Michelangelo Florio
Encyclopedia
Michelangelo Florio born in Lucca
, or Florence
and died in Soglio
, was the son of converted Jews
, who became a Franciscan friar, before converting to Protestantism
. He was a pastor
in both England
and Switzerland
, and father of the renaissance humanist John Florio.
of Jewish parents who had converted to Christianity
. The precise city of his birth is unknown, though in his Apology he describes himself as a Florentine. Francis Yates however argued that his assertion could be simply a boast in order to acquire prestige, by associating his origins with a city of great cultural prestige, It is possible he may have been born in Lucca
, which boasted a large Jewish community, or Siena
.
He was orphaned before his adolescence, and was thereafter raised by relatives in Trentino, before entering the Franciscan Order under the name of Paolo Antonio. In that capacity, he began to preach in a number of Italian towns.
The spread of Lutheranism
began to influence his thinking, and from the 1540s onwards he expressed his newly acquired beliefs while preaching from the church's pulpits. In 1548 he was arrested for heresy
, and subsequently imprisoned in Rome
that same year. After two years of imprisonment, he was brought to trial and condemned to death. He managed to avoid execution by escaping from prison on the 6 of May, 1550. Abandoning his Franciscan habit
, he moved first to Abruzzo
, then Naples
and finally to Puglia where he boarded a ship for Venice
. He resided there, establishing contact with the English ambassador and other Italian Protestants. In September 1550, he set out to roam throughout the whole of Lombardy
where 'pious persons provided for his basic needs. Searching for a safe refuge, he finally expatriated and settled in France
, via Lyon
s. After arriving in Paris
, he managed to find passage on ship to reach the safety of England
.
On the first of November 1550, he arrived in London
, a city which, at that time, contained many communities of Protestant refugees, who had fled from persecution by Catholics, and who had established Reformed churches, each catering to its own linguistic group, under the general superintendence of Jan Laski
. Thanks perhaps to the good credentials given to him by theologians like Bernardino Ochino
and Pietro Martire Vermigli
, Florio won favour with both the Anglican ecclesiastical authority bishop Thomas Cranmer
and also of William Cecil
, who obtained for him the position of pastor of the Reformed church for Italian speakers. He also served as secretary for Cecil, and as Jane Grey's chaplain
, whom he taught both Italian and Latin. He dedicated to her a book of grammar, the Regole et Institutioni della Lingua Thoscana. He probably knew, and perhaps even taught the future queen Elisabeth
.
An informal relationship, which had not been sanctified by marriage, with a woman created a scandal among his churchgoers. Florio reported 14 of them to the authorities, who punished them for ostensibly having lapsed back into Catholic beliefs. Florio's preaching was often passionately hostile of Catholicism and its doctrine of papal primacy
, and indeed struck other reformers as somewhat excessive. Eventually, his open criticism of some aspects of the prevailing theology of his community caused conflicts with the authorities. In 1552, He was released of his role as pastor, but managed to avoid expulsion from England by marrying the woman he lived with - her name is unknown. She bore him a son John in 1553. Florio thus managed to keep his position with William Cecil.
After the death of the young king Edward VI
, on the 5th of June, 1553, a problem with the succession to the throne arose. Edward, influenced by Dudley
- to whom Florio had dedicated his Italian translation of the catechism
of the bishop of Winchester
John Ponet
- had designated Dudlkey's daughter-in-law, Jane Grey, to succeed him. She however lacked the qualifications for the role which Maria Tudor, the eldest daughter of Henry VIII
, had. The latter reacted violently to the elevation of Jane Grey, and had her imprisoned, while her supporters were executed. A violent anti-Protestant repression then ensued. As a result, in 1554 Florio, together with other Protestant refugees, fled England. Florio never forgot his young student, and dedicated to her memory his History of the life and death of the illustrious Jane Grey.
With his wife and son, Florio settled in Strasbourg
, where he got to know Federico of Salis, scion of a powerful family of the Val Bregaglia
. Federico's following contained members of both religious confessions, Catholic and Protestant, though he personally was a Protestant. He offered Florio a post as pastor of Soglio in Switzerland, which had opened up after the recent death of Michele Lattanzio, another Italian refugee. Thus the Florio family settled in Graubünden
on the 27th of May, 1554.
