[In the following excerpt, Brown considers the events surrounding Colonna's life and her religious attitudes, claiming that she was interested in Lutheranism only insofar as it denounced the ecclesiastical abuses of the Catholic Church, and that the poet could in no way have been regarded a heretic.]

Vittoria Colonna, who was a close friend of the great Italian painter and sculptor, Michelangelo, went through an experience similar to that of other noble ladies of the time. … Widowed at thirty-three years of age in 1525, she was, … attracted towards the close study and practice of piety. This instinct for religious things was inherited from her mother who was a model pilgrim and subjected herself to the strictest austerities. These practices Vittoria imitated with such fervour as to cause the intervention of her trusted adviser, Cardinal Pole, who urged moderation. She decided to visit the Holy Land, and secured a brief, dated March 3rd, 1537, authorising her to undertake a journey of whose hazardous nature she was reminded in the brief itself. If the project did not materialize, it must not be assumed that a change in her religious inclinations had taken place. She continued to avow her sincere attachment to the Holy See,¹ although she now claimed in the face of Pole's opposition the right to examine the teaching of the Church. It was all in vain that her spiritual adviser requested her to “confine herself within the limits which were imposed on her sex.”²

Hence, we find her pursuing the path trodden by Luther and Valdés; moving from an intense personal conviction outwards to the conception of a purified Church. She shared with others, fervent ecclesiastics and laymen, the ardent desire for the abolition of abuses, the Catholic reform of the Church. This made her seek those whose ideals were similar to her own, and whilst not in any way severing herself from Pole, she found other friends in Morone, Flaminio, Ochino, Priuli, and Vermigli. Two of these became distinguished apostates, and all alike were viewed with suspicion at Rome. Vittoria had dealings with the most heterodox and the most orthodox. She was, besides being greatly interested in the Cappuccini, greatly fascinated by the Order's famous General, Ochino, whom she evidently gave some grounds for hoping that she would not be unfriendly to him when his defection took place. She was also on the most intimate terms with Carnesecchi, Marguerite of Navarre, Giulia Gonzaga, and Caterina Cibo. It is therefore small wonder that towards the end of her life the Holy See not only considered her as a heretic but also as a propagator of the seeds of heresy.

It is unfortunate that such writers as M'Crie were unable to gain access to the documents which since his time have come to light. In one of the most famous of these, the “Estratto del Processo” of Carnesecchi, there is some light thrown upon Vittoria's position. No one knew her better than the Protonotary, who says of her: “the marchessa attributed justification in great part to grace and to faith. In her acts and in all her conduct she made a great deal of works, distributed alms according to the advice given her by the Cardinal (Pole) in whom she trusted as in an oracle; she acted on the one hand as though faith alone could save her, on the other hand as though her salvation depended solely on works. One day, she told me that, having asked the Cardinal his opinion on justification, she could obtain no light upon it.”³ Carnesecchi went on to point out that one of her sonnets suggested that strangely enough, she believed absolutely in predestination. But on the other hand, she could produce a sonnet in which the founder of the Jesuit Order is extolled. Is Doumergue really correct when he describes Vittoria on her visit to Renée in 1537 as a “disciple of Valdés, one of the most discreet and most convinced partisans of the Lutheran doctrines”?⁴ There can be little doubt that these two distinguished ladies discussed religious topics together, but it hardly seems likely that Vittoria would espouse Lutheranism in quite the same way as Doumergue suggests. To oppose any Calvinism Renée at that time might have had, was not to evangelize on behalf of Lutheranism, even though she agreed with its protest against ecclesiastical abuses and had imbibed some dangerous doctrines which were Lutheran. Her visit to Ferrara was chiefly prompted by her great affection for the Cappuccini, in whose austerities she saw the realization of her hopes: such men were the divine instruments for the purification of the Church. Notwithstanding the opposition of the Duke she was able to procure for Ochino and some others of his Order a suitable house in Ferrara. She passed thence to Florence, and then to Rome, visiting Carnesecchi, Morone, Bembo, and Michelangelo. When Ochino apostatized, “without the slightest hesitation she at once took up the Catholic standpoint,” says Pastor,⁵ and followed Pole's advice with the greatest care. She wrote to Cervini from the convent of St. Caterina at Viterbo, where she had taken up her residence:⁶ “The more I have had an opportunity of watching the actions of the Rev. Monsignor of England, the more I have perceived what a true and very sincere servant of God he is; so that when he is so good as to answer any of my questions I feel sure that I shall not err in following his advice. He told me that if I received a letter or any other communication from Fra Bernardino I ought to send it to V. S. Rev^mo without answering it, unless I was permitted. …” Although she may have resisted Pole's wish in taking more than a legitimate interest in theology, she held him very obviously in the highest esteem. In a letter of this same year, 1542, to Marguerite of Navarre, she wrote:⁷ “I often speak with Cardinal Pole, whose conversation is always on heavenly things, and who regards earthly concerns only in so far as he can be useful to others.”

Of Pole's own theological position we must speak more fully in another chapter. There is no doubt that he pursued a course which could only bring down ecclesiastical disapproval the more the Church inclined to theological exclusiveness.⁸ He was in disgrace when Vittoria was in residence in the convent, and his visits to her at this time facilitated the exchange of opinions. His famous withdrawal from the Tridentine Council when the Protestant doctrine of justification was condemned was regarded by Vittoria as a Divine intervention and was heartily approved by her.⁹ But she had not long to live: she died on February 25th, 1547.

She was fortunate in quitting the scene before the reaction had reached its height, for others like Pole and Giulia Gonzaga lived to suffer considerably. There can be little doubt that had she lived longer, ecclesiastical authority would have treated her severely. Those who had been on the most intimate terms with her were hunted down, and Carnesecchi later perished. She died suspected, but one can hardly believe that she was a heretic although she was prepared to start from some of Luther's own premises.¹⁰

Notes

1. B. Fontana, “Nuovi Documenti sulla Fede di V. Colonna,” in the Bollettino della R. Società di Storia Patria, Roma, 1888.

2. Ferrero and Muller, Carteggio di V. Colonna, 1899, p. 340.

3. See Salvatorelli in the Revista Storica Ital., vol. 41, 1924, pp. 54-7.

4. Doumergue, Jean Calvin, 1903, vol. ii, p. 30.

5. Pastor, History of the Popes, 1899, vol. xi, p. 493.

6. Tiraboschi, Storia della Letteratura Italiana, 1822, vol. viii, p. 43.

7. Lettere Volgari, 1543, vol. i, p. 213.

8. See Gothein, Ignatius Loyola und die Gegenreformation, 1895, p. 150.

9. Carnesecchi, Estratto del Processo, 1870, p. 348.

10. See Young, Aonio Paleario, 1860, vol. i, p. 207. On Ochino's friendship see Estratto, p. 59.