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 I THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY,||^ 
 I Princeton, N. J. ^ f 
 
 BR 390 .M32 1842 1 
 
 M'Crie, Thomas, 1772-10^3 • 
 Sister; of the progress and d 
 suppression of the 
 
h- 
 
HISTORY 
 
 PROGRESS AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 REFORMATION IN ITALY 
 
 IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY; 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE 
 
 REFORMATION IN THE GRISONS 
 
 By THOMAS McCRIE, D.D. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 PAUL T. JONES, PCBLISHINQ AGENT. 
 
 1842. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 Preface, ....... 5 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 State of Religion in Italy before the era of the Reformation, 9 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Introduction of the Reformed opinions into Italy, and causes 
 
 of their Progress, - - ... 46 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Progress of the Reformation in the different States and Cities 
 
 ofltaly, ...... 76 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Miscellaneous Facts respecting the state of the Reformed opin- 
 ions in Italy, .... . 141 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Suppression of the Reformation in Italy, - - 179 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Page. 
 Foreign Italian Cliurches, with Illustrations of the Reforma- 
 tion in the Grisons, - - - - - 291 
 
 Apfendix, ...... 367 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 A CONSIDERABLE iiumber of years has elapsed since 
 I was convinced that the reformed opinions had 
 spread to a much greater extent in Italy than is com- 
 monly supposed. This conviction I took an oppor- 
 tunity of making public, and, at the same time, ex- 
 pressed a wish that some person who had leisure 
 would pursue the inquiry, and fill up what I con- 
 sidered as a blank in the History of the Reformation. 
 Hearing of none who was willing to accept the invi- 
 tation, I lately resolved to arrange the materials rela- 
 ting to the subject which had occurred to me in the 
 course of my reading, with the addition of such facts 
 as could be discovered by a more careful search into 
 the most probable sources of information. 
 
 To some of the quarters from which the most in- 
 teresting information might be expected, I entertained 
 no hope of finding access; nor shall I inquire at pre- 
 sent why the late revolutions which have led to the 
 disclosure of the mysteries of the Spanish, should 
 have sealed up those of the Roman Inquisition. 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 Unfortunately, none of the Italian Protestants in 
 the sixteenth century thought of recording the facts 
 connected with the religious movement which issued 
 in their expulsion from their native country ; a task 
 which was not altogether neglected by those who 
 were driven from Spain for their attachment to the 
 same cause. On the other hand, writers of the Roman 
 Catholic persuasion appear to have agreed, from an 
 early period, to pass over a subject at once dangerous 
 to themselves and ungrateful to their countrymen; 
 or, if they did touch it, to represent any agitation 
 which took place as exceedingly slight and transient, 
 and as produced by a few individuals of no note or 
 consideration, who had suffered themselves to be led 
 astray by fondness for novelty. Facts which con- 
 tradicted this representation were indeed to be found 
 in writings composed during the struggle, but these 
 were afterwards carefully suppressed; and the Index 
 Expurgatorius of Rome was itself reformed, with 
 the view of preventing it from being known that cer- 
 tain names had once been branded with the stigma of 
 heresy. In these circumstances, the modern historian, 
 if he does not choose to rest in general statements 
 must have recourse to the tedious process of examin- 
 ing the epistolary correspondence of those who lived 
 in that age, the memoirs of private individuals, and 
 dedications and prefaces to books on various subjects; 
 while, at the same time, he must carefully ascertain 
 
PREFACE. Vli 
 
 that the editions which he consuhs are original, or at 
 least unmutilated. 
 
 The labour attending this task has been in no small 
 degree lightened by the numerous and valuable collec- 
 tions relating to literary and ecclesiastical history 
 which John George Schelhorn, the learned superin- 
 tendent and librarian of Memmingen, published in 
 Latin and in his native tongue, during the first half 
 of the eighteenth century. Some of his statements 
 respecting the progress which the Reformation had 
 made in Italy brought forward Cardinal Quirini, 
 the honorary and learned keeper of the Vatican 
 Library ; and, as usual in such cases, truth was elicit- 
 ed from the controversy which ensued. In 1765, 
 the Specimen Italise Reformatde of Daniel Gerdes, 
 well known by his general History of the Refor- 
 mation, made its appearance, in which that inde- 
 fatigable writer collected all the facts which he had 
 met with connected with that subject. This work is 
 scarcely known in Britain, and has not, so far as I 
 have observed, been mentioned by any of our wri- 
 ters. Though labouring under the defects of a pos- 
 thumous publication, it is of great utility, and has 
 induced later Italian writers to bring forward facts 
 which they might otherwise, like their predecessors, 
 have passed unnoticed. Had I seen this work earlier, 
 it might have saved me much trouble ; but I do not 
 regret the circumstance of its having come so late 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 into my hands, as I was led, in the absence of such a 
 help, to make researches which I would have been 
 tempted to decline, but which have enabled me to 
 supply in part its defects, and to correct some of the 
 mistakes into which its author had inadvertently 
 fallen. 
 
 The Hist or ia Reformationis Rseticarum Ecclesi- 
 artim, by Rosius de Porta, has furnished me with a 
 number of important facts respecting the Italian refu- 
 gees. To throw light on the settlements which they 
 formed in the Orisons, I have given a sketch of the 
 history of the Reformation in that country, which I 
 trust will not be unacceptable to the reader. 
 
 It has not been in my power to procure several 
 Italian works, which, I have reason to think, would 
 have helped to illustrate parts of my subject. Some 
 of the most curious and valuable of those quoted in 
 the following pages I had the opportunity of examin- 
 ing in Holland, and particularly in the library of the 
 venerable Mons. Chevalier, one of the pastors of the 
 French church in Amsterdam, whose uncommon po- 
 liteness I have to acknowledge, in not only allowing 
 me the freest use of his books, but also in transmitting 
 to me a number of extracts which I had not time to 
 make during my short stay in that city. 
 
 Amidst such a multiplicity of facts, as to many of 
 which I had not the advantage arising from a com- 
 parison of different authorities, I do not flatter myself 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 that, with all my care, I have kept free from mistakes; 
 and shall feel obliged to any one who shall put it in 
 my power to correct the errors which I may have 
 committed. 
 
 It was my intention, even after the work went to 
 the press, to include in this volume an account of 
 the progress and suppression of the Reformation in 
 Spain. This I have found impracticable, and accord- 
 ingly have reserved that part of my undertaking for 
 a separate publication. I regret this delay the less, 
 that it will enable me to avail myself of an extensive 
 collection of Spanish books which has been lately 
 purchased by the Faculty of xVdvocates. 
 
 Edinburgh, 4th May, 1827. 
 
«( 
 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The interest, perhaps partial, which I feel in the 
 subject of the following work, has led me to take 
 more pains in preparing this edition for the press than 
 many readers may think to have been necessary. In 
 the introductory chapter, a fuller account has been 
 given of the state of religion in Italy before the Re- 
 formation. From books to which I have had access 
 since the first edition was submitted to the public, I 
 have been enabled to bring forward several new and 
 not unimportant facts as to the progress of the Re- 
 formed doctrine and the treatment of its friends, espe- 
 cially within the states of Tuscany and Modena. 
 And a number of interesting papers will be found 
 added to the Appendix. 
 
 Edinburgh, 20th June, 1833. 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 REFORMATION IN ITALY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 STATE OF RELIGION IN ITALY BEFORE THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 It is an undoubted fact, though it may appear impro- 
 bable to those who are imperfectly acquainted with 
 ecclesiastical history, that the supremacy claimed by 
 the bishops of Rome was resisted in Italy after it had 
 been submitted to by the most remote churches of the 
 west. The diocese of Italy, of which Milan was the 
 capital, remained long independent of Rome, and 
 practised a different ritual, according to what was 
 called the Ambrosian Liturgy. It was not till the 
 eleventh century that the popes succeeded in estab- 
 lishing their authority at Milan, and prevailed on the 
 bishops of that see to procure the archi-episcopal pali 
 from Rome. When this was first proposed, it excited 
 great indignation on the part of the people, as well as 
 of the clergy, who maintained that the Ambrosian 
 church had been always independent; that the Ro- 
 man pontiff had no right to judge in its affairs; and 
 that, without incurring disgrace, they could not sub- 
 ject to a foreign yoke that see which had preserved its 
 freedom during so many ages.* 
 
 * Petri Damiani Opusc. p. 5. The archbishop of Milan having 
 consulted Roboald, bishop of Alva, the latter replied, that " he would 
 sooner have his nose slit," than advise him to comply with the de- 
 
 2 
 
10 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 During the pontificate of Nicolas II. the papal claims 
 were strenuously resisted by Guido, archbishop of 
 Milan.t And, in the year 1074, when Gregory VII., 
 the noted Hildebrand, issued his decree against the 
 marriage of the clergy, the Milanese ecclesiastics 
 rejected it, branded the pope and his adherents as 
 heretics, and were prevented from making a formal 
 separation from the Church of Rome only by the arms 
 of Estembald.ij: 
 
 As the supremacy of the bishop of Rome met with 
 strenuous opposition, so were there individuals in the 
 darkest age who resisted the progress of those super- 
 stitions which proved the firmest support of the pon- 
 tifical power. Among these was Claude, bishop of 
 Turin, who, in the ninth century, distinguished him- 
 self not only by his judicious commentaries on the 
 Scriptures, but also by his vigorous opposition to the 
 worship of images and pilgrimages to Rome ; on which 
 account, he, with his followers in Italy, have been 
 branded as Arians by popish historians, who are ever 
 ready, upon the slightest pretexts, to impute odious 
 opinions to those who may dissent from the dominant 
 church. § 
 
 Scarcely had the bishops of Rome secured the 
 obedience of the Italian clergy, and silenced the op- 
 position which arose from Turin, when their atten- 
 tion was called to other opponents. Among these 
 were the Arnoldists, who take their name from Arnold 
 of Brescia, a disciple of Abelard, and a man of great 
 learning and spirit, who maintained publicly that the 
 possessions and rents of the popes, bishops, and mo- 
 nasteries, should be transferred to the supreme rulers 
 of each state, and that nothing should be left to the 
 
 mand of pope Honorius — " quod prius sustineret nasum suum scindi 
 usque ad oculos, quam daret sibi consilium ut susciperet RomfE slo- 
 1am," &c. (Ughelli Italia Sacra, lorn. iv. p. 189.) 
 
 f Landulphi Sen. Hist. Mediolan. 1. ii. c. 35. Arnulphi, Hist. 
 Mediolan. 1. iii. c. 12. Muratori, Script. Rer. Ital. torn. iv. 
 
 X Arnulphi, 1. iv. c. 6, 9, 10. 
 
 § Jo. Alb. Fabricii Bibl. Med. et Infim. iEtatis, torn. i. p. 388. 
 Simon, Hist. Crit. du N. Testament, chap. xxv. Weismanni Merao- 
 rab. Hist. Eccles. torn. i. p. 761. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 11 
 
 ministers of religion but a spiritual authority, and a 
 subsistence drawn from the tithes and the voluntary- 
 contributions of the people. He was condemned by 
 the council of the Lateran in 1139, and obliged to 
 retire to Zurich; but returning, on the death of Inno- 
 cent II., and finding Rome in a state of great agita- 
 tion, from the contest between the pope and the 
 emperor, he persuaded the inhabitants to throw off 
 the degrading yoke of a priest, and secure their inde- 
 pendence by reviving the ancient authority of the 
 senate. The circumstances of the time, and tlie de- 
 generate spirit of the Romans, equally forbade the 
 success of such an attempt. Arnold was obliged to 
 fly, and being taken, was crucified, and his body re- 
 duced to ashes; but he left behind him a great number 
 of disciples, who inherited the zeal and intrepidity of 
 their master, and were always ready, on a favourable 
 opportunity, to take part in any design which had for 
 its object the reformation of the church.* 
 
 In the twelfth century, those Christians known in 
 history, under the several names of Vaudois, Wal- 
 denses, and Albigenses, as the hereditary witnesses 
 for the truth against the corruptions of Rome, pene- 
 trated through the Alps into Italy. As early as the 
 year 1180, they had established themselves in Lom- 
 bardy and Puglia, where they received frequent visits 
 from tlieir brethren in other countries;! and, at the 
 beginning of the thirteenth century, they were to be 
 found in the capital of Christendom. In the year 
 1231, pope Gregory IX. published a furious bull 
 against them, ordaining that they should be sought 
 out and delivered to the secular arm to be punished, 
 and that such as harboured them should be declared 
 infamous, along with their children to the second 
 generation. The senator or chief magistrate of Rome 
 set on foot an inquisition agreeably to the municipal 
 laws of the city, in consequence of this bull, which 
 was also sent by the pope to the archbishop oi^ Milan, 
 
 * Allix's Churches of Piedmont, p. 169—174. Moshcim's Eccl. 
 Hist. cent. xii. ch. v. sect 10. 
 
 t Leger, Hist, des Eglises Evangeliques, part i. p. 202. 
 
12 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 with injunctions to see it executed in his diocese, and 
 those of his suffragans, where heresy had ah'eady 
 made an alarming progress. Some curious facts, re- 
 lating to the state of the Waldensian churches to the 
 south of the Alps, are furnished hy a letter from Ivo 
 of Narbonne to Gerard, archbishop of Bordeaux. 
 Having been summoned by the inquisitor of heretical 
 pravity, unjustly, according to his own account, Ivo 
 fled into Italy. At Como he became acquainted with 
 certain persons belonging to the sect of the Paterins, 
 (as the Waldenses were called in Italy,) and pretend- 
 ing that he was banished for holding their opinions, 
 was kindly received by them, and admitted into their 
 confidence. After he had given them his oath of 
 fidelity, and promised to exert himself in propagating 
 the true faith in the places which he visited, they told 
 him, that they had churches in almost all the towns of 
 Lombardy, and in some parts of Tuscany, which sent 
 apt young men to Paris to be instructed in the scholastic 
 logic and theology, with the view of their being quali- 
 fied for entering the lists with the advocates of the 
 church of Rome ; and that their merchants, in fre- 
 quenting fairs and markets, made it their business to 
 instil their tenets into the minds of the rich laymen 
 with whom they traded, and the landlords in whose 
 houses they lodged. On leaving Como, he was fur- 
 nished with letters of recommendation to professors of 
 the same faith in Milan; and, in this manner, he pas- 
 sed through all the towns situate on the Po, through 
 Cremona and the Venetian States, being liberally 
 entertained by the Paterins, who received him as a 
 brother, on producing his letters, and giving the signs 
 which were known by all that belonged to the sect.* 
 That their opinions had also spread in Naples and 
 Sicily, appears from a letter to the pope by the em- 
 peror Frederick II., who condemned such as were 
 
 * This letter, which has attracted less notice from its being entitled 
 De Tartaris, is inserted at length in Mat. Paris, Hist. Maj. (under 
 the year 1243,) p. 538, 539, edit. Wats, Lond. 1684. It is to be 
 remembered, however, that Ivo, according to his own profession, 
 joined the Paterins from motives of conveniency. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 13 
 
 convicted of heresy to the fire, but allowed the bishops 
 to show mercy where they thought it proper, '^ pro- 
 vided the tongues of those who should be pardoned 
 were cut out, so that they might not again blas- 
 pheme.''* In Genoa, and some of the neighbouring 
 cities, they had houses in which they assembled for 
 worship, with their barbs, or religious teachers.t 
 Notwithstanding the persecutions to which they were 
 exposed, the Waldenses maintained themselves in 
 Italy, kept up a regular correspondence with their 
 brethren in other countries, and, in the fourteenth 
 century, had academies in Lombardy, which were 
 frequented by young men, and supported by contri- 
 butions, from churches of the same faith in Bohemia 
 and Poland.:}: 
 
 In the year 1 370, the Vaudois who resided in the 
 valleys of Pragela, finding themselves straitened in 
 their territories, sent some of their number into Italy 
 to look out for a convenient settlement. The deputies 
 bargained with the proprietors of the soil for liberty 
 to plant a colony in an uncultivated and thinly peo- 
 pled district of Calabria. Within a short time the 
 place assumed a new appearance; villages rose in 
 every direction ; the hills resounded with the bleating 
 of flocks, and the valleys were covered with corn and 
 vines. The prosperity of the new settlers excited the 
 envy of the neighbouring villagers, who were irritated 
 at the distance which they preserved, and at their 
 refusal to join with them in their revels and dissipa- 
 tion. They regularly paid their tithes, according to 
 the stipulation entered into by their deputies; but the 
 priests, perceiving that they practised none of the 
 ceremonies usual at the interring of the dead, that 
 
 * Rainaldi Annal. ad ann. 1231, n. xiv. 18—20. Compare the first 
 document in the appendix to Allix's Remarks on the History of the 
 Ancient Churches of Piedmont, p. 297, 298. 
 
 t VVeismanni Memor. Hist. tom. i. p. 1096. Mons. Court de Gebc- 
 lin, in his Dlctionnaire Etymologique^ says, that the Vaudois were 
 called Barbkts, " parce que leur pasteurs s'appelloient Barbe, du mot 
 Venetien Barba, un ancien, un chef a Barbe." 
 
 X Wolfii Memor. Lect. tom. i. 312. Beze. Hist. Eccl. des Eglises 
 Ref. de France, tom. i. p. 35, 36. Perrin, Hist, des Vaudois, part i. 
 p. 240—242. Leger, part ii. p. 336. 
 
14 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 they had no images in their chapels, did not go in 
 pilgrimage to consecrated places, and had their children 
 educated by foreign teachers, whom they held in 
 great honour, began to raise the cry of heresy against 
 the simple and inoffensive strangers. But the proprie- 
 tors, gratified to see their grounds so highly improved, 
 and to receive large rents for what had formerly yield- 
 ed them nothing, interposed in behalf of their ten- 
 ants; and the priests, finding the value of their tithes 
 yearly to increase, resolved prudently to keep silence.'^ 
 The colony received accessions by the arrival from 
 time to time, of those who fled from the persecutions 
 raised against them in Piedmont and France ;t it con- 
 tinued to flourish when the Reformation dawned on 
 Italy; and, after subsisting for nearly two centuries, 
 was basely and barbarously exterminated. :{: 
 
 It is a curious circumstance, that the first gleam of 
 light, at the revival of letters, shone on that remote 
 spot of Italy where the Vaudois had found an asylum. 
 Petrarch first acquired the knowledge of the Greek 
 tongue from Barlaam, a monk of Calabria; and Boc- 
 caccio was taught it by Leontius Pilatus, who was a 
 hearer of Barlaam, if not also a native of the same 
 place, and for whom his grateful pupil procured an 
 appointment among the professors of Florence. § The 
 example and the instructions of two individuals, how 
 eminent soever for genius and popularity, could not 
 impart a permanent impulse to the minds of their 
 countrymen, or overcome the obstacles which opposed 
 the cultivation of ancient letters. But the taste which 
 they had been the means of creating was revived, in 
 the beginning of the fifteenth century, by those learned 
 Greeks whom the feeble successors of Constantine 
 
 *Perrin, i. 196 — 198. Legcr, part ii. p. 333. 
 
 t About the year 1500, many left the valley of Fresiniere to take 
 up their residence in the city Volturata, not far from the settlements 
 of their brethren. — At Florence, the barbs possessed a house, with 
 the requisite funds to defray their expenses. (Gilles, Hist. Eccles. 
 des Eglises Ref. ou Vaudoises, p. 20.) 
 
 t Perrin, i. 199. Leger, p. ii. chap. i. p. 7. Morland, Hist, of the 
 Evang. Churches of Piedmont, p. 194, 
 
 § Sismondi, Histoire des Republiques Italiennes, torn. vi. p. 160 — 
 162, 168 — 170. Hodius de Graecis Illustribus, p. 2 — -5. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 15 
 
 sent to the papal court to implore succours against 
 the overwhelming power of the Turks, and who were 
 induced to teach their native language in different 
 parts of Italy. The fall of the eastern empire, and 
 the taking of Constantinople in 1453, brought them 
 in greater numbers to that country, while it added 
 immensely to the stock of manuscripts which indi- 
 viduals had for some time before been in the habit of 
 procuring from the east.* And the art of printing, 
 which was invented about the same period, from its 
 novelty, and its tendency to multiply the number of 
 copies of a book indefinitely, and to afford them at a 
 cheap rate, gave an incalculable acceleration to the 
 human mind in its pursuit of knowledge. 
 
 Ancient literature was now cultivated with the 
 greatest enthusiasm; it spread with amazing rapidity 
 through Italy, and, surmounting the Alps, reached, 
 within a short period, the northern extremities of 
 Europe. The human mind was roused from the 
 slumber by which it had been oppressed for ages; its 
 faculties were sharpened by the study of languages; 
 the stores of ancient knowledge were laid open ; the 
 barbarism of the schools was exploded ; and opinions 
 and practices which had long been held sacred, and 
 which a little before it would have been deemed 
 impious to suspect, were now openly called in ques- 
 tion, opposed, and repudiated. The rise of the papal 
 monarchy, and the corruption of Christianity, may be 
 
 * Ging-uene is of opinion, that too ranch influence has been ascribed 
 to the fall of the eastern empire in producing the revival of letters, 
 and remarks that Florence would have become the new^ Athens, 
 though the ancient one, with all its islands, and the city ofConstan- 
 tine, had not fallen under the stroke of an ignorant and barbarous 
 conqueror. (Histoire Litteraire d'ltalie, torn. iii. p. 18.) The remark 
 of this elegant writer is not unnatural in one who, by minute investi- 
 gations, had become acquainted with all the concurring causes of a 
 great revolution. But he has himself owned that Boccaccio's know- 
 ledge of Greek was extremely limited, and that the study of ancient 
 literature languished after his death; it is undeniable that it was 
 afterwards revived by the arrival of natives of Greece; and what was 
 the fall of Constantinople but the completion of those calamities which 
 at first induced these learned men to visit Italy, to which their suc- 
 cessors now transferred their fixed residence and the wreck of their 
 literary treasures ? 
 
16 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 traced in a great measure to the ignorance and bar- 
 barism which fell on western Europe, and increased 
 during the middle ages. The revival of letters, by 
 banishing the darkness, broke the spell on which the 
 empire of superstition rested, and opened the eyes of 
 mankind on the chains with which their credulity 
 had suffered their spiritual rulers to load them. 
 
 A taste for letters does not, indeed, imply a taste 
 for religion, nor did the revival of the former neces- 
 sarily infer the reformation of the latter. Some of 
 the worst of men, such as pope Alexander VI. and 
 his sons, encouraged literature and the arts; and in 
 the panegyrics which the learned men of that age 
 lavished on their patronesses, we find courtezans of 
 Rome joined with ladies illustrious for their birth and 
 virtue.* The minds of many of the restorers of litera- 
 ture in the fifteenth century were completely absorbed 
 by their favourite studies. Their views did not 
 extend beyond the discovery of an old manuscript, or 
 printing and commenting on a classical author. Some 
 of them carried their admiration of the literary monu- 
 ments of pagan Greece so far as to imbibe the reli- 
 gious sentiments which they inculcated; and, in the 
 excess of their enthusiasm, they did not scruple to 
 give a species of adoration to the authors of such 
 "divine works.'^t Others showed, by their conduct, 
 that they were as great slaves to worldly passions as 
 the most illiterate, and ready to support any establish- 
 ment, however corrupt, which promised to gratify 
 their avarice, their ambition, or their love of pleasure. 
 Lorenzo de Medici, the munificent patron of letters, 
 and himself an elegant scholar, testified the most 
 extravagant joy at his son's being elected a cardinal 
 at seven years of age,:}: and gave the destined pontiff 
 
 * Roscoe's Life of Leo X. vol. i. p. 335, 336, vol. ii. 220. 
 
 t Marsil. Ficini Pref. in Plotinum ; et Epist. lib. viii. p. 144. Sis- 
 mondi, Hist, des Rep. Ital, torn. viii. p. 238, 239. Roscoe's Life of 
 Lorenzo de Medici, vol. i. p. 162, 163, 169. Ginguene, Hist. Litt. 
 d'ltalie, torn. iii. p. 362. 
 
 t Roscoe's Life of Leo. X. vol. i. p. 19. Another learned man did 
 not scruple to write, on the occasion of this advancement, in the fol- 
 lowing strain: — " Semen autem Joannis ejusdem, in quo benedicentur 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 17 
 
 an education better fitted for a secular potentate than 
 for the head of the church ; a circumstance, however, 
 which probably contributed more to bring about the 
 Reformation than all the patronage he lavished on 
 literature and the arts. Bembo and Sadoleti were 
 apostolical secretaries, and, in their official character, 
 composed and subscribed the most tyrannical edicts 
 of the court of Rome. The former, of whom it has 
 been said, that he " opened a new Augustan age, 
 emulated Cicero and Virgil with equal success, and 
 recalled in his writings the elegance and purity of 
 Petrarca and of Boccaccio," has his name affixed to 
 the infamous bull vindicating the sale of indulgences ; 
 and the latter disgraced his elegant pen, by drawing 
 and signing the decree which condemned Luther as a 
 heretic, ordaining that, if he continued obstinate, he 
 should be seized and sent to Rome, and authorizing 
 the sentence of excommunication and interdict to be 
 pronounced against all powers, civil or ecclesiastical, 
 (the emperor excepted,) secular or regular, dukes, 
 marquises, universities, and communities, by whom 
 he might be received or harboured.* Thus did these 
 two polite scholars divide between them the odium of 
 measures which had it for their object to crush the 
 most glorious attempt ever made to burst the chains 
 of despotism; and in compensation for the stigma 
 inflicted upon literature by the conduct of its repre- 
 sentatives, we must be contented with being told, that 
 they " first demonstrated that the purity of the Latin 
 idiom was not incompatible with the forms of business, 
 and the transactions of public affairs." There are, I 
 doubt not, persons who will be gratified with the 
 information which I have it in my power to afford 
 them, that, before the Reformation, there were sums 
 issued from the exchequer of the Vatican, as salaries 
 to learned men, whose task it was to reform the hul- 
 
 omnes gentes^ est Joannes Laurentiae genitus, cui adhuc adolescen. 
 tulo divina providentia mirabiliter Cardineam contulit dig-nitatcm, 
 futuri pontificis auspicium." (Ficini Epist. lib. i.v. p. 15D. Venct. 
 1495.) 
 * Roscoe's Leo X. vol. iii. App. no. cli. and clix. 
 
18 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 larium, by picking out all the solecisms which had 
 crept into it, and substituting purer and more classical 
 words in their room.* Who knows to what advan- 
 tages this goodly work of expurgation would have 
 led? What elegant reading might not the papal bulls 
 have furnished to our modern literati, if the barbarous 
 reformers had not interfered, and, by their ill-timed 
 clamour, turned the public attention from words to 
 things — from blunders in grammar to perversions of 
 law and gospel ! 
 
 But the subject is too serious for ridicule. In fact, 
 the passion for the sciences and fine arts, Avhich was 
 at that time so general in Italy, had a direct tendency 
 to infidelity and heathenish atheism, and, had not the 
 Reformation taken place, it is difficult to say how far 
 the infection would have spread. The fine spirits of 
 that age made the mysteries of religion the butt of 
 their wit, and treated the sacred Scriptures as a godly 
 song or mythological fable ; so that the reformation of 
 the Christian faith in the sixteenth century resembled 
 the first introduction of Christianity, which had to 
 contend with intellectual luxury, refined sensuality, 
 and the corroding poison of the Epicurean philosophy. 
 Had the Romish church felt any real concern for the 
 interests of religion and the welfare of the people, she 
 would have taken part with those who united a love 
 of the arts and sciences with a desire to restore the 
 true faith, and to imbue the minds of men with the 
 ancient spirit of Christian piety. But she threw all 
 the weight of her authority into the opposite scale. 
 A love of refined heathenism was the ruling passion 
 of Leo X., and influenced all his other passions. This 
 was also the character of the learned men who fre- 
 quented his court, or shared his patronage and libe- 
 ralit3^ The poems of Pontano, Sanazzaro, and others, 
 were constructed on the principles of the ancient my- 
 thology; and MaruUus published a collection of such 
 
 * " Ante paucos annos, Rhomce, ex eerario pontificis, eruditis aliquot 
 salarium dari solitum est, qui e pontificum literis, solcecismos tolle- 
 rent." (Erasmi Hoterd. Apologia, rcfellcns suspiciones D. Jacobi 
 Latomi, p. 16. Lovanii, 1511).) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 19 
 
 pieces, in which the praises of the gods of Greece and 
 Rome are celebrated with great splendour and devo- 
 tion. Even the clergy followed the example; and, in 
 several instances, their writings were more spotted 
 with ribaldry and profane wit than those of laymen. 
 They were ashamed of the Bible on account of its 
 barbarisms, and would uot read it lest it should spoil 
 their fine Latin style; but they made no scruple of 
 seasoning their discourses and writings with quota- 
 tions from heathen antiquity. They found in pagan 
 theology antitypes of the sacred persons mentioned in 
 Scripture, not excepting the Holy Trinity. God, the 
 Father, was Jupiter Optimus Maximus; the Son, 
 Apollo or Esculapius; and the Virgin Mary, Diana. 
 Erasmus, in one of his letters, has given an account 
 of a sermon which he heard preached, before Pope 
 Julius II. and his cardinals, on the sufferings and 
 death of Jesus. The preacher began with the praises 
 of the Pope, whom he represented as a second Jupiter, 
 holding in his almighty hand the thunderbolt, and 
 ruling the affairs of the world by his nod. When he 
 came to the sufferings of Christ, he reminded his 
 hearers of Decius and Curtius, who leapt into the gulf 
 for the salvation of their country. He mentioned, 
 with high eulogium, Cecrops and Menacius, Iphigenia 
 and others, who nobly preferred their country to their 
 lives. When he wished to move his hearers to com- 
 passion by the tragical fate of Jesus, he described the 
 gratitude which the heathen testified for their heroes 
 and benefactors, by deifying them and raising monu- 
 ments to their memory, while the Jews treated the 
 deliverer of mankind with ignominy, and crucified- 
 him. The death of Christ was then compared with 
 that of other celebrated men, who died innocently, 
 suffering for the common welfare ; — a Socrates and a 
 Phocion, who, though they had committed no crime, 
 drank the poisoned cup ; an Epaminondas, who, after 
 performing many renowned deeds, was obliged to 
 defend himself against a public charge of high-treason; 
 a Scipio, whose numerous services were rewarded 
 with banishment ; and an Aristides, who was expel- 
 
20 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 led from his native country, because he was surnamed 
 the Just.* 
 
 But though many of the revivers of hterature in- 
 tended anything rather than a reformation of rehgion, 
 they, nevertheless, contributed greatly to forward this 
 desirable object. It was impossible to check the 
 progress of the light which had sprung up, or to pre- 
 vent the new spirit of inquiry from taking a direction 
 towards religion and the church. Among other books 
 which had long remained unknown or neglected, 
 copies of the sacred writings, in the original lan- 
 guages, with the works of the Christian fathers, were 
 now eagerly sought out, printed, and circulated, both 
 in the original and in translations ; nor could persons 
 of ordinary discernment and candour peruse these, 
 without perceiving that the church had declined far 
 from the Christian standard, and the model of primi- 
 tive purity, in faith, worship, and morals. This truth 
 forced itself on the minds even of those who were 
 interested in the support of the existing corruptions. 
 They felt that they stood on unsafe ground, and trem- 
 bled to think that the secret of their power had been 
 discovered, and was in danger of becoming every day 
 better and more extensively known. This paralysed 
 the exertions which they made in their own defence, 
 and was a principal cause of that dilatory, vacillating, 
 and contradictory procedure which characterized the 
 policy of the court of Rome, in its first attempts to 
 check the progress of the reformed opinions. 
 
 The poets of the middle ages, known by the name 
 of Troubadours, had joined with the Vaudois, in con- 
 demning the reigning vices of the priests ; and several 
 of the superstitious notions and practices, by which 
 the clergy increased their power and wealth, were 
 assailed in those lively satires which were written in 
 the ancient language of Provence, but read by the 
 inhabitants of Italy and Spain. It is a circumstance 
 
 * Erasmi Epist. 1. xx. cp. 14. Ciceronianus, p. 39 — 43, Roscoe's 
 Life and Pontificate of Leo X. vol. iii. p. 143 — 147. Marheinecke, 
 speaking- of this work of Mr. Roscoe, says, "As was tlie hero, so is 
 his historian." (Geschiciite der Teutchen Reformation, th. i. p. 24.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 21 
 
 deserving of notice, and reflecting honour on a sect 
 which has been so unmercifully traduced by its ad- 
 versaries, that the Nobla Ley^on, and other religious 
 poems of the Vaudois, which are among the earliest 
 and rarest monuments of Provencal poetry, contain 
 few of those satirical reflections on the clergy, which 
 abound in the writings of their contemporaries who 
 remained in the Romish Church. " Indulgences,'^ 
 says one of the troubadours, " pardons, God and the 
 devil — all, the priests make use of. To some men 
 they allot paradise by their pardons; others they send 
 to hell by their excommunications. There are no 
 crimes for which pardon cannot be obtained from 
 the monks: for money they grant to renegades and 
 usurers that sepulture which they deny to the poor 
 who have nothing to pay. To live at ease, to enjoy 
 good fish, fine wheat-bread, and exquisite wines, is 
 their great object during the whole year. God grant 
 me to be a monk, if salvation is to be purchased at 
 this price!'' "Rome!" says another, "thou hast 
 established thy see in the bottom of the abyss, and of 
 perdition. How much innocent blood hast thou spilt ! 
 Falsehood, disgrace, and infamy, reign in thy heart. 
 With the exterior of a lamb, thou art within a raven- 
 ing wolf and a crowned serpent. Go, then, Sirvente, 
 and tell the false clergy, that he who gave them do- 
 minion over us is dead." " If God," says a third, 
 " save those whose sole merit lies in loving good cheer, 
 and paying their court to women — if the black monks, 
 the white monks, the templars, the hospitallers, gain 
 heaven, then St. Peter and St. Andrew were great 
 fools to submit to such torments for the sake of a para- 
 dise which cost others so little."* 
 
 * Si monge niers vol dieus que sian sal, 
 Per pro manjar ni per femnas tenir, 
 Ni monge Wane, per boulas a mentir, 
 Ni per erguelh Temple ni Espital, 
 Ni canonge per prestar a renieu, 
 Bene tene per foi sanh Peir', sanh Andrieu, 
 Que sofriro per Dieu aital turmen, 
 S'aquest s'en van aissi a salvamen. 
 (Raymond de Castelnau; Renouard, Choix des Poesies Orig. dea 
 Troubadours, torn. iv. p. 383.) 
 
22 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 From the earliest dawn of letters in Italy, the cor- 
 ruptions of the Roman Church had been discovered 
 by persons who entertained no thought of renouncing 
 her communion. These were exposed by the poets, 
 under the protection of that license which they have 
 enjoyed in every age, and among almost every peo- 
 ple. The Divina Comedia of Dante is founded on 
 some of the leading tenets of the Roman Catholic 
 Church, in which he was a sincere believer; but there 
 is much less in it favourable to popery than this cir- 
 cumstance would have led us to expect, while it 
 abounds with complaints of the corruption of Chris- 
 tianity. Dante appears to have had no faith in the 
 infallibility of either popes or general councils. While 
 he freely bestows the keys on St. Peter, and speaks 
 honourably of his early successors, he expresses him- 
 self doubtfully of Rome's claim to be the mistress of 
 Christendom.* He gives but slender comfort to those 
 who go into purgatory, by his advice, '• Think on 
 what succeeds," and by telling them, that no prayer 
 on earth can avail them but what " riseth up from 
 heart which lives in grace. ''t Priestly absolution he 
 reduces to a conditional declaration of pardon, by 
 teaching, that "no power can the impenitent ab- 
 solve. "J In paradise he makes a confession of his 
 faith, at the desire of St. Peter ; it is what every sound 
 Protestant could subscribe ; and when asked by the 
 apostle as to the source from which he derived his 
 faith, he answers. 
 
 From that truth 
 It Cometh to me rather, which is shed 
 Thro' Moses, the rapt prophets, and the Psalms, 
 The Gospel ; and what ye yourselves did write, 
 When ye were gifted of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 When asked how he knew these to be the word of 
 God, he does not reply by appealing to the authority 
 of the Church or tradition, but says, " The works that 
 folio Aved, evidence their truth;" and when still further 
 questioned, by St. Peter, how he knew that, his reply 
 
 * Infc. c. ii. t Purg. c. iv. x. X Inf. c. xxvii. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 23 
 
 is at once just and strikingly illustrative of his senti- 
 ments. 
 
 *' That all the world," said I, " should have been turn'd 
 To Christian, and no miracle been wrought, 
 Would, in itself, be such a miracle. 
 The rest were not a hundredth part so great. 
 E'en thou wentest forth, in poverty and hunger, 
 To set the goodly plant, that, from thy vine 
 It once was, now is grown unsightly bramble."* 
 
 It is impossible to pronounce a clearer and more de- 
 cisive judgment on one of the leading and most im- 
 portant points of controversy between the Popish and 
 Protestant Churches, than Dante has given in this 
 part of his poem. The poet repeatedly inculcates a 
 simple adherence to Scripture, in opposition to the 
 human inventions and fables with which it was mixed 
 up in his time. 
 
 E'en they whose office is 
 To preach the gospel, let the gospel sleep, 
 And pass their own inventions off instead. 
 
 And having given some specimens of this, he adds, 
 
 The sheep, meanwhile, poor witless ones, return 
 From pasture, fed with wind; and what avails 
 For their excuse, they do not see their harm ? 
 
 Dante has exhibited, in his pictorial style, the inde- 
 cent buffoonery which disgraced the pulpit in that 
 age; and he treats the credulity of the people with 
 almost as much severity as the impudence and impos- 
 ture of the priests and friars. 
 
 The preacher now provides himself with store 
 Of jests and gibes; and, so there be no lack 
 Of laughter, while he vents them, his big cowl 
 Distends, and he has won the meed he sought. 
 Could but the vulgar catch a glimpse the while, 
 Of that dark bird which nestles in his hood, 
 They scarce would wait to hear the blessing said. 
 Which now the dotards hold in such esteem.t 
 
 He celebrates the virtues of St. Francis and St. Domi- 
 nic, but pronounces a severe censure on the degene- 
 
 * Farad, c. xxiv; Carey's Translation. t Farad, c. xxix. 
 
24 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 racy of their respective orders.* He is warm in his 
 praises of the Virgin, but puts them into the mouth of 
 St. Bernard, the great opponent of those who ascribed 
 to her the honours due to the Saviour.t His Hell^ as 
 well as his Purgatory, are peopled with clergy, from 
 popes down to begging friars. The court of Rome is 
 repeatedly compared by him to the idolatrous Baby- 
 lon of the Apocalypse. 
 
 Of shepherds like to you, th' Evangelist 
 
 Was ware, when her, who sits upon the waves, 
 
 With kings in filthy whoredom he beheld; 
 
 She who with seven heads tower'd at her birth, 
 
 And from ten horns her proof of glory drew. 
 
 Long as her spouse in virtue took delight. 
 
 Of gold and silver ye have made your god, 
 
 DilTring wherein from the idolater, 
 
 But that he worships one, a hundred ye. 
 
 Ah ! Constantine, to how much ill gave birth. 
 
 Not thy conversion, but that plenteous dower 
 
 Which the first wealthy father gained from thee tX 
 
 In describing the avarice and luxurious living of 
 the clergy,§ he seems sometimes at a loss whether to 
 employ the language of ridicule or of indignation, 
 and, therefore, combines them; as in the following 
 passage, put into the mouth of a cardinal, who, by a 
 rare fate, had escaped both hell and purgatory. 
 
 I was constrain'd to wear the hat, that still 
 From bad to worse was shifted. — Cephas came, 
 He came who was the Holy Spirit's vessel, 
 Barefoot and lean; eating their bread, as chanc'd. 
 At the first table. Modern shepherds need 
 Those who on either hand may prop and lead them. 
 So burly are they grown ; and from behind 
 Others to hoist tliem. Down the palfrey's sides 
 Spread their broad mantles, so as both the beasts 
 Are cover'd with one skin. Oh ! patience, thou 
 That look'st on this, and dost endure so long 1 1| 
 
 * Parad. c. xi. xii. t Ibid. c. xxxiii. 
 
 \ Inf. c xix. conf. Purg. c. xxxii. 
 
 § In a similar strain did Ariosto afterwards write on this subject ; 
 and, speaking of avarice, he says, 
 
 Worse did she in the court of Rome, for there 
 She had slain popes and cardinals. 
 
 Orl. Fur. c. xxvi. st. 32. 
 
 II Para . c. xxi. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 25 
 
 With such a deep impression of the corruptions of 
 the popedom on his spirit, we need not be surprised 
 to find the poet writing in a strain which may be 
 interpreted as prophetic of its speedy downfall, and of 
 the Reformation. 
 
 Yet it may chance, ere long, the Vatican, 
 
 And other most selected parts of Rome, 
 
 That were the grave of Peter's soldiery, 
 
 Shall be delivered from th' adult'rous bond.* * 
 
 Nor were these the mere effusions of poetical 
 exaggeration. In his treatise on monarchy, he in- 
 veighs against the abuses of the church with as great 
 freedom as in his poem; and, not contented with de- 
 priving the popes of their temporal authority, he 
 attacks tradition, the main pillar on which they have 
 always rested their claim to spiritual authority.! 
 
 Petrarch followed in the steps of Dante, and he is 
 still more severe against the papal court in his prose 
 compositions than in his poetical. In proof of this, 
 we need not refer to a letter, ascribed to him, which 
 was dropt in the consistory at Rome, and read in the 
 presence of Clement VI. and his whole court. It was 
 inscribed, " Leviathan, prince of darkness, to pope 
 Clement, his vicar, and the cardinals, his counsellors 
 and good friends;" contained an enumeration of the 
 crimes committed by the prelates of the court, for 
 which he expressed his thanks, exhorting them to 
 continue in the same course, by which they would 
 merit, more and more, his favour ; and concluded with 
 these words — " Given at the centre of hell, in the 
 presence of a crowd of demons.'^ In his confidential 
 letters, Petrarch seems at a loss for words to express 
 his detestation of the sins of the papal court. " I am 
 
 * Parad. c. ix. 
 
 t Speaking of the decretalists, or masters of canon law, he says, 
 " I have heard one of them saying, and impudently maintaining, 
 that traditions are the foundation of the faith of the church." {De 
 Monarchia, lib. iii.) The Monurchia of Dante has a place in the 
 Index Prohibitorius of Rome for 1559 ; and it is not improbable that 
 his Heaven and Hell would have shared the same fate, had not Purga- 
 tory come between, and saved them. 
 
 3 
 
26 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 at present," says he to a friend, "in the western 
 Babylon, than which the sun never beheld any thing 
 more hideous, and beside the fierce Rhone, where the 
 successors of the poor fishermen now live as kings. 
 Here the credulous crowd of Christians are caught in 
 the name of Jesus, but by the arts of Belial; and 
 being stripped of their scales, are fried to fill the belly 
 of gluttons. Go to India, or wherever you choose, 
 but avoid Babylon, if you do not wish to go down 
 alive to hell. Whatever you have heard or read of 
 as to perfidy and fraud, pride, incontinence and un- 
 bridled lust, impiety and wickedness of every kind, 
 you will find here collected and heaped together. 
 Rejoice, and glory in this, Babylon, situated on the 
 Rhone, that thou art the enemy of the good, the friend 
 of the bad, the asylum of wild beasts, the whore that 
 hast committed fornication with the kings of the earth! 
 Thou art she whom the inspired evangelist saw in 
 the spirit; yes, thee, and none but thee, he saw, ^sit- 
 ting upon many waters.' See thy dress — ' A woman 
 clothed in purple and scarlet.' Dost thou know thy- 
 self, Babylon? Certainly what follows agrees to thee 
 and none else — ' Mother of fornications and abomina- 
 tions of the earth.' But hear the rest — ' I saw,' says 
 the evangelist, ^a woman drunk with the blood of the 
 saints, and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.' Point 
 out another to whom this is applicable but thee."* 
 In this strain does Petrarch go on to comment on the 
 description of the apocalyptic Babylon, and to inveigh 
 against the monstrous vices, heresies, and false mira- 
 cles of the papal court.t Several of his Latin eclogues 
 
 * EpistolsD sine titulo, ep. 4, 12, 15, 16. Abbe Sade complains 
 that the Protestants " have, in their declamations against the church 
 of Rome, abused certain secret letters which Petrarch wrote to his 
 friends, in which he opens his heart with a little too much freedom." 
 (Memoires de Petrarche, torn. iv. p. 3, 4.) The only way in which 
 they have abused them, is by quoting them, which the Abbe has 
 prudently avoided amidst his copious extracts ; and, when he calls 
 the letters " secret," he seems to have forgotten that Petrarch him- 
 self had carefully collected them into a volume by themselves, in- 
 tended for public use, as appears from his preface, and his having 
 suppressed the names of the persons to whom they were written. 
 
 t It is true that Petrarch refers to the residence of that court at 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 27 
 
 are concealed satires on the popes and their clergy. 
 In his sonnets the satire is avowed, and the holy see 
 is characterized as " impious Babylon — avaricious 
 Babylon — the school of error — the temple of heresy — 
 the forge of fraud — the hell of the living.* The fol- 
 lowing may be given as a specimen.! 
 
 The fire of wrathfiil heaven alight, 
 And all thy harlot tresses smite, 
 
 Base city ! thou, from humble fare, 
 Thy acorns and thy water, rose 
 To greatness, rich with others' woes. 
 
 Rejoicing in the ruin thou didst bear. 
 
 Foul nest of treason ! Is there aught 
 Wherewith the spacious world is fraught 
 
 Of bad or vile — 'tis hatch'd in thee ; 
 Who revellest in thy costly meats, 
 Thy precious wines, and curious seats, 
 
 And all the pride of luxury. 
 
 The while within thy secret halls. 
 Old men in seemly festivals 
 
 With buxom girls in dance are going; 
 And in the midst old Beelzebub 
 Eyes, through his glass, the motley club, 
 
 The fire with sturdy bellows blowing. 
 
 In former days thou wast not laid 
 On down, nor under cooling shade ; 
 
 Thou naked to the winds wast given, 
 And through the sharp and thorny road 
 Thy feet without the sandals trod ; 
 
 But now thy life is such, it smells to Heaven. 
 
 The alternate style of broad humour and keen wit 
 with which Boccaccio exposed the superstition and 
 knavery of churchmen was at once more fatal to 
 them, and more suited to the spirit of the age in which 
 
 Avignon in France, (where it continued during his lifetime ;) and he 
 sometimes deplores its transference from Rome, under the name of a 
 captivity. But the chief part of his description is borrowed from that 
 of Dante, which preceded that event; and he himself traces the de- 
 plorable change on the face of the church to a much higher period. 
 * Petrarchi Opera, torn. iii. p. 149. 
 
 t Fiamma del ciel su le tue treccie piova, 
 Malvagia, «Slc. 
 
 (Le Rime del Petrarcha, edit. Lod. Castelvetro, 
 torn. i. p. 325. 
 
28 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 he lived, than the lofty and severe invective of his 
 master. Poggio Bracciolini, the author of an eloquent 
 and pathetic description of the martyrdom of Jerome 
 of Prague, of which he was an eye-witness, employed 
 his wit in exposing the vices of the clergy, and the 
 ignorance and absurdities of the preachers of that 
 time, in his dialogues on avarice, luxury, and hypo- 
 crisy. That such freedoms should have been permit- 
 ted in a pontifical secretary, must excite surprise; and 
 tolerant and friendly to learned men as Nicholas V. 
 was, it is probable that Poggio would have suffered 
 for his temerity, had he not secured the protection of 
 his master, by writing an invective against his rival, 
 the anti-pope Amedaeus.* It would be endless, how- 
 ever, to give examples from him or the other ancient 
 poets and novelists of Italy, whose satires against the 
 clergy, and especially their lampoons on the monks 
 and friars, were afterwards imitated or translated by 
 writers in the different countries of Europe. The 
 practice was continued by Ariosto and Berni down 
 to the very time of the Reformation. After that period, 
 when no poet who wished his works to be circulated 
 would venture on such freedoms, the task was taken 
 up by the writers of pasquinades and other anony- 
 mous satires, who often employed the images and 
 language of their illustrious predecessors.t 
 
 * Ginguene, vol. vii. p. 308, 313, 319. Shepherd's Life of Foggio 
 Bracciohni, p. 88, 428. 
 
 t The following verses, on the death of Alexander VIII., are tran- 
 scribed from an Italian MS. in the Advocate's Library, entitled, 
 "Raccolta delle migliori Satire venute alia luce in occasione di 
 diversi Conclavi da quello di Alessandro VIII." 
 
 Sacro Nume del Ciel, non diro mai, 
 Che tu ftjcesti far jjapa Alessandro, 
 Che al Tehro cagione piu dunno assai, 
 Di quel chef ece il fuoco alia Scamandro. 
 
 Sempre voleva dir qualche saldonia, 
 tarlando ancor di cosa ulta e divina ; 
 E uvea quasi ridotta in Babilonia, 
 Questa di Dio Jtrusalem Latina. 
 
 Che piu ? Si vedde at suo ponteJicatOf 
 Liberia di concienza, e di costumi; 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 29 
 
 The corruptions of the Church of Rome were at- 
 tacked by others in a graver style. In the beginning 
 of the fifteenth century, Laurentius Valla, " who res- 
 cued literature from the grave, and restored to Italy 
 the splendour of her ancient eloquence,"* wrote 
 against the pretended donation of Constantine, and 
 various papal abuses. This learned Italian had ad- 
 vanced far before his age in every species of know- 
 ledge; as a grammarian, a critic, a philosopher, and a 
 divine, he was equally distinguished. His scholia on 
 the New Testament, in which he proposes numerous 
 corrections on the Vulgate, display an intimate ac- 
 quaintance with the Greek language ; and in his dia- 
 logue on free-will, he defends, with much acuteness, 
 the doctrine on that subject, and on predestination, 
 afterwards espoused by Luther and Calvin.t The 
 freedom of his sentiments roused the resentment of 
 the patrons of ignorance and fraud; and Valla was 
 condemned to the flames, a punishment from which 
 he was saved by the protection of Alphonsus V. of 
 Arragon.ij: The writings of Baptista, the modern poet 
 of Mantua, who flourished in the end of the fifteenth 
 century, abound with censures of the corrupt manners 
 
 E il solo non peccar, era peccato. 
 
 Per far contra le stelle, e scorno a Numi. 
 
 Spirit of heaven, it never shall be said, 
 That thou for Pope this Alexander made. 
 Who caused the Tiber more to mourn his name, 
 Than that Scamander once the Grecian flame. 
 
 His wish was still to have his sprightly quips, 
 E'en then when truths divine forsook his lips; 
 But this Jerusalem, God's chosen throne, 
 He had well nigh reduced to Babylon. 
 
 Truly, when he was pontiff, man was free, 
 
 Conscience and conduct both had liberty, 
 When one might scoff the stars, and stand secure 
 In every crime, but one — the being pure. 
 
 * Erasmi Epist. lib. vii. ep, 3. 
 t Laurentii Vallae Opera, Basilese, 1540, fol. 
 
 t Cave, Hist. Liter. App. 121, 122. Wolfius, Lect. Mem. ii. 7. 
 Ginguene, Hist. Litter, d'ltalie, torn. vii. p. 349. 
 
30 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 of the court of Rome, which deserve the more credit, 
 as they proceeded from a friar, whose verses are distin- 
 guished for their moral purity still more than for then 
 classical elegance.* 
 
 It has been common to place Savonarola among 
 the witnesses of the truth before the Reformation; 
 and some have called him the Luther of Italy.t By 
 others, he is described as a delirious fanatic and turbu- 
 lent demagogue, who, by pretending to the gift of 
 prophecy, and immediate intercourse with heaven, 
 sought to excite the populace against their rulers, civil 
 and ecclesiastical, and to gratify his own ambition by 
 humbling his superiors. In this last light he has been 
 represented, not only by the interested advocates of 
 the church of Rome, but also by the warm admirers 
 of the house of Medici. J Those who impartially con- 
 sider the character of the Florentine reformer, will 
 not be disposed to adopt either the one or the other 
 of these representations. It cannot be denied that the 
 fervour of his zeal betrayed him into extravagance, 
 and that, in prosecuting his plans of reform, he yield- 
 ed to the illusions of an overheated imagination, and 
 persuaded himself that he was possessed of superna- 
 tural gifts; but instances of this kind were not uncom- 
 mon among those who, like him, had been brought 
 up in a cloister. On the other hand, the best and most 
 enlightened men of that age bear unequivocal testi- 
 mony to his integrity, sanctity, and patriotism. § It 
 
 * Venalia nobis 
 
 Templa, sacerdotes, altaria, sacra, coronae, 
 Ignes, thura, preces; coelum est venale, Deusque. 
 Ite lares Italos, et fundarnenta rnalorum, 
 Romuleas arces et pontificalia tecta, 
 CoUuviem scelerum, &c. 
 
 (Baptista Mantuanus, lib. iii. De Calam. Temp.) 
 tM. Flacii Illyrici Testes Veritatis, p. 890. Wolfii Lect. Memor. 
 torn. i. p. 800. Bezse Icones, sig-. Biiij. 
 
 t Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo de Medici, vol. ii. p. 158, 269 ; and Life 
 of Leo X. vol. i. p. 278. 
 
 §Marsilii Ficini Epist. lib. xii. f. 197. Joan. Fr. Pici Mirandulae 
 Opera, torn. ii. p. 40. Guicciardini, Istor. lib. iii. Petri Martyris 
 Anglcrii Opus Epistol. ep. 191.— Jobn Francis Budaeus, in his youth, 
 published a dissertation unfavourable to Savonarola, of which he 
 afterwards candidly wrote a refutation. Both treatises are included 
 in his Parerga Historica-Theologica. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 31 
 
 has been supposed, but without satisfactory proof, that 
 he held the doctrines concerning justification, the com- 
 munion under both kinds, indulgences, and tradition, 
 which were afterwards called Protestant. The reform 
 which he sought had, for its object, a change on the 
 manners, not the faith, of the Christian world. He 
 believed that the discipline of the church was cor- 
 rupted, and that those who had the charge of souls, 
 from the highest to the lowest, were become unfaith- 
 ful. To this persuasion he joined an ardent passion 
 for political liberty, which quahfied him for being the 
 organ of those of his countrymen, who felt as Chris- 
 tians for the dishonours done to rehgion, and as citi- 
 zens for the encroachments made on their political 
 rights. The appearance of such a person, at a time 
 when the papal throne was filled by a man of the 
 most profligate character, and the Italian republics 
 were on the eve of being stripped of the last remains 
 of their freedom, claims the attention of the inquirer 
 into the causes of the Reformation. 
 
 Jeronimo Savonarola was descended from an illus- 
 trious family, originally belonging to Padua, and was 
 born at Ferrara in the year 1452. He distinguished 
 himself early in his studies, which were chiefly di- 
 rected to theology ; and, in the twenty-third year of 
 his age, entered the Dominican convent at Bologna. 
 His ardent piety, and his talents, recommended him 
 to the superiors of his order, from whom he received 
 an appointment to read lectures on philosophy. The 
 admiration which he gained in the academical chair 
 Avas forfeited when he ascended the pulpit; his voice 
 was at once feeble and harsh, and his address ungrace- 
 ful. But he exerted himself, in conquering these natu- 
 ral defects, with all the enthusiastic perseverance of 
 the Athenian orator; and those who heard him, in 
 148S, modulating a deep-toned voice, accompanied 
 with all the graces of action, could not believe he was 
 the same person to whom they had listened with im- 
 patience six years before. The piety of Savonarola 
 took alarm at the success of his own eloquence; he 
 redoubled his monastic austerities; and it has been 
 
32 HISTORY or THE 
 
 supposed, not without probability, that this metamor- 
 phose first suggested to him the idea of his divine 
 mission. In 1484 he began to preach on the book of 
 the Revelation at Brescia, and, inveighing against the 
 vices of its inhabitants, told them that their walls 
 should one day be deluged with blood; a threatening 
 which was thought to be accomplished two years after 
 his death, when the city was sacked by the French. 
 In 1489 he fixed his abode at Florence, in the convent 
 of St. Marc. Lorenzo de Medici, aware of the influ- 
 ence he exerted over the public mind, strove to attach 
 him to his interest; but Savonarola resisted all his ad- 
 vances, and would not so much as visit the man whom 
 he regarded as the usurper of the liberties of his coun- 
 try. Lorenzo, on his death-bed, sent for the monk, 
 who asked him if he had an entire confidence in the 
 mercy of God; if he was willing to make restitution 
 of all goods which he had procured unlawfully; and 
 if he was prepared to restore the Florentine republic 
 to its former liberty. To the two first questions the 
 dying man replied in the affirmative, but was silent 
 at the last request ; upon which Savonarola left him, 
 without administering absolution.* During the go- 
 vernment of Pietro, the haughty and luxurious suc- 
 cessor of Lorenzo, the influence of Savonarola in- 
 creased, and his enthusiasm kept pace with his popu- 
 larity. He spake to the people, in the name of heaven, 
 of the calamities which were approaching, and sum- 
 moned them to speedy repentance ; he painted, with 
 all the force of a brilliant and fervid imagination, the 
 luxury and immorality which prevailed among all 
 classes of the citizens, the disorders of the church and 
 the corruption of its prelates, the disorders of the state 
 and the tyranny of its rulers. The eff"ect of his de- 
 nunciations was greatly heightened by the rumours of 
 the invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. of France, 
 whom Savonarola did not scruple to announce as the 
 monarch whom Providence had raised up to punish 
 
 * Roscoe disputes the accuracy of this statement, (vol. ii. p. 238 ;) 
 but it has been adopted by the more impartial Sismondi, who had 
 access to all the authorities. (Hist, des Repub. Ital. torn. xii. p. 69.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 33 
 
 the vices of his native country, to introduce a sahitary 
 reform into the church, and to break the fetters of 
 pohtical bondage. The preacher had the satisfaction 
 of, at least, witnessing the success of his exhortations 
 on the inhabitants of Florence ; luxury was repressed, 
 the women gave an example of modesty in their dress, 
 and a change of manners became visible over the 
 whole city. On the expulsion of the Medici, Savona- 
 rola lent all the weight of his authority to those who 
 established a popular goverument in Florence, and 
 his advice had the greatest influence on the counsels 
 of the new republic; but he continued still to keep 
 in view his main object, of preserving a rigorous mo- 
 rality in the state. 
 
 Without possessing the prophetic powers claimed by 
 Savonarola, it was easy to foresee what his fate would 
 be. He was equally hated by the secret adherents of 
 the house of Medici, and the dissolute portion of the 
 citizens, which submitted with impatience to the free- 
 dom of his reproofs and the severity of the laws which 
 he had procured. To accomplish his ruin, they had 
 recourse to Rome. Savonarola had preached, that it 
 behoved the reform, which was indispensably neces- 
 sary, to begin with the head of the church ; and, in 
 his invectives, he had not spared the reigning pontiff, 
 Alexander VI. The crimes which, in 1497, disgraced 
 the family of the pope, and scandalized all Italy, were 
 publicly denounced by the Florentine monk; and thus, 
 personal resentment was added to the fears which 
 Alexander entertained, lest the reforms introduced 
 into Florence should be pleaded as an example against 
 the court of Rome. He accused Savonarola as a he- 
 retic, interdicted him from preaching, and finally 
 launched the sentence of excommunication against 
 him. At the request of the senate, the preacher de- 
 sisted, for some time, from the exercise of his office, 
 and sought to pacify the irritated pontiff; but, resum- 
 ing courage, and acting on the principle which after- 
 wards induced Luther to burn the bull of excommu- 
 nication by Leo X., he appeared in public, declared 
 that an injust sentence of the pope was invalid, that 
 
34 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 relaxation from it was not to be sought, that the inspi- 
 ration of the Almighty obliged him to renomice obe- 
 dience to a corrupt tribunal ; and, having celebrated 
 mass, and communicated along with his brethren and 
 a great number of secular persons, he conducted a 
 solemn procession round the convent, after which he 
 preached in the cathedral church to greater crowds 
 than ever. Defeated in this attempt, the pope stirred 
 up the Augustinian and Franciscan monks against 
 the object of his hatred. Fransesco de Pouille, a 
 preacher of the Minor Observantines, who was sent 
 from Rome, publicly denounced him as a heresiarch 
 who had seduced the republic, and called upon the 
 senate to silence him instantly, under the pain of hav- 
 ing their territory laid under an interdict, and the pro- 
 perty of their merchants confiscated in foreign coun- 
 tries. Deprived of the assistance of France, and 
 alarmed at the consequences of an open breach with 
 the pope, the Florentines yielded, and Savonarola was 
 ordered to desist from preaching. 
 
