Page:Englishhistorica36londuoft.djvu/273

 1921 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 265 is devoted to short biographies of those Italian reformers who were looked upon as at least tainted with heresy. The appendix contains translations of the dialogues of Bernardino Ochino, and of treatises by Cardinal Con- tarini on justification, free will, and predestination, as well as biblio- graphies of the works of leading reformers. A further volume will, we understand, treat of the change which came over the character of the papacy, the Roman curia, and the Italian clergy under the influence of the counter-reformation. The picture which we are given here shows that the Italian reformation followed the same lines as those with which the more successful aspects of the movement north of the Alps have made us familiar. In Italy, as in Germany and France, the reformation was at once a development of the renaissance and a reaction from it. As in Germany Favre attributed the spread of Lutheranism to the scandalous lives of the clergy, so in Italy Cardinal Caraffa wrote to Pope Paul III : ' There are no greater allies, defenders and promoters of heresy than bad priests ' (p. 138). Non-residence was a prevailing evil ; out of two hundred and seventy Italian bishops, over eighty were at that time living in Rome. Parish priests affected lay dress and manners, they stole the ornaments from their churches, they were convicted of gambling, brawling, and assas- sination. As an example of moral laxity, the numerous records of sons of priests, legitimatized by the authority of the curia, are noteworthy. 28 July 1539, legitimatization of Annibale and Pietro Tarquinio, aged 8 years and 7 years, sons of Cesare da Fermo, priest, procurator of the Curia. This is one among many entries showing that the Italian clergy had modelled itself all too closely upon the ideals of antiquity. While reform in Italy reveals itself as an integral part of the reformation as a whole, it is not without its peculiar Italian characteristics. Italy, with her inborn love for freedom both of thought and action, could not reconcile herself to the bondage of the Genevan system. Luther's doctrines* however, found ready acceptance, so much so that in Venice, during the latter half of the sixteenth century, there were over eight hundred pro- secutions of Lutherans as against five of Calvinists. A feature of the Italian movement is the number of women, drawn from all ranks of society, who were members of the reforming party. Renee of France, duchess of Ferrara, whose court formed a centre of refuge for French exiles ; Olimpia Morata, the talented instructress of Renee's children; Giulia Gonzaga,^ whose beauty lured Khaireddin Barbarossa into an attempt to kidnap her, and whose intellectual difficulties inspired the composition of Valdes's Alfabeto Cristiano; — such women are stars among a galaxy of lesser lights. In vain Cardinal Pole tried to restrain Vittoria Colonna's ardour for theological speculation, bidding her ' confine herself within the limits imposed by her sex ' (p. 327). Her intellectual interests bear witness to the truth of Castiglione's dictum : ' All the things that men can under- stand, the same can women understand too, and where the intellect of the one penetrates, there also can that of the other penetrate.' * Taken as a whole, the Italian reformers were essentially moderate 1 II Cortegiano, lib. iii.