BATTISTA da CREMA. - Dominican ascetical writer and director, born Carioni, probably around 1460 in Crema. He seems to have been a disciple of the Blessed Sebastiano Maggi (q.v.). The austere Dominican began to become well-known in 1519 when St. Gaetano Thiene, having just cooperated in Rome in the founding of the Confraternity of Divine Love, chose him as his spiritual director while staying in Vicenza. By obedience, Battista sent Thiene first to Venice and then, in 1523, to Rome, where he appears to have encouraged him to found the Theatines.
Chosen as confessor by Ludovica Torelli, Countess of Guastalla, who had converted to a spiritual life, Fra Battista, with a special indult from Clement VII, went to live in Guastalla near the Countess, taking on her spiritual direction (1529). At his advice, the Countess chose as her chaplain St. Antonio Maria Zaccaria, founder of the Barnabites (May 1530?), whom Battista had known in Cremona and had directed since 1528. In 1529, Countess Torelli and Fra Battista moved to Milan, where they laid the foundations of two pious associations, one of women and the other of priests, following a rigorous ascetical method according to Battista’s spiritual teachings. From these pious associations, through successive developments, the Angelicals and the Barnabites originated. Fra Battista’s stay with the Countess of Guastalla was harshly criticized by his Dominican brethren and others, including Gian Pietro Carafa (later Pope Paul IV), but in the trial held in 1530, his innocence was established. He died in the night between January 2 and 3, 1537, assisted by St. Antonio Zaccaria.
Fra Battista is known, besides as a director of souls, also as a distinguished writer of spiritual works widely read in his time: *La Via di aperta verità*, first published in Venice in 1523 without the author’s knowledge by one of his admirers, the hermit Gerolamo Regino, full of errors and distortions of the author’s thought, and reissued in corrected form by Battista himself, probably at the end of 1524 (reprinted in 1544–47); *Della cognitione et vittoria di se stesso*, Milan 1531; *Philosophia Divina*, ibid. 1531; *Lo specchio interiore*, ibid. 1540. He also seems to be the author of the *Detti notabili*, published in Venice in 1583, which were previously attributed to St. Antonio Zaccaria.
Battista’s ascetical teaching is austere, animated by a strong combative spirit against himself and his own passions, uncompromising with human frailty, and eminently anti-Manichaean. Yet it seems to leave the work of grace somewhat too much in the shadows, emphasizing instead the active and constructive work of free will. Perhaps because Battista excessively extolled the doctrine of Cassian, his spirituality was accused of Semi-Pelagianism, even Pelagianism. His doctrine is essentially orthodox and pure, but some unfortunate expressions can be criticized, and it became suspect to the Holy Office because of the abuse made of it by the Venerable Paola Antonia Negri (q.v.).
The writings of Fra Battista were placed on the Index by Pope Paul IV Carafa in 1559, a condemnation confirmed by the Council of Trent, though with the mildest of clauses. Reissued in a compendium by Serafino da Fermo, a Lateran canon, preceded by an *Apologia* (which was itself condemned), rediscovered and published by Fr. Orazio Premoli, Battista’s works were removed from the Index in 1900.
Baptistery — B. with mosaic cladding (6th century).