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Grace and Justification: Some Italian Views of the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

O. M. T. Logan
Affiliation:
Lecturer in the School of European Studies, University of East Anglia

Extract

In 1544, one Francesco Colonna, making his testament in Venice, wrote: ‘I recommend to Almighty God my being and my soul, and when it is his pleasure to remove me from this life, I am content; knowing that in this life I can do no good thing, but rather that I shall always offend his majesty. If I have ever said a word or performed a deed that was pleasing to him, I know that I have always been impelled and moved by the Holy Spirit, when I have had any good thought, desire or wish, I have always recognised it to be from him and through his grace alone and whenever I have willed to conduct myself by my blind judgment, presumptive wisdom and diabolical spirit, I have always done the contrary and offended his divine majesty. I leave all, therefore, to God, the Supreme Father … and should he wish to take away all that he has given me, there would remain my sins alone, for these sins are mine and all other things are his; if I go with these sins before God, I am damned, if I wish to make satisfaction, I cannot. Indeed there is no saint who can take my sins for his and satisfy and placate the wrath of God, nor is there anyone who can do so save Jesus Christ. To him, therefore, I leave all my wretched thoughts, desires and acts and all my sins, past, present and future. I make a bundle of them and give them to Jesus Christ my Lord, with the certain faith and constant hope that he will, out of sublime charity, accept them for his.’

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

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References

page 67 note 1 Archivio Di Stato, Venice (henceforth referred to as A.S.Ven.). Notarile—Testamenti, Busta (file) 1216. Protocol v fol. 38r.

page 68 note 1 Some particularly interesting examples may be found in A.S.Ven. Notarile—Testamenti, Buste 58, 843, 1181, 1217, 1218, 1249, 1250, 1251, 1262, 1263, 1264.

page 68 note 2 For these editions and for the general background of Augustinian studies, see Kristeller, P. O., ‘Augustine and the Early Renaissance’ in his Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters, Rome 1956, 355–72.Google Scholar

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page 74 note 7 See Domingo de Sta. Teresa, op. cit., 419.

page 75 note 1 Pommier, op. cit., 17–18.

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page 76 note 1 A.S. Ven. Notarile—Testamenti, Busta 1218. Protocol xi fol. 53r. (Test Vidal de Fornari). Busta 1262. Prot. i fol. 18r. (Test. Grimani). It should be said that identical invocations have not otherwise been found by the present writer among the more lengthy ones referring to divine Grace and mercy.

page 76 note 2 Ibid.Busta 1218. Prot. xi fol. 75r.

page 76 note 3 Ibid.Busta 1263. Prot. v fol. 63r. (test. Vincenzo Valgrizio).

page 76 note 4 Ibid.Busta 1251, Prot. v fol. 122r.

page 77 note 1 See Paladino ed., 33–40, esp. 34, 39.

page 77 note 2 A. S. Ven. Notarile—Testamenti, Busta 1218. Prot. xi fol. 28ff.

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page 78 note 1 Jung, ‘On the Nature of Evangelism’, 524–5.

page 77 note 2 Pommier, op. cit.