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Rome and the Venetian Inquisition in the Sixteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

N. S. Davidson
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Extract

In Rome the Inquisition was not above that of other places, but applied it self only to that City, as others did in their Cities. The Pope indeed was superintendent and overseer of them all, maintaining nevertheless the agreements, immunities, and lawful Customs of every one, and so it continued until Paul the third, who did institute a Congregation of Cardinals in Rome, giving them the Title of Inquisitors General, who nevertheless do not command the Inquisition of Spain, which by agreement was first instituted: So likewise they ought not to take away the authority of this States Inquisition, also instituted by agreement some hundred years since. Which thing I have considered for to conclude, that it is not reasonable that Inquisition should take that which belongeth unto this.

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Articles
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The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , January 1988 , pp. 16 - 36
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

1 I have quoted here from the translation by Robert Gentilis, The History of the Inquisition, Composed by the Reverend Father Paul Servita, Who was also the Compiler of the Council of Trent. A Pious, Learned, and Curious Work, necessary for Counsellors, Casuists and Politicians. This appears in the same volume as Nathanael Brent's translation of The History of the Council of Trent, London 1676. The quotation is at p. 855. The Italian text is available in Fra Paolo Sarpi: Scritti giurisdizionalistici, ed. Gambarin, G., Ban 1958, 163Google Scholar.

2 Bullarium Diplomatum et Privilegiorum Sanctorum Romanorum Pontificum Taurinensis editio, Turin 1860, vi. 344.Google Scholar

3 See e.g. Archivio Segreto Vaticano (hereinafter cited as ASVat), Fondo Borghcse, II. 64-5, fo. 95r: a query from the king of Spain about the marriage of converts, 1597.

4 ASVat, SS. Venezia, 23, fo. 24r.

6 Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (hereinafter cited as BV), Barb. Lat., 5195, fo. 1 v.

6 Archivio di Stato, Venice (hereinafter cited as ASVen), Santo Uffizio (hereinafter cited as SU), b.10, ‘Lupatino, fra Baldo’, sentence of 27 Oct. 1547; the faculty is printed in Fontana, B., ‘Documenti vaticani contro Peresia lutherana in Italia’, Archivio delta R. Società Romana di Storia Patria xv (1892), 71–165 and 365-474, esp. at p. 401.Google Scholar For the irregularity, see e.g.Corpus luris Canonici, ed. Friedberg, A., Leipzig 1881, ii. 838Google Scholar.

7 SU, b. 1, folder of documents concerning the trial of Fra Giulio da Milano: an unpaginated document marked simply Processo, ig aprile-8 giugno 1541. A convenient text of Exsurge Domine can be found in Documents Illustrative of the Continental Reformation, ed. Kidd, B. J., Oxford 1911, 75–9Google Scholar.

8 Bullarium, vi. 478-81. Pastor, L. von, The History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages, London 1951, xv. 305–6Google Scholar.

9 Bullarium, vii. 238.

10 SU, b.26, ‘Cocchinato Constantino’, abjuration of 21 Nov. 1569; SU, b.28. ‘Contra Silvestrum Bellachian vicentinum’.

11 Bullarium, vi. 344—5.

12 Ibid. 344.

13 L. von Pastor,’Allgemeine Dekrete der römischen Inquisition aus den Jahren 1555-1597, nach dem Notariatsprotokoll des S. Uffizio zum erstenmale veröffentlicht’. Historisches Jahrbuch xxxiii (1912), 479–549, esp. at p. 539Google Scholar.

14 SU, b.11, entry for 15 Apr. 1553 in the register of tribunal activities, and abjuration of 7 Sept. 1553 in a separate folder of loose documents.

15 SU, b.156, letter of 6 July 1555.

18 Cf. Grendler, P. F., The Roman Inquisition and the Venetian Press, 1540-1605, Princeton 1977, 99–101.Google Scholar

17 Letters from Ghislieri from 31 Dec. 1558 to 4 Mar. 1559 in SU, b. 160; Grendler, op. cit. 120, 122. Ghislieri had been appointed grand inquisitor on 22 Dec. 1558; he took his oath of office on 24 Dec, ASVat, Misc. Arm., II. 17-18, fos 481v-2r.

18 , Pastor, History, xvi. 277–8Google Scholar ; , Grendler, op. cit. 94, 116-17Google Scholar.

19 SU, b. 160, letter of 4 Mar. 1559 to Peretti from Fra Tommaso Scoto da Vigevano, Ghislieri's successor as commissary general.

20 SU, b. 14, ‘De Francesi Giovanni’, sentence against Vincenzo Valgrizi, Zaccaria Zennaro, Bernardino Bosello, Alvise Valvassori and Giovanni Guarisco.

