CHAPTER 5

BATTISTA CARIONI DA CREMA1

“First Father and Founder”

The Theatines and the Barnabites consider the Dominican Friar Battista Carioni da Crema
as their founder, who guided them during their early years of formation and growth.

1 A small town on the south bank of the Po River about 130 km SE of Milan and 70 km SE of Cremona, in a
region of quasi-independent feudal princedoms and counties.
54 CHAPTER 5 - Battista Carioni Da Crema

Father Angelo Cortenovis, a devoted researcher of Barnabite history, had good reason to
write that his influence was decisive.

Carioni with the Dominicans

Battista Carioni was born in 1460. When he entered the Dominican order is unknown, but we do
know that in 1494 he received the habit.

He was renown for his preaching. In 1523 one of his admirers published one of his
sermons, The Way of Open Truth, without the author’s permission. The publication was so full of
errors and so widely criticized that Friar Battista had no choice but to have a new edition printed.

Most likely he was a supporter of the notorious preacher Savonarola. He was certainly a disciple
of Blessed Sebastian Maggi, twice Vicar General of the Dominican order. Fr. Ferrarese and Fr.
Gaetano, both Master Generals of the order, must have known him.

While in Vicenza in 1518, he befriended Cajetan von Thiene, who chose him as his
confessor and spiritual guide. By 1524 Friar Battista was urging him to found the first Clerics
Regular in Rome.

Encounter with Zaccaria and Torelli

In 1527 Friar Battista was appointed the spiritual director of the Countess Ludovica Torelli of
Guastalla. He often traveled between his home base of Milan and his new residence at Guastalla,
stopping in Cremona along the way. There he met the young and enthusiastic Anthony M.
Zaccaria, most likely in 1528.

Friar Battista came along at the right moment. Under his spiritual guidance, Zaccaria was
ordained a priest and forever afterward bore the imprint of the friar’s spirituality. Shortly after the
death of the chaplain of Guastalla, Fr. Peter degli Orsi, Friar Battista advised the Countess to take
Zaccaria on as the new chaplain.

But Guastalla was too small for the ambitions of these reformers. Countess Torelli was
already thinking of starting a new order of religious sisters in the house she had recently purchased
in Milan, situated next to St. Ambrose Basilica. The friar’s presence and his wise and experienced
leadership guided the first steps of the future “Paulines.”

Both Torelli and Zaccaria left for Milan in 1530. Here they were welcomed by the “Eternal
Wisdom” oratory, which will be revitalized by their dynamic presence. Ferrari and Morigia had
been members for awhile. Not surprisingly, Friar Battista da Crema was an intimate friend of the
 HISTORY OF THE BARNABITES 55

leader of the oratory, Msgr. Landini, who was also a Pauline scholar. The oratorians came to see
in Zaccaria someone who would breathe new life into their rather staid and declining society.

On May 31, 1530, Zaccaria ended his letter to Friar Battista with these words: “The conquest of
oneself will give me the strength to write to you with facts and not words.” He was referring to a
work of Friar Battista’s published in the previous year entitled On Knowledge and Victory over
Oneself. It was to be the friar’s most influential work. Although it was approved by the Inquisition,
it contained what some regarded as ambiguous phraseology that might mislead the faithful. For
this reason Msgr. Landini condemned it.

The Dominicans want Friar Battista back

He was so busy with his many undertakings that he gave in to the countess’ urging to remain in
Guastalla as her confessor. Meanwhile the Dominicans were entreating Friar Battista to return to
the cloistered life. The well-connected countess, who was determined to keep him, turned to Pope
Clement VII for permission to retain him.

The Pope meanwhile had gotten wind of some of the friar’s heretical ideas. At last he was
persuaded to send a breve to the Vicar General of the Dominican order to recall the friar to Milan
to stand trial for heresy.

The trial took place in the convent of St. Maria and completely vindicated him. As a result
the two Inquisitors, Dominican friars who happened to be brothers, Bernardino and Melchiorre
Crivelli, did not hesitate to grant the imprimatur to Friar Battista’s two books, “Opera utilissima
della cognitione et vittoria di se stesso” (Practical work on the knowledge and victory over onself)
and “Philosophia divina.”

Once again the countess appealed to the Pope for Friar Battista to stay in Guastalla. He
gave his permission in a breve dated July 10, 1531.

