410 cecilia cristellon and silvana seidel menchi
cautious reforming innovations introduced into the diocese of Capodistria
by the other lutheran bishop of the Venetian dominion, Pier Paolo Verge-
rio, before he fled beyond the Alps.76
Benedetto del Borgo (d. 1551) was also a bishop—an Anabaptist bishop.77
until 1549 he had exercised the notarial profession in the city of Asolo
and had enjoyed the esteem of the most important citizens, including the
podestà francesco Nani; but theology (literally, “the speaking of god”) had
such a fascination for this generation of Venetian subjects, that Benedetto
abandoned his profession and became an itinerant preacher and Ana-
baptist bishop. To discuss him alongside a figure such as Vittore soranzo,
however, means associating an amateur with a professional in the science
of god. A distinction should be made: while Vittore soranzo, like Verge-
rio, had had the benefit of a theological formation, Benedetto del Borgo
was self taught in sacred hermeneutics. His theology and biblical studies
were nurtured by an intense fervor, enthusiasm, and Christocentric faith
of which his notarial registers have left us clear evidence.78
i believe it likely that Benedetto went through a period of adherence to
the lutheran-style reform movement that was quite active and widespread
in Asolo and nearby cities; but it was this very vibrancy and success which
ensured that, from a large base, the radical Anabaptist variant of the Ref-
ormation could recruit a church which in 1550 counted 150 members. This
church, extending throughout the Republic’s territory, was strong enough
to organize a synod in Venice in order to debate and define several funda-
mental theological questions, such as that of the human or divine nature
of Christ. The documents we possess pertaining to this synod and the
Anabaptist movement that organized it (Venice, 1550) provide us with an
image of Benedetto del Borgo as a doctrinally audacious minister who
possessed great authority and an inspiring eloquence.79
Beyond the doctrinal positions he assumed (that Christ was “born of the
seed,” that is, the natural child of Joseph and Mary; that the gospels had
been reworked and that it was necessary to identify these later additions;
76 Anne Jacobson schutte, Pier Paolo Vergerio: The Making of an Italian Reformer
(geneva, 1977).
77 Aldo stella, Anabattismo e antitrinitarismo in Italia nel XVI secolo (Padua, 1962),
pp. 41–43, 48–52, 55–58, 69–79.
78 silvana seidel Menchi, “Protestanten im italien des 16. Jahrhunderts,” in Michael
Matheus and uwe israel, eds., Protestanten zwischen Venedig und Rom in der frühen Neu-
zeit (Berlin, 2013), pp. 27–43.
79 Carlo ginzburg, I costituti di don Pietro Manelfi (florence/Chicago, 1970), pp. 21, 33,
40, 50, 65, 72.