Private and Public Devotion in Late Renaissance Italy: The Role of Church Censorship

Abstract

Despite the differences in their respective traditions, from the thirteenth century onwards, Franciscan and then Dominican spirituality placed the notion of inward prayer at the heart of their religious discourses. Following St Francis, both St Clare and St Anthony located ‘the foundation of contemplative life in the spirit of prayer’, while St Bonaventure noted that ‘perfect prayer’ was a fundamental stage in the mystical ascent towards God.1 In the fourteenth century, the Dominicans – especially Domenico Cavalca – developed Thomas Aquinas’ concept of the spirit, understanding mental prayer as the essence of the contemplative practice of mystical asceticism. Later, Catherine of Siena pronounced that humble, continuous, faithful and disinterested prayer was the instrument through which the soul acquires all virtue’,2 asserting the superiority of mental prayer over spoken prayer. The rich medieval tradition of mental prayer survived throughout the fifteenth century in the thought of great spiritual authorities, such as St Antonino and Ludovico Barbo, until the turn of the sixteenth century when it found its most efficacious expression in the thought of Savonarola.3 Savonarola’s defence of mental prayer not only acknowledges the superiority of mental prayer over spoken prayer, but explicitly criticises devotion that is outwardly expressed.4 According to Savonarola, and many other critics of the Roman Curia, public devotion encouraged mechanical recitation over profound spiritual reflection. Spoken prayer, and public ceremonies more generally, should instead recover their original functions as stimuli and