CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY In Many, Much RICHARD R CAEMMERER SR The Reforming Role of Religious Communities in the History of Western Christianity CARL VOLZ Biblical Humanism and Roman Catholic Reform: (1501-1542) Contarini, Pole, and Giberti MARVIN W. ANDERSON Notes on "Spirit-Baptism" and ''Prophetic Utterance" VICTOR BARTLING Our Common Confession and Its Implications for Today ROBERT W. BERTRAM Brief Studies Homiletics Book Review ~ol XXXIX November 1968 No. 10 Biblical Humanism and Roman Catholic Reform: (1501-1542) Contarini, Pole, and Giberti* MARVIN W. ANDERSON eginald Pole deserves careful attention Roman Catholic responsibility for the evils R by students of the Reformation pe­ burdening the flock of Christ, but he also riod.! Pole delivered one and shared in set Biblical and Christological conditions a second of three confessions which as­ for a corporate Mea culpa. sumed Roman Catholic guilt for the splin­ We who have the office of Fathers must tering of Christendom. Adrian VI excori­ act in everything by faith and hope and ated the Curia in his lnstructio of Jan. 3, place our trust in the power of Christ, 1523, read to the Diet of Nuremberg by whom God the Father calls His right Francesco Chieregati. Lortz comments: hand, and in the Wisdom of Christ, who is the Wisdom of the Father, whose min­ It has been said on the Catholic side that isters in all things we acknowledge our­ this confession was not politically wise. selves to be. That it certainly was not.... Christianity, Therefore what, in His great love of in the last analysis, cannot tolerate polit­ God the Father and in His mercifulness ical standards. The confession of towards our race, Christ did, justice itself Adrian, who was personally an exemplary now enacts of us that we should do. Be­ pope, was nothing less than the prereq­ fore the tribunal of God's mercy we, the uisite for that interior-ecclesiastical re­ shepherds, should make ourselves respon­ newal which then began in spite of all sible for all the evils now burdening the difficulties. .2 flock of Christ. The sins of all we should Pole and Contarini authored the C onsilium take upon ourselves, not in generosity de emendanda Ecclesia of 1537. On Jan. 7, but in justice; because the truth is that 1546, Cardinal Pole addressed the reform­ of these evils we are in great part the ers at Trent. Not only did Pole assume cause, and therefore we should implore the divine mercy through Jesus Christ.3 '" I am grateful to the Lutheran Brotherhood Tracing Pole's concern for the mercy of Insurance Company of Minneapolis, Minn., for Christ involves one in tracing his early life a grant to complete this study in Italy. and Biblical study in England and Italy ! See Joseph G. Dwyer, Pole's Defense of from 1519 to 1543. There in Italy his asso­ the Unity of the Church (Westminster, Md.: Newman Press, 1965), xii-xli. ciations with Italian reformers and their 2 Joseph Lortz, How the Reformation Came Biblical study is significant. A search of (New York: Herder and Herder, 1964), pp. their correspondence adds much to stan- 113-14. 3 Vincent McNabb, "Cardinal Pole's Eireni­ The author is a professor of church history con," The Dublin Review, CXCVIII (1936), at Bethel Seminary, St. Paul, Minn. 151-53. 686 BIBLICAL HUMANISM AND ROMAN CATHOLIC REFORM 687 dard biographies like that by Wilhelm ican Library adds much information about Schenk Pole freely confessed Catholic re­ the program of Biblical humanism fol­ sponsibility for the revolt, expressing con­ lowed by Contarini, Pole, and Giberti. cern for an inner reform based on an un­ What follows is a preliminary review based derstanding of sola fide. 4a This progra...'1l of on their correspondence between 1501 and double reform, reiterated by Girolamo Seri­ 1542. pando at Trent, permits one to ask how I. CONTARINI AND VENETIAN REFORM widespread was the willingness among the (1501-1523) hierarchy to confess personal responsibility for the German revolt. That a council was Gasparo Contarini (1483-1542) is the deemed necessary at all explains the extent most attractive of the Italian reformers in of that guilt. Pole and the Augustinian this period.6 The Venetian church from Seripando were repudiated by the sessions 1400 to 1550 displayed an intense spiritu­ at Trent. Pole's association with Contarini, ality, a fervid desire for reform, and a dis­ Giberti, and Setipando to 1541 helps one trust of Christian dogma based on works. explain those remarkable confessions of Until 1541 and Roman inquisitorial visita­ 1537 and 1546. Seripando endorsed Pole's tions, Venice fostered a climate of opinion o~~ +') Catholic ~~&n ..