Carlo Borromeo e la cultura religiosa della Controriforma

The most conventional hagiographic view, centred on radical asceticism and the struggle against the savagery of a ho stile reality, does not adequately repre¬sent the complexity of the factors involved in the religious experience of Carlo Borromeus and his reforming activities. These were based on a cultural con¬struction which was nourished both by the reuse of models from ancient tradi¬tion and by the pedagogic strength of a Christianized classicism, interpreted as a drive to exercise an active mission in the world. The animus for this vocation was Christocentrism, the heart of individual emotional piety which animated the search for a wide compass of influence on the whole socìety, leaving aside any dualism or evasive spiritualism. For to achieve its ends, dominated by the search for effective value, it had to equip itself with robust modern managerial administration and a centralization of collective life.