introduced other modes, what necessity is there for reviving antiquated practices which have long fallen into desuetude, especially as neither piety nor the salvation of the soul is concerned with them?  Let us, then, I pray you, allow these things to rest.  Not that I disapprove of their being embraced by scholars and lovers of antiquity; but I would not have them communicated to the common people and those who are fond of innovations, lest they give occasion to strife and sedition.  There are unlearned and unqualified persons who having, after long ignorance, read or heard certain new opinions respecting baptism, the marriage of the clergy, ordination, the distinction of days and food, and public penitence, instantly conceive that these things are to be stiffly maintained and observed.  Wherefore, in my opinion, the discussion of these points ought to be confined to the initiated, that so the seamless coat of our Lord may not be rent and torn....  Seeing it is dangerous to treat such things before the multitude and in public discourses, I must deem it safest to “speak with the many and think with the few,” and to keep in mind the advice of Paul, “Hast thou faith?  Have it to thyself before God."’[12]

[Footnote 12:  C.  Calcagnini Opera, p. 195.  I am indebted for the above version to McCrie’s Reformation in Italy, p. 183.]

The new religious spirit which I have attempted to characterize as tinctured by Protestant opinions but disinclined for severance from Rome, manifested itself about the same time in several groups.  One of them was at Rome, where a society named the Oratory of Divine Love, including from fifty to sixty members, began to meet as early as the reign of Leo X. in the Trastevere.  This pious association included men of very various kinds.  Sadoleto, Giberto, and Contarini were here in close intimacy with Gaetano di Thiene, the sainted founder of the Theatines, and with his friend Caraffa, the founder of the Roman Inquisition.  Venice was the center of another group, among whom may be mentioned Reginald Pole, Gasparo Contarini, Luigi Priuli, and Antonio Bruccioli, the translator of the Bible from the original tongues into Italian.  The poet Marcantonio Flaminio became a member of both societies; and was furthermore the personal friend of the Genoese Cardinals Sauli and Fregoso, whom we have a right to count among thinkers of the same class.  Flaminio, though he died in the Catholic communion, was so far suspected of heresy that his works were placed upon the Index of 1559.  In Naples Juan Valdes made himself the leader of a similar set of men.  His views, embodied in the work of a disciple, and revised by Marcantonio Flaminio, On the Benefits of Christ’s Death, revealed strong Lutheran tendencies, which at a later period would certainly have condemned him to perpetual imprisonment or exile.  This book had a wide circulation in Italy, and was influential in directing the minds of thoughtful Christians to the problems of Justification.