A Light from the Shadows
The Benedictine monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, where Benedetto Fontanini, the author of the Benefit of Christ, lived and studied.
During the first half of the sixteenth century, the Protestant Reformation gained considerable traction in Italy. Discussions about the new ideas taught by Martin Luther buzzed in Italian universities and monasteries during the 1520s and 1530s. Protestant books poured in to the country mainly through Venice, a city with a long history of resistance to the power of the papacy. As a result, many Italians, even a few cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church, began to hear of and embrace the doctrine of justification by faith alone.
By the early 1540s, however, the light of the Reformation in Italy grew dim. In 1541, the well-known reformer Juan de Valdes died. Although a Spainard by birth, Valdes lived and labored in Italy, publishing numerous books in Italian and holding meetings in his home. 1541 also saw the failure of the Colloquy of Ratisbon, a meeting between Protestant and Catholic leaders in an attempt to restore their religious unity. The Papal delegate to the Colloquy was Cardinal Gasparo Contarini, who embraced the doctrine of justification by faith alone and had sympathies toward the Protestant movement, but was unable to bring agreement between the two sides. Shortly thereafter in 1542, Contarini died. That same year, the pope established the Roman Inquisition, led by the merciless Cardinal Gian Pietro Carafa. His singular mission was to cleanse the Catholic Church of Protestant doctrine. As a result, several key figures in Italy, including the great scholar Peter Martyr Vermigli, fled the country, crossing the Alps into Switzerland.
From a Protestant perspective, the early 1540s were somber times for the Christian church in Italy. Yet it was precisely in this dark hour that a light emerged from the shadows. In 1543, a small book of only 70 pages, written by an anonymous author, appeared on the shelves of Venetian booksellers. The Benefit of Christ (Il Beneficio di Cristo) communicated powerfully and clearly the biblical distinction between the law and the gospel, as well as the doctrine of the imputed righteousness of Christ received by faith alone. Written in simple Italian for the common man, it aimed to comfort weary believers who lacked assurance of their salvation. The book was an instant success, selling more than 40,000 copies and being translated into several languages. “Beyond all other books,” as Philip McNair observed, “it popularized the doctrine of Justification by faith in Italy, and probably damaged Rome more than the Sack” (Peter Martyr in Italy: An Anatomy of Apostasy, 43).
Rome, however, did not remain idle. The Council of Trent officially condemned The Benefit of Christ in 1546. In 1549, it was placed on the Index of Prohibited Books and burned in Italy’s public squares. Owning a copy became a crime. By the 1560s, all known Italian copies were destroyed. All traces were lost. Yet, in 1843, three centuries after The Benefit first appered in Venice, an Italian copy was found in Cambridge, England, producing a renewed interest in the work and the identity of its author.
It has been almost five centuries since The Benefit of Christ was first published. The Lord once used this little book to help people across Europe understand the gospel. What will he use today? May God grant us grace and courage to return to the message of The Benefit of Christ and proclaim it bodly once again in Italy and throughout the world.
Michael Brown
