Christian Unity

Abstract

The first of Campanella’s letters to have come down to us from the period of his imprisonment in Naples is addressed to Pope Paul V (13 August 1606). Description of the painful conditions is combined in these pages with an account of a recent meeting with the Nuncio. Campanella recognized his own error and was certain that he could ‘defend Christianity against the entire world,’ and become thereby ‘an eyewitness of its truths’ as well as ‘extremely sound in matters of faith.’ Several days later, Campanella added a postscript to the letter, in which he affirmed having become aware of the ‘news regarding Venice’ and rushed to give opinions and advice. In the next letter to the Pope, Campanella specified having found out from a barber and some soldiers at the castle that the Venetians had been excommunicated.¹ Assuring the Pope that he had many things to say on this extremely grave matter, Campanella emphasized the necessity of waging a campaign that was not grammatical but rather spiritual. He predicted a sure defeat for the Most Serene Republic if it intended to follow the paths of reason of state in order to liberate itself from the authority of the papacy. The event gave Campanella the chance to recall the diabolical evocations practiced three years earlier together with attendant prophecies, some of which pertained to the sure ruin of Venice were it to revolt.² It is in this context that the shorter works consigned to Schoppe had their origin - works that Schoppe would felicitously title Antiveneti. It was above all as a result of this work, found to be full of insults and injuries towards the Republic, that the German scholar would be arrested and imprisoned in the course of his stay at Venice en route to Germany.³ The work is divided into three parts, and Campanella made use of diverse arguments - political, prophetic, astrological - in order to dissuade the Most Serene Republic from what he took to be its ruinous attempts at religious schism and political separation.