The Order of the Theatines between Carafa’s Inquisition and Borromeo’s Diocesan Reform

This essay aims to analyze the relationship between the Council of Trent and the Order of the Theatines, founded in 1524 by Gian Pietro Carafa, the future Paul IV, and Gaetano Thiene. I intend to look at the main phases during which the Theatines’ process of identity construction took place. This study of how the Theatines adopted the Tridentine decrees is part of the most recent research into the complex relationships between religious orders and the Council. Traditional scholarship has repeatedly emphasized the primary role the Theatines played, together with the other new religious orders founded in the sixteenth century, in paving the way for the reforms that would later be developed by the Council of Trent. This essay, on the other hand, aims to shed light on how it was not until the late sixteenth century that Theatines adopted the Tridentine directives because, at least until the death of Paul IV in 1559, they had been engaged in providing support for the ecclesiastical rise of their celebrated founder, as well as in collaborating with his inquisitorial activities in open conflict with the Council which he had always opposed. It was only when Carafa died that the Theatines changed tactics: in order to deal with the profound crisis that afflicted them, as a result of having obeyed their founder, by now a controversial figure, they began to distance themselves from his inquisitorial practices and, after adopting the decrees promoted by the Council fathers at Trent, became active supporters of the Tridentine reforms. In describing the relationship between the Theatines and the Council, which took place at the same time as the Order’s identity was taking shape, this essay uses the acts of the Chapters General and the biographies and correspondence of the brothers themselves, which help to clarify their positions with regard to the Council before and after Carafa’s death. Of particular interest are the roles played by individual Theatines in the process of adopting the Council’s provisions, figures such as Andrea Avellino, who assisted Carlo Borromeo in reforming the diocese of Milan, and Paolo Burali, the bishop who governed the diocese of Piacenza in accordance with the Council’s norms. The stories of this generation of Theatines - very different from those of the original members - reveal how the Order sought and found a new place for itself within the Church and applied the Council’s reforms in spreading Gaetano Thiene’s intense spirituality, which had survived among a few of his most faithful brothers, in performing pastoral activities and in caring for souls.