Spirituali
|
|
The Spirituali were a Catholic reform movement from about 1510 to the 1560s.
Among its members were the Cardinals Gasparo Contarini(1483-1542), Giovanni Pietro Carafa, Jacopo Sadoleto, and Reginald Pole. These "Italian evangelicals" proposed to reform the Catholic church through a spiritual renewal and internalisation of faith by each individual. Intense study of scripture and justification by faith were seen as the means to that end. The Spirituali took many of their ideas from older Catholic texts but were certainly inspired by the Protestant Reformation, especially Calvinism. Most notable expression of the spirituali-doctrine was the anonymous Beneficio di Cristo, written in 1543.
However, although Spirituali occupied positions of high power within the church hierarchy, they failed to achieve much change and more "fundamentalist" currents, such as the Jesuits, stirred the church on a course of confrontation with the Protestants at the Council of Trent. It has been speculated that the Spirituali's lack of success stemmed from their hope for Church-reform without the challenge to Catholic authority, for a peaceful renewal from within so to say. This made them suspect to both Protestants and conservative Catholics and made the movement ineffective.