Juan de Valdés and the Italian Reformation by Massimo Firpo (review)

In the decades between the Sack of Rome in 1527 and the closing of the Council of Trent in 1563, a significant number of high-ranking Catholic clergy and aristocratic laypeople in Italy had hopes of reconciliation with Protestants and a re-unification of the Church. One of the bases for such hopes was their acceptance of the doctrine of justification by faith, a key premise of Protestant theology, but interpreted in such a way as to allow a role for most traditional Catholic practices. This position was inspired in large measure by the writings of the Spaniard, Juan de Valdés (c. 1500–41), and his immediate followers.

Both Juan and his twin brother Alfonso (d. 1532) had worked as secretaries for Emperor Charles V and were associated with the Erasmian circle in the imperial court. Both also found it prudent to leave their homeland, for fear of the Spanish Inquisition, because of their writings; those of Alfonso were mainly political (pro-imperial but strongly anti-papal), while those of Juan were mainly theological. In addition to Erasmian humanism, Juan's views were also shaped by a Spanish spiritual movement known as alumbradismo, which stressed the individual believer's divine illumination (alumbramiento), and by his family's background as conversos, people of Jewish heritage who had converted to Catholicism but who often had reservations about Trinitarianism and some of the ceremonial practices of the new faith. After leaving Spain, Juan established himself in Naples, where he became the leader of a spiritual community, attracted to him by his writings and conversation.

Massimo Firpo's study deals with the life and writings of Valdés in its first chapter, and then goes on to trace the many strands of the reform movement in Italy inspired by him. The informal network of Valdesians included such figures as Cardinal Reginald Pole of England, who came within a few votes of being elected pope in 1550, and the Marchesa Vittoria Colonna, celebrated poet and confidante of Michelangelo. As the Roman Inquisition gained in power and became more aggressive in attacking unorthodox thinking throughout Italy, many followers of Valdesian principles emigrated to Switzerland or beyond, where their religious views often evolved in the direction of Anabaptism. In Italy, however, the Council of Trent's final rejection of the doctrine of justification by faith abolished any possibility of the middle ground that Valdés had sought between Protestantism and traditional Catholicism, and the movement dwindled into non-existence.