 Pursuing his advantage, Pouille next declared, from 
 the pulpit, that he understood that Savonarola spoke 
 of confirming his false doctrines by a miracle. He 
 therefore offered to submit to the trial with his adver- 
 sary, by walking through the flames. Savonarola, 
 suspecting a snare on the part of his enemies, declined 
 the fiery contest; but Bonvicini, one of his disciples, 
 zealous for his master's honour, accepted the chal- 
 lenge. The whole city took a deep interest in this 
 strange afl'air, and the chief officers of the republic 
 were engaged in making preparations for it. The 
 pope wrote to the Franciscans of Florence, praising 
 their zeal for the honour of the holy see, and declar- 
 ing that the memory of the glorious exploit would be 
 imperishable. On the 7th of April, 1498, the combus- 
 tibles being prepared, the champions, accompanied by 
 their friends, appeared on the spot, surrounded by an 
 immense crowd of eager spectators, consistmg of the 
 inhabitants of the city and adjoining territories. Pouille 
 had previously excused himself, on the pretext that he 
 would enter the fire with none but the heresiarch 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 35 
 
 himself; and another Franciscan, named Rondinelli, 
 appeared as his substitute. After the rehgious cere- 
 monies liad been performed, and the people waited in 
 breathless anxiety to see the champions enter the 
 flames, which were already kindled, the Franciscans 
 began to raise difficulties. First, they urged that the 
 Dominican might be an enchanter, and therefore in- 
 sisted that he should be stripped of his raiment, and 
 clothed with a suit of their choosing. This having 
 been complied with, they next objected to their oppo- 
 nent bearing the host along with him, alleging that it 
 was an impious act to expose the body of Christ to 
 the risk of being consumed by the flames. But on 
 this point Savonarola was inflexible, and urged that 
 it was unreasonable to deprive his friend of that which 
 was the comfort of all Christians in their trials, and 
 the pledge of their safety. The dispute on this point 
 continued to a late hour; and, while it was yet un- 
 decided, a violent and unexpected shower of rain ex- 
 tinguished the fire, upon which the senate dismissed 
 the assembly, to the satisfaction, it may be presumed, 
 of both parties. It was not, however, to the satisfac- 
 tion of the multitude, whose curiosity, wrought up to 
 the highest pitch, was now converted into ridicule 
 and indignation. They were ignorant of the real 
 ground of the dispute between the monks which had 
 prevented the spectacle; but they heard that Savona- 
 rola had refused to comply with some condition re- 
 quired by the opposite party, and he was insulted as 
 he passed through the crowd. On reaching his convent, 
 he addressed the people, and gave an explanation of 
 the affair; but an unfavourable impression had already 
 been made on their minds. Next day he preached 
 with great unction; and, at the close of his sermon, as 
 if foreseeing what would befall him, took farewell of 
 his audience, and declared himself ready to offer his 
 life in sacrifice to God. In fact, his enemies availed 
 themselves of the temporary dissatisfaction, to irritate 
 the public mind against him, by representing him as 
 a false prophet, who, at the moment of danger, drew 
 back from the proof of his mission which he had affect- 
 
36 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ed to court. Having collected in the cathedral church 
 that same night, they raised the cry, during the time 
 of divine service — "To arms! To St. Marc!" In- 
 stantly an infuriated mob rushed, with hatchets and 
 lighted torches, to the convent, forced open its gates, 
 and seizing Savonarola and two other monks, con- 
 ducted them to prison amidst insults and threatenings. 
 Without allowing the ferment to cool, the conspirators 
 conducted the mob through the city, killed many of 
 the popular party, and forced others to abdicate their 
 places, which were immediately filled with persons 
 belonging to the libertine faction. The carnival which 
 was proclaimed in the city, and the renewal of the 
 sports which had been suppressed for several years, 
 conveyed to Savonarola the intelligence that the go- 
 vernment had passed into different hands, and that 
 his favourite reform was overthrown. 
 
 One of the first things done ' by the insurgents was 
 to dispatch a courier to the Pope, to inform him of 
 the imprisonment of Savonarola. Alexander urged 
 that he sliould be sent to Rome ; and, with the view 
 of obtaining his request, granted indulgences to the 
 Florentines, with power to reconcile to the church all 
 those who had incurred excommunication, by attend- 
 ing the sermons of the heretical monk. The senate 
 insisted, however, that he should be tried in Florence, 
 and requested the pope to depute two ecclesiastical 
 judges to conduct the process. On their arrival, the 
 process conmienced with the torture ; and Savonarola, 
 whose constitution, originally feeble, had been further 
 weakened by austerities and labours, being unable to 
 endure the rack, confessed that his prophecies were 
 only simple conjectures; but when his deposition was 
 afterwards read to him, he declared that it was extor- 
 ted by bodily agony, and maintained anew the truth 
 of his revelations, and of the doctrines he had preached. 
 A second attempt was made with exactly the same 
 results.* Being condemned to the flames, along with 
 
 * Roscoe has given an incorrect account of the trial; and, indeed, 
 his whole account of Savonarola is marked with partiality. (Life of 
 Lorenzo de Medici, vol. ii. p. 269 — 272.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 37 
 
 his two companions, Savonarola spent the interval in 
 composing a commentary on the fifty-first psahn, 
 which, in lecturing through the psalter, he had passed 
 by, saying, he would reserve it for the time of his own 
 calamity. On tire 23d of May 1498, a pile of faggots 
 was erected on the spot where the voluntary trial by 
 fire was to have taken place; and the three monks, 
 after being degraded, were bound to the stake. When 
 the presiding bishop declared them separated from 
 the church, Savonarola exclaimed, " From the mili- 
 tant;" intimating that he was about to enter into the 
 triumphant church. This was all that he spoke. 
 The fire was applied to the pile by one of his enemies, 
 who took upon him the office of the executioner. 
 Strict orders were given by the magistrates to collect 
 the ashes of the three monks, and to throw them into 
 the Arno; but some relics were preserved by the 
 soldiers who guarded the place, and are still shown 
 at Florence for the adoration of the devout.* 
 
 From the time of the council of Constance, or rather 
 from that of Pisa, held in the year 1409, a reforma- 
 tion of the church, both in its head and members, had 
 been loudly demanded. This demand was repeated, 
 at the beginning of the sixteenth century, in the 
 council which the pope was compelled to convocate ; 
 as appears from the decrees which that assembly 
 passed during its sitting at Pisa, and from the orations 
 delivered in it after its translation to the Lateran, 
 where it sat under the eye of the supreme pontiff*. 
 Among these, the most noted were the speeches of 
 Egidio of Viterbo, general of the order of Augusti- 
 nians, and Gianfransesco Pico, the learned and pious 
 count of Mirandula ; both of whom denounced, with 
 singular freedom and boldness, the abuses which 
 threatened the ruin of the church and the utter extinc- 
 tion of religion.! 
 
 * Jacopo Nardi, Hist. Fior. lib. ii. Guicciardini, lib. iii. Delia 
 Storia e delle gesta del Padre Girolamo Savonarola, Livorno, 1782: 
 Sismondi, Hist, des Rep. Ital. torn. xii. p. 73, 237, 261, 450, 474. 
 Specimens of Savonarola's eloquence may be seen in Tiraboschi, 
 Stor. della Letter. Ital. torn. vi. p. 1160. 
 
 t Tiie speech of Egidio is published by Gerdesius, Hist. Reform. 
 
38 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Secure in the plenitude of their authority, and lulled 
 asleep amidst wealth and luxury, the popes had over- 
 looked the influence of satirical efl'usions from the 
 press, and become habituated to censures, which, 
 though sometimes uttered with off'ensive boldness, 
 seldom reached beyond the walls within which the 
 fathers, assembled in general council, were permitted 
 at intervals to give vent to their zeaJ. But at length 
 these complaints began to find their way into the pul- 
 pit, and to reach the ears of the people. This was a 
 mode of attack which could not be safely tolerated; 
 and, accordingly, in 1516, a papal bull was issued, 
 which, after reprimanding certain irregularities, for- 
 bade preachers to treat in their sermons of the coming 
 of Antichrist.* But it was too late. In the course of 
 the following year, a cry was raised in the heart of 
 Germany, and the ominous sounds. Antichrist and 
 Babylon, reverberating from every corner of Europe, 
 struck the Vatican, and awoke its astounded inmates 
 from the security in which they had slumbered for 
 ages. 
 
 It would be unsuitable to enter here into a minute 
 detail of the ecclesiastical grievances which were the 
 subject of such general complaint and remonstrance. 
 Suffice it to say, that all of them existed, and some of 
 them in an aggravated form, in Italy, if we except 
 such as were felt by other countries on account of 
 their distance from Rome. The vices of the clergy, 
 their neglect of religious instruction, the consequent 
 ignorance of the people, the sale of ecclesiastical offices, 
 and the prostitution of sacred things to worldly pur- 
 poses, had grown to the greatest height among the 
 Italians. The court of Rome had become more cor- 
 rupt than any of the secular courts of Europe, by the 
 confession of popish writers, and of persons who, 
 from their official situations, were admitted into all its 
 secrets. The unprincipled and faithless character of 
 
 torn. i. app. no. v.; and that of Pico, by Roscoe, in his Life of Leo 
 X. vol. iii. app. no. cxlvi. See also Wolfii Lect. Memor, torn. i. p. 
 30—35. 
 * Loescher, Vollstandige Reformationsacta, torn. i. p. 104. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 39 
 
 its policy had become proverbial. It was a system of 
 intrigue, cabal, and bribery; and its ministers, while 
 they cordially agreed in duping the world, made no 
 scruple of deceiving and supplanting one another, 
 whenever their personal interests happened to inter- 
 fere. The individuals who filled the papal chair for 
 some time before the Reformation openly indulged in 
 vices, over which the increasing knowledge of the 
 age should have taught them, in point of prudence, to 
 throw a veil.* During the pontificate of Sixtus IV. 
 we are presented with the horrid spectacle of a su- 
 preme pontiff, a cardinal, and an archbishop, associ- 
 ating themselves with a band of ruffians to murder 
 two men who were an honour to their age and coun- 
 try, and agreeing to perpetrate this crime during a 
 season of hospitality, within the sanctuary of a Chris- 
 tian church., and at the signal of the elevation of the 
 host. Alexander VI. was so notorious for his profli- 
 gate manners and insatiable rapacity, that Sanazzaro 
 has compared him to the greatest monsters of an- 
 tiquity — to Nero, Caligula, and Heliogabalus. Julius 
 II. was more solicitous to signalize himself as a sol- 
 dier than a bishop, and by his ambition and turbulence 
 kept Italy in a state of continual ferment and warfare. 
 Leo X., though distinguished for his elegant accom- 
 plishments, and his patronage of literature and the 
 arts, disgraced the ecclesiastical seat by his luxury 
 and voluptuousness, and scandalized all Christendom 
 by the profane methods of raising money to which he 
 had recourse for the pvirpose of gratifying his love of 
 pleasure and his passion for magnificent extravagance. 
 To this rapid sketch I shall add the description of 
 the papal court, drawn by the pen of an Italian who 
 lived in the age of the Reformation, in whose writings 
 we sometimes find the copiousness of Livy combined 
 with the deep-toned indignation against tyranny which 
 
 * Julius; Dialogus, in quo impietas Julii II. Papje depingitur, 
 lectu utilis ad judicandum de moribus, vita et studiis Pontificum Ro- 
 manorum. Addita sunt Huttenii Epigrammata ejusdem argumenti, 
 1567. Erasmus was the author of this dialogue, which was origi- 
 nally published soon after the accession of Leo X. to the pontificate. 
 
40 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 thrills through our veins in perusing the pages of Ta- 
 citus. The reader need not be told that the following 
 passage was struck out by the censors of the press, 
 before the work was allowed to be published in Italy: 
 " Having raised themselves to earthly power on this 
 basis, and by these methods, the popes gradually lost 
 sight of the salvation of souls and divine precepts; 
 and, bending their thoughts to worldly grandeur, and 
 making use of their spiritual authority solely as an 
 instrument and tool to advance their temporal, they 
 began to lay aside the appearance of bishops, and 
 assumed the state of secular princes. Their concern 
 was no longer to maintain sanctity of life, to promote 
 religion, or to show charity to mankind ; but to accu- 
 mulate treasures, to raise armies, to wage wars against 
 Christians. The sacred mysteries were celebrated 
 with thoughts and hands stained with blood; and, 
 with the view of drawing money from every quarter, 
 new edicts were issued, new arts invented, new stra- 
 tagems laid, spiritual censures were fulminated, and 
 all things, sacred and profane, sold without distinction 
 and without shame. The immense riches amassed in 
 this way, and scattered among the courtiers, were 
 followed by pomp, luxury, licentiousness, and the 
 vilest and most abominable lusts. No care was taken 
 to maintain the dignity of the Pontificate ; no thought 
 bestowed on the character of those who should suc- 
 ceed to it: the reigning pope sought only how he 
 might raise his sons, nephews, and other relations, to 
 immoderate wealth, and even to principalities and 
 kingdoms; and, instead of conferring ecclesiastical dig- 
 nities and emoluments on the virtuous and deserving, 
 he either sold them to the best bidder, or lavished 
 them on those who promised to be most subservient 
 to his ambition, avarice, and voluptuousness. Though 
 these things had eradicated from the minds of men 
 all that reverence which was once felt for the popes, 
 yet their authority was still sustained to a certain 
 degree by the imposing and potent influence of the 
 name of religion, together with the means which they 
 possessed of gratifying princes and their courtiers, by 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 41 
 
 bestowing on them dignities and other ecclesiastical 
 favours. Presuming on the respect which men enter- 
 tained for their office — aware that any prince who 
 took up arms against them incurred general odium, 
 and exposed himself to the attack of other powers, 
 and knowing that, if victorious, they could make their 
 own terms, and, if vanquished, they would escape on 
 easy conditions — the pontiffs abandoned themselves 
 to their ruling passion of aggrandizing their friends, 
 and proved, for a long time, the instruments of exci- 
 ting wars, and spreading conflagrations over the whole 
 of Italy.''* 
 
 On the other hand, the obstacles to ecclesiastical 
 reform, and the reception of divine truth, were nume- 
 rous and formidable in Italy. The Italians could not, 
 indeed, be said to feel at this period a superstitious 
 devotion to the see of Rome. This did not originally 
 form a discriminating feature of their national charac- 
 ter; it was superinduced, and the formation of it can 
 be distinctly traced to causes which produced their 
 full efl"ect subsequently to the era of the Reformation. 
 The republics of Italy, in the middle ages, gave many 
 proofs of religious independence, and singly braved 
 the menaces and excommunications of the Vatican, 
 at a time when all Europe trembled at the sound of 
 its thunder. That quick-sighted and ingenious people 
 had, at an early period, penetrated the mystery by 
 which the emptiness of the papal claims was veiled, 
 while the opportunity which they enjoyed of nar- 
 rowly inspecting the lives of the Popes, and the real 
 motives by which they were actuated in the most 
 imposing of their undertakings, had dissipated from 
 their minds those sentiments of veneration and awe 
 for the holy see which continued to be felt by such as 
 viewed it from a distance. The consequence of this, 
 under the corrupt form in which Christianity every- 
 where presented itself, was the production of a spirit 
 of indifference about religion, which, on the revival of 
 learning, settled into scepticism, masked by an exter- 
 
 * Guicciardini Paralipomena, ex autographo Florcntino recensita, 
 p. 46—48. Amstel. 1663. 
 
 4 
 
42 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 nal respect to the established forms of the Church. In 
 this state did matters remain until the middle of the 
 sixteenth century, when, from causes to be explained 
 hereafter, bigotry and superstition took the place of 
 irreligion and infidelity, and the Popes recovered that 
 empire over the minds and consciences of their coun- 
 trymen which they had almost entirely lost. If, be- 
 fore this period, there were few heretics in Italy, or if 
 those who swerved from the received faith were less 
 eagerly inquired after, and less severely punished 
 there than in other countries, it was because the peo- 
 ple did not give themselves the trouble to think on 
 the subject. Generally speaking, devotion, even ac- 
 cording to the principles authorized by the Roman 
 Church, was extinct among the Italians. They were 
 not attached to the Church either by a lively faith or 
 an ardent enthusiasm, by the convictions of the under- 
 standing or the sentiments of the heart. The rengion 
 of the statesmen resolved itself into their secular in- 
 terest; the learned felt more respect for Aristotle or 
 Plato, than for the sacred Scriptures or the writings 
 of the Christian fathers; and the people, always under 
 the influence of their senses and imagination, were 
 attracted to the services of the Church by the mag- 
 nificence of its temples, and by the splendour and 
 gaiety of its religious festivals.* 
 
 On a superficial view of the matter, we may be apt 
 to think that a people, who felt in the manner which 
 has been described, might have been detached, with- 
 out much difficulty, from their obedience to the Church 
 of Rome. But a little reflection will be sufficient to 
 satisfy us, that such expectations are unreasonable. 
 None are more impervious to conviction, or less dis- 
 posed to make sacrifices to truth, than those who have 
 sunk into indifterence about religion under the prac- 
 tice of its forms. The spiritual and humbUng doc- 
 trines of the gospel, as brought forward, simply and 
 without disguise, by the first reformers, are offensive 
 to the pride of the human mind ; and experience has 
 shown, that men, whose minds were emancipated 
 
 * Siemondi, Hist, des Rep. Ital. torn. viii. p. 237-240. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 43 
 
 from vulgar prejudices, but whose hearts were dead 
 to reUgious feeling, have yielded as ready a support 
 to established systems of error, and proved as bitter 
 enemies and persecutors of the truth, as the most 
 superstitious and bigoted. But this is not all. The 
 want of religious principle was, on the present occa- 
 sion, supplied by national vanity and a regard to 
 national interest; two principles which had operated, 
 for more than a century before the Reformation, in 
 strengthening the attachment of the Italians to the 
 Roman see. By the removal of the Papal court to 
 Avignon, the wealth and importance of the city of 
 Rome had been greatly diminished. After the return 
 of the Popes to their ancient seat, and the revival of 
 the pontificate from the deadly wound inflicted on it 
 by the schism of the anti-popes, the Romans congratu- 
 lated themselves on the recovery of their former dis- 
 tinction. In this feeling, their countrymen in general 
 participated ; and the passion for political liberty, by 
 which they had been animated, having subsided, they 
 seemed to think that the loss of the ancient glory of 
 Italy as the mistress of the world was compensated by 
 the flattering station to which she was now raised as 
 the head of Christendom. Accordingly, when the 
 councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basle, attacked the 
 corruptions of the Roman court, and sought to abridge 
 its extensive authority, the Italians came forward in 
 its defence. They felt themselves dishonoured, as a 
 nation, by the invectives which were pronounced 
 against the "Italian vices" of the pontifl"s; and they 
 saw that the reforms, which were so eagerly press- 
 ed, would cut ofi" or drain those pecuniary resources 
 by which they hoped to be enriched. The Popes were 
 careful to foster this spirit. By a system of artful 
 policy, they had taken eftectual care that the poAver, 
 whicii they had gradually acquired over the nations 
 of the Avest, should not be empty or unproductive ; 
 and the wealth of Europe continued to flow in various 
 channels to Rome, from which it was distributed 
 through Italy. Under the name of annats, the pope 
 received the first year's produce of all ecclesiastical 
 
44 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 livings after every vacancy. He drew large sums of 
 money for the confirmation of bishops, and for the 
 gift of archi-episcopal palls. His demands on the 
 clergy for benevolences were frequent, besides the 
 extraordinary levy of the tenths of benefices, on pre- 
 tence of expeditions against the Turks, which were 
 seldom or never undertaken.* Add to these, the 
 sums exacted for dispensations, absohitions, and in- 
 dulgences, with the constant and incalculable revenue 
 arising from law-suits, brought from every country 
 by appeal to Rome, carried on there at great expense, 
 and protracted to an indefinite length of time. The 
 pope had also an extensive right of patronage in 
 every country which owned his authority: he pre- 
 sented to all benefices which came under the name of 
 reserved, and to those vacant by translation, or which 
 had been possessed by persons who died at Rome, or 
 within forty miles of it, on their journey to or from 
 that city.t These, if not sold to the highest bidder, 
 were generally conferred on Italians, upon whom the 
 pope could rely with more implicit confidence than 
 on foreigners, for extending his authority, and sup- 
 porting him in those contests in which his ambition 
 involved him with the secular powers. In conse- 
 quence of the influence which the court of Rome had 
 come to exert in the political affairs of Europe during 
 the fifteenth century, almost every sovereign strove 
 to procure for his near relations, or for some of his 
 subjects, seats in the sacred college; and these were 
 usually purchased by the gift of the richest benefices 
 within his kingdom to those who, from their situation 
 or connections, had it most in their power to serve 
 
 * The chief of the new Pharisees meantime 
 Waging his warfare near the Lateran, 
 Not with Saracens or Jews; his foes 
 All Christians were. 
 
 Dante, Inf. c. xxvii. 
 t Rymer's Foedera, vol. x. and xi. Appellatio Univers. Paris.; 
 apud Richer. Hist. Concil. Gen. lib. iv. p. 2. cap. iv. § 15. Georgii 
 Gravamina, p. 363, 522. Kappc, Nachlese Kef Urkunden, P. ii. 
 p. 399, 435; P. iii. p. 246—350, Robertson's Charles V. vol. ii. 
 p. 148 — 150,273. Llorente, Hist, de I'lnquisition d'Espagne, vol. i. 
 p. 239— 256. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 45 
 
 his interests in the conclave. There was not an Ita- 
 Han state or town which did not, on these accounts, 
 depend on the papal conrt; nor a great family which 
 had not some of its relations in offices connected with 
 it. The greater part of the learned either held eccle- 
 siastical benefices, or enjoyed pensions which they 
 drew from them. Italy was a land of priests. The 
 regular clergy, the sworn clients of the popedom, for- 
 midable by their numbers, and by the privileges which 
 they enjoyed, were always prepared to take part with 
 the court of Rome, which, in its turn, supported them 
 against every attempt of the government under which 
 they lived to resist their encroachments, or to correct 
 their most flagrant vices.* Though the states of the 
 church, properly so called, even after they had been 
 enlarged by the warlike Julius, were confined within 
 narrow bounds, yet the pontiffs had taken care to 
 preserve their paramount power over those districts 
 or cities which withdrew from their government, by 
 transferring it to particular families, under the title of 
 vicars of the church. Indeed, there were few places 
 in Italy to which they had not, at one time or an- 
 
 * In 1562, the city of Florence alone contained four thousand three 
 hundred and forty-one monks, divided into forty-five monasteries. 
 Cosmo, duke of Tuscany, in 1545, ordered the Dominican Observan- 
 tines, who had disturbed his government, to quit the monastery of 
 St. Marco, which he gave to the Augustinians. The expelled monks 
 complained to the pope, who ordered tlie Augustinians, under the 
 highest pains, to retire instantly from the convent; endeavoured to 
 stir up all Christian princes against the duke, as an innovator in reli- 
 gion; and issued a brief, threatening him with excommunication, if 
 he did not, within three days, remit the whole cause to be judged at 
 Rome. In consequence of this, the Dominicans returned to their 
 convent in triumph. Cosmo was equally unsuccessful in his attempts 
 to abridge the privilege of the monks to exemption from secular juris- 
 diction, which was deluging the country with crimes of every de- 
 scription ; and he was obliged to supplicate his holiness to send a 
 legate, " il quale avesse autoritk di castigare li Frati nei deletti di 
 eresia, monasteri, bestemia. Sec. ; perche i Frati non gli castigano 
 ancora di assassinio e omicidio, e che non gli castighino in abbiamo 
 provato infinite volte. Ancora avesse autorit^ di castigare li Preti 
 che dai loro Vescovo non fossero puniti secondo i canoni, perche ogni 
 giorno vediamo grandissime stravaganze, e voremmo castigando noi 
 li Laici che ancor li Frati e li Preti con I'impunitinon dcsscro simili 
 esempio." (Galuzzi, Istoria del Granducato di Toscana, torn. i. 66 — 
 68, 73, 139, 365.) 
 
46 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Other, advanced a claim, founded on real or pretended 
 grants;* and provided any prince testified a disposi- 
 tion to withdraw his allegiance from the see of Rome, 
 or to resist its authority, it was easy for the pope to 
 revive his dormant claim, and having launched the 
 sentence of excommunication, to add the forfeited 
 possessions to the patrimony of the church, or to be- 
 stow them on some neighbourmg rival of the rebel- 
 lious heretic.t 
 
 When these things are taken into consideration, it 
 will be matter of surprise, that the reformed doctrine 
 made so much progress in Italy as we shall find it to 
 have made ; and we can easily account for the mis- 
 take into which some writers, guided by theory rather 
 than fact, have fallen, when they assert that it had 
 few converts in that country.:}: 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF THE REFORMED OPINIONS INTO ITALY, AND CAUSES 
 OF THEIR PROGRESS. 
 
 A CONTROVERSY, which had been carried on for seve- 
 ral years with great warmth in Germany, and which 
 was at last brought before the papal court for deci- 
 
 * Franc. Guicciardini Paralipomena : Discorso levato del tutto via 
 dell'historia nel quarto libro, p. 35—42, 44. 
 
 t So late as the year 1555, the Pope, Paul IV., not only excom- 
 municated Marc-antonio Colonna, and deprived him of the dukedom 
 of Palieno, but ordered a legal process to be commenced, in the apos- 
 tolical chamber, against Philip II., king of Naples, as a schismatic 
 and favourer of heresy, inferring, if proved, that he should be depri- 
 ved of the crown of the two Sicilies, as a fief of the holy see; and 
 sentence would have been pronounced against him, had not the duke 
 of Alva advanced with his troops from Naples to Rome. (Llorente, 
 ii. 172—181.) 
 
 X " Peu de personnes prirent le parti dc Luther en Italic. Co peu- 
 ple inge'nieux occupe d'intrigues et de plaisirs n'eut aucun part h ces 
 troubles." (Voltaire, Essai sur les Moeurs, chap, cxxviii.) Voltaire is 
 not the only author who has committed this error. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 47 
 
 sion, deserves notice here, as having contributed, in 
 no small degree, to direct the attention of the Italians, 
 at an early period, to the reformed opinions. A suspi- 
 cious convert from Judaism, either from hostility to 
 learning, or with the view of extorting money from 
 his countrymen, leagued with an inquisitor of Co- 
 logne, and obtained from the imperial chamber a 
 decree, ordaining all Jewish books, with the exception 
 of the Bible, to be committed to the flames, as filled 
 with blasphemies against Christ. John Reuchlin, or 
 Capnio, a learned man of Suabia, and the restorer of 
 Hebrew literature among Christians,* exerted himself, 
 both privately and from the press, to prevent the exe- 
 cution of this barbarous decree. His successful oppo- 
 sition exposed him to the resentment of the clergy, 
 and sentence was pronounced against him, first by 
 the divines of Cologne, and afterwards by the Sor- 
 bonne at Paris. Reuchlin appealed to Rome, and the 
 friends of learning determined to make his cause a 
 common one. Erasmus and other distinguished indi- 
 viduals wrote warmly in his favour to their friends at 
 Rome, several of whom belonged to the sacred col- 
 lege ; and the monks exerted themselves with equal 
 zeal to defeat a party which they had long hated, and 
 from which they had much to dread. No cause of 
 the kind had, for a long time, excited such general 
 interest. On the one side were ranked the monks, 
 the most devoted clients of the papal throne ; on the 
 other, the men who had attracted the admiration of 
 Europe by their talents and writings. The court of 
 Rome was afraid of offending either side, and by 
 means of those arts which it kiiew so well how to 
 employ in delicate cases, protracted the affair from 
 time to time. During this interval, the monks and 
 
 * It ought to be mentioned to the honour of the Netherlands, that 
 Reuclilin received his first knowledge of Hebrew from John Wessel, 
 a native of Groningen. (Maius, Vita J. Reuchlini Phorcensis, p. 154.) 
 To this singular man, Luther gives the title of God taught ; and, in 
 an epistle prefixed to his works, he says, " If I had read them before, 
 my enemies might have said, that Luther hud borrowed every thing 
 from VVcssel, so much do our writings breathe the same spirit." 
 (Luther's Saemmtiiche Schriften, tom.xiv. p.219— 223.) Wessel died 
 in 1489. 
 
48 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 their supporters were subjected to the lash of the most 
 cutting satires,* and the ultimate sentence, enjoining 
 silence on both parties, was scarcely ratified, when 
 the controversy between Luther and the preachers of 
 indulgences arose, and was brought before the same 
 tribunal for decision.! 
 
 The noise excited by the late process had fixed the 
 attention of the Italians on Germany ; the facts which 
 it brought to light abated the contempt with which 
 they had hitherto regarded the inhabitants of that 
 country; Luther had taken part with Reuchlinf and 
 some of the keenest and most intrepid defenders of 
 the latter, such as Ulrich Hutten, declared, at an 
 early period, in favour of the religious opinions of the 
 former. 
 
 It was not to be expected, after all, that a dispute 
 managed by a friar, in an obscure part of Germany, 
 against the sale of indulgences, a traffic which had 
 long been carried on under the auspices and for the 
 profit of the see of Rome, would attract much atten- 
 tion in Italy. But the boldness of his own mind, and 
 the provoking impudence of his antagonists, having 
 led Luther to persevere in his opposition, and gradu- 
 ally to extend his censure to other abuses, his name 
 and opinions soon became the topic of general con- 
 versation beyond the limits of his native country. 
 
 * Of these, the most celebrated was the work entitled, Epistolae 
 Obscurorum Virorum, the joint production of several learned men. 
 
 t Mail Vita Reuchlini, passim. Schlegel, Vita Georgii Spalatini, 
 p. 24, 25. Bulaei Hist. Univ. Paris, tom. vi. p. 47 — 57. Beside the 
 works mentioned by Mains, Pfefferkorn published, " Speculum adhor- 
 tationis Judaice ad Christum," and " Libellus de Judaica confessione, 
 sive sabbato afflictionis." Both were printed at Cologne in 1508, and 
 evince a bitter hostility to his countrymen. 
 
 t Luther's Sacmmtliche Schriflen, tom. xxi. p. 518 — 521. A letter 
 from him to Reuchlin is to be found in lUustrium Virorum Epistolae 
 ad Joannem Reuchlin. Liber Secundus, sig. C 3. Hagenose, 1519. 
 The interest which he took in the affairs of that scholar, appears 
 from the incidental reference which he made to him, in the midst of 
 his own trials : — " Minacibus illis meis amicis nihil habeo quod res- 
 pondeam, nisi illud Rcuchlinianum, Qui pauper est, nihil timet, nihil 
 potest perdere. Res nee habeo^ nee cupio." (Epistola ad J. Stau- 
 picium, die S. Trinitatis, 1518. Opera Omn. tom. i. f. 74. JensB, 
 1564.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 49 
 
 Within two years from the time of his first appear- 
 ance against indulgences, his writings had found their 
 way into Italy, where they met with a favourable re- 
 ception from the learned. It must have been highly 
 gratifying to the reformer, to receive the following 
 information, in a letter addressed to him by John 
 Froben, a celebrated printer at Basle : — " Blasius Sal- 
 monius, a bookseller at licipsic, presented me, at the 
 last Frankfort fair, with certain treatises composed by 
 you, which being approved by learned men, I imme- 
 diately put to press, and sent six hundred copies to 
 France and Spain. My friends assure me, that they 
 are sold at Paris, and read and approved of even by 
 the Sorbonnists. Several learned men there have said, 
 that they have long wished to see divine things treat- 
 ed with such becoming freedom. Calvus, a book- 
 seller of Pavia,* himself a scholar and addicted to the 
 muses, has carried a great part of the impression into 
 Italy. He promises to send epigrams written in your 
 praise by the most enlightened men in that country;! 
 such favour have you gained to yourself and the 
 cause of Christ, by your constancy, courage, and dex- 
 terity."! A letter has also been preserved, written 
 about this time by an individual in Rome, in which 
 the spirit and writings of Luther are applauded. § 
 
 * The person referred to in the text is Francesco Calvi, often 
 mentioned in the letters of Erasmus, and hio^hly praised by Andrea 
 Alciati, the civihan, and other learned men. (Tiraboschi, vii. 365.) 
 Speaking- of the difficulty of disposing of books in Italy, Cfelio Cal- 
 cagnini says, in a letter dated from Ferrara, 17 kal. Febr. 15:35, 
 " Unus fuit Calvus, ejus Calvi frater qui rem impressoriam curat 
 Romse, qui non pecuniam sed librorum permutationem obtulit." 
 (Calcagnini Opera, p. 115.) 
 
 t Schelhorn (Amoenit. Hist. Eccles. et Liter, torn. ii. p. 624.) has 
 published a copy of verses in praise of Luther, composed at Milan, 
 in 1521, which conclude thus: — 
 
 Macte igitur virtute, pater celebrande Luthere, 
 
 Communis cujus pendet ab ore salus : 
 Gratia cui ablatis debetur maxima monstris, 
 Alcidae potuit quae metuisse manus. 
 
 t Miscellanea Groningana, tom. iii. p. 61 — 63, Froben's letter is 
 dated, " Basilese d. 14. Februar. 1519." A letter to the same purpose 
 by Wolfgangus Fabricius Capito, dated "12 kal. Martii, 1519," is 
 inserted in Sculteti Annal. Reform, p. 44. 
 
 § Riederer, Nachrichten fur Kirchengelehrten und Bucherge- 
 schichte, tom. i. p. 179. 
 
50 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Burchard Schenk, a German nobleman who had 
 embraced a monastic hfe and resided at Venice, 
 writes, on the 19th of September 1520, to Spalatin, 
 the chaplain of the Elector of Saxony: — "According 
 to your request, I have read the books of Martin 
 Luther, and I can assure you that he has been much 
 esteemed in this place for some time past. But the 
 common saying is, ^ Let him beware of the pope!' 
 Upwards of two months ago, ten copies of his books 
 were brought here, and instantly purchased, before I 
 had even heard of then arrival; but, in the beginning 
 of this month, a mandate from the pope and the pa- 
 triach of Venice arrived, prohibiting them; and a strict 
 search having been instituted among the booksellers, 
 one imperfect copy was found and seized. I had en- 
 deavoured to obtain that copy, but the bookseller 
 durst not dispose of it."* In a letter written during 
 the following year, the same person states, that the 
 senate of Venice had at last reluctantly consented to 
 the publication of the papal bull against Luther, but 
 had taken care that it should not be read until the 
 people had left the church.t Two circumstances of a 
 curious kind appear from this correspondence. The 
 one is, that Schenk had received a commission from 
 the Elector of Saxony to purchase relics for the col- 
 legiate church of Wittemberg; but the commission 
 was now revoked, and the relics sent back to Italy, 
 to be sold at what price they would bring; "for," 
 writes Spalatin, " here even the common people des- 
 pise them, and think it sufficient (as it certainly is) 
 if they be taught from Scripture to have faith and 
 confidence in God, and love to their neighbour.":}: 
 The other fact is, that the person employed by Schenk 
 to collect relics for the elector was Vergerio, after- 
 wards bishop of Capo d'Istria, and legate from the 
 pope to the German princes, but who ultimately re- 
 nounced popery, and became eminently instrumental 
 in spreading the reformed doctrine in Italy and else- 
 where. The character given of him, at this early 
 
 * Seckendorf. Hist. Lutheranismi, torn. p. 115. t Ibid. p. 116. 
 
 t Schlegel, Vita Spalatini, p. 59. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 51 
 
 period of his life, is worthy of notice, as the popish 
 writers, after his defection, endeavoured, in every 
 possible way, to discredit his authority and tarnish his 
 reputation. Schenk describes him as " a most excel- 
 lent young man, who had distinguished himself among 
 the students of law at Padua, and was desirous of 
 finishing his studies at Wittemberg, under the auspices 
 and patronage of the elector Frederick."* 
 
 In spite of the terror of pontifical bulls, and the ac- 
 tivity of those who watched over their execution, 
 the writings of Luther and Melancthon, Zuingle and 
 Bucer, continued to be circulated and read with avidi- 
 ty and delight in various parts of Italy. Some of them 
 were translated into the Italian language,! and, to 
 elude the vigilance of the inquisitors, were published 
 under disguised and fictitious names, by which means 
 they made their way into Rome and even into the 
 palace of the Vatican; so that bishops and cardinals 
 unwittingly read and praised works, which, on dis- 
 covering their real authors, they were obliged to pro- 
 nounce dangerous and heretical. The elder Scaliger 
 relates an incident of this kind, which happened when 
 he was at Rome. " Cardinal Seraphin," says he, 
 " who was at that time counsellor of the papal Rota, 
 came to me one day, and said, ' We have had a most 
 laughable business before us to-day. The Common 
 Places of Philip Melancthon were printed at Venice 
 with this title, par Messer Ippojilo da Terra Negra.X 
 Being sent to Rome, they were freely bought for the 
 space of a whole year, and read with great applause, 
 so that the copies being exhausted, an order was sent 
 to Venice for a fresh supply; but, in the mean time, 
 a Franciscan friar, who possessed a copy of the origi- 
 
 * Seckend. torn. i. p. 223. 
 
 t Luther's Shorter Catechism, and his Exposition of the Lord's 
 Prayer, the Creed, the Decalogue, <fec. were printed in Italian. 
 (Ukert, Luther's Leben, torn. ii. p. 305.) 
 
 X Schwaifzerd, which was his proper name, signifies in German, 
 as Melancthun does in Greek, and Terra Netrra in Italian, black earth. 
 The Italian translator of the Common Places is erroneously supposed 
 by Fontanini to have been the celebrated critic, Ludovico Castelvetro. 
 (Delia Eioquenza Italiana, p. 41)0-501).) 
 
52 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 nal edition, discovered the trick, and denounced the 
 book as a Lutheran production from the pen of Me- 
 lancthon. It was proposed to punish the poor printer, 
 who probably could not read one word of the origi- 
 nal ; but, at last, it was agreed to burn the copies and 
 suppress the whole affair.' "* A similar anecdote is 
 told of Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans, 
 and his treatise on justification, which were eagerly 
 read for some time, as the productions of Cardinal 
 Fregoso.t The works of Zuingle were circulated 
 under the name of Coricius Cogelias;:}: and several 
 editions of Martin Bucer's commentary on the Psalms 
 were sold in Italy and France as the work of Aretius 
 Felinus. In this last instance, the learned stratagem 
 was used with the consent of the author. " I am 
 employed," says Bucer, in a letter to Zuingle, " in an 
 exposition of the Psalms, which, at the urgent request 
 of our brethren in France and Lower Germany, I 
 propose to publish under a foreign name, that the 
 work may be bought by their booksellers; for it is a 
 capital crime to import into these countries books 
 which bear our names. I therefore pretend that I am 
 a Frenchman, and, if I do not change my mind, shall 
 send forth the book as the production of Aretius Fe- 
 lintis, which, indeed, is my name and surname, the 
 former in Greek, and the latter in Latin. "§ 
 
 * Scalig-erana Secunda, art. Rota. See also Brucker, Miscel. Hist. 
 &c. part. ii. p. 323, 333. Greater mistakes than this have been com- 
 mitted in Italy since that period. " My hostess, the good mother 
 Coleti," says Chardon de la Rochette, " says her prayers every day 
 before a beautiful miniature, which represents Luther on the one side 
 and Melancthon on the other. She believes them to be portraits of 
 St. Peter and St. Paul." (Litterarische Analekten von F. A. Wolf, 
 vol. i. p. 40,5.) 
 
 t Vergcrii Adnot. in Catal. HiEret. RomoB, 1559. 
 
 \ Gerdesii Ital. Ref. p. 12-14. 
 
 § Le Long-, edit. Masch, vol. iii. part. ii. p. 520. Colomesii NolsE 
 in Scaliger. Secund. p. 538. Fontanini, Delia Eloquenza Ital. p. 490. 
 The work was printed first at Strasburg in 1529, under this title: 
 " Psalmorum Libri quinque ad Ebraicam veritatem versi, et familiari 
 explanatione elucidati. Per Aretium Felinuin Tiieologum." The 
 dedication to the Dauphin of France is dated "Lugduni iii. Idus 
 Julias Anno m.d.xxix." Eucer also assumed the names pf Treu von 
 Friedesleben, and Waremund Luithold. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 53 
 
 It is one thing to discover the errors and abuses of 
 the Church of Rome, and it is another, and a very- 
 different tiling to have the mind opened to perceive 
 the spiritual beauty and to feel the regenerating in- 
 fluence of divine truth. Many who could easily dis- 
 cern the former, remained complete strangers to the 
 latter, as preached by Luther and his associates; and 
 it is not to be expected that these would make sacri- 
 fices, and still less that they would count all things 
 loss, for the excellent knowledge of Christ. Persons 
 of this character abounded at this period in Italy. 
 But the following extracts show that many of the 
 Italians " received the love of the truth;" and they 
 paint in strong colours the ardent thirst for knowledge 
 which the perusal of the first writings of the reform- 
 ers had excited in their breasts. " It is now fourteen 
 years," writes Egidio di Porta, an Augustinian monk 
 on the Lake of Como, to Zuingle, " since I, under the 
 impulse of a certain pious feeling, but not according 
 to knowledge, withdrew from my parents and as- 
 sumed the black cowl. If I did not become learned 
 and devout, I at least appeared to be so, and for 
 seven years discharged the office of a preacher of 
 God's word, alas ! in deep ignorance. I savoured not 
 the things of Christ ; I ascribed nothing to faith, all to 
 works. But God would not permit his servant to 
 perish for ever. He brought me to the dust. I was 
 made to cry out, Lord, what wilt thou have me to 
 do ? At length my heart heard the delightful voice, 
 Go to Ulric Zuingle, and he will tell thee what thou 
 shouldst do. ravishing sound! my soul found in- 
 effable peace in that sound. Do not think that I mock 
 you ; for you, nay not you, but God, by your means, 
 rescued me from the snare of the fowler. But why 
 do I say me? for I trust you have saved others along 
 with me."* In these enthusiastic strains does Porta 
 communicate the intelligence, that he had been en- 
 lightened by the writings of the Swiss reformer which 
 Providence had thrown in his way, and that he had 
 
 * Epistola iEgidii a Porta, Comensis, Dec. 9, 1525 : Hottinger, 
 Hist. JEccI. Sec. xvi. torn. ii. p. 611. 
 
54 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 imparted the knowledge of the truth to some of his 
 brethren of the same convent. In another letter, he 
 adjures Zuingle to write him a letter which might be 
 useful for opening the eyes of others belonging to his 
 religious order. " But let it be cautiously written," 
 continues he, " for they are full of pride and self-con- 
 ceit. Place some passages of Scripture before them, 
 by which they may perceive how much God is pleased 
 to have his word preached purely and without mix- 
 ture, and how highly he is offended with those who 
 adulterate it and bring forward their own opinions as 
 divine."* The same spirit breathes in a letter ad- 
 dressed by Baltasare Fontana, a Carmelite monk of 
 Locarno, to the evangelical churches of Switzerland. 
 " Hail ! faithful in Christ. Think, think of Lazarus 
 in the gospels, and of the lowly woman of Canaan, 
 who was willing to be satisfied with the crumbs which 
 fell from the table of the Lord. As David came to 
 the priest in a servile dress and unarmed, so do I fly to 
 you for the show-bread and the armour laid up in the 
 sanctuary. Parched with thirst, I seek the fountains 
 of living water; sitting like the blind man by the way- 
 side, I cry to him that gives sight. With tears and 
 sighs we, who sit here in darkness, humbly intreat 
 you who are acquainted with the titles and authors 
 of the books of knowledge, (for to you it is given to 
 know the mysteries of the kingdom of God,) to send 
 us the wrhings of such elect teachers as you possess, 
 and particularly the works of the divine Zuingle, the 
 far-famed Luther, the acute Melancthon, the accurate 
 Ecolampade. The prices shall be paid to you through 
 his excellency, Werdmyller. Do your endeavour that 
 a city of Lombardy, enslaved by Babylon and a stran- 
 ger to the gospel of Christ, may be set free."t 
 
 The attention which had been paid to sacred litera- 
 ture in Italy contributed, in no small degree, to the 
 
 * Epist. Dec. 9, 15:^5 : Hottinger, Hist. Eccl. Sec. xvi. torn. ii. 
 p. 16. 
 
 t Apud Comum, 15to Decembris 1526." Another letter from the 
 same individual, dated, " Ex Locarno Kal. Mart, anno 1531," is 
 published by Hottinger, Hist. torn. vi. part. ii. p. 618, 620, 271. 
 Tempe Helvetica, torn. iv. p. 141. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 55 
 
 spread of the reformed opinions. In this, as well as 
 in every other Uterary pursuit, the Itahans took the 
 lead, though they were afterwards outstripped by the 
 Germans. From the year 1477, when the psalter 
 appeared in Hebrew, different parts of the Old Tes- 
 tament, in the original, continued to issue from the 
 press; until at last, in the year 1488, a complete 
 Hebrew Bible was printed at Soncino, a city of 
 the Cremonese, by a family of Jews, who, under 
 the adopted name of Soncinati, established printing- 
 presses in various parts of Europe, including Con- 
 stantinople. This department of typography was al- 
 most entirely engrossed by the Jews, until the year 
 1518, when an edition of the Hebrew Scriptures, ac- 
 companied with various readings and Rabbinical com- 
 mentaries, proceeded from the splendid press which 
 Daniel Bomberg had recently erected at Venice.* 
 
 A minute investigation of ancient documents shows 
 that the knowledge of Hebrew was not quite extinct 
 among Christians in Italy anterior to the revival of 
 letters. An individual now and then had the curiosity 
 to acquire some insight into it from a Jew, or had the 
 courage to grapple, in his own strength, with, the diffi- 
 culties of a language whose very characters wore a 
 formidable aspect to European eyes; and persons 
 who, like Fra Ricoldo of Florence, and Ciriaco of 
 Ancona, travelled into Turkey, Syria, and adjacent 
 countries, picked up some acquaintance with other 
 languages of the east. In the literary history of Italy, 
 during the early part of the fifteenth century, several 
 persons are spoken of as Hebrew and Arabic scho- 
 lars; the most distinguished of whom was Giannozzo 
 Manetti, a Florentine, who drew up a triglot psalter, 
 containing a Latin translation made by himself from 
 the original.t But the study of Hebrew in Italy, 
 properly speaking, was coeval with the printing of the 
 
 * De Rossi, De Heb. Typog. Origin. Wilhelm Fried. Hetzels 
 Geschichte der Hebraischen Sprache und Litteratur, p. 143 — 176. 
 Le Long, Bibl. Sac. edit. Masch, vol. i. par. i. Baueri Crit. Sac. p. 
 230, 232. 
 
 t Tiraboschi, Storia della Letteratura Italiana, torn. vi. p. 792, 
 679. 
 
56 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Hebrew Scriptures; and it was facilitated by the 
 severe measures taken by Ferdinand and Isabella, at 
 the instigation of the inquisitors, against the Jews, 
 which induced many of that people to emigrate from 
 Spain to Italy, where, from lucrative motives, they 
 were favourably received by the popes.* 
 
 One of the earliest students of the oriental tongues 
 in Italy was Giovanni Pico, a young man of rank, 
 and the prodigy of his age for learning. He was the 
 son of Gianfrancesco Pico, prince of Mirandula and 
 Concordia. From early youth he possessed so quick 
 an apprehension, and so retentive a memory, as to 
 forget nothing which he heard or read. After study- 
 ing in the most celebrated universities of his native 
 country and France, he came to Rome, with the repu- 
 tation of knowing twenty-two languages; and, in the 
 twenty-fourth year of his age, published nine hundred 
 propositions relating to dialectics, morals, physics, 
 mathematics, metaphysics, theology, and natural ma- 
 gic, as treated by the Chaldean, Arabian, Greek, and 
 Latin philosophers, and by the Christian fathers and 
 schoolmen, declaring that he was ready to dispute 
 with any person upon every one of them.t The 
 challenge was not accepted; and it exposed Pico to a 
 more serious charge than that of vanity. He was 
 accused to Innocent VIII. as a heretic; and thirteen 
 propositions, selected from his work, having been sub- 
 mitted to certain divines, the pope condemned them 
 as suspicious and dangerous, but exempted the author 
 from punishment, because he had protested, on oath, 
 his willingness to submit in all things to the judg- 
 ment of the church. In the meantime, he published 
 a large apology for the offensive articles, in which he 
 
 * Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, liv. vii. chap. xxix. sect. iv. — vii. 
 Sadoleti Epist. lib. xii. p. 5, 6. Llorente, Hist, de I'lnquisition d'Es- 
 pagne, torn. i. p. 161 — 170. 
 
 t A MS. copy of the propositions, preserved in the library of Vi- 
 enna, has, at the end, the following notification in Latin: — "The 
 dispute on these conclusions will not take place until after Epiphany. 
 In the meantime, they will be published in all the academies of Italy; 
 and if any philosopher or divine choose to come from the remotest 
 parts of Italy to dispute, his expenses shall be borne." (Lambacher, 
 Biblioth. C:ivit. Vindobon. p. 286.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 57 
 
 showed much ingenuity in reconciling them to the 
 cathoUc doctrine. This produced a fresh summons, 
 from the effects of which he was saved by the demise 
 of Innocent; and, after remaining for some time at 
 Florence, he obtained, through the good offices of his 
 friends, a brief of absolution and security from the 
 new pope, Alexander VL* At Florence he con- 
 tracted an intimate friendship with Lorenzo de Me- 
 dici, and other men of genius, by whom he was 
 courted for his erudition and taste. But his mind 
 underwent a great change about this time ; and, hav- 
 ing relinquished the pursuit of secular learning, and 
 committed to the flames a collection of his Italian and 
 Latin poems, which had been revised and approved 
 of by Politiano, he devoted himself to sacred studies 
 and the practice of piety. In the midst of these exer- 
 cises, he was seized with a fever in 1494, and prema- 
 turely cut off in the thirty-second year of his age.t 
 Pico had begun the study of the oriental languages 
 before he became decidedly pious. He was instructed 
 in Hebrew by a Jew, called Jochana.J His teacher 
 in Chaldee was one Mithridates, of whom he gives 
 the following singular account, in a letter to a friend: 
 " As to your request for the Chaldee alphabet, you 
 cannot obtain it from Mithridates, nor from me, who 
 am always ready to grant you every thing. For this 
 man would not agree to teach me the Chaldee tongue 
 until I had taken an oath, in express words, that I 
 
 * The papal brief is prefixed to the edition of his works printed 
 at Basle in 1572. Among' the condemned propositions arc the two 
 following: — That Christ did not descend into hell truly, or in respect 
 of real presence; and tliat neither the cross of Christ, nor any other 
 image, is to be adored with the worship called latria, as taught by 
 Thomas Aquinas. There are other propositions in the work which, 
 it might have been supposed, would have given equal offence, such 
 as, that the will of God is the sole reason why he reprobates some, 
 and elects others; that ihe true body of Christ is in heaven locally, 
 and on the altar sacramentally ; and that the same body cannot be 
 made, by the power of God, to exist in different places at the same 
 time. (Opera J. Pici, p. 62 — 65.) 
 
 + Biblioteca Modonese, dal Giro!. Tiraboschi, torn. iv. p. 95—103. 
 Roscoe's Lorenzo de'Medici, vol. ii. p. 91—95, 
 
 X Opera J. Franc. Pici, p. 1371. 
 
 5 
 
58 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 would impart it to nobody. Of this you may be 
 assured by the testimony of our friend Geronimo Be- 
 nivieni, who, happening to be present one day when 
 I was about to receive a lesson, Mithridates, in a 
 rage, drove him out of the room. But, not to disap- 
 point you ahogether, instead of the Chaldee, you will 
 receive with this packet the Arabic characters, which 
 I copied with my own hand."* Judging from the 
 writings of Pico, his knowledge of Hebrew was not 
 inconsiderable;! of the enthvisiasm with which he 
 studied it and the cognate languages of the east, we 
 have the most satisfactory evidence in his confidential 
 letters. Writing to his nephew, he says — " The rea- 
 son why you have not had an answer to your letter 
 is, that I have met with certain Hebrew books, which 
 have occupied me for a whole week, night and day, 
 so that I am nearly blind. They were brought me 
 twenty days ago by a Jew from Sicily, and, as I am 
 afraid that they may be recalled, you must not expect 
 to hear a word from me till I have thoroughly ex- 
 amined their contents. When that is done, I shall 
 overwhelm you with letters.'' J In a letter to Mar- 
 silio Ficino, he writes — " You could not have de- 
 manded back your Latin Mahomet at a more conve- 
 nient time, as I expect shortly to be able to read him 
 in his native tongue. Having laboured a whole month 
 in studying the Hebrew language, I am about to 
 apply myself to Arabic, and am not afraid but that I 
 shall make as much proficiency in it, as I have done 
 in Hebrew, in which I can now write a letter cor- 
 rectly, though not with elegance. You see what 
 resolution, accompanied with labour and diligence, 
 can do, even when the bodily strength is small. Cer- 
 tain books, in both languages, which have come into 
 my hands, not by chance, but by the direction of a 
 kind providence favouring my studies, have encoura- 
 ged and compelled me to lay aside everything for the 
 
 * Opera J. Pici, p. 385. 
 
 t See his Heptaplus^ or treatise on the Mosaic account of the 
 creation, in the collection of his works, 
 t Opera, p. 360. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 59 
 
 sake of acquiring the knowledge of Arabic and Chal- 
 dee. Having obtained these, (shall I call them books 
 or treasures?) I was inflamed with the desire of being 
 able to read them without an interpreter — a task at 
 which I am now toiling with all my might. Do not 
 think, however, that I forget your favourite Ploti- 
 nus.''* We need not wonder that the enthusiasm of 
 this scholar made him the dupe of designing and 
 covetous men. Perceiving his strong desire to de- 
 monstrate the truth of the Christian religion, and its 
 mysteries, from the recondite sources of Pythagorean 
 and Jewish philosophy, certain impostors interpolated 
 some Cabalistic books, of which they sold him seventy 
 volumes at a great price, with a solemn assurance 
 that they were written under the direction of Ezra, 
 and contained that interpretation of the law which 
 the Jews had hitherto religiously concealed from 
 Christians.t The same thing happened to his con- 
 temporary and countryman, Annius, or Nanni, of 
 Viterbo, who was induced to publish a number of 
 fabulous works, as the authentic productions of Bero- 
 sus, Manetho, Fabius Pictor, and other ancient wri- 
 ters;! and similar impositions have been practised 
 upon literary men in later and more enlightened 
 times. Gianfrancesco Pico inherited his uncle's taste 
 for Hebrew literature ;§ and other scholars arose, who 
 cultivated it, not indeed with equal zeal, but certainly 
 with more success. * 
 
 Germany had the honour of giving to the world 
 the first elementary work on Hebrew which was 
 written by a Christian, or in the Latin language, in 
 the grammar and lexicon of John Reuchlin, printed at 
 Pfortzheim in the year 1506; but, as early as 1490, 
 the Book of Roots, or lexicon, of the celebrated 
 Jewish grammarian, David Kimchi, was published in 
 
 * Opera J. Pici, p. 367, 368. 
 
 t lb. p. 123. Reuchlin, Do Arte Cabalistica, lib. i. f. 13, b. Bruc- 
 keri Hist. Philos. torn. ii. p. 660, 919. Simon, Lettrcs Choisies, torn, 
 ii. p. \ 88. 
 
 X Tirabosehi, Lett. Ital. torn. vi. part. ii. p. 17. 
 
 § Opera Joan. Francisci Fici, p. 1371. Colomesii Italia Oricn- 
 talis, p. 46 — 51. 
 
60 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the original at Venice.* Francesco Stancari of Man- 
 tua, who afterwards embraced the Protestant reU- 
 gion, and excited great commotions in Poland, pub- 
 lished a Hebrew grammar in 1525.t Felix of Prato, 
 a converted Jew, who published a Latin translation 
 of the Psalms in 1515, appears to have been the first 
 Christian in Italy who taught Hebrew, being invited 
 to Rome, for this purpose, in 1518, by Leo X.J 
 About the same time, Agathias Guidacerio, a native 
 of Catano, also taught it at Rome, from which he was 
 called by Francis I. to be professor of the sacred 
 tongue in the Trilingual college at Paris, in which 
 Paolo Paradisi, or Canossa, his countryman, and, like 
 him, the author of a work on Hebrew Grammar, 
 afterwards held the same situation. § 
 
 As early as 1514, a collection of prayers was print- 
 ed in the Arabic language and character at Fano, in 
 the ecclesiastical states, at a press which had been 
 founded by the warlike pontiff, Julius H.|| Previous 
 to this, an edition of the Koran, in the original lan- 
 guage, had been begun, and a part of it at least print- 
 ed at Venice, by Pagnino de Pagninis.H But the prin- 
 cipal work in this language, so far as biblical literature 
 is concerned, was produced by Agostino Justiniani, 
 bishop of Nebio in Corsica, in a polyglot psalter, con- 
 taining the Hebrew, Chaklaic, Arabic, Greek, and La- 
 tin; printed at Genoa in the year 151 6, and intended as 
 a specimen of a polyglot bible, which the author had 
 been long engaged in preparing for the press.** This 
 
 * Hirts Orientalische und Exegetische Bibliothek, torn. i. p. 35, 44. 
 G. Laur. Bauer i Hermeneutica Sacra, p. 175. 
 
 + Tiraboschi, torn. vii. p. 1087- Stancari became professor of He- 
 brew, first in the university of Cracow, and afterwards in that of 
 Konigsberg. (Harknochs Preussische Kirchenliistorie, p. 333.) Het- 
 zel speaks as if none of his grammatical works appeared before 1547. 
 (Geschichte der Heb. Sprache, p. 169.) 
 
 t Tiraboschi, vii. 1083. Colomesii Itah Orient, p. 19. Le Long, 
 edit. Masch, vol. i. part. i. p. 97; vol. ii. part. il. p. 534. 
 
 § Prffifat. in Lib. Michlol, per Agathiam Guidacerium; Parisiis in 
 CoUegio Italorum, 1540. Conf Colomesii Ital. Orient, p. 60, 68—70. 
 
 II Schnurreri Bibliotheca Arabica, p. 231 — 234. 
 
 V Ibid. p. 402—404. 
 
 ** Dedic, Justiniani ad Leonem X. Conf. Le Long. edit. Masch, 
 vol. i. part i. p. 400. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 61 
 
 work procured him an invitation from Francis I. to 
 teach the oriental tongues at Paris.* Juan Leon, a na- 
 tive of Elvira in Spain, hotter known as a historian by 
 the name of Leo Africanus, instructed many of the Ita- 
 lians in Arabic, and, among others, Egidio of Viterbo, 
 a prelate still more distinguished for elegant taste and 
 extensive learning than for rank, who zealously pro- 
 moted oriental studies among his countrymen both by 
 example and patronage. The master went to Tunis, 
 and relapsed to Mahometanism; the scholar was ad- 
 vanced to the purple, and sent as ambassador to Con- 
 stantinople.! 
 
 Certain deputies sent to Rome, from the Christians 
 of Abyssinia, during the sitting of the Lateran coun- 
 cil in 1512, were the means of introducing into Eu- 
 rope the knowledge of the Ethiopic, or, as they called 
 it, Chaldean language, in which their countrymen 
 continued to perform the religious service. In conse- 
 quence of instructions received from them, John Pot- 
 ken, provost of St. George's at Cologne, was able, in 
 1513, to pubhsh, at Rome, the Psalter and Song of 
 Solomon in Ethiopic, with a short introduction to that 
 language. J At a subsequent period, a learned abbot 
 of that country, named Tesso-Sionis Malhesini, or, 
 as he called himself in Europe, Peter Sionita, who 
 resided at Rome under the patronage of cardinal Mar- 
 cello Cervini, taught his native tongue to Pierpaolo 
 Gualtieri and Mariano Vittorio, afterwards bishop of 
 Rieti; and, with their assistance, and that of two of 
 his own countrymen, he published the New Testa- 
 ment in Ethiopic, at Rome, in the year 1548. Four 
 
 * Tiraboschi, torn. vii. p. 10G7. Colomesii Ital. Orient, p. 31 — 36. 
 Sixt. Senensis Bibl. Sacr. p. 327. Justiniani himself says, "Mi fece 
 suo consigliero e suo elemosinaro, — e mi mando in Pariggi, dove me 
 detenni insino al quinto anno, & lessi & piantai in Tuniversita Pari. 
 siense le litcre Hebree." (Castigatissimi Annali della Republica di 
 Genova, lib. iii. a. 1537.) 
 
 t Widmanstaedter's Dedication, to the Emperor Ferdinand, of his 
 edition of the Syriac New Testament. Compare the testimonies to 
 Egidio's merits, collected by Colomies. (Ital. Orient, p. 41 — 46.) 
 Hetzel's Geschichte, p. 180. 
 
 t Le Long, edit. Masch, vol. i. par. ii. p. 146, 147. 
 
