LUCANTONIO RESTA, un vescovo tridentino accusato di luteranesimo

The figure of Lucantonio Resta (1525-1597), bishop of Castro in Terra d'Otranto from 1565 to 1578, belongs to the new generation of bishops, established after the conciliar experience of the Lateran Council (1512-1517) and of the Council of Trent (1545-1563). It was the generation that lived and formed in the ideological and pragmatic debate of religious and social change between the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. The Resta he always tried to be close to the needs of the people, exonerating the care of souls through the reaffirmation of the role of the Church. His attitude, very often critical of the local powers, and especially of the clerical apparatus, caused him frequent enmities, which saw him also protagonist in the accusation of Lutheranism, then an easy way to counter, and if ever eliminate, an opponent uncomfortable and unwanted.