Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ochino, Bernardino
OCHINO, BERNARDINO (1487–1564), reformer, was born at Siena in 1487. His father, Domenico Tomasini, called Ochino, perhaps because he resided in the Via dell'Oca (Goose Street), is said to have been a barber. Bernardino early entered the austere order of the Observantine Franciscans, but quitted it in 1534 for the still more rigorous rule of the Capuchins, which he observed with supererogatory exactitude. He also became a competent latinist, meditated much on theology, and improved by art an extraordinary gift of natural eloquence. No such preacher had been known in Italy since Savonarola. Discarding scholastic subtleties, he made his appeal at once to the conscience, the intelligence, and the heart. His influence was felt throughout the length and breadth of Italy. Gradually Ochino's theology assumed a Lutheran hue, and at Naples in 1536 an attempt was made to inhibit him from preaching. It failed, and in 1538 he was chosen vicar-general of the Capuchins. He again preached at Naples in 1539, and was denounced to Cardinal Carafa as a heretic. His ‘Seven Dialogues,’ published the same year, increased the suspicion with which he was regarded, but did not prevent his being re-elected vicar-general of the Capuchins in 1541. Preaching at Venice in Lent 1542, he indignantly declaimed against the recent arrest of his friend, Giulio Terenzano, by order of the papal nuncio. The nuncio replied by inhibition, but, in deference to the clamour of the populace, suffered Ochino to resume preaching on giving a pledge to keep clear of polemics. On the establishment of the inquisition in the summer, he was at once cited before it. Ochino forthwith fled to Geneva, where, after a rigorous catechisation by Calvin, he was licensed to preach on 23 Oct. His flight he justified by apostolic precedents in several published letters (cf. bibliographical note, infra). During his residence at Geneva he began the publication of his sermons in Italian, and printed, in the same language, an ‘Exposition of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans,’ which was severely censured by Lancellotto Politi (Ambrosio Catharino) in his ‘Compendio d'Errori et Inganni Luterani,’ Rome, 1544, 4to (cf. Ochino's animated Risposta alle false Calunnie et impie Biastemmie di frate Ambrosio Catharino, 1546, 4to). In 1545 Ochino (now married) settled at Augsburg, where (3 Dec.) he was appointed pastor of the Italian church. On the eve of the surrender of the city to the imperial forces in January 1547 (N.S.) he escaped to Basel, whence, at Cranmer's invitation, he migrated to England, arriving in London with Peter Martyr on 20 Dec. following [see Vermigli, Pietro Martire]. Cranmer received the exiles under the hospitable roof of Lambeth Palace, and provided Ochino, 9 May 1548, with a non-residentiary prebend in the church of Canterbury. He was also granted a crown pension of one hundred marks, and appointed preacher to the Italian church. Some of his sermons were translated into English [cf. Bacon, Ann, Lady]; and in London, in 1549, appeared the unique edition of his most trenchant polemic against the papacy, viz. ‘A Tragedie or Dialoge of the unjust usurped Primacie of the Bishop of Rome.’ This curious pasquinade consists of nine colloquies, the interlocutors being sometimes celestial, sometimes diabolic, sometimes historical personages. It does not lack dramatic power, but the view of the origin of the papacy which it presents is unhistorical. It is dedicated, in a somewhat fulsome style, to Edward VI.
