Beyond the Inquisition: Ambrogio Catarino Politi and the Origins of the Counter-Reformation

by Giorgio Caravale, Don Weinstein (Translator)

Overview

In Beyond the Inquisition, originally published in an Italian edition in 2007, Giorgio Caravale offers a fresh perspective on sixteenth-century Italian religious history and the religious crisis that swept across Europe during that period. Through an intellectual biography of Ambrogio Catarino Politi (1484–1553), Caravale rethinks the problems resulting from the diffusion of Protestant doctrines in Renaissance Italy and the Catholic opposition to their advance. At the same time, Caravale calls for a new conception of the Counter-Reformation, demonstrating that during the first half of the sixteenth century there were many alternatives to the inquisitorial model that ultimately prevailed. Lancellotto Politi, the jurist from Siena who entered the Dominican order in 1517 under the name of Ambrogio Catarino, started his career as an anti-Lutheran controversialist, shared friendships with the Italian Spirituals, and was frequently in conflict with his own order. The main stages of his career are all illustrated with a rich array of previously published and unpublished documentation. Caravale's thorough analysis of Politi's works, actions, and relationships significantly alters the traditional image of an intransigent heretic hunter and an author of fierce anti-Lutheran tirades. In the same way, the reconstruction of his role as a papal theologian and as a bishop in the first phase of the Council and the reinterpretation of his battle against the Spanish theologian Domingo de Soto and scholasticism reestablish the image of a Counter-Reformation that was different from the one that triumphed in Trent, the image of an alternative that was viable but never came close to being implemented.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780268100117
Publisher:	University of Notre Dame Press
Publication date:	03/08/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	430
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Giorgio Caravale is professor of early modern European history at the Università Roma Tre. He is the author of a number of books, including Forbidden Prayer: Church Censorship and Devotional Literature in Renaissance Italy.

Don Weinstein (1926-2015) was a leading USA historian of the Italian Renaissance.

Read an Excerpt

The protagonist of this book, the Sienese jurist Lancellotti Politi, better known as Ambrogio Catarino, figures most prominently in sixteenth-century Italian historiography as the author of Compendio d’errori et inganni luterani (Compendium of Lutheran errors and deceptions), written in 1544 in reply to the best seller of the Reformation in Italy, the Beneficio di Cristo crocifisso (Venice, 1543). The Sienese Dominican was presented by Carlo Ginzburg and Adriano Prosperi as the antihero of their Giochi di pazienza (un seminario sul Beneficio di Cristo, 1975), a fascinating and suggestive volume in which Politi’s Compendio was read as a litmus test to verify the accuracy of the hypothesis of the two editions of the Beneficio di Cristo. Politi’s name has appeared many times in studies dedicated to the diffusion of heretical doctrines on the Italian peninsula. he has for the most part, however, been connected to the image of heretic hunter, implacable adversary of Italian hetero-doxy; and his writings have been read more to call attention to the doctrines and texts refuted by him than to comprehend his own thought.

The aim of my research has been to lift the veil that obscures Politi as a person, restoring him to the complexity of his biographical and intellectual journey. In some respects the outcome of my work has been surprising. From his entry into the Dominican order in 1517, after a sudden savonarolan conversion that diverted him from an incipient career as a jurist and lawyer, Politi displayed an independence of judgment and freedom of thought unusual for a novice. His maturity and solid juridical formation reinforced in him a character both independent and headstrong, encouraging a path of doctrinal and theological learning free of the rigid precepts of the schools of theology. The strong Marian devotion inherited from his Sienese birth soon guided him to the reading of works extraneous to Dominican culture, such as those of Duns Scotus and William of Ockham, which Politi took in avidly along with the writings of Saint Thomas. The assignment to compose one of the first polemical responses to the Augustinian friar Martin Luther was given to him in 1520 while he was still intent on completing his theological studies. He finished them under the pressure of the controversy. The eclecticism of his thought and his polemical instinct led him more than once to bitter encounters with leading members of his order, among them Cardinal de Vio and the Master of the sacred Palace Bartolomeo Spina. The clamorous accusations of heresy directed against him by Spina between 1542 and 1546, then repeated in the Council of Trent by his fellow Dominican Domingo de Soto during the controversy on the certitude of grace, not only testifies to the level of hostility that surrounded him but also offers a measure of Politi, a figure who could not be reduced to any one system, who did not adhere to any single one of the opposing theological schools (Thomist, Scotist, Dominican, Benedictine, Jesuit, etc.).

