religious life 411
that the elect were always persecuted and that persecution was a sign of
election)80 we must reflect for a moment on the profession in which his
audacious hermeneutics and fervent piety matured. Benedetto del Borgo
was a representative of the notarial class, a group which had a crucial role
in the society of the Venetian Republic and other italian states. Present for
every business transaction, guarantor for every agreement, witness to every
rite of passage (especially the stipulation of a marriage in all its phases),
often called upon to arbitrate in every sort of dispute, the notary was the
most ubiquitously entrenched professional in the economic life of cities,
villages, and territory. That this very group contributed a numerous—
very numerous—group of followers to the Protestant movement in the
Veneto is a very meaningful piece of data, and one which scholars have
only just begun to confront.81 The concrete nature of the profession, its
closeness to the vibrant world of business, and its mediating role between
governors and the governed corrects the impression of visionary abstract-
ness, unreality, and blindness to the true balance of power that the cases
of a Vittore soranzo or Benedetto del Borgo might suggest. That impres-
sion is the result of a historical judgment ex post facto, of an inability to
comprehend the past as it was when it was present: an error of which
historians are often guilty. in the Veneto of the late 1540s, the Evangelio
(in all its variations) was neither a marginal option nor an experiment
extraneous to those enjoying real social power, as Benedetto del Borgo
and the many notaries of similar sensibilities can attest. it was a concrete
possibility, capable of attracting followers in some of the most dynamic
social categories.
Benedetto del Borgo was arrested, convicted, and burned alive in Rovigo
in March 1551. six months later the Anabaptist community he had led as
bishop was broken up and later dispersed thanks to the detailed confes-
sion of one of its principal members, the priest Pietro Manelfi.82
80 stella, Anabattismo e antitrinitarismo; Aldo stella, Dall’anabattismo al socianianesimo
nel Cinquecento veneto (Padua, 1967).
81 seidel Menchi, “Protestanten.”
82 stella, Anabattismo e antitrinitarismo, pp. 75–79. it must be remembered that inquis-
itorial trials in Venice and the Veneto only rarely ended with a death sentence. As an
example of this inquisitorial moderation, see the case of isabella della frattina (1542–1601),
a patrician woman of wealthy family who, after a trial and two years of reclusion (1568–
70), was released by the Venetian inquisition without further sanctions, despite strong
evidence that pointed to her involvement in the Protestant movement. see federica
Ambrosini, L’eresia di Isabella. Vita di Isabella da Passano, signora della Frattina (1542–1601)
(Milan, 2005).