Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy

Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy: Cardinal Pole and the Counter-Reformation by Dermot Fenlon

https://medium.com/@peterseanbradle/reformations-protestant-and-catholic-8bbac662ae86

Cardinal Reginald Pole was born in 1500. He died in London as Cardinal of England on November 18, 1558, the same day that Queen Mary died, thereby ending Catholic hopes for the recovery of England and simultaneously sparing Cardinal Pole from reprisals. In 1546, Pole had been one of three papal legates responsible for managing the early sessions of the Council of Trent. Pole was a leading candidate for election to the papacy in 1550. In short, Pole was a person who seemed to be in the middle of things during the early phase of the Reformation and Catholic Reformation.

Dermot Fenlon uses Pole's biography as a way of examining the living issues that split Christendom in the early 16th century. Fenlon looks at the relevant historical events in Pole's life. He also pays acute attention to the relevant theological issues of the Reformation, most particularly the doctrine of justification (“DOJ”). In my opinion, one of the best features of this book was Fenlon's highly accessible description of theological issues. Fenlon's descriptions have the virtue of charity in that I felt that he was putting the Lutheran position in its best light. I have a far better understanding of those positions from this book than I had before.

As I noted, Pole was born in 1500 to an aristocratic English family. His family placed him in proximity to the Tudors. Pole was sent to the University of Padua for an education. In the 1520s, while at Padua, Pole found himself among a group of Cathusians in the Orator of Divine Love led by Cardinal Contrarini. These Carthusians and their friends formed the nucleus of the “Spirituali” faction that would advocate for reconciliation with Luther. Many of the Spirituali, including Pole, accepted Luther's Doctrine of Justification as correct. Later, many of them and their allies would defect to Luther and Calvin. Pole and the Spirituali represented the cosmopolitan humanist tradition of Erasmus.

The counter to the Spirituali was the Zelanti, who opposed Luther and Lutheran doctrines. Cardinal Carafa became Pole's on-again/off-again antagonist among the Zelanti. At the 1550 Papal Conclave, Pole and Carafa were the leaders in the voting to succeed Paul III, who had called the Council of Trent. Both lost to the candidate who would become Julius III. When Julius III died in 1555, Marcellus II was elected. Marcellus II lasted three weeks, which cleared the way for the election of Carafa as Paul IV. Spoiler - the Zelanti had won.

While in Italy, Pole found himself of use to King Henry VIII in the “King's Great Project,” i.e., Henry's divorce. However, in 1535, Henry had St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher executed and declared that he was head of the English Church. Writing from Italy, Pole wrote a letter to Henry stating his opposition to Henry's actions. Pole became persona non grata in England. Pole's mother and family were also executed by Henry. The net effect of these tragedies was the Pole's loyalty to the church could never seriously be questioned, notwithstanding his association with people who defected to the Protestants and his acceptance of Luther's doctrine of Justification.

Fenlon does a beautiful job of explaining why Luther's DOJ was found to be attractive. The beginning of the 16th century found intellectuals turning away from scholasticism and toward the scriptures. Pole's personal preference in thinking theologically was to eschew scholastic categories and to use scriptural verses as support for his thinking. Luther's DOJ gave primacy to a Pauline interpretation and the insight that salvation was accessed by “Faith Alone.” By having faith (alone), God imputed Christ's righteousness - merited in the Passion - to those who placed their faith in Christ. Christ's righteousness was sufficient and so abundant that it did the work of reconciliation by itself, which rendered no role for good works, including sacraments, such as the Eucharist and Penance. It was an axiom of the Reformation that recognizing good works as playing a role in salvation impiously detracted from acknowledging the sufficiency of Christ's saving merits.

Luther's DOJ obviated the central role of baptism, penance, and the Eucharist. God called those who became Christian by faith. Having been called by God, Luther's DOJ held that the called were predestined to salvation. “Salvation by faith alone left no room for human cooperation with the merits of Christ.” (p. 64.)

According to Fenlon, Pole's acceptance of Luther's DOJ placed him in a quandary in that Pole fundamentally accepted the role and authority of the Catholic Church. Luther's DOJ implicitly overturned the Catholic Church's role of authority and the sacramental system. The rest of the Spirituali found themselves in a similar position.

The Spirituali advocated for some kind of compromise with Lutheranism in the 1540s. Paul III held off on calling a Council to deal with the issues of reform and doctrine raised by the Reformation to give the Spirituali an opportunity to negotiate a compromise with the Lutherans at Regensburg. The delay was also motivated by the desire of Emperor Charles to win a military victory against the Lutherans so that they could be brought as participants to the proposed council. Fenlon observes that there was a feeling on the Catholic side that the council should not go forward without the input of Lutherans since the hope was that there would be a reunion.

