Abstract

Bernardino Ochino is one of the more intriguing and also more tragic leading figures within the sixteenth-century Franciscan Observant and early Capuchin order families, and epitomizes many of the conflicts and ambiguities in the positions of friars with a sincere commitment to religious reform in the turbulent first half of the sixteenth century. As is the case with other friars who eventually chose or were forced to leave order and Church to join the Protestant fold in one of its manifestations, historians with a Franciscan and Capuchin order allegiance for a long time were hesitant to deal with his activities and writings head-on, limiting themselves often to very partial and opiniated contributions....