the unitarians Lelio and Fausto Sozzini, should
have been born in Siena.

Among the little nests of Lutherans or Christian mystics the most
important were at Venice, Ferrara and Naples. As early as 1519
Luther's books found their way to Venice, and in 1525 one of the
leading canon lawyers in the city wrote an elaborate refutation of
them, together with a letter to the Reformer himself, informing him
that his act of burning the papal decretals was worse than that of
Judas in betraying, or of Pilate in crucifying, Christ. The first
sufferer for the new religion was Jerome Galateo. [Sidenote: 1530]
Nevertheless, the new church waxed strong, and many were executed for
their opinions. A correspondence of the brethren with Bucer and Luther
has been preserved. In one letter they deeply deplore the schisms on
the doctrine of the eucharist as hurtful to their cause. The {376}
famous artist Lorenzo Lotto [Sidenote: 1540] was employed to paint
pictures of Luther and his wife, probably copies of Cranach. The
appearance of the Socinians about 1550, and the mutual animosity of the
several sects, including the Anabaptist, was destructive. Probably
more fatal was the disaster of the Schmalkaldic war and the complete
triumph of the emperor. The Inquisition finished the work of crushing
out what remained of the new doctrines.

[Sidenote: Naples]

That Naples became a focus of Protestantism was due mainly to John de
Valdes, a deeply religious Spaniard. From his circle went out a
treatise on justification entitled _The Benefit of Christ's Death_, by
Benedict of Mantua, of which no less than 40,000 copies were sold, for
it was the one reforming work to enjoy popularity rivalling that of
Luther and Erasmus. Influenced by Valdes, also, Bartholomew Forzio
translated Luther's _Address to the German Nobility_ into Italian.

[Sidenote: Ferrara]

At the court of Ferrara the duchess, Renee de France, gathered a little
circle of Protestants. Calvin himself spent some time here, and his
influence, together with the high protection of his patroness, made the
place a fulcrum against Rome. Isabella d'Este, originally of Ferrara
and later Marchioness of Mantua, one of the brilliant women of the
Renaissance, for a while toyed with the fashionable theology. Cardinal
Bembo saw at her castle at Mantua paintings of Erasmus and Luther.
[Sidenote: 1537] One of the courtly poets of Northern Italy, Francis
Berni, bears witness to the good rep