Preaching and Inquisition in Renaissance Italy

The line between orthodoxy and heresy is notoriously fine, particularly in the sixteenth century. As the Catholic Church—and particularly the Inquisition—struggled to define clearly the limits of orthodoxy in the midst of the Protestant Reformation, many theologians, preachers and ordinary believers found themselves suddenly on the wrong side of the line. In his study of Ippolito Chizzola (1521–65), Giorgio Caravale brings us a figure who managed to redeem himself from charges of heresy and ultimately become a key figure in orthodox circles of the mid-sixteenth century, unlike many others who remained shrouded in suspicion or left the Church. Chizzola, a Lateran regular canon preacher active in northern Italy in the 1540s, found himself before an Inquisitorial tribunal in 1549 and declared vehemently to be suspected of heresy in 1550. Yet by the early 1560s he was a key opponent of Pier Paolo Vergerio, perhaps the most famous Italian apostate. Caravale traces Chizzola’s career to explain how this about-face occurred, and to argue more broadly for the key role of the Inquisition in defining the limits of orthodox preaching in the mid-sixteenth century

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