Bernardino Ochino’s Exile and the Composition of an International Reformation

Bernardino Ochino was one of the most celebrated Italian Catholic preachers of the sixteenth century—until the Roman Inquisition forced him into exile. But rather than silencing him, displacement granted Ochino an unprecedented platform: unimpeded access to the printing press and the ability to spread his ideas across Europe. In this groundbreaking study, Andrea Beth Wenz reexamines Ochino’s vast body of vernacular writings, challenging conventional portrayals of him as a wandering heretic. Instead, she reveals how his mobility allowed him to become a central figure in the international Protestant Reformation. By moving Ochino from the margins of Reformation history to its core, Wenz complicates traditional distinctions between magisterial and radical reformers. She explores how his works—printed in nine languages—reached a diverse audience and how his pastoral vision resonated across linguistic and geographical boundaries. Situating Ochino’s life within broader discussions of religious exile, migration, and the power of print, this book offers fresh insight into the dynamics of sixteenth-century religious change. Bringing to the fore Ochino’s significance and that of Italian reform more widely, Bernardino Ochino’s Exile and the Composition of an International Reformation will appeal to scholars of the Reformation, exile studies, and the history of the book.