The Spirituali Timeline

Before Trent hardened the lines, a circle of Italian churchmen around Gasparo Contarini sought to reform the Church from within, and some of them came close to the Reformers on justification. Allison and Castaldo name the circle as Valdés, Sadoleto, Morone, Pole, and Badia.1 The table follows the two leaders whose lives are told on this site, Gasparo Contarini and Giovanni Morone.

Table RCC20
DateEvent
1511Contarini’s crisis. At Easter, Contarini passes through a spiritual crisis over his standing before God.1
1529Morone becomes bishop of Modena.2
1535Contarini is made a cardinal.2
1537The Consilium, a report urging reform of the Church, is drawn up with Contarini among its authors.2
1540Morone takes part in the colloquy at Hagenau.2
1541Regensburg. Contarini, as papal legate, helps to frame a formula of “double righteousness,” imputed and inherent. Neither Rome nor Luther accepts it.2
1542Morone is made a cardinal. Contarini dies on August 24, 1542.2
1545The Council of Trent opens.1
1557Pope Paul IV has Morone arrested and confined in the Castel Sant’Angelo.2
1560sMorone is acquitted under Pius IV and presides at the closing sessions of Trent.2
December 4, 1563The Council of Trent closes.2
December 1, 1580Morone dies.2

Some in these circles held Reformed convictions while remaining outwardly Catholic, a practice Calvin did much to popularize under the name Nicodemism.1

Catholic Opponents of the Reformation   Rome and the Evangelicals

Notes

  1. Gregg R. Allison and Chris Castaldo, The Unfinished Reformation: What Unites and Divides Catholics and Protestants after 500 Years (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016), introduction. ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
  2. Dates follow the biographies on this site: Gasparo Contarini and Giovanni Morone. ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