The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

VII. “Mystic” Renato—Soul Sleeps Unconsciously Until Resurrection

On the fringes of the main Reformation movement and countries there were similar stirrings over the nature and destiny of man, and especially his condition in death. Mention must here be made of one of these “religious offbeats” of the times—CAMILLO RENATO (c. 1500-c. 1572), Italian Spiritual Franciscan of Reform tendencies. Born in the Rhaetian Republic, and later becoming an Anabaptist, he too believed in the sleep of the soul (or cessation of life) between death and the resurrection. (Renato pictured on page 113.) CFF2 127.4

Renato was one of those who sought refuge in Protestant lands among peoples of other tongues. The Rhaetian Republic was allied to the Swiss Confederation and was a meeting place of Germanic and Italian thought. Renato began his tempestuous career in Naples, was trained in theology, and accomplished in classical literature. He sometimes wrote under the pen names of Lisia Phileno and Paul Ricci, ⁴⁸ appealing to the literati. He has been variously called the “Reborn,” a “mystic,” and a “Calvinistic Quaker.” ⁴⁹ CFF2 128.1

Renato was a powerful preacher to popular audiences, as well. Nevertheless, he was arrested in Ferrara, under pressure from Dominican inquisitors. Nine accusations were leveled against him. These included his contention that salvation depends upon divine grace and election, and not on human endeavor. He maintained that baptism is effective only as a profession of faith, and is inadmissible for children. He also held that the souls of all, both righteous and wicked, fall into a “dreamless sleep” until brought back to life under the resurrection. He likewise held that any resurrection of the wicked was only to permit final and utter extinction. ⁵⁰ As Dr. George H. Williams, of Harvard Divinity School, puts it: “Thus, he denied the existence of both purgatory and hell, while paradise was an eschatological event in the future.” ⁵¹ CFF2 128.2

These were significant positions, comparable to others of his day. CFF2 128.3

Renato insisted that baptism and the Lord’s Supper were “signs” rather than sacraments, holding the Catholic view to be unscriptural. Such Eucharistic innovations could not be tolerated. And his teaching of the temporary extinction, or sleep of the soul, was denominated Psychopannichism in Calvin’s terms. Renato’s teachings thus undermined the entire ecclesiastical merit system. After trial he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Bologna, from which he escaped in 1541. He corresponded with Swiss Reformer Heinrich Bullinger and held the Swiss Reformers in high esteem, with their “temples in the mountains,” as he looked forward to that “Golden age, under the fair auspices of Christ.” ⁵² CFF2 128.4

By 1548 Renato had repudiated baptism as administered by the “papal Antichrist,” ⁵³ openly adopting the Anabaptist position. He distinguished between the regenerate and the animals that perish at death. He went beyond the Averroism of the Italian university towns, holding to the Pauline hope. Renato thus held views on the soul akin to the Anabaptists of various lands, and was a close friend of Laelius Socinus. In fact, in 1550 he organized in his community “a church of the Anabaptists.” ⁵⁴ CFF2 129.1

The burning at the stake of Servetus, as an Anabaptist, profoundly shocked Renato. He mourned the sad destiny of the free Christians in Italy, ⁵⁵ and inveighed against Calvin in a Latin poem. In 1547 he was summoned to appear before the Synod of Chur, in Rhaetia. He ignored the summons, but was condemned in absentia and commanded henceforth to keep silence. He disappeared from history in 1555. ⁵⁶ He became blind in his later years, but his influence lived on. He was another of the fringe rejectors of the Innate Immortality of the soul and the common concept of the soul’s conscious continuance as a living entity in death. CFF2 129.2