21 , Pastor, ‘Allgemeine Dekrete’, 503.Google Scholar

22 Cf. e.g. the way a suspect such as Nicolo Targhetto was left to acquire defence evidence on his own in 1557 (SU, b.25, ‘Targhetto Nicolo’) with the way in which defence witnesses were summoned directly by the Venice and Padua tribunals, and hostile witnesses subsequently re-examined, in 1563 and 1566 during the trial of Odd o Quarto, SU, b.21, ‘Quarto Oddo’.

23 BV, Vat. Lat., 10945, fo. 92V.

24 Cf. Biaudet, H., Les Nonciatures apostoliques permanentcs jusqu'en 1648, Helsinki 1910, 49–51.Google Scholar

28 See e.g. the document confirming the appointment of Fra Nicole da Venezia dated 13 July 1550 in SU, b. 153. Th e Venetian government later claimed that the Franciscans used to elect the inquisitor for one year at a time only, ASVen, Consiglio dei Died, Secrete, reg. 7, fo. 19v.

26 Cambridge University Library (hereinafter cited as CUL), Add. MSS, 4697, 37. Cugnoni, G., ‘Documenti chigiani concernenti Felice Peretti, Sisto v, come privato e come pontefice’, Archivio della R. Società Romana di Storia Patria v (1882), 1-32, 210–304 and 542-89, esp. at p. 300Google Scholar.

27 Pullan, B., The Jews of Europe and the Inquisition of Venice, 1550-1670, Oxford 1983, 30.Google Scholar

28 Cf. SU, b.160, letter from Ghislieri dated 30 Nov. 1555, threatening to have the inquisitor at Bergamo removed from his post.

29 CUL, Add. MSS, 4682, fo. 9r.

30 Ibid. 4697, 39, 41.

31 , Cugnoni, ‘Documenti’, 300.Google Scholar

32 CUL, Add. MSS, 4682. fo. 10v; Add. MSS, 4697, 45; Cugnoni, art. cit. 303.

33 CUL, Add. MSS, 4682, fos 9v-10r; Add. MSS, 4697, 42-4. The claim is amplified by Leti, G., Vita di Sisto V, Amsterdam 1698, i. 224–37Google Scholar , but is not easy to verify independently.

34 CUL, Add. MSS, 4697, 41; cf. Paschini, P., ‘Due episodi della contro-riforma in Italia’, Archivio della R. Societa Romana di Storia Patria xlix (1926), 303–29, esp. at pp. 314-15Google Scholar.

35 SU, b.12, ‘De Marescalchi Ziliberto Francesco’, sentence of 4 Nov. 1559; cf. Wadding, L., Annales Minorum sen Trium Ordinum a S. Francisco institutorum, Rome 1745, xix. 174Google Scholar.

36 ASVen, Consiglio dd Died, Secrete, reg. 7, fo. 19v, letter to the ambassador in Rome dated 9 Feb. 1560; Consiglio dei Died, Lettere di Ambasdatori, Roma, b.24, letter of 24 Feb. 1560. The brief confirming Peretti's appointment was dated 22 Feb., Paschini, art. cit. 315.

37 ASVen, Consiglio dei Died, Secrete, reg. 7, fo. 22v.

38 SU, b.16, denunciation against Stefano among the uncatalogued documents at the end of the busta.

39 ASVen, Secreta, Archivi Propri, Roma, b.15, fos 26r-v: this letter shows that the Congregation was still exerting pressure on Pius to issue a further brief to confirm Peretti's appointment as late as 12 June 1560.

40 ASVen, Consiglio dd Died, Secrete, reg. 7, fos 26v-7r: proposal by Alvise Donà to permit Peretti to exercise the responsibility of die inquisitor for a few days only, at the request of the legate; the proposal was soundly defeated.

41 ASVen, Consiglio dd Dieci, Lettere di Ambasciatori, Roma, b.24, letter of 13 Feb. 1559 m.v.; cf. the accounts of Peretti's attempts to continue operating as inquisitor despite government hostility in CUL, Add. MSS, 4682, fos 10V-11r, and Add. MSS, 4697, 47-8.

42 ASVen, Consiglio dei Dieci, Secrete, reg. 7, fo. 24V; cf. fos 27v-8r.

43 ASVen, Secreta, Archivi Propri, Roma, b.15, fos 2r, 34V. Bartolomeo's brief of appointment is printed by Fontana, ‘Documenti vaticani’, 454-5. Peretti left Venice at the end of June 1560, Cugnoni, ‘Documenti chigiani’, 300. Tempesti, C., Storia delta vita e geste di Sisto Quinto, Rome 1754, i. 60Google Scholar ; Farinerio was tactfully transferred to the Verona tribunal, Wadding, Annales Minorum, xix. 211.

