On Biographical Illusion: Bernardino Ochino as a Historiographic Problem”
The article looks at t... more On Biographical Illusion: Bernardino Ochino as a Historiographic Problem” The article looks at the main historiographic issues involved in the life of the famous Capuchin preacher Benardino Ochino, who left the Catholic Church in the summer of 1542 in order to avoid one of the Roman Inquisition’s first citations. Drawing on the interpretations of a recent book by Michele Camaioni which is devoted to Ochino’s Italian years, the essay makes the point that the reconstruction of Ochino’s biography must take into account the fact that for a number of decades, both while he was alive and after his death, he represented mainly a penal problem. This inevitably influenced the production of the sources on him, whether they were legal sources, memoirs, polemics or histories. Moreover, the fact that during his lifetime Ochino professed nearly all the sixteenth century Christian religious confessions, and that he regularly clashed with the constituted authorities, has resulted in a trail of polemical writings about him, apologies, slanders, both from the Catholic and Protestant sides, which because of their militant and propagandistic bias, have inevitably distorted the picture we have of the man. Even the historiography of the Counter-Reformation, both that published by printers associated with the Roman inquisition and that coming out of the Capuchin order, which for centuries remained only in manuscript, immediately had to deal with the problem that Ochino had been one of the founders of a new religious order with Franciscan roots. This was an inconvenient fact, after his apostasy, one that needed to be rectified by applying revisionist techniques (anachronisms, manipulation of sources, emendations), all of which need to be carefully studied so as to avoid turning Ochino’s life into a “biographic illusion”.
On Biographical Illusion: Bernardino Ochino as a Historiographic Problem”
The article looks at t... more On Biographical Illusion: Bernardino Ochino as a Historiographic Problem” The article looks at the main historiographic issues involved in the life of the famous Capuchin preacher Benardino Ochino, who left the Catholic Church in the summer of 1542 in order to avoid one of the Roman Inquisition’s first citations. Drawing on the interpretations of a recent book by Michele Camaioni which is devoted to Ochino’s Italian years, the essay makes the point that the reconstruction of Ochino’s biography must take into account the fact that for a number of decades, both while he was alive and after his death, he represented mainly a penal problem. This inevitably influenced the production of the sources on him, whether they were legal sources, memoirs, polemics or histories. Moreover, the fact that during his lifetime Ochino professed nearly all the sixteenth century Christian religious confessions, and that he regularly clashed with the constituted authorities, has resulted in a trail of polemical writings about him, apologies, slanders, both from the Catholic and Protestant sides, which because of their militant and propagandistic bias, have inevitably distorted the picture we have of the man. Even the historiography of the Counter-Reformation, both that published by printers associated with the Roman inquisition and that coming out of the Capuchin order, which for centuries remained only in manuscript, immediately had to deal with the problem that Ochino had been one of the founders of a new religious order with Franciscan roots. This was an inconvenient fact, after his apostasy, one that needed to be rectified by applying revisionist techniques (anachronisms, manipulation of sources, emendations), all of which need to be carefully studied so as to avoid turning Ochino’s life into a “biographic illusion”.
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Papers by Miguel Gotor
The article looks at the main historiographic issues involved in the life of the famous Capuchin preacher Benardino Ochino, who left the Catholic Church in the summer of 1542 in order to avoid one of the Roman Inquisition’s first citations. Drawing on the interpretations of a recent book by Michele Camaioni which is devoted to Ochino’s Italian years, the essay makes the point that the reconstruction of Ochino’s biography must take into account the fact that for a number of decades, both while he was alive and after his death, he represented mainly a penal problem. This inevitably influenced the production of the sources on him, whether they were legal sources, memoirs, polemics or histories. Moreover, the fact that during his lifetime Ochino professed nearly all the sixteenth century Christian religious confessions, and that he regularly clashed with the constituted authorities, has resulted in a trail of polemical writings about him, apologies, slanders, both from the Catholic and Protestant sides, which because of their militant and propagandistic bias, have inevitably distorted the picture we have of the man. Even the historiography of the Counter-Reformation, both that published by printers associated with the Roman inquisition and that coming out of the Capuchin order, which for centuries remained only in manuscript, immediately had to deal with the problem that Ochino had been one of the founders of a new religious order with Franciscan roots. This was an inconvenient fact, after his apostasy, one that needed to be rectified by applying revisionist techniques (anachronisms, manipulation of sources, emendations), all of which need to be carefully studied so as to avoid turning Ochino’s life into a “biographic illusion”.
The article looks at the main historiographic issues involved in the life of the famous Capuchin preacher Benardino Ochino, who left the Catholic Church in the summer of 1542 in order to avoid one of the Roman Inquisition’s first citations. Drawing on the interpretations of a recent book by Michele Camaioni which is devoted to Ochino’s Italian years, the essay makes the point that the reconstruction of Ochino’s biography must take into account the fact that for a number of decades, both while he was alive and after his death, he represented mainly a penal problem. This inevitably influenced the production of the sources on him, whether they were legal sources, memoirs, polemics or histories. Moreover, the fact that during his lifetime Ochino professed nearly all the sixteenth century Christian religious confessions, and that he regularly clashed with the constituted authorities, has resulted in a trail of polemical writings about him, apologies, slanders, both from the Catholic and Protestant sides, which because of their militant and propagandistic bias, have inevitably distorted the picture we have of the man. Even the historiography of the Counter-Reformation, both that published by printers associated with the Roman inquisition and that coming out of the Capuchin order, which for centuries remained only in manuscript, immediately had to deal with the problem that Ochino had been one of the founders of a new religious order with Franciscan roots. This was an inconvenient fact, after his apostasy, one that needed to be rectified by applying revisionist techniques (anachronisms, manipulation of sources, emendations), all of which need to be carefully studied so as to avoid turning Ochino’s life into a “biographic illusion”.