Valdés, Juan de

VALDÉS, JUAN de. - Spanish man of letters and writer, son of a Ferdinand and brother of Alfonso (d. 1532) who was imperial secretary and author of two dialogues, b. at Cuenca toward the end of the fifteenth century, d. at Naples in the early days of Aug. 1541.

He served in several courts of Spanish lords, studied law and sacred sciences, and was influenced on the one hand by Erasmus of Rotterdam and on the other by the alumbrados. In 1529 his Dialogo de doctrina christiana appeared anonymously, which, though it did not openly clash with orthodoxy, provoked a trial against the author. He is found at Rome around 1530 as camerarius of Clement VII and at the same time imperial secretary. Appointed "archivist" of Naples in Dec. 1532, he left Rome only after the death of Clement VII, and took up stable residence at Naples in 1535 where, though he had given up the office of archivist, he held offices and assignments from the Spanish government and maintained relations with the ministers of Charles V. Here in 1535-36 he composed the Dialogo de la lengua, a distinguished document for the history of the Spanish language and literature. Of particular importance in the religious life of the time was the influence he exercised over a group of intellectuals beginning with Giulia Gonzaga, widow of Vespasiano Colonna. For her he composed the dialogue the Alfabeto cristiano, preserved for us in the Italian translation of Marco Antonio Magno, and commentaries on the letters to the Corinthians, to the Romans, on the Gospel of St. Matthew, a translation of and a commentary on the Psalms. There are furthermore by him Le couto e dieci divine considerazioni... delle cose utili, più necessarie e più perfette della christiana professione, translated also into other languages; a catechism: Lacte spirituale, con il quale si debbono nutrire et allevare i figliuoli dei christiani, and some other lesser treatise, all works printed after his death. Besides other gentlewomen, there gathered around V. ecclesiastics such as Ochino (v.) who drew inspiration from him for his sermons, Vermigli (v.), Pietro Antonio di Capua, archbishop of Otranto, Carnesecchi, then Marco Antonio Flaminio, Jacopo Bonfadio and still others. Though without denying the usefulness of good works, the cornerstone of his teaching was justification by faith alone in the application of the merits of Christ without need of the Sacrament of Penance for the remission of sins; and even while making an outward profession of Catholicism, he came to renounce the duty of belonging to the Church, and to doubt Purgatory. It was at bottom a mild Lutheranism in the form that was adopted and that enjoyed success also outside Naples, on account of a certain unction of greater interior piety in comparison with the decadence of ecclesiastical custom. V. soon found himself in conflict with the first Theatines established at Naples in those years and died without having been condemned by the Church. He had been, like Carnesecchi, a bitter enemy of the Farnese.

Pio Paschini