44 A list of inquisitors from 1560, with dates of appointment, appears in SU, b. 153. In Jan. 1562, Tommaso da Vicenza gave his title as ‘in tutto lo Illustrissimo Dominio Veneto contro la heretica pravita dalla sacra santa apostolica sedia Inquisitor generale delegato’, SU, b.15, ‘Scudieri Francesco’, abjuration of 4 Jan. 1561 m.v.

45 Cf. e.g. ASVen, Consiglio dei Dieci, Lettere di Ambascialori, Roma, b.25, letter of 18 June 1569.

46 See Bullarium, vi. 345.

47 Cf. the legate's explanation of the procedure in 1624 discussed by Pullan, The Jews, 33.

48 See. e.g. Campana, L., ‘Monsignor Giovanni della Casa e i suoi tempi’, Studi Storici xvii (1908), 145–282 and 381-606, esp. at p. 226, n. 1Google Scholar.

49 See e.g. Nunziature di Venezia, ed. Gaeta, F., Rome 1967, v. 122Google Scholar , letter of 13 Sept. 1550; ASVat, 55. Principi, 22, fo. 33V, letter of 13 July 1555; SS. Venezia, 2, fo. 81v, letter of 6 Feb. 1563. Nunziature di Venezia, ed. Stella, A., Rome 1963, viii. 103Google Scholar , letter of 7 Sept. 1566; ASVat, SS. Venezia, 22, fo. 392r, letter of 12 Nov. 1588.

50 See e.g. SU, b.41, ‘fra Aurelio d a Siena’, deposition of 30 June 1579.

51 SU, b.21, ‘Quarto Oddo’, letter of deputies dated 19 July 1567. The inquisitor in Bergamo had been in correspondence with the Roman Inquisition during the pontificate of Paul iv, see e.g. SU, b. 160, letter of the bishop of Bergamo to the Capi, 11 Jan. 1556.

52 Bullarium, vii. 146-7.

53 , Pastor, The History, xvii. 326.Google Scholar

54 SU, b.42, ‘Soccino Cornelio’, fo. 6r.

55 , Grendler, The Roman Inquisition, 208 n. 22.Google Scholar

56 ASVat, Fondo Borghese, I. 340-4, fo. 176V.

57 SU, b.32, ‘Contra Vincentium Marchesium Bergomensis’.

58 SU, b. 13, loose documents on Don Pietro da Spoleto.

59 BV, Vat. Lai., 10945, fo. 45r.

60 See e.g. SU, b.40, ‘De Piccoli Baldassare’, letter from Cardinal Scipio Rebiba to the legate, 10 Mar. 1576.

61 Cf. e.g. the assistants’ letter to Ghislieri of 19 July 1567 in SU, b.21, ‘Quarto Oddo’; and SU, b.57, ‘De Maggi Paolo’, decision of the patriarch, Giovanni Trevisan, to consult the Roman Inquisition recorded on 15 May 1587.

62 SU, b.21, ‘Processus in causa Excellentis Domini Joannis Fineti’, fo. 65V; folder entitled ‘Scripturae productas in dies in causa Excellentis Domini Joannis Fined’, fos 39r-v, 50r, 51r.

63 See e.g. SU, b.37, ‘Giustinian Antonio’, appeal of 22 Jan. 1575.

64 SU, b.52, ‘Garzoni Girolamo’, fos 106r-v, unpaginated letter from Savelli dated 13 Dec. 1586, unpaginated appeal from Garzoni, and unpaginated report of 12 Feb. 1587.

66 SU, b.1, ‘Fratris Ambrosii Mediolanensis’, fos 36r-41v.

68 Bullarium, vi. 346.

67 SU, b.13, ‘Grin o fra Benedetto’, interrogation of 21 Oct. 1557 and decree of 20 Nov. 1557.

68 SU, b.12, ‘Padre Marin da Venezia’, letter from Gaspar de Dotis dated 2 Sept. 1551.

69 SU, b.13, ‘Processo contra Lorenzo da Crema’, letter of 10 Oct. 1557.

70 SU, b.24, ‘Curto Nicolò’, letter from the deputies to the rectors of Padua, Jan. 1568.

71 SU, b.38, ‘Donzellino Girolamo’, fos 211r-13r; SU, b.30, ‘Nascimbene Nascimbeni’, report of receipt of letter from Cardinal Savelli on 30 Aug. 1578.