The friendship between the friar and the countess certainly was something unusual. It
withstood criticism from friend and foe alike. No less a personage than Bishop John Peter Caraffa
(future Pope Paul IV), in a bristling letter to Battista dated March 9, 1532, denounced what he
considered a thoroughly unseemly situation: “... it was a great scandal...to see a religious of your
age and renown, after so many years of religious profession, jump from your monastery to live
alone in the house of a widow of noble rank, young, beautiful, twice married, independent,
wealthy, exceedingly sharp-witted, dreadfully capable of good and evil... Not only that, but you
took her triumphantly all over the city of Milan for everybody to see.” The fiery southerner Caraffa,
sincere but narrow-minded, exhorted Battista, his elder by fifteen years, to cease rationalizing his
behavior which contradicted “not only the Scriptures and the teaching of the Fathers and all Church
laws and religious rules, but natural honesty itself.” However, where the zealous Caraffa saw
56 CHAPTER 5 - Battista Carioni Da Crema

“sinfulness” and “scandal” and “shame,” Anthony Zaccaria saw nothing of the sort. On the
contrary, he must have felt privileged to join these two high-minded and dynamic people to serve
God and his Church. Indeed, an incident occurred which illustrated quite dramatically the
closeness of the friar, the countess and the future saint.

After a short period of calm, the Dominican Provincial of the Two Lombardies, Fr. Angel da
Faenza, dispatched, for the second time, a formal order to the friar to leave Torelli’s residence at
once and return to his friary in Milan. The order, dated November 8, 1533, even threatened papal
excommunication in case of noncompliance. Unknown to the provincial was the fact that the
recalcitrant friar was ill to the point of death.

The Countess Ludovica withheld the letter on the grounds that the Pope’s permission to
allow Battista to continue in Guastalla superseded the provincial’s order. Privately, she was
incensed. The provincial was “simply trying to harass me for no good reason and with specious
arguments.” The strong-willed woman would only obey a personal order from the Pope. She
promptly initiated legal proceedings against him and named Father Anthony Zaccaria as her
“special legal representative.”

Zaccaria dutifully left for the monastery of St. Dominic in Mantua. His mission was
thoroughly unsuccessful. Crestfallen, he had no choice but to head back to Guastalla.

Death and legacy

The good friar, unapprised of the controversy surrounding him, expired in the loving presence of
the young Fr. Zaccaria. The grieving countess obtained permission to have him buried in the
Augustinian church in Guastalla; only later were his remains removed to Milan.

Now that Friar Battista was gone, Zaccaria felt the weight of his legacy and the need to
carry on his work of reform, certain of his divine guidance from heaven. Fifteen days after his
death Zaccaria wrote of him: “Neither you nor I have to be concerned about present or future
troubles, because it is not we who carry the burden, but he.”(Lt 4, 40:34-38). Henceforth he always
referred to the late friar as “our Father.” Newly-ordained Anthony Morigia changed his name,
significantly, to “Paul Battista,” reflecting the influence of both “founding fathers” on the new
order. The same name would be taken later on by Fr. Caimo and Fr. Soresina.

Friar Battista’s spiritual influence

It is believed that Friar Battista wrote the new order’s first Constitutions which Zaccaria would
later revise and adopt. Father Gabuzio remarked that it was easy to distinguish two strains of
thought running throughout the Constitutions: the friar’s and Saint Anthony’s. Here Zaccaria
 HISTORY OF THE BARNABITES 57

recommended the reading of books “of our father, Battista da Crema, and other similar books
which, well understood and put into practice, can help us to reach perfection” (Cs VIII, 233:4-6).
He especially had in mind Battista’s groundbreaking “Interior Mirror,” which, along with his other
writings, were carefully preserved and widely read.

The spirit and spirituality of Battista da Crema

We now enter into the complex and arduous arena of Friar Battista’s spirituality, distilled from the
recent critical work of Bogliolo.

Friar Battista’s knowledge of Holy Scripture was impressive. Among all the sacred writers,
however, St. Paul was his favorite. According to Father Colosio, Friar Battista and the great
Apostle were one and the same in spirit and character, especially in their struggle against spiritual
lukewarmness. Just as the Crucified Lord became the heart and center of the friar’s spirituality
(and St. Paul‘s), so, too, He became the heart and center of Zaccaria‘s. Friar Battista was known
for upholding the ideal of a pure love for God, that is, an unconditional love which presumed the
death of self-love.” For love of you I am ready to lose the body, the soul…my own self.” Hence
the justification for the rigorous asceticism and self-imposed humiliations, both public and private,
practiced by both Battista and his follower Zaccaria, and which the latter imposed on his order.
“Get rid of your will,” wrote the friar somewhat melodramatically, “and there will be no hell.”

An important tenet of Friar Battista’s spirituality was his concept of the Mystical Body as
a living reality. Anthony Zaccaria carried this over into the local parish churches, which thanks to
him, began to offer devotion to the Holy Eucharist, and more frequent participation in the
sacrament of Holy Communion.

The Barnabites who came later, in eras far removed from the times of this great reformer,
have recognized the primary role he exercised in the life of their congregation. Here is what Father
Cortenovis says: “You will recognize them from their fruits. The uncontaminated and most pure
holiness which flourished among the first descendants of the two founders…for two hundred years
has spread the most sweet fragrance of evangelical virtues…”

Friar Battista... a heretic!