In the same years in which he began to distinguish himself as the most pugnacious anti-lutheran polemicist, we find him absorbed in spiritual conversations with Vittoria Colonna and involved in intense epistolary exchanges with Jacopo Sadoleto. he was also a fervent admirer of Cardinal Gasparo Contarini, of whose doctrinal positions he became, at least for a time, a faithful advocate. until the publication of Beneficio di Cristo announced the beginning of a phase of open proselytism and propaganda by the Viterbo group, Politi, despite his severe tone, left open a channel of dialogue and argument, convinced that it was both possible and necessary to find a meeting point even on those doctrinal questions that Luther had arbitrarily appropriated. And in the years that followed he never abandoned the hope of leading the most convinced dissenters back to orthodoxy. his aspirations and his attitude solidified in the course of his activity in the early 1540s in the noninquisitorial resolutions of numerous cases of heresy, activity Politi carried on with the collaboration of some members of the Company of Jesus, above all Alfonso salmerón. This strategy tended toward the art of persuasion rather than the use of weapons of repression in order to lead heretics back to Catholic orthodoxy. It deliberately offered an alternative to inquisitorial activity, moving “beyond the inquisition.” In addition, while the Beneficio was directly opposed by the Compendio, at the Council of Trent Politi shared his battles with personages such as the Benedictines Luciano degli Ottoni and Isidoro Cucchi da Chiari, colleagues of Benedetto da Mantova, author of the Beneficio. Readers will be able to judge for themselves whether these apparent contradictions are the fruit of an intellectual incoherence, a circumstantial opportunism, or instead, as I believe, a reflection of the variety and fluidity of doctrinal options that characterized the religious crisis of the 1540s and of the fragility of those historiographical interpretations that have used excessively schematic categories (e.g., the Intransigenti and the Spirituali) to study the furious encounters of those years on central themes of religious debate such as justification and the certitude of grace.

Certainly, Politi never hid his career ambitions and always succeeded in winning the sympathy and benevolence of the most influential personalities in the circles he chose to frequent, beginning with the popes he had the fortune to know. After all, his ecclesiology, centered on papal primacy, could only lead him in that direction. His choices and his comportment were, however, almost always guided by his innermost convictions, which he did not know how to forswear, even in the most delicate quandaries of his life’s course. In the single case in which he was constrained to rethink in critical terms a choice made in his youth, that of his savonarolan loyalties, which engaged him in a long and tormented process of self-reflection, he found a solution only in the last years of his life. And only then, when the name of his old master Savonarola was paired with that of his bitterest enemy, Bernardo Ochino, did the circle of his existence seem at last to close.

excerpted from the preface

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

1. Formation and Religious Choices

2. Origins of the Polemic against Heresy

3. Catarino Politi and the Spirituali

4. The First Phase of the Council of Trent

5. From Anti-Savonarolism to Anti-Machiavellianism

6. A Controversial Memory

Notes

Bibliography

Index of Names

Editorial Reviews

[Politi] emerges from Caravale’s book as an open-minded theologian, well aware of the shortcomings of philosophical reflection and his scholastic masters, and willing to base Catholic theology on a more biblical and patristic footing.

The Regensburg Forum: History

"This is now the definitive study, an expansion and revision of the 2007 Italian monograph, of a figure, Lancellotto Politi, known religiously as Ambrogio Catarino, who played an important role in the theological struggles of the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century. Always considered one of the great Roman controversialist writers against Lutheran currents, the present work shows him in the thick of internal debates within his own Dominican Order, the Council of Trent, and over the enduring Savonarolan legacy, among other issues that agitated papal Rome at the time. The deft translation into English is from the hand of Donald Weinstein, one of our great Renaissance scholars, who sadly passed away before he could see appear in print what must be his last major contribution." —John Tedeschi, co-editor of Dizionario Storico dell'Inquisizione

"It could have been so different. As Giorgio Caravale shows in his elegant study of the pontifical theologian and bishop Ambrogio Catarino Politi, the Inquisition and doctrinal rigidity need not have captured the Counter-Reformation. Caravale lays open the paradoxical career of a highly original thinker who offered a new orthodoxy that was far more open to diversity than the intransigents who won the day. Caravale’s engaging book puts paid to the historical categories that have dominated how we have understood the Reformation." —Edward Muir, Clarence L. Ver Steeg Professor in the Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University

"Giorgio Caravale's Beyond the Inquisition: Ambrogio Catarino Politi and the Origins of the Counter-Reformation gives an extraordinarily good idea of Ambrogio Catarino as a man and as a thinker. Catarino has often been regarded as the voice of orthodoxy, but Caravale presents a man who is infinitely more complex, full of contradictions and apparent inconsistencies that illustrate the various tensions created by the Reformation." —Alastair Hamilton, Arcadian Visiting Research Professor, The Warburg Institute