62 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 years after this, the first grammar of that language 
 was given to the pubUc by Vittorio.* 
 
 It may appear strange, that no part of the Syriac 
 version of the Scriptures should as yet have come 
 from the press. Bomberg intended to print the gos- 
 pel according to Matthew in that language, from a 
 copy of the four gospels which was in his possession, 
 but delayed the work in expectation of obtaining ad- 
 ditional manuscripts.! Teseo Ambrogio, of the noble 
 family of the Conti d'Albonese, a doctor of laws and 
 canon regular of St. John's of the Lateran, who had 
 received instructions in Ethiopic from the Abyssinians 
 who visited Rome in 15 12, was initiated into the Syriac 
 language by one of three individuals, Joseph Acurio, a 
 priest, Moses, a deacon, and Elias, a subdeacon, whom 
 Peter, patriarch of the Maronites, had sent as a depu- 
 tation to Rome, soon after the advancement of Leo 
 X. to the pontificate. From that time Ambrogio be- 
 came passionately fond of these languages, and being 
 appointed to teach them at Bologna, gave from the 
 press a specimen of his qualifications for that task 
 in his Introduction to the Chaldaic, Syriac, Armenian, 
 and ten other languages, with the characters of about 
 forty diff'erent alphabets.^ Various untoward events 
 prevented him from executing his favourite design 
 of publishing the gospels in Syriac, which, at an acci- 
 dental interview, he devolved on Albert Widman- 
 staedter, the learned chancellor of Eastern Austria. 
 In the year 1552, Ignatius, patriarch of Antioch, sent 
 Moses Mardineus, as his " orator'^ to the Roman pon- 
 tiff, to obtain, among other things, the printing of an 
 edition of the Syriac New Testament, for the use of 
 
 * Tiraboschi, torn. vii. p. 1073. Le Long-, edit. Masch, vol. i. part 
 ii. p. 152 — 154. Colomesii Ital. Orient, p. 107, 108, art. Marianus 
 Victorius Heatinus. Michaelis, Introd, to the New Testament, by- 
 Marsh, vol. ii. part i. p. 612. 
 
 t Postel, Linguarum Duodecirn Alph. Introd. sig. Biiij. Parisiis 
 1538. Conf Postelli Epist. prefix. Vers. N. Test. Syriaci, Vien. 
 Austr. 1555. 
 
 t Introductio in Chaldaicam linp;uain, Syriacam, «fec. Papise, 1539. 
 Tirabosclii, vii. 1068—1072. Ilenr. a Porta, (Prof. Linguarum 
 Oriental, apud. Acad. Ticin.) De Ling. Orient. Proestantia, p. 189. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 63 
 
 the chvirches under his inspection. The orator exerted 
 his eloquence in vain at Rome, Venice, and other 
 places of Italy; and, after wasting nearly three years, 
 was about to return home in despair, when he was 
 advised to apply to Widmanstaedter, by whose zealous 
 exertions the work was published in 1555, at Vienna.* 
 Thus was Italy deprived of the honour of giving to 
 the world the New Testament in the best and most 
 venerable of all the ancient versions. 
 
 The first edition of the Septuagint came from the 
 Aldine press in 1518, under the direction of Andrew 
 of Asolo. In 1516, Erasmus published at Basle his 
 edition of the Greek text of the New Testament, ac- 
 companied with a Latin version formed by himself; 
 to which his fame gave an extensive circulation in 
 Italy. And in 1527, Sante Pagnini of Lucca published 
 his Latin translation of the whole Bible, which had 
 excited great expectations, from the reputation which 
 the author enjoyed as a Hebrew scholar, and its be- 
 ing known that he had spent upwards of twenty -five 
 years on the work. 
 
 The publication of the Scriptures in the original 
 languages, and in various versions, was followed by 
 illustrations of them, which were neither without 
 merit nor utility. The work of Pietro Colonna, com- 
 monly called, from his native place, Galatinus, from 
 which later writers on the Jewish controversy have 
 drawn so many of their materials, was not the less 
 useful, that it was afterwards found to be a compilation 
 from the unpublished work of another author.! Besides 
 his own paraphrases, Erasmus edited the notes of 
 Laurentius Valla on the New Testament, which came 
 recommended to the Italians as the work of one of 
 their countrymen, who had distinguished himself as a 
 reviver of letters, but whom Bellarmine afterwards 
 
 * Dedic. et Praefat. in N. Test. Syriac. Vien. Austr. 1555. Asse- 
 mani Bibl. Orient, torn. i. p. 535. Le Long, edit. Masch, vol. i. par_. 
 ii. p. 71—79. Michaelis, Introd. by Marsh, vol. ii. part i. p. 8, 535 
 —540. 
 
 t Galatinus, De Arcanis Catholicae Veritatis, Ortona), 1518. See 
 the account of the Pugio Fidei of Raymond Martini, given in the 
 History of the Reformation in Spain, p. 66. 
 
64 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 called, not without reason, the precursor of the Lu- 
 therans.* The scriptural simplicity which character- 
 izes the commentaries of Cardinal Cajetan, and a 
 few others, forms a striking contrast to the writings 
 of the scholastic divines who preceded them. Cardi- 
 nal Sadolet's commentary on the epistle to the Ro- 
 mans was the work of an orator, who wished to 
 correct the barbarisms of the vulgate, and combat the 
 tenets of St. Augustine. t The Avorks of Agostino 
 Steuchi, or Steuco, of Gubbio, discover an extensive 
 acquaintance with the three learned languages, mixed 
 with cabalistical and Platonic ideas. I shall afterwards 
 have occasion to speak of the commentaries of Folen- 
 go. Isidoro Clario, a Benedictine abbot of Monte 
 Cassino, who was advanced to the bishoprick of Fo- 
 ligno, published the vulgate, corrected from the origi- 
 nal Hebrew and Greek, and accompanied with pre- 
 liminary dissertations and explanatory notes; but as 
 the work did not appear till 1542, when the progress 
 of heresy had alarmed his brethren, it, in consequence, 
 underwent the process of expurgation, and the prole- 
 gomena were suppressed.^ He gave great offence by 
 saying in his preface, that he had corrected the ver- 
 sion of the Old Testament by the Hebrew, and of the 
 New by the Greek verity. § The author had also 
 availed himself of the notes of the Protestants, but 
 tacitly ; " for, in the time in which he wrote, to cite a 
 Protestant author was an unpardonable crime," as 
 Tiraboschi candidly owns. " Heresy," says another 
 modern writer, " was a pest, the very touch of which 
 created horror; the cordon of separation or precaution 
 was drawn all around; Clario did not dread the con- 
 tagion for himself, but he dreaded to appear to have 
 braved it, and his prudence excuses his plagiarism. "|| 
 By means of these studies, the minds of the learned 
 
 * Simon, Hist. Crit. des Commentateurs du N. Test. p. 484—487. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 550 — 556. Sadolet was thrown into great distress, in 
 consequence of the master of the sacred palace refusing to approve of 
 his commentary. (Tiraboschi, torn. vii. p. 313 — 315.) 
 
 t Riveti Opera, torn. ii. p. 916. 
 
 § Tiraboschi, torn. vii. p. 348. || Ginguene, torn. vii. p. 36. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 65 
 
 in Italy were turned to the Scriptures, and prepared 
 for taking part in the religious controversy which 
 arose. Individuals in the conclave, such as Egidio, 
 Fregoso, and Aleander, were skilled in the sacred 
 tongues, which were now studied in tlie palaces of 
 bishops and in the cells of monks. All were not con- 
 cerned to become acquainted with the treasures hid 
 in those books, which they turned over by night and 
 by day, and still less were they led by them to re- 
 nounce a system to which, among other secular ad- 
 vantages, they owed their literary leisure; but neither, 
 on the other hand, were men disposed, at that period, 
 as they were at a subsequent one, to employ sacred 
 criticism as an art to invent arguments for supporting 
 existing abuses; and there were always individuals, 
 from time to time, whose minds welcomed the truth, 
 or were accessible to conviction. Accordingly, we 
 shall find among the converts to the reformed doc- 
 trine, men eminent for their literary attainments, the 
 rank which they held in the Church, and the charac- 
 ter which they had obtained for piety in those orders 
 to which the epithet religious had long been appro- 
 priated. The reformers appealed from the fallible and 
 conflicting opinions of the doctors of the Church to 
 the infallible dictates of revelation, and from the vul- 
 gate version of the Scriptures to the Hebrew and 
 Greek originals ; and in tliese appeals they were often 
 supported by the translations recently made by per- 
 sons of acknowledged orthodoxy, and published with 
 the permission and warm recommendations of the 
 head of the church. In surveying this portion of his- 
 tory, it is impossible not to admire the arrangements 
 of Providence, when we perceive monks and bishops, 
 cardinals and popes, active in forging and polishing 
 those weapons which were soon to be turned against 
 themselves, and which they afterwards would fain 
 have blunted and laboured to decry as unlawful and 
 empoisoned. 
 
 The works which have been described were con- 
 fined to the learned; and, however useful tliey were, 
 it is not probable that any impression would have 
 
66 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 been made on the public mind in Italy, unless the 
 means of religious knowledge had been laid open to 
 the people at large. As the church of Rome has 
 strictly confined the religious service to an unknown 
 tongue, we need not be astonished at the jealousy 
 with which she has always viewed translations of the 
 Scriptures into vulgar languages. There would be 
 still less reason for astonishment at this, if we might 
 believe the statement of a learned Italian, that, down 
 to the sixteenth century, all the sermons preached in 
 churches were in I^atin, and that those in Italian were 
 delivered without the consecrated walls, in the piazzas 
 or some contiguous spot.* This statement, however, 
 has been controverted. The truth appears to be, 
 that, in the thirteenth century, the sermons were 
 preached in Latin, and afterwards explained in Italian 
 to the common people; and that instances of this 
 practice occur in the history of the fifteenth century. t 
 It was pleaded, that the dignity of the pulpit and the 
 sacredness of the word of God suffered by using a 
 different method; and with equal force might it be 
 urged, that " the sacred Scriptures were viUfied by 
 being translated into the vulgar tongue." J But, in 
 spite of this prejudice, translations of the Bible into 
 Italian were attempted, as soon as the language had 
 been purified by Dante, Petrarch, and others; and they 
 came from the press within a few years after the in- 
 vention of the art of printing. 
 
 Jacopo da Voragine, bishop of Genoa, and author 
 of the Golden Legend, is said to have translated the 
 Scriptures into the language of Italy as early as the 
 
 * Fontanini, Delia Eloquenza Italiana, lib. iii. cap. ii. p. 250-254. 
 It is certain that, so late as the middle of the sixteenth century, Isi- 
 doro Clario, bishop of Foligno, preached in Latin to a crowded as- 
 sembly of men and women — '■ Frcquens istem, quern cerno, virorum, 
 mulierumqve, conventus," says the preacher. (Orationes Extraord. 
 Venet. 1567, tom. i. orat. xvi.) 
 
 t Apostolo Zeno, Note alia Biblioteca del Fontanini, tom. ii. p. 424. 
 Sig. Domenico Maria Manni, Prefaz. alle Prediche di Fra Giordano: 
 Tiraboschi, tom. iv. p. 496—498. 
 
 X '■'•Avvilire la sacra Scrittura il tradurla in lingua volgare," says 
 Passavanti, in his Specchio di vera renitenzu, quoted by Fontanini, 
 p. 674. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 67 
 
 middle of the thirteenth century.* It is certain, that 
 this task was undertaken by more than one individual 
 in the subsequent age, but executed, as may be sup- 
 posed, in a rude and barbarous manner.! An Italian 
 version of the Scriptures, by Nicolo Malermi or Ma- 
 lerbi, a Camaldolese monk, was printed at Venice so 
 early as the year 1471,:}: and is said to have gone 
 throusrh no fewer than nine editions m the fifteenth 
 and twelve editions in the sixteenth century ;§ a proof 
 that the Italians were addicted to reading in their na- 
 tive tongue, if there did not exist among them at that 
 time a general desire for the word of God. We find 
 an additional proof of this in the Italian versions of 
 parts of Scripture which appeared about the same 
 period. II Malermi's translation, like those on which 
 
 * Le Long doubts if there ever was such a version. (Bibl. Sac. 
 torn. i. p. 352. edit. 3.) Fontanini denies its existence. (Delia Eloq. 
 Ital. p. 673.) 
 
 t Fragments of such translations were to be found in libraries 
 during the fifteenth century. Malermi expressly mentions one of 
 them, which contained, he says, " cose enormi, que non lice ser dicte, 
 ne da esser leggiute." (D. Abbate Giov. Andres, Dell' Origine d'og- 
 ni Letteratura, torn. xix. p. 200.) Girolamo Squarzafico, a learned 
 man, who wrote a preface to the edition of the Bible in 1477, says: 
 — " Venerabiiis Dominus Nicolaus de Malermi (aut de Malerbi) sacra 
 Biblia ex Latino Italice reddidit, eos imitatus, qui vulgares antea ver- 
 siones, si sunt hoc nomine, et non potius confusiones nuncupantur, 
 confecerunt." (Lettera Critica dal Signor Abbate N. N. all' Erud. 
 Padre Giov. degli Agostini, p. 8. Roveredo, 1739.) 
 
 t Fontanini, p. 673. De Bure, (Partie de la Theologie,) p. 89. 
 It was printed, " Kal. Aug. 1471," by " Vind. de Spira," and contains 
 a prefatory epistle by Nicolo di Malherbi. Another version of the 
 Bible was printed in the month of October of the same year, without 
 notice of the translator, printer, or place of printing. (Dibdin's 
 JEdes Althorp. vol. ii. p. 44. Bibl. Spencer, vol. i. p. 63.) 
 
 § Foscarini, Delia Letteratura Veneziana, vol. i. p. 339. Dr. 
 Geddes says it went through thirteen editions in the space of less 
 than half a century. (Prospectus of a New Translation, p. 103.) 
 Andrew Rivet possessed a copy of the edition printed in 1477. (Opera, 
 torn. ii. p. 920.) Pere Simon, who is not always so accurate as a 
 severe critic on the works of others should be, speaks of iMalcrmi's 
 version as published for the first time in 1541. (Hist. Crit. de V. 
 Test. p. 371, 598. edit. 1680.) 
 
 II Tlic two following are mentioned by MaflTei:— " Li quattro vo- 
 lumi de gli Evangeli volgarizzati da fratc Guide, con Ic loro esposi- 
 zioni fatte per Frate Simone da Cascia, Ven. 1486." " L'Apocalissc 
 con lechiose dc Nicolo da Lira; traslazione di Maestro Federico da 
 
6S HISTORY OF THE 
 
 it was founded, was made from the vulgate, and writ- 
 ten in a style unsuited to the sixteenth centniy. A 
 version less barbarous in its diction and more faithful 
 to the original had long been desired by the learned. 
 This was at last executed by Antonio Brucioli, of 
 whose history and qualifications as a biblical inter- 
 preter I shall afterwards have occasion to speak. His 
 Italian version of the New Testament was printed at 
 Venice in 1530,* and his version of the whole Bible 
 came from the same press in 1532.t The latter was 
 reprinted with greater accuracy in 1541; J and, in an 
 advertisement prefixed to it, the translator seems to in- 
 timate that the whole work appeared in 1530;§ but as 
 no copy of the Old Testament printed in that year has 
 ever been heard of, it is probable that he referred only 
 to the New Testament. So great was the success of 
 this work, that other translations were produced within 
 a few years; and the Roman Catholics reckoned it ne- 
 cessary to oppose versions of their own to those which 
 came from Protestants, or which were thought favour- 
 able to their views. This was the origin of the Italian 
 
 Venezia, lavorata nel 1394, e stampata Ven. 1519." (Esame del S'lg. 
 Marchese Scipione Maffei, p. 19. Rovcredo, 1739.) 
 
 * It came from the press of his countryman, Luca Antonio Giunti. 
 A copy of this rare book is to be found in the royal library at Berlin. 
 
 t Le Long, Bibl. Sac. par. ii. p. 125, 126, edit. Boerneri. Wolfii 
 NotcB ad Coloni. Ital. Orient, p. 59. Gerdes, Ital. Ref p. 190. Mis- 
 cell. Groningana, tom. ii. p. 658. Simon. Hist. Crit. de V. Test. 1. ii. 
 chap. 22; and Disquis. Crit. p 193, The most accurate account is 
 given by Schelhorn, Ergoetzlichkeiten aus dcr Kirchenhistorie und 
 Literatur, tom. i. p. 401—419, 643—647. 
 
 t The following is the title of this edition: — "La Biblia la quale 
 in se contiene i sacro santi Libri del vecchio & nuovo Testamento, i 
 quali ti apporto Christianissimo Lettore, nuovamente tradotti da la 
 Hebraica &. Greca verita in lingua Toscana per Antonio Brucioli. 
 Con le Concordantie di tutta essa scrittura santa. Et con due tavole 
 d'unadelle quali montra i luoghi & ordine di quella, &. I'altra dichia- 
 ra tutta le mdterie che si trattono in essa, vemittendo a suvi luoghi 
 i Lettori. Cosa nuova, Si. utilissima ci tutti i Christiani. In Venctia 
 nel MDXLT." At the end is, " Impresso in Venctia nclle case di 
 Francesco Brucioli &, i Fratcgli nel mese di Agosto MDXLI." (Schel- 
 horn, Ergotzlich. aus der Kirchenhist. und Literal, tom. i. p. 410.) 
 
 § Brucioli complains of the incorrectness of this impression, and 
 states that he will not acknowledge as his translations any that have 
 not been executed by the printers of the edition in 1541. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 69 
 
 Bible by Sante Marmochini,* which, though profess- 
 ing to be translated from the Hebrew and Greek, is 
 in reality a version of the vulgate, except when it 
 slavishly copies Brucioli. Fra Zaccario, in his version 
 of the New Testament,t followed Marmochini. Sub- 
 sequently, the New Testament was translated by 
 Massimo Teofilo,J and the whole Bible by Filippo 
 Rusticio.§ Both of them profess it as their object to 
 preserve the purity of the Italian language, which had 
 been neglected by those who had gone before them ; 
 and, in their prefatory and subjoined discourses, they 
 defend the reading of the Scriptures in the vulgar 
 tongues, and write on this subject in every respect as 
 Protestants. II 
 
 The new opinions were also propagated in Italy 
 by the intercourse which letters and travelling had 
 established between it and the protestant parts of 
 Europe. It had long been the custom for the Ger- 
 man youth to finish their education, especially in law 
 and medicine, at Padua, Bologna, and other Italian 
 universities. The Italians began now, in their turn, 
 to visit the schools of Switzerland and Germany, 
 whose literary reputation was daily advancing; and 
 many of them were attracted to Wittemberg by the 
 fame of Melancthon, who was known to most of the 
 learned in Italy, and with whom Bembo and Sado- 
 leti did not scruple to maintain a friendly correspond- 
 ence.lF The effects of this intercourse were so visible, 
 that it was repeatedly complained of by the more 
 zealous defenders of the old rehgion; and a writer of 
 that age gives it as his advice, "that a stop should be 
 put to all commerce and intercourse, epistolary or 
 otherwise, between the Germans and Italians, as the 
 best means of preventing heresy from pervading the 
 
 * Printed at Venice in 1538. 
 
 + Printed in 1542. 
 
 t Printed at Lyons in 1551. 
 
 § Printed at Geneva in 1562. 
 
 II Henr. a Porta De Ling-. Orient, p. 7L Abbate D. Giov. Andres, 
 D'Ogni Letteratura, torn. xix. p. 242. Schelliorn, Ergotz. toin. i. p. 
 418, 645, 646. Gerdes, Ital. Ref. p. 329, 340. 
 
 IT Melancthon, Epist. coll. 368, 373, 712, 728, 733, 758, edit. 
 Lond. 
 
70 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 whole of Italy."* At a later period, the reformed 
 opmions and books were hnported by merchants be- 
 longmg to Lyons, and other parts of France, who 
 traded with the Italian states t 
 
 War, which brings so many evils in its train, and 
 which proved such a scourge to Italy during the first 
 half of the sixteenth century, was overruled by Pro- 
 vidence for disseminating in that country the inesti- 
 mable blessings of the gospel. The troops which 
 Charles V. brought from Germany to assist him in 
 his Italian expeditions, and the Swiss auxiliaries who 
 followed the standard of his rival Francis L, contained 
 many Protestants. J With the freedom of men who 
 have swords in their hands, these foreigners con- 
 versed on the religious controversy with the inhabitants 
 among whom they were quartered. They extolled the 
 spiritual liberty which they enjoyed at home, derided 
 the frightful idea of the reformers which the monks 
 had impressed on the minds of the people, talked in 
 the warmest strains of Luther and his associates as 
 the restorers of Christianity, contrasted the purity of 
 their lives and the slender income with which they 
 were contented, with the wealth and licentiousness of 
 their opponents, and expressed their astonishment 
 that a people of such spirit as the Italians should con- 
 tinue to yield a base and implicit subjection to an in- 
 dolent and corrupt priesthood, which sought to keep 
 them in ignorance, that it might feed on the spoils of 
 their credulity. The impression which these repre- 
 sentations were calculated to make on the minds of 
 the people, was strengthened by the angry mani- 
 festoes which the pope and the emperor published 
 against each other. Clement charged the emperor 
 with indifference to religion, and complained that he 
 had enacted laws, in various parts of his dominions, 
 
 * Busdragi Epistola de Italia a Lutheranismo preservanda; in 
 Serin. Antiq. torn. i. p. 324. It has been supposed by some, that 
 Ververio concealed himself under the feigned name of Gerardus 
 Busdragus, and that the whole letter is a piece of irony. 
 
 t Galluzzi, Istoria del Granducato di Toscano, torn. i. p. 142. 
 
 I Robertson's Charles V. vol. ii. p. 356. Gerdes Ital. Ref. p. 17. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 71 
 
 which were highly injurious to the interests of the 
 Church and derogatory to the honour of the holy see. 
 Ciiarles recriminated, by accusing the pope of kind- 
 hng the flames of war in Europe, that he might evade, 
 what was universally and loudly called for, the refor- 
 mation of the church in its head and members: he 
 wrote to the cardinals to summon a general council 
 for this purpose ; and threatened that, if this were not 
 done, he would abolish the jurisdiction of the pope 
 throughout Spain, and convince other nations, by his 
 example, that ecclesiastical abuses might be corrected 
 and the ancient discipline of the church restored with- 
 out the intervention of papal authority.* 
 
 Nor did the emperor rest in threaten ings. His 
 general, the duke of Bourbon, having entered the 
 papal territories, Rome was taken and sacked; and 
 the pontifl:', after enduring a siege in the castle of 
 St. Angelo, was obliged to surrender to the imperial 
 troops, and to remain for a considerable time as a 
 captive in their hands. According to the accounts 
 given by Roman Catholic historians, the Germans in 
 the emperor's army behaved with great moderation 
 towards the inhabitants of Rome after the first day's 
 pillage, and contented themselves with testifying their 
 detestation for idolatry ; the Spaniards never relented 
 in their rapacity and cruelty, torturing the prisoners 
 to make them discover their treasures ; while the Ita- 
 lians imitated the Spaniards in their cruelty, and the 
 Germans in their impiety. t A scene which was ex- 
 hibited during the siege of the castle, will convey an 
 idea of the indignity shown to all which had been 
 held sacred in the Roman see. A party of German 
 soldiers, mounted on horses and mules, assembled 
 one day in the streets of Rome. One of them, named 
 Grunwald, distinguished by his majestic countenance 
 and stature, being attired like the pope, and wearing 
 
 * Pro divo Carolo ejus nominis quinto, Apologetici libri duo; Mo- 
 gunt. 1527. Sleidan, Comment, torn. i. p. 332—336, edit. Am Ende. 
 De Thou, Hist. lib. i. sect. 11. 
 
 t Guicciardini, II Sacco di Roma; and the authorities quoted by 
 Sismondi, Hist, des Rep. Ital. torn. xv. p. 274 — 276. 
 
72 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 a triple crown, was placed on a horse richly capari- 
 soned. Others were arrayed like cardinals, some 
 wearing mitres, and others clothed in scarlet or white, 
 according to the rank of those whom they personated. 
 In this form they marched, amidst the sounding of 
 drums and fifes, and accompanied by a vast con- 
 course of people, with all the pomp and ceremony 
 usually observed in a pontifical procession. When 
 they passed a house in which any of the cardinals 
 was confined, the procession stopped, and Grunwald 
 blessed the people by stretching out his fingers in the 
 manner practised by the pope on such occasions. 
 After some time he was taken from his horse, and 
 borne on the shoulders of one of his companions on a 
 pad or seat prepared for the purpose. Having reached 
 the castle of St. Angelo, he drank from a large cup 
 to the safe custody of Clement, in which he was 
 pledged by his attendants. He then administered to 
 his cardinals an oath, in which they engaged to yield 
 due obedience and faithful allegiance to the emperor, 
 as their lawful and only prince ; and not to disturb 
 the peace of the empire by intrigues, but, as became 
 them, according to the precepts of Scripture and the 
 example of Christ and his apostles, to be subject to 
 the civil powers. After a speech, in which he re- 
 hearsed the civil, parricidal, and sacrilegious wars ex- 
 cited by the popes, and acknowledged that providence 
 had raised up the emperor Charles V. to revenge 
 these crimes and bridle the rage of wicked priests, the 
 pretended pontiff solemnly promised to transfer all his 
 authority and power to Martin Luther, that he might 
 remove the corruptions which had infected the apos- 
 tolical see, and completely refit the ship of St. Peter, 
 that it might no longer be the sport of the winds and 
 waves, through the unslcil fulness and negligence of 
 its governors, who, intrusted with the helm, had spent 
 their days and nights in drinking and debauchery. 
 Then raising his voice, he said, " All who agree to 
 these things, and would see them carried into execu- 
 tion, let them signify this by lifting up their hands ;" 
 upon which the whole band of soldiers, raising their 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 73 
 
 hands, exclaimed, " Long live pope Luther ! Long 
 live pope Luther!" All this was performed under 
 the eye of Clement VIL* 
 
 In other circumstances, such proceedings would 
 have been regarded in no other light than as the un- 
 bridled excesses of a licentious soldiery, and might 
 have excited compassion for the captive pontiff; but 
 at this time it was the general conviction, that the 
 wars which had so long desolated Italy were chiefly 
 to be ascribed to the ambition and resentment of the 
 popes; the conduct of Clement, in provoking a power- 
 ful enemy whom he was incapable of resisting, ap- 
 peared to be the effect of a judicial infatuation; the 
 disasters which befel the papal see and the city of 
 Rome were interpreted as marks of divine displea- 
 sure; and those who insulted over them were re- 
 garded as heralds employed to denounce the judg- 
 ments of heaven against an incorrigible court, and a 
 city which was desecrated and defiled by all manner 
 of Avickedness. These were not merely the sentiments 
 of the vulgar, or of such as had already imbibed the 
 reformed opinions; they were entertained by digni- 
 taries of the Roman church, and uttered within the 
 walls of the Vatican. We have a proof of this in a 
 speech delivered by Staphylo, bishop of Sibari, at the 
 first meeting of the apostolical Rota held after Rome 
 was delivered from a foreign army. Having described 
 the devastations committed on the city, the bishop 
 proceeds in the following strain: — "But whence, I 
 pray, have these things proceeded? and why have 
 such calamities befallen us? Because all flesh have 
 corrupted their ways : because we are citizens, not of 
 the holy city of Rome, but of Babylon the wicked 
 city. The word of the Lord spoken by Isaiah is ac- 
 complished in our times — ' How is the faithful city 
 become an harlot! It was full of judgment and hoU- 
 ness: righteousness formerly dwelt in it; now sacri- 
 
 * Narratio Direptionis Expugnatae Urbis, ex Italico translata a 
 Casparo Bartliio : Fabricii Ccnlifol. Lutheran, torn. i. p- 96—98. 
 The principal facts in this narrative are confirmed by the popish 
 writers, Cochlseus, Spondanus, &.c. 
 
 6 
 
74 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 legions persons and mnrderers! Formerly it was 
 inhabited by a holy nation, a peculiar people, but 
 now by the people of Gomorrah, a depraved seed, 
 wicked children, unfaithful priests, the companions of 
 thieves !' Lest any should suppose," continued the 
 bishop, " that this prophetic oracle was fulfilled long 
 ago in the overthrow of the Babylonish Jerusalem by 
 the Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus, seeing the 
 words appear to refer to the time in which the pro- 
 phet lived, I think it proper to observe, agreeably to 
 ecclesiastical verity, that future things- were set before 
 the eyes of the prophet's mind as present. This is 
 evident from the sacred writings throughout — ' The 
 daughter of Zion shall be forsaken and made desolate 
 by the violence of the enemy.' This daughter of 
 Zion, the apostle John, in the book of Revelation, 
 explains as meaning not Jerusalem, but the city of 
 Rome, as appears from looking into his description. 
 For John, or rather the angel explaining to John the 
 vision concerning the judgment of the whore, repre- 
 sents this city as meant by Babylon. ^ The woman 
 whom thou sawest is that great city which reigns (he 
 refers to a spiritual reign) over the kings of the earth.' 
 Again John says — ' She sits on seven hills;' which 
 applies properly to Rome, called, from ancient times, 
 the seven-hilled city. She is also said to ' sit on many 
 waters,' which signify people, nations, and various 
 languages, of which, as we see, this city is composed 
 more than any other city in the Christian world. He 
 says also, ' She is full of names of blasphemy, the 
 mother of uncleanness, fornications, and abominations 
 of the earth.' This supersedes the necessity of any 
 more specific proof that Rome is the city referred to ; 
 seeing these vices, though they prevail everywhere, 
 have fixed their seat and empire with us."* 
 
 If such was the impression which this event made 
 on the mind of a bishop, and such the language held 
 within the hearing of the sovereign pontiff, what must 
 
 * Oratio habita ad Auditores Rotce, de causis Excidii Urbis Rpmae, 
 anno 1527; inter Reruni German. Scriptores, a ISchardio, torn, ii, 
 p. 613, &-C. Wolfii Lect. Memor. torn. ii. p. 300. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 75 
 
 have been the feeUngs and the language of those who 
 were less interested in the support of the ecclesiastical 
 monarchy, and who were still greater sufferers from 
 the ambition and tyranny of those who administered 
 its affairs? The mysterious veil of sanctity, by which 
 the minds of the vulgar had been long overawed, was 
 now torn off, and, when revealed, the claims of the 
 priesthood appeared to be as arrogant and unfounded 
 as their conduct was inconsistent with the character 
 which they had assumed, and with the precepts of 
 that religion of which they professed to be the teachers 
 and guardians. The horror hitherto felt at the name 
 of heretic and Lutheran began to abate in Italy, and 
 the minds of the people were prepared to listen to the 
 teachers of the reformed doctrine, who, in their turn, 
 were emboldened to preach and make proselytes in a 
 more open manner than they had hitherto ventured 
 to do. " In Italy also," says the historian of the coun- 
 cil of Trent, speaking of this period, " as there had 
 neither been Pope nor Papal court at Rome for nearly' 
 two years, and as most men looked on the calamities 
 which had fallen on both as the execution of a divine 
 judgment, on account of the corruptions of its govern- 
 ment, many listened with avidity to the Reformation ; 
 in several cities, and particularly at Faenza, which 
 was situated within the territories of the Pope, ser- 
 mons were delivered in private houses against the 
 Church of Rome; and the number of those named 
 Lutherans, or, as they called themselves. Evangeli- 
 cals, increased every day.""* That these sermons 
 were not entirely confined to private houses, and that 
 the reformed doctrine was publicly preached in Italy 
 before the year 1530, we learn from the highest au- 
 thority. "From the report made to us," says Pope Cle- 
 ment VIL, "we have learned with great grief of heart, 
 that, in different parts of Italy, the pestiferous heresy 
 of Luther prevails to a high degree, not only among 
 secular persons, but also among ecclesiastics and the 
 
 *^' Fra Paolo, Hist, du Concile de Trente, vol. i. p. 87, edit. Cou- 
 rayer. With this the statement of Giannone exactly agrees. (Hist. 
 Civ. de Naples, torn. iv. p. 110.) 
 
76 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 regular clergy, both mendicant and non-mendicant; 
 so that some, by their discourses and conversation, 
 and, what is worse, by their public preaching, infect 
 numbers with this disease, greatly scandalize faithful 
 Christians, who live under the obedience of the Ro- 
 man Church and observe its lav/s, and contribute to 
 the increase of heresies, the stumbling of the weak, 
 and the no small injury of the Catholic faith."* These 
 appearances, while they gave alarm to the friends of 
 the papacy, excited hopes in the breasts of those who 
 had espoused the cause of the Reformation. Both 
 parties calculated on the national character of the 
 Italians; and it was a common remark, that as the 
 plague, aggravated by the intenser heat of the sky, 
 was more virulent in Italy than in Germany, so Lu- 
 theranism, if it seized on the more susceptible and 
 ardent minds of the Italians, would rage with an im- 
 petuosity and to an extent as yet unparalleled.t 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION IN THE DIFFERENT STATES AND CITIES 
 
 OF ITALY. 
 
 Having given a general account of the introduction 
 of the reformed opinions into Italy, and the causes 
 which led to this event, I now proceed to trace the 
 progress which they made through the different states 
 and cities of that country. 
 
 Ferrara is entitled to the first notice, on account 
 of the protection which it afforded, at an early period, 
 to the friends of the Reformation, who fled from va- 
 rious parts of Italy and from foreign countries. Under 
 the government of its dukes of the illustrious house 
 of Este, Ferrara had, for some time, vied with Flo- 
 
 * Raynaldi Annales, ad ann. 1530. 
 
 t Campegii Cardinalis Oratio ad ordines Imperii Norirnberg'.; apud 
 Seckendorf, lib. i. p. 289. Busdragi Epistola; in Scrinio Antiquario, 
 torn. i. par. ii. p. 325. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 77 
 
 rence in the encouragement of learning and the fine 
 arts. Ariosto Uved at the court of Alfonso I., as did 
 Bernardo Tasso, and, at a subsequent period, his more 
 iUustrious son, the author of Jerusalem Delivered^ at 
 the court of Ercole II. ; and, in consequence of this, 
 the genealogy and achievements of the dukes of Fer- 
 rara have been transmitted to posterity by the first 
 poets of that age. Hercules had received a good edu- 
 cation, and was induced, by personal judgment and 
 feeling, to yield that patronage to learned men which 
 contemporary princes paid as a tribute to fashion, and 
 out of regard to their own fame.* The house of Este 
 had, in several late instances, been but ill repaid for 
 the devotion which they had shown to the interests 
 of the see of Rome ; but the reason already mentioned, 
 as attaching the Italian princes to the Pope, overcame 
 the sense of injury. Ippolito, a younger son of duke 
 Alfonso, and afterwards his nephew Ludovico, were 
 cardinals; and, from time immemorial, a branch of 
 the family had occupied a place in the sacred coUege.t 
 Accordingly, Alfonso had proved a faithful ally to 
 Clement during the humiliating disasters to which he 
 was exposed; and his successor, though more liberal 
 in his religious views than his father, avoided any 
 thhig which might give offence to the supreme pontiff. 
 In the year 1527, Hercules II. married Renee, or 
 Renata, daughter of Louis XII. of France; and the 
 countenance shown to the reformed opinions at the 
 court of Ferrara is chiefly to be ascribed to the in- 
 fluence of this amiable and accomplished princess. 
 Distinguished for her virtue and generosity, at once 
 dignified and engaging in her manners, speaking the 
 French and Italian languages with equal purity, and 
 
 * Caelii Calcagnini Opera, p. 77, 116, 144, 175. The culogium 
 which Calcagnini has pronounced on him is justified by the account 
 of a conversation between them respecting- llie choice of a tutor to 
 the duke's son. (lb. p. 168 ; conf. p. 160—162.) 
 
 + Black's Life of Tasso, i. 348. To this Ariosto alludes:— 
 'Twere long to tell the names of all tiiy race. 
 That in the conclave shall obtain a place, 
 To tell each enterprise their arms shall gain, 
 What conquests for the Roman Church obtain. 
 
 (Orlando Furioso, book iii.) 
 
78 HISTORY or THE 
 
 deeply versed in the Greek and Roman classics, she 
 attracted the love and admiration of all who knew 
 her.* Before leaving her native country she had 
 become acquainted with the reformed doctrine, by 
 means of some of those learned persons who fre- 
 quented the court of the celebrated Margaret, queen 
 of Navarre; and she was anxious to facilitate its 
 introduction into the country to which her residence 
 was now transferred. For some time she could 
 only do this under the covert of entertaining its friends 
 as men of letters, which the duke, her husband, was 
 ready to encourage, or at least to wink at. The first 
 persons to whom she extended her protection and 
 hospitality on this principle, were her own country- 
 men, whom the violence of persecution had driven 
 out of France. 
 
 Madame de Soubise, the governess of the duchess, 
 had introduced several men of letters into the court 
 of France during the late reign.t She now resided 
 at the court of Ferrara, along with her son, Jean de 
 Parthenai, sieur de Soubise, afterwards a principal 
 leader of the Protestant party in France ; her daugh- 
 ter, Anne de Parthenai, distinguished for her elegant 
 taste; and the future husband of this young lady, 
 Antoine de Pons, count de Marennes, who adhered 
 to the reformed cause until the death of his wife.:}: 
 In the year 1534, the celebrated French poet, Clement 
 Marot, fled from his native country, in consequence 
 of the persecution excited by the aflair of the placards, 
 and after residing for a short time at the court of the 
 queen of Navarre, in Beam, came to Ferrara. § He 
 
 * Muratori, AntichiU Estensi, torn. ii. p. 368. Tiraboschi, Storia, 
 torn. vii. par. i. p. 37. Calcagnini Opera, p. 149, 150. 
 
 t Oeuvres de Clement Marot, torn. ii. p. 182 — 184. A la Have, 
 1731. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 178 — 181. Bayle, Diet. art. Soubise, J. de Parthenai. 
 
 § In the biographical and critical preface to the Hague edition of 
 Marot's works, by Le Chevalier Gordon de Percel, (under which 
 name Nicole Lcnglet du Fresnoy is supposed to have concealed him- 
 self,) it is stated, that the famous Diana of Poitiers, afterwards mis- 
 tress of Henry II., instigated the persecution against Marot, in 
 revenge for some satirical verses which he had written on her for 
 deserting him. (Tom. i. p. 25, 76.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 79 
 
 was recommended by Madame de Soubise to the 
 duchess, who made him her secretary ;* and his friend, 
 Lyon Jamet, finding it necessary soon after to join 
 him, met with a reception equally gracious.t About 
 the same time, the celebrated reformer, John Calvin, 
 visited Ferrara, where he spent some months, under 
 the assumed name of Charles Heppeville. He re- 
 ceived the most distinguished attention from the 
 duchess, who was confirmed in the Protestant faith 
 by his instructions, and ever after retained the highest 
 respect for his character and talents.J In the year 
 1536, the duke of Ferrara entered into a league with 
 the pope and the emperor, by one of the secret 
 articles of which he was bound to remove all the 
 French from his court; and in consequence of this, the 
 duchess was obliged reluctantly to part with Madame 
 de Soubise and her family. § Marot retired to Venice, 
 from which he soon after obtained permission to re- 
 turn to his native country. || It is not improbable, that 
 
 * Oeuvres de Marot, torn. i. p. 75 — 79. Beze, Hist. Eccl. torn. i. 
 p. 22. Le Laboureur, Addit. aux Mem. de Castelnau, p. 716. Nolten, 
 Vita Olympiae MoratfB, p. 60 — 62, edit. Hesse. 
 t Nolten, p. 65—67. 
 
 t Beza, Vita Calvini. Muratori, Antichita Estensi, torn. ii. p. 389. 
 Ruchat, Hist, de la Reform, de la Suisse, tom. v. p. 620. The mis- 
 statements of Varillas and Moreri, respecting Calvin's visit to Italy, 
 are corrected by Bayle, Diet. art. Soubise. 
 
 § Epitres de Rabelais, p. 18. Marot has described with much ten- 
 derness the distress of mind which the duchess felt on this occasion, 
 in an epistle to the queen of Navarre : — 
 
 Ha, Marguerite ! escoute la soufFrance 
 Du noble cueur de Renee de France ; 
 Puis comme soeur plus fort que d'esperance 
 
 Console-la. 
 Tu s^ais comment hors son pays alia, 
 Et que parens et amis laissa id; 
 Mais tu ne s^ais quel traitement elle a 
 
 En terre estrange. 
 Elle ne voit ceux k qui se veult plaindre. 
 Son oeil rayant si loing ne peult attaindre, 
 Et puis les monts pour se bien lui estaindre 
 Sont entre deux. 
 
 (Oeuvres, tom. ii. p. 317, 318.) 
 il Tn the title to his twenty first Cantique, he is said to be " banni 
 de France, depuis chasse de Ferrara, et de lii. retir^ ^ Venise 1536." 
 (Oeuvres, tom. ii. p. 316, comp. tom. i. p. 82, 83. Bayle, art. Marot, 
 Clement.) 
 
80 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the poet was induced at first to take part with the 
 Reformers from resentment at the opposition which 
 the clergy made to every species of Uterature ; but 
 he appears to have conceived a real attachment to the 
 Protestant doctrine during his residence at Ferrara, if 
 we may judge from the strain of the letters and other 
 pieces which proceeded from his pen at this time, and 
 which breathe the spirit of martyrdom. He would 
 probably have shrunk from the fiery trial, if he had 
 been exposed to it ; but it does not follow from this, 
 either that the sentiments referred to are not noble, or 
 that the author was not in earnest when he uttered 
 them.* Lyon Jamet was allowed to remain with the 
 duchess, probably as a person less known than Marot, 
 and discharged the duty of secretary to Renee after 
 the departure of his friend.t Hubert Languet, an 
 accomplished scholar, and one of the first, or at least 
 soundest, politicians of his age, embraced the reformed 
 faith while residing in Ferrara.J 
 
 Several persons, who were decidedly favourable to 
 the Reformation, obtained a place in the university of 
 Ferrara, which was now fast recovering its former 
 lustre, after having suffered severely from the civil 
 wars, in which the family of Este had, for many 
 years, been involved. § But the reformed doctrine 
 
 * The account which he gave of his faith, in his poetical epistle, 
 addressed to his prosecutor, Mons. Bouchar, in 1525, differs widely 
 from that which is contained in his epistle addressed to Francis 
 I. in 1536. {Oeuvres, torn. ii. p. 39, comp. p. 167.) In the latter, his 
 willingness to suffer mart\rdom, which his biographer, after Bayle, 
 laughs at, is expressed in the following lines : — 
 Que pleust a 1' Eternel, 
 Pour le grand bien du peuple desole, 
 Que leur desir de mon sang fust saoule, 
 Ettant d'abus, dont ils se sont munis, 
 Fussent a cler descouverts et punis, 
 O quatre fois et cinq fois bien heureuse 
 La mort, tant soit cruelle et rigoureuse ! 
 Qui feroit seule un million de vies 
 Sous tels abus n'estre plus asservies ? 
 t Oeuvres de Marot, torn. ii. p. 159. Bayle, art. Marot, Clement. 
 t Langueti Epistolaj, lib. i. part. ii. p. Ill, 264. Halae, 1699. 
 § In the beginning of the sixteenth century, there were so many 
 English students at the university of Ferrara, as to form a distinct 
 nation in that learned corporation. (Bersetti Hist. Gymn. Ferrar. 
 apud Tiraboschi, torn. vii. p. 119.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 81 
 
 was propagated chiefly by means of those learned 
 men whom the duchess retained in her family for the 
 education of her children. This was conducted on an 
 extensive scale, suited to the liberality of her own 
 views and munificence of her husband. Teachers in 
 all branches of polite letters and arts were provided. 
 In the galaxy of enlightened men which adorned the 
 court of Ferrara, were Celio Calcagnini, Lilio Giraldi, 
 Bartolomeo Riccio, Marzello Palingenio, and Marcan- 
 tonio Flaminio, all of them men whose minds were 
 elevated above the superstitions of their age, if they 
 were not converts to the Protestant faith.* During a 
 visit which the pontiff, Paul III. paid to Ferrara, in 
 the year 1543, the Adelphi of Terence was acted by 
 the youth of the family, and the three daughters of 
 the duke, the eldest of whom was only twelve, and 
 the youngest five years of age, performed their parts 
 with great applause. t His holiness was not then 
 aware of the religious sentiments of the masters, by 
 whom the juvenile princesses had been qualified for 
 affording him this classical amusement. Chilian and 
 John Sinapi, two brothers from Germany, instructed 
 them in Greek, and being Protestants, imbued their 
 minds with sound views of religion. J Fulvio Pere- 
 grino Morata, a native of Mantua, and a successful 
 teacher of youth in various parts of Italy, had been 
 tutor to the two younger brothers of the duke, and 
 having returned to Ferrara in 1539, was readmitted 
 to his professorship in the university. § Like most of 
 his learned countrymen, Morata's mind had been 
 engrossed with secular studies during the first part of 
 
 * Nolten, Vita Olympije Moratae, p. 67 — 87, ed. Hesse. 
 
 t Muratori, Anticli. Est. ii. 368. 
 
 t Opera Olympise Moratoe, p. 76, 97, 203, 205. 
 
 § Nolten, vt supra, p. 14 — 17. His works in Italian and in Latin 
 are mentioned by Tiraboschi, (Storia, torn. vii. p. 1197 — 1200,) and 
 by Scheliiorn. (Anioen. Eccl. et Lit. torn. ii. p. 647.) A warm 
 eulogium is passed on him by Calcagnini, (Opera, p. 156,) and by 
 Benibo. (Epist. Famil. apud Schelhorn.) Bembo, in a letter " a M. 
 Bernardo 'lasso, Secretariodella Signora Duchessa di Ferrara," May 
 27, 1529, speaks of "Maestro Pellegrino Moretto," as having said 
 some injurious things of his prose works. (Lettcre, torn. iii. p. 226. 
 Milano, 1810.) 
 
82 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 his life, but having met with Celio Secimdo Curio, a 
 refugee from Piedmont, he imbibed from him the 
 knowledge of evangelical truth and a deep sense of 
 religion.* Esteemed for his learning and integrity, 
 he became still more celebrated as the father of Olym- 
 pia Morata, the most enlightened female of the age, 
 whom he educated with a zeal prompted by parental 
 fondness and professional enthusiasm. In conse- 
 quence of her early proficiency in letters, Olympia 
 was chosen by the duchess to be the companion of 
 her eldest daughter, Anne, with whom she improved 
 in every elegant and useful accomplishment; and 
 although she afterwards acknowledged that her per- 
 sonal piety suffered from the bustle and blandishments 
 of a court, yet it was during her residence in the ducal 
 palace that she first acquired that knowledge of the 
 gospel which supported her mind under the priva- 
 tions and hardships which she afterwards had to 
 endure, t 
 
 We have no means of ascertaining the number of 
 Protestants at Ferrara, which probably varied at dif- 
 ferent times, according to the fluctuating politics of 
 the duke, and the measures of religious constraint or 
 toleration which were alternately adopted by the 
 other states of Italy. One account mentions, that 
 they had several preachers as early as the year 1528 -,% 
 but whether they were permitted to teach publicly or 
 not, we are not informed. That their labours were 
 successful, is evident from the number of distin- 
 guished persons who either imbibed the Protestant 
 doctrine, or were confirmed in their attachment to it, 
 at Ferrara. The most eminent of the Italians who 
 embraced the reformed faith, or who incurred the sus- 
 picions of the clergy by the liberality of their opinions, 
 had resided for some time at the court of Ferrara, or 
 
 * Fulvio Morata calls Curio his " divine teacher — one sent of God 
 to instruct him, as Ananias was sent to Paul." (Nolten, Vita Olym- 
 piae Moratas, p. 17, 18, ed. Hesse. Opuscula Olympiae Moratoe, p. 
 94, 96, edit. Basil. 1580.) 
 
 t Ccelii Secundi Curionis Arancus, p. 153, 154. Basil. 1544. 
 
 t Tempe Helvetica, torn. iv. p. 138. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 83 
 
 were indebted in one way or other to the patronage 
 of Renee.* 
 
 MoDENA was also under the government of the 
 house of Este, and most probably owed its first ac- 
 quaintance with the reformed opinions to the same 
 cause which introduced them into Ferrara. Some of 
 the Modenese were among the early correspondents 
 of Luther.t Few cities of Italy in that age could 
 boast of having given birth to a greater number of 
 persons eminent for talents and learning than Modena. 
 It reckoned among its citizens four of the most accom- 
 plished members of the sacred college, (including Sado- 
 let,) Sigonio, the celebrated antiquary, Castelvetro, a 
 critic of great acuteness, and many others, whose 
 names occur frequently in the history of Italian litera- 
 ture. Modena possessed one of those academies which 
 sprung up in such great numbers in Italy during the 
 sixteenth century, and threw into shade the old and 
 endowed seminaries of science. It owed its origin to 
 Giovanni Grillenzone, an enlightened physician, in 
 whose house it met. The object of the associates 
 was, at first, to promote their mutual improvement, 
 by conversation and the reading of papers on literary 
 and scientific subjects. But lectures were grafted on 
 the original institution, which became so celebrated, 
 especially after it procured the services of Franciscus 
 Portus, a learned Greek, as to attract young men 
 from all parts of Italy to Modena. The academy 
 appears, at an early period, to have incurred the sus- 
 picion of being infected with the new opinions re- 
 specting religion. A writer, who has thrown great 
 light on the history of Italy, is of opinion, that the 
 proceedings against this society originated in one of 
 those quarrels in which the literati of that age were 
 
 * Gerdes. Ital.Ref. p. 28, 29. One of these was Giovanni Francesco 
 Virginio, a native of Brescia, and author of a paraphrase on the 
 Epistles of Paul to the Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews ; printed at 
 Lyons in 1565. Speaking of Renee, Fontanini says, " Gianfrancesco 
 Virginio Bresciano in dedicarle quegli le sue lettere, seminata di frasi 
 Protestanti, e stampate in Venezia— nel 1548." (Delia Eloq. Ital. 
 p. 306.) 
 
 t Gerdesii Italia Reformata, p. 61. 
 
84 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 not imfrequently involved with the reUgious orders, 
 and in the resentment of Annibale Caro against Cas- 
 telvetro, a member of the academy, who had written 
 a severe criticism on one of his poems;* but more 
 accurate investigation has proved that they had a 
 deeper foundation. It would seem that the priests 
 looked upon the academy, from its commencement, 
 with a jealous eye; while the academicians, in their 
 turn, were not scrupulous in expressing their con- 
 tempt of the priests, and especially of the monks, on 
 account of their ignorance and hypocrisy; and, ac- 
 cording to all accounts, the latter appear to have had 
 good reason for the feelings which they indulged.! 
 But the clergy had also reason for suspecting that 
 their opponents had departed from the Romish faith. 
 In December 1537, Serafina, a canon regular of St. 
 Augustine, preaching in the cathedral church, told his 
 audience that the Lutheran errors had begun to spread 
 in Modena; and, in proof of his assertion, referred to 
 a book, infected with heresy, which had come into his 
 hands. He had found it in the chamber of Lucrezia 
 Pica, widow of count Claudio Rangone, and had ex- 
 amined it, along with the inquisitor of heretical pra- 
 vity and the vicar of the diocese, who had set on foot 
 an inquiry into the author of the work, and the per- 
 son who had brought it into the city. It was easily 
 traced to Gadaldino, a printer and bookseller; the 
 author could not be discovered, but it was strongly 
 
 * Muratori, Vita del Castelvetro; Opere Critiche, p. 17. In the 
 former edition, I was guided chiefly by the account which Tiraboschi 
 gives of the affair in his history of Ualian Literature; but I have 
 since had access to the Bitdioteca Modenese of that author, in which 
 he furnishes more ample details, supported by the most authentic 
 documents. It is in 6 vols. 4to, printed at Modena in 1781 — 1786. 
 
 t In 1530, a fi iar, preaching in the cathedral of Modena during 
 Lent, produced and read to his audience a letter from Jesus Christ, 
 drawn up in the style of a papal brief; beginning with " Jesus Epis- 
 copus," and ending with " Nulli ergo omnino hominum, Sec. Datum 
 in Paradise Terrestri Creationis Mundi die sexto, Pontificatus nostri 
 anno seterno," Sec. (Biblioteca Modenese, dal Girolamo Tiraboschi, 
 torn. i. p. 11.) Grillenzone, in a letter to Sadolet, accounts for the 
 informations which the monks had laid against him, by saying, " My 
 nature is such, that I could never conceal my displeasure at the con- 
 duct of the idle, ignorant, and hypocritical." (lb. tom. ii. p. 435.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 85 
 
 suspected he was one of the members of the academy, 
 several of whom did not scruple to avow their appro- 
 bation of the book, as containing doctrine which was 
 both orthodox and edifying. The book was publicly 
 burnt at Rome, and all the copies of it appear to have 
 been carefully destroyed.* Soon after this occurrence, 
 at the marriage of a daughter of Niccolo Machelli, a 
 member of the academy, two persons in masks en- 
 tered the place of entertainment, and recited a long 
 satire on the preacher Serafina ; and at the same time 
 similar pasquinades were atiixed to the pillars of the 
 cathedral, the gate of the Dominican convent, and 
 other public places in the city. Through the influ- 
 ence of the countess Lucrezia, who felt herself scan- 
 dalized by the affair, the duke ordered two persons, 
 tutors to two of the principal families of the city, to be 
 thrown into prison, as the authors of this insult on the 
 clergy; but they were soon after liberated, on the 
 ground that they had not named any individual as 
 the object of their raillery. As the clergy persevered 
 in declaiming against the new opinions, the academi- 
 cians had recourse to their former method of retalia- 
 tion; and, irritated by the ignorant harangues to which 
 they were obliged to listen, they, in some instances, 
 rose up in the midst of the church, criticised the ser- 
 mon, and held up the preacher to the derision of the 
 audience. Fra Serafina, who had left the city for 
 some time, having ventured to return in 1539, was 
 driven from the pulpit in disgrace. So far indeed 
 
 * Bibl. Modenese, torn. i. p. 8 — 10, 14. We are indebted for all 
 our knowledge of this book to an honest chronicler who lived at that 
 time in Modena. On hearing- it denounced from tlie pulpit as hereti- 
 cal, he returned a copy of it, which he had lately purchased, and re- 
 claimed his money; but his curiosity conquered his fears so far, that 
 he previously inserted a description of it in his diary. It was in 
 mezzo quarto, and consisted of ninety six pages, divided into thirty- 
 one chapters. The following is the title: — "II Summario de la 
 Sancta Scriptura, & I'ordinario de li Christiani, qual demonstra la 
 vere fede Christiana, mediante la quale siamo justificuti, cSii- de la 
 vertu del baptismo secondo la doctrina de I'Evangelio & de li Apos- 
 toli, cum una informazione, como tutti li Stati debbono vivere secondo 
 TEvangelio." It had no name of author or printer, nor any date. 
 " Summarium Scripturae" is mentioned in the Index Libr. Frohib. of 
 1559, sig. E. 7. 
 
86 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 were the monks from being able to check the pro- 
 gress of the reformed doctrine in the city, that they 
 could not prevent it from finding its way into their 
 own cloisters. A friar, named Antonio della Catellina, 
 having preached with great applause during the feast 
 of Pentecost, was accused of heresy; but, instead of 
 retracting, he appeared again in the pulpit, and de- 
 fended the doctrine which he had taught.* This pro- 
 duced a papal rescript, charging the inquisitor to make 
 a strict investigation into the opinions of the religious 
 orders established in the city.t 
 
 Matters were in this state, when, in 1540, Paolo 
 Ricio came to Modena.ij: He was a native of Sicily, 
 obtained the degree of doctor of theology at Naples, 
 and belonged to the order of Minor Conventuals ; but 
 having thrown off the cowl, that he might dissemi- 
 nate the gospel with greater freedom, took the name 
 of Lisia Fileno. He was cordially welcomed by the 
 members of the academy, and made it his business to 
 seek out the friends of truth in the city, whom he per- 
 suaded to meet for worship in a private house. They 
 were confirmed by his instructions, which were the 
 means of adding to their numbers. A great sensation 
 was produced in the city; the Scriptures became the 
 common topic of conversation; and the subjects in dis- 
 pute between the Church of Rome and the Reformers 
 were freely and eagerly discussed. " Persons of all 
 classes," says a contemporary historian of the popish 
 persuasion, " not only the learned, but also the illiter- 
 ate, and even women, wherever they met, in the streets, 
 in shops, or in churches, disputed about faith and the 
 doctrine of Christ, and all promiscuously tortured the 
 sacred Scriptures, quoting Paul, Matthew, John, the 
 Apocalypse, and all the doctors, whose writings they 
 never saw."§ The news of this success of the gospel 
 reached Germany, and drew from Bucer a letter of 
 
 * Bibl. Modenesc, torn. i. p. 9—12. 
 t Spondani Annal. ad an. 1539. 
 
 t Riederer, Nachrichten zur Kirchen-gelehrten und Biicherges- 
 chichte, torn. i. p. 172, 174 ; torn, iii, p. 444. 
 
 § Cronaca di Alessandro Tassoni: Tiraboschi, Storia della Letter. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 87 
 
 congratulation and advice to the Modenese disciples.* 
 Loud complaints were made by the priests to the Pope, 
 who remonstrated with the duke; and Ricio, who, 
 foreseeing the danger, had left Modena, was seized 
 at the neighbouring village of Staggio, and being con- 
 ducted as a prisoner to Ferrara, chose to make a pub- 
 lic recantation of his opinions, rather than be sent to 
 Rome, where he expected no mercy. But the seed 
 sown by him in Modena had taken too deep root to 
 be injured by his defection. With the view of pre- 
 venting the renewal of the contentions, the duke had 
 issued orders that none should occupy the pulpit with- 
 out the permission of the vicar of the diocese; but so 
 great was the avidity of the people to hear the Scrip- 
 tures expounded, that some of the preachers were 
 bold enough to break through the restriction, in which 
 they were supported by the local magistrates, who 
 wrote in their favour to the ducal court. In the course 
 of the year 1540, the celebrated Ochino, of whom we 
 shall afterwards have occasion to speak largely, came 
 to Modena, and preached in the cathedral church, to 
 so great a crowd, that, according to the testimony of 
 one of the audience, " there was scarcely room to 
 stand." He resisted the entreaties of the academi- 
 cians, who urged him to remain during Lent, promis- 
 ing that they would prevail on the preacher, whose 
 services had been engaged for that season, to yield 
 his place to him. Though the defection of Ochino 
 from the Catholic faith was not then known, the 
 clergy were displeased at a mode of preaching so 
 different from their own, and at the applause be- 
 stowed on it, especially by their adversaries of the 
 academy. One of the most obnoxious of these was 
 Giovanni di Politiano, called also de'Berettari. In 
 his youth he had been highly esteemed by Cardinals 
 
 Ital. torn. vii. p. 168. Ginguene has translated this passage into 
 good French, and given it as his own description of the fact, without 
 seeming to be aware that it was the common language of Roman 
 Catholic writers of that age, when they spoke of the reading of the 
 Scriptures, or conversation on religious topics, by the people. 
 * Buceri Scripta Anglicana, p. 687. 
 
88 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 Bembo and Bibbiena for his poetical vein, and was, 
 at this time, tutor to Camillo, a son of the celebrated 
 Francesco Molza. Being in priest's orders, he ex- 
 pounded the Scriptures in tlie house of his patron; 
 and to this exercise the citizens resorted in great 
 numbers after the removal of Ricio. In consequence 
 of information lodged against him by a spy, he was 
 accused of having advanced, in his exposition of 
 Paul's Epistles, three erroneous propositions; one of 
 which was, that prayers in an unknown tongue are 
 not pleasing to God. Berettari waited on the inqui- 
 sitor, to whom he gave an explanation of his words; 
 but this proving unsatisfactory, he was summoned, 
 and, declining to attend, was excommunicated for 
 contumacy. Upon this he appealed to the Pope, and, 
 through the influence of Molza with Cardinal Far- 
 nese, the nephew of Paul III., the inquisitor was 
 summoned to Rome. After a delay of some months, 
 Berettari was acquitted, and, on the first of October 
 1541, returned, along with his pupil, in triumph to 
 Modena; but his enemies were clamorous, and a new 
 process having been commenced against him at Rome, 
 he was found guilty, and sentenced to do penance pri- 
 vately in the presence of a few select persons.* 
 
 During these transactions, cardinal Morone, the 
 bishop of Modena, was chiefly absent on missions 
 from the pope to Germany. Reports of the progress 
 of heresy in his diocese had repeatedly reached his 
 ear, and they gave him the more uneasiness, that he 
 was no stranger to the corruptions in the church, and 
 felt an esteem for several of the persons who were 
 principally inculpated. In a letter to the duke of Fer- 
 rara, dated 21st of November 1541, he says — "Eight 
 days ago I came to JVIodena to make residence at my 
 church, and to endeavour, with the divine assistance, 
 to do all in my power, consistently with charity, to 
 remove the bad fame which this city of your excel- 
 lency has incurred, not only in Italy but abroad, in 
 reference to the modern novelties of opinion. I had 
 
 ■ * Bibl. Modenesc, torn. i. p. 12—14, 230—234. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 89 
 
 proceeded so far in this affair, and brought it to some 
 issue, when I received an order from his hohness to 
 repair to Rome."* On occasion of another visit to 
 his diocese, he writes, on the 20th May, 1542, to his 
 friend, cardinal Contarini — " I have found things which 
 infinitely distress me, and, while I perceive the dan- 
 ger, am quite at a loss as to the means by which I 
 can extricate myself in the affairs of this flock, which, 
 with my blood, I would willingly secure to Christ, and 
 clear from public infamy. Wherever I go, and from 
 all quarters, I hear that the city is become Lutheran. 
 Your suspicions are not without foundation, for it 
 cannot be denied that much ignorance, joined with 
 great audacity and little charity, reigns among the 
 monks ; but against the other side there are many vio- 
 lent suspicions, and even some proofs, which I mean 
 to verify, with the view of adopting the remedies 
 which God may direct."! And, on the 30th of July, 
 he writes to the same person — " Yesterday a minister 
 of that order frankly told me that their preachers would 
 no longer go to Modena, on account of the persecu- 
 tion to which they were exposed from the academy, 
 it being every where spread abroad that the city is 
 Lutheran."! 
 
