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The idea of renewal in Girolamo Aleander’s conciliar thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

W. B. Patterson
W. B. Patterson*
Affiliation:
Davidson CollegeNorth Carolina
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Extract

The climax of the Italian renaissance in the early sixteenth century merges almost imperceptibly and rather surprisingly with the beginnings of the catholic reformation. Within a single generation, it seems, religious and moral interests came to rival, or even to supplant, that interest in pagan antiquity which had long been the inspiration of Italian culture. The stages by which this transformation occurred have not been clearly defined, but the process can be seen at work in the case of one prominent humanist who decided to devote his career to the defence and then to the renewal of the church of Rome.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 14: Renaissance and Renewal in Christian History , 1977 , pp. 175 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1977

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References

1 For Aleander’s life, see Paquier, [Jules], [L’humanisme et la réforme:] Jérôme Aléandre [de sa naissance à la fin de son séjour à Brindes (1480-1529)] (Paris 1900)Google Scholar; Lettres familières [de Jérôme Aléandre (1510-1540)], ed Paquier, J. (Paris 1909)Google Scholar; and Aleander’s ‘Journal autobiographique’, ed Omont, H., in Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale, 35 (Paris 1895) pp 1–116 Google Scholar. Also, for a shorter accourt with good bibliographies, the article on Aleander by Alberigo, G. in the Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 2 (Rome 1960), pp 128-35Google Scholar. His place in the development of humanism is described in Renaudet, A., Préréforme et humanisme à Paris pendant les premières guerres d’Italie (1494-1317) (Paris 1953) esp pp 509-13Google Scholar, 610-20, 647.

2 See Brieger, T., Aleander und Luther (Gotha 1884)Google Scholar; Die Depeschen des Nuntius Aleander vom Wormser Reichstag 1521, ed Kalkoff, P., 2 vols (Halle 1897)Google Scholar, and ‘Nachtrag zur Korrespondenz Aleanders während seiner ersten Nuntiatur in Deutschland 1520-1522’, ZKG 28 (1907) pp 201-34. Also Renaudet, A., Erasme: sa pensée religieuse et son action, d’après sa correspondance (1518-1521) (Paris 1926) pp 87–129 Google Scholar.

3 For narrative accounts, see Gaeta, [Franco], Un nunzio pontificio a Venezia [nel Cinquecento (Girolamo Aleandro)] (Venice/Rome 1960)Google Scholar and Müller, [Gerhard], ‘Die drei Nuntiaturen Aleanders in Deutschland, [1520/21, 1531/32, 1538/39]’, QFIAB 39 (1959) pp 222-76Google Scholar. Documents for his missions are provided in Nunziature di Venezia, 1 (12 marzo 1533-14 agosto 1535) , ed Gaeta, F. (Rome 1958)Google Scholar; Nuntiaturberichte aus Deutschland [1533-1559], pt 1, 1-2 (Legation Lorenzo Campeggios 1530-1331 und Nuntiatur Girolamo Aleandros 1531; Legation Lorenzo Campeggios 1532 und Nuntiatur Girolamo Aleandros 1532), ed G. Müller (Tübingen 1963-69), and pt 1, vols 3-4 (Legation Aleanders 1538-1539), ed Friedensburg, W. (Gotha 1893)Google Scholar.

4 Aleander’s papers on the reform of the church, a project he associated with a future council, are described by Pasquier, J. in DTC 1 (1930) pp 694-95Google Scholar; several have been published, with critical commerts by Schweitzer, V., in Concilium Tridentinum: [diariorum, actorum, epistolarum, tractatuum nova collectio], ed Goerresiana, Societas, 12 (Freiburg 1930)Google Scholar. The links between Aleander and other members of the reform group at Rome are described in Jedin, [Hubert], [A History of the] Council of Trent, transl Graf, E., 1 (St. Louis 1957) pp 198 Google Scholar, 311, 328, 338, 345, 423-36.

