Evangelism

EVANGELISM. - It is a movement of Catholic reform of the first half of the 16th century. The name, however, is of recent origin and was coined by Pierre Imbert de la Tour to designate the French reformist tendencies. Hubert Jedin then applied it to the parallel Italian currents. The term is meant to underscore the fundamental tendency of the movement: the reform of Christian life through a return to the spirit of the Gospel, distinguishing it from the Protestantism that was contemporary with it and from the so-called Counter-Reformation that followed it. Evangelism was chronologically the last among the attempts at pre-Tridentine Catholic reform, which aspired to a reform of the Church in its members. The roots of evangelism lay on the one hand in the devotio moderna and in Erasmus, on the other in the Neoplatonism of Ficino, in the mysticism of the Cross of Savonarola, in the ethics of the Company of Divine Love, and even in the heterodox Spanish mysticism of the Alumbrados.

Evangelism was not the original creation of a particular religious reformer, but arose spontaneously from the inspirations and needs of the time, and in different places. The center of evangelism in France was Meaux under Bishop Briçonnet and Lefèvre. In Italy evangelism had a duration of barely ten years, from when, in 1534, the Spanish humanist Juan de Valdés settled in Naples and gathered around himself a circle of like-minded people. Shortly afterward other similar groups formed in Venice, around Card. Contarini, in Lucca, around Vermigli, prior of the Canons Regular, in Viterbo, around Card. Pole, in Rome, around the marchioness of Pescara, Vittoria Colonna. They had no particular organization, nor a determined program, but were bound together by concordant aspirations. This elevated devotion, formed in the humanistic spirit, was spread and propagated among the wider public by preachers such as Bernardino Ochino and by anonymous writings such as the Trattato utilissimo del beneficio di Gesù Cristo crocifisso verso i cristiani. The followers of evangelism formed the moderate current of reformers within the college of cardinals (Cervini, Contarini, Pole, Sforza, Ercole Gonzaga, Sadoleto, etc.). The expression of their spirit is the Consilium de emendanda Ecclesia (1537). They still hoped to be able to avoid the rupture by meeting, with understanding, the demands of the Protestants. When at the Diet of Regensburg Contarini presented the thesis of duplex iustitia (1541), for a moment the triumphant moment of evangelism seemed to have arrived and a reconciliation of the Protestants with Catholic doctrine was hoped for. The failure of the negotiations brought with it the failure of evangelism itself. In the following year Contarini died, the apostasy of Ochino occurred, and the Inquisition was instituted.

And when it seemed that evangelism might rise again and even conquer the papal throne in the Conclave of 1549, Card. Pole fell short by a single vote, that of Pietro Carafa, who then, under the name of Paul IV, initiated the so-called Counter-Reformation. The heretical tendencies of evangelism separated from the orthodox ones (Ochino, Vergerio, Vermigli fled) or merged with other sects, above all with Anabaptism and Socinianism. Few were executed (for example, Carnesecchi), many remained faithful to the Church, in which they brought about a profound spiritual renewal (Morone, Pole, Seripando, etc.).

Evangelism is by no means a theological system, but rather a religious attitude that was very serious and noble, yet uncertain and divided within itself. Characteristic of this irresolute attitude is Pole's advice to Vittoria Colonna: that she should believe as if justification depended on faith, but act as if eternal salvation depended only on good works. Reduced to a formula, the fundamental principle of evangelism would be the following: justification through Faith, without however excluding good works. Nevertheless its followers abstained from any overly binding and precise definition, in expectation of the forthcoming definitions of the council.

Without doubt, evangelism had not a few traits in common with Protestantism, such as Paulinism, extreme Augustinianism (the pessimism of its conception of the world and of man), the aversion to any scholastic speculation and juridical formalism, the aspiration toward a spiritualized Church and a simple and Christ-centered piety in the spirit of the Gospels, the study of the Bible, the participation of the laity in the investigation of religious problems.

There was, however, a substantial difference between evangelism and Protestantism: evangelism did not protest, it did not want to reform the Church by violence, but individual believers through Faith. Evangelism may sometimes seem close to heresy, but it was never schismatic. It lacked the revolutionary character, as well as the dogmatic one. It was a transitory phenomenon, nor did it claim to be anything else. It was an aristocratic movement, and as such it did not aim at all at winning over the great masses. To a soul struggling with spiritual and religious problems, evangelism offered nothing but a mysticism of spiritual interiority, somewhat tinged with a gentle resignation.

Eva Maria Jung