Renato, Camillo

RENATO, rê-nā´tō, CAMILLO: Italian antitrinitarian and Anabaptist; b. in Sicily early in the sixteenth century; d. after 1570. As a fugitive he came in 1542 to the Valtellina, where he was employed as a private tutor in various families. At Chiavenna, in 1545, he became involved in violent dogmatic controversies with the Zwinglian preacher, Agostino Mainardo, since, recognizing baptism as efficacious only in so far as it is an act of profession of faith, he declared it to be inadmissible in the case of children. He also maintained other doctrines attributed to the Anabaptists, such as that the soul dies with the body, and that at the last day the regenerate alone share in the resurrection, their bodies being completely spiritualized, while regeneration itself arises reflexively and immediately from the kindling of the divine spirit in man. He won a number of adherents, but in 1547 the Council of Chur interfered and summoned both Mainardo and Renato to appear for hearing. The latter ignored the summons, although in the following year he subscribed an act of agreement. Since, however, he continued his sectarian teachings, he was excommunicated by a synod in 1550. A new doctrinal regulation was then expected to put an end to all Anabaptist activity, but despite the system adopted by the Swiss Federation in 1553, some traces of Renato's influence long persisted, especially in view of his close friendship with Laelius Socinus after 1547, and particularly after 1552. The execution of Servetus led Renato to inveigh against Calvin in a Latin poem (ed. Trechsel, Antitrinitarier, i. 492). Since such pupils of Renato as Fiori in Soglio and Turriano in Plurs continued religious agitations and attracted Italian refugees who had been received into the churches, the doctrinal regulations of 1553 were reenforced in 1561, all who refused to subscribe being excommunicated. Mainardo died in 1563; Renato, who became blind; was still living at Caspano in the early part of the eighth decade of the sixteenth century.

K. Benrath.

Bibliography: P. D..R. de Porta, Historia Reformationis ecclesiæ Rhæticæ, vol. i., Leipsic, 1771; F. Trechsel, Die protestantischen Antitrinitarier vor Faustus Socin, vol. i., Heidelberg, 1839; Bullingers Korrespondenz mit den Graubündnern, vol. i., ed. Schiess in Quellen zur Schweitzer Geschichte, vol. xxiii., Basel, 1904.