religious life 409
day—speak in a language that leaves few doubts: among them were prin-
cipal texts of luther’s theology, such as the preface to the letter of st Paul
to the Romans; ecclesiological programs for an evangelical church, such
as Melanchthon’s Augsburg Confession; the Confession of the lutheran
Church against the interim also by Melanchthon; and other equally
explicit programmatic texts.73
The audacity and clarity of the theological position documented
by these texts contrasts, however, with the caution of the reforms that
soranzo actually dared to introduce in his diocese. The reforms were
introduced quietly, but they nonetheless suggest the existence of a net-
work of collaborators behind the bishop that was prepared to undertake
the construction of an “evangelical Church of Bergamo.” soranzo’s most
audacious initiatives, in fact, were the preachers whom he chose, who held
views akin to his own spiritual sensibilities, the prohibition of preaching
against “lutherans,” the appointment in several parishes of priests who
had embraced the doctrine of justification by faith alone, the favor lent
to one of these priests in his plans to marry a nun who wanted to leave
her convent, and the attempt to restrain some of the more vulgar forms
of miraculous superstition.74 Yet these cautious moves were enough to
spread rumors that the bishop was a “rotten lutheran” and cause the
inquisition to bring him to trial in 1550, ending a year later with his con-
viction and abjuration. This latter, however was of a private nature, pro-
nounced in front of Pope Julius iii; the sentence too was quite lenient,
given the gravity of the heresies soranzo confessed, since it spared the
bishop imprisonment and left him his position, though he was suspended
from active duties.
While Julius iii lived, soranzo was shielded by the pontiff ’s hostility to
the newborn Holy office of the inquisition and the Serenissima’s protec-
tion, though he could not exercise his pastoral office; but when Paul iV,
the father and patron of the Roman inquisition, rose to the papal throne,
the trial against soranzo was reopened (1556–58). A providentially fatal
illness spared the bishop from being convicted as a relapsed heretic, a
sentence which normally called for the penalty of death.75 even before
his death, the modest reforms soranzo had tried to implement had been
erased from the diocese of Bergamo, identical to what occurred with the
73 ibid.
74 firpo and Pagano, I processi inquisitoriali di Vittore Soranzo; firpo, Vittore Soranzo.
75 firpo, Vittore Soranzo.