 Florence, the capital of Tuscany, rose to great 
 distinction at the era of the revival of letters. No 
 city in Italy could vie with it in the number of its 
 enlightened citizens, the flourishing state of its acade- 
 mies, and the encouragement which it gave to every 
 branch of science and liberal art. But the high culti- 
 vation of these studies has rarely been favourable 
 either to pure religion or genuine liberty. Supersti- 
 tion, by appealing chiefly to the senses, allies itself 
 with the fine arts; and the munificence with which 
 letters were fostered at their first introduction into 
 Europe, tended in many instances to corrupt both the 
 patrons and their clients. The family of Medici, after 
 raising their native city to renown, concluded by de- 
 
 * lb. torn. iii. p. 307. 
 
 t Quirini Diatrib. ad vol. iii. Epist. Card. Poli, p. cclxix. 
 
 I Ibid. p. cclxxxvi. 
 
 7 
 
90 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 priving it of its liberties; and so true is the maxim, 
 " men will praise thee when thou dost well to thy- 
 self," that their ambition has found apologists in those 
 who have celebrated their early patriotism. Florence, 
 in the course of a few years, felt herself honoured by 
 seeing two of her sons exalted to the chair of St. Peter : 
 during the pontificate of Leo X. the Lutheran schism 
 broke out; and before the death of Clement VIL, 
 when it began to spread in Italy, Cosmo de' Medici 
 had established himself as duke of Tuscany. In these 
 circumstances, it was to be expected that the Refor- 
 mation would encounter the most strenuous and 
 powerful resistance in that city. 
 
 Notwithstanding these obstacles, we are assured 
 that the reformed docrine had made its way into Flo- 
 rence before the year 1525, and was embraced by 
 many of its citizens.* Among these was a person 
 who has been already mentioned, but who deserves 
 more particular notice on account of the invaluable 
 services which he rendered to Italy by his writings. 
 Antonio Brucioli was born about the end of the 
 fifteenth century, and early distinguished himself 
 among the members of the Platonic academy erected 
 in his native city. Attached to popular government, 
 he was induced by youthful ardour to embark in a 
 design for expelling the house of Medici from Flo- 
 rence; but the conspiracy being discovered, he was 
 obliged to fly, and after spending some time at Venice, 
 retired into France, from which he went to Germany.t 
 During the five years which he spent in exile, his 
 political feelings were mellowed by the infusion of 
 the spirit of religious liberty, and his studies assumed 
 a graver cast. At Venice he applied to the study of 
 Febrew, in which he afterwards acquired great pro- 
 ficiency ;.t and in Germany he found the best helps 
 
 * ?antes Pagnini, Prsefat. in Bibl. Latin, anno 1528. 
 
 t Varchi, Storia Fior. lib. vii. p. 211. Giornali de' Letterati o'ltalla, 
 torn, xxxii. p. 232— 240. 
 
 t In a letter addressed to him in 1537, Aretino says, " Voi sete 
 huomo senza pare nel' intelligentia de la lingua Hebraica , Cireeca, 
 Latina, e Chaldea." (Colomesii Ital. Orient, p. 60.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 91 
 
 for understanding the Scriptures. In the year 1527, 
 when the emperor had humbled Clement VII., and 
 the authority of the Medici was suspended in Flo- 
 rence, Brucioli returned to his native city; but his late 
 intercourse with Lutherans had brought upon him the 
 suspicion of heresy, which was increased by the free 
 manner in which he talked of the clergy. His friends 
 warned him to be more guarded in his conversation, 
 but he replied, " If I speak truth, I cannot speak 
 wrong.'' The Dominicans of St. Marco were parti- 
 cularly galled with his censures; and one of their 
 number, Fojano, then a popular preacher in Florence, 
 denounced him one day from the pulpit as a heretic, 
 and, in allusion to the meaning of his name, exclaim- 
 ed, " Brucioli is fit for nothing but to be burned."* 
 He was soon after thrown into prison, and, in addi- 
 tion to the charge of lieresy, was accused of corres- 
 ponding with France to the prejudice of his native 
 country; but, when his papers were examined, nothing 
 suspicious was found among them, except specimens 
 of a translation of the Bible, and a cypher which he 
 had used in corresponding with his friend Alamanno. 
 The monks pleaded hard for capital punishment, and 
 Brucioli irritated the judge before whom he was tried 
 by the boldness of his defence; but, through the influ- 
 ence of friends, his sentence was restricted to banish- 
 ment for two years. It does not appear that he ever 
 again entertained thoughts of returning to Florence, 
 though he addressed one of his works to Cosmo de' 
 Medici, in a respectful dedication, in which he praises 
 the mildness of his administration, and, without ask- 
 ing any personal favour, exhorts him to encourage 
 the reading of the Scriptures by his people, as calcu- 
 lated, above all other means, to make them devout 
 men and dutiful subjects. Neither his dedications 
 nor letters are dated from any place, probably from a 
 prudential regard to his safety; but there can be no 
 doubt that he resided ordinarily in Venice. He had 
 to struggle at first with the privations attendant on 
 
 + Brucioli^ in Italian, means twigs or shavings of wood. 
 
$2 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 exile,* but rather than become dependent on the 
 bounty of a rich patron, he chose to Uve obscurely, 
 and to support himself by the productions of his pen. 
 For some time he acted as a corrector of the press, 
 (no mean employment in those days,) until he was 
 able, along with Francesco and Alessandro Brucioli, 
 his brothers, or, as some say, his cousins, to establish 
 a printing-office in the place of his sojourning. From 
 1530 to 1556, the probable year of his death, he pub- 
 lished a variety of works of his own, including trans- 
 lations of the classics ; but his biblical labours were 
 the most valuable. 
 
 Besides his version of the Scriptures, already men- 
 tioned,! Brucioli produced a commentary on the whole 
 Bible, extending to seven volumes in folio. Father 
 Simon grants, that he translated from the original, and 
 not, like the Roman Catholics from the vulgate ; but 
 says that, being imperfectly acquainted with Hebrew, 
 he fell into a multitude of errors by following Pag- 
 nini. The charge has, however, been shown, by the 
 most satisfactory proof, to be one of the rash judg- 
 ments pronounced by this ingenious critic, f There is 
 more truth in another remark of the same writer, 
 that his version otfends frequently against the purity 
 of the Italian tongue, and abounds with Hebraisms; 
 a fault which every one who resolves to give a literal 
 translation must inevitably commit. § We are pre- 
 
 * In his dedication of his translation and exposition of the book of 
 Job, printed in 1534, he speaks of himself as " in bassa epovera for- 
 tuna locate." 
 
 t &chcil.ojn (Eigcelz. toin. i. p. 405 — 415, 648 — 670) has given 
 a list of his works, (accompanied with a specimen of his hymns,) 
 among which is the following: — "Ant. Brucioli Sermoni xxii. ;" to 
 which is added, " Epistola a Renata di Francia, Duchessa di Ferrara, 
 intorno a Christo Messia, Venezia per Alessandro Brucioli e fratelli, 
 1547." 
 
 t Simon, Hist. Crit. du V, Test. liv. ii. chap. 22. Anmerkung 
 ueber des Urtheil P. Rich. Simons von des Brucioli Italianischen Bi- 
 bel-Uebersetzung : Schelhorn, Ergoetzlichkeiten, torn. ii. p. 535 — 551. 
 
 § It was the object of Rusticio to correct this fault in Brucioli's 
 translation. But his version is very interior in this respect to that of 
 Diodati, an Italian refugee, published at Geneva in 1607, of which 
 Dr. Geddes gives the following character: — "There is an elegance 
 and ease in this translation that are extremely pleasing to the reader, 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 93 
 
 pared to expect, that the Uterary fame of BrucioU would 
 suffer from his reUgious opmions, and that his country- 
 men would be cautious in the commendations which 
 they bestow on his talents and erudition. " He was 
 well acquainted," says one of them, " with Greek, 
 Hebrew, and Latin, and endowed by nature with 
 rare talents; but, trusting to his genius, he plunged 
 into grievous errors, which are scattered over many 
 of his writings ; and he died without making any re- 
 cantation."* His translations of the Bible were put 
 into the first class of forbidden books, and all his 
 works, on whatever subject, " published or to be pub- 
 lished," together with all books which came from his 
 press, even after his death, were strictly prohibited.t 
 His commentary on the Scriptures is exceedingly rare, 
 but a foreign writer who examined it, and was every 
 way qualified to pronounce a correct judgment on the 
 subject, has assured us, that it contains numerous and 
 decisive proofs of the author's attachment to evangeli- 
 cal truth. J So far as the influence of the press is 
 concerned, Brucioli is entitled to the name of the re- 
 former of Italy. " Though Italy be the fortress and 
 strength of the papal empire," say the Lucchese re- 
 fugees at Geneva, " because the authority of the pope 
 is most firmly established over the people of that 
 country, this could not prevent the light from pene- 
 trating it in different quarters; in consequence of 
 which, the scales fell from the eyes and the shackles 
 from the hands of many who sat in darkness and cap- 
 tivity. This was effected by means of an Italian 
 
 joined with a conciseness which one would think hardly compatible 
 with ease and elegance. F. Simon greatly injures him, when he says, 
 he is rather a paraphrast than a translator; but this is not the only 
 rash assertion which this father has made." (Prospectus, p. 86.) 
 
 * Negri, Istor. degli Scrittori Fiorentini, p. 561. A similar cha- 
 racter of him is given by Poccianti, Catal. Script. Florent. p. 18. 
 
 + Ind. Libr. Prohib. sig. A 4. F. 3, b., anno 1559. 
 
 X Schelhorn, Ergoetzliciikeiten. tom. i. p. 417. With this writer 
 Tiraboschi agrees. He accounts for the opposition made to Brucioli, 
 *' per le molti eresie di cui egli imbratto la stessa vcrsione, e piu an- 
 cora il diffusa commento in sette tomi in foglio, che poi diedc in luce." 
 (Storia, tom. vii. p. 404. Conf. Scipio Maifei, Traduttori Ital. p. 32. 
 Fontanini, Delia Eloq. Ital. p. 305.) 
 
94 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 translation of the Bible by Brucioli, which was pub 
 lished at that time, and which it was not judged pru- 
 dent to stifle in its birth, by those violent measures 
 which were afterwards employed for its suppres- 
 sion.'^* 
 
 The fact of three natives of Florence having at 
 this time translated the Scriptures,! whether it be 
 viewed in the light of a cause or an elfect, aff'ords 
 the strongest presumptive proof that Scriptural know- 
 ledge was in request, and that the reformed doctrine 
 had made no inconsiderable advances, in Tuscany. 
 We may draw the same inference from the lamenta- 
 tions of the popish clergy, taken in connexion with 
 the number of persons who, as we shall afterwards 
 see, forsook this delightful country to escape the cru- 
 elties of the inquisition. "Oh, Florence!" exclaimed 
 a friar of that day from the pulpit. "What is the 
 meaning of Florence? The flower of Italy; and 
 thou wast so, till these Ultramontanes persuaded thee 
 that man is justified by faith and not by works.":}: 
 
 Bologna, in the sixteenth century, formed part of 
 the territories of the church ; and from it the supreme 
 pontiffs issued some of the severest of their edicts 
 against heresy. But this did not prevent the light, 
 which was shining around, from penetrating into that 
 city. The university of Bologna was one of the ear- 
 liest, if not the very first, of the great schools of Eu- 
 rope ; and the extensive privileges enjoyed by its 
 members were favourable to liberal sentiments and 
 the propagation of the new opinions in religion. The 
 essential principles of liberty, equally obnoxious to 
 political and ecclesiastical despots, were boldly avow- 
 ed in public disputations before the students, at a 
 time when they had fallen into disrepute in those 
 states of Italy which still retained a shadow of their 
 former freedom. § John MoUio, a native of Montal- 
 
 * Lettre de M. Le Cardinal Spinola, Eveque de Luquez — Avec les 
 Considerations, (Sec. p. 23. Genev. 1660. 
 t Hrucioli, Marmocliini and Teofilo. 
 \ Gilles, Hist, des Eglis. Ref. ou Vaud. p. 21. 
 § Life of John Knox, vol. ii. p. 125. In the fifteenth century, the 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 95 
 
 cinOj in the territory of Sienna, was a principal in- 
 strument of promoting the gospel at Bologna. He 
 had entered in his youth into the order of Minorites; 
 but instead of wasting his time, like the most of his 
 brethren, in idleness or superstition, had devoted him- 
 self to the study of polite letters and theology. By 
 the careful perusal of the Scriptures and certain books 
 of the Reformers, he attained to clear views of evan- 
 gelical truth, which his talents and his reputation for 
 learning and piety enabled him to recommend, both 
 as a preacher and an academical professor.* After 
 acquiring great celebrity as a teacher in the universi- 
 ties of Brescia, Milan, and Pavia, he came, about the 
 year 1533, to Bologna. Certain propositions which 
 he advanced in his lectures, relating to justification by 
 faith, and other points then agitated, were opposed by 
 Cornelio, a professor of metaphysics, who, being foil- 
 ed in a public dispute which ensued between them, 
 lodged a charge of heresy against his opponent, and 
 procured his citation to Rome. MoUio defended him- 
 self with such ability and address, that the judges ap- 
 pointed by Paul III. to try the cause were forced to 
 acquit him, in the way of declaring that the senti- 
 ments which he had maintained were true, although 
 they were such as could not be publicly taught at that 
 time without prejudice to the apostolical see. He 
 was therefore sent back to Bologna, with an admoni- 
 tion to abstain for the future from explaining the 
 epistles of St. Paul. But, continuing to teach the 
 same doctrine as formerly, and with still greater ap- 
 plause from his hearers, cardinal Campeggio procured 
 an order from the pope to remove him from the uni- 
 versity.t 
 
 Hussites, indignant at the burning of Wiclet's books, as contrary to 
 the privileges of the university of Prague, having sent a deputy to 
 the university of Bologna, to complain of this indignity, the latter 
 had the boldness to condemn the deed — "on ne devait pas avoir brule 
 les livres de ce Docteur, de peur de s'attirer quelque ressentiment de la 
 part de I'Angleterre." (L'Enfant, Hist, de Concile de Pise, torn. ii. 
 p. 48.) 
 
 * Histoire des Martyrs, f. 264, edit. 1597, folio. Zanchu Epist. 
 lib. ii. col. 278. 
 
 t Pantaleon, Rerum in Eccl. Gest. lib. ix. f 263. 
 
96 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 The state of religious feeling at Bologna is depict- 
 ed in a letter, as singular in its style as in its matter, 
 which some inhabitants of that city addressed, in 
 1533, to John Planhz, ambassador from the elector of 
 Saxony to Charles V., who was then in Italy. Hav- 
 ing mentioned the report that he was sent to entreat 
 the emperor to use his influence with the pope to call 
 a council for the reformation of the church, an object 
 which had been long and earnestly expected by aU 
 good men, they proceed in the following manner: — 
 "If this be true, as we trust it is, then we offer our 
 thanks to you all — to you for visiting this Babylonian 
 land — to Germany for demanding a council — and es- 
 pecially to your evangelical prince, who has under- 
 taken the defence of the gospel and of all the faith- 
 ful, with such ardour, that not content with restor- 
 ing the grace and liberty of Chiist to his native 
 Saxony and to Germany, he seeks to extend the same 
 blessings to England, France, Spain, Italy, and the 
 churches in every other country. We are quite 
 aware that it is a matter of small consequence to you 
 whether a council is assembled or not, seeing you 
 have already, as becomes strenuous and faithful Chris- 
 tians, thrown off the tyrannical yoke of antichrist, 
 and asserted your right to the sacred privileges of the 
 free kingdom of Jesus Christ; so that you everywhere 
 read, write, and preach at your pleasure, without any 
 other restraint than the apostolic rule, that the spirits 
 of the prophets be subject to the judgment of the 
 prophets who mutually teach and hear. We are 
 aware, also, that it gives you no uneasiness to know 
 that you are loaded in foreign countries with the 
 heavy charge of heresy, but that, on the contrary, you 
 esteem it matter of joy and eternal gloriation to be 
 the first to suffer reproaches, imprisonment, and fire 
 and sword, for the name of Jesus. It is therefore 
 plain to us, that, in urging the convocation of such a 
 synod, you do not look to the advantage of the Ger- 
 mans, but that, obeying the apostolical injunction, you 
 seek the advantage and salvation of other nations. 
 On this account, all Christians profess themselves un- 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 97 
 
 der the deepest obligations to you, and especially we 
 of Italy, who, in proportion to our proximity to the 
 tyrannical court, (alas ! we cherish the tyrant in our 
 bosom,) are bound to give thanks for the divine bless- 
 mg of your liberation. We beseech and obtest you, 
 by the faith of Christ, (though you are sufficiently dis- 
 posed to this already, and need not our admonitions,) 
 to employ every means in your power with the religi- 
 ous emperor, and to leave no stone unturned to ob- 
 tain this most desirable and necessary assembly, in 
 which you can scarcely fail to succeed, as his gentle 
 and gracious majesty knows that this is desired, de- 
 manded, expected, and loudly called for by the most 
 pious, learned, and honourable men in the most illus- 
 trious cities of Italy, and even in Rome itself; many 
 of whom, we have no doubt, will flock to you, as 
 soon as they shall learn that this is the object of your 
 embassy. In fine, we hope that this will be willingly 
 granted, as a thing most reasonable in itself, and con- 
 sonant to the constitutions of the apostles and holy 
 fathers, that Christians shall have lilDerty to examine 
 one another's confessions, since the just live not by 
 the faith of others, but by their own, otherwise faith 
 is not faith; nor can that persuasion which is not di- 
 vinely produced in the heart be properly called per- 
 suasion, but rather a violent and forced impulse, 
 which the simplest and most ignorant must perceive 
 to be utterly unavailing to salvation. But if the mal- 
 ice of Satan still rages to such a degree that this boon 
 cannot be immediately obtained, liberty will surely 
 be granted in the mean time both to clergy and laity 
 to purchase Bibles without incurring the charge of 
 heresy, and to quote the sayings of Christ or Paul 
 without being branded as Lutherans. For, alas ! in- 
 stances of this abominable practice are common ; and 
 if this is not a mark of the reign of antichrist, we 
 laiow not what it is, when the law, and grace, and 
 doctrine, and peace and liberty of Christ, are so open- 
 ly opposed, trampled upon, and rejected."* 
 
 The number of persons addicted to Protestantism 
 
 * Seckendorf, lib. iii. p. 68, 69. 
 
98 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 in Bologna continued to be great, many years after 
 this period. In a letter written in the year 1541, Bu- 
 cer congratulates them on their increasing knowledge 
 and numbers;* and, in 1545, Baldassare Altieri writes 
 to an acquaintance in Germany, that a nobleman in 
 that city was ready to raise six thousand soldiers in 
 favour of the evangelical party, if it was found neces- 
 sary to make war against the pope.t 
 
 That the desire for ecclesiastical reform was as 
 strongly and generally felt through Italy as is repre- 
 sented in the letter of the Bolognese Protestants, ap- 
 pears from a measure adopted by the court of Rome 
 at this time. Averse to the holding of a general 
 council, and yet unable to evade the importunities of 
 those who demanded it, pope Paul III. in 1537, ap- 
 pointed four cardinals and five prelates J to meet at 
 Bologna, and charged them, after due deliberation, to 
 lay before him their advice as to the best method of 
 reforming the abuses of the Church. The members 
 of this commission, including some of the most re- 
 spectable dignitaries of the Church, met according- 
 ly, and presented their joint advice to his holiness. 
 Though they touched the sores of the ecclesiastic 
 body with a gentle hand, they acknowledged that 
 both head and members '^ laboured under a pestife 
 rous malady, which, if not cured, would prove fatal;" 
 and, among the evils which cabled for a speedy reme- 
 dy, they specified the admission of improper persons 
 to the priesthood, the sale of benefices, the disposition 
 of them by testaments, the granting of dispensations 
 and exemptions, and the union of bishoprics, inclu- 
 ding " the incompatible offices of cardinal and bish- 
 op." Addressing the supreme pontiff, they say, " Some 
 of your predecessors in the pontifical chair, having 
 itching ears, have heaped to themselves teachers ac- 
 cording to their own lusts, who, instead of instructing 
 them what they ought to do, were expert in finding 
 
 * Buceri Scripta Anglican, p. 687. t Seckend. p. 579. 
 
 t These were cardinals Contarini, CarafFa, Sadolet, and Pole; Fre- 
 goso, archbishop of Salerno, Aleander of Brindisi, and Gibert of Ve- 
 rona, Cortese, abbot of St. George of Venice, and Badia, master of the 
 Sacred Palace. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 99 
 
 out reasons to justify what they wished to do, and en- 
 couraged them in their simoniacal practices, by main- 
 taining their right to dispose, at their pleasure, of all 
 ecclesiastical property."* No one acquainted with 
 the politics of the court of Rome will suppose that it 
 was serious in the proposal to reform these abuses. 
 The Advice was approved of and printed by the or- 
 der of Paul III.; but, instead of carrying it into exe- 
 cution, he glaringly transgressed its provisions in vari- 
 ous instances.! Nor did. the advisers themselves tes- 
 tify any forwardness to exemplify their own rules. 
 The cardinals retained their bishopricks ; Pole did not 
 think it necessary to lay aside the purple when he 
 became primate of all England; and Caraffa, when he 
 afterwards ascended the papal throne, under the title 
 of Paul IV. put the Advice which he had given to 
 his predecessor into the list of prohibited books. J 
 The protestants, however, did not overlook this docu- 
 ment. A copy of the Advice being sent to Germa- 
 ny,§ it was published in Latin, with a prefatory epis- 
 
 * Wolfii Lect. Memorab. torn. ii. p. 398—449 ; where the Consilium 
 is inserted at length, with a preface by Vergerio. It was reprinted, 
 along with the letter to cardinal Quirini mentioned in the subsequent 
 note, by Schelhorn, who added to it Sturm ius* epistle, and the cor- 
 respondence to which this gave rise between that learned man and 
 Sadolet. 
 
 t During the last century, cardinal Quirini took occasion, from 
 this private council, to extol the exertions of the pope to reform 
 ecclesiastical abuses, in his prefaces to his edition of cardinal Pole's 
 Letters, and also in his Diatriba de Gesiis Fauli III. Farncsii, pub- 
 lished at Brescia in 1745, To this two able replies were made; one 
 by Joan. Rudolphus Kiesling, entitled, Epistola de Gcstis Paiili Tertii 
 ad emendationem Ecclesia spectantihus, Lipsiee, 1747 ; and the other 
 by Jo. Georg. Sehclhorn, entitled, De Consilio de Etnendanda Ecclcsia, 
 jussu Fauli Tertii, sed ah eodem ne<rlecto. Tiguri, 1748. 
 
 X In opposition to a statement by Schelhorn, cardinal Quirini 
 maintained that Paul IV. did not condemn the Consilium, but only 
 the commentaries which Sturmius and otbers wrote on it. Schelhorn 
 has refuted the arguments of the cardinal, and confirmed his original 
 statement, in a tract, entitled, De Consilio de Emendanda Ecclexiay 
 auspiciis Pauli III. consciipto ; ac a Faulo IV. damnato. Tig. 
 1748. It is prohibited under the following title: — "Consiglio d'alcu- 
 ni Vescovi congregati in Bologna." (Index Auct. et Lib. Prohib. sig. 
 B 2. Romce, 1559.) 
 
 § Cardinal Quirini at first asserted that it was originally printed by 
 the Protestants, but he afterv/ards found two copies of it printed at 
 Rome in 1538, by the authority of the pope. (Ut supra, p. 9.) 
 
100 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 tie by Sturmius, rector of the academy of Strasburg ; 
 and in German by Luther, accompanied with ani- 
 madversions, in which among other satirical remarks, 
 he says, that the cardinals contented themselves with 
 removing the small twigs, while they allowed the 
 trunk of corruption to remain unmolested, and like 
 the Pharisees of old, strained at flies and swallowed 
 camels. To set this before the eyes of his readers, 
 he prefixed to the book a print, in which the pope is 
 represented as seated on a high throne, surrounded 
 by the cardinals, who hold in their hands long poles 
 with foxes' tails fixed to them like brooms, with 
 which they sweep the room. Pallavicini is displeas- 
 ed with this measure of the pope, who, "by ordering 
 a reformation of manners, acknowledged the exist- 
 ence of corruptions, and countenanced the detracting 
 speeches which heretics circulated among the vul- 
 gar."* The following was an article of the propo- 
 sed reform: — "Since boys are now accustomed to 
 read at schools the colloquies of Erasmus, in which 
 are many things calculated to betray uninformed 
 minds into impiety, the reading of that book or any 
 other of the same kind shall be prohibited in semina- 
 ries of learning.^t To this was affixed the name of 
 Sadolet ! Well might Melanchthon express a sur- 
 prise, not unmingled with scorn, at this conclusion, 
 and at the whole of the ridiculous affair. "I have 
 not yet answered Sadolet," says he, in a letter to a 
 friend. "I would certainly have written him, if I 
 had leisure for it; but am of opinion, that the delay 
 will not be without its utility, considering the way in 
 which he is acting. My friends write me from Italy 
 that he is off'ended at my silence, and that some per- 
 sons have incensed him against me. He seems to 
 have thought, that, by one letter sent into Germany, 
 
 * Storia Concil. Trent, lib. iii. sect. 57, § 3. 
 
 tOn the margin of that part of the Advice which relates to Eras- 
 mus, Luther wrote, Wolte Gott er solte leben! O that he had heen alive I 
 — an exclamation expressive of regret at the recent death of an illus- 
 trious antagonist, mingled with delight at the thought of the merited 
 castigation which Erasmus, if he had been in life, would have be- 
 stowed on the mitred censors of his favourite work. (Seckend. lib. 
 iii, p. 164.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 101 
 
 he would, as with the music of Orpheus, charm, not 
 only me, who, I confess, am weak, but all my coun- 
 trymen, and induce us to abandon the cause. The 
 only friend of peace at Rome Avas Schonberg, cardi- 
 nal of Capua, who thought that some concessions 
 ought to be made. I formerly looked upon him as a 
 person of great moderation, and am confirmed in this 
 opinion by the letters which I have received from my 
 friends since his death, which has produced a great 
 change of counsels. There has just been published 
 a ridiculous consultation of the cardinals about the 
 correction of abuses, at which the colloquies of Eras- 
 mus were forbidden to be used in schools ; and to this 
 consultation were called these heroes, Aleander and 
 Sadolet.^^"^' What pigmies do mere men of letters 
 appear in the eyes of a man, I say not of stern virtue, 
 but of sterling principle ! 
 
 Faenza and Imola are both situated in that part 
 of Italy which was called the patrimony of St. Peter, 
 and acknowledged the popes as their temporal sover- 
 eigns. It has been already mentioned that the refor- 
 med doctrine was introduced into the former city. 
 That it gained admission into the latter appears from 
 an anecdote related in a letter of Thomas Lieber, a 
 German, (better known, in the controversy respecting 
 ecclesiastical discipline, by his Greek name of Eras- 
 tiis,) who was then prosecuting his medical studies at 
 the neighbouring university of Bologna. An Obser- 
 vantine monk, preaching one day at Imola, told the 
 people that it behoved them to purchase heaven by 
 the merit of their good works. A boy, who was 
 present, exclaimed, " That's blasphemy ! for the Bible 
 tells us that Christ purchased heaven by his suffer- 
 ings and death, and bestows it on us freely by his 
 mercy." A dispute of considerable length ensued 
 between the youth and the preacher. Provoked at 
 the pertinent replies of his juvenile opponent, and at 
 the favourable reception which the audience gave 
 
 * Melanch. Epist. coll, 752, 753. Slcidan's account of the senti- 
 ments and conduct of the cardinal of Capua is different from that of 
 Melanchthon. (Comment, torn. ii. p. 117.) 
 
102 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 them, "Get you gone, you young rascal!" exclaimed 
 the monk, " you are but just come from the cradle, 
 and will you take it upon you to judge of sacred 
 things, which the most learned cannot explain?" — 
 "Did you never read these words, ^ Out of the mouths 
 of babes and sucklings God perfects praise?'" rejoin- 
 ed the youth; upon which the preacher quitted the 
 pulpit in wrathful confusion, breathing out threaten- 
 ings against the poor boy, who was instantly thrown 
 into prison, "where he still lies," says the writer of 
 the letter, which was dated on the 31st of December 
 1544.* 
 
 Venice, of ah the states of Italy, afforded the 
 greatest facilities for the propagation of the new opin- 
 ions, and the safest asylum to those who suffered for 
 their adherence to them. Well apprized of the am- 
 bition and encroaching spirit of the Roman court, the 
 senate had uniformly resisted the attempts made to 
 establish the inquisition, and was cautious in allowing 
 the edicts of the Vatican to be promulgated or carried 
 into efiect, within the Venetian territories. Political 
 sagacity counteracted the narrow views of a proud 
 and jealous aristocracy, and taught them to relax the 
 severity of their internal police. Venice had risen to 
 power and opulence by commerce ; and the conces- 
 sion of a more than ordinary freedom of thinking and 
 speaking was necessary to encourage strangers to visit 
 her ports and markets. The Venetian republic was 
 then among popish what Holland afterwards be- 
 came among Protestant states. She was distin- 
 guished for the number of her printing presses;! and 
 while letters were cultivated elsewhere for them- 
 selves, or to gratify the vanity of their patrons, they 
 were encouraged here, from the additional considera- 
 tion of their forming an important and not unproduc- 
 tive branch of manufacture and merchandise. The 
 books of the German and Swiss Protestants were con- 
 signed to merchants at Venice, from which they were 
 
 * Schelhorni AmcEnit. Hist. Eccles. toni. ii. p. 54. 
 t See, besides the common typograpliic authorities, Le Brett Dis- 
 sertatio de Ecclesia Groeca hodierna in Dalmatia, &c. p. 22, 93. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 103 
 
 circulated to the different parts of Italy;* and it was 
 in this city that versions of the Bible and other reli- 
 gious books in the vulgar tongue were chiefly printed. 
 
 We have already had occasion to notice, that the 
 first writings of Luther were read in Venice soon af- 
 ter they were published. In a letter written in the 
 year 1528, the reformer says to a friend, "You give 
 me joy by what you write of the Venetians receiving 
 the word of God. To him be the thanks and glo- 
 ry.''! In the course of the following year, he was in 
 correspondence with James Ziegler, a learned man, 
 who possessed great authority at Venice, and was fa- 
 vourable to the grand attempt to reform religion, 
 though he never joined its standard. J Ziegler had 
 sent from Venice to Wittenberg, his adopted brother, 
 Theodore Veit,§ who acted for some time as secretary 
 or amanuensis to Luther, and afterwards became 
 minister of Nurenberg. This is the person so often 
 mentioned under the name of Theodorus Vitus in the 
 letters of Melanchthon, and through whom that Re- 
 former chiefly received his intelligence respecting the 
 Protestants in Italy. || 
 
 An occurrence which took place in 1530, shows that 
 there were then numbers in Venice who felt a deep 
 interest in the cause of the Reformation. While car- 
 
 **'BeHe vale; et si quando deest scribendi argumentum, vel de 
 communibus studiis, vel si quid librorum Germani mancipes nuper 
 Venetias invexerint, perscribe." (Gael. Galcagninus Peregrine Mora- 
 to; Epist. lib. xi. p. 158.) 
 
 t Luther's Sanitliche Schriflen, torn. xxi. p. 1092. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 1163. Ziegler was the intimate friend of Celio Calcagni- 
 ri, who has celebrated his talents and virtues in the warmest manner. 
 (Galcagnini Opera, p. 54 — 57, 67, 86.) He was distinguished for his 
 skill in mathematics, geography, and natural history, and published 
 the principal works of the ancients on these subjects, with annota- 
 tions. Sciielhorn published his Historia Clementis VII. and prefixed 
 to it, a treatise De Vita et Sciiptis Jacobi Ziegleri, which contains cu- 
 rious particulars concerning the learning and literati of that time. 
 (Amoenit. Hist. Eccles. et Liter, torn. ii. p. 210, &c.) 
 
 § Buddeus, in his Supplement to Luther's Letters, (p. 74,) reads, 
 "misit ad me ^jirum, (instead o^ vitum,) fratrem sibi adoptatum;" 
 a mistake which has been corrected by Walch. He is also called 
 Veit Dietrich, in the correspondence of Luther and Melanchthon. 
 
 II Melanch. Epist, col. 598, 835, &-c. Conf. Seckcnd. Index I. art. 
 Theodoricus. 
 
104 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 dinal Campeggio attended the imperial diet at Augs- 
 burg as papal legate, a report was widely spread that 
 he had wrought so far on the yielding temper of Me- 
 lanchthon, as to persuade him to submit to the judg- 
 ment of the supreme pontiff. This excited great un- 
 easiness in the breasts of the Venetians who favoured 
 the gospel, one of whom, Lucio Paolo Rosselli, ad- 
 dressed a letter to that Reformer, conceived in a noble 
 spirit. After expressing the high esteem which he 
 felt for the character of Melanchthon, and the delight 
 which he had received from his writings, he exhorts 
 him, in respectful language, but with an honest free- 
 dom, to show himself a firm and intrepid defender of 
 that faith to which he had been the honoured instru- 
 ment of winning so many. "In this cause," contin- 
 ues he, "you ought to regard neither emperor, nor 
 pope, nor any other mortal, but the immortal God on- 
 ly. If there be any truth in what the papists circu- 
 late about you, the worst consequences must accrue 
 to the gospel, and to those who have been led to em- 
 brace it through your instrumentality and that of Lu- 
 ther. Be assured that all Italy waits with anxiety for 
 the result of your assembly at Augsburg. Whatever 
 is determined by it, will be embraced by Christians in 
 other countries through the authority of the emperor. 
 It behoves you and others, who are there for the pur- 
 pose of defending the gospel, to be firm, and not to 
 suffer yourselves to be either frightened from the 
 standard of Christ by threats, or drawn from it by en- 
 treaties and promises. I implore and obtest you, as 
 the head and leader of the whole evangelical army, to 
 regard the salvation of every individual. Though 
 you should be called to suffer death for the glory of 
 Christ, fear not, I beseech you ; it is better to die with 
 honour than to live in disgrace. You shall secure a 
 glorious triumph from Jesus Christ, if you defend his 
 righteous cause; and in doing this, you may depend 
 on the aid of the prayers and supplications of many 
 who, day and night, entreat Almighty God to prosper 
 the cause of the gospel, and to preserve you and its 
 other champions through the blood of his Son. Fare- 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 105 
 
 well, and desert not the cause of Christ."^' In the 
 course of the same month, this zealous person wrote a 
 second time to Melanchthon, enclosing a copy of the 
 letter which the Reformer was said to have addressed 
 to the legate. If unhappily he had been induced to 
 write in a strain so unworthy of his character, RosseUi 
 exhorts him to evince the more courage and con- 
 stancy for the future ; but if it was a fabrication, as 
 many of his friends asserted, then he should lose no 
 time in exposing such a malicious calumny, and main- 
 tain henceforth a declared and open warfare with 
 men who sought to accomplish their ends by the base 
 arts of stratagem and falsehood.! 
 
 Among those who contributed most to propagate 
 the reformed opinions at Venice, were Pietro Carne- 
 secchi, Baldo Lupetino, and Baldassare Altieri. With 
 the first, we shall afterwards have occasion to meet 
 among the martyrs of Italy. The second, who also 
 obtained the crown of martyrdom, was a native of 
 Albona, of noble extraction, and held in high esteem 
 for his learning and worth. He was provincial of the 
 Franciscans within the Venetian territories, and in 
 that character, had the best opportunities of communi- 
 cating religious instruction, and of protecting those 
 who had received it. J It was by his advice that Mat- 
 teo Flacio, a kinsman of his, altered his resolution of 
 assuming the monastic garb, and retired into Germa- 
 ny, where he became distinguished for his learned 
 writings, and the active though intemperate part 
 which he took in the internal disputes which agitated 
 the Lutheran church. § Altieri, though a native of 
 
 * " Venetiis 8. 3 Kal. Augusti, anno 1530." Cselestini Act. Comit. 
 August, torn. ii. f. 274. 
 
 t Cselestin. torn. iii. f. 18. Wolfii Lect. Memorab. torn. ii. p. 344 — 
 345 ; where Melanchthon's letter to Campeggio is also inserted. If 
 really written by him, it was sufficiently humble. 
 
 I Ritteri Vita Flacii Illyrici, p. 8. apud Gerdes. Ital. Ref. p. 58, 
 172—174. 
 
 § He is usually called MatthcBus Flacius Elyricus, and was the 
 principal compiler of the Ecclesiastical History known by the title of 
 CenturicB Magdeburgenses, and of the Catalogus Testium Veritatis. 
 An early and still valuable work on biblical interpretation, entitled, 
 Clavis Sacra Scriptures, is the production of his pen. His account 
 
 8 
 
106 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Aqiiila in Naples, had fixed his residence at Venice, 
 where he acted for some time as the secretary of the 
 EngUsh ambassador, and afterwards as agent for the 
 Protestant princes of Germany. He was distinguish- 
 ed for his ardent devotion to the reformed reUgion, 
 which his official situations enabled him to advance, 
 by the epistolary correspondence which he carried on 
 with foreign courts, the books which he brought into 
 Italy, and the advice and assistance which he was 
 always ready to afford to such of his countrymen as 
 had embraced or were inquiring after the truth.* 
 
 The evangelical doctrine had made such progress 
 in the city of Venice between the years 1530 and 
 1542, that its friends, who had hitherto met in pri- 
 vate for mutual instruction and religious exercises, 
 held deliberations on the propriety of organizing them- 
 selves into regular congregations and assembling in 
 public.t Several members of the senate were favour- 
 able to it, and hopes were entertained at one time 
 that the authority of that body would be interposed 
 in its behalf In the beginning of the year 1538, 
 Michele Bracchiolii came from Italy to Wittemberg 
 to confer on religion with Melanchthon, who was 
 greatly delighted with his manners and the elegance 
 of his taste. § Being called home unexpectedly, by 
 information that his brother was in danger of pro- 
 scription, he returned to Germany in the course of a 
 year, charged with a message to Melanchthon, from 
 
 of his own life, under the title of Historia Actionum ct Certaminum, 
 vvliich abounds in anecdotes of his time, is exceedingly rare. 
 
 * Laderchii Annal. Eccl. torn. xxii. f. 325. Seckendorf, lib. iii. p. 
 404, 578, 614. Schelhorn, Ergoetzlichkeiten, torn. i. p. 423. 
 
 t Gerdes. Ital. Ref. p. 57. 
 
 t Schelhorn thinks it probable that the translator, mistaking the 
 handwriting of Melanchthon, which was not very legible, had read 
 Bracchiolns instead of Brucchioliis, and that the person referred to 
 might be a brother of Brucioli, the translator of the Bible. (ErgcEtz- 
 lichkeiten, torn. i. p. 420 — 422.) There certainly is some mistake 
 as to the name; for the person who is called Bracchiolus in one letter 
 of Melanchthon, is called DraccicUis in another. 
 
 § "Est enim et ingenii suavitate summa praeditus, et in versu 
 scribendo elegans et venustus, seque ad imitationem Catulli compa- 
 ravit, quern feliciter exprimit." (Epist. Melanchthonis ad Vitum, a. 
 1538. Collect. Joh. Sauberti, lib. iv. p. 46.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 107 
 
 the friends of reformation in Venice. This encour- 
 aged the Reformer to address a letter to the senate, in 
 which he expressed the high satisfaction which he 
 felt at hearing, that many honourable persons among 
 them entertained a favourable opinion of the reform 
 of ecclesiastical abuses which had been made in Ger- 
 many. After a short statement of the cautious man- 
 ner in which the Reformers had proceeded, by taking 
 care to repress popular tumults and avoid dangerous 
 innovations, and after suggesting some considerations 
 to show that various corruptions had been introduced 
 into the church, Melanchthon adds — "Such slavery 
 surely ought not to be established, as that we should 
 be obliged, for peace's sake, to approve of all the 
 errors of those who govern the church; and learned 
 men especially ought to be protected in the liberty of 
 expressing their opinions and of teaching. As your 
 city is the only one in the world which enjoys a gen- 
 uine aristocracy, preserved during many ages and 
 always hostile to tyranny, it becomes it to protect good 
 men in freedom of thinking, and to discourage that 
 unjust cruelty which is exercised in other places. 
 Wherefore, I cannot refrain from exhorting you to 
 employ your care and authority for advancing the 
 divine glory, a service which is most acceptable to 
 God."* Had Venice been then treated by the court 
 of Rome in the same manner in which it was treated 
 by it at the commencement of the seventeenth centu- 
 
 * Melanchthonis Epistolse, Coll. 150—154, edit. Londini. Schel. 
 horn (Amoen. Liter, torn. i. p. 422) suspects that Melanchthon was 
 not on terms of such intimacy with the senators of Venice as to 
 address a letter to them, and is of opinion that it was addressed Ad 
 Venetorvm quosdam Evangelii studiosos, under which title it appears 
 in the Selectee Declamationes of the author, published in 1541, p. 804. 
 But the letter contains internal evidence of its having been intended 
 for the magistrates of that repubhc; and Bock states, that he had 
 seen, in the Royal Library of Koenigsberg, a copy of the original edi- 
 tion, printed at Nurenberg, and bearing this title, Epislola Philippi 
 Melanchthonis ad Senatum Venetiim. It was a presentation copy to 
 Prince Albert the elder, who had written on the title-page, " Acccpi 
 d. 17. Julii, a. 1538, per Eliam Plesse, Wratislauicnsem ;" which 
 proves that the letter was written earlier than has been supposed. 
 (Hist. Antitrin. torn. ii. p. 398.) 
 
lOS HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ry, it is highly probable that the republic would have 
 declared in favour of the Reformation; and, in that 
 case, it might at this day have possessed its political 
 independence, if not also regained its ancient glory. 
 
 The gospel was introduced into the different terri- 
 tories belonging to the republic of Venice. At Padua 
 it was embraced by many of the students and some 
 of the professors in the university, which was cele- 
 brated at that period as a school of medicine.* At 
 Verona and at Brescia there were converts to the 
 reformed faith.t In the Bergamasco, the bishop, Vit- 
 tore Soranzo, was favourable to evangelical doctrine, 
 and exerted himself in reforming his clergy, ij: But 
 the greatest number of Protestants were to be found 
 in the P^icentino diwdi TVei^z^aTzo, situated in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Venice. In the year 1535, the doge de- 
 livered up to the vicar-general of Vicenza a German, 
 named Sigismund, to be punished for disseminating 
 the Lutheran heresy in that diocese ; for which act of 
 filial obedience his excellency was formally thanked 
 by Paul III. in a pontifical brief § This example of 
 severity had not, however, the effect of arresting the 
 progress of the reformed doctrine, which was patron- 
 ized, or at least connived at and tolerated by the local 
 magistrates; for, in a papal rescript addressed to the 
 doge and senate ten years after, his holiness repre- 
 sents, that he had repeatedly notified to them, by 
 letters and nuncios, that heresy had sprung up and 
 been embraced by not a few in their city of Vicenza, 
 and that the governor and magistrates of that place, 
 though instructed by them to co-operate with their 
 bishop in extirpating it, had hitherto refused to grant 
 that assistance which was absolutely necessary to ac- 
 
 * Melanch. Epist. coll. 373, 443, 758. Preface, by Cselio Secundo 
 Curio, to the Life of Francis Spira, by Matteo Gribaldi, first printed 
 in 1550. 
 
 t Gerdes. Ital. Ref. p. 274, 280, 338, 351. 
 
 I De Porta, Hist. Reformat. Ecclesiarum Rhoeticarum, torn. ii. 
 p. 253. Laderchius introduces Victor Saranzius, bishop of Berg-amo, 
 among those whom he calls Valdesians, Lutherans, Zuinglians, and 
 Calvinists. (Annales ad an. 1567.) 
 
 § Raynaldi Annal. ad an. 1535. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 109 
 
 complish this pious purpose : so that the heretics had 
 been emboldened, and there was reason to fear that 
 these pestilent tenets would take root and spread to 
 adjoining cities, unless prompt measures were taken 
 to apprehend and punish the guilty.* 
 
 A letter addressed to Luther, in the year 1542, by 
 Altieri, "in the name of the brethren of the Church of 
 Venice, Vicenza, and Treviso," is valuable, as evin- 
 cing the excellent spirit of the writer, and throwing 
 light on the state of the Protestant interest in that 
 quarter, and in Italy at large. They felt ashamed, 
 he said, and were unable to account for the fact, that 
 they had so long failed to acknowledge the deep obli- 
 gations which they lay under to him as the individual 
 by whom they had been brought to the knowledge 
 of the way of salvation ; whether it was that the sud- 
 denness of their emancipation had astounded their 
 minds, or whether a certain rustic bashfulness and 
 servile dread had deterred them from addressing so 
 grave and holy a personage. But now necessity, and 
 the urgency of their circumstances, had driven them 
 to that course which ingratitude and culpable negli- 
 gence had hitherto prevented them from taking. Anti- 
 christ had begun to rage against them. Some of their 
 number had been obliged to leave the country, others 
 were thrown into prison, and the rest were in a state 
 of trepidation. As members of the same body, they 
 looked for the sympathy and assistance of their breth- 
 ren in Germany, at whose call they had come forth 
 and espoused that cause for the sake of which they 
 were now exposed to such imminent danger. What 
 they begged of him was, to use his influence with the 
 evangelical princes of Germany to write in their be- 
 half, requesting the senate of Venice to abstain from 
 that violence which the ministers of the pope urged 
 it to employ against the poor flock of Christ, and to 
 permit them to enjoy their own manner of worship, 
 at least until the meeting of a general council, in the 
 way of adopting measures to prevent all sedition and 
 
 * Raynaldi Annal. ad an. 1545. 
 
110 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 disturbance of the public peace. "If God grant/^ 
 continues he, "that we obtain a truce of this kind, 
 what accessions will be made to the kingdom of Christ 
 in point of faith and charity ! How many preach es 
 will appear to announce Christ faithfully to the peo- 
 ple ! How many prophets, who now lurk in corners, 
 exanimated with undue fears, will come forth to ex- 
 pound the Scriptures ! The harvest is truly great, but 
 there are no labourers. You know what a great in- 
 crease your churches had, and what a wide door was 
 opened for the gospel, by the truce which, as we un- 
 derstand, you have enjoyed for three years. Exert 
 yourselves to procure the same favour for us; cherish 
 the common cause ; do your endeavour, that by this 
 means the consolation which is by Christ may be im- 
 parted to us, who daily suffer for Christ ; for it is our 
 fervent desire that the word of God may be spread 
 abroad, but we have none to feed us, unless our want 
 be supplied out of your abundance."* 
 
 The Milanese, as early as the year 1542, con- 
 tained adherents to the reformed doctrine. t Several " 
 causes contributed to its propagation in this interest- 
 ing portion of Italy. The struggle which Milan, the 
 capital of Lombardy, had anciently maintained for its 
 ecclesiastical independence, continued to be remem- 
 bered long after its submission to the see of Rome ; a 
 circumstance which, joined to the natural advantages 
 of the country, drew to it those who dissented from 
 the doctrines or declined the communion of the gen- 
 eral Church. The Milanese bordered on Switzerland, 
 in which the reformed doctrine established itself at an 
 early period, and on Piedmont, where the Vaudois 
 had for centuries fixed their residence. To these 
 causes may be added the political state of the duchy, 
 and the protracted contest for its sovreignty between 
 Francis I. and Charles V., with its alternate occupa- 
 tion by the armies of the contending monarchs; in 
 consequence of which, the efforts of the Reformers to 
 
 * Seckendorf, lib. iii. p. 401. 
 
 t Erasmi Epistolae : Gerdes. Hist. Ref. torn. iv. p. 30. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. Ill 
 
 spread their sentiments were for a time overlooked. 
 In a brief addressed to the bishop of Modena, in the 
 year 1536, Paul III. states that he was informed that 
 there had been lately discovered, in the religious and 
 illustrious state of Milan, conventicles, consisting of 
 noble persons of both sexes, belonging to a sect hold- 
 ing and observing the tenets of one friar Batista de 
 Crema, by which many heresies, condemned by the 
 ancient Church, were fostered. His holiness there- 
 fore commands the bishop, who was then at Milan, 
 to make inquisition after these conventicles and 
 heretics, and to see that condign punishment was in- 
 flicted on the guilty, so that the pravity sown by the 
 devil might be extirpated before it had time to shoot 
 up and strengthen.* Though the "impure tenets of 
 ancient heretics" are imputed to these "innovators," 
 according to the usual language of the Church of 
 Rome, there can be little doubt that they held the 
 common opinions of Luther and Zuingle. 
 
 This part of our history is closely connected with 
 some interesting facts in the chequered life of a man 
 who had great influence in promoting the cause of 
 the Reformation in Italy. Celio Secundo Curione, or 
 Curio, was born at Turin in 1503, and was the 
 youngest of twenty -three children. When only nine 
 years of age he was left an orphan, but being allied 
 to several noble families in Piedmont, received a 
 liberal education at the university of his native city. 
 In his youth, he was induced to read the Bible with 
 more than ordinary attention, in consequence of his 
 father having bequeathed him a copy of that book 
 beautifully written ; and when he reached his twen- 
 tieth year, he had the writings of the Reformers put 
 into his hands, by means of Jeronimo Negri of Fos- 
 sano, who, along with some others in the Augustinian 
 monastery of Turin, had come to the knowledge of 
 the truth. This inflamed him with a desire of visiting 
 Germany, to which he set out, accompanied by Gia- 
 como Cornello and Francesco Guarino, who after- 
 wards became distinguished ministers of the reformed 
 
 * Raynaldi Annales, ad an. 1536. 
 
112 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 church. Having, on their journey, entered incautious- 
 ly into dispute on the controverted heads of rehgion, 
 they were informed against, seized by the spies of the 
 cardinal bishop of Ivree, and thrown into separate 
 prisons. Curio was released through the intercession 
 of his relations ; and the cardinal, pleased with his 
 talents, endeavoured to attach him to himself by the 
 offer of pecuniary assistance in his studies, and by 
 placing him in the neighbouring priory of St. Benigno, 
 with the administration of which he had been in- 
 trusted by the late pope Leo X. In this situation 
 Curio exerted himself in enlightening the monks and 
 freeing their minds from the influence of superstition. 
 He one day opened a box, placed on the altar of the 
 chapel, and having abstracted the relics from it, sub- 
 stituted a copy of the Bible, with the following inscrip- 
 tion, " This is the ark of the covenant, which contains 
 the oracles of God, the true relics of the saints." When 
 the relics were required on the next solemn festival, the 
 trick was discovered, and suspicion having fallen on 
 Curio, he fled and made his escape to Milan. This hap- 
 pened about the year 1530. After visiting Rome and 
 several cities in Italy, he returned to the Milanese, 
 where he married a lady belonging to the illustrious 
 family of the Isacii, and devoted himself to the teach- 
 ing of polite letters, by which he gained great reputa- 
 tion in the city and vicinity of Milan. The ravages 
 committed by the Spanish troops obliging him to quit 
 the Milanese, he embraced an invitation from the 
 count of Montferrat, under whose protection he re- 
 sided for some years in tranquillity at Casale.* 
 
 Being persuaded to visit his native country, with 
 the view of recovering his patrimony, he found it 
 seized by one of his sisters and her husband, who 
 unnaturally preferred a -charge of heresy against him, 
 as the most effectual way of defeating his legal claims. 
 Upon this he retired to a village in the territories of 
 the duke of Savoy, where he was employed in teach- 
 ing the children of the neighbouring gentlemen. Hav- 
 
 * Stupani Oratio de Ccelii Secundi Curionis Vita atque Obitu; in 
 Schelhorni Amoen. Liter, torn. xiv. p. 328 — 336. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 113 
 
 ing gone one day, in company with some of his pa- 
 trons, to hear a Dominican monk from Turin, the 
 preacher, in the course of his sermon, drew a frightful 
 picture of the German Reformers, and, in proof of its 
 justness, gave false quotations from a work pubUshed 
 by Luther. Curio went up to the friar after sermon, 
 and, producing the book, which he happened to have 
 in his possession, read the passages referred to in the 
 presence of the most respectable part of the audience, 
 who, indignant at the misrepresentations which had 
 been impudently palmed on them, drove their ghostly 
 instructor, with disgrace, from the town. Information 
 was immediately given to the inquisitor, and Curio 
 was apprehended and carried a prisoner to his native 
 city, when his meditated journey to Germany and his 
 abstracting of the relics at St. Benigno, were produced 
 as aggravations of his crime and strong presumptions 
 of heretical pravity. As his friends were known to 
 possess great influence, the administrator of the bishop- 
 ric of Turin went to Rome to secure his condemnation, 
 leaving him under the charge of a brother of cardinal 
 Cibo, who, to prevent any attempt at rescue, removed 
 him to an inner room of the prison, and ordered his 
 feet to be made fast in the stocks. In this situation a 
 person of less fortitude and ingenuity would have given 
 himself up for lost; but Curio, having in his youth 
 lived in the neighbourhood of the jail, devised a 
 method of escape, which, through the favour of Pro- 
 vidence, succeeded. His feet being swoln by confine- 
 ment, he prevailed on his keeper to allow him to have 
 his right foot loosed for a day or two. By means of 
 his shoe, together with a reed and a quantity of rags 
 which lay within his reach, he formed an artificial 
 leg, which he fastened to his right knee, in such a 
 manner as that he could move it with ease. Having 
 obtained permission to have his other foot relieved, he 
 inserted the artificial limb into the stocks. Both his 
 feet being thus at liberty, he, during the following 
 night, forced the door of his apartment, felt his way 
 through the dark passages, dropped from a window, 
 and having scaled the walls of his prison with difli- 
 
114 HISTORr OF THE 
 
 culty, made his escape into Italy. As he had extracted 
 the fictitious Umb from the stocks, and taken it to 
 pieces, before leaving the prison, his persecutors could 
 not account for his escape, and circulated the report 
 that he had effected it by magic ; upon which he pub- 
 lished an account of the whole affair, in the form of 
 a dialogue, interspersed with humorous and satirical 
 strictures upon some of the popish errors.* After 
 remaining some months with his family at Sale, a re- 
 mote village in the territory of Milan, he was drawn 
 from his retirement by his former friends and placed 
 in the university of Pavia. As soon as this was known, 
 orders were sent from Rome to apprehend him ; but 
 so great was the favour in which he was held by the 
 principal inhabitants of the place, and by the students, 
 many of whom had come from other seminaries to 
 attend his lectures, that he was protected for nearly 
 three years from the attempts of the inquisitors; a 
 guard, composed of his scholars, accompanying him 
 to and from his house every day, during a great part 
 of that time. At last, the pope threatening the senate 
 of the town with excommunication, he was forced 
 to retire to Venice, from which he removed to Fer- 
 rara. The labours of Curio were blessed for opening 
 the eyes of many to the errors and corruptions of the 
 Roman church, during his journeys through Italy, 
 and the residence which he made in several parts of 
 it, especially in the Milanese.! 
 
 Naples and Sicily had for some time belonged to 
 the crown of Spain, and were now governed by sepa- 
 rate viceroys under the emperor Charles V. In Cala- 
 bria, which formed one of the departments of the 
 kingdom of Naples, the Vaudois still existed; and 
 the doctrine of Luther and the other Reformers now 
 spread extensively in the Neapolitan territory, and 
 
 * It is entitled " Caelii Secundi Curionis Pasquillus Ecstaticus, una 
 cum aliis etiam aliquot Sanctis pariter et lepidis Dialogis;" without 
 date or place of printing. The book was reprinted at Geneva in 
 1667, which is the edition I have used. The Dialogue, so far as it 
 relates to his escape from Turin, is inserted by Schelhorn in the 
 second volume of his Amcenitates Hist. Eccles. et Hist. p. 759 — 776. 
 
 t Stupani Oratio, p. 342. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 115 
 
 especially in its capital. It is supposed to have been 
 first introduced by the German soldiers, who, after 
 the sack of Rome, obliged Lautrec, the French gene- 
 ral, to raise the siege of Naples, and continued to 
 garrison that city for some time.* A rigorous edict, 
 published by Charles V. in the year 1536, by which 
 he charged Don Pedro de Toledo, his viceroy at Na- 
 ples, with the punishment of all who were infected 
 with heresy, or who inclined to it, was intended to 
 extirpate the seeds which had been sown by these 
 foreigners.! 
 
 The Germans were succeeded by a person who, 
 according to the account of a contemporary popish 
 historian, " caused a far greater slaughter of souls than 
 all the thousands of heretical soldiery." J This was 
 Juan Valdes, or as he is sometimes called, Valdesso, 
 a Spanish gentleman, who had gone to Germany 
 along with his sovereign, Charles V. by whom he 
 was knighted and sent to Naples, where he acted as 
 secretary to the viceroy, don Pedro de Toledo. In 
 tracing the progress which the Reformation made in 
 Spain, we shall have an opportunity of showing how 
 the religious opinions of Valdes were formed. § His 
 character was admirably adapted to produce an im- 
 pression favourable to the new opinions. Possessed 
 of considerable learning and of superior address, fer- 
 vent in his piety and gentle in his dispositions, polite 
 in manners and eloquent in conversation, he soon be- 
 came a favourite with the principal nobility and widi 
 all the enlightened men, who, at a certain season of 
 the year, resorted in great numbers to the Neapolitan 
 metropolis. Valdes did not take on him the office of a 
 preacher, and he is an example of the extensive good 
 which may be done by one who confines himself to the 
 sphere within which Providence has placed him. By 
 his private instructions, he not only imbued the minds 
 
 * Anton Caraccioli, Collect, de Vita Pauli IV. p. 239. 
 t Giannone, Hist. Civ. de Naples, liv. xxxii. chap. 5. 
 I Caraccioli, Collect, ut supra. 
 
 § History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in 
 Spain. 
 
116 HISTORY or THE 
 
 of many distinguished laymen with the knowledge of 
 evangelical truth, but contributed materially to ad- 
 vance the illumination and to stimulate the zeal of 
 others, whose station gave them an opportunity of 
 preaching the gospel to the people, or of instilling its 
 doctrines into the minds of the ingenuous youth whose 
 studies they superintended.* Among these were Ochi- 
 no and Martyr, two persons of whom it is proper to 
 give an account, as they produced a strong sensation 
 in their native country, and distinguished themselves 
 afterwards in the reformed churches on this side the 
 Alps. 
 