72 , Pastor, ‘Allgemeine Dekrete’, 515.Google Scholar

73 SU, b.57, ‘De Maggi Paolo’, fos 33r-v, Cardinal Savelli to the patriarch, 14 Nov. 1587, and sentence of 24 Nov. 1587. The letter is quoted in BV, Vat. Lai., 10945, fo. 8r.

74 Corpus Juris Canonici, ii. 781.

75 SU, b.30, ‘Nascimbene Nascimbeni’, especially the Ferrara abjurations of 15 Jan. 1551 and 19 Jan. 1561, and the letter of the lay assistants dated 10 Jan. 1573. The instructions from the Roman Inquisition appear in BV, Vat. Lat., 10945, fo. 88r: the letter could almost refer to the case of Lodovico Corte, who was also sentenced to life imprisonment in 1570, but it seems to fit the details of Nascimbeni's case rather better. Nascimbeni remained in prison until March 1578, when the tribunal removed him perhaps because of illness — and placed him under house arrest in the city instead.

76 Cf. the comments of Pullan, The Jews, 46.

77 SU, b. 42, ‘Penarello Giovanni Maria’, letter of Savelli dated 19 Apr. 1578. Penarello eventually took his case to Rome.

78 SU, b.47, ‘Capuano Alvise’, fo. 7gr, and unpaginated interrogation of 18 Apr. 1580.

79 See above, nn. 49, 50.

80 ASVat, SS. Venezia, 23, fo. 24r.

81 SU, b.52, ‘Garzoni Girolamo’, unpaginated appeal of Garzoni to the tribunal.

82 See above, n. 72.

83 The earliest example is the sentence against Giovanni Battista and Marcantonio Gemma of January 1568, Trinity College, Dublin, MS 1224, fos 253r-5v; the original trial is in SU, b.20, ‘Giovanni Battista e Marcantonio’.

84 SU, b.41, ‘De Andreis Tranquillo’, unpaginated tribunal debate and Savelli's letter of 30 Aug. 1578.

85 , Pastor, ‘Allgemeine Dekrete’, 510–11.Google Scholar

86 BV, Vat. Lai., 10945, fos 49V, 74V, 75V.

87 ASVat, Fondo Borghese, I. 340-4, fo. 176r.

88 See e.g. Pastor, art. cit. 512; SU, b.65, ‘Tarlato, Giovanni Vincenzo’, tribunal decision dated 19 Oct. 1589.

89 See e.g. the concern expressed in Rome about Paul IV's readiness to give inquisition business priority over all other affairs of church government, ASVen, Secreta, Archivi Propri, Roma, b.10, fo. 210v.

90 This was the argument of Cardinal Savelli, SU, b.162, letter to the Venetian inquisitor, 6 June 1579.

91 See e.g. BV, Vat. Lai., 10945, fo. 53r.

92 Cf. the comments of Pullan, The Jews, 37, 39-40, and P. F. Grendler, ‘The Tre Savii sopra Eresia 1547-1605: a prosopographical study’, Studi Veneziani, NS iii (1979), 283-340, esp. at p. 293.

83 ASVen, Consiglio dei Died, Secrete, reg. 8, fo. 99V.

94 Fra Paolo Sarpi, 124, 164-6.

95 See e.g. n. 65 above, or the sentence against Guglielmo Postel and Giuliano Nerini in SU, b.160.

98 See e.g. ASVen, Consiglio dei Died, Comunc, reg. 18, fo. 2051., or Nunziature, viii. 245-6, 249.

97 See e.g. the individuals the government agreed to arrest and transfer to Rome ‘per conto dell'Inquisitione’ in ASVen, Consiglio dei Died, Secrete, reg. 7, fo. 40r, or the reference to Francesco da Crema in Nunziature, viii. 79.

98 SU, b.10, ‘Marco tentore’, Congregation summons of 16 Aug. 1550, Picchissino's appeal and the government's letter of 22 Sept. 1554.

99 ASVen, Secreta, Archivi Propri, Roma, b.15, fo. 93r; Consiglio dei Deici, Secrete, reg. 7, fos 36r-v,42r; Biblioteca Marciana, Venice (hereinafter cited asBMV), MSSItal., VII. 1253 (7707), first foliation, fos 83r-5v, and second foliation, fo. 27r.

100 ASVen, Consiglio dei Died, Secrete, reg. 7, fos 47r-v; cf. ASVat, SS. Venezia, 2, fos 26r-7r. The papal brief of 28 Mar. 1561 appears in ASVen, Bolle ed Atti delta Curia Romana, b.9. Gianetti is often called Zanotti in the documents. A summary of the case is given by Stella, A., ‘Guido da Fano eretico del secolo XVI al servizio dei re d'Inghilterra’, Rivista di Storia della Chiesa in Italia xiii (1959), 196–238Google Scholar.