On the accession of Mary, Ochino returned to Basel, and was deprived of his prebend. Removing to Zürich, he was for some years pastor there of a congregation of refugees from Locarno. During this period he published a volume of ‘Apologues’ defamatory of the pope, the higher clergy, and the religious orders; a ‘Dialogue on Purgatory,’ and some tracts on the Eucharist, of which he had adopted the Zwinglian theory; besides perplexing still further the vexed question of free will in a curious treatise, entitled ‘The Labyrinth.’ This book probably inspired Milton's fine passage (‘Paradise Lost,’ ii. 557–61) about the ‘wandering mazes,’ in which the speculative thinkers of the infernal regions ‘found,’ like Ochino, ‘no end.’ In his ‘Thirty Dialogues,’ published in 1563, he handled with a certain freedom both the doctrine of the Trinity and the relations between the sexes. The book was at once censured by the theologians, and its author was, by decree of the senate (22 Nov.), banished from the town and territory of Zürich. Refused an asylum at Basel and Mühlhausen, and expelled, after a brief sojourn, from Nürnberg, Ochino sought the protection of the Polish Prince Nicolaus Radziwill, a Lutheran, to whom he had dedicated the obnoxious dialogues. He was suffered to preach to the Italian residents at Cracow, but, in deference to the representations of the Roman curia, was banished from Poland, by royal edict of 6 Aug. 1564. He died at Slakow in Moravia towards the end of the same year.
As a thinker, Ochino is distinguished rather by ingenuity and agility than by originality or depth. Disgusted by his mental instability, catholic, Calvinist, and Zwinglian combined to misrepresent his opinions and traduce his character. Though he dealt with delicate questions in an incautious manner, there is no reason to suppose that his own life was impure; and, though he has been commonly ranked among anti-trinitarians, his language does not necessarily imply more than a leaning towards Arianism (Dialogi XXX, lib. ii. Dial. xx. ad fin.). Ochino's works were prohibited in Italy upon his flight to Geneva, and in England in 1555. The three earliest, the ‘De Confessione,’ ‘Vita Nuova,’ and ‘Quædam Simplex Declaratio,’ were effectually suppressed (Vergerio, Cat. Lib. Condann. 1548, and Archiv. Stor. Ital. 1ma ser. vol. x. App. p. 168). Addit. MS. 28568 contains the autograph of his dialogues ‘Dello Peccato’ and ‘Della Prudenza Humana.’ The latter is printed in Schelhorn's ‘Ergötzlichkeiten,’ pp. 2009 et seq. A Latin translation of one of his sermons, done by the Princess Elizabeth, and dedicated to Edward VI, is among the autographs in the Bodleian Library (No. B. 6.).
The following are the principal editions of his extremely rare extant works: 1. ‘Prediche Nove,’ Venice, 1539, 1547, 8vo. 2. ‘Prediche,’ Geneva, 1542, 8vo. 3. ‘Sette Dialogi,’ Venice, 1542, 8vo. 4. ‘Responsio ad Mutium Justinopolitanum,’ Venice, 1543, 8vo. 4. ‘Epistola alli molto Magnifici li Signori di Balia della Città di Siena,’ Geneva, 1543, 8vo. 5. ‘Sermones,’ Geneva, 1543–4, 8vo. 6. ‘L'Image de l'Antichrist composé en langue Italienne par Bernardin Ochin de Siene, translaté en Françoys,’ Geneva, 1544, 8vo. 7. ‘Sermo … ex Italico in Latinum conversus Cœlio Secundo Interprete,’ Basel, 1544, 8vo. 8. ‘Espositione sopra la Epistola di S. Paolo alli Romani,’ Geneva, 1545, 8vo (Latin and German translations, Augsburg, 1545–6). 9. ‘XX Prediche,’ Neuburg, 1545, 8vo. 10. ‘Espositione sopra la Epistola di S. Paolo alli Galati,’ 1546, 8vo (contemporaneous German translation, Augsburg, 8vo). 11. ‘Ain christliches schönes und trostliches Bett (Gebet),’ &c., Augsburg, 1546 (?). 