Jane K. Wickersham. Rituals of Prosecution: The Roman Inquisition and the Prosecution of Philo-Protestants in Sixteenth-Century Italy.

Abstract

The historiography on the Protestant Reformation in Italy constitutes a major component of studies in religious history. Many aspects of the Reformation have already been analyzed, and our knowledge of both the victims of persecution and their persecutors is undoubtedly much broader than it used to be. One concrete example of this is the recent publication of the Dizionario Storico dell'Inquisizione, edited by Adriano Prosperi in collaboration with Vincenzo Lavenia and John Tedeschi (2011). Jane K. Wickersham's book is nevertheless an original contribution and manages to underline certain aspects that merit further consideration. The starting point and centerpiece of the structure of the book is the subject of “ritual,” whose role in religious, political, and social life in the early modern period has been established by Edward Muir and others. By revisiting certain themes successfully developed by Silvana Seidel Menchi in Erasmo in Italia (1987), Wickersham not only highlights the role of dogmatic constructs and theological debate but also underlines the fundamental importance of ceremonies and religious practices for the dual purpose of educating the faithful and identifying responsibilities and heretical beliefs. Wickersham strives to pinpoint these aspects in Inquisition documents from northern Italy, in particular Venice, Modena, and Siena, although Rome is also considered. The picture that emerges is extremely interesting, not so much because of the material used, some of which is already familiar, but due to the fact that the inquisitors' point of view is adopted. How did they assess behavior and practices? To what degree did behavior condition and sustain investigations in cases of heresy and contribute towards convictions? Whether they were simple acts or questions of adherence to dietary rules, rituals that were practiced or avoided came to play a role of primary importance for inquisitors as they defined the level of social danger that an individual posed. In other words, it was behavior and ritual practices that first aroused suspicion, reinforced evidence and came into play when the accused's statements did not follow the path “desired” by the tribunal. Moreover, most philo-Protestant criticism of Catholicism was directed somewhat forcefully against rituals and ceremonies that were defined as superstitious, magical and corrupt. The author thus perspicaciously notes that matters of confessional and theological dissent did not only stem from the need to distinguish the correct doctrinal armory from its heterodox equivalent; it was actually more a question of establishing a set of good ritual practices to shape, educate, and develop society. The church also attempted to train its faithful through rituals adopted by inquisitors for persecution and punishment, such as forcing those suspected of neglecting Catholic rituals to enact them as a punitive measure. The church's main aim in using ritual to create a barrier was therefore not to combat the spread of heretical beliefs and opinions but rather to prevent them from being translated into social behavior.