The majority of Soglio's inhabitants had converted officially to Protestantism
, on Christmas day, 1552. There he dedicated himself to his pastoral duties, and to the education of his son John, whom he subsequently sent, when just 10 years old, to study in Tübingen
. In 1557 he wrote an Apologia
to defend himself from the attacks of the Italian Franciscan Bernardino Spada, whom he had known personally. Spada had accused him of being a Jew. However most of the controversies in which he was involved were with other Protestants in his Swiss canton, many of whom were refugees from Italy, who carried over from their homeland a certain impatience for ecclesiastical discipline and rituals, together with a request that theology be less dogmatic and more open to the needs both of the spirit and of reason.
Lucca
Lucca is a city and comune in Tuscany, central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plainnear the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca...
, or Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
and died in Soglio
Soglio, Switzerland
Soglio is a former municipality in the district of Maloja in the Swiss canton of Graubünden close to the border with Italy. It's now part of the municipality of Bregaglia.-Geography:...
, was the son of converted Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
, who became a Franciscan friar, before converting to Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
. He was a pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
in both England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, and father of the renaissance humanist John Florio.
Life
Michelangelo Florio was born in TuscanyTuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
of Jewish parents who had converted to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. The precise city of his birth is unknown, though in his Apology he describes himself as a Florentine. Francis Yates however argued that his assertion could be simply a boast in order to acquire prestige, by associating his origins with a city of great cultural prestige, It is possible he may have been born in Lucca
Lucca
Lucca is a city and comune in Tuscany, central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plainnear the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca...
, which boasted a large Jewish community, or Siena
Siena
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
.
He was orphaned before his adolescence, and was thereafter raised by relatives in Trentino, before entering the Franciscan Order under the name of Paolo Antonio. In that capacity, he began to preach in a number of Italian towns.
The spread of Lutheranism
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
began to influence his thinking, and from the 1540s onwards he expressed his newly acquired beliefs while preaching from the church's pulpits. In 1548 he was arrested for heresy
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
, and subsequently imprisoned in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
that same year. After two years of imprisonment, he was brought to trial and condemned to death. He managed to avoid execution by escaping from prison on the 6 of May, 1550. Abandoning his Franciscan habit
Religious habit
A religious habit is a distinctive set of garments worn by members of a religious order. Traditionally some plain garb recognisable as a religious habit has also been worn by those leading the religious eremitic and anachoritic life, although in their case without conformity to a particular uniform...
, he moved first to Abruzzo
Abruzzo
Abruzzo is a region in Italy, its western border lying less than due east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east...
, then Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
and finally to Puglia where he boarded a ship for Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
. He resided there, establishing contact with the English ambassador and other Italian Protestants. In September 1550, he set out to roam throughout the whole of Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
where 'pious persons provided for his basic needs. Searching for a safe refuge, he finally expatriated and settled in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, via Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
s. After arriving in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, he managed to find passage on ship to reach the safety of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
On the first of November 1550, he arrived in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, a city which, at that time, contained many communities of Protestant refugees, who had fled from persecution by Catholics, and who had established Reformed churches, each catering to its own linguistic group, under the general superintendence of Jan Laski
Jan Laski
Jan Łaski, John Laski, Johannes Alasco, John a Lasco , was a Polish Protestant evangelical reformer. It is owing to his influential work in England Jan Łaski, John Laski, Johannes Alasco, John a Lasco (1499 – 8 January 1560), was a Polish Protestant evangelical reformer. It is owing to his...
. Thanks perhaps to the good credentials given to him by theologians like Bernardino Ochino
Bernardino Ochino
Bernardino Ochino was an Italian Reformer.-Biography:Bernardino Ochino was born in Siena son of the barber Domenico Ochino, and at the age of 7 or 8 around 1504 was entrusted to the Minorite order of Franciscan Friars, then from 1510 he studied medicine at Perugia.-1534, transfer to the...
and Pietro Martire Vermigli
Pietro Martire Vermigli
Peter Martyr Vermigli , sometimes simply Peter Martyr, was an Italian theologian of the Reformation period.-Life:...
, Florio won favour with both the Anglican ecclesiastical authority bishop Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build a favourable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon which resulted in the separation of the English Church from...
and also of William Cecil
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , KG was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572...
, who obtained for him the position of pastor of the Reformed church for Italian speakers. He also served as secretary for Cecil, and as Jane Grey's chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
, whom he taught both Italian and Latin. He dedicated to her a book of grammar, the Regole et Institutioni della Lingua Thoscana. He probably knew, and perhaps even taught the future queen Elisabeth
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
.
