Editing Reformation (section)

=== Italy ===
{{further|Reformation in Italy|Girolamo Savonarola}}
[[File:Waldenser-Wappen.jpg|thumb|upright|Waldensian symbol ''Lux lucet in tenebris'' ("Light glows in the darkness")]]

Word of the Protestant reformers reached Italy in the 1520s but never caught on. Its development was stopped by the Counter-Reformation, the Inquisition and popular disinterest. Not only was the Church highly aggressive in seeking out and suppressing heresy, but there was a shortage of Protestant leadership. No-one made a new Protestant translation of the Bible into Italian to compete with the existing Catholic vernacular translations; few tracts were written. No core of Protestantism emerged. The few preachers who did take an interest in "Lutheranism", as it was called in Italy, were suppressed, or went into exile to northern countries where their message was well received. As a result, the Reformation exerted almost no lasting influence in Italy, except for strengthening the Catholic Church and pushing for an end to ongoing abuses during the Counter-Reformation.<ref name=McCulloch401>MacCulloch ''Reformation'' pp.&nbsp;401–417</ref>{{sfn|Firpo|2004|p=169 ff}}

Some Protestants left Italy and became notable activists of the Eastern European Reformation, mainly in the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] (e.g. [[Giorgio Biandrata]], [[Bernardino Ochino]], Giovanni Alciato, Giovanni Battista Cetis, [[Fausto Sozzini]], [[Francesco Stancaro]] and [[Giovanni Valentino Gentile]] some of whom propagated [[Nontrinitarianism]] there and were chief instigators of the movement of [[Polish Brethren]].<ref name=Church457>Church "Literature of the Italian reformation" ''Journal of Modern History'' pp.&nbsp;457–473</ref>) Some also fled to England and Switzerland, including [[Peter Vermigli]].

In 1532, the [[Waldensians]], who had been already present centuries before the Reformation, aligned themselves and adopted the Calvinist theology. The [[Waldensian Evangelical Church|Waldensian Church]] survived in the [[Western Alps]] through many persecutions and remains a Protestant church in Italy.{{sfn|Cameron|1984}}{{page needed|date=March 2015}}