Vergerio's Anti-Nicodemite Propaganda and England, 1547–1558

Abstract

Deceit is normally held in low esteem; pointing as it does to an evil disposition; there are, nonetheless, countless instances when it has reaped obvious benefits and deflected all manner of harm and ill report and mortal perils. For our conversation is not always with friends in this earthly life: Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, canto 4, i

A common response to the enforcement of religious conformity in the sixteenth century was deceit, either by silence or dissimulation. Contemporaries called people who chose this evasion Nicodemites, after Nicodemus who came to Christ by night. The propaganda campaign conducted against them by anti-Nicodemites stressed the necessity of individual witness, supported by scriptural references. Virtually all the major reformers made their contribution – Calvin, Viret, Bullinger – even Bucer after an earlier more easy-going phase. Prominent among the lesser lights were Italian exiles who had personal experience of Nicodemite dilemmas after conformity began to be enforced in Italy in the early 1540s. Peter Martyr Vermigli, Francesco Negri and Caelio Secondo Curione all wrote on the subject, but Pier Paolo Vergerio, who left his Italian bishopric for exile in 1549, was by far the most outspoken and prolific.