~ 7 Paolo GiU!''';~;· leb------ _..":..":ress. Pole _~ .. _____ J. in Seri- pando's succinct vote for reform on Jan. 22, ani, Alvise Priuli, Reginald Pole, and 1546. "Reformation is twofold, exterior Marc' Antonio Flaminio are the architects of and interior. Dogma pertains to the in­ renewaJ.8 Flaminio in particular medi­ terior reformation which requires the tates on the cause of Christ "through a greatest attention and is more needfuL The diligent reading of the New Testament exterior reform will be more easily ac­ and the works of Saint Augustine." 9 When Caraffa as Pope Paul IV detained Cardinal complished without a council." 4b Morone on suspicion of heresy, Pole ob­ At the base of that plea for a reforma­ tion of medieval dogma lies a well-con­ jected from England in a letter of 1557, going on to exonerate Priuli, "who was ceived program of Biblical and patristic study.5 A careful search of the Biblioteca 6 Philip McNair, Peter Martyr in Italy (Ox­ Nazionale Marciana at Venice and the Vat- ford: Clarendon Press, 1967), p. 11. See the penetrating discussion of "Evangelism" on pp. 4a Marvin Anderson, "Luther's Sola Fide in 5-9. Italy: 1542-1551," Church History, XXXVII 7 For a description of the inquisition in (1968), forthcoming. See also Ray C. Petry, Venice see Edouard Pommier, "La societe Veni­ "Christian Humanism and Reform in the Eras­ tienne et la Re£orme protestante au XVI siec1e," mian Critique of Tradition," Medieval and Re­ Bolletino dell' lstituto di StorM della Soci-eta e naissance Studies, ed. O. B. Hardison Jr. (Chapel dello Stato Veneziano, I (1959), 5. Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1966), 8 Gaetano Cozzi, Il Doge Niccolo Contarini 138-70. (Venezia-Roma: Istituto per la Collahorazione 4b Coneilium Tridentinum: Diariorum, ac­ Culturale, 1958), p.40. tortlm, epistolarum, traetattltlm nova eoUectio, 9 "A M. Pietro Pamphilo Siscalco della Sig. 2d ed., Stephan Ehse, V (Freihurg im Breisgau: Duchessa D'Urbino," Verona, Aug. 9, 1537, De Societar Goerresiana, 1964), 169, lines 18-21. le Lettere di trediei H uomini illustri libr; tredici 5 Robert E. McNally, "Holy Scripture and (Venice, 1554), p. 130r. See Pio Paschini, Un Catholic Reform," Thought, XLII (1967) , amico del card. Polo, Alvise Priuli (Roma: 5-22. Pontificio Seminario Romano Maggiore, 1921). 688 BIBLICAL HUMANISM AND ROMAN CATHOLIC REFORM my intimate consultant and participant at structed in theology, confused by the din Brescia when Julius III, your sacred pre­ of reform, or mystics retreating to pleasant decessor, and the Venetian Senate judged country villas after the collapse of Renais­ him to be complete in piety and doc­ sance Rome? 14 Careful attention to Pole's trine." 10 The homogeneity of this Paduan­ association with Contarini, Cortese, and Venetian circle augured well for a Biblical Giberti suggests that Douglas has been too theology which would undergird reform. hasty in judging these cardinals.I5 One Contarini by birth and training became must be careful not to portray Contarini as their leader from 1511 until 1542.11 Priuli an Athanasius contra mundum catholicum, described Pole's stay at Liege in 1537 nor as sailing ill prepared on the heavy while he waited with Giberti to enter En­ seas of doctrinal controversy. From his gland as papallegate.12 training at Padua with Musurus to his In the evening we sing Vespers and Com­ Turmerlebnis with Giustiniani at Venice; pline, and then, every other day, the legate from his association with Pole and Giberti ( Pole) lectures to us on the epistles of in the reform commission of Pope Paul III St. Paul, beginning with the first epistle to to his theological role at Ratisbon;16 from Timothy.. _ . How often has the legate his experience as Venetian ambassador to "aid to me: ":: ___ ~, .~js peace is 0:' -_. -- his friendshIp with Pope Paul III, Con­ us by God!" And he always adds: "Oh, tarini was well prepared to initiate reform why is not Mons[ignor} Contarini with based on the documents of revelation. The us?" 13 complexities of his career need only be When one concentrates on Contarini, it is sketched in outline to show the value of well to remember this wider circle engaged his Biblical study. It began at Padua and in Biblical study. Were these men unin- ended at Lucca. 10 Petyt MSS., No. 538, Vol. 46, p.401 v, 14 That is, persons like Pietro Bembo, who Inner Temple Library, London. The vindication retired as secretary to Leo X in 1521. See Vit­ was never dispatched, for Pole did not want to toria Cian, Un decennio della vita di M. Pietro "expose the nakedness of his father." (Gen. 9: Bembo, 1521-1531 (Turin: E. Loescher, 22-23 ) 1885), p.106. 11 Orestes Ferrara, Gasparo Contarini et ses 15 Richard M. Douglas, Jacopo Sadoleto missions (Paris: Editions Albin Michel, 1956), 1447-1547; Humanist and Reformer (Cam­ pp. 220 f. On Bologna and its contacts with bridge: Harvard University Press, 1959) pp.