L'eresia dei perfetti. Inquisizione Romana ed esperienze mistiche nel Seicento italiano (review)

The study of women in the Renaissance has been a fertile field for many years as various aspects of women and their ambience have been investigated. None has been more informative than the considerations concerning the spiritual life of women in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as the work of Adriano Prosperi, Gabriella Zarri, and Anne Jacobson Schutte, to name only a few, have amply demonstrated. The present monograph builds upon and supplements previous studies and provides penetrating insights into the spiritual life of women in the seventeenth century who had experienced mystical revelations from the divine. In this fascinating study the author pinpoints problems inherent in the study of mystical women or the so-called perfetti. She notes that "excessive" sanctity had been a cause for admiration in the medieval Church, but in the seventeenth century the same experience of sanctity became a cause of concern to the Roman Inquisition. In addition, the terms sanctity real or "feigned" and quietism are often defined as diverse camps, but Malena puts both under the heading of mysticism. She notes that this particular type of spirituality and mystical experience became, under narrowing doctrinal constructs of the Holy Office of the Roman Inquisition, a heresy defined as "pretended sanctity," pelagianism, and quietism. Another aspect of this study indicates that not only did mystical women fall under suspicion, but also their confessors and spiritual directors.

As one realizes, the experiences of mystical women and their influence on learned men and confessors has a long history: the Blessed Bridget of Sweden and her Revelations, Margaret Ebner and her Revelations, Angela of Foligno, Paola Antonia Negri, the Blessed Chiara Bugni, and the Virgin of Venice known only as Giovanna, to name only a few. The cases of Chiara Bugni and the Virgin of Venice are especially significant, since their influence on very learned men, Francesco Zorzi in regard to Bugni and Guillaume Postel in relation to the Venetian Virgin, was profound.

The study of the mystical women that Malena presents is not dull, dry material, but rather a balanced view of various types of cases brought against many women who claimed sanctity. The inquisition of the Neopolitan "holy mother and teacher of the spirit," Giulia de Marco is one of the most interesting processes, and also one of the most difficult to comprehend. Giulia, who had friends among the Neopolitan nobility and especially with the court of the viceroy, the Count of Lemos, was the accused in a notorious process in 1615 in which the alleged sexual aberrations of Giulia were the central focus of the Inquisition. The great interest in her so-called obscene acts and lascivious practices have relegated to a second level the charges of feigned sanctity that had been under scrutiny by the Roman Inquisition since 1609. The Inquisition of Naples had been fearful of the reputation of holiness that had accompanied Giulia and sought to control it by 1607. When the results of the investigation were heard by the Cardinal Inquisitors in Rome, a decree of the Inquisition in August 1609 against the "santità affettata" and "quietismo" of Giulia, directed to the bishop of Caserta, indicated that "sor" Giulia should be admonished and warned to lay aside her pretensions and affectations of sanctity. Giulia di Marco had claimed that her soul had always been united wit God and that "this union was such that the essence of the powers of the soul were immersed in God in an inexplicable way" (16). As others who had proceeded her, she claimed that she knew the secrets of the heart and who was good or evil. She also said that obedience must be blind and that her spiritual sons must practice complete obedience and total resignation "in the sacred side of Christ." Her influence on her followers was so great that they came to her for confession and communion...