101 Paschini, ‘Due episodi’, 327-9; ASVen, Consiglio dei Died, Secrete, reg. 8, fos 65r-6r.

102 ASVen, Consiglio dei Died, Secrete, reg. 7, fos 35V-6r.

103 The request to extradite Fra Marino da Venezia, passed by Beccadelli to the government on 18 Mar. 1552 was apparently withdrawn by Rome rather than refused by Venice - though since the Venetian tribunal had already begun its investigation on 15 Sept. 1551, it is unlikely that it would have been granted. Nunziature di Venezia, ed. Gaeta, F., Rome 1967, vi. 73–4Google Scholar ; SU, b. 12, ‘Padre Marin da Venezia’, depositions of 15-19 Sept. 1551. The government did originally agree to transfer Francesco Stella to Rome on 4 June 1558, ASVen, Consiglio dei Died, Secrete, reg. 6, fo. 191r; but in 1559, he was found in Gorizia, arrested and imprisoned in Ceneda. Paschini, P., Venezia e l'Inquisizione Romana da Giulio III a Pio IV, Padua 1959, 123–4Google Scholar . It possible that he had escaped in 1558, and it seems he may eventually have been extradited in 1560. Albizzi, F., Risposta all'Hisloria delta sacra Inquisizione composta gia dal r. p. Paolo Servita: editione seconda, Rome 1680 (?), 156Google Scholar ; , Grendler, Roman Inquisition, 61Google Scholar . It is not clear why the government ignored Rome's summons and trial of Giulio Trissino from the 1550s; but no investigation was mounted against him in the Venetian tribunal until 1573. He was eventually sent to Rome at or before the beginning of 1577, BMV. MSS Ital., VII 697 (8581), fo. 3VGoogle Scholar ; SU, b.32, ‘Trissino Giulio’, entry for 7 Feb. 1577.

104 SU, b. 13, ‘Pomponio da Nola’; ASVen, Consiglio dei Died, Secrete, reg. 6, fo. 159r.

105 SU, b.42, ‘Soccino Cornelio, Textor Claudio’, fos 1r, 6r-v; ASVen, Consiglio dei Died, Lettere di Ambasdatori, Roma, b.26, letters of 15 and 29 Nov. 1578.

108 Spampanato, V., Documenti della vita di Giordano Bruno, Florence 1933, 59–68, 146-7.Google Scholar

107 See e.g. n. 64 above, and cf. Albizzi, Risposta, 159-60 on the extradition of Lodovico Petrucci in 1596.

108 This seems to have happened only during the pontificates of Paul iv and Pius iv; I count the cases of Aurelio Vergerio in 1556 (SU, b.5, ‘Pier Paolo Vergerio, Aurelio Vergerio’; Paschini,, Venecia, 121), Bartolomeo Fonzio in 1558 (SU, b. 18, ‘Fonzio Bartolomeo’; ASVen, Consiglio dei Died, Secrete, reg. 6, fo. 191v) and Oddo Quarto in 1564 (SU, b.21, ‘Quarto Oddo’; Paschini, op. cit. 143). Frede, C. de, ‘L'estradizione degli eretici dal Dominio veneziano nel Cinquecento’, Atti dell'Accademia Pontaniana xx (1970-1971), 255–86, esp. at p. 273Google Scholar , also refers to Paschini's discussion of the case against Agostino Sereni in 1560, cf. SU, b.5, ‘Pier Paolo Vergerio, Seren Agostino, Teofanio Odorico’; but unfortunately Paschini gives no source for his information, Paschini, op. cit. 135. De Frede's valuable article suggests, at 264-5, that the government was prepared to extradite only those individuals who were subject directly to the spiritual or temporal authority of the papacy – clerics born outside Venetian territories, or lay subjects of the Papal States. As he admits himself, however, at 283-4, the evidence does not entirely support this interpretation, and the government's own explanation for its policy (cited at n. 102) therefore seems preferable.

109 ASVen, Consiglio del Dieci, Lettere di Ambasciatori, Roma, b.25, letter of Tiepolo to the doge, 6 July 1566.

110 , Pullan, The Jews, 15Google Scholar ; , Grendler, Roman Inquisition, 40 n. 40Google Scholar.

111 Cf. the suggestions of Wootton, D., Paolo Sarpi: between Renaissance and Enlightenment, Cambridge 1983, 124–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.