OCHINO
293
OCKLEY
produce a corresponding change in his strain of preach- ing, which for some time was felt rather than under- stood hy his hearers. He appealed directly to the Scriptures in support of the doctrines which he deliv- ered, and exhorted the people to rest their faith on the infallible authority of the Word of God, and to build their hopes of salvation on the obedience and death of Christ alone. But a prudential regard to his own safety, and to the edification of his hearers, whose minds were not prepared for the discovery, prevented him from ex- posing the fallacy of Koniish sui)crstition. Only when Valdes encouraged him to take a bolder departure Ochino was led to take the decisive step, and then he was obliged to quit his native land. Besides, no one can question his piety, however greatly the extreme errors into which Ochino fell may be deprecated. He was al- ways great and good, and there is nothing in his life to condemn, though his doctrines were gravely hetero- dox, and in his last years he much weakened the Prot- estant cause in Poland, and Southern Europe generally. Certainly his great renov/n as a pulpit orator was de- served, and should be remembered. " In such reputa- tion was he held," says the annalist of the Capuchins, after Ochino had brought on them the stigma of her- esy, "that he was esteemed incomparably the best preacher of Italy; his powers of elocution, accompanied with the most admirable action, gave him the com- mand of his audience, especially as his life correspond- ed to his doctrine'" (Bzovius apud Bock, Hist. Anti- trin. ii, 485). His external appearance, after he had passed middle age, contributed to heighten this ef- fect. His snow-white head, and his beard of the same color flo\ving down to his middle, added to a pale coun- tenance, which led the spectjUors to suppose that he was in bad health, rendered his aspect at once venerable and deeply interesting. "As a preacher," says M'Crie, "he was admired and followed equally by the learned and illiterate, by the great and the vulgar. Charles V, who used to attend his sermons when in Italy, pro- nounced this high encomium on him : ' That man would make the stones weep !' Sadolet and Bembo, who were still better judges than his imperial majesty, assigned to Ochino the palm of popular elotpience. At Perugia he prevailed on the inhabitants by his discourses to bury all their animosities and bring their lawsuits to an amicable settlement ; and in Naples he preached to so numerous an assembly, and with such persuasive elo- quence, as to collect at one time, for a charitable pur- pose, the almost incredible sum of five thousand crowns. The fame of the devout and eloquent Capuchin was so great that the most respectable inhabitants of Venice, in the year 1538, employed cardinal Bembo to procure him to preach to them during the ensuing Lent. The cardinal wrote to Vittoria Colonna, marchioness of Pes- caro, begging her to intercede with Ochino, over whom she had great influence, to visit Venice, where he would find all the inhabitants inflamed with tlie most passion- ate desire to hear him. He went accordingly, and was enthusiastically received" (Rcf. in Italy, p. 118 sq.).
Ochino's writings are rather numerous than bulky. His principal works are, Dialof/i VII sacri, dove si con- tiene, nel prima delV inamorarsi di Dio, etc. (1542) : — Apolofji nelli qiudi si scuoprano gli obusi, errori, etc., ddla simif/ora del Papa, de' siioi preti, monachi e frati (Cieneva, 1544; German, Augsburg, 1559, 4to): — Expo- sitioue sopira hi epistola di S. Paolo alii Romani (1545; German, Augsburg, 154G; Latin, ibid. 154(5): — Expo- sitione sopra la epistola di S. Paolo al Galati (1546 ; German, Augsburg, 1546, 4to) : — A Tragedy, or Dia- logue of the unjust usurped Primacy of the JJishop of Home (Loud. 1549, 4to) : — Dialogo del Purgatorio (Ba- sel, 1556; Latin by Taddeo Duno, Zurich, 1556; French, 1559): — Sincerm et vera doctrince de ccena Domini de- fensio contra lih-os tres J. Westphali (Zurich, 1556) : — Disputa intorno olla jrresenza del corpo di Giesu Christo nel Sacramento della cena (Basel, 1561 ; Latin, Liber de corporis Christi pircesejdia in caiue sacramento (ibid.) :
—PredicJie del R. Padre Don Serafino da Piagenza, ditte Luherinti del libero over se?-vo arbitrio, etc. (Stam- pato in Pavia, i. e. Basel; Latin, Labyrinthi, hoc est de libero aut servo arbitrio, de divina jn'anotione, destina- tione et libertate disputatio, Basel, probably printed in 1562): — II catechismo, o vero institutione Christiana, in forma di dialogo (Basle, 1561) :— 30 Dialogi in duos libros divisi, quorum primus est de Messia ; secimdus est, cum de rebus variis, turn potissimum de Trinitute (Basel, 1563). In these " Dialogues" Ochino tries to transform the objective satisfaction theory of the Church into an act of subjective reflection, whereby man comes to see that God is disposed to forgive liim when he is penitent (see Schenkel, ii, 265 sq.). See Zanchi, De tribus Elo- him (Neustadt, 1589, fol.) ; ^axiAms, Bibl. Antitrinita- riorurn ; Bay le, Dictionnaire histor. s. v. ; Struve, De vita, religione et falls B. Ochini (in Observat. select. Halens. iv, 409 sq. ; v, 1 sq.) ; Fiissli, Beitrdge z. Reformations- gesch. di iSchweiz. v, 416 sq. ; Treschel, Die pivtestant. Antitrinitarier, ii, 202; Paleario, Life and Times, i, 263, 554; ii, 76, 81, 92 sq., 195 sq., 345 sq., 356 sq., 571 sq., 486 sq. ; Wiffen, Z,«/e and Writings of Juan de Valdes (Lond. 1865), p. 104 sq.; M'Crie, Ilist. of the Ref. in //«(y, p. 116-123; Nachlese aus Ochini's Leben u.Sehrif- ten, in Schelhorn's " Ergotzlichkeiten," iii, 765, 979, 1141, 1219; Bock, Hist. Antilrinit. (1874); Meyer, Essai sur la vie, etc., de B. Ochin (1851) ; Hook, Eccles. Biogr. vii, 448-450; Benxa.i\\, Bern. Ochino (Leips.1875). (J.H.W.) Ochlah. See Oci.ah,