An informal relationship, which had not been sanctified by marriage, with a woman created a scandal among his churchgoers. Florio reported 14 of them to the authorities, who punished them for ostensibly having lapsed back into Catholic beliefs. Florio's preaching was often passionately hostile of Catholicism and its doctrine of papal primacy
Primacy of the Roman Pontiff
The primacy of the Bishop of Rome is an ecclesiastical doctrine held by some branches of Christianity, most notably the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion. The doctrine concerns the respect and authority that is due to the Bishop of Rome from bishops and their...
, and indeed struck other reformers as somewhat excessive. Eventually, his open criticism of some aspects of the prevailing theology of his community caused conflicts with the authorities. In 1552, He was released of his role as pastor, but managed to avoid expulsion from England by marrying the woman he lived with - her name is unknown. She bore him a son John in 1553. Florio thus managed to keep his position with William Cecil.
After the death of the young king Edward VI
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...
, on the 5th of June, 1553, a problem with the succession to the throne arose. Edward, influenced by Dudley
John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland
John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, KG was an English general, admiral, and politician, who led the government of the young King Edward VI from 1550 until 1553, and unsuccessfully tried to install Lady Jane Grey on the English throne after the King's death...
- to whom Florio had dedicated his Italian translation of the catechism
Catechism
A catechism , i.e. to indoctrinate) is a summary or exposition of doctrine, traditionally used in Christian religious teaching from New Testament times to the present...
of the bishop of Winchester
Winchester
Winchester is a historic cathedral city and former capital city of England. It is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of...
John Ponet
John Ponet
John Ponet was the Bishop of Winchester, the Bishop of Rochester, and a controversial Protestant religious leader.In his day, Ponet was an influential Protestant theologian...
- had designated Dudlkey's daughter-in-law, Jane Grey, to succeed him. She however lacked the qualifications for the role which Maria Tudor, the eldest daughter of Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
, had. The latter reacted violently to the elevation of Jane Grey, and had her imprisoned, while her supporters were executed. A violent anti-Protestant repression then ensued. As a result, in 1554 Florio, together with other Protestant refugees, fled England. Florio never forgot his young student, and dedicated to her memory his History of the life and death of the illustrious Jane Grey.
With his wife and son, Florio settled in Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
, where he got to know Federico of Salis, scion of a powerful family of the Val Bregaglia
Val Bregaglia
The Val Bregaglia or Bergell Tal is an alpine valley of Switzerland and Italy at the base of which runs the river Mera River...
. Federico's following contained members of both religious confessions, Catholic and Protestant, though he personally was a Protestant. He offered Florio a post as pastor of Soglio in Switzerland, which had opened up after the recent death of Michele Lattanzio, another Italian refugee. Thus the Florio family settled in Graubünden
Graubünden
Graubünden or Grisons is the largest and easternmost canton of Switzerland. The canton shares borders with the cantons of Ticino, Uri, Glarus and St. Gallen and international borders with Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein...
on the 27th of May, 1554.
The majority of Soglio's inhabitants had converted officially to Protestantism
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
, on Christmas day, 1552. There he dedicated himself to his pastoral duties, and to the education of his son John, whom he subsequently sent, when just 10 years old, to study in Tübingen
Tübingen
Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers.-Geography:...
. In 1557 he wrote an Apologia
Apologetics
Apologetics is the discipline of defending a position through the systematic use of reason. Early Christian writers Apologetics (from Greek ἀπολογία, "speaking in defense") is the discipline of defending a position (often religious) through the systematic use of reason. Early Christian writers...
to defend himself from the attacks of the Italian Franciscan Bernardino Spada, whom he had known personally. Spada had accused him of being a Jew. However most of the controversies in which he was involved were with other Protestants in his Swiss canton, many of whom were refugees from Italy, who carried over from their homeland a certain impatience for ecclesiastical discipline and rituals, together with a request that theology be less dogmatic and more open to the needs both of the spirit and of reason.
Writings
- Apologia di M. Michel Agnolo Fiorentino, ne la quale si tratta de la vera e falsa chiesa, de l'essere e qualità de la messa, de la vera presenza di Christo, de la Cena, del Papato, e primato di San Piero, de Concilij & autorità loro: scritto a un heretico, Chamogasko (Basilea?) 1557
- Historia de la vita e de la morte de l'Illustriss. Signora Giovanna Graia, Riccardo Pittore, Venetia 1607