In October 1563 Trubar spent three weeks in the County of Gorizia upon the invitation of some local noblemen. His visit soon took on international significance. Formal declarations of disapproval were issued by the Venetian government, the papal nuncios in Venice and Vienna, and even by the Emperor Ferdinand I. However, the disagreement did not impede the spread of Lutheranism in the County of Gorizia. Venetian Friuli became an important route for the diffusion of publications from Urach south of the Alps. Until 1556 Anton Dalmata had been a priest in Gemona; then, via his extensive network of friends, he distributed books from Germany all over Friuli, in Gorizia and towards Istria. Nicolas Pichler sent books from Villach, through Tarvisio and the Fella valley to Gemona and Friuli. Italian, German and Slavic books were brought into the Austrian dominions via the same route. In the late sixteenth century books printed in Urach were still being confiscated in Gorizia, Gradisca and Duino, so Trubar was known in Friuli even by Italian-speaking Protestants. In 1567 a radical Protestant, Bernardino della Zorza from Udine, brought to trial by the Inquisition in Udine, celebrated our great prophet Primos , comparing him to Luther, Jan Hus and Girolamo Savonarola.
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