Protestant reform. CONTARINI. De Potestate Pontificis... Lot n° 46

CONTARINI, Gaspare. De Potestate Pontificis in usu clavium, & compositionibus, duae Epistolae. Florentiae, MDLVIII [Firenze, Lorenzo Torrentino, 1558] 8vo, 150x95; Legatura XIX secolo meza pelle e cartonato marmorizzato; pp. 43, [21]; Segn.: A-D⁸, bianche le ultime due carte; Marca tipografica con stemma dei Medici al Frontespizio e in fine, Iniziali ornate, carattere tondo e italico. Lievi bruniture e tracce d’uso, esemplare genuino. Rara edizione originale, opera uscita postuma. In queste due lettere scritte nel 1538 e indirizzate al Papa Paolo III, il cardinale veneziano tratta dei poteri del Pontefice e indica le cause che avevano provocato la Riforma Protestante. Cambridge Modern History: “In his "Epistola de potestate Pontifias in usu clavium" and in his "De potestate Pontificis in compositionibus" he emphasised the propositions that the Papacy was a sacred charge, and that its powers were to be used for the good of the Church and not to its destruction. In all Contarini's writings the conception of the Papacy as a monarchy and not a tyranny appears. It is a monarchy over freemen, and its powers are to be used according to the light of reason. Though the Catholic reformers held strongly to the divine mission of the Papacy in the Church, they distinguished carefully between the legitimate and the illegitimate exercise of its authority. Freely the Papacy had received, freely it should give. The whole official system of the Curia with its fees and extortions had become a scandal. An iniquitous traffic in sacred things had grown up. Contarini appealed to the Pope to root out effectively this canker, which was destroying the spiritual life of the Church.” The Cambridge Modern History, Vol. II, p. 644.