 Bernardino Ochino, or, as he is sometimes called, 
 Ocello, was born in the year 1487, at Sienna, a city of 
 Tuscany, of obscure parents. Feeling, from his earliest 
 years, a deep sense of religion, he devoted himself, 
 according to the notions of that age, to a monastic 
 life, and joined the Franciscan Observantines, as the 
 strictest of all the orders of the regular clergy. For 
 the same reason he left them, and, in 1534, became a 
 member of the Capuchin brotherhood, which had 
 been recently established according to the most rigid 
 rules of holy living, or rather voluntary humility and 
 mortification.t During his monastic retirement, he 
 acknowledges that he escaped those vices with which 
 his life might have been tainted if he had mixed with 
 the world ; and from the studies of the cloister, bar- 
 ren and unprofitable as they were, reaped a portion 
 of knowledge which was afterwards of some use to 
 him; J but he failed completely in gaining, what was 
 the great thing which induced him to choose that 
 unnatural and irksome mode of life, peace of mind 
 and assurance of salvation. But let us hear his own 
 
 * Caraccioli, ut supra. Giannone, ut supra. Schelhorni Amoenit. 
 Hist. Eccl. torn. ii. p. 49. Simleri Oratio de Vita Martyris, sig. b. iij. 
 
 t De Vita, Religione, et Fatis Bernardini Ochini Senensis ; pub- 
 lished in Observ. Select. Liter. Halens. torn. iv. p. 409 — 414. The 
 author of this Life of Ochino was Burch. Gottlieb Struvius. Some 
 popish writers had incautiously stated that Ochino was the founder 
 of the Capuchins, a heretical blot which their successors were eager 
 to remove. 
 
 t Ochini Dialogi, torn. ii. p. 374. Basil 1563. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 117 
 
 account of his feelings, and of the manner in which 
 a change was first wrought on his sentiments con- 
 cerning rehgion. "Wlien I was a young man, I 
 was under the dominion of the common error by 
 which the minds of all who live under the yoke of 
 the wicked Antichrist are enthralled; so that I be- 
 lieved that we were to be saved by our own works, 
 fastings, prayers, abstinence, watchings, and other 
 things of the same kind, by which we were to make 
 satisfaction for our sins, and purchase heaven, through 
 the concurring grace of God. Wherefore, being anx- 
 ious to be saved, I deliberated with myself what man- 
 ner of life I should follow, and believing that those 
 modes of religion were holy which were approved 
 by the Roman Church, which I regarded as infallible, 
 and judging that the life of the friars of St. Francis, 
 called de observantia, was above all others severe, 
 austere, and rigid, and, on that account, more perfect 
 and conformable to the life of Christ, I entered their 
 society. Although I did not find what I had expect- 
 ed, yet no better way presenting itself to my blinded 
 judgment, I continued among them until the Capu- 
 chin friars made their appearance, when, being struck 
 with the still greater austerity of their mode of living, 
 I assumed their habit, in spite of the resistance made 
 by my sensuality and carnal prudence. Being now 
 persuaded that I had found what I was seeking, I 
 said to Christ, ' Lord, if I am not saved now, I know 
 nothing more that I can do.' In the course of my 
 meditations, I was often perplexed and felt at a loss 
 to reconcile the views on which I acted with what the 
 Scriptures said about salvation being the gift of God 
 through the redemption wrought by Christ; but the 
 authority of the Church silenced these scruples, and 
 in proportion as concern for my soul became more 
 intense, I applied myself with greater diligence and 
 ardour to those bodily exercises and mortifications 
 which were prescribed by the doctrine of the Church, 
 and by the rules of the order to which I had submit- 
 ted. Still, however, I remained a stranger to true 
 peace of mind, which at last I found by searching the 
 
118 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Scriptures, and such helps for understanding them as I 
 had access to. I now came to be satisfied of the three 
 following truths: — First, that Christ, by his obedi- 
 ence and death, has made a plenary satisfaction and 
 merited heaven for the elect, which is the only right- 
 eousness and ground of salvation; secondly, that re- 
 ligious vows of human invention are not only useless 
 but hurtful and wicked ; and, thirdly, that the Roman 
 Church, though calculated to fascinate the senses by 
 her external pomp and splendour, is unscriptural and 
 abominable in the sight of God.'^* 
 
 In Italy it was not the custom, as in Germany, for 
 the secular clergy to preach: this task was performed 
 exclusively by the monks and friars. The chapters of 
 the different orders chose such of their number as pos- 
 sessed the best pulpit talents, and sent them to preach 
 in the principal cities during the time of Lent, which 
 was almost the only season of the year in which the 
 people enjoyed religious instruction. Ochino attained 
 to the highest distinction in this employment, to which 
 he was chosen by his brethren at an early period. His 
 original talents compensated for his want of erudition. 
 He was a natural orator; and the fervour of his piety 
 and the sanctity of his life gave an unction and an 
 odour to his discourses which ravished the hearts of 
 his hearers. " In such reputation was he held,'^ says 
 the annalist of the Capuchins, after Ochino had brought 
 on them the stigma of heresy, " that he was esteemed 
 incomparably the best preacher of Italy; his powers 
 of elocution, accompanied with the most admirable 
 action, giving him the complete command of his au- 
 dience, and the more so that his life corresponded to 
 his doctrine. '^t His external appearance, after he had 
 passed middle age, contributed to heighten this effect. 
 His snow-white head, and his beard of the same 
 
 * Bernardini Ochini Responsio, qua rationem reddit discessus ex 
 Italia. Venet. 1542. Ep. Dedic. : Observat. Select. Halenses, torn. iv. 
 p. 412 — 414. Epistre aux Magnifiques Seigneurs de Siene — par 
 Bernardin Ochin. Avec un autre Epistre a Mutio Justinopolitain, 
 1544. The epistle to Mutio is a translation of the work first men- 
 tioned. M. Aug. Beyeri Menrior. Libr. Rariorum, p. 259 — 2G1. 
 
 t Bzovius, apud Bock, Hist. Antitrin. torn. ii. p. 485. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 119 
 
 colour flowing down to his middle, added to a pale 
 countenance, which led the spectators to suppose that 
 he was in bad health, rendered his aspect at once 
 venerable and deeply interesting.* He never rode on 
 horseback or in a carriage, but performed all his jour- 
 neys on foot ; a practice which he continued after he 
 was advanced in years. When he paid a visit to the 
 palaces of princes or bishops, he was always met and 
 received with the honours due to one of superior rank, 
 and accompanied, on his departure, with the same 
 marks of distinction; yet, wherever he lodged, he 
 retained all the simplicity and austerity of the reli- 
 gious order to which he belonged.! As a preacher, 
 he was admired and followed equally by the learned 
 and illiterate, by the great and the vulgar. Charles 
 v., who used to attend his sermons when in Italy, 
 pronounced this high encomium on him — " That man 
 would make the stones weep !":}: Sadolet and Bembo, 
 who were still better judges than his imperial majesty, 
 assigned to Ochino the palm of popular eloquence. § 
 At Perugia, he prevailed on the inhabitants, by his 
 discourses, to bury all their animosities and bring 
 their lawsuits to an amicable settlement; and in 
 Naples, he preached to so numerous an assembly and 
 with such persuasive eloquence as to collect at one 
 time, for a charitable purpose, the almost incredible 
 sum of five thousand crowns. || 
 
 The fame of the devout and eloquent Capuchin 
 was so great, that the most respectable inhabitants of 
 Venice, in the year 1538, employed cardinal Bembo 
 to procure him to preach to them during the ensuing 
 Lent. The cardinal wrote to Vittoria Colonna, mar- 
 chioness of Pescaro, begging her to intercede with 
 
 * Graziani, Vita Card. Commendoni, lib. ii. cap, 9. . 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
 t Schroekh, Christliche Kirchengeschichte seit der Reformation, 
 torn. ii. p. 780. 
 
 § Sadoleti Epist. in Oper. Aonii Palearii, p. 558. edit. Halbaueri. 
 Quirini Diatrib. prefix. Epp. Reg. Poli, torn. iii. p. 86. 
 
 II Annali de' Fratri Minori Capuccini composti dal P. Zaccaria 
 Boverio da Saluzzo, e tradotti en volgare dal P. F. Benedetto San- 
 benedetti da Milano, torn. i. p. 411. Vcnct. 1643. 
 
120 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Ochino, over whom she had great influence, to visit 
 Venice, where he would find all the inhabitants in- 
 flamed with the most passionate desire to hear him.* 
 He went accordingly, and the reception he met with 
 is thus described by the elegant pen of Bembo, in a 
 letter to the marchioness, dated from Venice, the 23d 
 day of February, 1539: — " I send your highness the 
 extracts of our very reverend Frate Bernardino, to 
 whom I have listened, during the small part of this 
 Lent which is over, with a pleasure which I cannot 
 sufficiently express. Assuredly I never heard so edi- 
 fying and holy a preacher, and do not wonder that 
 your highness esteems him as you do. He discourses 
 very differently from any other that has mounted the 
 pulpit in my day, and in a more Christian manner ; 
 bringing forth truths of superior excellence and use- 
 fulness, and enforcing them with the most aff'ectionate 
 ardour. He pleases every body above measure, and 
 will carry the hearts of all with him when he leaves 
 this place. From the whole city I send your highness 
 immortal thanks for the favour you have done us; 
 and I especially will ever feel obliged to you."t In 
 another letter to the same lady, dated the 15th of 
 March, he says — " I talk with your highness as I talked 
 this morning with the reverend father, Frate Bernar- 
 dino, to whom I have laid open my whole heart and 
 soul, as I would have done to Jesus Christ, to whom 
 I am persuaded he is acceptable and dear. Never 
 have I had the pleasure to speak to a holier man 
 than he. I should have been now at Padua, both on 
 account of a business which has engaged me for a 
 whole year, and also to shun the applications with 
 which I am incessantly assailed in consequence of 
 this blessed cardinalate;:j: but I was unwilling to de- 
 prive myself of the opportunity of hearing his most 
 excellent, holy, and edifying sermons. "§ And on the 
 
 * Lettere di Pietro Bembo, vol. iv. p. 108 : Opere, vol. viii. Mi- 
 lano, 1810. 
 
 t Lettere di Pietro Bembo, vol. iv. p. 109. 
 
 t Bembo had lately received a cardinal's hat from Rome. 
 
 § Lettere, ut supra, p. 112. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 121 
 
 14th of April he writes — ^^ Our Frate Bernardino, 
 whom I desire henceforth to call mine as well as 
 yours, is at present adored in this city. There is not 
 a man or woman who does not extol him to the skies. 
 Oh, what pleasure ! Oh, what delight! Oh, what joy 
 has he given ! But I reserve his praises until I meet 
 your highness, and, in the meantime, supplicate our 
 Lord to order his life so as that it may endure longer 
 to the honour of God and the profit of men, than it can 
 endure according to the way in which he now treats 
 himself.'^* The following letter, addressed by the 
 cardinal to the parson of the church of the Apostles, 
 is still more descriptive of the deep interest which was 
 felt for Ochino at Venice : — " I pray you to entreat 
 and oblige the reverend father, Frate Bernardino, to 
 eat flesh, not for the gratification and benefit of his 
 body, about which he is indiflerent, but for the com- 
 fort of our souls — that he may be able to preach the 
 gospel to the praise of our blessed Saviour. For he 
 cannot continue his exercises, nor bear up under them, 
 during the present Lent, unless he leave ofi" the diet 
 of the season, which, as experience proves, always 
 brings on him a catarrh."! 
 
 These extracts will be considered as sufficient to 
 establish the character of Ochino for piety and elo- 
 quence ; but there is another reflection which they 
 can scarcely fail to suggest. How deceitful are the 
 warmest feelings excited by hearing the gospel ! and 
 how do they vary with the external circumstances in 
 which the truth is presented to the mind! Bembo 
 was delighted with the sentiments which he heard, as 
 well as the eloquence with which the preacher adorn- 
 ed them ; and yet the future conduct of the cardinal 
 leaves us at no loss in determining, that he would 
 have felt and spoken very diflTerently, had he been told 
 that the doctrine to which he listened with such 
 devout ravishment was essentially protestant. Names 
 
 * Lettere, ut supra, p. 112, 
 
 t " Ali 12 di Marzo, 1539." This letter was first published, from 
 the archives of the Marquis Ugolino Barisone, by Chevalier Jncopo 
 Morelli, in his late edition of Bembo's works. (Tomo. ix. p. 497.) 
 
122 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 exert great influence over mankind ; but let not those 
 who can laugh at this weakness flatter themselves 
 that they have risen above all the prejudices by 
 which the truth is excluded or expelled. The love 
 of the world outweighs both names and things. Pro- 
 vided men could enjoy the gospel within the pale of 
 their own church, within the circle of that society in 
 which they have been accustomed to move and shine, 
 and without being required to forego the profits, 
 honours, or pleasures of this life, ^'all the world" 
 might be seen wondering after Christ, as it once 
 "wondered after the beast." 
 
 In a general chapter of his order, held at Florence 
 in the year 1538, Ochino was chosen general or chief 
 director of the Capuchins. And three years after, in 
 another chapter, held at Whitsuntide, 1541, in the 
 city of Naples, he was, as an unexampled mark of 
 respect, and in opposition to his own earnest request, 
 unanimously re-elected to the same office.* Before 
 Ochino was advanced to these honours, or had ac- 
 quired such extensive popularity as a preacher, the 
 change in his religious sentiments, already described, 
 had taken placet It produced a corresponding change 
 on his strain of preaching, which, for some time, was 
 felt rather than understood by his hearers. He 
 appealed directly to the Scriptures in support of the 
 doctrines which he delivered, and exhorted the people 
 to rest their faith on the infallible authority of the 
 word of God, and to build their hopes of salvation on 
 the obedience and death of Christ alone. But a pru- 
 dential regard to his own safety, and to the edifica- 
 
 * Boverio, Annali Capuccini ad ann. 1539, 1541. His official 
 designation is expressed in the title of one of his first publications — 
 " Dialogi Sacri del Rev. Padre Frate B. Ochino da Siena, Generals 
 de i Frati Capuzzini. Venetio, 1542." (De Bure, Partie Theolo- 
 gique, p. 432.) 
 
 t Observ. Select. Hallens. torn. iv. p. 416. Caraccioli, Collect, p. 
 239. Giannone, liv. xxxvii. chap. v. Bock, Hist. Antitrin. torn. ii. 
 p. 489 — 491. Caraccioli says, that Ochino's adoption of the Protes- 
 tant tenets was discovered as early as the year 1536. This error has 
 been corrected by Bock, who has himself fallen into a mistake in 
 stating that Ochino was drawn over to the evangelical party by Val- 
 des in the year 1541; whereas the latter died in 1540. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 123 
 
 tion of his hearers, whose minds were not prepared 
 for the discovery, prevented him for some time from 
 exposing the errors and superstition by which Chris- 
 tianity had been corrupted. When he came to preach 
 at Naples, the sagacious eye of Juan Valdes quickly 
 detected the protestant under the patched rocket and 
 sharp-horned cowl of the Capuchin; and, having 
 gained his friendship, he introduced him to the pri- 
 vate meetings held by the converts to evangelical 
 doctrine in that city. 
 
 Pietro Martire Vermigli* was born in the year 
 1500, of an honourable family in Florence, and receiv- 
 ed that liberal education which had been denied to 
 Ochino. In his youth he was taught Latin by his 
 mother ; and having, when he arrived at the age of 
 sixteen, entered, in opposition to the will of his parents, 
 among the canons regular of St. Augustine, he passed 
 his noviciate in their convent at Fiezoli, which the 
 liberality of the Medici had furnished with an excel- 
 lent library. From this he was sent to the university 
 of Padua, where he made great proficiency in philoso- 
 phy and the Greek language. He afterwards visited 
 the most celebrated academies of his native country. 
 At Vercelli, by the persuasion of his intimate friend 
 Cusano, he interpreted Homer; and at Bologna he 
 acquired the knowledge of Hebrew from a Jewish 
 physician, named Isaac. Being selected by the Augus- 
 tinians as one of their public preachers, he distin- 
 guised himself by the solidity and eloquence of his 
 discourses at Rome, Bologna, Fermo, Pisa, Venice, 
 Mantua, Bergamo and Montferrat. Having thus 
 recommended himself to those of his order by his 
 talents and labours, he was unanimously elected 
 abbot of Spoleto, and soon after provost of the college 
 
 * His father's name was Stefano Vermigli, from whom he is ordi- 
 narily designated Petrus Martyr Verinilitis, to distinguish him from 
 Petrus Martyr Mediolanensis, a martyr after whom he was named, 
 in consequence of a vow of his parents; and also to distinguish him 
 from a learned countryman and contemporary of his own, Petrus 
 Martyr Angleiius, (of Anghiera,) whose epistles are known to the 
 learned as throwing great light on the history of the early part of 
 the sixteenth century. 
 
124 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 of St. Pietro ad aram, in the city of Naples, a situa- 
 tion of dignity and emolument. This was about the 
 year 1530, and in the thirtieth year of his age. It 
 was at this time, and Avhen he had the prospect of 
 certain and rapid advancement in the Romish church, 
 that a change took place on his religious sentiments, 
 which gave a complete turn to his future life. From 
 his youth, as he himself has told us, he had a decided 
 preference for sacred studies; and having access to 
 the Scriptures in the convent to which he belonged, 
 applied himself to read them with great care, and not 
 altogether without profit to himself and others.* At 
 a subsequent period he fell in with the treatises of 
 Zuingle on True and False Religion, and on Provi- 
 dence, and with some of Bucer's commentaries on 
 Scripture, which left hnpressions in his mind. These 
 were now confirmed and deepened by the conversa- 
 tion of Valdes, Flaminio, and others, with whom he 
 became acquainted at Naples.! 
 
 Martyr excelled as much in judgment and learning, 
 as Ochino did in popular eloquence. To their exer- 
 tions in difiusing evangelical truth were added those 
 of Mollio, formerly mentioned, who now filled the 
 station of lecturer to the monastery of St. Lorenzo at 
 Naples. While Ochino employed his persuasive 
 eloquence in the pulpit. Martyr and Mollio read lec- 
 tures, chiefly on Paul's epistles, which were attended 
 by the monks of difl^rent convents, by many of the 
 nobility, and by individuals of the episcopal order. 
 The three friends did not fail to meet with opposition 
 from the strenuous adherents of the established reli- 
 gion, who were supported by the authority of the 
 viceroy ; but such was the prudence with which they 
 conducted themselves, and the countenance which 
 they received from persons of the first consideration 
 in the city, that they were able to maintain their 
 
 * Oratio quam Tiguri primum habult: Martyris Loc. Commun. 
 p. 744. 
 
 t Simleri Oratio dc Vita et Obitu Petri Martyris Vermilii, praafix. 
 ad Loc. Commun. Martyris, &\g. b. ij. b. iij. Genev. 1624. This 
 funeral oration was republished by Gerdes, in his Scriniuvi Antiqua- 
 riurrif tom. iii. par. ii. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 125 
 
 ground, and for a time to triumph over their adver- 
 saries. The favourite doctrine of Ochino was justifi- 
 cation by faith in Christ, which, as appears from his 
 printed sermons, he perfectly understood, and explain- 
 ed with much Scriptural simplicity. Purgatory, pen- 
 ances, and papal pardons, fell before the preaching 
 of this doctrine, as Dagon of old before the ark of 
 Jehovah. An Augustinian monk of Trevigio, as 
 much perhaps with the view of recommending him- 
 self to his superiors as from any hopes of success, 
 challenged Ochino and his colleagues to a dispute on 
 these points; but he was worsted and put to silence 
 by their superior talents and acquaintance with Scrip- 
 ture. The church of Rome had long relied on the 
 third chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians,* 
 as one of the main pillars of purgatory ; and from this 
 passage the monks were accustomed to draw their 
 most popular arguments in favour of that lucrative 
 doctrine. Martyr did not directly attack the doctrine ; 
 but, in the course of his lectures on that epistle, he 
 gave a quite different interpretation of the words, 
 which he confirmed by arguments drawn from the 
 text and context, and by appeals to the writings of 
 the most learned and judicious among the fathers. 
 This view of the passage occasioned great specula- 
 tion; and the monks, provoked by the favourable 
 reception which it met with, and dreading that the 
 most fertile source of their gain would be dried up, 
 moved heaven and earth against the daring innovator. 
 B}^ the influence of the viceroy, and their own repre- 
 sentations, they obtained an order interdicting him 
 from preaching and lecturing. Martyr enjoyed the 
 favour of Gonzago, cardinal of Mantua and protec- 
 tor of his order ; and he was well known to cardinals 
 Contarini, Pole, Bembo, and Fregoso, all men of 
 learning, and some of them favourable to ecclesiasti- 
 cal reform. Relying on their patronage, he carried 
 his cause by appeal to Rome, and succeeded in obtain- 
 ing the removal of the interdict.! 
 
 *Ver. 13— 15. 
 
 t Simler, Vita Martyris, sig. b. iij. 
 
126 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 By the blessing of God on the labours of these men, 
 a reformed Chm'ch was established in Naples, which 
 included persons of the first rank in the kingdom, 
 both male and female. Among these were Galeazzo 
 Caraccioli, the eldest son of the marquis of Vico ; his 
 noble relation, Gianfrancesco de Caserta, by whom he 
 was first induced to attend the discourses of Martyr;"^ 
 and Bernardino Bonifacio, marquis of Oria, a noble- 
 man equally distinguished by his learning and piety, 
 who after travelling through various countries, settled 
 at last in Nurenberg.t 
 
 It would be improper to omit here the name of 
 another Neapolitan nobleman, who acquired a taste 
 for the reformed doctrine in Italy, though he did not 
 profess it until he had left his native country. This 
 was Antonio Caraccioli, the son of the prince of Mel- 
 phi, and who was usually known by his father's title. 
 Having gone to France, he was made abbot of St. 
 Victor in Paris, and afterwards bishop of Troyes, in 
 Champagne. He had been long acquainted with the 
 writings of the reformers, especially those of Calvin; 
 and on his advancement to the bishoprick, in 1551, 
 began to inveigh with great boldness and eloquence 
 against the abuses of the Church of Rome. Multitudes 
 flocked to his sermons, attracted by curiosity to hear 
 a bishop preach, or by love to the truth ; but being 
 summoned to answer for his conduct, he disappointed 
 the hopes of many by making a public recantation in 
 his own cathedral. In 1557, his zeal for the reform- 
 ed faith was rekindled by an interview which he 
 had with Calvin and Beza, at Geneva, on his return 
 from a visit to Italy. J After the conference between 
 the Catholics and Protestants at Poissy, in 1560, at 
 which he was present, he was accompanied to Troyes 
 by his countryman, Peter Martyr, to whom he ex- 
 
 * Simler, ut supra. Life of Galeas Caraccioli, p. 3 — 5. 
 
 t Vita Philippi Camerarii, per Schelhornium, p. 142. Micrelii 
 Syntag. p. 313. Fontanini, p. 498. Some of his poems are included 
 in DelicicB Poetarum Italorinn. 
 
 I Beze, Hist, des Eglis. Reform, de France, lorn. i. p. 83, 86. Mar- 
 tene et Durand, Collect. Vet. Script, et Monument, tom. i. col. 1615. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 127 
 
 pressed his resolution, at all hazards, to avow and 
 abide by the truth, of which he was now thoroughly- 
 convinced in his conscience. Accordingly, he met 
 with the Protestants in that city, and having made a 
 profession of his faith, and stated his scruples as to 
 the validity of his episcopal orders, declared his will- 
 ingness to serve them, provided they gave him a call 
 to the pastoral office ; upon which they unanimously 
 made choice of him as their minister.* It is unneces- 
 sary to add, that this step led to his degradation 
 by the popish clergy. Subsequently, the reformed 
 bishop gave offence to his new friends, by deserting 
 his Church and attaching himself to the court, but he 
 did not desist altogether from preaching, and perse- 
 vered in the Protestant religion to his death.t 
 
 While the church at Naples was enjoying peace 
 and daily increasing in numbers, it was deprived of 
 Valdes, to whom it chiefly owed its plantation. He 
 died in the year 1540, deeply lamented by many dis- 
 tinguished persons, who owned him as their spiritual 
 father. " I wish we were again at Naples,^' says 
 Bonfadio, in a letter to Carnesecchi. "But when I 
 consider the matter in another point of view, to what 
 purpose should we go there, now when Valdes is 
 dead? His death truly is a great loss to us and to 
 the world; for Valdes was one of the rarest men in 
 Europe, as the writings left by him on the Epistles of 
 St. Paul, and the Psalms of David abundantly de- 
 monstrate. J He was, beyond all doubt, a most accom- 
 plished man in all his words, actions, and counsels. 
 Life scarcely supported his infirm and spare body; 
 
 * Langueti Epist. ep. 63, 64. Martyris EpistoIaB, in Loc. Com- 
 mun. p. 582. Thuani Hist, ad an. 1561. 
 
 t Beze, vol. ii. p. 148, 246. Prosper Marchand, art. Caraccioli. 
 Colomies says, that he wrote a defence of the count de Montgomery, 
 who mortally wounded Henry II. (Colomesiana, edit. De Maiseaux, 
 torn. i. p. 585.) 
 
 X These works must have been then in manuscript. His commen- 
 tary on the Romans was published in Spanish, at Venice in 1556; 
 and his commentary on the Psalms at the same place in the follow- 
 ing year. His countryman and friend, Juan Perez, the translator of 
 the New Testament into Spanish, prefixed an epistle dedicatory to 
 each. (Baumgarten, apud Gerdes. Ital. Ref. p. 344.) 
 
128 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 but his nobler part and pure intellect, as if it had 
 been placed without the body, was wholly occupied 
 with the contemplation of truth and divine things. I 
 condole with Marco Antonio, (Flaminio,) for, above 
 all others, he greatly loved and admired him."* The 
 fervent piety of Valdes, and the unspotted purity of 
 his life, are universally acknowledged. The charge 
 of heterodoxy of sentiment, brought against him after 
 his death, rests chiefly on the very questionable 
 ground that some of those who were intimate with 
 him ultimately inclined to the sect denominated So- 
 cinian; for it cannot be pleaded that their tenets are 
 to be found in his writings, which, it must be allow- 
 ed, contain some other opinions which are either 
 untenable or unguardedly expressed.t 
 
 The doctrines of the gospel were most eagerly re- 
 ceived in the capital, but they spread also through the 
 kingdom of Naples, and even reached Sicily, which 
 was at that period an appendage to the crown of 
 Spain. Occupied in defending the coasts against the 
 Turk, the viceroys who governed that island under 
 Charles V. were not involved in the intrigues of Ita- 
 lian policy; and those who fled from persecution on 
 the continent, found protection under their compara- 
 
 * Lettere volgari di diversi nobilissimi huomini, p. 33. Aid. 1543. 
 
 t Sandius (Bibl. Antitrin. p. 2.) claims him as an anti-trinitarian; 
 but that writer puts in the same claim to Wolfgang, Fabricius Capito, 
 and others, who are known to have entertained opposite sentiments. 
 (Schelhorni Amceni. Liter, torn. xiv. p. 386. Amcenit. Eccles. torn. 
 ii. p. 51 — 53.) If Ochino ever embraced that creed, (which some have 
 denied,) it was unquestionably long after he left Italy. (Observ. Sel. 
 Hal. tom. iv. obs. 20. tom. v. obs. 1, 2.) Beza, while he expresses 
 his dissatisfaction with some things in the Divine Considerations of 
 Valdes, declares that he meant nothing disrespectful to the author, 
 and does not insinuate, in the slightest degree, that he erred as to 
 the doctrine of the Trinity. (Epistolae, p. 43, 276.) Some remarks 
 on the peculiar opinions of Valdes will be found elsevv^here. (Hist, 
 of the Progr. and Suppress, of the Reformation in Spain. The 
 following is the title of the Considerations in ihe Italian, which 
 appears to have been the original edition, and published ^by Celio 
 Secundo Curio: — "Le Cento e Dicci Considerationi de Signore Val- 
 desso, nelle quale si ragiona cose piu utile, piu necessarie, et piu per- 
 fette della Christiana IJcligione. In Basilea, 1550." 8vo. In the 
 French translation of the Considerationi the author is called Jan de 
 Val d^Esso. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 129 
 
 tively mild administration. Benedetti, surnamed Lo- 
 carno, from the place of his hirth, a minister of great 
 sanctity, having gained the favour of the viceroy, 
 preached the truth under his patronage to crowded 
 audiences in Palermo, and other parts of that island.* 
 The seeds of his doctrine which afterwards sprung 
 up, gave ample employment to the inquisitors; and, 
 for many years, persons charged with the Lutheran 
 heresy were produced in the public and private aiitos 
 defe celebrated in Sicily. t 
 
 Lucca, the capital of a small but flourishing repub- 
 lic, lying on the east coast of the gulf of Genoa, had 
 the honour to reckon among its inhabitants a greater 
 number of converts to the reformed faith than per- 
 haps any other city in Italy. This was chiefly owing 
 to the labours of Martyr. Finding, after a trial of 
 several years, that the climate of Naples was injuri- 
 ous to his health, he left it with the consent of his 
 superiors, and was chosen visitor general of the Au- 
 gustinians in Italy. The rigid inspection which he 
 exerted over them, and the reform which, with the 
 concurrence of cardinal Gonzaga, he sought to intro- 
 duce into their monasteries, created alarm among the 
 monks, who contrived to rid themselves of their trou- 
 blesome visitor, by getting him appointed prior of 
 St. Fridiano at Lucca, an honourable situation, which 
 invested him with episcopal powers. His adversaries 
 hoped that he would be unacceptable in his new 
 situation, as a Florentine, on account of an ancient 
 grudge between the Lucchese and the inhabitants of 
 Florence; but with such prudence did he conduct 
 himself, that he was as much esteemed as if he had 
 been a native of Lucca. One object which engaged 
 the particular attention of Martyr was the education 
 of the novices in the priory, whose minds he was 
 
 * Jo. de Muralto, Oratio de Persecutione Locarnensi, sec. iii. et 
 append, no. ii. iii.: Tempe Helvetica, torn. iv. p. 142, 184, 186. Two 
 viceroys of Naples, Don Pedro Cordova, and the marquis de Terra- 
 nova, one of the grandees of Spain, were forced to do penance for 
 interfering with the Inquisition. fLlorente, ii. 82 — 88.) 
 
 t Llorente, ii. 123, 129. 
 
130 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 anxious to imbue with the love of sacred Uterature. 
 For this purpose he estabhshecl a private college or 
 seminary, to which he drew such teachers as he knew 
 to be both learned men and lovers of divine truth.* 
 Paolo Lacisio, a native of Verona, taught the Latin 
 language; Celso Martinengho, of the noble family of 
 the counts of that name, taught Greek; and Emanuel 
 Tremellio, of Ferrara, who afterwards distinguished 
 himself as an oriental scholar, gave instructions in 
 Hebrew. Martyr himself applied the literary know- 
 ledge which the young men imbibed from these 
 sources to the elucidation of the Scriptures, by read- 
 ing lectures to them on the New Testament and the 
 Psalter, which were attended by all the learned men 
 and many of the patricians of Lucca. He also 
 preached publicly to the people, confining himself to 
 the gospels during Advent and Lent, according to the 
 usual custom of the monks, but taking his subjects 
 from the epistles during the rest of the year. By 
 means of these labours a separate church was formed 
 in that city, of which Martyr became pastor; and 
 many, including persons of the first respectability in 
 the place, gave the most decided proofs of genuine 
 piety and ardent attachment to the reformed faith.t 
 
 While these things were going on, pope Paul HL 
 paid a visit to Lucca, accompanied by the emperor, 
 who was at that time in Italy. It was feared that the 
 enemies of Martyr would embrace that opportunity 
 to inform against him, and that his life would be 
 brought into danger; but he was not molested, prob- 
 ably because it was deemed impolitic and premature 
 to attack a teacher whose reputation and authority 
 were then so high among the inhabitants. About the 
 same time. Martyr received a visit from cardinal 
 Contarini, as he passed through Lucca, on his return 
 from Germany, where he had been in the character 
 
 * Cello Secundo Curio resided for some time at Lucca, where he 
 taught in the university, having been recommended to the senators 
 by the duchess of Ferrara. (Stupani Oratio, p. 343, 344.) 
 
 t Simler, ut supra, sig. b iij. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 131 
 
 of papal legate. They had a confidential conversa- 
 tion on the state of the church, and on the sentiments 
 of the German reformers.* 
 
 The PisANo received the knowledge of evangelical 
 doctrine from Lucca, and was supplied, for some 
 time, by preachers from that place ; but, in the year 
 1543, the Protestants in the city of Pisa formed them- 
 selves into a church, and had the sacrament of the 
 Lord's supper celebrated among them.t 
 
 The SiENNESE contained many converts to the re- 
 formed doctrine. Ochino, in the course of his preach- 
 ing tours, frequently visited Sienna, which was his 
 native place. But the person to whom the inhabitants 
 of this city were most indebted for their illumination 
 was Aonio Paleario, a native of Veroli in Campagna 
 di Roma, who was on a footing of intimacy with the 
 most learned men in Italy. He was first a tutor in 
 the house of Belanti; and, about the year 1534, was 
 nominated public teacher of Greek and Latin by the 
 senate of Sienna,:|: where he afterwards read lectures 
 on Philosophy and Belles Lettres. Having studied 
 the Scriptures, and read the writings of the German 
 reformers, his lectures on moral philosophy were dis- 
 tinguished from those of his colleagues by a liberal 
 tone of thinking. This was not more gratifying to the 
 students than it was offensive to those who adhered 
 obstinately to the old ideas. § Cardinal Sadolet, in 
 the name of his friends, set before him the danger of 
 his giving way to novelties, and advised him, in con- 
 sideration of the times, to confine himself to the safer 
 task of clothing the peripatetic ideas in elegant lan- 
 guage. || This prudential advice was not altogether 
 congenial to the open mind of Paleario, and the devo- 
 tion which he felt for truth. The freedom with which 
 he censured vain pretenders to learning and religion 
 irritated a class of men who scruple at no means to 
 oppress and ruin an adversary, and who eagerly 
 
 * Simler, ut supra, sig. b iiij. t Ibid, 
 
 t Galluzzi, Istoria del Granducato di Toscano, torn. ii. p. 203. 
 § Palearii Opera, p. 527. edit. Halbaueri, Jen®, 1728. 
 II Ibid. p. 536, 559. 
 
132 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 seized the opportunity to fasten on him the charge 
 of heresy.* His private conduct was watched; and 
 expressions which had dropped from him in the 
 unsuspecting confidence of private conversation were 
 circulated to his prejudice. He had laughed at a rich 
 priest who was seen every morning kneeling at the 
 shrine of a saint, but refused to pay his debts.t 
 " Cotta asserts," says he, in one of his letters, " that, 
 if I am allowed to live, there will not be a vestige 
 of religion left in the city. Why? Because, being 
 asked one day what was the first ground on which 
 men should rest their salvation, I replied, Christ; 
 being asked what was the second, I replied, Christ; 
 and being asked what was the third, I still replied, 
 Christ.''^ But Paleario gave the greatest ofi"ence by 
 a book which he wrote on the Benefit of the death of 
 Christ,§ of which he gives the following account in 
 his defence of himself, pronounced before the senate 
 of Sienna: — "There are some persons so sour, so 
 morose, so censorious, as to be displeased when we 
 give the highest praise to the authoT and God of our 
 salvation, Christ, the king of all nations and people. 
 When I wrote a treatise this very year, in the Tuscan 
 language, to show what great benefits accrue to man- 
 kind from his death, this was made the ground of a 
 
 * Palearii Opera, p. 88, 99, 523—531, 538—543. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 545. t Ibid. p. 519. 
 
 § This book was printed in 1543 in Italian, under the title H Bene- 
 Jicio di Christo, and was afterwards translated into Spanish and 
 French. (Schelh. Amcenit. Eccl. torn. i. p. 155 — 159. Ergotzlich- 
 keiten, vol. v. p. 27.) An account of its contents is given in Riede- 
 rer, Nachrichten zur kirchen-gelehrten, torn. iv. p. 121, 235 — 241. 
 Vergerio says of it, " Many are of opinion that there is scarcely a 
 book of this age, or at least in the Italian language, so sweet, so 
 pious, so simple, so well fitted to instruct the ignorant and weak, 
 especially in the doctrine of justification. I will say more — Reginald 
 Pole, the British cardinal, and the intimate friend of Morone, was 
 esteemed the author of that book, or partly so ; at least, it is known 
 that he, with Flaminio, Priuli, and his other friends, defended and 
 circulated it." (Amcenit. Eccl. ut supra, p. 158.) Laderchio asserts 
 that Flaminio wrote an apology for the Bene/icio. (Annal. torn. 22. 
 f. 326.) That it was translated into English, and read in Scotland, 
 appears from the following notice: — " Item, foure Benefite of Christ, 
 the piece 2 sh." (Testament of Thomas Bussinden, printer in Edin- 
 burgh, who deceased 18 October ]577.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 133 
 
 criminal accusation against me ! Is it possible to utter 
 or conceive any thing more shameful? I had said, 
 that since he in whom the divinity resided, has poured 
 out his life's blood so lovingly for our salvation, we 
 ought not to doubt of the good will of heaven, but 
 might promise ourselves the greatest tranquillity and 
 peace. I had affirmed, agreeably to the most unques- 
 tionable monuments of antiquity, that those who turn 
 with their souls to Christ crucified, commit themselves 
 to him by faith, acquiesce in the promises, and cleave 
 with assured confidence to him who cannot deceive, 
 are delivered from all evil, and enjoy a plenary par- 
 don of their sins. These things appeared so grievous, 
 so detestable, so execrable to the twelve — I cannot 
 call them men, but — inhuman beasts, that they judged 
 the author worthy of being committed to the flames. 
 If I must undergo this punishment for the foresaid 
 testimony, (for I deem it a testimony rather than a 
 libel,) then, senators, nothing more happy can befall 
 me. In such a time as this I do not think a Christian 
 ought to die in his bed. I am not only wilhng to be 
 accused, to be dragged to prison, to be scourged, to 
 be hung up by the neck, to be sewed up in a sack, to 
 be exposed to wild beasts — let me be roasted before a 
 fire, provided only the truth be brought to light by 
 such a death."* Addressing his accuser, he says — 
 " You accuse me of being of the same sentiments with 
 the Germans. Good God, what an illiberal charge ! 
 Do you mean to bind up all the Germans in one bun- 
 dle? Are they all bad? Though you should restrict 
 your charge to their divines, still it is ridiculous. Are 
 there not many excellent divines in Germany? But 
 your accusation, though full of trifling, has neverthe- 
 less a sting, which, as proceeding from you, is charged 
 with poison. By Germans, you mean Ecolampade, 
 Erasmus, Melanchthon, Luther, Pomeran, Bucer, and 
 others who have incurred suspicion. But surely there 
 is not a divine among us so stupid as not to perceive 
 and confess, that the writings of these men contain 
 many things worthy of the highest praise — many 
 
 * Palearii Opera, p. 101, 102. 
 
134 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 things gravely, accurately, and faithfully stated, re- 
 peated from the early fathers, who have left us the 
 institutes of salvation, and also from the later com- 
 mentaries of the Greeks and Latins, Avho, though not 
 to be compared with those pillars, are still of use for 
 interpretation. ' But do not you approve of all that 
 the Germans have done?" This, Otho, is like the 
 rest of your questions; yet I will answer it. I approve 
 of some things; of others I disapprove. To pass by 
 many things, I praise the Germans, and consider 
 them as entitled to public thanks, for their exertions 
 in restoring the purity of the Latin language, which, 
 till of late, was oppressed by barbarism and poverty 
 of speech. Formerly sacred studies lay neglected in 
 the cells of idlers, who retired from the world to enjoy 
 their repose, (and yet, amidst their snoring, they con- 
 trived to hear what we said in cities and villages;) 
 now these studies are, in a great measure, revived in 
 Germany. Chaldaic, Greek, and Latin libraries, are 
 erected; books are beautifully printed; and honour- 
 able stipends are assigned to divines. What can be 
 more illustrious than these things? what more glori- 
 ous ? what more deserving of perpetual praise ? After- 
 wards arose civil discords, intestine wars, commotions, 
 seditions, and other evils, which, for the sake of charity 
 and brotherly love among Christians, I deplore. Who 
 does not praise the former? who is not displeased 
 with the latter?"* 
 
 The eloquent defence of Paleario, in which boldness 
 and candour were tempered by prudence and address, 
 triumphed over the violence and intrigues of his ad- 
 versaries. He was, however, obliged soon after to 
 quit Sienna; but though he changed the place of his 
 residence, he did not escape from the odium which he 
 had incurred; and we shall afterwards find him en- 
 during that martyrdom which he early anticipated, 
 and for which it appears to have been his object all 
 along to prepare his thoughts. Some idea may be 
 formed of the extent to which the reformed opinions 
 had spread in Sienna, from the number of individuals 
 
 * Palearii Opera, p. 92 — 95. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 135 
 
 belonging to it, who, at a subsequent period, submit- 
 ted to a vountaiy exile on their account, among whom 
 were Lanctantio Ragnoni, Mino Celso,* and the Soc- 
 cini, Avho became celebrated by giving their name to 
 a new sect. 
 
 Mantua, which, in the sixteenth century, gave 
 birth to several persons of distinguished talents, did 
 not shut out the light of the Reformation. In the 
 capital, and throughout the duchy, there were many 
 who sighed under the tyranny which oppressed the 
 human mind, and made a generous effort to break 
 asunder its chains. To this they were not a little en- 
 couraged by their countryman, Gianbattista Folengo, 
 a liberal and pious Benedictine, who was anxious to 
 heal the schism which afflicted the church, by intro- 
 ducing an extensive reform among both secular and 
 regular clergy.t Cardinal Gonzaga, bishop of Man- 
 tua, evinced the same disposition, and extended his 
 protection to those who swerved from the established 
 faith, as far as was consistent with the station which 
 he held in the church. On this ground he appears to 
 have given offence at Rome ; and on the 7th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1545, Paul III. addressed a brief to him, with 
 the view of stimulating his slumbering zeal. His 
 holiness states, that he had heard of certain illiterate 
 clergymen and artizans, in the city of Mantua, having, 
 to the ruin of their own souls and the great scandal 
 of others, rashly dared to dispute and even to doubt 
 of matters belonging to the catholic doctrine, the articles 
 of belief, and the rites of the holy Roman Church; he 
 therefore exhorts the bishop to persevere in the pious 
 vigilance which he had begun to show, and by himself 
 or his deputies to proceed against all suspected of here- 
 sy, including the clergy, secular and regular, of every 
 order, in the city of Mantua and throughout the whole 
 diocese ; to inquire if they have read or possess any 
 heretical books, or if they have taught any opinion 
 condemned by the church; to take the deposition of 
 
 * Giannoiie, Hist, de Naples,- torn. iv. p. 149. Schelhorn, Diss, de 
 Mino Celso, p. 18, 61. 
 
 t Thuani Hist, ad an. 1559. 
 
136 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 witnesses, seize the persons of the accused or suspect- 
 ed, examine them by the tortm'e, and, having brought 
 the processes as far as the definitive sentence, to trans- 
 mit the whole in an authentic shape to Rome for 
 judgment.* The reigning duke for some time screen- 
 ed his subjects from the effects of this persecuting 
 edict, and incurred, as we shall afterwards see, the 
 indignation of the pope by this humane interference. 
 Locarno is a city of Italy, and the capital of a 
 province or bailiwick of that name, situate on the 
 lake Maggiore, in the southern confines of the Alps. 
 It was one of four provinces which JNIaximilian Sforza, 
 duke of Milan, in the year 1513, gave to the Swiss 
 cantons as a remuneration for the military aids which 
 they had furnished him ; and was governed by a pre- 
 fect, whom the cantons sent by turns every two years. 
 Though the territory was small, its inhabitants were 
 possessed of considerable wealth, derived from the 
 riches of the country in their neighbourhood, and 
 from their bemg carriers in the trade which was main- 
 tained between Italy and Switzerland. So early as 
 the year 1526, the reformed opinions were introduced 
 into it by Baldassare Fontana, whom we have already 
 had occasion to mention, t The number of converts 
 was for some time small. " There are but three of 
 us here," says that zealous and devoted servant of 
 Christ, in a letter to Zuingle, " who have enlisted and 
 confederated in the cause of propagating the truth. 
 But Midian was not vanquished by the multitudes of 
 brave men who flocked to the standard of Gideon, 
 but by a few selected for that purpose by God. Who 
 knows but he may kindle a great fire out of this in- 
 considerable smoke? It is our duty to sow and plant: 
 the Lord must give the increase. "J Twenty years 
 elapsed before the fruit of the prayers and labours of 
 these good men sprung up ; and it is not improbable 
 that, before this happened, they had all gone to re- 
 ceive their reward in a better world. In the year 
 
 * Raynaldi Annales, ad an. 1545. t See before, p. 54. 
 
 I Jo. de Muralto, Oratio de Pcrsecutione Locarnensium: inTempe 
 Helvetica, torn. iv. p. 141. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 137 
 
 1546, Benedetto Locarno returned to his native place, 
 after he had been employed in preaching the gospel 
 in various parts of Italy, and in the island of Sicily. 
 His exertions to enlighten the minds of his townsmen 
 were zealously seconded by Giovanni Beccaria, com- 
 monly called the apostle of Locarno, a man of excel- 
 lent character and good talents, who, by reading the 
 Scriptures without the aid of a teacher or any human 
 writings, had discovered the principal errors and cor- 
 ruptions of the ChTirch of Rome. To these were 
 soon added four individuals of great respectability, 
 and animated by the true spirit of confessors — Var- 
 nerio Castiglione, who spared neither time nor labour 
 in promoting the truth; Ludovico Runcho, a citizen; 
 Taddeo de Dunis, a physician, who, as well as Run- 
 cho, was a young man of genius and undaunted reso- 
 lution; and Martino de Muralto, a doctor of laws, 
 and a person of noble birth, who had great influence 
 in the bailiwick. In the course of four years the Pro- 
 testants of Locarno had increased to a numerous 
 church, which was regularly organized, and had the 
 sacraments administered in it by a pastor whom they 
 called from the church of Chiavenna.* The daily ac- 
 cessions which it received to its numbers excited the 
 envy and chagrin of the clergy, who were warmly 
 supported by the prefect appointed, in the year 1549, 
 by the popish canton of Underwald. A priest belong- 
 ing to the neighbouring bailiwick of Lugano, who was 
 employed to declaim from the pulpit against the Locar- 
 nese Protestants, loaded them with calumnies of all 
 kinds, and challenged their preacher to a public dispute 
 on the articles controverted between the two churches. 
 He was completely silenced on the day of trial ; and, to 
 revenge his defeat, the prefect ordered Beccaria into 
 prison. This step excited such indignation in the 
 city, that the prisoner was immediately enlarged, and 
 the enemies of the Protestants were obliged to wait 
 for a more favourable opportunity of attack.! 
 
 IsTRiA, a peninsular district on the Gulf of Venice, 
 
 * Muralto, Oratio, ut supra, p. 142— 144; conf. p. 150. 
 t Ibid. p. 144—148.; conf. p. 150. 
 
 10 
 
138 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 belonged to the Venetian republic. It is mentioned 
 separately, and in this place, because it was the last 
 spot which the light of the reformation visited in its 
 progress through Italy, and because it gave birth to 
 two distinguished Protestants, both of whom were 
 bishops of the Roman Catholic Church, and one of 
 them a papal legate. Pierpaolo Vergerio was a na- 
 tive of Capo d'Istria,and sprung from a family which 
 had shared in the literary reputation of the fifteenth 
 century. We have already had occasion to notice 
 him as a young man of promising talents and excel- 
 lent character, who felt a desire to visit Wittenberg 
 for the purpose of finishing his studies.* Having de- 
 voted himself to the study of law, he obtained the de- 
 gree of doctor from the university of Padua, where 
 he acted for some time as a professor, and as vicar to 
 the Podesta, and afterwards distinguished himself as 
 an advocate at Venice.! Such was his fame for elo- 
 quence and address, that pope Clement VII. sent him 
 into Germany as legate to Ferdinand, king of the 
 Romans, at whose court he remained for some years, 
 advancing the interests of the court of Rome, and op- 
 posing the progress of Lutheranism.J On the death 
 of Clement, his successor Paul III. recalled Vergerio, 
 but, after receiving an account of his embassy, sent 
 him back to Germany, where he treated with the 
 German princes, and had more than one interview 
 with Luther, respecting the proposed general council. 
 On his return to Italy in 1536, he was advanced to 
 the episcopal dignity, being made first bishop of 
 Modrusium in Croatia, a see in the patronage of Fer- 
 dinand, and afterwards of Capo d'Istria, his native 
 place. Having gone into France, he appeared, in 
 1541, at the conference of Worms, in the name of his 
 Christian Majesty, but, as was believed, with secret 
 instructions from the pope.§ It is certain, that he 
 
 * See before, p. 50. 
 
 t Tiraboschi, Storia, vii. 375, 376. 
 
 \ Sleidan (lib. vii. torn. i. p. 395) represents Vergerio as sent to 
 Ferdinand in 1530 ; Tiraboschi says it was in 1532. (Tom. vii. p. 377.) 
 
 § Tiiis is asserted by Father Paul, (lib. i.) and Sleidan, (lib. xiii. 
 torn. ii. 204,) but contradicted by Pallavicini, (lib. iv. cap. 12,) and 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 139 
 
 drew up at this time an oration on the unity of the 
 Church, in opposition to the idea of a national coun- 
 cil, which was desired by the Protestants. 
 
 His mind appears, however, to have received a 
 bias in favour of the Reformation during his resi- 
 dence in Germany. Protestant writers assert, that 
 the pope intended to confer a cardinal's hat on him 
 at his return, but was diverted from this by the sus- 
 picions raised against his soundness in the faith. This 
 is denied by Pallavicini and Tiraboschi; but they 
 allow that his Holiness was informed, that Vergerio 
 had cultivated undue familiarity with the German 
 heretics, and spoken favourably of them; and that, on 
 this account, means were used to oblige him to re- 
 turn to Italy, and to convince him that he had incur- 
 red the displeasure of his superiors. This is confirmed 
 by the letters of cardinal Bembo. In a letter to his 
 nephew, who appears to have held a high official 
 situation in the Istrian government, the cardinal sig- 
 nifies that the bishop of Capo d'Istria had urged him 
 " to intercede for some of his relations, who had been 
 unjustly thrown into prison." This was on the 24th 
 of September 1 541 ; and on the 1st of February follow- 
 ing, Bembo expresses his satisfaction that his request 
 had not been granted, adding, "I hear some things of 
 that bishop which, if true, are very bad — that he not 
 only has portraits of Lutherans in his house, but also 
 tliat, in the causes which come before him, he is eager 
 to favour, in every way, the one party, whether right 
 or wrong, and to bear down the other."* 
 
 It was no easy matter for a person in Vergerio's 
 circumstances to relinquish the honourable situation 
 which he held, and to sacrifice the flattering prospects 
 of advancement which he had long cherished. Be- 
 sides, his convictions of the truth were still imperfect 
 and unsteady. When he first retired from the bustle 
 of public life to his diocese, he set about finishing a 
 work which he had begun, " against the apostates of 
 
 Tiraboschi. (Ut sup. p. 380.) Courayer supports the former opinion, 
 in his notes on Father Paul's History. 
 * Bembo, Opere, torn, ix. p. 288, 294. 
 
140 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Germany,'^ by the publication of which he expected 
 to remove the suspicions which he had incurred ; but, 
 in the course of writing, and of examining the books 
 of the Reformers, his mind was so struck with the 
 force of the objections which it behoved him to an- 
 swer, that he threw aAvay the pen, and abandoned 
 the work in despair. He now sought rehef by un- 
 bosoming himself to his brother, Gianbattista, bishop 
 of Pola in the same district. The latter was thrown 
 into great distress by this communication; but, upon 
 conference with his brother, and hearing the reasons 
 of his change of views, especially on the head of jus- 
 tification, he became himself a convert to the Protes- 
 tant doctrine. The two brothers now concerted a 
 plan for enlightening their dioceses, by conveying 
 instruction to the people on the leading articles of the 
 gospel, and withdrawing their minds from those cere- 
 monial services and bodily exercises in which they 
 were disposed to place the whole of religion. This 
 they were able to effect in a good degree by means 
 of their own personal labours, and the assistance of 
 some persons who had previously received the know- 
 ledge of the truth; so that, before the year 1546, a 
 great part of the inhabitants of that district had em- 
 braced the reformed faith and made considerable 
 advances in the knowledge of Christian doctrine.* 
 
 Ancona deserves to be mentioned here, if it were 
 for no other reason than its having given birth to 
 Matteo Gentilis, and his two accomplished sons, 
 Alberic and Scipio. The father left his native coun- 
 try for the sake of the reformed doctrine, and settled 
 in Carniola, where he followed his profession as a 
 physician. The two sons became eminent civilians. 
 Alberic, the eldest, came to England, and was made 
 professor of laws at Oxford.t His brother held the 
 same situation at Altorf, and, in addition to his legal 
 
 * Sleidan, lib. xxi. torn. iii. p. 150 — 152. Ughelli Italia Sacra, 
 torn. V. p. 341, 391. 
 
 t Wood's Athenae Oxon. vol. ii. p. 90, edit. Bliss. Albericus Gen- 
 tilis, doctor of the civil law of the university of Perugia, was incor- 
 porated at Oxford, March 6, 1580. (Fasti Oxon. 217.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 141 
 
 knowledge, was distinguished for his poetical talents 
 and skill in biblical criticism.* 
 
 Besides the places which have been specified, ad- 
 herents to the reformed opinions were to be found at 
 this time in Genoa, in Verona, in Cittadella, in Cre- 
 mona, in Brescia, in Civita di Friuli, in various parts 
 of the Roman territories, and in Rome itself.t 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS FACTS RESPECTING THE STATE OF THE REFORMED 
 OPINIONS IN ITALY. 
 
 J 
 
 There are a number of facts which could not well be 
 interwoven with the preceding narrative, but which 
 are of too great importance in themselves, and as 
 throwing light on the progress of the Reformation in 
 Italy, to be omitted in this history. I shall therefore 
 collect them in this chapter, under the following 
 heads: — The disputes which unhappily arose among 
 the Italian Protestants; the illustrious females who 
 embraced the new opinions; and the learned men 
 who favoured the views of the Reformers, though 
 they declined embarking in their cause. 
 
 I. It is well known that a controversy arose at an 
 early period between the two principal Reformers 
 respecting the presence of Christ in the sacrament of 
 the supper; Luther insisting that the words of insti- 
 tution ought to be understood in a literal sense, while 
 Zuingle interpreted them figuratively. At a confer- 
 ence held at Marburg in the year 1529, and procured 
 chiefly by the influence of Philip, landgrave of Hesse, 
 
 * Scipionis Gentilis in Epist. ad Philem. Comment. Norim. 1574. 
 The charge of Photinianism brought against him by Crcnius has 
 been wiped off by Zeltner. (Hist. Crypto-Sociniani Altorfini, tom. i. 
 p. 71, 357.) 
 
 + Gerdesii Specimen Italiae Reformata). Martyris Epistolse. Zanchii 
 Epistolffi. Melanchthonis Epistolae. 
 
142 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the two parties, after ascertaining that their senti- 
 ments harmonized on all other points agreed to bear 
 with each other, and to cultivate mutual peace and 
 good will, notwithstanding their different views of 
 this single article. But the controversy broke out 
 afresh, chiefly through the ill oflices of some forward 
 and injudicious friends of Luther, and being inflamed 
 by publications on both sides, laid the foundation of 
 a lasting division between the churches of Switzer- 
 land and Upper Germany. After the death of Zuin- 
 gle, his opinions were vigorously defended by Eco- 
 lampade, Bullinger, and Calvin. 
 
 The Protestants of Italy had been equally indebted 
 to the two Reformers for the knowledge which they 
 had obtained of the truth. If the circumstance of 
 the works of Zuingle having been chiefly composed 
 in Latin gave an advantage to his opinions, by con- 
 tributing to their more extensive circulation, this was 
 counterbalanced by the celebrity of Luther's name, 
 and the numbers of his countrymen who frequented 
 Italy and carried his opinions along with them. It 
 would appear, however, that the Italian Protestants 
 Avere generally favourable to the views of the Swiss 
 Reformer. This may be concluded from their writings, 
 and from the fact, that by far the greater part of those 
 who were obliged to leave their native country sought 
 an asylum in the Protestant cantons of Switzer- 
 land.^ 
 
 That this dispute was warmly agitated among the 
 Protestants of Modena, Bologna, and other parts of 
 Italy in 1541, we learn from three letters addressed 
 to them in the course of that year by Bucer. This 
 ReformxCr had all along been a strenuous friend to 
 peace and concord between the contending parties. 
 It seems to have been his sincere belief that there was 
 
 * Vergerio had more connection with the Germans than most of 
 his countrymen; and yet we find Paulus Ebcrus, a professor of Wit- 
 tenberg, writing of him as follows, in a letter dated June 21, 1556 : 
 — "Jam coenabimus cum Petro Paulo Vergerio, qui fuit Justinopoli- 
 tanus cpiscopus, et nunc vocatus a ducc Alberto proficiscetur in 
 Borussiam. Eum audio non dissimulantcr probare sententiam Cal- 
 vini." (Scrinium Antiquarium, tom. iv. p. 713.) 
 
 m 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 143 
 
 no real difterence of sentiment between them ; and 
 although he evidently inclined to the explications 
 given by the Swiss divines, yet in his efforts for paci- 
 fication, he alternately employed the phrases of both 
 sides; a method which threw an obscurity over his 
 writings, and is not the best calculated for promoting 
 conciliation between men of enlightened understand- 
 ing. However, the advice which he imparted on the 
 present occasion was in the main sound, and does 
 great honour to his heart. In a letter " to certain 
 friends of the truth in Italy,"* he says — "I hear, my 
 good brethren, that Satan, who has afflicted us long, 
 and with great defection in religion, has begun to 
 disturb you also; for it is said, that a dispute has 
 arisen among you respecting the eucharist. This 
 grieves me exceedingly. For, what else can you 
 expect from this controversy than what we have 
 experienced, to the great damage of our churches ? 
 Dear brethren, let us rather seek to embrace Christ in 
 the eucharist, that so we may live in him and he in 
 us. The bread and the wine are symbols, not things 
 of such great mystery. This all confess; but God 
 forbid that, on the other hand, any should imagine 
 that empty symbols are exhibited in the supper of 
 the Lord ; for the bread which we break is the par- 
 ticipation of the Lord's body, and not bread only. 
 Avoid strifes of words: support the weak. While 
 our confidence is placed in Christ, all is well; all men 
 cannot at once see the same things. Studiously cul- 
 tivate concord: the God upon whom we call is not 
 the God of division. Thus live, and advance, and 
 overcome every evil."t In another letter to the same 
 persons, J after giving his views of the subject, this 
 amiable man adds — " This is my opinion on the whole 
 matter in dispute. If I have not explained myself 
 with sufficient perspicuity, the reason is, that from 
 constitution, and owing to the defects of my educa- 
 tion, I am apt to be obscure and perplexed, and also 
 
 * " August! 17, 1541." t Buceri Scripta Anglicana, p. 686. 
 
 X " Anno 1541. 23. Decemb." 
 
144 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 that I write in haste, and without the helps necessary 
 for discussing such a subject; which, indeed, appears 
 too evidently in all my writings. I desire to avoid 
 giving offence, whenever it is lawful; yet, were I 
 able, I would wish to explain as clearly as possible 
 those things which it concerns the church to know. 
 I exhort you, beloved brethren, to avoid in these ques- 
 tions, with all possible care, a spirit of curiosity and 
 contention. Let those who are strong in knowledge 
 bear with the weak ; and let the weak pay due defer- 
 ence to the strong. We ought to know nothing but 
 Christ and him crucified. All our exertions ought to 
 be directed to this, that he may be formed more fully 
 in us, and portrayed in a more lively manner in the 
 whole of our conduct. You ascribe too much to me ; 
 I know my own weakness. Express your love by 
 praying to God forme, rather than by praising me."* 
 In a letter to the Protestants at Bologna and Modena, 
 he says — " The too sharp contention which has taken 
 place among us in Germany respecting this sacrament 
 was a work of the flesh. We thought, that Luther 
 fixed Christ glorified to earthly signs by his too strong 
 language ; he and his friends, on the contrary, thought 
 that we acknowledged and gave nothing in the sup- 
 per but bread and wine. At length, however, the 
 Lord has brought us to a happy agreement, both in 
 words and as to the matter; which is to this purpose, 
 that both parties should speak honourably of these 
 mysteries, so that the one should not appear to ascribe 
 to Christ what is unworthy of him, nor the other to 
 celebrate the Lord's supper without the Lord. I 
 beseech you, keep this agreement along with us ; and 
 if, in any instance, it has been injured, restore it, 
 imitating our conduct so far as it is according to 
 Christ, and not wherein it is according to the flesh. 
 This should be the only dispute and contest among 
 saints.'' t 
 
 But the controversy was carried on with the greatest 
 heat within the Venetian territories, where the Pro- 
 
 * Buceri Scripta Anglicana, p. 690. 
 t Ibid. p. 689. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 145 
 
 testants had all along kept up a close correspondence 
 with the divmes of Wittenberg, and where there were 
 individuals not disposed to yield implicit submission 
 to the authority of any name, however high and vene- 
 rated. We learn this fact from the letter which the 
 excellent Baldassare Altieri addressed, in the name of 
 his brethren, to Luther, and from which I have al- 
 ready made a quotation.* The following extract con- 
 tains some additional particulars as to the state of the 
 reformed cause in that quarter of Italy, at the period 
 when it was written :t — " There is another affair 
 which daily threatens our churches with impending 
 ruin. That question concerning the Lord's Supper, 
 which arose first in Germany, and subsequently has 
 been introduced among us, alas! what disturbances 
 has it excited ! what dissensions has it produced ! 
 what offences to the v/eak, what losses to the Church 
 of God, has it caused ! what impediments has it thrown 
 in the way of the propagation of the glory of Christ ! 
 For if in Germany, where there are so many churches 
 rightly constituted, and so many holy men, fervent in 
 spirit and eminent for every kind of learning, its poison 
 has prevailed so far as to form two parties through 
 mutual altercation, (for although it behoved such 
 things necessarily to happen, yet are they to be 
 guarded against as dire, dreadful, and abominable 
 before God,) how much more is the prevalence and 
 daily increase of this plague to be dreaded with us? 
 With us, where there are no public assemblies, but 
 where every one is a church to himself, acting accord- 
 ing to his own will and pleasure ; the weak exalting 
 themselves above the strong beyond the measure of 
 their faith, and the strong not receiving the weak and 
 bearing with them in the spirit of meekness and gen- 
 tleness, mindful that they are themselves encom- 
 passed with the same infirmity and sin, instead of 
 which they proudly neglect and despise them. All 
 would be teachers, instead of disciples, although they 
 know nothing, and are not led by the Spirit of God. 
 There are many teachers who do not understand what 
 
 * See before, p. 109. t " Kal. Dec. 6, 1542." 
 
