“Some
sources
claim that Naples was a center of
Protestantism in the form of adherents of Juan de
Valdéz (c.1500-1541). The Spanish
historian Francisco Elias de Tejada*
(below) says plausibly that the group
was very small and not even made up of
Neapolitans. Thus, they couldn't
have represented any sort of home-grown
threat to Roman Catholic orthodoxy. It is
also true that Naples was the home of
a number of ‘academies’: the Pontanian;
the Sereni,
the Incogniti; the Ardenti.
These were essentially discussion groups
where literati and scholars sat around
and chewed the intellectual fat. No doubt
they discussed Martin Luther, the
Inquisition, Copernicus—all
that—but there is no evidence at all that
they were a nest of heresy
that
would require the offices of the
Inquisition to stamp out."
The
name has nothing to
do with Valdéz!
I don’t know that I
have any reason to amend that, except maybe the part
about “no evidence at all.” I suppose that the Roman
Catholic orthodoxy at the time might have found all
sorts of good reasons to smell heresy in a group of
reformers (potential Protestants) numbered in some
sources as high as 3,000 sitting around in Naples and talking about
what a clever fellow this Martin Luther was.
(“Lutero,” in Italian, puts the accent on the
second syllable. If you give the name the German
accent (on the first syllable) it sounds like
Martin L’utero—Martin the Uterus—and I bet the
Inquisition Pun-Dits had fun with that one!)
And speaking of word play, we should note that
there is, indeed, a "Valdese" Protestant church
in Naples, but
that
name
has
nothing to
do with
de Valdéz
(also spelled as "Valdés"
in some sources). Valdese
is Italian for "Waldensian"; the
name derives most likely from Peter Waldo,
a religious reformer from Lyons in the
12th century.
There are about 50,000 adherents in Italy. Although
they now term themselves "Protestant" or
"Evangelical," they are obviously not part of the
later Protestant Reformation associated with Luther.
Historically, they have more in common with their
early contemporaries such as the Cathars and
Albigensians; all of them were deemed "heretical" by
Lucius III in the 12th century and then by the Fourth
Lateran Council of Innocent III in 1215.
A time line is in order:
- 1502—Erasmus
publishes Enchiridion militis
christiani, the first of many works
that would define him as the “Intellectual
father of the Reformation”;
- 1517—the
Protestant Reformation begins in Germany
with Luther’s 95 Theses;
- 1527—The Sack
of Rome by mutinous troops of Charles V.
The army included 14,000 Germans. Some
view the event as “anti-Catholic,” driven
by the new ideology of Protestantism;
- 1530—Valdéz
arrives in Naples from Spain;
- 1532—Toledo
arrives as viceroy to Naples and the
rebuilding and modernization of the city
begins;
- 1535—Emperor
Charles V visits Naples to inspect the new
fortifications;
- 1536—By this
date, the Protestant discussion group was in
high gear in Naples; besides Valdez, the
group included Benedetto da Mantova (author
of the Calvinistic Beneficio di
Cristo), Bernardino Ochino, Peter
Martyr Vermigli, and Vittoria
Colonna (poet and acquaintance of
Michelangelo);
- 1536—Erasmus
dies;
- 1541—Valdez
dies;
- 1545—The
Council of Trent (Trento) starts, the
beginning of the Counter-Reformation;
- 1546—Luther
dies;
- 1547—The
Spanish Inquisition plans to install itself
in Naples but has to back down in the face
of popular protest; however, the Universal
Roman Inquisition is later installed in
Naples;
- 1553—Viceroy
Toledo dies;
- 1563— Council of
Trent closes.
[Valdéz
had a twin brother, Alfonso, prominent in
Spanish politics, and there is some
confusion among those who write on the
subject about just which Valdéz they
are talking about. Alfonso was secretary of
the imperial chancellery at the court of
Charles V in the 1520s. His brother, our
Juan, was the "Protestant" under discussion
here.]
I have had
difficulty finding out even where Juan lived or
had meetings with similarly-minded reformers (or
nascent Protestants, as the case may be). One
source claims that the place was “on an island in
the Bay of Naples.” That is too vague to be of any
help. It couldn’t have been Capri, Procida or
Ischia. Maybe the writer meant Nisida. Who knows?
Another source has the clumsy sentence, “On the western arm of the
Bay of Naples, hard by the tomb of Virgil,
looking forth on the calm sea, and the
picturesque island of Capri, with the opposite
shore, on which Vesuvius, with its pennon of
white vapor atop, kept watch over the cities
which 1,400 years before it had wrapped in a
winding-sheet of ashes, and enclosed in a tomb
of lava, was placed the villa of Valdez.” That,
too, is of no help.