5 Opus epistolarum [Des.] Erasmi [Roterodami], ed Allen, P. S., 1 (Oxford 1906) p 504 Google Scholar. The description of the council is by Jedin, , Council of Trent, 1, p 112 Google Scholar. See also HL, 8, pt 1, pp 314-39; Renaudet, A., Le concile gallican de Pise-Milan: documents florentins (1510-1312) (Paris 1922)Google Scholar passim; and Ullmann, Walter, ‘Julius II and the Schismatic Cardinals’, SCH 9 (1972) pp 177-93Google Scholar.

6 Aleander, Lettres familières, pp 165-6.

7 Monumenta reformationis Lutheranae, ed Balan, P. (Ratisbon 1881) p 98 Google Scholar; Documents Illustrative of the Continental Reformation, ed Kidd, B. J. (Oxford 1911) p 82 Google Scholar. For Aleander’s anti-Lutheran activities see, in addition to works on the Diet of Worms, Renaudet, [A.], Erasme et l’Italie (Geneva 1954) pp 87 Google Scholar, 96, 146-56.

8 Jedin, , Council of Trent, 1, pp 224 Google Scholar; see also, for the agitation for a council, pp 197-219, 246, 250. For the discussions in Germany in 1531-2, in which Aleander participated, see Müller, ‘Die drei Nuntiaturen Aleanders in Deutschland’, pp 243-54.

9 Jedin, , Council of Trent, 1, pp 291-2Google Scholar, 310-11. See also, for the new pope’s policies, Pastor, [L.], History of the Popes, transl Kerr, R. F., 11 (London 1911) pp 14–28 Google Scholar; and Douglas, [R. M.], Jacopo Sadoleto, [1477-1547: Humanist and Reformer] (Cambridge, Mass., 1959) pp 89 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 266.

10 For the text of the Consilium delectorum cardinalium et aliorum prelatorum de emendanda ecclesia, sec Concilium Tridentinum, 12, pp 131-45. Aleander’s account of the presentation of the report may be found in Friedensburg, [W.], ‘Zwei Aktenstücke [zur Geschichte der Kirchlichen Reformbestrebungen an der Römischen Kurie (1536-1538)]’. QFIAB 7 (1904) pp 251-67Google Scholar.

11 For the members of the committee, see Dittrich, F., Gasparo Contarini, 1483-1542 (Braunsberg 1885)Google Scholar; Paschini, P., S. Gaetano Thiene, Gian Pietro Carafa, e le origini dei chierici regolari teatini (Rome 1926)Google Scholar; Prosperi, [A.], Tra evangelismo e controriformo: [G.M. Giberti (1495-1543)] (Rome 1969)Google Scholar; Douglas, , Jacopo Sadoleto; Dermot Fenlon, Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy: Cardinal Pole and the Counter Reformation (Cambridge 1972)Google Scholar. Also Ross, J. B., ‘Gasparo Contarini and His Friends’, Studies in the Renaissance, 17 (Austin/New York 1970) pp 192–232 Google Scholar, and ‘The Emergence of Gasparo Contarini: A Bibliographical Essay’, CH 41 (1972) pp 22-45; and Anderson, Marvin A., ‘Gregorio Cortese and Roman Catholic Reform’, Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies, 1, (St Louis 1970) pp 75–106 Google Scholar.

12 The Consilium quattuor delectorum a Paulo III super reformatione S. R. ecclesiae is found in Concilium Tridentinum, 12, pp 208-15. The other signers were Contarini, Carafa, and Badia. For the course of the disputes over the Consilium de emendanda ecclesia, see Jedin, , Council of Trent, 1, pp 427-32Google Scholar; Concilium Tridentinum, 12, pp 155-8, 215-56; and Friedensburg, ‘Zwei Aktenstücke’, pp 263-7.

13 Concilium Tridentinum, 12, p 214.

14 This document, assigned by Schweitzer to Aleander, is printed in Concilium Tridentinum, 12, pp 119-31Google Scholar. Douglas mentions it in a footnote, Jacopo Sadoleto, p 271; Pastor and Jedin not at all.

15 Concilium Tridentinum, vol 12, pp 120-1.

16 Ibid p 121.

17 Ibid pp 121-2.

18 Ibid pp 123-4.

19 See Renaudet, Erasme et l’Italie, pp 87, 96, 146-56; Aleander, Lettres familières, p 224; Opus epistolarum Erosmi, 9, p 165.

