PART ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. GIROLAMO ZANCHI: THE ITINERARY OF AN ITALIAN REFORMER

1.1 (1516-1551) Girolamo Zanchi1 was born on 2 February 1516 in Alzano Lombardo in the Valle Seriana, in what is today the province of .2 His father Francesco was a jurist, as well as a historian,3 while his mother was born Barbara Morlotti.4 Zanchi’s cousins Basilio (1501-1558) and Gian Crisostomo (1500-1566) are known to posterity as a poet5 and a historian6 respectively. Like them, another cousin called Dionigi and his uncle Eugenio Mozzi Morlotti before him, Zanchi entered the monastery of Santo Spirito in Bergamo, a house of the Lateran Con- gregation, in 1531, following the death of his parents. He was 15 years old at the time.7 In 1541 he was appointed preacher to the order and entered the monastery of San Frediano in Lucca. There he met the prior Peter Martyr Vermigli,8 who was to have a decisive impact on his subsequent career. Others who came under Vermigli’s influence in Lucca were Celso , Emanuele Tremelli, Celio Secondo

1 For the life of Zanchi, Schmidt 1859 remains essential; Gallizioli 1785 is an important earlier work. See also Burchill 1989a; Burchill 1984; Tylenda 1975. Useful encyclopaedia articles include Campi 2005; Strohm 2004; Spijker 2001; Wenneker 1998; Meylan 1965; Biundo 1962; Herte 1938; Ficker 1908. Burchill 1979, 226-235, provides an overview of Zanchi’s published works. 2 For Zanchi’s date of birth, see ZOT VII/1 416. For his life and work prior to his exile, see Bravi 1981; Burchill 1979, 30-36; Schmidt 1859, 625-629. 3 See Francesco Terenzio Zanchi, La prima guerra di Massimiliano contro Venezia: Giorgio Emo in Val Lagarina, 1507-1508 (Padua: Crescini, 1916). 4 For Zanchi’s family background, see especially his letter to Lelio Zanchi of 2 April 1565 (ZOT VIII/2 204f.). Cf. Bravi 1981, 39f.; Tiraboschi 1824. 5 See, among other works, De horto sophiae libri duo (Rome, 1540); Basilii Zanchi Bergomatis verborum Latinorum ex variis authoribus epitome. Eiusdem verborum, quae in Marii Nizolii observationibus in Ciceronem desiderantur appendix (Rome, 1541); Basilii Zanchi Bergo- matis epithetorum commentarii (Rome, 1542). 6 De Orobiorum seu Cenomanorum origine (Venice, 1531). 7 For the possibility that after his novitiate Zanchi attended the monastic school of San Giovanni in Verdara or the university of Padua, see Bravi 1981, 39. 8 On Vermigli, see most recently the contributions in James 2004; Olivieri 2003; Campi 2002. 2 GIROLAMO ZANCHI: DE RELIGIONE CHRISTIANA FIDES

Curione and Paolo Lacizi, all of whom proved receptive to Reformed ideas and went on to occupy important positions in Reformed Eu- rope.9 During this time Zanchi became acquainted with a number of Protestant works. From later statements by Zanchi, it is possible to discern the rough outlines of his reading programme. He describes Philipp Melanchthon’s Loci communes as his ‘guide to the complete knowledge of Christ’10 and indicates that he also read works by Bu- cer,11 Wolfgang Musculus’s commentary on Matthew12 and Calvin’s Institutes. While he was still in Italy, he produced a compendium based on the Institutes to assist him with his work, which was later published under the title Compendium praecipuorum capitum doctrinae chris- tianae.13 On 24 June 1568, he informed Heinrich Bullinger that the latter’s work De origine erroris14 had been recommended to him by the Franciscan Giovanni Mollio of Montalcino, who told him that if he was short of money he should tear out his right eye and use that to pay for it. Fortunately, this blood sacrifice was not required! After acquir- ing the work, Zanchi copied it out and, to disguise it from the Inquisi- tion, recast it in the form of scholastic ‘Quaestiones’, hedged about with quotations supportive of Roman Catholic teaching. This docu- ment was still in Zanchi’s possession in 1568.15

9 For Vermigli’s influence on Zanchi, see the latter’s dedication to Philip of Hesse (ZOT VII/1 4): ‘Cum Martyrem Lucae epistolam ad Romanos publice interpretatem et Psalmos privatim suis canonicis explicantem audiremus, coepimus animum adiicere ad studium s[acrarum] literarum, deinde etiam ad longe meliorem ipsis scholasticis libris atque doctoribus patrum atque in primis Augustini, ac demum nostri etiam tem- poris doctissimorum quorumque interpretum lectionem.’ On Vermigli and his circle in Lucca, see McNair 1967, 206-238. 10 Zanchi to Melanchthon, 4 September 1557 (ZOT VIII/2 147): ‘Hoc tantum dicam Locos tuos illos priores fuisse mihi primum ad perfectam Christi cognitionem paedagogum.’ 11 ZOT VII 3: ‘Illius [Buceri] enim scripta avide legeram in Italia et ex illis cum primis profeceram in vera theologia. Nam et Martyri et deinde etiam mihi visus fuerat omnium, qui in Germania docebant, doctissmus theologus’. 12 Zanchi to Musculus, 13 December 1553 (ZOT VIII/2 144): ‘Iam olim, doctis- sime Muscule, cum adhuc in Italia essem, licet de facie te non agnovissem, quampri- mum tuos in Matthaeum commentarios legi, valde erga te bene affectus magnumque me videndi tui desiderium cepit.’ Zanchi is referring to Musculus’s work In evang[elio] Matthaeum commentarii, tribus tomis digesti (Basle: Johannes Herwagen the Elder, 1544) (VD 16 M 7284). 13 Neustadt an der Hardt: heirs of Wilhelm Harnisch, 1598 (VD 16 Z 71). 14 Zurich: Christoph Froschauer, 1539 (HBBibl I 12). 15 Zanchi to Bullinger, [24 June 1568] (ZOT VIII/2 128): ‘Placet recitare, quid mihi olim Montallinus ille monachus, qui tandem combustus fuit Romae propter