146 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 they say or whereof they affirm; many evangelists 
 who would do better to learn than to teach others; 
 many apostles who are not truly sent. All things 
 here are conducted in a disorderly and indecorous 
 manner.'^ Altieri goes on to state, that Bucer had 
 written them that the two parties in Germany had 
 come to a happy agreement, of which Melanchthon 
 was about to publish a defence ; and had exhorted the 
 friends of truth in Italy to lay aside their contentions, 
 and with one mouth to glorify him who is the God of 
 peace and not of confusion. This intelligence, Altieri 
 says, had filled them with joy, and on a sudden all was 
 harmony and peace among them. But of late again, 
 at the instigation of the great adversary of the truth, 
 certain foolish and unreasonable men had embroiled 
 matters, and raised new disputes and animosities. He 
 therefore begs Luther to write to them ; for, though 
 they were not ignorant of his opinion on the disputed 
 question, (to which they meant to adhere, as most 
 consonant to the words of Christ and Paul,) and 
 although they relied on and rejoiced at the information 
 of Bucer, yet they were anxious to be certified of the 
 mode of conciliation from Luther himself, to whose 
 opinion they paid a higher deference than to that of 
 any other person, and to receive from him the above- 
 mentioned defence, or any other books lately pub- 
 lished relating to that subject or to the general cause. 
 The letter contains the warmest professions of regard 
 for the Reformer, and of solicitude for the success of 
 the Reformation in Germany; "for," says the writer, 
 " whatever befalls you, whether prosperous or ad- 
 verse, we consider as befalling ourselves, both be- 
 cause we have the same spirit of faith, and also 
 because on the issue of your affairs depends our 
 establishment or overthrow. Be mindful of us, most 
 indulgent Luther, not only before God in your fervent 
 prayers, that we may be filled with the knowledge of 
 him through the Spirit of Christy but also by the fre- 
 quency of your learned, pleasant, and fruitful writings 
 and letters; that so those whom you have begotten 
 by the word of truth may the sooner grow up to the 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 147 
 
 Stature of a perfect man in Christ. We labour here 
 under a great and painful scarcity of the word of God, 
 not so much owing to the cruelty and severity of the 
 adherents of antichrist, as to the almost incredible 
 wickedness and avarice of the booksellers, who, after 
 bringing your writings here, conceal them with the 
 view of raising the price to an exorbitant rate, to the 
 great loss of the whole church. The brethren, who are 
 numerous here, salute you with the kiss of peace."* 
 
 Luther had it in his power to do much at this time 
 for the advancement of the evangelical cause in Italy. 
 The flames of persecution were just ready to burst 
 upon its friends, while they were unhappily become 
 a prey to intestine dissensions. It appears that the 
 greater part of the Protestants in the Venetian states 
 were favourable to the opinion of the German Refor- 
 mer as to the eucharist ; but it is also evident, that 
 they, or at least the leading men among them, were 
 inclined to moderation, and willing to live in harmony 
 with such of their brethren as thought in a diflerent 
 manner from themselves on the controverted article, 
 and to wait till God, who had wonderfully brought 
 them to the knowledge of many great truths of which 
 they had been profoundly ignorant, should "reveal 
 this also to them." Feeling the highest veneration 
 for the character of Luther, they were disposed to pay 
 a deference almost implicit to his advice, and a single 
 word from him would either allay or inflame the dis- 
 sension which had arisen. Unhappily he adopted that 
 method which naturally produced the last of these 
 effects. In his answer to the letter from the Venetian 
 Protestants, he not only dissipated the pleasing delu- 
 sion which they were under as to a reconciUation 
 having been effected, but inveighed, in the most bit- 
 ter terms, against the sacramentarians and fanatics, 
 as he abusively denominated the Swiss divines; and 
 asserted that " the popish tenet of transubstantiation 
 was more tolerable than that of Zuingle."t Nor was 
 
 * Seckendorf, lib. iii. p. 402. 
 
 t Hospiniani Hist. Sacrament, part. ii. p. 184. The letter is pub- 
 lished in Hummelii Neue Bibliothcck von seltenen BUchern, torn. i. p. 
 •239—246. Numb. 1775. 
 
148 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 he a whit more moderate in another letter written by 
 him in the course of the following year, in which he 
 stimulated the Italians to write against the opinions 
 of Zuingle and Ecolampade, whom he did not scruple 
 to stigmatize as "poisonous teachers" and "false pro- 
 phets," who "did not dispute under the influence of 
 error, but opposed the truth knowingly, at the insti- 
 gation of Satan."* In addition to this, he caused 
 some of his controversial writings against the Zuin- 
 glians to be translated and sent into Italy. 
 
 Alas ! what is man ! What are great men, those 
 who would be thought, or are represented by their 
 fond admirers, to be gods ! Lighter than vanity — a 
 lie. Willingly would I have passed over this portion 
 of history, and spared the memory of a man who has 
 deserved so much of the world, and whose character, 
 notwithstanding all the faults which attach to it, will 
 never cease to be contemplated with admiration and 
 gratitude. But the truth must be told. The violence 
 with which Luther acted in the dispute that arose 
 between him and his brethren respecting the sacra- 
 ment is too well known; but never did the character 
 of the Reformer sink so much into that of the leader of 
 a party, as it did on the present occasion. Some ex- 
 cuse may be found for the manner in which he treated 
 those who opposed his favourite dogma in Germany, 
 and even in Switzerland; but one is utterly at a loss 
 to conceive the shadow of an apology for his conduct 
 in reference to the Italians. Surely he ought to have 
 considered that the whole cause of evangelical reh- 
 gion was at stake among them, that they were few 
 in number and rude in knowledge, that there were 
 many things which they were not yet able to bear, 
 that they were as sheep in the midst of v/olves, and 
 that the only tendency of his advice was to set them 
 by the ears, to divide, and scatter, and drive them into 
 the mouths of the wild beasts which stood ready to de- 
 vour them. This was foreseen by the amiable and 
 pacific Melanchthon, who had always written in a 
 very difl'erent strain to his correspondents in Italy, 
 
 * Luther's Sammtliche Schriflen, torn. xvii. p. 2632. edit. Walch. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 149 
 
 and who deplored this rash step of his colleague; 
 although the mildness and timidity of his disposition 
 prevented him on this, as on some other occasions, 
 from adopting those decisive measures which might 
 have counteracted in a great degree its baneful effects.* 
 
 But another controversy had arisen among the 
 Italian Protestants, bearing on points of vital import- 
 ance to Christianity, and calculated, if it had become 
 general, to inflict a deeper injury on the interests of 
 religion than the dispute to which I have just advert- 
 ed. This related primarily to the doctrine of the 
 Trinity, and by consequence to the person and atone- 
 ment of Christ; and it extended to most of the articles 
 which are peculiar and distinguishing in the Christian 
 faith. 
 
 It has been supposed by some writers, that persons 
 attached to the opinions of Arius had remained con- 
 cealed in Italy down to the sixteenth century; and 
 that the fame of the Reformation begun in Germany 
 drew them from their lurking places.t Some have 
 even asserted that the mind of the well-known Michael 
 Servetus was first tainted by intercourse with Italian 
 heretics.:}: But there is no good evidence for either 
 of these opinions. It is much more probable that the 
 Spaniard acquired his peculiar views, so far as they 
 were not the offspring of his own invention, in Ger- 
 many, subsequently to the visit which he paid to 
 Italy at a very early period of his life. Before his 
 name had been heard of, and within a few years after 
 the commencement of the Reformation, certain con- 
 fused notions, sometimes approaching to the ancient 
 tenets of Arius and Pelagius, and at other times 
 assuming a form which bore a nearer resemblance to 
 those afterwards called Socinian, were afloat in Ger- 
 many, and vented by some of those who went by the 
 common name of anabaptists. Among these were 
 
 * In a letter to Vitus Theodorus, written in 1543, Melanchthon 
 complains, "quod horridius scripserit Lutherus ad Italos." (Hospin, 
 ut supra.) 
 
 t Bock, Hist. Antitrinit. torn. ii. p. 414. 
 
 t L'Abbe d'Artigny, Nouveaux Memoires, torn. ii. p. 58, 59. 
 
150 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Hetzer and Denck, who published translations of parts 
 of Scripture before Luther.* In the conference held 
 at Marburg, in 1529, between the Saxon and Swiss 
 Reformers, it Avas stated by Melanchthon, as matter 
 of complaint, or at least of suspicion, that the latter 
 had among them persons who entertained erroneous 
 opinions concerning the Trinity. Zuingle cleared him- 
 self and his brethren from this imputation, without 
 denying, however, that there might be individuals 
 lurking among them who cherished such tenets.t It 
 is not improbable, that, on his return, means were 
 taken to discover these concealed heretics, and that, 
 being expelled from Switzerland, some of them trav- 
 elled into Italy. We know that the reformed church 
 at Naples was, in its infancy, disturbed by Arians and 
 anabaptists;! but this appears to have happened at a 
 later period, and the persons referred to might be dis- 
 ciples of Servetus. He began to publish against the 
 Trinity in the year 1531, and there is ground to believe 
 that his books were soon after conveyed to Italy. § 
 Though he had not formed his peculiar opinions when 
 he was in that country, yet he contracted, during the 
 visit which he paid to it, an intimate acquaintance 
 with several persons with whom he maintained an 
 epistolary correspondence to a late period of his life ; 
 and it is known that he was as zealous in propagating 
 his notions by private letters as by the press. || Upon 
 the whole, it is highly probable that the antitrinitarian 
 opinions were introduced into Italy by means of the 
 writings of Servetus. 
 
 When the minds of men have been suddenly eman- 
 cipated from implicit subjection to human authority, 
 and disentangled from the errors into which it had 
 
 * Zuinglii et CEcolampadii Epistolse, f. 82, 197. Bock, Hist. Anti- 
 trin. torn. ii. p. 134 — 136. Ruchat, Histoire de la Reform, de la 
 Suisse, torn. ii. p. 509. Hetzer and Denck retracted their sentiments. 
 
 t Zuinglii et (Ecol. Epist. f. 24. Ruchat, ut supra, p. 461, 483. 
 
 t Life of Galeacius Caracciolus, Marquesse of Vico, p. 13. Lond. 
 1635. 
 
 § Sandii Nucleus Hist. Eccl. append, p. 90. Boxhornii Hist. Univ. 
 p. 70. 
 
 II Calvini Opera, torn. viii. p. 517. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 151 
 
 betrayed them, they are in great danger of overleap- 
 ing the boundaries prescribed to them by that autho- 
 rity which is divine, and of phmging rashly into inqui- 
 ries, which reason, as well as revelation, pronounce 
 to be impracticable and pernicious. The genius of 
 the Italians led them to indulge in subtle and curious 
 speculations, and this disposition was fostered by the 
 study of the eclectic and sceptical philosophy, to which 
 many of them had of late years been addicted.* Crude 
 and indigested as the new theories respecting the 
 Trinity and collateral topics were, they fell in with this 
 predisposition; and not a few Protestants found them- 
 selves entangled, before they were aware, in the mazes 
 of an intricate and deceitful theology, into which they 
 had entered for the sake of intellectual exercise and 
 amusement. These speculations appear to have com- 
 menced at Sienna, whose inhabitants were proverbial 
 among their countrymen for levity and inconstancy 
 of mind;t and from it they were transferred to the 
 Venetian territories, where the friends of the Reforma- 
 tion Avere mmierous, but not organized into congrega- 
 tions, nor placed under the superintendence of regular 
 teachers. J 
 
 The letter addressed by Melanchthon to the Senate 
 of Venice in the year 1538, and from which a quota- 
 tion has already been made, shows that the antitrini- 
 
 * Illgen, Vita Laelii Socini, p. 7. Lips. 1814. Melanchthon speaks 
 repeatedly of the " Platonic and sceptical theories" with which he 
 found the minds of his Italian correspondents and acquaintance 
 enamoured. (Epist. coll. 852, 941.) And Calvin, speaking of that 
 vain curiosity and insatiable desire of novelty which leads many into 
 pernicious errors, says — " In Italis, propter rarum acumen, magis 
 eminet." (Opera, tom. viii. p. 510.) 
 
 t Was ever race 
 
 Light as Sienna's ? Sure not France herself 
 Can show a tribe so frivolous and vain ! 
 
 Dante, Inf. c. xxix. 
 t Altieri's letter, as quoted above, p. 145 — 147. Bock (Hist. Anti- 
 trin. ii. 405) refers to the academy at Venice, and its form and con- 
 stitution, which allowed great liberty in starting doubts, and can- 
 vassing opposite opinions, as confirming the accounts of the rise of 
 Socinianism in that state. But that learned writer does not appear 
 to have been aware, that academies of this description, and founded 
 on the same principles, were, in that age, common throughout Italy. 
 
152 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 tarian tenets had then gained admission into that state.* 
 " I know," says he, " that very different judgments 
 have always prevailed in the world respecting reli- 
 gion, and that the devil has been intent from the 
 beginning on sowing impious doctrines, and inciting 
 men of curious and depraved minds to corrupt and 
 overthrow the truth. Aware of the dangers arising 
 from this quarter to the church, we have been careful 
 to keep within proper bounds; and while we reject 
 certain errors more recently introduced, do not depart 
 from the apostolical writings, from the Nicene and 
 Athanasian creeds, nor even from the anci«^nt consent 
 of the Catholic church. I understand there has lately 
 been introduced among you a book of Servetus, who 
 has revived the error of Samosatenus, condemned by 
 the primitive church, and who seeks to overthrow the 
 doctrine of the two natiu'es in Christ by denying that 
 Uhe word' is to be understood of a person, when 
 John says, ' In the beginning was the word.' Although 
 my opinion on that controversy is already in print, 
 and I have condemned the tenet of Servetus by name 
 in my Common Places, yet I think it proper at present 
 to admonish and obtest you to use your utmost exer- 
 tions to persuade persons to avoid, reject and exe- 
 crate that impious opinion." Having advanced some 
 considerations in support of the orthodox doctrine on 
 that head, he adds — " I have written these things 
 more largely than the bounds of a letter admit, but 
 too briefly for the importance of the subject. My 
 object was merely to let you know my opinion, not 
 to enter at length into the controversy; but, if any 
 one desires it, I shall be ready to discuss the question 
 more copiously." t The representations of Melanch- 
 thon, though they might check, failed in arresting the 
 progress of these opinions. In a letter to Camerarius, 
 
 * Bock, in givingr an account of this letter, has expressed himself 
 in such a way as may lead his readers to think that Melanchthon 
 had signified his having heard that above forty persons in the city 
 and territories of Venice, distinguished by their rank and talents, 
 had embraced Servetianism. (Hist. Antitrin. ii, 407.) Nothing of 
 that kind appears in the copy of the letter which is now before me. 
 
 t Melanch. Epist. coll. 150—154. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 153 
 
 written in 1 544, he says — " I send you a letter of Vi- 
 tus, and another written from Venice, which contains 
 disgraceful narratives; but we are admonished, by 
 these distressing examples, to preserve discipline and 
 good order with the greater care and unanimity."* 
 And, in another letter to the same correspondent, 
 dated on the 31st of May 1545, he writes — " I yester- 
 day returned an answer to the theological question of 
 the Italians, transmitted by Vitus last winter. Italian 
 theology abounds with Platonic theories; and it will 
 be no easy matter to bring them back from that vain- 
 glorious science of which they are so fond, to truth 
 and simplicity of explanation."! 
 
 Socinian writers have fixed the origin of their sect 
 at this period. According to their account, upwards 
 of forty individuals of great talents and learning were 
 in the habit of meeting in private conferences, or 
 "colleges," as they have called them, within the ter- 
 ritories of Venice, and chiefly at Vicenza, to deliberate 
 on the plan of forming a purer faith, by discarding 
 a number of opinions held by Protestants as well as 
 papists ; but these meetings, being discovered by the 
 treachery of an individual, were dispersed in the year 
 1546; some of the members having been thrown into 
 prison, and others forced to flee into foreign countries. 
 Among the latter they mention Lselius Socinus, Ca- 
 millus Siculus, Franciscus Niger, Ochino, Alciati, Gen- 
 tilis, and Blandrata. These writers have gone so far 
 as to present us with a creed or system of doctrine 
 agreed upon by the coUegiates of Vicenza, as the re- 
 sult of their joint inquiries and discussion. J 
 
 Historians distinguished for their research and dis- 
 crimination, as well as their impartiality, have reject- 
 ed this narrative, which, it must be confessed, rests on 
 very doubtful and suspicious authority. § It was first 
 
 * Melanch. Epist. coll. 835. t Ibid. 852. 
 
 t Lubieniecii Hist. Reform. Polonicse, p. 38, 39. Sandii Bibl. An- 
 titrin. p. 18; et Wissowatii Narratio adnex. p. 209, 210. 
 
 § Mosheim, (Eccles, Hist. cent. xvi. sect. iii. part. ii. chap. iv. § 3,) 
 and Fueslin, (Beytrage zur Erlauterung dcr Kirchen-refomi. Ges- 
 chichten des Schweizeriandes, torn. iii. p. 327,) do not consider the 
 narrative as entitled to credit. Bock, (Hist. Antitrin. torn. ii. p. 404 
 
 11 
 
154 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 published a century after the time to which it refers, 
 and by foreigners and persons far removed from the 
 sources of information. No trace of the Vicentine 
 '• colleges" has been found, after the most accurate 
 research, in the contemporary history of Italy, or in 
 the letters and other writings of learned men, popish, 
 Protestant, or Socinian, which have since been brought 
 to light. No allusion is made to the subject by Faus- 
 tus Socinus in any part of his works, or by the Polish 
 knight who wrote his life.* The ambitious designa- 
 tion of colleges, applied to the alleged meetings, is 
 suspicious, while the mistakes respecting the persons 
 who are said to have composed them, give to the 
 whole narrative the air of, at best, a story made up of 
 indistinct and ill-understood traditionary reports. Ochi- 
 no, Camillo, and Negri, had left Italy before these 
 assemblies are represented as having existed, and the 
 writings which the first of these continued for many 
 years after that period to publish, coincided exactly 
 with the sentiments of the first Reformers. Laelius 
 
 — 416,) and Illgen. (Vita Lselii Socini, p. 8 — 14) admit its general 
 truth, while they acknowledge its incorrectness as to particular facts. 
 A modern writer has pronounced Moshcim's reasons "extremely 
 weak," and "extremely frivolous;" and maintains the opposite 
 opinion on the grounds which Bock has laid down in his History of 
 the Antitrinitarians. (Rees's Historical Introduction to the Racovian 
 Catechism, p. 20 — 24.) Bock was an industrious and trustworthy 
 collector, but very inferior in critical acumen to Mosheim, and he 
 has brought forward no fact in support of his opinion which was not 
 known to his predecessor. 
 
 * Lubieniecius professes to have taken the account " ex Lselii So- 
 cini vitse Curriculo, et Budzinii comment. MSS." But he does not 
 quote the words of these documents, which were never given to the 
 world. Mr. Rees says — " Andrew Wissowatius may himself be re- 
 garded in the light of an original authority." (Ut supra, p. 22.) But 
 how a writer, who was born in 1608, could be an original authority 
 for what happened in 1546, it is difficult to comprehend; nor does 
 Wissowatz pretend to have taken his statement from any original 
 documents of his grandfather, Faustus Socinus, which, if they had 
 existed, would undoubtedly have been communicated to Samuel 
 Pryzcovius, when he undertook to write the life of the founder of the 
 sect. — The work of Pryzcovius was translated into English, and 
 published under the following title : — " The Life of that incomparable 
 man, Faustus Socinus Senensis, described by a Polonian Knight. 
 London, printed for Richard Moone, at the Seven Stars, 1653." The 
 epistle to the reader is subscribed "J. B.;" i. e. John Biddle. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 155 
 
 Sociniis belonged to Sienna ; there is no evidence of 
 his having resided at Venice; and, although we should 
 suppose that he visited that place occasionally, it is 
 not probable that a young man of twenty-one could 
 possess that authority in these assemblies which is 
 ascribed to him by the narrative we are examining. 
 Besides, the part assigned to him is at variance with 
 the whole of his conduct after he left his native coun- 
 try. Though it is evident that his mind was tinctured 
 with the tenets afterwards called Socinian, yet so far 
 was he from courting the honours and dangers of a 
 heresiarch, that he uniformly propounded his opinions 
 in the shape of doubts or difficulties, which he was 
 anxious to have removed; and he continued till his 
 death, notwithstanding the suspicions of heterodoxy 
 which he had incurred, to keep up a friendly inter- 
 course, not only with his countrymen, Martyr and 
 Zanchi, but with Melanchthon, Bullinger, and even 
 Calvin. The assemblies suppressed withm the Vene- 
 tian territories in the year 1546, were those of the 
 Protestants in general; and it was as belonging to 
 these, and not as forming a distinct sect, that the 
 friends of Servetus were at that time exposed to suf- 
 fering. Such are the reasons which incline me to 
 reject the narrative of the Socinian historians. 
 
 Rut while there is no good ground for thinking that 
 the favourers of the antitrinitarian tenets in Italy had 
 formed themselves into societies, or digested a regular 
 system of belief, it is undeniable that a number of the 
 Italian Protestants Avere, at the time referred to, in- 
 fected with these errors; and it is highly probable 
 that they were accustomed to confirm one another in 
 the belief of them when they occasionally met, and 
 perhaps to introduce them as topics of discussion into 
 the common meetings of the Protestants, and by start- 
 ing objections, to shake the convictions of such as 
 adhered to the commonly received doctrines. This 
 was exactly the line of conduct pursued by them 
 after they left their native country, especially in the 
 Orisons, Avhere the expatriated Italians first took 
 refuge. Soon after their arrival, disputes arose in the 
 
156 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Grison churches respecting the Trinity, the merit of 
 Christ'^ death, the perfection of the saints in this hfe, 
 the necessity and use of the sacraments, infant bap- 
 tism, the resurrection of the body, and similar articles, 
 in which the chief opponents of the common doctrine, 
 both privily and openly, were natives of Italy, seve- 
 ral of whom afterwards propagated their peculiar 
 opinions in Transylvania and Poland.* Subsequently 
 to the year 1546, adherents to antitrinitarianism were 
 still to be found in Italy. Such of them as had fledj 
 maintained a correspondence with their friends at 
 home, and made converts to their opinions by means 
 of their letters.! About the year 1553, the learned 
 visionary, William Postel, published at Venice an 
 apology for Servetus, in which he mentions, that this 
 heresiarch had many favourers among the Italians, t 
 And in the year 1555, pope Paul IV. issued a bull 
 against those who denied the doctrine of the Trinity, 
 the proper divinity of Christ, and redemption by his 
 blood. § I close this part of the subject with the words 
 of a judicious Italian, who left his native country for 
 the gospel, and laboured with great zeal, and not 
 without success, in opposing the spread of this here- 
 sy. " It is not difficult to divine," says he, " whence 
 this evil sprung, and by whom it has been fostered. 
 Spain produced the hen; Italy hatched the eggs; and 
 we in the Grisons now hear the chicks pip."|| 
 
 II. Another class of facts which I have thought 
 deserving of a place in this chapter, relates to illustri- 
 ous females who favoured the new opinions, although 
 their names are not associated with any public trans- 
 action in the progress which the Reformation made 
 through Italy. The literary historians of Italy have 
 dwelt with enthusiasm and pride on such of their 
 
 * De Porta, Hist. Ref. Eccles. Rhaelicarum, torn. i. p. 63. Bock, 
 Hist. Antitrin. torn. ii. p. 410, 411. Schelhornii Dissert, de Mino 
 Celso Senensi, p. 34—36, 44-47. 
 
 t Illgen, Vita Ltulii Socini, p. 58. 
 
 I Bock, ut supra, p, 539 — 542. 
 
 § Bullarium Romanum, ab Angel. Mar. Cherubino, torn. i. p. 590. 
 
 II Zanchius, apud Bock, ut supra, p. 415. I have not observed 
 these words in the writings of Zanciii. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 157 
 
 countrywomen as distinguished themselves by patron- 
 izing or cuhivating Uterature and the fine arts. Tlieir 
 proficiency in sacred letters and in the practice of 
 piety, is certainly not less to their honour. It has 
 been mentioned by a modern historian, that any piety 
 which existed in Italy at the close of the fifteenth 
 century, was to be found among the female part of 
 the population.* A writer who flourished in the mid- 
 dle of the following century, and whose religion was 
 of a more enlightened kind than that which usually 
 prevails in the cloister, gives the following account of 
 Avhat he had observed: — " In our age we behold the 
 admirable spectacle of women (whose sex is more 
 addicted to vanity than learning) having their minds 
 deeply imbued with the knowledge of heavenly doc- 
 trine. In Campania, where I now write, the most 
 learned preacher may become more learned and holy 
 by a single conversation with some women. In my 
 native country of Mantua, too, I found the same 
 thing, and were it not that it would lead me into a 
 digression, I could dilate with pleasure on the many 
 proofs which I received, to my no small edification, 
 of an unction of spirit and fervour of devotion in the 
 sisterhood, such as I have rarely met with in the most 
 learned men of my profession."t The female friends 
 of the truth in Italy, whose names have come down 
 to us, were chiefly of the higher ranks, and such as 
 had not taken the veil. 
 
 The first place is due here to Isabella Manricha of 
 Bresegna, who embraced the reformed doctrine at 
 Naples under Valdes, and exerted herself zealously in 
 promoting it. Having given proofs of invincible for- 
 titude, by resisting the solicitations and threats of her 
 friends, this lady, finding that it behoved her either to 
 sacrifice her religion or her native country, retired 
 into Germany, from Avhich she repaired to Zurich, 
 and finally settled at Chiavenna in the Orisons, where 
 she led a life of poverty and retirement, with as much 
 
 * Sismondi, Hist, des Rep. d'ltalie, torn. vii. p. 236. 
 
 t Folengius in Psalmos; apud Gerdesii Ital. Ref. p. 261. 
 
158 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 cheerfulness as if she had never known what it was 
 to enjoy affluence and honours.* 
 
 One of the greatest female ornaments of the reform- 
 ed Church in Italy was Lavinia della Rovere, daugh- 
 ter-in-law to the celebrated Camillo Orsini, "than 
 whom I know not a more learned, or, what is still 
 higher praise, a more pious woman in Italy,'' says 
 Olympia Morata. The epistolary correspondence car- 
 ried on between these two female friends is highly 
 honourable to both. We learn from it the interesting 
 fact, that Lavinia, while she resided at the court of 
 Rome, not only kept her conscience unspotted by 
 idolatry, but employed the influence of her father-in- 
 law, which was great, with the pope and catholic 
 princes, in behalf of the Protestants who fell into the 
 hands of the inquisition. From various hints dropped 
 in the course of the correspondence, it is evident that 
 she felt her situation extremely delicate and painful, 
 apparently from the importunities of her husband, 
 and the ruder attempts of her other relations, to in- 
 duce her to conform to the established religion ; but 
 these served only to call forth her patience and mag- 
 nanimity.! It requires both reflection and sensibility 
 to form a proper estimate of the trials which a distin- 
 guished female must endure when placed in the cir- 
 cumstances of Lavinia della Rovere. A cup of cold 
 water, or even a kind message, sent to a prisoner in 
 the cells of the inquisition, a word spoken in behalf 
 of the truth, or a modest refusal to be present at a 
 superstitious festival, afford, in such cases, a stronger 
 and more unequivocal proof of a devoted soul, than 
 the most flaming professions, or a fortune expended 
 for religious purposes, by one who lives in a free 
 country, and is surrounded by persons who are friend- 
 ly to the gospel. 
 
 * Simlcri Oratio, ut supra, sig. b iij. Bock, ii. 524. To this lady 
 Celio Sccundo Curio dedicated the first edition of the works of Olym- 
 pia Fulvia Morata. (Noltenius, Vita OlympifE, p. 8, 119. edit. Hesse.) 
 Ochino's work, Da Corporis Christi Prcescntia in Cosna Sacramento, 
 
 also dedicated " Illustri et piae foiminoB IsabelltB Manrichse Brescg- 
 
 1 
 nae. 
 
 t Opera OlympifB F. Moratae, p. 89—92, 105, 107, 121, 123. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 159 
 
 By the same letters we are authorized to record, 
 among the friends of the reformed doctrine, two fe- 
 males of the Orsini family, Madonna Maddelena, and 
 Madonna Cherebina;* as also Madonna Elena Ran- 
 gone of Bentivoglio,t who appears to have belonged 
 to the noble family of that name in Modena, which 
 had long been distinguished, both on the male and 
 female side, for the cultivation and patronage of lit- 
 erature.:]: 
 
 Julia Gonzago, duchess of Trajetto, and countess 
 of Fondi, in the kingdom of Naples, is ranked among 
 "illustrious women, suspected of heretical pravity.'^§ 
 She was the sister of Luigi II. conte di Sabioneta, a 
 nobleman celebrated for his knowledge of letters, as 
 well as for his valour, and who was surnamed Rodo- 
 monte, from his having killed a Moorish champion in 
 battle. Julia Gonzago is commemorated, by Ortensio 
 Landi, among the learned ladies of Italy; and her 
 name often occurs in writings of that age.|| After the 
 death of her husband, Vespasiano Colonna, she re- 
 mained a widow, and exhibited a pattern of the cor- 
 rectest virtue and piety. She was esteemed one of 
 the most beautiful women in Italy; and Brantome 
 relates, that Solyman, the Turkish emperor, having 
 given orders to Hariadan Barbarossa, the commander 
 of his fleet, to seize her person, a party of Turks land- 
 ed during the night, and took possession of the town 
 of Fondi; but the duchess, though at the risk of her 
 
 * Opera Olympic F. Moratee, p. 92, 212—222. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 102. 
 
 t The letters of Girolamo Muzio, the great opponent of heresy in 
 his time, throw light on what is mentioned in the text. In a letter 
 to Lucrezia, the wife of Count Claudio Rangone, he expresses his 
 apprehensions lest that lady should suffer herself to be ensnared by 
 the new heresy, and points to an enemy whom she had in her house. 
 In another letter he expresses the joy which he felt at hearing that 
 his fears were unnecessary. Both letters were written in 1547. 
 (Muzio, Lettere; apud Tiraboschi, torn vii. p. 100.) The families 
 of Rangone and Bentivoglio were allied by frequent intermarriages. 
 (Ibid. p. 90, 93, 96.) 
 
 § Thuani Hist. lib. xxxix. cap. 2. 
 
 II Tiraboschi, Storia, torn. vii. p. 1195. Ab. Bettinelli, DcUe Let- 
 tere ed Arte Montovane, p. 89. 
 
160 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 life, eluded their search, and made her escape.* She 
 was a disciple of Valdes,t and continued, after his 
 death, to entertain and protect the preachers of the 
 new doctrine ; on which account she incurred the dis- 
 pleasure of the pope to such a degree, that the fact of 
 having corresponded with her by letters was made a 
 ground of criminal charge on trials for heresy.:}: 
 
 I place Vittoria Colonna last, because the claims of 
 the Protestants to the honour of her name have been 
 strongly contested. She was the daughter of Fabri- 
 zio Colonna, grand constable of Naples, and of Anna 
 de Montefeltro, daughter of Federigo, duke of Urbino ; 
 and having been deprived of her husband, the cele- 
 brated commander Fernando Davalos, marquis of 
 Pescara, in the flower of youth, she dedicated her 
 life to sacred studies, and retirement from the gay 
 world, without however entangling herself with the 
 vow. The warmest tribute of praise was paid to the 
 talents and virtues of this lady by the first writers of 
 her age.§ " In Tuscan song," says one of them, ^^she 
 was inferior only to Petrarch; and in her elegiac 
 poems on the death of her husband, she has beauti- 
 fully expressed her contempt of the world, and the 
 ardent breathings of her soul after the blessedness of 
 heaven." II The marchioness associated with the 
 Reformers at Naples, and was regarded as one of 
 their most distinguished disciples.lF When Ochino, 
 
 * Vies des Dames lUuslres, p. 282. 
 
 t The Commentaries of Valdes on the Psalms, and on the Epistle 
 to the Romans, were dedicated to this lady. 
 
 X Laderchii Annales, torn. xxii. p. 325. Thuanus, ut supra. 
 
 § Sclielhorn has collected a number of these testimonies in his 
 Amoenit. Hist. Eccles. tom. ii. p. 132 — 134. See also Tiraboschi, 
 Storia, tom. vii. p. 1179—118]. 
 
 II Toscanus, in Peplo Italiae. 
 
 IT Giannone, 1. xxxii. c. 5. Thuani Hist, ad an. 1566. The 
 testimony of these writers is confirmed by a letter concerning her, 
 written in 1538, by Casper Cruciger, to Theodorus Vitus, and pub- 
 lished in Hummelii Neue Bibliotheck von seltenen Buechern, Band ii. 
 p. 126. To an Italian version of Beza's Confession of Faith, printed 
 (probably at Geneva) in 1560, the translator, Francesco Cattani, pre- 
 fixed "Sonctto della Illustriss. Marchesana di Pescara xxxiii. nel suo 
 libro stampato, col quale sfida i Papisti al combattere, mostranda la 
 lor mala causa." 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 161 
 
 for whom she felt the deepest veneration,* deserted 
 the Church of Rome, great apprehensions were enter- 
 tained that she would follow his example ; and cardi- 
 nal Pole, who watched over her faith with the utmost 
 jealousy, exacted from her a promise that she would 
 not read any letters which might be addressed to her 
 by the fascinating ex-capuchin, or, at least, would not 
 answer them without consulting him or cardinal Cer- 
 vini. This appears from a letter to Cervini, after- 
 wards pope Marcellus II., in which Vittoria says, 
 that, from her knowledge of "Monsegnor d'lnghelt- 
 erra," she was convinced she could not err in follow- 
 ing his advice, and had therefore obeyed his direc- 
 tions, by transmitting a packet sent her from Bologna 
 by "Fra Belardin." Her highness adds, in a post- 
 script, (which may be considered as a proof that her 
 new advisers had succeeded in alienating her mind 
 from Ochino, and confirming her attachment to the 
 Church of Rome,) "I am grieved to see, that the more 
 he thinks to excuse himself, he condemns himself the 
 more, and the more he believes he will save others 
 from shipwreck, the more he exposes himself to the 
 deluge, being out of the ark which saves and gives 
 security.'^! 
 
 III. The last class of miscellaneous facts which I 
 have to state, as throwing light on the progress of the 
 Reformation in Italy, relates to those learned men 
 who never left the communion of the church of Rome, 
 but were favourable, in a greater or less degree, to 
 the views and sentiments of the Reformers. These 
 may be subdivided into three classes. The first con- 
 sisted of persons who were convinced of the great 
 corruptions which reigned not only in the court of 
 Rome, but generally among all orders in the catholic 
 church ; and who, though they did not agree with the 
 Reformers in doctrinal articles, yet cherished the hope 
 
 * See before, p. 120, &c. 
 
 t This letter was first published by Tiraboschi, (Storia, torn. vii. 
 p. 118,) from the archives of the noble family of Cervini at Sienna, 
 as a confirmation of the statement of cardinal Quirini, in his Diatrib. 
 ad vol. iii. Epist. Card. Poli, p. 58, &.c. 
 
162 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 that their opposition, and the schism which it threat- 
 ened, would force the clergy to correct abuses which 
 could no longer be either concealed or defended. The 
 second class comprehended those who were of the same 
 sentiments with the Reformers as to the leading doc- 
 trines of the gospel which had been brought into dis- 
 pute, but who wished to retain the principal forms of 
 the established worship, purified from the grosser 
 superstitions, and to maintain the hierarchy, and even 
 the papacy, after its tyranny had been checked, as a 
 necessary or at least useful means of preserving the 
 unity of the catholic church. The third class con- 
 sisted of those who were entirely of the sentiments of 
 the Reformers, but were restrained from declaring 
 themselves, and taking that side which their con- 
 sciences approved, by lukewarmness, dread of perse- 
 cution, love of peace, or despair of success, in a 
 country where the motives and the means to support 
 the established religion were so many and so power- 
 ful. It is not meant that the persons included under 
 these classes were formed into parties; but by keeping 
 this distinction in our eye, we shall be the better able 
 to form a correct judgment of the views and conduct 
 of certain individuals, who have been claimed as 
 friends both by Papists and Protestants. 
 
 The instances which I shall produce, belong chiefly 
 to the second of these classes. That there were many 
 persons in Italy, eminent for their talents and station, 
 whose creed differed widely from that which received 
 the sanction of the council of Trent, is etablished on 
 the best evidence, though it has been denied by the 
 later historians and apologists of the church of Rome. 
 It is proved by the fact, that their names and writings 
 were suppressed, or stigmatized as heretical or as 
 suspected, by the authorized censors of the press. And 
 it was acknowledged by writers who had the best 
 opportunities of information, and were under no 
 temptation to misrepresent the fact. " Those who at 
 that time were disposed to exert themselves seriously 
 for the reformation of the church," says the enlight- 
 ened and impartial De Thou, " had frequent confer- 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 163 
 
 ences about faith, works, grace, free-will, election, 
 and glorification; and many of them, entertaining 
 opinions on these subjects different from what were 
 publicly taught, availed themselves of the authority 
 of St. Augustine to support their sentiments."* 
 
 Pier Angelo Manzolli was principal physician to 
 Hercules II. duke of Ferrara. Under the anagram- 
 matical name of Marcellus Palingenius, he published 
 an elegant Latin poem, in which he describes human 
 life in allusion to the twelve signs of the zodiac.t 
 This poem abounds with complaints of the corrupt 
 manners of the clergy; nor are there wanting in it 
 passages which prove the alienation of the author's 
 mind from the church of Rome, and his satisfaction 
 at the growing success of the new opinions. J It was 
 put into the index of prohibited books, and the bones 
 , of the author, after his death, were taken out of their 
 grave, and burnt to ashes as those of an impious 
 heretic. § 
 
 The claims of the Protestants to rank Marc-antonio 
 Flaminio among their converts, have been keenly 
 
 *Thuani Historia ad ann. 1551. 
 F t It is generally allowed, that the author of the Zodiacus Vita con- 
 cealed himself under a fictitious name. Flaminio, Fulvio Pcregrino 
 Morata, and several other learned men, have been supposed to be the 
 real author; but the most probable opinion is that which is stated in 
 the text, and which was first suggested by Facciojati. (Heumanni 
 PoBcile, tom. i. p. 259—266; ii. p. 175.) Whether Facciolati replied 
 to the queries which Heumann proposed to him, with the view of 
 obtaining fuller information respecting his countryman, I do not 
 know. (Conf. Nolten, Vita Oylmpiao Moratffs, p. 82, edit. Hesse.) 
 t The following passage may serve as a specimen: — 
 
 Atque rogant quidnam Romana ageretur in urbe. 
 Cuncti luxurise, atque guloe, furtisque dolisque, 
 Certatim incumbunt, nosterque est sexus uterque, 
 Respondit : sed nunc summus parat arma sacerdos, 
 Clemens, Martinum cupiens abolere Lutherum, 
 Atque ideo Hispanas retinet nutritque cohortes. 
 Non disceptando, aut subtilibus argumentis 
 Vincere, sed ferro mavult sua jura tueri. 
 Pontifices nunc bcllajuvant, sunt costera nugfp. 
 Ncc prtecepta patrum, nee Christi dogmata curant: 
 Jactant se dominos rerum, et sibi cuncta licere. 
 
 Zodiacus YiiiB—Capricornus. 
 § Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, De Poetis sui aevi, dial. ii. Opera, p. 569. 
 
164 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 contested. It is undeniable, that, at one period of his 
 hfe at least, he cultivated the friendship of the leading 
 persons in his native country who were favourable to 
 the new opinions — that he was an admirer ofValdes, 
 encouraged Martyr and Ochino, and induced several 
 individuals of rank to attend their sermons and em- 
 brace their doctrine.* So early as the year 1536, he had, 
 with his natural sincerity and love of truth, professed 
 his doubts as to certain articles of the received faith, 
 and been called to an account for the freedom of his 
 language and his familiarity with the writings of here- 
 tics. In a letter quoted by Tiraboschi, Cortese re- 
 quests Contarini to obtain for him the pope's permis- 
 sion to read certain books of the heretics; "for,'^ says 
 he, "I would not have that happen to me which befel 
 Marc-antonio in the holy week, especially if M. di 
 Chieti (cardinal Caraffa) should know of it."t Nor 
 is this all. His writings prove, beyond all reasonable 
 doubt, that he entertained sentiments, on the principal 
 points of controversy, which coincided with the Pro- 
 testant creed, and were at variance with the decisions 
 of the council of Trent. It would be easy to establish 
 this fact by a multiplicity of extracts; but the follow- 
 ing may suffice: — "Human nature," says he, "was 
 so depraved by the fall of Adam, that its corruption 
 is propagated to all his posterity, in consequence of 
 which we contract, in our very conception, a stain 
 and an incredible proneness to sin, which urges us to 
 all kinds of wickedness and vice, unless our minds are 
 purified and invigorated by the grace of the Holy 
 Spirit. Without this renovation, we will always 
 remain impure and defiled, although to men, who 
 cannot look into the inward dispositions of others, we 
 may appear to be pure and upright.":}: " In these 
 
 * Moncurtius, in Vita Flaminii, prsefix. ejus Carmin. p. 28. Diss. 
 de Religione M. Flaminii, in Sclielhornii Amoen. Eccles. torn. ii. p. 
 3 — 179. EpistoljE Flaminii, edit, a Joach. Camerario: Schelhornii 
 Amcenit. Liter, torn. x. p. 1161. 
 
 t Barnard's Mem. of Marc-antonio Flaminio, prefixed to Imitation 
 of his Select Poems, p. 15, 16. 
 
 t Flaminii in Librum Psalmorum brevis Explanatio, f. 198, 199. 
 Parisiis, 1551. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 165 
 
 words, (Ps. xxxii. 1.) the psalmist pronounces bless- 
 ed, not those who are perfect and free from the spot 
 of sin, (for no man is so in this life,) but those whose 
 sins God has pardoned in his mercy ; and he pardons 
 those who confess their sins, and sincerely believe 
 that the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is an expia- 
 tion for all transgressions and faults/'* — " God, for 
 the sake of Christ his Son, adopted them as his sons 
 from all eternity : those whom he adopted before they 
 were born he calls to godliness; and having called 
 them, he confers on them first righteousness and 
 then everlasting life."t — "The creature, considered in 
 itself, and in the corruption of its nature, is an impure 
 mass; and whatever is worthy of praise in it is the 
 work of the Spirit of Christ, who purifies and regene- 
 rates his elect by a living faith, and makes them 
 creatures by so much the nobler and more perfect 
 that they are disposed to count themselves as no- 
 thing, and as having nothing in themselves but all in 
 Christ."J — " Christian faith consists in our believing 
 the whole word of God, and particularly the gospel. 
 The gospel is nothing else than the message of good 
 news announced to the whole world by the apostles, 
 telling us, that the only begotten Son of God, having 
 become incarnate, hath satisfied the justice of his 
 Father for all our sins. Whosoever gives credit to 
 these good tidings of good, he believes the gospel, and 
 having faith in the gospel, which is the gift of God, 
 he walks out of the kingdom of this world into that of 
 God, by enjoying the fruit of a general pardon; from 
 a carnal he becomes a spiritual creature, from a child 
 of wrath a child of grace, from a son of Adam a son 
 of God ; he is governed by the Holy Spirit ; he feels 
 a sweet peace of conscience ; he studies to mortify the 
 affections and lusts of the flesh, acknowledging that 
 he is dead with his head Jesus Christ; and he studies 
 to vivify the spirit, and lead a heavenly life, acknow- 
 
 * Flaminii in Librum Psalmorum brevis Explanatio, f. 143, b. 
 + Ibid. f. 288, a. 
 
 t FJaminii Epist. ad quandam principem feminam: Schelhornii 
 Amcen. Eccles. torn. ii. p. 103. 
 
166 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ledging that he is risen with the same Jesus Clirist. 
 A Uvely faith in the soul of a Christian man produces 
 all these and other admirable effects."* But the clear 
 views of the gospel entertained by Flaminio are no- 
 where more decidedly made known than in a letter 
 to a friend, in which he pronounces a most discrimi- 
 nating judgment on the writings of Thomas a Kempis, 
 and furnislies an important caution against the spirit 
 of slavish fear which they have a tendency to foster 
 in the breasts of devotional persons.! Such were the 
 sentiments of one who lived in the heart of Italy 
 during the heat of the controversy between the Papists 
 and Protestants — the sentiments of a poet, whose wri- 
 tings discover '' the simplicity and tenderness of Catul- 
 lus without his licentiousness," and " melt the heart 
 of the reader with sweetness." If there be any truth 
 in the maxim laid down by a most catholic historian 
 of the council of Trent, J "that the doctrine of justifi- 
 cation is a test by which catholics may be distin- 
 guished from heretics, and the root from which all 
 other doctrines, true or false, germinate," then Fla- 
 minio was unquestionably a Protestant. 
 
 On the other hand, there is a letter from him, in 
 which he strenuously defends, in opposition to his 
 friend Carnesecchi, the doctrine of the real presence 
 and commemorative oblation of Christ in the eucha- 
 rist, and expresses himself with considerable acrimony 
 in speaking of the Reformers. § To reconcile these ap- 
 
 * Flaminii Epist. ad quandam principem fceminam : Schelhornii 
 Amoen. Eccles, torn. ii. p. 115. This last extract is taken from a 
 letter to Theodora, or Theodorina Sauli, a lady belonging to a noble 
 family in Genoa, whose name Gerdes has added to his list of female 
 Protestants, merely upon the authority of this letter. (Ital. Reform, 
 p. 158.) 
 
 t See this letter in the appendix. t Pallavicini. 
 
 (j This letter, dated from Trent, January 1, 1543, and Carnesecchi's 
 reply to it, were inserted in a collection of Italian letters, published 
 by Ludovico Dolci in 1555, and republished in Latin by Schelhorn, 
 in his Amcenitates Ecclesiasticoe, tom. ii. p. 146 — 179. Some writers 
 have denied the genuineness of the letter of Flaminio, while others 
 suppose tiiat Carnesecchi's reply induced him to retract his opinion. 
 (Hesse, Not. ad Nolten. Vit. Olympian Morata?, p. 73.) A desire to 
 add a celebrated name to the Protestant roll appears to have led to 
 the adoption of these hypotheses. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 167 
 
 parently contradictory statements, we must attend to 
 the different periods in the Ufe of Flaminio. During 
 the flower of his age he was entirely engrossed with 
 secular literature, as his juvenile poems evince. In 
 middle life he applied his mind to sacred letters, made 
 the Scriptures his chief study, and derived his highest 
 pleasure from meditating on divine things. It was at 
 at this time that he composed his paraphrases on the 
 Psalms in prose and verse, and lived in the society of 
 Valdes, Martyr, the duchess of Ferrara, and other 
 persons addicted to the reformed opinions. The third 
 period of his life extends from the time that the court 
 of Rome adopted decisive measures for suppressing 
 the reformed opinions in Italy, to the year 1550, in 
 which he died. His letter on the eucharist was writ- 
 ten immediately after some of his most intimate ac- 
 quaintances had been forced to fly from their native 
 country, to avoid imprisonment or a fiery death. The 
 mild and yielding disposition of Flaminio was more 
 fitted for contemplation and retirement than for con- 
 troversy and suffering. Like many others, he might 
 not have made up his mind to separate formally from 
 the Church of Rome ; and the fate of those who had 
 ventured on that step would not help forward his 
 resolution. His friends in the sacred college were 
 anxious to retain him; and the article of the real 
 presence, from which many Protestants could not 
 extricate themselves, was perhaps the means best 
 fitted for entangling the devout mind of Flaminio, 
 and reconciling him to remain in the communion of a 
 church whose public creed was at variance with some 
 of the sentiments which were dearest to his heart. 
 But two years after the time now referred to, he 
 refused the honourable employment of secretary to 
 the council of Trent; "because," says Pallavicini, 
 " he favoured the new opinions, and would not em- 
 ploy his pen for an assembly by which he knew these 
 opinions would be condemned.''* The cardinal in- 
 deed adds, that Flaminio had the happiness to be 
 brought subsequently to acknowledge iiis errors 
 
 * Istor. Cone. Trent, ad an. 1545. 
 
168 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 through his acquaintance with Pole, and died a 
 good CathoUc. But there is no evidence that he ever 
 retracted his former sentiments; and in none of his 
 writings, earlier or later, do we read any thing of 
 purgatory, prayers for the dead or to saints, pilgrim- 
 ages, penances, or any of those voluntary services 
 which were so much insisted on by all the devoted 
 adherents to Rome; but every where we find the 
 warmest piety and purest morality, founded on Scrip- 
 tural principles, and enforced by the most evangelical 
 motives. We know, that the court of Rome, after it 
 was awakened to its danger, was eager to engage the 
 pens of the learned in its defence against the Refor- 
 mers.* If the advisers to whom Flaminio committed 
 himself during the last years of his life, could have 
 prevailed on him to write any thing of this kind, it 
 would have been triumphantly proclaimed; but it 
 was a sufficient victory for them to be able to retain 
 such a man in their chains, and to publish the solitary 
 letter on the eucharist, which was written seven years 
 before his death, as if it had been his dying testmiony, 
 and as a proof that he was not alienated from the 
 catholic faith. Even this was the opinion only of a 
 few of his private friends ; for the verdict of the Vati- 
 can was very different. The report that it was in- 
 tended to disinter his body, after his death, might be 
 groundless ;t but it is certain that his writings were 
 inserted in the prohibitory index, though care was 
 taken afterwards to wipe off this disgrace, by expung- 
 ing from that record the name of a man who had 
 lived on terms of intimacy with the chief dignitaries 
 
 * It is well known what solicitations were used with Erasmus be- 
 fore lie drew his pen against Luther. Christopher Longolius, in a 
 letter to Stefano and Flaminio Sauli, mentions, with an air of no small 
 vanity, that he had been solicited from Germany to write in defence 
 of Luther, and from Italy to write against him ; that both parties had 
 furnished him with memorials ; that he thought himself qualified for 
 either task, and that Jie had already, by v/ay of essay, (like a wise 
 and prudent procurator,) drawn up a pleading for and against the 
 accused heretic. (Longolii Epist. lib. ii. p. 139.) The cautious orator 
 chose the safer side, and sent forth a Ciceronian Philippic against 
 Luther. 
 
 t Manlii Collect, p. 116. Georg. Fabricii Poem. Sacr. P. i. p. 264. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 169 
 
 of the church, and whose genius and piety must 
 always reflect credit on the society to which he be- 
 longed.* 
 
 The preceding account of the sentiments of Fla- 
 minio materially agrees with that of a contemporary 
 author who appears to have possessed good means of 
 information. The following quotation is long, but it 
 deserves a place here, as serving to throw light on the 
 state of religious opinion in Italy, and on the character 
 of an Englishman, who makes but too conspicuous a 
 figure in the history of his native country. Referring 
 to the letter to Carnesecchi, of which he had stated the 
 substance, that writer goes on to say — " This at least 
 we gain from the letter of Flaminio, that, while he 
 professes to differ from us on those heads which I 
 have pointed out, he makes no such professions as to 
 transubstantiation, and the oblation for the living and 
 dead, which we reject; he agrees with us in giving 
 the cup to the laity; and I am persuaded that, had he 
 lived longer, he would have made further progress, 
 and come over to us completely. But cardinal Pole 
 kept him under restraint, and prevented him from 
 freely avowing his sentiments, as he did many others. 
 It is dreadful to think what injury Satan did to the 
 resuscitated gospel, by the instrumentality of this 
 crafty Englishman, who acknowledged, or at least 
 professed to acknowledge, that we are justified by 
 faith in Christ alone, and laboured, along with those 
 who resided in his house, among whom was Flaminio, 
 to instil this doctrine into the minds of many. Not 
 to name others, it is well known that John Morell, 
 late minister of the foreign church in Frankfort on 
 the Maine, a man of great piety and learning, im- 
 bibed this doctrine in that school, and was drawn by 
 Pole into the society of those who had a relish for the 
 gospel, and were said to agree with us. The cardinal 
 laboured, by all the influence of his character and 
 reputation, to persuade others to rest satisfied with a 
 
 * The article in the Index of Rome for 1559 runs thus : — " Marci 
 Antonii Flaminii Paraphrases et Comment, in Psal. Item literoe et 
 carmina omnia." Sig. D 8. 
 
 12 
 
170 HISTORY or THE 
 
 secret belief of the truth, and not thmk themselves 
 answerable for the errors and abuses of the church,* 
 alleging that we should tolerate, and even give our 
 consent to these, in the expectation that God, at the 
 fit time, would afford a favourable opportunity for 
 having them removed. It is unnecessary to say, that 
 this is a doctrine very agreeable to those who would 
 have Christ without the cross. If Luther and other 
 faithful servants of God, by whose means the truth 
 has been clearly brought to light in our days, had 
 chosen in this manner to conceal and wink at errors 
 and abuses, how could they have been extirpated ? 
 How could the pure voice of the gospel ever have 
 been heard in that case, when we see with what diffi- 
 culty it has prevailed to a very limited extent, through 
 great contention and profusion of blood, in opposition 
 to the predominating power and cruelties of antichrist? 
 Pole, however, did not hesitate to assert, that he could 
 advance the pure doctrine by concealment, dissimula- 
 tion, and evasion. And not only so, but when some 
 individuals more ardent than the rest, threatened to 
 break through these restraints, his agents were always 
 ready to urge the propriety of waiting for the fit sea- 
 son, and discovering their sentiments gradually; in 
 consequence of which some persons were so credulous 
 as to beUeve that, at a future period, the cardinal and 
 his confidential friends would openly profess the truth 
 before the pope and the whole city of Rome, and by 
 the general attention which this must excite, would 
 singularly advance the glory of God. After waiting 
 for this until they were wearied out, how did the mat- 
 ter issue ? I cannot relate it without tears. wretch- 
 ed cardinal ! miserable dupes of his promises ! The 
 purity of religion had been restored in England: the 
 doctrines of justification by faith, the assurance of 
 salvation, true repentance, scriptural absolution, the 
 right use of the sacraments, and the sole headship of 
 Christ over the church, were taught in that kingdom. 
 Pole went there ; and what was the consequence ? 
 
 * " L'huomo si havesse a contentare di quella secreta cognitione, 
 senza tener poi conto se la chiesa havea degli abusi et degli errori." 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 171 
 
 He absolved the whole kingdom, including the nobles, 
 and the king and queen, on their knees, from the crimes 
 which they had committed against the church of Rome. 
 And what were these? The teaching of those very- 
 doctrines which he himself had favoured, and the 
 triumph of which he had promised to secure by the 
 arts of moderation and prudent delay. Nor did he 
 rest, until, in his desire to gratify the pope and cardi- 
 nals, he had restored all the abuses, superstitions, and 
 abominations which had been removed; and had sent 
 a printed account of his deeds through every country 
 in Europe.'^* 
 
 Gasparo Contarini was one of the distinguished 
 persons whom Paul III., aware of the necessity of 
 conciliating public favour, had judiciously advanced 
 to the purple. It is impossible to read the treatise on 
 justification,! drawn up by him when he acted as 
 legate at the diet and conference held at Ratisbon in 
 1541 J together with the letters which passed between 
 him and Pole at that time, without being convinced 
 that both these prelates agreed with the Reformers on 
 this article, and diifered widely from Sadolet and 
 others, whose sentiments were afterwards sanctioned 
 by the council of Trent. Pole tells him, that "he 
 knew long ago what his sentiments on that subject 
 were;" that he rejoiced at the treatise which Conta- 
 rini had composed, " because it laid not only a foun- 
 dation for agreement with the Protestants, but such 
 a foundation as illustrated the glory of Christ — the 
 foundation of all Christian doctrine, which was not 
 well understood by many;" that he and all who were 
 with him at Viterbo, joined in giving thanks to God 
 " who had begun to reveal this sacred, salutary, and 
 necessary doctrine;" and that its friends ought not to 
 
 * Giudicio sopra le lettere di tredeci huomini illustri publicatc da 
 Dionigi Atanagi, Venet. 1554; Schelhornii Amoenit. Eccles. torn. ii. 
 p. 11 — 15; conf. torn. i. p. 144 — 155. Colomesii Italia Orientalis, p. 
 iii. Sleidani Com. lib. x, torn. ii. p. 54; lib. xxi. torn. iii. p. 190. edit. 
 Am Ende, To these may be added the testimony of Aonio Paleario. 
 (Opera, p. 561, 562.) 
 
 t This was republished, from Contarini's works, by cardinal Qui- 
 rini, in his collection of Pole's Letters, vol. iii. p. cic. 
 
172 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 be moved by the censures which it met with at Rome, 
 where it was "charged with novelty," although "it 
 lies at the foundation of all the doctrines held by the 
 ancient church."* — That cardinal Morone was of tlie 
 same sentiments appears, not only from the articles 
 of charge brought against him, but from his known 
 agreement in sentiment with Pole and Contarini.t — 
 To these members of the sacred college, we have to 
 add Federigo Fregoso, a prelate equally distinguished 
 by his birth, learning, and virtues.:}: He gave great 
 scandal, by declining to appear at the court of the 
 Vatican, after the pope had honoured him with the 
 purple.^ Disgusted with the manners of that court, 
 he had divested himself of the archbishoprick of Sa- 
 lerno, and retired to the diocese of Gubbio, of which 
 he was administrator; and perceiving that the people 
 conceived the whole of religion to lie in pronouncing, 
 at stated hours and with the prescribed gesticulations, 
 the pater noster, ave maria, and hymns in honour of 
 the saints, he, with the view of initiating them into a 
 more rational and scriptural devotion, composed in 
 Italian a treatise on the method of prayer, which 
 had the honour of being prohibited at Rome. IF The 
 
 * See Pole's letters to Contarini, of the 17th May and 16th July 
 1541, and 1st May 1542. (Epistolse Reginal. Poll, vol. ill. p. 25, 27 
 — 30, 53.) Quirini, besides what is contained in his dissertations 
 prefixed to Pole's Letters, attempted to defend Contarini's orthodoxy, 
 in a separate tract, entitled " Epistola ad Gregorium Roth/ischerum, 
 BrixicB 1752; to which Jo. Rud. Kieslingius replied, in his Epistola 
 ad Eminent. Princ. Angclum Mariain Quirinunx^ de Religione Lu- 
 therana amabili. Lips. 1753. 
 
 t Wolfii Lect. Memor. torn. ii. p. 655. When the articles were 
 afterwards published, with scholia, by Vergerio, the inquisitors did 
 not insert the book in their index, lest it should call the attention of 
 the public to the fact, that a cardinal had been accused of holding 
 such opinions. (Vergerii Oper. torn. i. p. 262. Scheliiornii Amcenit. 
 Liter, torn. xii. p. 546, &c.) 
 
 t He was the nephew of Guidubaldo, duke of Urbino, and the bro- 
 ther of Ottaviano Fregoso, doge of Genoa, a name celebrated in tlie 
 annals of that republic. (Tiraboschi, vii. 1076.) " Egli e tutto buo- 
 no, e tutto santo, e tutto nellc sacre lettere, e Latine, e Greche, e 
 Ebraiche," says Bembo. (Opere, tom. vii. p. 267.) 
 
 § Bembo, Lettere, tom. i. p. 139. 
 
 ^ An account of this book is given by Riederer, in the third volume 
 of his Nachrichten. Conf, Wolfii Lect. Memorab. tom. ii. p. 698 
 
RErORMATION IN ITALY. 173 
 
 same honour was reserved for the elegant commen- 
 taries of the learned and pious abbot, Giambattista 
 Folengo, which abound with sentiments similar to 
 those which have been quoted from the writings of 
 Flaminio, accompanied with severe strictures on the 
 superstitious practices which the priests and friars re- 
 commended to the people.* 
 
 Angelo Buonarici, general of the canons regular at 
 Venice, is another example of the extent to which the 
 leading opinions of the reformed had spread in Italy. 
 In his exposition of the apostolical epistles, he has 
 stated the doctrine of justification by faith with as 
 much clearness and accuracy as either Luther or Cal- 
 vin. " This passage of Scripture," says he, " teaches 
 us, that if we are true Christians, we must acknow- 
 ledge that we are saved and justified, without the 
 previous works of the law, by means of faith alone. 
 Not that we are to conclude, that those who believe 
 in Christ are not bound and obliged to study the prac- 
 tice of holy, devout, and good works; but no one 
 must think or believe that he can attain to the benefit 
 of justification by good works, for this is indeed ob- 
 tained by faith, and good works in the justified do 
 not precede but follow their justification." Similar 
 sentiments pervade this work, which appeared with 
 the privilege of the inquisitors of Venice ; a circum- 
 stance which might have excited our astonishment, 
 had we not known that still greater oversights have 
 been committed by these jealous and intolerant, but 
 ignorant and injudicious, censors of the press, t — Still 
 more remarkable were the sentiments of Giovanni 
 Grimani, a Venetian of noble birth, and patriarch of 
 
 and Index Auct. Prohibit. RomoB, 1559. There is a curious letter, 
 written in 1531, by Bembo to Fregoso, about a treatise in manuscript, 
 which the latter had sent to him, on the subject of free will and pre- 
 destination. Bembo promises not to allow it to go into improper 
 hands, but refuses to burn it, as Fregoso had urged him to do. (Bem- 
 bo, Opere, torn. v. p. 165, 166.) 
 
 * See the extracts from his Commentary on the Psalms, in Gerdes. 
 Ital. Ref. p. 257—261. Comp. Ginguene, Hist. Liter, d'ltalie, torn, 
 vii. p. 58. Teissier, Eloges, torn. i. p. 170. Tiraboschi, Storia, vii. 400. 
 
 t Gerdesii Ital. Ref, p. 198—200. 
 