20 For references to reform proposals from Salutati to Pico, see Gain, Eugenio, ‘Desideri di riforma nell’oratoria del Quattrocento’, in Contributi alla storia del Concilio di Trento e della Controriforma, ed Russo, Luigi (Florence 1948) pp 1–11 Google Scholar.

21 Concilium Tridentinum, 12, p 125.

22 Ibid pp 125-6.

23 Ibid p 127.

24 Ibid p 128.

25 Ibid p 129.

26 Ibid p 130.

27 Jedin, , Council of Trent 1, p 328 Google Scholar.

28 Ibid p 333; Gaeta, Un nunzio pontificio a Venezia, pp 149-50. Aleauder had apparently been made a cardinal in pectore by Paul III in December 1536, but his appointment was not announced until 13 March 1538, seven days before he was named legate to Vicenza.

29 For Alcander’s legatine correspondence, in which he speaks poignantly of the missed opportunities resulting from delays in the convening of a council, see Concilium Tridentinum, 4 (Freiburg 1904) pp 157-71.

30 Jedin, , Council of Trent, 1, pp 340-5Google Scholar.

31 Aleander, Lettres familières, pp 174-5. For Aleander’s misgivings over the idea of making concessions to the Lutherans, see his memorial In tractanda concordia cum Lutheranis haec maxime consideranda et perpendenda videntur, in Nuntiaturberichte aus Deutschland, pt 1, 3, pp 135-6.

32 Aleander, Lettres familières, p 175. For Contarini’s mission and its results, see Mackensen, Heinz, ‘The Diplomatic Role of Gasparo Contarmi at the Colloquy of Ratisbon of 1541’, CH 27 (1958) pp 312-37Google Scholar; and Matheson, Peter, Cardinal Contarini at Regensburg (Oxford 1972)Google Scholar passim.

33 Concilium Tridentinum, 12, p 355.

34 For text and brief introduction see Concilium Tridentinum, 12, pp 342-62; Schweitzer assigns the document to Aleander on the basis of internal evidence.

35 Concilium Tridentinum, 12, p 357.

36 Ibid p 360.

37 Ibid pp 348-50.

38 Ibid p 351.

39 Ibid p 354.

40 Paquier, Jérôme Aléanare, pp 300, 349-50; Aleander, , ‘Journal autobiographique’, Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale, 35 (Paris 1895) p 43 Google Scholar.

41 Paquier, Jérôme Aléandre, pp 349-54; Letter to Carafa, 1526, in Aleander, Lettres familières, p 127.

42 Aleander, Lettres familières, p 124. For the friendship between Aleander and Giberti, which went back to the last years of Leo X’s pontificate, see Prosperi, Tra evangelismo e controriforma, pp 17-23, 28, 52, 92.

43 Aleander, Lettres familières, p 124.

44 Paquier, Jérôme Aléandre, p 357.

45 Pastor, , History of the Popes, 11, p 155 Google Scholar.

46 Concilium Tridentinum, 12, pp 77-82.

47 See Kalkoff, Paul, ‘Zur Charakteristik Aleanders’, ZKG 43 (1924) pp 209-19Google Scholar; Jedin, , Council of Trent, 1, p 423 Google Scholar; Douglas, Jacopo Sadoleto, pp 113, 271. Fora more recent and balanced assessment—though one which still contains echoes of the traditional view—see Müller, G., ‘Zum Verständnis Aleanders’, Theologische Literaturzeitung, 89 (Leipzig 1964) cols 526-36Google Scholar.

48 See the useful distinctions made by Gaeta, Un nunzio pontificio a Venezia, pp 87-90, 101-5, 115. The diversity of interests and points of view in the reform movement was very definitely reflected in the Italian delegation at Trent. See Alberigo, G., I vescovi italiani al Concilio di Trento (1545-1547) (Florence 1959) pp 382-94Google Scholar and passim.

49 Evennett, H.O., The Spirit of the Counter-Reformation, ed Bossy, John (Cambridge 1968), pp 89–125 Google Scholar, 135-40.