Notarile—Testamenti, Busta (file) 1216. Protocol v fol. 38r.

page 68 note 1 Some particularly interesting examples may be found in A.S.Ven. Notarile—Testamenti, Buste 58, 843, 1181, 1217, 1218, 1249, 1250, 1251, 1262, 1263, 1264.

page 68 note 2 For these editions and for the general background of Augustinian studies, see Kristeller, P. O., ‘Augustine and the Early Renaissance’ in his Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters, Rome 1956, 355–72.Google Scholar

page 68 note 3 Renaudet, A., Préréforme et humanisme à Paris pendant les premières guerres d'Italic 1494–1517, 2nd ed.Paris 1953, 622–34.Google Scholar

page 69 note 1 Jedin, H., ‘Contarini und Camaldoli’, in Archivio Italiano per la Storia delta Pietd, ii (1959), 51–118Google Scholar, esp. 62–5; Jedin, , ‘Ein Turmerlebnis des jungen Contarini’, Historisches Jahrbuch, lxx (1951), 115–30.Google Scholar

page 69 note 2 G. Contarini, Opera, Paris 1571, 564–80.

page 69 note 3 Mackensen, H., ‘The Diplomatic Rôle of Cardinal Contarini’. Church History, xxvii (1958), 312–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mackensen, H., ‘Contarini's Theological Role at Ratisbon in 1541’, Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 1 (1959), 35–57Google Scholar. See also Contarini's De Iustificatione, justifying his position, in Opera, ed. cit., 588–96.

page 71 note 1 For a general treatment of the subject, see Jedin, H., A History of the Council of Trent, London 1957, i. 364–70Google Scholar; Jedin, H., Papal Legate at the Council of Trent: Cardinal Seripando, London 1947, 103–7Google Scholar, 529 and n.; Jung, E. M., ‘On the Nature of Evangelism in Sixteenth Century Italy’, Journal of the History of Ideas, xiv (1953), 511–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar; de Sta. Teresa, Fr. Domingo, Juan de Valdes 1498 (?)–1541: su pensamiento religiosoy las corrientes espirituales de su tiempo, Rome 1957, esp. 284–316Google Scholar; McNair, P., Peter Martyr in Italy: an anatomy of an apostasy, Oxford 1967, 1–50Google Scholar. Professor Jedin and Miss Jung, using the term ‘evangelism’ with basically the same connotations, regard the movement which it denotes as having strong roots in Catholic spirituality and minimise any direct links with the major German and Swiss reformers. Dr. McNair, on the other hand, evidently using the term with rather different connotations to denote a current more specifically stemming from Valdes and Ochino, believes that the influence of the northern Protestant reformers was crucial.

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page 72 note 1 Domingo de Sta. Teresa, op. cit., 104–25, 154–210, 229–48.

page 72 note 2 See McNair, op. cit., 45–8 regarding evidence that its main sources were the works of Calvin and Bucer.

page 72 note 3 Anon., Trattato utilissimo del beneficio di Gesù Cristo crocefisso verso i cristiani in Opuscoli e lettere di Riformatori italiani del Cinquecento, i, ed. Paladino, G., Bari 1913.Google Scholar

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page 72 note 5 Jedin, Papal Legate, 108–9.

page 72 note 6 Schenk, Reginald Pole, 103–5.

page 72 note 7 Concilii Tridentitd Actorum, v, 791–9.

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page 73 note 3 Jansen, F.-X., Baius et le Baianisme, Louvain 1927Google Scholar; Rondet, H., Gratia Christi, Paris 1948, 287–313Google Scholar; The Catholic Encyclopaedia, New York 1907–14Google Scholar, articles on ‘Bañez’ and ‘Molina, Luis de’.

page 73 note 4 Salvetorelli, L., ‘Le idee religiose di Fra Paolo Sarpi’, Memorie dell'Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei: Classe di scienze morali storiche e filologiche, Ser. viii v (1954), 311–60.Google Scholar

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page 73 note 6 Sarpi, P., Lettere ai Protestanti, ii, ed. Busnelli, M. D., Bari 1935, 223Google Scholar. See also Ulianich, B., ‘Sarpiana: La lettera del Sarpi allo Heinsius’, Rivista Storica Italiana, lxviii (1956), 425–46.Google Scholar

page 74 note 1 Sarpi, P., Istoria del Concilio Tridentino, i, ed. Gambarin, G., Bari 1935, 335–8.Google Scholar

page 74 note 2 Micanzi, F., Vita del Padre Paolo dell’ ordine dei Servi, Leiden 1646, iii.Google Scholar

page 74 note 3 Sarpi, Lettere ai Protestanti, ii. 148–9; Ulianich, op. cit., 442.

page 74 note 4 For Protestantism in Venice, see especially Benrath, K., Reformation in Venedig, Halle 1887Google Scholar; Paschini, P., Venezia e l'Inquisizione Romana da Giulio III a Pio IV, Padua 1959Google Scholar; Pommier, E., ‘La société vénitienne et la réforme protestante au XVIe siècle’, Bollettino dell’ Instituto di Storia della Società e dello Stato Veneziano, i (1959), 3–26.Google Scholar

page 74 note 5 Bainton, R. H., Bernardino Ochino, esule e riformatore senese del Cinquecento. 1487–1363, Florence 1940Google Scholar. For his preaching in Venice, see 50–2.

page 74 note 6 Agostini, A., Pietro Carnesecchi ed il movimento valdesiano, Florence 1889Google Scholar; for Carnesecchi in Venice, see 141–74, 208–62. For Soranzo, see above.

page 74 note 7 See Domingo de Sta. Teresa, op. cit., 419.

page 75 note 1 Pommier, op. cit., 17–18.

page 75 note 2 Rossi, V., ‘Un anedotto della storia della Riforma in Venezia’, in Scritti varii di eruditione e di critica in onore di R. Renier, Turin 1912, 839–64.Google Scholar

page 76 note 1 A.S. Ven. Notarile—Testamenti, Busta 1218. Protocol xi fol. 53r. (Test Vidal de Fornari). Busta 1262. Prot. i fol. 18r. (Test. Grimani). It should be said that identical invocations have not otherwise been found by the present writer among the more lengthy ones referring to divine Grace and mercy.

page 76 note 2 Ibid.Busta 1218. Prot. xi fol. 75r.

page 76 note 3 Ibid.Busta 1263. Prot. v fol. 63r. (test. Vincenzo Valgrizio).

page 76 note 4 Ibid.Busta 1251, Prot. v fol. 122r.

page 77 note 1 See Paladino ed., 33–40, esp. 34, 39.

page 77 note 2 A. S. Ven. Notarile—Testamenti, Busta 1218. Prot. xi fol. 28ff.

page 77 note 3 Davis, J. G., The Decline of the Venetian Nobility as a Ruling Class, Baltimore 1962, 58.Google Scholar

page 78 note 1 Jung, ‘On the Nature of Evangelism’, 524–5.

page 77 note 2 Pommier, op. cit.