Inquisitorial Inquiries: Brief Lives of Secret Jews and Other Heretics (review)
as Soranzo’s efforts to put himself under the shield of the pope were doomed. It is within this context that these trials should be seen as an impressive and stimulating example of the new attitude and politics of the Inquisition and papacy. Soranzo was considered guilty of heresy not only because of his acquaintance with the most dangerous heretics, such as Valdés, Altieri, Giannetti, Borri, and Carnesecchi, but for his ideas too (sola fides sine operibus, against the authority of the Church, no ecclesiastical celibacy). First Soranzo defended himself against those charges, but then he was compelled to admit his heresies as well his friends when the inquisitors found the list of forbidden books he kept and read because of his curiosità incredibile (365), among them the Sommario della Sacra Scrittura and the Beneficio di Cristo. Soranzo told he did not realize those books were heretical. On 9 September 1551, Soranzo abjured, and the sentence was moderate, maybe because of the intervention of Venice. But his case was not closed, so when in 1555 Carafa became Pope Paul IV, investigations against him started again. In May 1557 he was ordered to Soranzo to go to Rome, but he refused, with Venetian protection, alleging as a reason ill health. The trial went on, and Soranzo was condemned, but after a week he died in May 1558. This book traces an outstanding profile of the Counter Reformation, for the people involved, both among the suspects and the inquisitors, as for the ideas that emerged from the documents and for the political relationship between Rome and Venice. MICHAELA VALENTE Università di Roma “La Sapienza”