174 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Aquileia. A Dominican monk of Udina, in Friuli, 
 had given ofl'ence by teaching, in a sermon, that the 
 elect cannot incur damnation, but will be recovered 
 from the sins into which they may fall; and that sal- 
 vation and damnation depend upon predestination, 
 and not on our free-will. The patriarch undertook 
 the defence of this doctrine, first in a letter to the 
 general of the Dominicans, and afterwards in a treatise 
 which he wrote expressly on the subject. This was 
 subsequent to the decrees of the council of Trent 
 which determined the doctrine of the church on these 
 points. Grimani was not at first troubled for his 
 opinions, but having, at a subsequent period, irritated 
 his clergy by attempting to reform their manners, he 
 was delated to the inquisitors : and at the very time 
 that pope Pius IV., at the request of the senate of 
 Venice, was about to advance him to the purple, he 
 was accused of holding Lutheran and Calvinistic 
 errors on seven different articles. The republic of 
 Venice procured an order from the pope, to take the 
 cause out of the hands of the inquisitors, and commit 
 it to the judgment of the fathers, who, in the year 
 1563, were still assembled at Trent, and who, after 
 an examination which lasted twenty-four days, came 
 at last to the determination that the writings of the 
 patriarch were not heretical, though they ought not 
 to have been made public on account of certain diffi- 
 cult points which were treated in them, and not ex- 
 plained with sufficient accuracy. So great was the 
 influence of the Senate of Venice with the pope and 
 council!* 
 
 Of the mode of thinking, or rather feeling, among 
 a numerous class of enlightened Italians, we have an 
 
 * Raynaldi Annal. ad ann. 1549, 1563. Pallavicini, apud Gerdes. 
 Ital. Ref. p. 91 — 93, I have not adduced the examples of Foscarari, 
 bishop of Modena, and San Fclicio, bishop of Cava, with several 
 others, who have been ranked among the favourers of the reformed 
 opinions by Schelhorn, (Amcen. Eccles. torn. i. p. 151;) because I 
 am not aware that he had any other ground for doing this than the 
 moderation of these distinguished prelates, and the fact of their 
 having been thrown into the prisons of the Inquisition by that violent 
 pontiff, Paul IV. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 175 
 
 example in Celio Calcagnini, " one of the most learn- 
 ed men of that age."* His friend Peregrino Morata 
 had sent him a book in defence of the reformed doc- 
 trine, and requested his opinion of it. The reply of 
 Calcagnini was cautious, but sufficiently intelligible : 
 — " I have read (says he) the book relating to the 
 controversies so much agitated at present;! I have 
 thought on its contents, and weighed them in the ba- 
 lance of reason. I find in it nothing which may not 
 be approved and defended, but some things which, as 
 mysteries, it is safer to suppress and conceal than to 
 bring before the common people. Though suitable 
 to the primitive and infant state of the church, 3^et 
 now, when the decrees of the fathers and long usage 
 have sanctioned other modes, what necessity is there 
 for reviving antiquated practices which have for ages 
 fallen into desuetude, especially as neither piety nor 
 the salvation of the soul is concerned with them? Let 
 us then, I pray you, allow these things to rest. Not 
 that I disapprove of their being embraced by scholars 
 and lovers of antiquity; but I would not have them 
 communicated to the vulgar and those who are fond 
 of innovations, lest they give occasion to strife and 
 sedition. There are illiterate and unqualified persons 
 who having, after long ignorance, read or heard cer- 
 tain new opinions respecting baptism, the marriage of 
 the clergy, ordination, the distinction of days and of 
 food, and public penitence, instantly conceive that 
 these things are to be stiffly maintained and observed; 
 wherefore, in my opinion, the discussion of these 
 points ought to be confined to the hiitiated, lest the 
 seamless coat of our Lord should be rent and torn. 
 It was this consideration, I suppose, which moved 
 those good men who lately laid before pope Paul a 
 plan of reforming Christianity, to advise that the col- 
 loquies of Erasmus should be banished from our re- 
 public, as Plato formerly banished the poems of Homer 
 from his." Having made some observations of a simi- 
 
 * Tiraboschi, Storia, vii. 163. 
 
 + Tiraboschi thinks that Morata was himself the author of the 
 book, (vii. 1199.) 
 
176 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 lar kind on the doctrine of predestination, taught by 
 the author of the book, he concludes thus: — "Saint 
 Paul says, ' Hast thou faith ? have it to thyself before 
 God.' Since it is dangerous to treat such things be- 
 fore the multitude and in public discourses, I deem 
 it safest to ^ speak with the many and think with the 
 few."'* In this manner did the learned apostolical 
 protonotary satisfy his conscience ; and very probably 
 he was not aware, or did not reflect, how much weight 
 self-interest threw into one of the scales of " the ba- 
 lance of reason." The temporizing maxim in which 
 he at last takes refuge was borrowed from his former 
 friend Erasmus; and it is curious to find it here em- 
 ployed to justify the sentence pronounced against one 
 of the most useful works of that elegant and accom- 
 plished scholar. It will always be a favourite maxim 
 with those who are determined, like Erasmus, to es- 
 cape suflTering, or who, as he expressed it, " feel that 
 they have not received the grace of martyrdom;" a 
 mode of speaking, by the way, which shows that 
 those who are most shy to own the doctrine of pre- 
 destination and grace are not the most averse to avail 
 themselves of it, in its least defensible sense, as an 
 apology for their own weakness. Let us not, how- 
 ever, imagine that this plea was confined to one age 
 or one description of persons. An attentive observa- 
 tion of the conduct of mankind will, I am afraid, lead 
 to the humiliating conclusion, that the greater part, 
 including those who lay claim to superior intelligence 
 and superior piety, are but too apt, whenever a sacri- 
 fice must be made or a hardship endured, to swerve 
 from the straight path of duty which their unbiassed 
 judgment had discerned, and to act on the principle, 
 which, though glossed over with the specious names 
 of expediency, prudence, and regard to peace, amounts 
 to this, when expressed in plain language, " Let us 
 do evil, that good may come." 
 
 The preceding narrative sufficiently shows that the 
 reformed opinions, if they did not take deep root, 
 were at least widely spread in Italy. The number of 
 
 * Caelii Calcagnini Opera, p. 195. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 177 
 
 those who, from one motive or another, desired a re- 
 formation, and who would have been ready to fall in 
 with any attempt to introduce it which promised to 
 be successful, was so great as to warrant the conclu- 
 sion that, if any prince of considerable power had 
 placed himself at their head, or if the court of Rome 
 had been guilty of such aggressions on the political 
 rights of its neighbours as it committed at a future pe- 
 riod, Italy would have followed the example of Germa- 
 ny, and Protestant cities and states would have risen on 
 the south as well as the north of the Alps.* The pros- 
 pect of this filled the friends of the papacy with appre- 
 hension and alarm. In a letter to the nephew of pope 
 Paul III., Sadolet complains that the ears of his holi- 
 ness were so pre-occupied with the false representa- 
 tions of flatterers, as not to perceive that there was 
 " an almost universal defection of the minds of men 
 from the church, and an inclination to execrate eccle- 
 siastical authority."! And cardinal Carafla signified 
 to the same pope, "that the whole of Italy was in- 
 fected with the Lutheran heresy, which had been 
 extensively embraced both by statesmen and ecclesi- 
 astics." J " There was scarcely a city of Italy," says 
 a late writer belonging to that country, " into which 
 error had not attempted to insinuate itself, and every- 
 where almost it had its partizans and followers. The 
 name of reform, the reproach of ignorance which, 
 not without some reason, was attached to the theolo- 
 gians of that day, and the imposing apparatus of eru- 
 dition with which the new opinions were invested, 
 might easily deceive honest people as well as the 
 learned: and, accordingly, many sufi'ered themselves 
 to be seduced, especially before the meeting of the 
 council of Trent, who afterwards discovered their 
 error and returned to a good way of thinking."§ 
 
 No wonder, in these circumstances, that the ardent 
 friends of the Reformation should at this period have 
 
 * Bayle, Diet. art. Acontius; addition in English translation. 
 
 t Raynaldi Anna!, ad an. 1539. 
 
 t Spondani Annal. ad an. 1542. 
 
 § Tiraboschi, Bibl. Modenese, torn. i. p. 20. 
 
178 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 cherished the sanguine hope that Italy would throw 
 off the papal yoke. "See," says one, "how the gos- 
 pel advances even in Italy, where it is so much borne 
 down, and exults in the near prospect of bursting forth, 
 like the sun from a cloud, in spite of all opposition."* 
 "Whole libraries (writes Melanchthon to George, 
 prince of Anhalt) have been carried from the late fair 
 into Italy, though the pope has published fresh edicts 
 against us. But the truth cannot be wholly oppress- 
 ed: our captain, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of 
 God, will vanquish and trample on the dragon, the 
 enemy of God, and will liberate and govern us."t 
 This issue of the religious movement in his native 
 country was hailed with still more rapturous feelings 
 by Celio Secundo Curio, i,n a dialogue composed by 
 him at the period now referred to, and intended to 
 prove that the kingdom of God and his elect is more 
 extensive than that of the devil and the reprobate. 
 He introduces his interlocutor, Mainardi, as saying — 
 "If the Lord shall continue, as he has begun, to grant 
 prosperous success to the gospel, the delectable em- 
 bassy of reconciliation and grace, we shall behold the 
 whole world thronging, more than it has ever done 
 at any former period, to this asylum and fortified city, 
 to Jesus Christ, its prince, and to its three towers, 
 faith, hope, and charity; so that, with our own eyes, 
 we may yet see the kingdom of God of much larger 
 extent than that which the enemy of mankind has 
 acquired, not by his own power, but by the provi- 
 dence of God." — " blessed day ! that I might live 
 to see the ravishing prospect realized!" exclaims Cu- 
 rio. — "You shall live, Celio, be not afraid; you shall 
 live to see it. The joyful sound of the gospel has 
 within our own day reached the Scythians, Thra- 
 cians, Indians, and Africans. Christ, the king of kings, 
 has taken possession of Rhoetia and Helvetia: Ger- 
 
 * Gabrieli Valliculi, De liberal! Dei Gratia, et servo hominis Arbi- 
 trio. Norimb. 1536; apud Bock, Hist. Antitrin. ii. 396. 
 
 t Epistolfe, col. 303. This letter has no date ; but, from compar- 
 ing its contents with Sleidan, Comment, torn. ii. p. 187, it appears to 
 have been written in 1540. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 179 
 
 many is under his protection: he has reigned, and 
 will again reign in England: he sways his sceptre 
 over Denmark and the Cymbrian nations : Prussia is 
 his: Poland and the whole of Sarmatia are on the 
 point of yielding to him: he is pressing forward to 
 Pannonia : Muscovy is in his eye : he beckons France 
 to him : Italy, our native country, is travailing in birth : 
 and Spain will speedily follow. Even the Jews, as 
 you perceive, have abated their former aversion to 
 Christianity. Since they saw that we acknowledge 
 one God, the creator of heaven and earth, and Jesus 
 Christ whom he sent ; that we worship neither images, 
 nor symbols, nor pictures; that we no longer adore 
 mystical bread or a wafer, as God; that they are not 
 despised by us as they formerly were ; that we ac- 
 knowledge we received Christ from them; and that 
 there is access for them to enter into that kingdom 
 from which they have been secluded, as we once 
 were, — their minds have undergone a great change, 
 and now at last they are provoked to emulation."* 
 
 The striking contrast between this pleasing picture 
 and the event which soon after took place, admonishes 
 us not to allow our minds to be dazzled by flattering 
 appearances, or to build theories of faith on prospects 
 which fancy may have sketched on the deceitful hori- 
 zon of public opinion; and we should recollect, that 
 though persecution is one means, it is not the only 
 one, by which the march of Christianity has been, 
 and may yet again be, checked and arrested. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 SUPPRESSION OF THE REFORMATION IN ITALY. 
 
 It was in the year 1542, that the court of Rome 
 first became seriously alarmed at the progress of the 
 
 * Coelius Secundus Curio, De Amplitudine Regui Dei ; in Schel- 
 hornii Ainoen. Liter, torn. xii. p. 594, 595. 
 
180 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 new opinions in Italy. Engrossed by foreign politics, 
 and believing that they could at any time put down 
 an evil which was within their reach, the pope and 
 his counsellors had either disregarded the representa- 
 tions which were made to them on this head as ex- 
 aggerated, or contented themselves with issuing pro- 
 hibitory bulls and addressing to the bishops of the 
 suspected places monitory letters, which were defeat- 
 ed by the lukewarmness of the local magistrates, or 
 the caution of the obnoxious individuals. But in the 
 course of the year referred to, the clergy, and particu- 
 larly the friars, poured in their complaints from all 
 parts of the country, as to the danger to which the 
 catholic faith was exposed from the boldness of the 
 Reformers and the increase of conventicles. At the 
 head of these was Pietro Caraffa, commonly called 
 the Theatine cardinal,* a prelate who made high pre- 
 tensions to sanctity, but distinguished himself by his 
 ambition and violence, when he afterwards mounted 
 the pontifical throne, under the name of Paul IV. 
 He laid before the sacred college the discoveries he 
 had made as to the extent to which heresy had spread 
 
 * Caraffa founded a religious order called the Theatine^ fromCivita 
 di Chieti, a city in Naples, of which he was bishop. In his youth he 
 was a patron of letters; and Erasmus mentioned him in very flatter- 
 ing terms, in the dedication of his edition of the works of Jerome, 
 published at Basle in 1516. "Nam ad triuni linguarum baud vuiga- 
 rem peritiam, ad summam cum omnium disciplinarum tum praecipue 
 theologicoe rei cognitionem, tantum homo juvenis, (Rev. in Christo 
 pater Joan. Pet. Caraffa, episcopus Theatinus,) adjunxit integritatis 
 et sanctimoniee, tantum modestiEe, tantum mira gravitate conditse 
 comitatis, ut et sedi Romanfe magno sit ornamento, et Britannis 
 omnibus absolutum quoddam exemplar exhibeat, [the bishop of Chieti 
 was then in England as ambassador from Leo X. to Henry VIII.] 
 unde omnes omnium virtutum formam sibi petere possint." The 
 bishop discharged this obligation, when he was afterwards advanced 
 to the pontifical chair, by prohibiting the Jerome, and all the other 
 works of Erasmus. It may not be improper to give the words of the 
 discharge in full, as a lesson to all literary flatterers. Of others, 
 whose whole works were interdicted, the names are merely given, 
 but he is introduced at full length with all the honours : — " Desiderius 
 Erasmus Roterdamus cum universis commentariis, annotationibus, 
 scholiis, dialogis, epistolis, censuris, versionibus, libris et scriptis suis, 
 etiam si nil penitus contra religionem vel de religione contineant." 
 (Index Auct. et Lib. Proh. sig. b. 3. Romoe, 1559.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 181 
 
 in Naples, and various parts of Italy; and convinced 
 them of the necessity of adopting the speediest and 
 most vigorous measures for its extermination.* It 
 was resolved to proceed, in the first place, against 
 such of the ecclesiastics as were understood to favour 
 the new opinions. Among these Ochino and Martyr 
 were the most distinguished; but as they were in 
 possession of great popularity, and had not yet made 
 open defection from the catholic faith, spies were 
 placed round their persons, while a secret investiga- 
 tion was made into their past conduct, with the view 
 of procuring direct evidence of their heretical opinions. 
 Such a deep impression had the sermons delivered 
 by Ochino made on the minds of the citizens of Venice, 
 that they joined in an application to the pope to grant 
 them an opportunity of hearing him a second time. 
 His holiness accordingly directed the cardinal of Car- 
 pi, who was protector of the order of Capuchins, to 
 send him to Venice during Lent in the year 1542; 
 but, at the same time, gave instructions to the apostol- 
 ical nuncio to watch his conduct. The whole city ran 
 in crowds to hear their favourite preacher. It does 
 not appear that he used greater freedom in his dis- 
 courses on the present occasion than he had used on 
 the former; but a formal complaint was soon made 
 against him, of having advanced doctrines at variance 
 with the catholic faith, particularly on the head of justi- 
 fication, t On his appearance before the nuncio, how- 
 ever he was able to defend himself so powerfully 
 against his accusers, that no plausible pretext could be 
 found for proceeding against him. Perceiving that he 
 was surrounded by spies, he for some time exerted a 
 greater circumspection over his words in the pulpit; 
 but having heard that Julio Terentiano, a convert of 
 Valdes, with whom he had been intimate at Naples, 
 was thrown into prison, he could no longer restrain 
 himself. In the course of a sermon, at wliich the 
 
 * Caracciolus, de Vita Pauli IV. p. 240. 
 
 t Palearii Opera, p. 294. The same thing is stated by Ochino 
 himself in his Apology to the Magistrates of Sienna, republished at 
 the end of the second volume of his Frediche. 
 
182 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 senators and principal persons of the city were pre- 
 sent, he introduced that subject, and broke out in these 
 words — "What remains for us to do, my lords? And 
 to what purpose do we fatigue and exhaust ourselves, 
 if those men, noble Venice, queen of the Adriatic — 
 if those men, who preach to you the truth, are to be 
 thrown into prisons, thrust into cells and loaded with 
 chains and fetters? What place will be left to us? 
 what field will remain open to the truth? O that we 
 had but liberty to preach the truth ! How many blind, 
 who now grope their way in the dark, would be re- 
 stored to hght!" On hearing of this bold appeal, the 
 nuncio instantly interdicted him from preaching, and 
 reported the matter to the pope. But the Venetians 
 were so importunate in his behalf, that the interdict 
 was removed within three days, and he again appear- 
 ed in the pulpit.* Lent being ended, he went to Ve- 
 rona, where he assembled those of his order who 
 were engaged in studies preparatory to the work of 
 preaching, and commenced reading to them a course 
 of lectures on the Epistles of Paul; but he had not 
 proceeded far in this work, when he received a citation 
 from Rome to answer certain charges founded on his 
 lectures, and on the informations of the nuncio at 
 Venice. t Having set out on his journey to the capital, 
 he had an interview at Bologna with cardinal Con- 
 tarini, then lying on his death-bed, who assured him 
 that he agreed with the Protestants on the article of 
 justification, though he was opposed to them on the 
 other points of controversy. J In the month of August, 
 Ochino went to Florence, where he received informa- 
 tion that his death was resolved on at Rome, upon 
 which he retired hastily to Ferrara, and being assisted 
 in his flight by the duchess Renee, escaped the hands 
 
 * Boverio, Annali de Capuccini, torn. i. p. 426. 
 
 t Ihid. p. 427. 
 
 i Ochino, Predichc, torn. i. nunn. 10. This fact has been strong-Iy 
 denied by Boverio, (ut supra,) and by Card. Quirini. (Dialrib. ad 
 vol. iii. Epist. Poli, cap. ix.) Beccatcllo says he was present at the 
 interview, and that the cardinal, who was very weak, merely request- 
 ed a share in Ochino's prayers. (Ibid. p. 137.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 183 
 
 of the armed men who had been despatched to appre- 
 hend him, and reached Geneva m safety.* 
 
 The defection and flight of Ochino struck his comi- 
 trymen with amazement, proportioned to the admira- 
 tion in which they had held him.t Claudio Tolomeo, 
 esteemed one of the best epistolary writers of his age, 
 says, in a letter which he addressed to him, that the 
 tidings of his defection from the Catholic to the Lu- 
 theran camp, had completely stunned him, and ap- 
 peared for some time utterly false and incredible.^ 
 The lamentations of the Theatine cardinal were still 
 more tragical, and may be quoted as a specimen of 
 that mystical and sublimated devotion, which, at this 
 period, was combined with a spirit of ambition and 
 bigotry, in a certain class of the defenders of the 
 papacy. "What has befallen thee, Bernardino? What 
 evil spirit has seized thee, like the reprobate king of 
 Israel of old ? My father, my father ! the chariot and 
 the charioteer of Israel ! whom, a little ago, we with 
 admiration beheld ascending to heaven in the spirit 
 and power of Elias, must we now bewail thy descent 
 to hell with the chariots and horsemen of Pharaoh? 
 All Italy flocked to thee ; they hung upon thy breast : 
 thou hast betrayed the land; thou hast slain the in- 
 habitants. doting old man, who has bewitched 
 
 * Ochino has himself given an account of his departure from Italy 
 and the reasons of it, in his answer to Muzio, which is reprinted at 
 the end of the second volume of his Prediche. Lubieniecius and 
 Sandius represent him as having gone to Rome, and, in the presence 
 of the pope, reproved from the pulpit the tyranny, pride, and vices 
 of the pontifical court. The latter adds, that, in a sermon, he brought 
 forward a number of arguments against the doctrine of the Trinity, 
 deferring the answer to them till another time, under the pretence 
 that the hour had elapsed ; but, as soon as he left the pulpit, he mount- 
 ed a horse which was ready for him, and, quitting Rome and Italy, 
 eluded the inquisitors. This is a ridiculous story, evidently made up 
 from the manner in which Ochino brought forward the antitrinitarian 
 sentiments a little before his death. 
 
 + In a letter to Melanchthon, dated from Geneva on the l4th of 
 Feb. 1543, Calvin says — "Habemus hie Bcrnardinum Senensem, 
 magnum et praeclarum virum, qui suo discessu non parum Italiam 
 commovit. Is, ut vobis suo nomine salutem ascriberem, petiit." 
 (Sylloge Epist. Burman. tom. ii. p. 230.) 
 
 t Tolomeo, Lettere, p. 237. Venez. 1565. Schelhorn, Ergoetzlich- 
 keiten, toin. iii. p. 1006. 
 
184 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 thee to feign to thyself another Christ than thou wert 
 taught by the cathoUc church? Ah! Bernardino, how 
 great wert thou in the eyes of all men ! Oh, how 
 beautiful and fair ! Thy coarse but sacred cap excelled 
 the cardinal's hat and the pope's mitre, thy nakedness 
 the most gorgeous apparel, thy bed of wattles the 
 softest and most delicious couch, thy deep poverty the 
 riches of the world. Thou wert the herald of the 
 highest, the trumpet sounding far and wide; thou 
 wert full of wisdom and adorned with knowledge; 
 the liOrd placed thee in the garden of Eden, in his 
 holy mount, as a light above the candlestick, as the 
 sun of the people, as a pillar in his temple, as a watch- 
 man in his vineyard, as a shepherd to feed his flock. 
 Still thy eloquent discourses sound in our ears; still 
 we see thy unshod feet. Where now are all thy 
 magnificent words concerning contempt of the world? 
 Where thy invectives against covetousness? Thou 
 that didst teach that a man should not steal, dost thou 
 steal?"* In this inflated style, which cardinal Quirini 
 calls " elegant and vehement," did Carafl'a proceed 
 until he had exhausted all the metaphors in the Flow- 
 ers of the saints. 
 
 Ochino was not silent on his part. Beside an apolo- 
 getical letter to the magistrates of his native city of 
 Sienna, and another to Tolomeo, he published a large 
 collection of his sermons, and various polemical trea- 
 tises against the church of Rome, which, being writ- 
 ten in the Italian language and in a popular style, 
 produced a great efl'ect upon his countrymen, not- 
 withstanding the antidotes administered by writers 
 hired to refute and defame him. t His flight was the 
 signal for the apprehension of some of his most inti- 
 mate friends, and a rigorous investigation into the 
 sentiments of the religious order to which he belong- 
 
 * Bock, Hist. Antitrin. torn. ii. p. 495. Quirini Diatr. ad vol. iii. 
 Epist. Poli, p. 86. 
 
 t A list of Ocliino's works is to be found in Haytn, Biblioteca, 
 torn. ii. p. 616, &c. ; in Observat. Halens. torn. v. p. 65. «&c. ; and in 
 Bock, ii. p. 515, &-c. His principal antagonists were Girolamo Mu- 
 zio, the author of Le Menlite Ochiniane, and Ambrogio Catarino, 
 who wrote Remedio a la yestilente dottrina di Bernardo Ochino. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 185 
 
 ed; some of whom made their escape, and others 
 saved their lives hy recanting their opinions. The 
 pope was so incensed by the apostasy of Ochino, and 
 the number of Capuchins who were found implicated 
 in his heresy, that he proposed at one time to suppress 
 the order.* 
 
 Martyr, in the mean time, was in equal danger at 
 Lucca. The monks of his order, irritated by the re- 
 formation of manners which, as general visitor, he 
 had sought to introduce among them, were forward 
 to accuse him, and acted as spies on his conduct. For 
 a whole year he was exposed to their secret machina- 
 tions and open detraction, against which he could not 
 have maintained himself, if he had not enjoyed the 
 protection of the Lucchese.t With the view of trying 
 the disposition of the citizens, his enemies obtained 
 an order from Rome to apprehend Terentiano, one of 
 his friends, who was confessor to the Augustinian con- 
 vent, as a person suspected of heresy. Some noble- 
 men, who admired the confessor's piety and were 
 convinced of his innocence, forced the doors of his 
 prison and set him at liberty; but having fallen and 
 broken a limb in his flight, he was again taken and con- 
 veyed to Rome in triumph. Encouraged by this suc- 
 cess, they lodged a formal accusation against Martyr 
 before the papal court; messengers were sent through 
 the diff'erent convents to exhort the monks not to 
 neglect the opportunity of recovering " their ancient 
 liberty," by inflicting punishment on their adversary; 
 and a general congregation of the order being con- 
 vened at Genoa, he was cited instantly to attend. 
 Aware of the prejudice which had been excited 
 against him, and warned by his friends that snares 
 were laid for his life, he resolved, after deliberation, 
 to avoid the danger, by withdrawing himself from the 
 
 * Bock, ii. p. 496. 
 
 f In the course of the inquiries which he had instituted, several 
 individuals had been deprived of their offices on accoiint of gross 
 delinquencies, and the rector-general of the order with some others, 
 were condemned to perpetual confinement in the islands of Tremiti. 
 (Simler, Oratio de Martyre, sig. b iij.) 
 
 13 
 
186 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 rage and craft of his enemies. After allotting a part 
 of his Ubrary to the convent, he committed the re- 
 mainder to Cristoforo Trenta, a patrician of Lucca, 
 with the view of its being sent after him to Germany ; 
 and having set the affairs of the institution in order, 
 and committed the charge of it to his vicar, he left 
 the city secretly, accompanied by Paolo Lacisio, Theo- 
 dosio Trebellio, aiid Julio Terentiano, who had been 
 released from prison. At Pisa he wrote letters to 
 cardinal Pole, and to the brethren of the monastery 
 at Lucca, which he committed to trusty persons with 
 instructions not to deliver them until a month after 
 his departure. In these he laid open the grievous 
 errors and abuses which attached to the popish reli- 
 gion in general, and the monastic life in particular, 
 to which his conscience would no longer allow him 
 to give countenance ; and, as additional grounds for 
 his withdrawing, referred to the odium which he had 
 incurred, and the plots formed against his life. At 
 the same time, he sent back the ring which he had 
 been accustomed to wear as the badge of his office, 
 that it might not be said that he had appropriated the 
 smallest part of the property of the convent to his 
 private use. Having met with Ochino at Florence, 
 and settled with him their respective routes, he set 
 out, and, travelling cautiously and with expedition 
 by Bologna, Ferrara, and Verona, reached Zurich in 
 safety, along with his three companions.* They had 
 not been long there when they received an invitation 
 from Bucer to repair to Strasburg, where they obtain- 
 ed situations as professors in the academy. From that 
 place Martyr wrote to the reformed church of Lucca, 
 of which he had been pastor, stating the reasons 
 which had induced him to quit his native country, 
 and encouraging them to persevere in their adherence 
 to the gospel which they had embraced.! 
 
 * Simler, Oratio de Martyre, s\g. b iiij. 
 
 t -Martyris Epist. universis Ecclesisp Lucensis fidelibus, 8 Calend. 
 Jan. 1543; in Loc. Commun. p. 750 — 752. He, about tlie satne time, 
 published an Exposition of the Apostles' Creed in Italian, "to render 
 to all an account of his faith." (Simler, Orat. de Martyre, sig. cj.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 187 
 
 It was no sooner known that Martyr had fled, than 
 a visitation of the monastery over which he had pre- 
 sided was ordered, with the view of ascertaining the 
 extent to which it was tainted with his heretical opin- 
 ions. A great many of the monks were thrown into 
 prison; and, before a year elapsed, eighteen of them 
 had deserted Italy and retired to Switzerland.* The 
 Protestant church which had been formed in the city, 
 though discouraged by the loss of its founder, and 
 exposed to the threats of its adversaries, was not dis- 
 persed or broken up. Under the protection of some 
 of the principal persons of the state, it continued to 
 hold its meetings in private, enjoyed the instruction of 
 regular pastors, and increased in knowledge and even 
 in numbers. In a letter addressed to them, more than 
 twelve years after he left Lucca, and on the back of 
 a disastrous change in their situation. Martyr says — 
 " Such progress have you made for many years in the 
 gospel of Jesus Christ, that it was unnecessary for me 
 to excite you by my letters; and all that remained 
 for me to do, was to make honourable mention of you 
 every where, and to give thanks to our Heavenly 
 Father for the spiritual blessings with which he had 
 crowned you. To this I had an additional motive, 
 from reflecting that my hand was honoured to lay the 
 foundations of this good work, in weakness I confess, 
 but still, by the grace of Christ, to your no small profit. 
 My joy was increased by learning that, after my la- 
 bours among you were over, God provided you with 
 other and abler teachers, by whose prudent care and 
 salutary instructions the work begun in you was ad- 
 vanced."! 
 
 One of the teachers to whom Martyr refers was 
 Celio Secundo Curio, who had obtained a situation in 
 the university. The senate protected him for some 
 
 * Martyris Epist. ut supra. Lettre de M. le cardinal Spinola, 
 Eveque de Luques — Avec les Considerations, p. 24, \t appears, from 
 the remarks which the refugees make upon the cardinal's letter, tliat 
 Jerom Zanehi was one of the learned men whom Martyr drew to 
 Lucca. 
 
 t Martyris Epistola ad fratres Lucenses, anno 1556 ; in Loc. Com- 
 mun. p. 771. 
 
188 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 time in spite of the outcries of the clergy;* but the 
 pope having, in the year 1543, addressed letters to 
 the magistrates complaining of this, and requiring 
 them to send him to Rome to answer charges which 
 had been brought against him from various quarters, 
 they gave him private intimation to consult his safety. 
 Upon this he retired to Ferrara, whence, by the ad- 
 vice of the duchess Renee, who furnished him with 
 letters of recommendation to the magistrates of Zu- 
 rich and Berne, he quitted Italy, and took up his resi- 
 dence at Lausanne. In the coarse of the same year 
 he returned for his wife and children, whom he had 
 left behind him ; on which occasion he made one of 
 those narrow escapes which, though well authenti- 
 cated, throw an air of romance over the narrative of 
 his life. The familiars of the inquisition, who were 
 scattered over the country, had tracked the route of 
 Curio from the time he entered Italy. Not venturing 
 to appear in Lucca, he stopped at the neighbouring 
 town of Pessa, until his family should join him. While 
 he was sitting at dinner in the inn, a captain of the 
 papal band, called in Italy barisello, suddenly made 
 his appearance, and entering the room, commanded 
 him, in the pope's name, to yield himself as a pri- 
 soner. Curio, despairing of escape, rose to deliver 
 himself up, retaining unconsciously in his hand the 
 knife with which he had been carving his food. The 
 barisello seeing an athletic figure approaching him 
 with a large knife, was seized with a sudden panic, 
 and retreated to a corner of the room; upon which 
 Curio, who possessed great presence of mind, walked 
 deliberately out of the room, passed, without inter- 
 ruption, through the midst of the armed men who 
 were stationed at the door, took his horse from the 
 stable, and made good his flight.! 
 
 * In a letter, dated " Lucoe, 1542, quarto Idus Junii," Curio says, 
 "I meant to have added more, but a message has been just sent me, 
 that J am in dangler of my life, by the information of certain adver- 
 saries of the truth, who plot, and think, and dream of nothing- else 
 but abolishing the memory of Christ from the earth." (Coelii Se- 
 cundi Curiunis Araneus, p. 161. Bas. 1544.) 
 
 t Stupani Oratio de S. C. Curione, ut supra, p. 344, 345. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 189 
 
 The inquisition, from the first establishment of that 
 court in tlie twelfth century, had been introduced into 
 Italy, and was placed under the management of the 
 conventual friars of the order of St. Francis. Its arbi- 
 trary and vexatious proceedings could not, however, 
 be long borne by the free states of which that country 
 was then composed; and, about the middle of the 
 fourteenth century, measures were generally adopted 
 to restrain its exorbitant power, in spite of the oppo- 
 sition made by Clement VI. and the censures which 
 he fulminated. The right of the bishops to take part 
 with the inquisitors in the examination of heretics 
 was recognized; they were restricted to the simple 
 cognizance of the charge of heresy, and deprived of 
 the power of imprisonment, confiscation, fine, and 
 corporal punishment, which was declared to belong 
 solely to the secular arm.* Such a mode of procedure 
 was found to be ineffectual for suppressing free in- 
 quiry, and maintaining the authority of the church, 
 after the new opinions began to spread in Italy. The 
 bishops were, in some instances, lukewarm; they were 
 accessible to the claims of humanity or friendship; 
 their forms of process were slow and open ; and the 
 accused person often escaped before the necessary 
 order for his arrest could be obtained from the civil 
 power. On these accounts, the erection of a court, 
 similar to the modern inquisition of Spain, had been 
 for some years eagerly pressed by the more zealous 
 Romanists, with cardinal Caraffa at their head, as the 
 only means of preserving Italy from being overrun 
 with heresy. Accordingly, pope Paul III. founded 
 at Rome the Congregation of the Holy Office, by a 
 bull dated the 1st of April 1543, which granted the 
 title and rights of inquisitors-general of the faith to 
 six cardinals, and gave them authority, on both sides 
 of the Alps, to try all causes of heresy, with the power 
 of apprehending and incarcerating suspected persons, 
 and their abettors, of whatsoever estate, rank, or order, 
 of norninathig officers under them, and appointing 
 
 * Galluzzi, Istor. del Granducato di Toscano, torn. i. p. 142, 143. 
 
190 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 inferior tribunals in all places, with the same or with 
 limited poAvers.* 
 
 This court instantly commenced its operations with- 
 in the ecclesiastical states; and it was the great object 
 of the popes, during the remainder of this century, to 
 extend its power over Italy. The greatest resistance 
 was made to it in Venice. After long negotiation, the 
 inquisitors were authorized to try causes of heresy 
 within that state, on the condition that a certain num- 
 ber of magistrates and lawyers should always be pre- 
 sent at the examination of witnesses, to protect the 
 citizens from prosecutions undertaken on frivolous 
 grounds or from mercenary views, and that the defini- 
 tive sentence should not, at least in the case of laics, 
 be pronounced before it was submitted to the senate.! 
 The popes found less opposition in the other states 
 and cities of Italy. In Tuscany it was arranged, that 
 three commissioners, elected by the congregation at 
 Rome, along with the local inquisitor, should judge 
 in all causes of religion, and intimate their sentence 
 to the duke, who Avas bound to carry it into execu- 
 tion. J One would have thought that such provisions 
 would have satisfied the Holy Office ; but, in addition, 
 it was continually soliciting the local authorities to 
 send such as were accused, especially if they Avere 
 either ecclesiastical persons or strangers, to be tried by 
 the inquisition at Rome; and even the senate of Ve- 
 nice, jealous as it Avas of any interference Avith its 
 authority, yielded in some instances to requests of this 
 kind.§ 
 
 No court ever kncAV so Avell as that of Rome Iioaa^ 
 to combine policy with violence, to temporize Avithout 
 relinquishing its claims, and dexterously to avail itself 
 of particular events Avhich crossed its Avishes, for the 
 purpose of advancing its general designs. The Nea- 
 
 * Limborch's Hist, of the Inquisition, vol. i. p. 151 ; Chandler's 
 transl. Llorente, Hist, do I'lnquis. torn. ii. p. 78. 
 
 t Busdragi Epistola: Scrinium Antiquar. torn. i. p. 321, 326, 327. 
 Thuani Hist, ad an. 1548. 
 
 t Galluzzi, i. 143. 
 
 § Beza? Icones, sig. Hh. iij. Hist, des Martyrs, f. 444, 446. Ge- 
 neve, 1597. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 191 
 
 politans had twice successfully resisted the establish- 
 ment of the inquisition in their country, at the begin- 
 ning of the sixteenth century. In 1546, the emperor 
 Charles V., with the view of extirpating the Lutheran 
 heresy, renewed the attempt, and gave orders to set 
 up that tribunal in Naples, after the same form in 
 which it had long been established in Spain. This 
 measure created the greatest discontent, and one day 
 as the officers of the inquisition were conducting some 
 persons to prison, the inhabitants, having released the 
 prisoners, rose in arms, and broke out into open tu- 
 mult. The revolt was suppressed by military force, 
 but it was judged prudent to abandon the design. 
 Nothing could be conceived more agreeable to the 
 court of Rome than this formidable tribunal; yet they 
 took the part of the people against tlie government of 
 Naples, and encouraged them in their opposition, by 
 telling them that they had reason for their fears, be- 
 cause the Spanish inquisition was extremely severe, 
 and refused to profit by the example of that of Rome, 
 of which none had had reason to complain during the 
 three years in which it had existed.* They pursued 
 the same line of policy when Philip II., at a subse- 
 quent period, endeavoured to establish his favourite 
 tribunal in the duchy of Milan. The reigning pontiff, 
 Pius IV., was at first favourable to that scheme, 
 from which he anticipated effectual aid to his mea- 
 sures for keeping down the reformed opinions; but 
 finding that the Milanese Avere determined to resist 
 the innovation, and had engaged the greater part of 
 the Italian bishops on their side, his holiness told the 
 deputies who came to beg his intercession in their 
 favour, that " he knew the extreme rigour of the Spa- 
 nish inquisitors," and would take care that the inqui- 
 sition should be maintained in Milan as formerly in 
 dependence on the court of Rome, " whose decrees 
 respecting the mode of process were very mild, and 
 reserved to the accused the most entire liberty of de- 
 fending themselves."t This language was glaringly 
 
 * Limborch, vol. i. p. 143. Llorente, torn. i. p. 332; ii. 118, 121. 
 t Limborch and Llorente, ut supra. 
 
192 HISTORY or THE 
 
 hypocritical, and quite irreconcilable with the conduct 
 of the reigning pontiff, as well as that of his prede- 
 cessors, who had all supported the Spanish inquisition, 
 and given their formal sanction to the most cruel and 
 unjust of its modes of procedure. But it served the 
 purpose of preserving the authority of the holy see, 
 and of reconciling the minds of the Italians to the 
 court which had been lately erected at Rome. The 
 Roman inquisition was founded on the same princi- 
 ples as that of Spain, nor did the forms of process in 
 the two courts differ in any essential or material point; 
 and yet the horror which the inhabitants of Italy had 
 conceived at the idea of the latter induced them to 
 submit to the former: so easy is it, by a little manage- 
 ment and humouring of their prejudices, to deprive 
 the people of their liberties. 
 
 The peaceable establishment of the inquisition in 
 Italy was decisive of the unfortunate issue of the move- 
 ments in favour of religious reform in that country. 
 This iniquitous and bloody tribunal could never obtain 
 a footing either in France or in Germany. The attempt 
 to introduce it into the Netherlands was resisted by 
 the adherents of the old as well as the disciples of the 
 new religion; and it kindled a civil war, which, after 
 a sanguinary and protracted struggle, issued in rend- 
 ing seven flourishing provinces from the Spanish 
 crown, and establishing civil and religious liberty. 
 The ease with which it was introduced into Italy, 
 showed that, whatever illumination there was among 
 the Italians, and how desirous soever they might be 
 to share in those blessings which other nations had 
 secured to themselves, they were destitute of that pub- 
 lic spirit and energy of principle which were requisite 
 to shake off the degrading yoke by which they were 
 oppressed. Popish historians do more homage to 
 truth than credit to their cause, when they say that 
 the erection of the inquisition was the salvation of 
 the catholic church in Italy.* No sooner was this 
 engine of tyranny and torture erected, than those who 
 had rendered themselves obnoxious to it by the pre- 
 
 * Pallavicini, Istor. Concil. Trent, lib. xiv. c. 9. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 193 
 
 vious avowal of the their sentiments, fled in great 
 numbers from a comitry in which they could no longer 
 look for protection from injustice and cruelty. The 
 prisons of the inquisition were every where filled with 
 those who remained behind, and who, according to 
 the policy of that court, were retained for years in 
 dark and silent durance, with the view of inspiring 
 their friends with dread, and of subduing their own 
 minds to a recantation of their sentiments. With the 
 exception of a few places, the public profession which 
 had been made of the Protestant religion was sup- 
 pressed. Its friends, however, were still numerous; 
 many of them were animated by the most ardent at- 
 tachment to the cause ; they continued to encourage 
 and edify one another in their private meetings; and 
 it required all the activity and violence of the inquisi- 
 tors, during twenty years, to discover and extermi- 
 nate them. 
 
 The proceedings of the inquisition excited indigna- 
 tion and terror in the breasts of others besides those 
 who were the immediate objects of its vengeance; and 
 these feelings, acting on the disturbed state of the 
 public mind, gave rise to a conspiracy, which, if it 
 had been organized with greater secresy and foresight, 
 might have given a favourable turn to the aff'airs of 
 the Protestants in Italy. Great discontent had been 
 caused by the overthrow of republican government 
 in different cities; and numerous exiles from Florence, 
 Pisa, and Sienna, had taken refuge in Lucca, where 
 they confirmed one another in resentment against the 
 pope and emperor, as the authors of their wrongs, 
 and in the hopes of being able, on some emergency, 
 and in concert with their friends at home, to recover 
 their ancient liberties. Francesco Burlamacchi, gon- 
 faloniere or captain of the forces at Lucca, a man of 
 ardent and enterprising mind, conceived the bold de- 
 sign of uniting the political and religious malcontents 
 in an attempt to revolutionize the country. By means 
 of the troops, of which he had the command, added 
 to the exiles in the city, he proposed to surprise Pisa, 
 to call on the inhabitants to assert their independence, 
 
194 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 and, having reinforced his army, to rear the standard 
 of Hberty, and, with the assistance of Pietro Strozzi 
 and France, to effect a change in the government and 
 rehgion of the Itahan states.* The time chosen for 
 executing this project was not unpropitious, and held 
 out a flattering prospect of success to persons of a 
 sanguine mind. After employing in vain every method 
 of policy, for many years, to dissolve the Smalcaldic 
 league, Charles V. determined, in 1546, to suppress it 
 by force, and, for this purpose, drcAV the flower of his 
 army to Germany, from various parts of his dominions, 
 including Naples and Milan. The pope and the grand 
 duke of Tuscany had sent reinforcements to the em- 
 peror,! while other states had contributed money for 
 carrying on this war of religion ; so that Italy was, in 
 a great degree, stripped of that military defence by 
 which it had been kept in a state of subjection to the 
 dominant authorities. It is not improbable, that some 
 correspondence had taken place between the projector 
 of the insurrection and the Protestant princes of Ger- 
 many, as they had solicited the duke of Tuscany to 
 make a diversion in their favour by attacking the 
 states of the pope, with whom he was at variance. 
 That secret negociations were carried on with the 
 court of France through Strozzi, there can be little 
 doubt. But Francis I. was approaching the end of 
 his active reign; age and ill success had rendered him 
 cautious and inert ; and the same reasons which led 
 him to permit the German princes to be crushed by 
 his rival, would prevent him from lending 'open or 
 efficient aid to the undertaking of an obscure indi- 
 vidual in Italy. The affair, however, did not come 
 to a trial of arms : the conspiracy was revealed at the 
 same time to the senate of Lucca and the grand duke 
 of Tuscany, and Burlamacchi was instantly seized 
 and sent a prisoner to Milan. J Though the Protes- 
 
 * Galluzzi, Istoria del Granducato di Toscano, torn. i. p. 79. 
 
 t Sleidan, Comment, torn. ii. p. 5] 5, 516, edit. Am. Ende. 
 
 t Galluzzi, ut supra, p. 80. This author does not assert, that Bur- 
 lamacchi had adopted the reformed opinions. Several distinguished 
 individuals of that name, however, are to be found among the Luc- 
 chese, who afterwards took refuge in Geneva. A descendant of that 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 195 
 
 tants do not appear to have taken an active part in 
 this plot, its discovery conld not fail to operate to their 
 prejudice, by awakening the jealousy of the civil 
 authorities, and stimulating the vigilance of the in- 
 quisition. 
 
 It was natural for the Protestants, when overtaken 
 by the storm, to retreat to the court of Ferrara, where 
 they had found shelter at an early period; but the 
 pope had taken the precaution of gaining over the 
 duke, and securing his co-operation in his measures 
 against the Reformers. The effects of this change 
 were first felt at Modena. In consequence of the un- 
 favourable reports made of the sentiments of the 
 members of the Academy, consultations had been 
 repeatedly held at Rome; and Paul III. would have 
 proceeded to the highest censure of the church against 
 them, had not some of their personal friends in the 
 conclave interposed, and averted his displeasure. In 
 the month of June, 1542, it was proposed to cite some 
 of the most influential persons among them to Rome 
 or Bologna; but cardinal Sadolet requested permission, 
 in the first place, to try the etfect of a friendly letter 
 upon them. Accordingly, he wrote in the most con- 
 ciliatory spirit to Lodovico Castelvetro, informing him 
 of what had passed in the consistory, and begging 
 that he and his colleagues would give assurances of 
 their attachment to the Catholic faith, and desist from 
 every practice which gave rise to suspicions against 
 them. Castelvetro and his companions answered this 
 letter to the satisfaction of the cardinal, who insisted, 
 however, that they should write to the pope himself, 
 protesting that they were faithful sons of the Roman 
 Church.^ This they appear to have declined; upon 
 
 family, Fabrice, called by Bayle the Photius of his age, was minister 
 of the Italian church there ; and another, Jean-Jaques, was professor 
 of law, and author of a celebrated treatise on that science. (Frag- 
 mens Extraits des Registres de Geneve, p. 131, 436. Scnebier, Hist. 
 Litt. de Geneve, ii. 27. iii. 87.) 
 
 * Sadoleti Epist. Famil. vol. iii. p. 317, 319. The answers by 
 Grillenzoni, Portus, Castelvetro, and Alessandro Milano, are inserted 
 in Bibl. Modenese, torn. iii. p. 433 — 441. 
 
196 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 which a resolution was taken to draw up certain arti- 
 cles of faith, to be subscribed by all the members of 
 the academy. The report of this produced a great 
 sensation in Modena. Portus, the Greek lecturer, 
 and two of his companions, left the place on different 
 pretexts, and the rest complained loudly of the manner 
 in which they were treated. If the proposed measure 
 was carried into effect, they said, there was an end 
 to all freedom of inquiry: they might sell their books 
 and renounce the study of the sacred Scriptures, for 
 no ingenuous person would consent to think or write 
 under such fetters. So great was the ferment, that 
 Morone, tender of the peace of his see and the honour 
 of the academy, repented of the consent he had given 
 to a measure which, it would seem, had not originated 
 with him ; and he is said to have written to the pope, 
 praying him to suspend the subscription of the formu- 
 lary, as the academicians had already given sufficient 
 pledges of their Catholicism, and declined to subscribe, 
 because it would lead the world to believe that they 
 had been justly suspected of heresy. But the court of 
 Rome was resolute in carrying the measure into exe- 
 cution. Much light is thrown on these transactions 
 by a document, preserved in the ducal archives at 
 Ferrara, whicli contains the secret instructions given 
 by the governor of Modena to his chancellor, whom 
 he sent, on the 2d of August, 1542, to advise with 
 Hercules on this perplexing affair. It states, that the 
 academicians showed themselves averse to subscrip- 
 tion, and urged, that though they were ready to affix 
 their names to some of the articles of the formulary, 
 yet these were matters which should be referred to 
 the determination of a council; that the bishop had 
 proceeded in this affair with all possible dexterity, and 
 acted in concert with the governor, whom he had re- 
 minded that, through the harshness of cardinal Caje- 
 tan, the papal legate, to the Lutherans, a small spark 
 had burst into a conflagration, which continued still 
 to rage, and that he was afraid lest God, for the sins 
 of the world, should permit so many men of genius, 
 spirit, and subtlety to be driven to despair, and thereby 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 197 
 
 another such flame should be kindled in Italy : that 
 the pope, thinking that Morone proceeded with too 
 great gentleness, had committed the affair to six car- 
 dinals in Rome, one of whom had already come to 
 Modena to inquire after heretics ; and that the bishop, 
 offended at this step, had signified that he would inter- 
 fere no more in the business, but was prevailed upon, 
 by the entreaties of the governor, to lend his aid in 
 accommodating the parties, and to receive the sub- 
 scriptions.* 
 
 In the beginning of September, cardinals Sadolet 
 and Cortese met with the bishop at Modena, as com- 
 missioners from the pope to see the formulary sub- 
 scribed. It had been drawn up with great modera- 
 tion by Contarini, at the request of Morone, and the 
 objections made to it related chiefly to the sacraments. 
 The members of the academy, when called, refused 
 to subscribe until the conservators of the city had set 
 the example. Three of these were with difliculty in- 
 duced to affix their names; and to encourage them 
 still further, the cardinals agreed to add their own 
 signatures. But still the academicians continued to 
 demur, and the negotiation would have broken off, 
 had it not been for the exertions of Morone. He had 
 already held interviews with them individually, par- 
 ticularly with Berettari, to whose scruples on the sub- 
 ject of the mass and collateral topics he had listened 
 with much forbearance and candour.! He now as- 
 sembled them, and spoke with such earnestness and 
 affection, that they yielded to his request; and their 
 brethren who had withdrawn having returned upon 
 a friendly invitation, the formulary was subscribed 
 by the whole body, together with the official men in 
 the city, to the great joy of the commissioners. J 
 
 * Bibl. Modenese, torn. i. p. 15 — 17. 
 
 t Beccatelli, Vita del Card. Contarini, sect. 33. Muratori, Vita 
 del Castelvctro; Opera Crit. p. 15. Bibl. Modenese, torn. i. p. 234, 
 235. Letter from Morone to Contarini, 3d July 1542. (Poli Epist. 
 vol. iii. p. 285.) In this letter Morone says — " Ben priego V. S. Re- 
 verend iss. non lascia che questi mie Icttere vadino in mano d'altre, 
 che delli suvi fedeli secretari." 
 
 X Bibl. Modenese, torn. i. p. 17—19. Muratori. p. 19, 20. The 
 
198 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 It was not to be expected that an arrangement so 
 eagerly pressed on the one side, and so rekictantly 
 acceded to on the other, would be productive of real 
 or lasting concord. The members of the academy 
 retained their former sentiments, and took every op- 
 portunity of mortifying the clergy, whom they looked 
 upon as the prime instigators of the late proceedings 
 against their body. On the first Sunday of Advent, 
 1543, there was no sermon in Modena; because, as 
 one who lived in the city at that time expresses it in 
 his journal, "every preacher, how excellent soever, 
 was criticised by certain literati, and none would 
 come to contest with them on their own ground." 
 In the following year, the bishop sent a minor-con- 
 ventual friar, named Bartolommeo della Pergala, of 
 whose preaching the journalist just quoted gives the 
 following account, in his style of homely humour: — 
 "All the members of the academy went to hear him, 
 to the number of more than twenty-five, including 
 the bookseller, Antonio, who first introduced the pro- 
 hibited books in the vulgar language, which were 
 afterwards burnt at Rome as heretical. The said 
 friar did not preach the gospel,* nor did he make 
 mention of any saint, male or female, nor of any doc- 
 tor of the Church, nor of lent, or fasting. This was 
 to the taste of the academicians. Many believed that 
 they would go to paradise in their stocking soles ;t 
 for, said they, Christ has paid for us." Disappointed 
 in his expectations from the preacher, the bishop 
 
 formulary, with the subscriptions, is printed in the first volume of 
 the works of cardinal Cortese. When it was first submitted to the 
 revisal of Cortese, lie suggested a number of alterations, with the 
 view of making the test stricter, on the heads of justification, free 
 will, and the eucharist; but M or one, who knew they would defeat 
 the object, took care that they should not be adopted. (Bibl. Moden. 
 torn. vi. p. 1 — 3.) It is to the termination of this affair that cardinal 
 Pole refers, when, in a letter to Contarini, he says, that the marchion- 
 ess of Pescaro gives thanks to God ; " per il gran dono di charita, il 
 qual risplcnde piu in quella santo ncgozio di Modena." (Poll Epist. 
 vol. iii. p. 58.) 
 
 * Tlic meaning is, that the preacher took his text from the epis- 
 ties, and not from the gospels. 
 
 t " Molti credono andare in Paradiso in calze solate." 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 199 
 
 caused Pergala to be apprehended and delivered over 
 to the inquisition, which condemned forty-six propo- 
 sitions in his doctrine, and ordered him to retract them 
 pubhcly in the Church in which he had preached. 
 The retractation was made for form's sake ; and it was 
 no sooner over, than an address was presented to him, 
 signed by the most respectable citizens, and bearing 
 an honourable testimony to his character and talents. 
 In the course of the same year, Pontremolo, another 
 monk of the same order, who preached at Modena, 
 was condemned for teaching heretical doctrines.* 
 
 In the year 1545, a prosecution was commenced 
 against the academicians, which had for its immediate 
 object Filippo Valentino, a young man of great pre- 
 cocity of intellect and versatility of genius.t Pelleg- 
 rino Erri, or Heri, a member of the academy having 
 received an affront from some of his colleagues, went 
 to Rome, and gave information to the Holy Office 
 that the literati of his native city were generally dis- 
 affected to the Catholic Church, and that some of 
 them were industrious in disseminating their heretical 
 sentiments in private.^ In consequence of this, the 
 pope addressed a brief to the duke of Ferrara, stating, 
 that he had received information that the Lutheran 
 
 * Bibl. Modenese, torn. i. p. 18, 19. 
 
 t Castelvetro says, that at seven years of age Valentino composed 
 letters in a style worthy of Cicero, and sonnets and canzoni which 
 would have done honour to a poet of mature age. He could repeat 
 verbatim sermons or lectures which he had heard only once ; and 
 had the principal poets in Latin and Italian by heart. (Muratori, ut 
 supra, p. 21, 22.) 
 
 t That Erri was a scholar, and acquainted with Hebrew, appears 
 from the following work : — " I Salmi di David, tradotti con bellis- 
 simoe dotissimo stile dalla lingua Ebrca, nella Latina e volgare, dal 
 S. Pellegrino Hcri Modenese." The dedication by the author, to 
 Conte Fulvio Rangone, is dated "Di Modena il i de Gennaio 1568;" 
 but the work was published at Venice in 1573, with a preface by 
 Giordan Ziletti. Riederer, who has given extracts, both from the 
 translations and notes, says — "I am certain, that any person who ex- 
 amines this book narrowly, will find in it many traces of a concealed 
 Protestant, who continued in external coininunion with the lioinan 
 church, and did not choose to expose himself to the inquisition." 
 (Nachrichten, tom. iv. p. 28.) Tliis confirms the account given in 
 the text, of Erri's motives in informing against his colleagues. 
 
200 HISTOHY OF THE 
 
 heresy was daily gaining ground in Modena, and 
 that the author and prime cause of this was that son 
 of wickedness, Fihppo Valentino ; on which account 
 his hohness, knowing how grieving this must be to 
 a person of the duke's piety, requires him to cause 
 the said Fihppo to be immediately seized, his books 
 and papers to be examined, and his person detained 
 at the instance of the pope; so that, the ringleader 
 being quelled, his accomplices might be reduced to 
 obedience, and a stop put to the alarming evil.* Erri 
 returned to Modena in the character of apostolical 
 commissary ; and, attended by an armed force which 
 he procured from the civil power, came one night to 
 the house of Filippo to apprehend him. The latter 
 having received warning of the design, had made his 
 escape ; but his books and papers were seized by the 
 inquisition, which proved the occasion of great trouble 
 to many of his fellovv-chizens, and especially to those 
 who had lived on terms of the greatest intimacy with 
 him. On the following morning a ducal edict was 
 published. It forbade any to have heretical or sus- 
 pected books, or to dispute in public or private on 
 any point of religion, under the penalty, for the first 
 offence of a hundred crowns of gold, or of being 
 subjected to the strappado, if unable to pay that sum; 
 for the second offence two thousand crowns, or ban- 
 ishment from the state; and for the third offence, con- 
 fiscation of goods, or death. The proclamation of this 
 severe edict spread dismay through the city, and dis- 
 persed the academy, of which we hear no more after- 
 wards.! 
 
 There were still many persons attached to the re- 
 formed opinions in Modena, and, within a short time, 
 an arrangement was made, through the good offices 
 of the duke, which permitted Valentino to return to 
 his native city. Durmg the pontificates of Julius III. 
 and MarceUus II., matters continued quiet; but no 
 
 * Raynaldi Annal. ad an. 1545. The letter is inserted by Tira- 
 boschi, in his Bibliotcca Modenese, torn. v. p. 312, 313. 
 
 t Bibl. Modenese, torn. i. p. 19. Muratori, Vita del Castelvetro, p. 
 21—23. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 201 
 
 sooner had Paul IV. mounted the papal throne, than 
 violent measures were adopted. By orders from 
 Rome, a secret inquiry was instituted into the senti- 
 ments of some of the principal citizens, without the 
 knowledge either of the governor, or of Foscarari, 
 who was now bishop of Modena, both of whom were 
 offended at a step which they regarded as at once 
 unnecessary and an ungracious interference with their 
 authority.* On being made acquainted with the fact, 
 the duke, through his minister at Rome, endeavoured 
 to put a stop to the proceedings, and to prevent the 
 fire, which it had cost so much pains to suppress, 
 from being again kindled; but he was forced to yield 
 to the solicitations of the pope, and granted permis- 
 sion to execute a summons publicly at Modena, on 
 the 6th of July 1556, by which Castelvetro, Filippo 
 Valentino, his cousin Bonifacio, provost of the cathe- 
 dral church, and Gadaldino the printer and bookseller, 
 were cited to appear before the inquisition at Rome. 
 The city was greatly agitated by this citation, and 
 the conservators, having met on the 17th of the same 
 month, addressed a strong remonstrance to the duke. 
 It Avas, they said, a thing altogether unusual and 
 strange that laics should be cited to Rome, and that 
 citizens should be subjected to so great inconvenience 
 and expense; the charge of heresy was calculated to 
 bring infamy upon a city, which, as they were assur- 
 ed by their otficials, was in a state of the greatest 
 quietness; the only tendency of reviving suspicions 
 which had been buried, and prosecuting upon vague 
 rumors, was to add scandal to scandal; the persons 
 cited were highly respectable, and universally esteem- 
 ed as virtuous men, who did not deserve to be dis- 
 graced in such a manner; there was reason to think 
 that the prosecution had originated in spleen and pre- 
 judice on the part of men, of whom his excellency 
 knew there were not a few in that country who, 
 under the cloak of zeal for the faith, sought to gratify 
 
 * Letters from Clemente Tiene to duke Hercules II., 26tli of Oct 
 1555. Bibl. Modenese, torn. i. p. 446, 447. 
 
