Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th CenturiesJones, Rufus M. (Rufus Matthew)
Religion
Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th Centuries
Jones, Rufus M. (Rufus Matthew)
Mysticism; Reformers
Still another influence, of a very different sort, came to England by
way of Italy--the intense interpretation of Faith as the way of
salvation, expressed in the writings of the Spanish reformer, Juan de
Valdes, and in the powerful sermons of his two Italian disciples,
Bernardino Ochino (1487-1564) and Pietro Martire Vermigli (1500-1562),
generally known as Peter Martyr. Juan de Valdes, twin brother of the
Humanist, Alfonso de Valdes, the friend of the Emperor Charles V., was
born of a distinguished Castilian family toward the end of the
fifteenth century. He was splendidly prepared in his youth, both
mentally and religiously, for the great work of his life, which was to
be a spiritual mover of other souls. As his views of the needed
transformation of Christianity broadened and intensified he concluded
that he would be safer in Italy than in Spain, and he thus took up his
residence in Naples in 1529. Here he became the centre of a remarkable
circle of spiritual men and women who were dedicating themselves to the
reform of the Church and to the {237} propagation of a more vital
religion. Ochino, the most powerful Italian preacher of the age; the
fervent scholar, Vermigli; the papal secretary, Carnesecchi, later a
martyr to the new faith; Vittoria Colonna, the friend of Michael Angelo
Buonarotti, and the beautiful Giulia Gonzaga, were among those who
kindled their torches from his burning flame. For the instruction of
his friends--especially for Giulia Gonzaga--de Valdes translated St.
Paul's Epistles to the Romans and Galatians and wrote commentaries on
them, and contributed the penetrating original works, _The Christian
Alphabet_ and _The Hundred and Ten Divine Considerations_.[1]
These writings present in vivid and powerful style the way of salvation
through Faith. The primary insight is Lutheran, but it is everywhere
coloured and tempered by the author's Humanistic outlook. He insists,
in all his interpretations of salvation, upon the vital interior work
of the Holy Spirit and upon the necessity of re-living the Christ-life
in all its heights and depths. All the truths of religion, he
constantly urges, must be known and verified in experience, and those
who are to be effective ministers of the Gospel in any age must know
that they are divinely sent and must be taught by the inward Word of
God rather than by human science. The attractive power of the Cross is
rediscovered in his profound experience and makes itself felt as the
dynamic principle of his entire moral activity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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