Apologia del Beneficio di Christo e altri scritti inediti by Marcantonio Flaminio (review)

806book reviews McCoog is not as yet comfortable with the ultimate implication of his work: that Jesuits like Parsons would not and could not sacrifice reUgious ends to a false modesty regarding the use of poUtical means. But McCoog's ambivalence wUl not minimize the startling importance of his contribution as a Jesuit historian to the history of this period. He has shattered a major taboo and has begun to bring EngUsh Jesuit historians into the mainstream ofTudor-Stuart historiography . Michael L. Carrafiello East Carolina University Apologia del Beneficio di Christo e altri scritti inediti. By Marcantonio FIam üiio. Edited by Dario Marcatto. [Fondazione Luigi Firpo, Centro di Studi sul Pensiero Poütico, Studi e Testi 5.] (Florence: Leo S. Olschki Editore. 1996. Pp. 225. Lire 50.000 paperback.) The early 1540's in sixteenth-century Italy have long been identified as a crucible for the religious crisis experienced by the spirituali, especiaUy those who foUowed the teachings of the Spaniard, Juan de Valdés. When Valdés died in 1541, many of his disciples, including Marcantonio Flaminio, relocated from Naples toViterbo, forming a new circle around Cardinal Pole.Thanks to the editor of this important coUection, Dario Marcatto, more light has been shed on Flaminio's close connection to the Beneficio di Christo, his reUgious thought and spiritual devotion, his theological debt to Valdés, and his association with the spirituali atViterbo and beyond. The Beneficio di Christo—Flaminio's revision of Benedetto Fontanini da Mantova's original—was published in Venice twice in 1543, and quickly became one of the most popular devotional works for the spirituali. Orthodox Catholic authorities, however, soon considered its possession a litmus test for heresy.The Dominican Ambrogio Catharino Politi condemned it as heretical in 1544 in Compendio d'errori et inganni luterani contenuti in un libretto senza nome de Tautore, intitolato "Trattato utilissimo del benefitio di Christo crucifisso." Shortly after the publication of the Compendio, Flaminio began to write the Apologia del Beneficio di Christo, the central text in this coUection. Marcatto's introduction sets out enough of the Compendio so that the reader understands that Flaminio does not contest each point in his Apologia; rather, he underscores the benefit of Christ's death as the true believer's justification. Through footnotes and paraUel texts, Marcatto points the reader to similar passages in the writings ofJuan deValdés and in Flaminio's other works. The coUection contains two other works and a handful of letters. The Meditationi et orationiformate sopra Vepístola di San Paolo a Romani, written in 1542 and dedicated to GiuUa Gonzaga,is an extended prayer and meditation on the first eight chapters of the epistle to the RomansThe Modo che si dee tenere ne Tinsegnare etpredicare ilprincipio délia religione Christiana [trattatelli] book reviews807 is a grouping offive shorter pieces, two byValdés and three by Flaminio, on topics including Christian penitence and justification by faith. Four letters foUow between Flaminio, Alvise Priuli, Pietro Carnesecchi, and GiuUa Gonzaga.Taken together, these works show the vitality ofreUgious discussion in Italy before the official condemnation by the Council ofTrent in 1547 of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Much of the excitement generated by this coUection is due to its origin: the Processo Carnesecchi contained in the archives of the Roman Inquisition.That Marcatto has been aUowed to examine—indeed print—these documents, raises the hope that soon these coUections wiU be avaUable more generally. Michelle M. Fontaine University ofArkansas at Little Rock Latin American Roma net Caraibi: L'organizzazione dette missioni cattoliche nette Antitte e in Guyana (1635-1675). By Giovanni Pizzorusso. [CoUection de l'École française de Rome, 207.] (Rome: École française de Rome. 1995. Pp. xv, 366.) This is a scholarly work that exhibits monumental research in an area that has been largely ignored in the literature on this topic. By examining in detaU Catholic missionary efforts in the smaUer Caribbean islands and the coast of South America during the baroque period, Giovanni Pizzorusso has provided a service for scholars who have focused almost exclusively upon the betterknown and more amply documented Mexican and Peruvian experiences. In contrast to the Iberian possessions where the...