A compromise was worked out on the Doctrine of Justification at Regensburg in 1541 by Spirituali representing Catholicism and representatives of Lutheranism. Fenlon says the terms of the compromise reflected the Lutheran position. (p. 55 (“Apart from its concession to an (ineffectual) inherent justice, the orientation of the formula was Protestant.”) The compromise acknowledged that man was justified by faith in Christ, not by his own works. Since human works were the expression of the justice inherent within man, it followed that good works and inherent justice did not contribute to salvation. “Man was therefore edged out as a cooperating agent in his own salvation.” (p. 55.) Cardinal Contrarini advocated this theory of “twofold justice” but kept the implications sub rosa. The implications were noted by Carafa, who opposed the compromise. Before that happened, however, Regensburg had failed because of other issues. Fenlon notes:

“The conference at Regensburg achieved two things: agreement between the delegates concerning the doctrine of justification - followed by a complete impasse and breakdown of communication concerning the sacramental and juridical of the Church. Such limited agreement as the delegates did achieve was discountenanced both at Wittenberg and the Roman Curia: their own internal disagreements explain why.” (p. 48.)

Another interesting feature that crops up in current discussions has to do with “concupiscence.” Concupiscence is the human tendency to be attracted to finite created good, or to sin. Luther identified “the inclination to sin (concupiscence) with sin himself” which had “led him to deny redemptive significance to anything attributable to the human will.” (p. 53.) Catholicism does not make that identification.

In the interim, the Spirituali were pressing the Lutheran position. Pole's ally, Cardinal Morone prevented the Jesuits from preaching at Modena to prevent an anti-Lutheran program. Pole's personal friend, Flaminio, wrote a pro-Lutheran tract. Various high-ranking prelates in Pole's circle at Viterbo made their way to Wittenberg and Geneva to defect to the Protestants. The sense I got was that Pole and the Spirituali were working as a fifth column at the highest reaches of the Catholic hierarchy.

In 1542, Cardinal Contrarini passed away, and the Roman Inquisition was instituted. Many of those who did not defect found themselves in the grips of the Roman Inquisition under Paul IV. Some, such as Morone, suffered no ill effects; others, such as Carnesecchi, were executed for heresy in 1567 under Pius V's renewal of the Inquisition.

In 1546, the reform council at Trent went forward. Pole was appointed one of the three papal legates. The first session of Trent dealt with the canon, justification, and original sin. It went from 1546 to 1547. Pole made every effort to stall the council from making a determination on justification. Despite his efforts to stall the council or to have it adopt some version of Lutheranism, the council would not be prevented from announcing a Catholic doctrine of justification. (“CDOJ.”) Pole was conflicted and torn by his position and withdrew from active involvement in the council after a few months.

Having been told in a few debates about the canon that the deuterocanonical books were not adopted into the Catholic canon until Trent, I found this interesting:

“Disagreements arose on the first issue about the manner of establishing the Bible canon. Pole, together with Cervini and a number of others, was anxious that each book of the Bible be examined singly, and its authenticity pronounced upon. In this way, the objections of the Protestants to the book of Maccabees, together with the disputed parts of the New Testament, could be individually countered. The majority however, including Del Monte, was in favour of accepting without discussion the declaration of the Council of Florence, concerning the Scriptural canon. The latter view prevailed, and in a vote taken on 15 February, it was decided to accept the Florentine canon without further reconsideration.” (p. 121.)

I had never heard of the canon being accepted at the Council of Florence some 100 years before Trent, but there it is.

After Trent, faced with the difficulty of reconciling his Lutheran sympathies with his allegiance to the Catholic Church, Pole came around to accepting the Tridentine decree on justification. Pole explained his change of mind by saying that he had reread the Letter of James and now appreciated the scriptural role of works.

The final stage of Pole's life was returning to England as a papal legate under Queen Mary in 1553. Pole did not hesitate to persecute in the name of Catholic orthodoxy. His reasons for doing so were the same reasons that Protestants persecuted Catholics where they had power. The idea that the state had to maintain a single religion was undisputed at the time.

This book has a lot of merit in explaining the theological issues of the day. I found it quite captivating. I don't think that most people without an interest in the subject would find it interesting, but as you may be able to see, there were a lot of surprising insights that I did not expect from a biography of Reginald Pole.