In his writings Friar Battista taught that we must deny our own will so as to be in full conformity
with the will of God. To reach this state of grace any means is licit, even if questionable, in so far
as the intention is right. The good intention, that is, the correspondence of the human will with the
will of God, then, cannot be judged by anyone. That is because the mystical experience is a
personal one, not communicable, and only the person who is making progress in reaching the
vittoria di se stesso (victory over oneself) knows the goodness of his intention and the divine
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inspiration, which renders him independent from any master. Not even the Church or any
institution could judge the intention of the spiritual person.

Pope Paul IV denounced this teaching because he was aware of the subversive results it might
have on the Church if it were accepted. He may also have regarded Battista’s having lived outside
of the monastery in violation of his vow of obedience to his superiors as part of his doctrinal
position, “on which basis no right of control was recognized…over the religious experience of the
individual.” Hence he consigned his works to the Index of Forbidden Books.

However, time altered the Church’s harsh assessment of Battista’s works. While still remaining
on the Index, the Council of Trent added a “donec emendentur”after his works, a note which
indicated that they were not so much erroneous as too equivocal in nature. His books remained on
the Index until Anthony Zaccaria’s canonization, an indication of how influential Friar Battista’s
role was in the spiritual formation of the order.

Our forefathers submitted to Rome’s deliberations but not always with the best of grace.
Fr. Anthony Pagano wrote angrily to Paola Antonia Negri: “Ten days ago some men went to
Borghetto carrying two or three of Friar Battista’s booklets, and with a bundle of sticks they set a
bonfire and tossed the books in, exclaiming: ‘here are some heretical books of a certain Friar
Battista, apostate.’ A gross error, it seems to me!”

BATTISTA CARIONI da CREMA (1460-1534/5)

1460 Born in Crema.

1494 He received the habit of a religious of the Dominican order in Lombardy.
1517 Padua: St. Maria delle Grazie

1519 In Rome, Friar Battista met Cajetan von Thiene and encouraged him to found the first Order
of Clerics Regular, the Theatines (1524), under the patronage of St. Peter.
1520 Vicenza: St. Corona
1525 Milan: St. Maria delle Grazie outside Porta Vercellina.
1527 He met and converted Ludovica Torelli, Countess of Guastalla (1500-1569).

1528 He succeeded Friar Marcello, OP, as spiritual director of Anthony M. Zaccaria.

1529 Friar Battista lived in Guastalla with proper permits from his Dominican Superiors, as
confessor and spiritual guide to the Countess, under the authority of the Local Ordinary.
Under Battista’s influence, Zaccaria decided to become a priest, and later he moved from
Cremona to Milan.

1530 Friar Battista and Countess Torelli moved from Guastalla to Milan.
 HISTORY OF THE BARNABITES 59

- Eternal Wisdom Oratory.

1530 Breve of Clement VII, August 20, to the Vicar of the Dominicans in Lombardy:
- novam quadam doctrinam periculo heresiae et pertubationis.

1533 Zaccaria and companions presented a petition to Rome for the approval of a new order of
Clerics Regular, under the patronage of St. Paul: Pope Clement VII, February 18, 1533
(Basilio Ferrari). Meantime Friar Battista’s relationship with his Dominican confreres
deteriorated: they refused to accept his continuing residence outside of the community. His
physical health deteriorated, leading to his death in Guastalla.

1534 December 31 (midnight, or early January 1, 1535), Friar Battista died in Guastalla. (He is
buried in St. Paul’s Church of the Angelics in Milan.)

ASCETICAL WORKS by FRIAR BATTISTA DA CREMA

1523 Via de Aperta Verità
1531 Della Cognitione et Vittoria di se stesso
1531 Philosophia Divina
1540 Specchio Interiore (Torelli)
1583 Detti Notabili (in 2nd edition of Libro delle
Sentenze - Anthology of Sayings from the
Psalms)
1525 June 22 - Clement VII approved the 2nd
edition of the Via de Aperta Verità,
examined by Fr. Jerome da Vigevano, OP,
and by Fr. Bartolomeo da Pisa.
1530 Approval of Della Cognitione et Vittoria di se
stesso, by the inquisitors Melchior and
Bernardin Crivelli.
Compendium by Fr. Serafino Aceti da
Fermo and Spanish edition by Bonaventure
Cervantes
1549 Approval of Specchio Interiore, with the
Imprimatur by Friar Melchior Crivelli, OP
(in 1559 is put on the Index by Paul IV) Friar
Battista’s works were “incentives to
heresies…and therefore to intolerable
errors.”
1564 New Index with the clause: until they would be amended!
1900 Taken off of the Index following St. Anthony M. Zaccaria’s canonization (May 27, 1897).
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