The death of Valdes scattered his band of associates. Ochino and Vermigli abandoned the hope of a regenerated Catholicism, and left Italy. By degrees some of Valdes’s writings were translated into Italian and published. They exhibit great originality and penetration, combined with a delicate vein of semi-mystical spirituality, and retain a large measure of that personal charm which is attributed to their author in all contemporary notices. Llorente finds traces in Valdes of the influence of Tauler’s writings; any such influence must have been at second hand. Valdes was in relations with Fra Benedetto of Mantua, the anonymous author of Del Benefizio di Gesù Cristo Crocefisso, which was revised by Flaminio (reprinted by Dr Babington, Cambridge, 1855). The suggestion that Valdes was unsound on the doctrine of the Trinity was first made in 1567 by the Transylvanian bishop, Francis David (see Socinus, vol. xxii. p. 230); it has been adopted by Sand (1684), Wallace (1850), and other anti-Trinitarian writers, and is countenanced by Bayle. Some colour has been given to this view by isolated expressions in his writings, and by the subsequent course of Ochino, whose orthodoxy seems, however, to have been unjustly suspected, from the speculative insight with which he presented objections. But Valdes, though he never treats of the Trinity, even when commenting upon Matt. xxviii. 19, reserving it in his Latte Spirituale as a topic for advanced Christians, explicitly affirms the consubstantiality of the Son, whom he unites in doxologies with the Father and the Holy Spirit (Opusc., p. 145). His interest centred in matters of practical rather than of speculative theology: his great aim was the promotion of a healthy and personal piety.

The following is a list of his writings.

(1) Dialogo de Mercurio y Caron, 8vo (no date or place of printing; 1528 ?). An Italian translation, by Nicolo Franco, was printed at Venice without date, and reprinted at the same place in 1545. Both with the original and the translation is generally found a Dialogo on the sack of Rome in 1527, by Alphonso de Valdes, printed at the same time. Both are ascribed to Juan in the reprint Dos Dialogos of 1850. (2) Diálogo de la Lengua, written in 1533, first printed at Madrid, 1737, reprinted 1860 and 1873. (3) Quai Maniera si devrebbe tenere a informare . . . gli Figliuoli de Christiani delle Cose della Religione (no date or place of printing; before 1545, as it was made use of by the Italian translator of Calvin’s catechism, 1545). No Spanish original is known. It was reproduced as Latte Spirituale, Basel, 1549, and Paris, 1550. A Latin version, by Pier-paolo Vergerio, was published in 1554 and again in 1557; it has been translated into German twice, into Polish, into English by J. T. Betts, 1882, and into Spanish by Ed. Boehmer, in Revista Cristiana, Madrid, February 1882 (also separately published). (4) Trataditos, first published at Bonn, 1881, from a manuscript in the Palatine Library at Vienna. An Italian translation, 1 Cinque Tratatelli Evangelici, was published at Rome, 1545, reprinted 1869. An English translation, by J. T. Betts, is in XVII. Opuscules, 1882. (5) Alfabeto Christiano, Venice, 1545, an Italian translation of an unpublished and lost Spanish original. An English version, by B. B. Wiffen, was published in 1861. (6) Çiento i Diez Conçideraçiones; the ori ginal is said to have been published, and all copies suppressed by the Spanish Inquisition; thirty-nine of the Conçideraçiones were published with the Trataditos from a Vienna manuscript. An Italian translation, by Celio Secondo Curione, Le Cento et Dieci Divine Considerationi, was published at Basel, 1550, 8vo. A French translation, by Claude de Kerquifinen, was published at Lyons, 1563, 8vo, and Paris, 1565, 8vo. The English translation by Nicholas Ferrar was published at Oxford, 1638, 4to, at the instance of George Herbert; it was reprinted at Cambridge, 1646; a new translation, by J. T. Betts, was issued in 1865. A translation into Spanish from the Italian, by Luis Usóz i Rio, was published in 1855. (7) Seven Doctrinal Letters, printed with the Trataditos, from a Vienna manuscript, and translated by J. T. Betts in the XVII. Opuscules. (8) Comentario Breve . . . sobre la Epistola de San Pablo a los Romanos, Venice, 1556; translation and commentary, edited by Juan Perez de Pineda, reprinted 1856; English version, by J. T. Betts, 1883. (9) Comentario Breve . . . sobre la Primera Epistola de San Pablo a los Corintios, Venice, 1557; translation and commentary, edited, reprinted, and translated as No. 8. (10) El Evangelio de San Mateo, translation and commentary, first published in 1881, from a Vienna manuscript; English version, by J. T. Betts, 1883. (11)

El Salterio, translation of the Psalms from Hebrew into Spanish, published with the Trataditos, from a Vienna manuscript. (12) At Vienna is an unpublished commentary in Spanish on Psalms i.-xli. (13) Sand mentions a commentary on St John’s Gospel, which is not known to exist.

The notices of Valdes in Sand (Biblioth. Antitrinitar., 1684, p. 2), Bayle, and Wallace (Antitrin. Biog., 1850, ii. 8) are very inadequate. The revival of interest in him is due to M'Crie, Hist. Ref. in Italy, 1827, and Hist. Ref. in Spain, 1829. But the full knowledge of his life and teachings was first opened up by Benjamin B. Wiffen, whose Life of Valdes was prefixed in 1865 to the new translation of the Considerations. Since then important discoveries have been made in the Aulic Library, Vienna, by Dr Edward Boehmer; compare his Span. Reformers of Two Centuries, 1874, and Lives of the Twin Brothers, J. and A. de Valdes, prefixed to Biblioth. Wiffeniana, 1882, also separately, with introd. by J. T. Betts. For an interesting sketch of Valdes, see Benrath’s Bernardino Ochino, 1875. Respecting his theological standpoint, compare Bonet-Maury, Early Sources of Eng. Unit. Christianity, trans. by Hall, 1884.