C. The Italian Renewal Movement—Evangélisme
C. The Italian Renewal Movement—Evangélisme
The variegated shape of sixteenth-century Italian religious reform has resisted precise definition.52 Eva-Marie Jung calls it “the last Catholic reform movement before the Council of Trent and the first ecumenical movement after the schism of the Reformation.”53 According to Elisabeth Gleason, the most helpful terminus a quo for assessing the movement is 1512; she proposes the terminus ad quem should be extended to the 1560s, allowing for “echoes” into the seventeenth century.54 Gleason has written a detailed historiographical survey of the movement, in which she warns interpreters not to lose sight of its vast scope.55
Among the first studies devoted to the movement in English was Jung’s article, “On the Nature of Evangelism in Sixteenth-Century Italy.”56 In it, Jung famously defined the Italian reform movement’s three characteristics as theologically undogmatic, aristocratic, and transitory.57 In a similar vein, William Bouwsma argued for the movement’s subjective impulse by highlighting its affinities with renaissance republicanism, an orientation that was especially vibrant in the territory of Venice. These political values are thought to have prepared the Italian soil from which Evangélisme eventually emerged. 58
Such portraits have not gone unchallenged. The most ardent critique of Jung’s and Bouwsma’s historiography has been by McNair, who disagrees with their explanation of the movement’s origin and nature. Regarding the former, he rejects the notion that Evangélisme was an indigenous, Catholic phenomenon in isolation from the Protestant north.59 He cites evidence from “monastic records, humanist letters, Valdésian memoirs, and histories of Naples” to demonstrate the influence of Protestant literature that circulated among the friends of Vermigli.60 A significant example from his arsenal is a statement from Simler’s Oratio that explains the three Neapolitan years in which Vermigli acquired and carefully studied Bucer’s commentaries on the Gospels61 and the annotations on the Psalms.62 Martyr also read Zwingli’s book, On True and False Religion and On God’s Providence,63 together with some works from Erasmus. According to Simler, “He [Vermigli] often frankly confessed that he made much progress from reading all of these.”64
Following from this premise, McNair also questions the assumed nature of Evangélisme, particularly doubting that it can legitimately be regarded as undogmatic. In making his case, McNair correlates the theological concerns of the Valdésian circle of Naples (of which Peter Martyr was a part) with the contours of the Protestant Reformation. Common dogmatic concerns are evident in books and sermons that circulated through major Italian cities in the 1530s, particularly in Venice, Padua, Florence, Rome, and Naples.65 Accordingly, McNair defines Evangélisme as a “positive reaction of certain spiritually-minded Catholics to the challenge of Protestantism, and, in particular, to the crucial doctrine of justification by faith.”66 While generally compelling, McNair’s case is weakened by his failure to interact with Contarini’s experience of spiritual illumination and embrace of justification by faith alone, as expressed in his letters.67
While perspectives on Italian Evangélisme are many,68 it is nevertheless possible to reliably discern the movement’s basic orientation. The parameters of this study will not allow for a comprehensive treatment; but, in what follows, we will sketch out the basic agenda of Evangélisme. To that end, we will firstly consider religious discourse in Italy during the years immediately before and into the sixteenth century.