PIETRO CARNESECCHI (1547)

Controversial Humanist and reformer executed because of his sympathy for an affiliation with the Reformation.

He was patronized by the Medici, particularly Pope Clement VII, to whom he became principal secretary.

At Naples in 1540 he joined the circle of the influential Spanis religious writter Juan de Valdés, whose distinctive Christianity was a nonsacramental, undogmatic religion that stressed the inmediacy of Inner Light (a divine presence to enlighten and guide the soul) yet was taught and practiced within the context of Catholicism.

It aroused the fury of the Roman inquisitors. Worsening his position, Carnesecchi accepted Martin Luther´s doctrine of justification by faith, though repudiating any schismatic policy.

When a movement of suppression began in 1546, Carnesecchi fled to Paris to Catherine de Médicis, queen consort of King Henry II of France.

Refusing to appear in Rome under command of Pope Paul IV, he was condemned in 1558. He was absolved following Paul´s death and in 1559 returned to Rome.

Under Pope St. Pius V, the Inquisition renewed its activities in 1566. Carnesecchi went to Florence, only to be betrayed by his patron Cosimo de Medici. 
He was beheaded and burned.