ute of the Protestants. In his
_Rifacimento_ of Boiardo's _Orlando Inamorato_, he wrote: "Some rascal
hypocrites snarl between their teeth, 'Freethinker! Lutheran!' but
Lutheran means, you know, good Christian."

[Sidenote: Roman prelates affected by Luther]

The most significant sign of the times, and the most ominous for the
papacy, was that among those affected by the leaven of Lutheranism were
many of the leading {377} luminaries in the bosom of the church. That
the Florentine chronicler Bartholomew Cerratani expressed his hope that
Luther's distinguished morals, piety and learning should reform the
curia was bad enough; that the papal nuncio Vergerio, after being sent
on a mission to Wittenberg, should go over to the enemy, was worse;
that cardinals like Contarini and Pole should preach justification by
faith and concede much that the Protestants asked, was worst of all.
"No one now passes at Rome," wrote Peter Anthony Bandini about 1540,
"as a cultivated man or a good courtier who does not harbor some
heretical opinions." Paul Sarpi, the eminent historian of Trent,
reports that Luther's arguments were held to be unanswerable at Rome,
but that he was resisted in order that authority might be uphold. For
this statement he appeals to a diary of Francis Chieregato, an eminent
ecclesiastic who died on December 6, 1539. As the diary has not been
found, Lord Acton rejects the assertion, believing that Sarpi's word
cannot be taken unsupported. But a curious confirmation of Sarpi's
assertion, [Sidenote: Sarpi's assertion] and one that renders it
acceptable, is found in Luther's table talk. Speaking on February 22,
1538, he says that he has heard from Rome that it was there believed to
be impossible to refute him until St. Paul had been deposed. Ho
regarded this as a signal testimony to the truth of his doctrines; to
us it is valuable only as an evidence of Roman opinion. It is not too
much to say that at about that time the most distinguished Italian
prelates were steering for Wittenberg and threatened to take Rome with
them. How they failed is the history of the Counter-reformation.

SECTION 2. THE PAPACY. 1522-1590

Nothing can better indicate the consternation caused at Rome by the
appearance of the Lutheran revolt than {378} the fact that for the
first time in 144 years and for the last time in history the cardinals
elected as supreme pontiff a man who was not an Italian, Adrian of
Utrecht. [Sidenot