“More than just a biography, Beyond the Inquisition offers readers a unique interpretation of the tumultuous sixteenth century in Europe brought about by the Reformation and leading to the Counter-Reformation. Through close examination of the intellectual life of Politi, Caravale provides more than just a story of a man and the historical context of his ideation, but also a brilliant narrative of the relationships among prominent Catholic theologians during a time of religious upheaval and change.” —Sixteenth Century Journal

"This is an excellent and very well documented book. Indeed, nearly half of it is given to endnotes that provide copious quotes from Politi's works and citations from the voluminous secondary scholarship on this critical period of Italian religious history." —Paul F. Grendler, Church History

"Caravale’s book remains an indispensable study, a decade after its first publication, amid a revival of interest in the formative years of the Counter-Reformation." —Wietse de Boer, Journal of Modern History

"Caravale does not dismiss the scholarship on the Counter-Reformation; nor does he deny that Catarino was a strong anti-Lutheran. Rather, he brilliantly gives the readers a different perspective on how to understand Catarino as a multifaceted character who played an important role in assisting the Catholic Church’s efforts to stop the spread of Protestantism." —Renaissance and Reformation

“[Politi] emerges from Caravale’s book as an open-minded theologian, well aware of the shortcomings of philosophical reflection and his scholastic masters, and willing to base Catholic theology on a more biblical and patristic footing.” —The Regensburg Forum: History, Philosophy, and Theology in the Augustinian Tradition

“The Counter-Reformation narrative for the Council of Trent was marked by near unanimity among the fathers in opposing Protestant Reformers. In fact, there were many vigorous anti-Protestants who espoused a less chauvinistic stance. Ambrogio Catarino Politi (1484-1533) proved to be such a person. At the Council of Trent, Politi participated in the discussions on predestination and original sin, always orthodox, but different. The book is meticulously documented.” —Choice

From the Publisher

"This is now the definitive study, an expansion and revision of the 2007 Italian monograph, of a figure, Lancellotto Politi, known religiously as Ambrogio Catarino, who played an important role in the theological struggles of the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century. Always considered one of the great Roman controversialist writers against Lutheran currents, the present work shows him in the thick of internal debates within his own Dominican Order, the Council of Trent, and over the enduring Savonarolan legacy, among other issues that agitated papal Rome at the time. The deft translation into English is from the hand of Donald Weinstein, one of our great Renaissance scholars, who sadly passed away before he could see appear in print what must be his last major contribution."

John Tedeschi

"It could have been so different. As Giorgio Caravale shows in his elegant study of the pontifical theologian and bishop Ambrogio Catarino Politi, the Inquisition and doctrinal rigidity need not have captured the Counter-Reformation. Caravale lays open the paradoxical career of a highly original thinker who offered a new orthodoxy that was far more open to diversity than the intransigents who won the day. Caravale’s engaging book puts paid to the historical categories that have dominated how we have understood the Reformation."

Edward Muir

"Giorgio Caravale's Beyond the Inquisition: Ambrogio Catarino Politi and the Origins of the Counter-Reformation, gives an extraordinarily good idea of Ambrogio Catarino as a man and as a thinker. Catarino has often been regarded as the voice of orthodoxy, but Caravale presents a man who is infinitely more complex, full of contradictions and apparent inconsistencies that illustrate the various tensions created by the Reformation."

Alastair Hamilton

"Caravale’s book remains an indispensable study, a decade after its first publication, amid a revival of interest in the formative years of the Counter-Reformation."

Wietse de Boer

"This is an excellent and very well documented book. Indeed, nearly half of it is given to endnotes that provide copious quotes from Politi's works and citations from the voluminous secondary scholarship on this critical period of Italian religious history."

Paul F. Grendler

[Politi] emerges from Caravale’s book as an open-minded theologian, well aware of the shortcomings of philosophical reflection and his scholastic masters, and willing to base Catholic theology on a more biblical and patristic footing.

The Regensburg Forum: History

The Counter-Reformation narrative for the Council of Trent was marked by near unanimity among the fathers in opposing Protestant Reformers. In fact, there were many vigorous anti-Protestants who espoused a less chauvinistic stance. Ambrogio Catarino Politi (1484-1533) proved to be such a person. At the Council of Trent, Politi participated in the discussions on predestination and original sin, always orthodox, but different. The book is meticulously documented.

Choice

"Caravale does not dismiss the scholarship on the Counter-Reformation; nor does he deny that Catarino was a strong anti-Lutheran. Rather, he brilliantly gives the readers a different perspective on how to understand Catarino as a multifaceted character who played an important role in assisting the Catholic Church’s efforts to stop the spread of Protestantism."

Renaissance and Reformation