12. ‘Ain Gesprech der flaischlichen Vernunfft,’ &c., Augsburg, 1546, 8vo. 13. ‘Von der Hoffnung aines christlichen Gemüts,’ Augsburg, 1547, 8vo. 14. ‘Five Sermons of Barnardine Ochine of Sena, godly, frutefull, and very necessary for all true Christians; translated out of Italien into Englishe,’ London, 1548. 15. ‘Sermons of the ryght famous and excellent Clerke, Master Barnardine Ochine, borne within the famous Universitie of Siena in Italy, nowe also an exyle in this life for the faythful testimony of Jesus Christ’ (transl. R. Argentine), Ipswich, 1548, 8vo. 16. ‘Fourtene Sermons of Barnardine Ochyne concernyng the Predestinacion & Eleccion of God; very expedient to the settynge forth of hys Glorye among his Creatures. Translated out of Italian into oure natyve Tounge by A. G.’ (apparently for A.C., i.e. Anne Cooke, afterwards wife of Sir Nicholas Bacon [q. v.]), London, 1549 (?), 8vo. 17. ‘Certayne Sermons,’ &c. (rest of the title follows the preceding), London, 1549 (?), 8vo (twenty-one sermons reprinted from the editions by Argentine and Cooke). 18. ‘A Tragedie or Dialoge of the unjuste usurped Primacie of the Bishop of Rome, and of all the just abolishing of the same, made by Master Barnardine Ochine, an Italian, and translated into Englische by Master John Ponet, Doctor of Divinitie, never before printed in any Language,’ London, 1549, 8vo. 19. ‘Sermones Tres … de Officio Christiani Principis; item Sacræ Declamationes Quinque’ (Latin version by Cælius Horatius Curio, appended to his ‘De Amplitudine Misericordiæ Dei’), Basel, 1550, 8vo. 20. ‘Apologi nelli quali si scuoprano li Abusi, Sciocheze, Superstitioni, Errori, Idolatrie et Impietà della Sinagoga del Papa et spetialmente di suoi preti, monaci, e frati,’ Geneva, 1554, 8vo (German translation, with additions, 1559, 4to; Dutch translation 1607 and 1691). 21. ‘Dialogo del Purgatorio,’ Zürich, 1555, 8vo (contains contemporaneous Latin and German versions; French versions 1559 and 1878 [Paris] 8vo). 22. ‘Synceræ et Veræ Doctrinæ de Cœna Domini Expositio,’ Zürich, 1556, 8vo. 23. ‘Sermons en Françoys,’ Geneva and Lyons, 1561. 24. ‘Disputa intorno alla Presenza del Corpo di Giesù Christo nel Sacramento della Cena,’ Basel, 1561, 8vo. 25. ‘Prediche … nomate Laberinti del libero over servo Arbitrio, Prescienza, Predestinatione et Libertà divina e del modo per uscirne’ (dedicated to Queen Elizabeth), Basel, 1561 (?), 8vo (Latin version, probably contemporaneous, with title ‘Labyrinthi, Hoc est de libero aut servo Arbitrio, de Divina Prænotione, Destinatione, et Libertate Disputatio. Et quonam pacto sit ex iis Labyrinthis exeundum,’ Basel, 8vo). 26. ‘Liber de Corporis Christi Præsentia in Cœnæ Sacramento. In quo acuta est Tractatio de Missæ origine atque erroribus; itemque altera de Conciliatione Controversiæ inter Reformatas Ecclesias’ (with the Latin version of the ‘Labyrinth’), Basel, 1561, 8vo. 27. ‘Il Catechismo o vero Institutione Christiana … in forma di Dialogo,’ Basel, 1561, 8vo. 28. ‘Dialogi XXX in duos libros divisi, quorum primus est de Messia, continetque Dialogos XVIII. Secundus est cum de rebus variis tum potissimum de Trinitate,’ Basel, 1563, 8vo. 29. ‘Certaine Godly and very profitable Sermons of Faith, Hope, and Charitie, first set foorth by Master Barnardine Occhine of Siena in Italy, and now lately collected and translated out of the Italian Tongue into the English by William Phiston of London, student,’ London, 1580, 4to. 30. ‘A Dialogue of Polygamy, written originally in Italian; rendered into English by a Person of Quality,’ London, 1657.
One of the dialogues censured by the Zürich theologians was reprinted with a version of the companion dialogue on divorce in ‘The Cases of Polygamy, Concubinage, Adultery, Divorce,’ &c., London, 1732, 8vo (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 1st Rep. App. p. 53).