It was ascribed to Aonio Paleario, who suffered martyrdom at Rome for maintaining doctrines similar to those of Valdes.[13] Round him gathered several members of the great Colonna family, notably Vespasiano, Duke of Palliano, and his wife, the star of Italian beauty, Giulia Gonzaga.  Vittoria Colonna, Marchioness of Pescara, imbibed the new doctrines in the same circle; and so did Bernardino Ochino.  Modena could boast another association, which met in the house of Grillenzone; while Ferrara became the headquarters of a still more pronounced reforming party under the patronage of the Duchess, Renee of France, daughter of Louis XII.  These various societies and coteries were bound together by ties of friendship and literary correspondence, and were indirectly connected with less fortunate reforming theologians; with Aonio Paleario, Bernardino Ochino, Antonio dei Pagliaricci, Carnesecchi, and others, whose tragic history will form a part of my chapter on the Inquisition.

[Footnote 13:  Though as many as 40,000 copies were published, this book was so successfully stamped out that it seemed to be irrecoverably lost.  The library of St. John’s College at Cambridge, however, contains two Italian copies and one French copy.  That of Laibach possesses an Italian and a Croat version.  Cantu, Gli Eretici, vol. i. p. 360.]

It does not fall within the province of this chapter to write an account of what has, not very appropriately, been called the Reformation in Italy.  My purpose in the present book is, not to follow the fortunes of Protestantism, but to trace the sequel of the Renaissance, the merging of its impulse in new phases of European development.  I shall therefore content myself with pointing out that at the opening of Paul III.’s reign, there was widely diffused throughout the chief Italian cities a novel spirit of religious earnestness and enthusiasm, which as yet had taken no determinate direction.  This spirit burned most highly in Gasparo Contarini, who in 1541 was commissioned by the Pope to attend a conference at Rechensburg for the discussion of terms of reconciliation with the Lutherans.  He succeeded in drawing up satisfactory articles on the main theological points regarding human nature, original sin, redemption and justification.  These were accepted by the Protestant theologians at Rechensburg and might possibly have been ratified in Rome, had not the Congress been broken up by Contarini’s total failure to accommodate differences touching the Pope’s supremacy and the conciliar principle.[14] He made concessions to the Reformers, which roused the fury of the Roman Curia.  At the same time political intrigues were set on foot in France and Germany to avert a reconciliation which would have immeasurably strengthened the Emperor’s position.  The moderate sections of both parties, Lutheran and Catholic, failed at Rechensburg.  Indeed, it was inevitable that they should fail; for the breach between the Roman Church and the Reformation was not of a nature to be healed over at this date.  Principles were involved which could not now be harmonized, and both parties in the dispute were on the point of developing their own forces with fresh internal vigor.