By
way of background, Valdéz, while
he was still in Spain, was certainly influenced by
the movement of Christian mystics known as the alumbrados (illuminated ones);
because of their allergy to external ritual, their
dislike of priestly intermediaries, and their
emphasis on personal, inner spiritual experience,
they were in constant conflict with Church
authorities. By the
time of his arrival in Naples,
Valdéz had already published Diálogo
de Mercurio y Caron, attacking the
corruption in the Roman Catholic Church. His first
publication at Naples was a philological treatise,
Diálogo de la Lengua (1533), but the
thrust of his work was towards interpreting the
Bible and—the mainstay of
Protestantism—justification by faith. He also
translated portions of the Bible from Greek and
Hebrew into Spanish. Valdés died in Naples
in May, 1541.
I found a
glowing passage about him and his group.
(Obviously, this was written by a Protestant!):
“Such
were the illustrious men and the high-born
women that formed this Protestant propaganda
in Naples. It comprehended elements of power
which promised brilliant results in the
future. It formed a galaxy of rank, talent,
oratory, genius, and tact, adapted to all
classes of the nation, and constituted, one
would have thought, such an organisation or
"Bureau" as was sure to originate, and in
due time accomplish, the Reformation of
Italy. The ravages the Gothic nations had
inflicted, and the yet greater ravages of
the Papacy, were on the point of being
repaired, and the physical loveliness which
Italy had known in her first days, and a
moral beauty greater than she had ever
known, were about to be restored to her. It
was during those same years that Calvin was
beginning his labors at Geneva, and fighting
with the Pantheistic Libertines for a secure
foothold on which to place his Reformation,
that this little phalanx of devoted
Protestant champions was formed on the
shore of Naples."
Today, the only
thing evident about Reformation in Naples—indeed,
in all of Italy—is that it failed. No Italian city
or region went over to the Reformation. (On the
other hand, Italy never had to suffer through a
later Thirty Years War between Catholics and
Protestants, either.) I have nothing illuminating
to offer as to why the Protestant Reformation
failed in Naples or Italy, in general, other than
to assume that it simply could not overcome
Inquisitorial suppression or the entrenched
alliances that bound the governing classes to the
Church. Massimo Firpo* (below) points out that
“…In Europe the Reformation succeeded where it
could count on significant intervention by the
political powers, and it failed where this did not
occur.”
After the death
of Valdéz, his writings continued to
inspire church reformers (not necessarily outright
and schismatic Protestants) throughout Italy, but,
eventually, in the face of the
Counter-Reformation, they were forced into
that silent state of “inner emigration” called
"Nicodemism" (1)—outwardly
conforming
to
Roman
Catholicism
while
inwardly
professing
their
true
faith.
As you might
imagine, there is a great wealth of literature
about the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation,
and, specifically, the Reformation—or ostensible
lack thereof—in Italy (see bibliography, below).
As far as I can tell, recent writers, such as
Firpo (below) view as oversimplified the
traditional claim that Protestants simply went
into hiding in Italy in the mid-1500s and didn’t
come out until the Risorgimento
and anti-clericalism swept Italy in the mid-1800s.
Also as far as I can tell, neither Valdéz
nor the group around him should be viewed as
flaming rebels against the Catholic
church—transplanted German Lutherans, so to
speak—, but much more as reformers in the spirit
of Erasmus, less interested in schism than in
adherence to evangelical simplicity and their own
inner voices when it came to the interpretation of
Scripture.
But that is
only as far as I can tell, for as the song says…
Notes:
1.
"Nicodemism." The term is attributed to Calvin
and is based on the Gospel of John, which
describes one Nicodemus as afraid of being
seen openly with Jesus but willing to visit
him in secret. The term is not altogether
positive since—while it may be taken to mean
inward steadfastness—it can also imply
cowardice.
Bibliography:
Relevant works from the 19th
and early 20th century include:
—Thomas
MacCrie, History of the Progress
and Suppression of the Reformation in Italy,
Edinburgh 1827.
—Benjamin Barron Wiffen, Life and
Writings of Juan de Valdéz, otherwise
Valdesso, Spanish Reformer in the Sixteenth
Century, London 1865.
—Christopher Hare, Men and Women
of the Italian Reformation, London 1914.
—Frederick Corss Church, The
Italian Reformers 1534-1564, New York
1932.
—George Kenneth Brown, Italy
and the Reformation to 1559,
Oxford 1933.
More
recent bibliography is found in
—Gleason,
Elizabeth.
“On
the
Nature
of
Sixteenth-Century
Evangelism:
Scholarship,
1953-78” in Sixteenth Century
Journal, vol. 9, n.3. (Autumn, 1978).
References
cited in text:
—Firpo,
Massimo.
“The
Italian
Reformation
and
Juan
de
Valdéz”
in Sixteenth Century Journal,
XXVII/2, (1996).
—Tejada, Francisco Elìas. Napoli
Spagnola, vol. 2.
Controcorrente, Napoli, 2002. (Original: Nàpoles hispanico.
Madrid. 1958.)
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