 14 
 
202 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 their personal revenge ; it was impossible to foresee 
 an end to the affair, after so many expedients had 
 already been tried, without pacifying the authorities 
 at Rome; the cardinals had put the whole city to the 
 test of subscription, his excellency had interposed his 
 authority, the local inquisitors had used their office 
 without any impediment, and their diocesan, a man 
 of great sanctity, was vigilant in such matters : what 
 could they discover at Rome which nobody could dis- 
 cover at Modena? The conservators afterwards sent 
 one of their number to urge the duke to interpose in 
 behalf of their fellow-citizens, and the governor wrote 
 in support of their application. Thus urged, the duke 
 again applied to the pope, requesting that the trial 
 should be suspended, or, if this could not be granted, 
 that it should take place at Modena. Both of these 
 requests were refused. With the view of softening 
 the rigour of the pontiff, Hercules informed him, by 
 another communication, that he had caused the book- 
 seller, Gadaldino, to be imprisoned; and though he 
 doubted if he could be conveyed to Bologna on ac- 
 count of the decrepitude of age, yet he should be sent 
 if his holiness required it. But, soon after, the vice- 
 legate of Bologna made his appearance at the court 
 of Ferrara, and demanded, in the name of his master, 
 that the three Modenese gentlemen and the book- 
 seller, accused of heresy, should be sent to Rome. 
 The duke consented to send the provost Valentino, 
 who, being a priest, was under greater obligations 
 than the rest to obey the pope; having first obtained 
 the vice-legate's promise that the process should be 
 so conducted as not to affect the prisoner in his per- 
 son or honour. This promise was, however, disre- 
 garded. After being detained a whole year in prison, 
 the provost was obliged to make public recantation 
 of the errors imputed to him in the Church of Miner- 
 va at Rome, and afterwards to repeat the ceremony 
 in his own Church at Modena, on the 28th of May 
 1558. The poor printer, who had also been carried 
 to Rome, was detained still longer in prison, though 
 upwards of eighty years old. Filippo Valentino and 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 203 
 
 Castelvetro not having made their appearance at the 
 time appointed, were excommunicated for contumacy 
 and orders were sent to the bishop to cause the sen- 
 tence to be intimated at Modena. Foscarari consult- 
 ed the duke, who, irritated by the treatment which he 
 had received, forbade the intimation.* 
 
 We are not informed where Valentino took refuge 
 from the fury of the implacable pontiff, but his friend 
 Castelvetro appears to have lived secretly in Ferrara. 
 The year 1559 proved fatal to pope Paul IV. and 
 Hercules II. of Ferrara; and Alfonso II., who suc- 
 ceeded his father in the dukedom, hoping to find the 
 new pontiff more tractable, applied for a commission 
 to try the cause of Castelvetro within his own territo- 
 ries. This having been refused, Castelvetro, confi- 
 ding in the interest of the duke, and in the promises 
 made him by persons connected with the papal court, 
 was persuaded to go to Rome. At his first arrival, he 
 was treated with great courtesy, and, instead of being 
 committed to prison, had the convent of Santa Maria 
 191 Via assigned to him as a place of residence, with 
 liberty to receive his friends; but, after his third ap- 
 pearance before the inquisitors, finding that they had 
 obtained possession of strong evidence against him, 
 or dreading that they would put him to the torture, 
 he suddenly left Rome, along with his brother Giam- 
 maria. On the 26th of November 1560, the cardinals 
 of the congregation published their final sentence, 
 declaring him a fugitive and impenitent heretic, who 
 had incurred all the pains, spiritual and temporal, de- 
 creed against such criminals, and calling upon every 
 person who might have it in his power, to arrest his 
 person and send him as a prisoner to Rome. His 
 effigy was publicly burnt ; and pressing letters Avere 
 written to the duke of Ferrara to seize the fugitive 
 brothers and confiscate their property.! One of the 
 leading charges against Castelvetro was, that he had 
 translated into Italian a work of Melanchthon on the 
 Authority of the Church and the Fathers, a copy of 
 
 * Bibl. Modenese, torn. i. p. 446—452. 
 t Bibl. Modenese, torn. i. p. 452—455. 
 
204 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 which, said to be in his own hand-writing, was pro- 
 duced on his trial. "^ 
 
 While these measures were taken at Modena, the 
 papal court Avas still more intent on extirpating the 
 reformed opinions in Ferrara, which it regarded as 
 the nursery and hotbed of heresy in Italy. In the 
 year 1545, his holiness addressed a brief to the eccle- 
 siastical authorities of that place, requiring them to 
 institute a strict investigation into the conduct of per- 
 sons of every rank and order, who were suspected of 
 entertaining erroneous sentiments, and, after having 
 taken the depositions, applied the torture, and brought 
 the trial as far as the definitive sentence, to transmit 
 the whole process to Rome for judgment.! The dis- 
 tress caused by the execution of this mandate was 
 greatly increased by a base expedient lately adopted 
 for discovering those who wavered in their attach- 
 ment to the Church of Rome. A horde of commis- 
 sioned spies were dispersed over Italy, who, by means 
 of the recommendations with which they were fur- 
 nished, got admission into private families, insinuated 
 themselves into the confidence of individuals, and 
 conveyed the secret information which they obtained 
 in this way to the inquisitors. Assuming a variety 
 of characters, they haunted the company of the learn- 
 ed and illiterate, and were to be found equally in 
 courts and cloisters. J A number of excellent persons 
 
 * Bibl. Modenese, torn. i. p. 457 — 460. Pallavicini had mentioned 
 the charge, but did not give the name of the book. (Storiadel Concil. 
 di Trento, 1. xv. c. x.) Fontanini assumed that it was the Common 
 Places of Melanchthon, (see before, p. 51,) which led Muratori to 
 call in question the truth of the whole charge. But the book — the 
 identical corpus delicti which was verified betbre the inquisition — has 
 since been discovered in the archives of St. Angelo. It is a MS. in 
 4to, with the following title : — " Libricciulo di fhi. M. dell' autorita 
 della Chiesa, e degli Scritti degli Antichi, volgarizzato per Kepri- 
 gone liheo con I'aggiunto di alquanto cliiose." The translator, in a 
 short epistle to the reader, stales that he had added a {cv<! notes, 
 chiefly in explanation of certain Greek words used in " this noble 
 little work." Tiraboschi is of opinion, that the style of this book 
 corresponds perfectly with that of the undoubted works of Castel- 
 vetro. 
 
 t Raynaldi Anna), ad an. 1545. 
 
 X Calcagnini Opera, p. 169. Olympise Moratae Opera, p. 102. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 205 
 
 at Ferrara were caught in the toils spread by these 
 pests of society. They succeeded in ahenating the 
 mind of the duke from the accomplished Olympia 
 Morata, who, having left the palace, on the death of 
 her father,* to take charge of her widowed mother 
 and the younger branches of the family, was treated 
 in a harsh and ungrateful manner by the court ; and 
 she would have suffered still worse treatment, had 
 not a German student of medicine married her, and 
 carried her along with him to his native country.t 
 The persecution became more severe, when, on the 
 death of Paul III., the papal chair was filled by cardi- 
 nal De Monte, under the title of Julius III. While 
 this indolent pontiff wallowed in voluptuousness,! he 
 signed, without scruple or remorse, the cruel orders 
 which were dictated by those to whom he intrusted 
 the management of public affairs. In the year 1550, 
 the reformed Church, which had subsisted for a num- 
 ber of years at Ferrara, was dispersed; many were 
 thrown into prison, and one of their preachers, a per- 
 son of great piety, was put to death,§ Olympia Mo- 
 rata writes on this subject|| — "We did not come here 
 with the intention of returning to Italy; for you are 
 not ignorant how dangerous it is to profess Christi- 
 anity in that country where antichrist has his throne. 
 I hear that the rage against the saints is at present so 
 violent, that former severities were but child's play 
 compared with those which are practised by the new 
 pope, who cannot, like his predecessor, be moved by 
 entreaties and intercession.'' And, in another letter 
 
 111. In writings of that time, these spies are called CoryccBans, 
 Vide Suidce Lex. voc. Kce^vKxto;. 
 
 * He died in 1548. 
 
 t Olympiae Moratse Opera, p. 93—95. Noltenii Vita Oympiae, 
 p. 122 — 125. Her husband's name was Andrew Grunthler, whose 
 life is to be seen in Melch. Adam. Vit. Medic, Germ. Conf. Englerti. 
 Franconic. Acta, vol. ii. p. 269. Nolten says that the duchess also 
 was alienated from her ; but Olympia herself gives no hint of this in 
 her letters. 
 
 t Bayle, Diet. art. Julius III. Tiraboschi, vii. 27. 
 
 § Olympic MoratGB Opera, p. 102. Actiones et Monimenta Mar- 
 tyrum, f. 163. Joan. Crispin. 1560, 4to. 
 
 11 To Celio Secundo Curione: Olympiae xMoratfie Oper. p. 101. 
 
206 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 she says"^ — "I learn, from letters which I have lately- 
 received out of Italy, that the Christians are treated 
 with great cruelty at Ferrara; neither high nor low 
 are spared; some are imprisoned, others banished, 
 and others obhged to save their lives by flight/' 
 
 The success of these measures in abolishing the 
 face of a reformed church, and silencing all opposition 
 to the established faith, in Ferrara, did not however 
 give satisfaction at Rome. All this availed nothing in 
 the eyes of the clergy, so long as there remained one 
 person, occupying the place nearest the prince, who 
 scrupled to yield obedience to their authority. The 
 high rank and distinguished accomplishments of the 
 duchess of Ferrara aggravated, instead of extenuating, 
 the offence which she had given to the clergy, who 
 resolved to humble her pride, if they could not sub- 
 due her firmness. Renee, who for some time had not 
 concealed her partiality to the reformed sentiments, 
 testified great dissatisfaction at the late persecution, 
 and exerted herself in every way within her power 
 to protect those who were exposed to its violence. 
 This led to repeated and strong representations from 
 the pope to the duke, her husband. He was told that 
 the minds of his children and servants were corrupt- 
 ed, and the most pernicious example held out to his 
 subjects; that the house of Este, which had been so 
 long renowned for the purity of its faith and its fealty 
 to the holy see, was in danger of contracting the in- 
 delible stain of heresy ; and that if he did not speedily 
 abate the nuisance, he would expose himself to the 
 censures of the church, and lose the favour of all 
 catholic princes. In consequence of these remon- 
 strances, Hercules pressed the duchess to avert the 
 displeasure of his holiness by renouncing the new 
 opinions, and conforming herself to the rites of the 
 
 * To Chilian Sinapi; Ibid. p. 143. In another letter, addressed 
 to Vergerio, (p. 158,) after deploring the weakness of some of her 
 acquaintance, who had renounced their faith, she speaks with satis- 
 faction of the constancy of her mother ; " Matrem vero meam con- 
 stantem fuisse in illis turbis, Deo gratias agimus, eique totum accept- 
 um referimus. Earn oravi, ut ex ilia Babylonia una, cum sororibus 
 ad nos proficiscatur." 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 207 
 
 established worship. As she persisted in refusing to 
 sacrifice her convictions, recourse was had to foreign 
 influence. Whether it was with the view of over- 
 coming the reluctance which her husband testified 
 to proceed to extremities, or of affording him a decent 
 excuse for adopting those severe measures which he 
 had previously agreed to, it is certain that the pope 
 procured the interference of the king of France, who 
 was nephew to the duchess. Henry II. accordingly 
 sent Oritz,* his inquisitor, to the court of Ferrara. 
 His instructions bore, that he was to acquaint him- 
 self accurately with the extent to which the mind of 
 the duchess was infected with error; he was then to 
 request a personal interview with her, at which he 
 should inform her of the great grief which his most 
 Christian Majesty felt at hearing that "his only aunt," 
 whom he had always loved and esteemed so highly, 
 had involved herself in the labyrinth of these detest- 
 able and condemned opinions; if, after all his remon- 
 strances and arguments, he could not recover her by 
 gentle means, he was next, with the concurrence of 
 the duke, to endeavour to bring her to reason by 
 rigour and severity: he was to preach a course of 
 sermons on the principal points on which she had 
 been led astray, at which she and all her family 
 should be obliged to attend, "whatever refusal or 
 objection she might think proper to make:" if this 
 proved unsuccessful in reclaiming her, he was next, 
 in her presence, to entreat the duke, in his majesty's 
 name, to "sequester her from all society and conver- 
 sation," that she might not have it in her power to 
 taint the minds of others ; to remove her children from 
 
 * This appears to have been the same person of whom we read at 
 an earlier period of the history of France. " Notre Maitre Oris," 
 the inquisitor of the faith, was, in the year 1534, sent to Sancerre to 
 search for heretics ; but the inhabitants, aware of his fondness for 
 good cheer, treated him with such hospitality, that he reported them 
 to be a very good sort of people. His depute, Rocheli, returned 
 with the same report. Upon which the Lieutenant Criminel, cha- 
 grined at missing his prey, said, that " good wine would at any time 
 make all these fellows quiet." (Beze, Hist, des Eglises Ref. de 
 France, tom. i. p. 20.) But "Notre Maitre" was then but young, 
 and had not yet tasted blood. 
 
208 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 her, and not to allow any of the family, of whatever 
 nation they might be, who were accused or strongly 
 suspected of heretical sentiments, to approach her; in 
 fine, he was to bring them to trial, and to pronounce 
 a sentence of exemplary punishment on such as were 
 found guilty, only leaving it to the duke to give such 
 directions as to the mode of process and the infliction 
 of punishment, as that the affair might terminate, 
 so far as justice permitted, without causing scandal, 
 or bringing any public stigma on the duchess and her 
 dependents.* 
 
 The daughter of Louis XII., whose spirit was equal 
 to her piety, spurned these conditions; and on her 
 refusal to violate her conscience, her children were 
 taken from under her management, her confidential 
 servants proceeded against as heretics, and she her- 
 self detained as a prisoner in the palace. t Renee 
 could have borne the insolence of Oritz, but felt in 
 the keenest manner the upbraidings of her husband, 
 who, without listening to her exculpations, told her 
 she must prepare herself to conform unconditionally 
 and without delay to the practices of the Roman 
 church — an unnatural demonstration of zeal on the 
 part of Hercules, which the court of Rome rewarded, 
 at a subsequent period, by depriving his grandson of 
 the dukedom of Ferrara, and adding it to the posses- 
 sions of the Church. J The duchess continued for 
 some time to bear with fortitude this harsh treatment 
 from her husband, aggravated as it was by certain 
 low intrigues to which he descended; but in the year 
 1555, on the accession of that truculent pontiff", Paul 
 IV., the persecution began to rage with greater vio- 
 lence; and it would seem, that the threats with which 
 she was anew assailed, together with the desire which 
 she felt to be restored to the society of her children, 
 induced her to relent and make concessions. § On the 
 
 * Le Laboureur, Additions aux Memoires de Michel de Castelnau, 
 torn. I. p. 717. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 718. 
 
 t Giovannandrea Barotti, Diffesa degli Scrittori Ferraresi, p. 112. 
 Muratori, Annali d'ltalia, torn. x. p. 5.')3 — 558. 
 
 § Calvin, in a letter to Fare!, says — " De Ducissa Ferrariensi 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 209 
 
 death of the duke m 1559, she returned to France, 
 and took up her residence ni the castle of Montargis, 
 where she made open profession of the reformed re- 
 hgion, and extended her protection to the persecuted 
 Protestants. The duke of Guise, her son-in-law, 
 having one day come to the castle with an armed 
 force, sent a messenger to inform her that, if she did 
 not dismiss the rebels whom she harboured, he would 
 batter the walls with his cannon; she boldly replied, 
 "Tell your master, that I shall myself mount the bat- 
 tlements, and see if he dare kill a king's daughter."* 
 Her eldest daughter, Anne of Este, "whose integrity 
 of understanding and sensibility of heart were worthy 
 of a better age,"t was married to the first Francis, 
 duke of Guise, and afterwards to James of Savoy, 
 duke of Nemours, two of the most determined sup- 
 porters of the Roman Catholic religion in France; 
 and if she did not, like her mother, avow her friend- 
 ship to the reformed cause, she exerted herself in 
 moderating the violence of both her husbands against 
 its friends. J 
 
 Next to the dominions of the duke of Ferrara, the 
 papal court felt most anxious for the suppression of 
 the reformed doctrine within the territories of the 
 Venetian republic. On the flight of Ochino, a rigor- 
 
 tristis nuncius, et certiiis quam velleni, minis et probris victam cccid- 
 isse. Quid dicam nisi rarum in proceribus esse constantioe exem- 
 plum." (f^enebier, Catalogue des Manuscrils dans la Dibliotheque de 
 Geneve, p. 274, 275.) Mons. Senebier states, that this letter is dated, 
 " du 1 Novembre," and he places it under the year 1554; but as 
 Calvin informs his correspondent that he had written a defence of the 
 Consensus, or agreement among the Swiss churches respecting the 
 sacrament of the ."^upper, and as the dedication of that work is dated, 
 Nonis Januarii 1556, the letter to Farel was most probably written 
 in 1555. (Conf. Calvini Opera, torn. viii. p. 660.) 
 
 * Bayle, Diet. art. Ferrara, note F. 
 
 + Condorcet, Eloge de Chancelier d'llopital. 
 
 t Bayle says, that she became zealous against the Hugonots 
 during the League, which he imputes to the remembrance of the 
 assassination of her first husband by Poltrot ; but he produces no 
 authority for his assertion. Calcagnini, Riccio, Paleario, Rabelais, 
 St. Marthe, De Thou, and Condorcet, have vied with each other in 
 extolling this amiable princess. There is a beautiful letter of Olym- 
 pia Morata, addressed, " Annse Estensi, principi GuisiausD," in the 
 printed works of the former, p. 13U — 133. 
 
210 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 Oils inquisition was made into the sentiments of the 
 Capuchins residing in that part of Italy.* For seve- 
 ral years after this, the pope ceased not to urge the 
 senate, both by letters and nuncios, to root out the 
 Lutheran heresy, which had been embraced by many 
 of their subjects, especially in Vicenza. Cardinal 
 Rodolfo, who was administrator of the bishoprick of 
 Vicenza, showed great zeal in this work; but the 
 local magistrates, either from personal aversion to 
 the task, or because they knew that their superiors 
 did not wish the orders which they had publicly 
 given to be carried into execution, declined lending 
 the assistance of the secular arm. Information of 
 this having been conveyed to Rome, the pope in 
 1546, addressed a long and earnest brief to the senate, 
 in which, after complimenting them on their former 
 zeal for religion and fidelity to the holy see, and tell- 
 ing them that innovation in religion would lead to 
 civil dissentions and sedition among them, as it had 
 done elsewhere, he complains loudly of the conduct 
 of the podesta and capitano of Vicenza, who, instead 
 of obeying the commands which had been repeatedly 
 given them, allowed the Lutheran doctrines to be 
 openly professed before the eyes of their masters, and 
 of the ecumenical council which had been called and 
 was now sitting at Trent, chiefly for the purpose of 
 extirpating these heresies: on which account his holi- 
 ness earnestly requires the doge and senators to enjoin 
 these magistrates peremptorily to compensate for their 
 past negligence, by yielding every assistance to the 
 vicars of the diocese in seizing and punishing the 
 heretics.t The senate complied with this request, 
 and issued orders which led to the dissipation of the 
 Church at Vicenza. J 
 
 * Bock, Hist. Arititrin. torn. ii. p. 496. 
 
 t Raynaldi Annales, ad an 1546. 
 
 t Ibid. This is the persecution by which Socinian writers say 
 that their colleges were dispersed. But the only heresy mentioned 
 in the apostolical brief, or by the annalist, is the Lutheran ; and it 
 is reasonable to suppose, that, if it had been known that antitrini- 
 tarians existed in that place, they would have been specified, as we 
 find they were in a subsequent bull. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 211 
 
 They adopted similar measures in the rest of their 
 dominions. In the year 1548, an edict was publish- 
 ed, commanding all who had books opposed to the 
 catholic faith to deliver them up within eight days, 
 at the risk of being proceeded against as heretics; 
 and offering a reward to informers.* This was fol- 
 lowed by great severities against the Protestants in 
 the city of Venice, and in all the territories of that re- 
 public. "The persecution here increases every day/' 
 writes Altieri. -'Many are seized, of whom some 
 have been sent to the galleys, others condemned to 
 perpetual imprisonment, and some, alas ! have been 
 induced, by fear of punishment, to recant. Many 
 have been banished along with their wives and child- 
 ren, while still greater numbers have fled for their 
 lives. Matters are brought to that pass, that I begin 
 to fear for myself; for though I have frequently been 
 able to protect others in this storm, there is reason to 
 apprehend that the same hard terms will be proposed 
 to me ; but it is the will of God that his people be 
 tried by such afflictions."t Altieri continued to ex- 
 ert himself with the most laudable and unwearied 
 zeal in behalf of his brethren. He not only procured 
 letters in their favour from the elector of Saxony and 
 other German princes, for whom he acted as agent 
 with the Venetian republic; but he undertook a jour- 
 ney into Switzerland, with the express view of per- 
 suading the Protestant cantons to exert their influ- 
 ence in the same cause. On his way home he attend- 
 ed an assembly of the deputies of the Grison confed- 
 eration at Coire, where he pleaded the cause of his 
 persecuted countrymen. In both places he succeed- 
 ed so far as to obtain letters interceding for lenity to 
 the Protestants; but he was disappointed in his ex- 
 pectations of procuring a public commission to act 
 for these states, which would have given additional 
 
 * Thuani Hist, ad an. 1548. Surius, apud Bock, Hist. Antitrin. 
 torn. ii. p. 416. 
 
 t Alterius ad Bullingerum, d. 24. Mart. 1549, Venetiis : De Porta, 
 Hist. Reform. Eccles. Rhaeticarum, torn. ii. p. 32. Curiae Rhaet. 
 1774, 4to. 
 
212 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 weight to any representations which he might make 
 to the doge and senate. The authorities of Switzer- 
 land and the Grisons might have good reasons for re- 
 fusing his request; but we cannot help sympathizing 
 with the disappointment, and even with the com- 
 plaints of this good man, as well as admiring the rare 
 example which he gave of disinterested devotion to 
 the cause of truth and the best interests of his country, 
 at a time when the greater part either knew them not 
 or cared not for them. In a letter from Coire to Bull- 
 inger, a distinguished minister of Zurich, he says — 
 "I have delivered your letter and that of Myconius 
 to the ministers of this Church ; I have also convers- 
 ed with them on my business, but find them rather 
 lukewarm, either because this is their natural disposi- 
 tion, or because they think the matter too difficult to 
 be obtained, especially after your friends in Switzer- 
 land have refused it. They, however, give me some 
 hopes of success."* In another letter to the same 
 correspondent, he writes — "From the assembly of the 
 Grison states, which has been held here, I have only 
 been able to obtain commendatory letters; had it not 
 been for the opposition made by some enemies of re- 
 ligion, I would have also obtained a public commis- 
 sion. Tliey have concluded a treaty with France; 
 the emperor's ambassador was present, but could do 
 nothing."t After mentioning the discouragements 
 he had met with from those of whom he had hoped 
 better things, he exclaims — •' Thus do the minds of 
 men now cleave to the world ! If the Spirit of the 
 Lord had not long ago taken possession of my heart, 
 I would have followed the common example, and, 
 hiding myself in some secret corner, attended to my 
 own private affairs, instead of taking an active part 
 in the cause of Christ. But God forbid that I should 
 entertain the blasphemous thought of desisting to la- 
 bour for him, who never ceased to labour in my cause 
 until he had endured the reproach of the cross. There- 
 fore I return to Italy, ready, as before, to encounter 
 
 * Curia, ult. Jan. 1549 : De Porta, torn. ii. p. 34. 
 t Julii 22, 1549 : Ibid. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 213 
 
 whatever may befall me, and willing to be bound for 
 the name of Christ."* Before leaving the Grisons he 
 received intelligence that the persecution was daily 
 waxing hotter at Venice. *'It is not, therefore with- 
 out danger that I return," says he in another letter ; 
 "for you know how much I am hated by the papists 
 and wicked. I do not undertake the journey rashly: 
 God will preserve me from all evil: do you pray for 
 me."t On his arrival at Venice, he found that his 
 enemies had succeeded in incensing the magistrates 
 against him; and he was ordered either to renounce 
 his religion, or instantly to quit tVie territories of the 
 republic. Without hesitation he chose the latter; but 
 being unwilling to despair of the reformation of his 
 native country, and anxious to be at hand to lend 
 succor to his suffering brethren, he lingered in Italy, 
 wandered from city to city, and, when he durst no 
 longer appear in public, sought an asylum in a retir- 
 ed place for himself and his family. Soon after his 
 banishment from Venice he wrote to Bullinger: — 
 "Take the following particulars concerning my return 
 to Italy. I am well with my wife and little child. 
 As to other things, all the effect of my commendatory 
 letters was an offer, on the part of the senate, that I 
 should be allowed to remain in safety among them, 
 provided I would yield conformity to their religion, 
 that is, the Roman; otherwise it behoved me to with- 
 draw without delay from their dominions. Having 
 devoted myself to Christ, I chose exile rather than 
 the enjoyment of pleasant Venice, with its execrable 
 religion. I departed accordingly, and went first to 
 Ferrara, and afterwards to Florence.''^ lu another 
 letter, written from his place of hiding, somewhere in 
 the territory of Brescia, he says — " Know that I am 
 in great trouble and danger of my life, nor is there 
 a place in Italy where I can be safe with my wife and 
 boy. My fears for myself increase daily, for I know 
 
 * Sangallo, 28 Jan. 1549 ; De Porta, torn. ii. p. 34. 
 t Cur:a, 28 Jul. 1549 : Ibid. p. 1)6. 
 
 t Epist. ad Bulling. Ex itinere, 25 Aug. 1549 : De Porta, ut 
 supra, p. 35. 
 
214 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the wicked will never rest till they have swallowed 
 me up alive. I entreat a share in your prayers."* 
 These are the last accounts we have of this excellent 
 person. It is probable that he never escaped from 
 Italy, and that his fate will remain a secret, until the 
 horrid mysteries of the Roman inquisition shall be 
 disclosed. 
 
 When the Protestants were treated in this manner 
 in the capital, we need not be surprised to find the 
 magistrates of Venice permitting the greatest severities 
 to be used against them in the more distant provinces. 
 This was particularly the case in Istria, where the 
 agents of Rome were irritated beyond measure by the 
 more than suspected defection of the two Vergerh, 
 the bishops of Capo d'Istria and Pola. Annibale 
 Grisone, who was sent into these dioceses as inquisi- 
 tor, in the year 1546, spread distress and alarm among 
 the inhabitants. He read every where from the pul- 
 pits the papal bull, requiring all, under the pain of 
 excommunication, to inform against those whom they 
 suspected of heresy, and to deliver up the prohibited 
 books which might be in their possession. Those 
 who confessed and supplicated forgiveness he pro- 
 mised to treat with lenity, but threatened to condemn 
 to the fire all who, concealing their crime, should be 
 convicted on information. Not satisfied with public 
 denunciations, he entered into every house in search 
 of heretical books. Such as confessed that they had 
 read the New Testament in the vulgar tongue, he 
 charged to abstain from that dangerous practice for 
 the future, under the severest pains. The rich he 
 subjected to private penance, and obliged the poor to 
 make a public recantation. At first, only a few indi- 
 viduals of weaker minds were induced to inform 
 against themselves or their acquaintances; but at last 
 consternation seized the multitude, and every one be- 
 came afraid that his neighbour would get the start of 
 him. The ties of consangainity and gratitude were 
 disregarded : the son informed against his father, the 
 wife against her husband, the client against his patron. 
 
 * Ad Bulling. Ex agro Brixiano, prid. Kal. Nov. 1549 : Ibid. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 215 
 
 Taking advantage of the agitated state of the public 
 mind, Grisone ascended the pulpit, in the cathedral of 
 Capo d'Istria, on a high festival day, and after cele- 
 brating mass, harangued the crowded assembly. " You 
 see," said he, "the calamities which have befallen 
 you for some years past. At one time your fields, at 
 another your olive trees, at another your vines have 
 failed; you have been afflicted in your cattle, and in 
 the whole of your substance. To what are all these 
 evils to be ascribed ? To your bishop and the heretics 
 whom he protects ; nor can you expect any allevia- 
 tion of your distress until they are punished. Why 
 do you not rise up and stone them?" So much were 
 the ignorant and frightened populace inflamed, that 
 Vergerio found it necessary to conceal himself. 
 
 In the midst of this confusion, the bishop of Pola 
 died, not without suspicion of having been carried ofl' 
 by poison.* His brother withdrew, and took refuge 
 at Mantua with his patron, cardinal Gonzaga, who 
 soon dismissed him, in consequence of the representa- 
 tions made by the noted Delia Casa, the papal nuncio, 
 resident at Venice. Upon this Vergerio went to the 
 council of Trent, with the view of vindicating him- 
 self, or, as some state, of demanding his seat in that 
 assembly. The pope would have ordered him to be 
 arrested, but was afraid of giving any reason for 
 asserting that the council was not free, at a time when 
 he professed to wish the attendance of the German 
 Protestants. In order to obtain the removal of so 
 dangerous a person from Trent, the papal legates 
 agreed to supersede the summons which had been 
 given him to appear at Rome, and remitted the trial 
 of the charges exhibited against him to the nuncio 
 and patriarch of Venice. Vergerio managed his de- 
 fence with such address as to protract the trial for 
 two years, at the end of which he was prohibited 
 from returning to his diocese. t At that time Fran- 
 
 * A work by the bishop was afterwards published by his brother, 
 with this title : — " Esposizione e Parafrasi sopra il Salmo cxix. di M. 
 Gio. Battista Vergerio Vescovo di Pola, data d. 6. Gennajo, 1550." 
 (De Porta, torn. ii. p. 151.) 
 
 t Pallavicini, lib. vi. cap, 13. Tiraboschi, vii. 380. 
 
216 HISTORY or THE 
 
 cesco Spira, a lawyer of Padua, died in a state of 
 great mental horror, in consequence of his having 
 been induced, by the terrors of the inquisition, to re- 
 cant the Protestant faith. Vergerio, who had come 
 from Venice to Padua, saw him on his death-bed, 
 and joined with some other learned and pious persons 
 in attempting to comfort the wretched penitent.* The 
 scene made such a deep impression on the mind of 
 Vergerio, that he determined to relinquish his bishop- 
 ric and native country, and to seek an asylum in a 
 place where he could with safety make a public pro- 
 fession of the truth which he had embraced. " To 
 tell the truth," says he, "I felt such a flame in my 
 breast, that I could scarcely restrain myself at times 
 from going to the chamber-door of the legate at 
 Venice, and crying out, ' Here I am: where are your 
 prisons and your fires? Satisfy your utmost desire 
 upon me; burn me for the cause of Christ, I beseech 
 you, since I have had an opportunity of comforting 
 the miserable Spira, and of publishing what it was 
 the will of God should be published.^ "t In the end 
 of the year 1548, he carried his purpose into execution, 
 by retiring into the Orisons, to the surprise equally 
 of those whom he deserted and of those whom he 
 joined.J 
 
 * The History of Spira was compiled by Vergerio, with the assist- 
 ance of letters from Celio S. Curio, Malthasus Gribaldus, a native of 
 Padua, Sigismundus Gelous, a Pole, and Henricus ^'cotus. The last 
 named was our countryman, Henry Scrimger. In the library of the 
 University of Leyden, I met with a manuscript volume, containing, 
 among others, a letter from Calvin to Bullinger, dated " 15th August 
 1549," in which he writes : — " I received lately a letter from Paulus 
 Vergerius, along with a history of Franciscus ?-pira, which he wishes 
 printed here. He says the chief cause of his being obliged to leave 
 his native country was, that the pope, irritated by this book, laid 
 snares for his life. At present he is residing in the Grisons, but ex- 
 presses a strong desire to see me. I have not yet read the history, 
 but, so far as 1 can judge from a slight glance, it is written with 
 somewhat more prudence and gravity than in the letters translated 
 by Celio. When I have read the work more carefully, I shall think 
 of the preface which he urges me to write to it." 'I'he history was 
 printed in 1550, with a preface by Calvin. (Misccll. Groningana, 
 tom. iii. p. 1U9.) 
 
 t HistoriaSpirae: De Porta, tom. ii. p. 144. 
 
 X Sleidan, lib. xxi. tom. iii. p. 123, 1-24. Bayle, Diet. art. Vergier. 
 (Pierre Paul.) Ughelli Italia Sac. tom. v. p. 391. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 217 
 
 The inquisitor Grisone was succeeded by Tommaso 
 de Santo Stella, who, after irritating the inhabitants 
 by his vexatious proceedings, endeavoured to per- 
 suade the senate of Venice to put garrisons into their 
 principal cities, under the pretext that Vergerio medi- 
 tated an invasion of Istria.* This gave the latter an 
 occasion to publish a defence of his conduct, address- 
 ed to the doge and senate, in which besides complain- 
 ing of the insidious and violent methods adopted by 
 the fire-brands of persecution through Italy ,t he states 
 several facts as to their conduct in the Venetian do- 
 minions. <' Nothing," says he, "can be more shame- 
 ful than what this pope has done. He has conferred 
 honours and rewards on such of your prelates as are 
 unprofitable and godless; but the bishop of Bergamo, 
 your countryman of the house of Soranzo, he has 
 thrown into prison, for no other reason than that he 
 opposed non-residence and superstition, and testified 
 a regard for the doctrine of the gospel. What is it to 
 exercise oppression and tyranny over you, if this is 
 not? Is it possible that this should not awaken you?" J 
 The senate, about this time, showed a disposition to 
 check the violent proceedings of the papal agents, by 
 opposing a strong barrier to their encroachments on 
 criminal jurisdiction. "The news from Italy is," 
 says Vergerio, "that the senate of Venice have made 
 a decree, that no papal legate, nor bishop, nor inquis- 
 itor, shall proceed against any subject, except in the 
 presence of a civil magistrate ; and that the pope, en- 
 raged at this, has fulminated a bull, interdicting, 
 under the heaviest pains, any secular prince from 
 
 * Al Sereniss, Duce e alia Eccelsissima Rep. di Venezia, Orazione 
 e Defensione del Vergerio, di Vico Suprano, A x Aprile, 1551 ; Da 
 Porta, torn, ii. p. 152. 
 
 t Girolamo Muzio, who had fomented the persecution in Istria, 
 and afterwards wrote against Vergerio, he thus characterizes : — " Un 
 certo Muzio, le cui professione e di dettar cartello, e condurre gli uo- 
 mini ad amniazzarsi negli steccati, e fatto Teologo papesco in tre 
 giorni, e di piii Barigello de' papisti." In another work, (Giudicio 
 sopra le Lettere di XIII. Uomini Illustri,) he names, as the leading 
 persecutors, at a period somewhat later, the Archinti, Buldragi, 
 Todeschini, Falzetti, and Crivelli. 
 
 X Orazione e Defensione, ut supra, p. 253. 
 
 15 
 
218 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 interposing the least hinderance to trials for heresy. 
 It remains to be seen whether the Venetians will 
 obey/'* But the court of Rome, by its perseverance 
 and intrigues, ultimately triumphed over patrician 
 jealousy. Even foreigners who visited the republic 
 in the course of trade, were seized and detained by 
 the inquisition. Frederic de Salice, who had been 
 sent to Venice from the republic of the Grisons, to 
 demand the release of some of its subjects, gives the 
 following account of the state of matters in the year 
 1557: — "In this commonwealth, and in general 
 throughout Italy, where the pope possesses what they 
 call spiritual jurisdiction, the faithful are subjected to 
 the severest inquisition. Ample authority is given to 
 the inquisitors, on the smallest information, to seize 
 any one at their pleasure, to put him to the torture, 
 and (what is worse than death) to send him to Rome ; 
 which was not wont to be the case until the time of 
 the reigning pontiff. I am detained here longer than 
 I could wish, and know not when I shall be able to 
 extricate myself from this labyrinth."! Scarcely had 
 this ambassador returned home, after accomplishing 
 his object, when another of his countrymen, a mer- 
 chant, was thrown into prison by the inquisition at 
 Vicenza. To procure his release, it was necessary to 
 despatch Hercules de Salice, late governor of the 
 Grisons. His remonstrances, though seconded by the 
 influence of the French ambassador, were for some 
 time disregarded by the senate, who sought to evade 
 the terms of the treaty between the two countries, 
 and the concessions which they had made during the 
 preceding year; until, having demanded a public 
 audience, he inveighed, amidst the murmurs of the 
 elder patricians, with such intrepid eloquence, against 
 the intolerable arrogance of the papal claims, that the 
 majority of the senate voted for the instant discharge 
 of the prisoner. J As a reward for the zeal which 
 
 * Vergerio al Gualt. On. Pratello; di Samadeno in Agnedina, a' 
 24 April. 1551 : De Porta, torn. ii. p. 252. 
 t De Porta, torn. ii. p. 299. 
 t Ibid. p. 299 — 301. The ambassador was afterwards thanked by 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 219 
 
 they had displayed against the doctrine of Luther, 
 the pope, in 1559, conferred on the senate of Venice 
 the perpetual right of electing their own patriarch."^ 
 
 In spite of the keen search made for them, many 
 Protestants still remained in the city of Venice. In 
 the year 1560, they sent for a minister to form them 
 into a church, and had the Lord's Supper adminis- 
 tered to them in a private house. But soon after this, 
 information having been given of their meetings by one 
 of those spies whom the court of Rome kept in its pay, 
 all who failed in making their escape were commit- 
 ted to prison. Numbers fled to the province of Istria; 
 and after concealing themselves there for some time, 
 a party of them, amounting to twenty-three, pur- 
 chased a vessel to carry them to a foreign country. 
 When they were about to set sail, an avaricious 
 foreigner, who had obtained a knowledge of their 
 design, preferred a claim before the magistrates of the 
 place against three of them for a debt which he 
 alleged they owed him, and failing in his object of 
 extorting the money, accused them as heretics who 
 fled from justice ; in consequence of which they were 
 arrested, conveyed to Venice, and lodged in the same 
 prisons with their brethren.! Hitherto the senate had 
 not visited the Protestants with capital punishment; 
 though it would appear that, before this period, the 
 inquisitors had, in some instances, prevailed on the 
 local magistrates of the remoter provinces to gratify 
 them to that extent. J But now the senators yielded 
 to those counsels which they had so long resisted ; 
 and acts of cruelty commenced which continued for 
 years to disgrace the criminal jurisdiction of the re- 
 public. Drowning was the mode of death to which 
 they doomed the Protestants, either because it was 
 less cruel and odious than committing them to the 
 flames, or because it accorded with the customs of 
 
 several of the senators, who admired the boldness with which he, 
 being a foreigner, and formerly in the military service of Venice, 
 had dared to state what would have cost a patrician his life. 
 
 * Puffendorf, Introd. p. 574. 
 
 t Histoire des Martyrs, f. 630, a Geneve, 1597, folio. 
 
 I Calvini Epist. p. 85 ; Oper. torn. ix. 
 
220 HISTORY or THE 
 
 Venice. But if the aiitos de fe of the Queen of the 
 Adriatic were less barbarous than those of Spain, the 
 sohtude and silence with which they were accom- 
 panied were calculated to excite the deepest horror. 
 At the dead hour of midnight, the prisoner was taken 
 from his cell, and put into a gondola or Venetian boat, 
 attended only, beside the sailors, by a single priest, 
 to act as confessor. He was rowed out into the sea, 
 beyond the Two Castles, where another boat was in 
 waiting. A plank was then laid across the two gon- 
 dolas, upon which the prisoner, having his body 
 chained, and a heavy stone affixed to his feet, was 
 placed; and, on a signal given, the gondolas retiring 
 from one another, he was precipitated into the deep.* 
 The first person who appears to have suffered mar- 
 tyrdom at Venice, was Julio Guirlauda, a native of 
 the Trevisano.t When set on the plank, he cheerfully 
 bade the captain farewell, and sank into the deep 
 calling on the Lord Jesus. J Antonio Ricetto, of Vi- 
 cenza, was held in such respect, that, subsequently to 
 his conviction, the senators offered to restore him not 
 only to his liberty, but also to the whole of his pro- 
 perty, part of which had been sold, and the rest pro- 
 mised away, provided he would conform to the Church 
 of Rome. The firmness of Ricetto was put to a still 
 severer test; his son, a boy of twelve years of age, 
 having been admitted into the prison, fell at his feet, 
 and supplicated him, in the most melting strains, to 
 
 * Histoire des Martyrs, f. 681. De Porta, torn. ii. p. 33. 
 
 t The Socinian historians, formerly quoted, in giving- an account 
 of the suppression of their colleges at Vicenza in 1546, say that 
 two individuals holding their sentiments, " Julius Trevisanus and 
 Franciscus de Ruego, were strangled at Venice." This could not 
 have happened at that time; for it is a well authenticated fact, that 
 none were capitally punished for religion at Venice before the year 
 1560. (Busdragi Epist. ut supra, p. 326. Histoire des Martyrs, f. 
 680.) I have little doubt, that the two persons referred to were 
 Julio Guirlauda of the Trevisano, and Francesco Sega of Kovigo, 
 mentioned in the text as drowned ; and the Martyrology represents 
 them as of the common Protestant faith. The author of that work, 
 speaking of their deatli, uses the phrase, " persecutee par nouveaux 
 Ebionites." Did the Socinian historians xcd^d pour instead of par 7 
 
 \ On the 19th October 1562. He was in his fortieth year. (Hist, 
 des Martyrs, f. 680.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 221 
 
 accept of the offers made him, and not leave his child 
 an orphan. The keeper of the prison having told 
 him one day, with the view of inducing him to re- 
 cant, that one of his companions had yielded, he 
 merely replied, "What is that to me?" And in the 
 gondola, and on the plank, he retained his firmness; 
 praying for those who ignorantly put him to death, 
 and commending his soul to his Saviour.* Francesco 
 Sega, a native of Rovigo, composed several pious 
 works during his confinement, for the comfort of his 
 fellow-prisoners, part of which was preserved after 
 his death, t Francesco Spinula, a native of the Mi- 
 lanese, heing a priest, was more severely questioned 
 than his brethren. He was thrice brought before the 
 judges, and on one of these occasions the papal legate 
 and a number of the chief clergy attended. In their 
 presence, and when threatened with a fiery death, he 
 professed openly the articles of the Protestant faith, 
 and bore an explicit testimony against the usurpations 
 of the pope, the doctrine of purgatory, and the invo- 
 cation of saints. During a fit of sickness, brought on 
 by the length and rigour of his confinement, some 
 concessions were extorted from him, but, on his re- 
 covery, he instantly retracted them, and being formally 
 degraded from the priesthood, obtained the same 
 watery grave with his brethren. | But the most dis- 
 tinguished of those who suffered death at Venice, 
 was the venerable Fra Baldo Lupetino. The follow- 
 ing account of him by his nephew, in a book now 
 become very rare, deserves to be preserved entire. 
 " The reverend Baldus Lupetinus, sprung from a noble 
 and ancient family, was a learned monk and provin- 
 cial of the order to which he belonged. After having 
 long preached the word of God in both the vulgar 
 languages, (the Italian and Sclavonian,) in many 
 
 * He died on the 15th of February 1566. (Ibid.) 
 
 t He was drowned ten days after Ricetto. (Ibid.) 
 
 t He suffered on the 31st of January, 1567. (Ibid. p. 681.) 
 
 Gerdes makes Spinula, the martyr, the same individual wlio composed 
 
 the Latin poetical version of the Psalms, which has been several 
 
 times printed along with that of Flaminio. (Spec. Italiae Ref p. 336.) 
 
222 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 cities, and defended it by public disputation in several 
 places of celebrity with great applause, was at last 
 thrown into close prison at Venice, by the inquisitor 
 and papal legate. In this condition he continued, 
 during nearly twenty years, to bear an undaunted 
 testimony to the gospel of Christ; so that his bonds 
 and doctrine were made known, not only to that city, 
 but to the whole of Italy, and even to Europe at 
 large, by which means evangelical truth was more 
 widely spread. Two things among many others, may 
 be mentioned as marks of the singular providence of 
 God towards this person during his imprisonment. 
 In the first place, the princes of Germany often inter- 
 ceded for his liberation, but without success. And, 
 secondly, on the other hand, the papal legate, the 
 inquisitor, and even the pope himself, laboured with 
 all their might, and by repeated applications, to have 
 him, from the very first, committed to the flames, as 
 a noted heresiarch. This was refused by the doge and 
 senate, who, when he was at last condemned, freed 
 him from the punishment of the fire by an express 
 decree. It was the will of God that he should bear 
 his testimony to the truth for so long a time ; and that, 
 like a person affixed to a cross, he should, as from an 
 eminence, proclaim to all the world the restoration of 
 Christianity, and the revelation of antichrist. At 
 last, this pious and excellent man, whom neither 
 threatenings nor promises could move, sealed his doc- 
 trine by an undaunted martyrdom, and exchanged 
 the filth and protracted tortures of a prison for a 
 watery grave."* 
 
 We have good reason to think that many others, 
 whose names have not come down to us, suffered the 
 same death at Venice,t beside those who perished by 
 
 * Matth. Flacius, De Sectis, Dissensionibus, &c. Scriptorum Pon- 
 tificiorum; Proefat. ad Ducem et Senat. Veiiet. p. 43. Conf. Verge- 
 rio, Lettere al Mons. Delfino, Vescovo de Lesina : De Porta, torn. ii. 
 p. 33. 
 
 t " Veneti in sua ditione persecutionem satis gravem Christo faciunt 
 Bergomi, Brixiae, Verona?, Patavii. Omnia bona Ulixi comitis 
 (nempe Martinengi) ad fiscurn redacta sunt Brixise. Comes Ulys- 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 223 
 
 diseases contracted during a tedious and unwholesome 
 imprisonment. Among tlie latter was Jeronimo Ga- 
 lateo, who evinced his constancy in the faith by en- 
 during a rigorous confinement of ten years.* It may 
 naturally be supposed that these violent measures 
 would dissipate the Protestants in Venice ; and yet we 
 learn that they had secret meetings for worship in the 
 seventeenth century, distinct from those which the 
 ambassadors of Protestant states were permitted to 
 hold.t 
 
 Every where throughout Italy, during the period 
 under consideration, those suspected of favouring the 
 new opinions were sought out with equal keenness, 
 and treated with at least equal cruelty, as in the Vene- 
 tian territories. As the archives of the inquisition are 
 locked up, we are left in general to judge of its pro- 
 ceedings in the interior states, whose political or com- 
 mercial relations with Protestant countries were slen- 
 der, from collateral circumstances and incidental no- 
 tices. From the number of those who escaped, we 
 may form some idea of the still greater number which 
 must have been caught in the fangs of that vigilant 
 and insatiable tribunal ; and there was not a city of 
 any note in Italy from which there were not refugees 
 in some part of Protestant Europe. The execution 
 done by the inquisition at Cremona may be conjec- 
 tured from the notice bestowed on it by the popish 
 historians, who often refer with peculiar satisfaction, 
 
 ses mihi tuas legit." (Aug-. Maynardus ad Fabritium, 7 Mart. 1563: 
 De Porta, ii. 459.) " Veneti, caeterique Italiae Principes saevam ad- 
 versus pios persecutionem prosequuntur." (Ulysses Martinengus, 
 Comes k Barcho, ad Bullingerum, idib. Decembr. 1563 ; Ibid. p. 486.) 
 
 * Eusebius Captivus, per Hieronymum Mariuni, p. 249, Basil. 
 1553. Curionis Pasquillus Ecstaticus, p. 34. 
 
 t Jacobi Grynaei Epistola ad Hippolytum a Collibus 1609 scripta; 
 in Monument. Pietatis, torn. ii. p. 157. Franc, ad Mcen. 1701. Conf. 
 Gerdes. Ital. Ref. p. 93. Scaliger says, that Mons. Dolot (C. de Har- 
 lay, brother to the first president of Paris) told him that he had car- 
 ried the writings of Calvin to the lords of Venice, and that there 
 were many persons there who were previously acquainted with the 
 Protestant doctrine and books. (Secunda Scaligerana, art. Dolot.) 
 See also the letters of Diodati to Scaliger. Epistres Francoises a 
 M. de la Scala, p. 68, 235—237.) 
 
224 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 to the superior strictness of its regulations and celerity 
 of its movements.* At Faenza, a nobleman, revered 
 for his high birth and distinguished virtues, fell under 
 the suspicion of the inquisitors of that city as a Lu- 
 theran. After being long detained in a foul prison, 
 he was put to the torture. Not being able to extort 
 from him what they wished, the inquisitors ordered 
 the infernal operation to be repeated, and the vic- 
 tim expired among their hands. The report of this 
 barbarous deed spreading through the city created a 
 tumult, in which the house of the inquisition was 
 attacked, its altars and images torn down, and some 
 of the priests trodden to death by the incensed mul- 
 titude.! The persecution was also severe in the duchy 
 of Parma ; the duke having entered into a treaty with 
 that violent pontiff, Paul IV., by which he delivered 
 up the properties and lives of his innocent subjects 
 to the mercy of the inquisition.:}: 
 
 The flourishing church at Locarno was a great eye- 
 sore to the popes, distant as it was from Rome. In 
 the measures taken for its suppression it was neces- 
 sary to proceed with caution, as it included persons 
 of wealth and respectability, and as the sovereignty 
 of the place belonged to the Swiss cantons, some of 
 which were Protestant, and all of them jealous of 
 their authority. From the year 1549, when the dis- 
 putation formerly mentioned took place, every means 
 was taken to excite odium against the Protestants in 
 the minds of their fellow-citizens, and to involve them 
 in a quarrel with the inhabitants of the neighbouring 
 districts and with the government of Milan. Beccaria, 
 their most zealous advocate, though dismissed from 
 prison, was exposed to such personal danger, that he 
 deemed it prudent, by the advice of his friends^ to 
 banish himself and retire to Chiavenna.§ Next to 
 him, the individual most obnoxiouS) from his talents 
 
 * Limborch's History of the Inquisition, part, ii, passim. 
 + Egrlinus ad Bullingerum, 29 Mart. 1568: De Porta, torn. ii. p. 
 487, 488. 
 
 t Fridericus Saliceus ad Bullingerum, 10 Jan. 1558: Ibid. p. 295. 
 § Muralti Oratio, in Tempe Helvetica, torn, iv. p. 165. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 225 
 
 and activity, was Taddeo de Diinis. His fame as a 
 physician having made his advice to be sought for 
 throughout the adjacent country, he found it necessary 
 to remove to a more central place within the Milanese. 
 No sooner was it known that he was without the pro- 
 tection of the Swiss confederacy, than his old antago- 
 nist, the priest of Lugano, gave information against 
 him, as a ringleader of the heretics, to the inquisitor 
 at Milan, who sent a party to intercept and seize him 
 on one of his professional journeys. Being warned 
 of his danger, he secured himself by retreating hastily 
 to the mountains. Trusting, however, to his inno- 
 cence, or to the powerful interest of the families 
 which he attended, he afterwards appeared volunta- 
 rily before the inquisitor, and was so fortunate as to 
 be dismissed, on condition of his quitting the Milanese, 
 and confining his medical aid for the future to the in- 
 habitants of his native district.* 
 
 During four years the Protestants at Locarno were 
 subjected to every species of indignity short of open 
 violence. They had for some time desisted from em- 
 ploying the priests to confess their sick, and from 
 burying their dead after the popish manner, with 
 torches and the cross; and they had their children 
 baptized by ministers whom they brought for that 
 purpose from Chiavenna, when they had no pastor of 
 their own. The increase of the Protestants lessened 
 in this way the gains of the mercenary priesthood, 
 who endeavoured to move heaven and earth against 
 the innovators, as at once sacrilegious and unnatural. 
 They circulated the base report that the Protestants 
 were guilty of the most licentious practices in their 
 secret meetings ; and such calumnious rumours, while 
 they met with easy credit from the ignorant and su- 
 perstitious multitude, were encouraged by others who 
 were too enlightened not to know their falsehood. In 
 the mean time, a deep plot was laid by one Walther, 
 a native of the popish canton of Uri, who was at 
 that time town-clerk of Locarno, and who, some years 
 after, was banished for holding a treasonable corres- 
 
 * Ibid. p. 149. 
 
226 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 pondence with the duke of Alva, governor of Milan. 
 He forged a deed, purporting that the senators, citi- 
 zens, and other inhabitants of the town and bailiwick 
 of Locarno, bound themselves by oath, to the seven 
 popish cantons, that they would adhere to the pope 
 and the Roman religion until the meeting of a general 
 council. This paper he dated several years back, and 
 sent it as a genuine deed to an assembly of the seven 
 cantons, held in March 1554, who, without making 
 any inquiries, immediately passed a decree, that all 
 the Locarnese should, agreeably to their bond, make 
 confession to the priests during the ensuing Lent, that 
 they should give their names to the superior of the 
 church, and that the rites of sepulture should be 
 denied to those who had not received mass on their 
 death-bed.* The promulgation of this decree at Lo- 
 carno came on the Protestants as a thunder-bolt. 
 They instantly despatched a commissioner to the Pro- 
 testant cantons, with instructions to represent the utter 
 falsehood of the allegation on which the decree pro- 
 ceeded, and to entreat them, as their joint temporal 
 superiors, and as professors of the same faith, to exert 
 their influence to avert the ruin which threatened two 
 hundred heads of families, who had never swerved 
 from their allegiance, and against whom no occasion 
 or fault had been found, except concerning the law of 
 their God. In consequence of this representation, the 
 deputies of the Protestant cantons assembled at Arau, 
 and wrote to those of the popish persuasion, desiring 
 them not to proceed further in the affair of Locarno 
 until the meeting of the next diet of the confederacy, 
 nor to take any step which would infringe the rights 
 of the Protestant cantons in that territory. To defeat 
 this interposition, the enemies of the persecuted Lo- 
 carnese industriously circulated through Switzerland 
 that they were not entitled to the protection of the 
 Protestant cantons, inasmuch as they were infected 
 with Servetianism, anabaptism, and other fanatical 
 opinions.! Being informed of this by their commis- 
 
 * March 10, 1554. Muralti Oratio, p. 150—152. 
 
 + This report has misled a modern Swiss historian, who, speaking of 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 227 
 
 sioner, they transmitted to Zurich a confession of their 
 faith, in which they avowed tlieir agreement with the 
 Reformed churches concerning the trinity, the incar- 
 nation and mediatory work of Christ, justification, 
 and the sacraments; which had the effect of silencing 
 this unfounded cahimny. Two general diets were 
 held in the end of the year 1554, for discussing this 
 subject. The fictitious bond was unanimously set 
 aside; but when they came to the main point, the 
 enemies of the reformed at Locarno insisted that it 
 should be decided by the majority of votes in the diet, 
 contrary to the rule usually observed in questions re- 
 lating to religion. Riverda, bishop of Terracino, who 
 had been sent as papal nuncio to the diet, stimulated 
 the popish deputies to violent measures, while those 
 of the Protestant cantons were influenced, partly by 
 jealousy of one another, and partly by dread of inter- 
 rupting the peace of the confederacy. The matter 
 was referred at last to arbiters chosen from the two 
 mixed cantons, who gave it as their judgment, that 
 the inhabitants of Locarno, who were free from crime, 
 should either embrace the Roman Catholic religion, 
 or leave their native country, taking with them their 
 families and property; that they should not return 
 thither, nor be permitted to settle in the territories of 
 the seven catholic cantons ; that those chargeable with 
 reproaching the Virgin Mary, with anabaptism, or 
 other opinions contrary to both confessions, should be 
 punished; that this sentence should be intimated to 
 the prefect of Locarno, and that it should be carried 
 into efl'ect by deputies sent by the seven catholic 
 cantons, provided those of the four Protestant ones 
 refused to take part in the affair, or absented them- 
 selves. Against this decision the deputies of Zurich 
 
 Locarno, says — "Lelius et Faustus Socin avoient repandu dans cette 
 contree une doctrine beaucoup plus libra encore que celle de Zwingli 
 et de Calvin. Mais ils furent chasses, et leurs adherens punis par 
 I'exil ou par la mort. Apres eux, Beccaria devint a Locarno," &,c. 
 (Histoire de la Nation Suisse, par Hen. Zschokke, trad, par Ch. Mon- 
 nard, p. 207.) Faustus Socinus was only born in 1539 ; and there is 
 not the least evidence that his uncle Lelius ever saw Locarno. 
 
228 HISTORY or the 
 
 protested, declaring that, though they were resolved 
 to abide by the league, and not to excite any commo- 
 tion, they could not agree to have this sentence inti- 
 mated in their name, and still less to take any share 
 in carrying it into execution. This protest was after- 
 wards formally approved of by their constituents. 
 It was no small part of the indignity offered to the 
 Protestants by this decree, that Locarno was that year 
 under the government of Isaiah Reuchlin, the prefect 
 appointed by the canton of Zurich. This excellent 
 man, who had already experienced repeated vexa- 
 tions, in the discharge of his office, from the violence 
 of the Roman catholics, was thrown into great per- 
 plexity by the intelligence of what was concluded at 
 the diet; from which, however, he was relieved, by 
 instructions from home to regulate his conduct by the 
 protest taken by the deputies of his native city.* 
 
 So bent were the popish cantons on the execution 
 of their edict, and so much were they afraid lest any 
 thing should intervene to prevent it, that they ordered 
 their deputies to cross the Alps in the depth of winter. 
 On their arrival at Locarno, the latter assembled the 
 inhabitants, and, in a threatening harangue, told them, 
 that, as they had, by their rebellious and perverse in- 
 novations in religion, disturbed the peace and nearly 
 broken the union of the Helvetic body, they might just- 
 ly have been visited with exemplary punishment, but 
 that the diet, graciously overlooking their past faults, 
 had ordained a law by which their future conduct 
 should be imperiously regulated. The decree having 
 been read, the municipal authorities immediately rati- 
 fied it by their subscriptions: the inhabitants, being 
 divided in sentiment, were allowed till next day to 
 give in their answer. On the following morning such 
 as were resolved to adhere to the popish religion ap- 
 peared before the deputies, and begging forgiveness 
 for any thing in their past conduct which might have 
 been offensive, promised an entire obedience and con- 
 formity to the laws for the future. In the afternoon, 
 the Protestants, drawn up in regular order, two men, 
 
 * Muralti Oratio, p. 152—160. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 229 
 
 followed by their wives, walking abreast, the women 
 carrying their infants in their arms, the men leading 
 their children, and those who were most respectable 
 for their rank taking the lead, proceeded to the coun- 
 cil room, where they were received by the deputies 
 with marks of indecent levity, instead of that respect 
 and sympathy to which their appearance and pros- 
 pects entitled them. One of their number addressed 
 the deputies in the name of his brethren. Being 
 heavily accused of embracing novelties and danger- 
 ous opinions, they begged leave, he said, humbly to 
 declare that they professed that faith which was pre- 
 figured under the Old Testament, and more clearly 
 revealed by Christ and his apostles: after searching 
 the Scriptures, and comparing the Latin and Italian 
 translations, with prayer for divine illumination, they 
 had embraced that doctrine which was summarily 
 comprehended in the apostles' creed, and rejected all 
 human traditions contrary to the word of God : they 
 disclaimed Novatianism and all novel opinions, and 
 held in abhorrence every thing that favoured licen- 
 tiousness of manners, as they had often protested to 
 the seven popish and four Protestant cantons : com- 
 mitting themselves to Providence, they were prepared 
 to suffer any thing rather than foment strife, or be the 
 occasion of war in the confederation : they had always 
 preserved their allegiance to the confederate cantons 
 inviolate, and were willing to spend their blood and 
 treasure in their defence: they threw themselves on 
 the generosity and mercy of the lords of the seven 
 cantons, and supplicated them, in the bowels of Jesus 
 Christ, to take pity on such a number of persons, in- 
 cluding delicate females and helpless infants, who, if 
 driven from their native country, must be reduced to 
 the greatest distress: but whatever resolution might 
 be come to respecting this request, they entreated that 
 a rigorous investigation should be made into the 
 crimes, affecting their honour and the credit of their 
 religion, with which they had been charged; and that 
 if any of them were found guilty, they should be 
 punished, according to their demerit, with the utmost 
 
230 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 severity. With hearts as rigid and haughty as the 
 Alps which they had lately passed, the deputies re- 
 plied to this touching and magnanimous appeal — "We 
 are not come here to listen to your faith. The lords 
 of the seven cantons have, by the deed now made 
 known to you, declared what their religion is, and 
 they will not suffer it to be called in question or dis- 
 puted.* Say, in one word, are you ready to quit 
 your faith, or are you not ?" To this the Protestants 
 with one voice replied — " We will live in it, we will 
 die in it;" while the exclamations — "we will never 
 renounce it" — " it is the only true faith" — " it is the 
 only holy faith" — " it is the only saving faith," — con- 
 tinued for a considerable time to resound from differ- 
 ent parts of the assembly, like the murmurs which 
 succeed the principal peal in a thunder storm. Before 
 leaving the room, they were required individually to 
 give their names to the clerk, when two hundred per- 
 sons immediately came forward with the greatest 
 alacrity and with mutual congratulations.! 
 
 Perceiving that they could look for no favour from 
 the deputies, who sternly refused them permission to 
 remain till the rigour of winter was over, the Protes- 
 tants made preparations for their departure, and sent 
 Taddeo de Dunis before them to request an asylum 
 from the magistrates of Zurich. But they had still 
 to suffer greater trials. Riverda, the papal nuncio, 
 following up his success at the diet in Switzerland, 
 made his appearance at Locarno. Having obtained 
 an audience of the deputies, and thanked them in the 
 pope's name for the care they had testified for the 
 catholic faith, he requested, first, that they should 
 require the Grison league to deliver up the fugitive 
 preacher Beccaria, that he might be punished for the 
 daring crime which he had committed in corrupting 
 the faith of his countrymen; and, secondly, that they 
 would not permit the Locarnese emigrants to carry 
 along with them their property and children; but that 
 the former should be forfeited, and the latter retained 
 
 * " Das wollen sie unarguieret und ungedisputieret haben." 
 t Muralti Oratio, p. 160—164. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 231 
 
 and brought up in the faith of the church of Rome. 
 The deputies readily acceded to the first of these re- 
 quests, but excused themselves from complying with 
 the second, with which their instructions did not war- 
 rant them to interfere. They begged the nuncio, how- 
 ever, to grant power to the priests of Locarno to re- 
 ceive such of the Protestants as might be induced to 
 return into the bosom of the Church. This Riverda 
 not only granted, but also offered his own services, 
 along with those of two Dominican doctors of theol- 
 ogy, whom he had brought along with him, to con- 
 vince the deluded heretics. But though he harassed 
 the Protestants, by obliging them to listen to ha- 
 rangues delivered by the monks and to wait on con- 
 ferences with himself, he did not succeed in making a 
 single convert. Having heard of three ladies of great 
 respectability, Catarina Rosalina, Lucia di Orello, and 
 Barbara di Montalto, who were zealous Protestants, 
 the nuncio felt a strong inclination to enter the lists of 
 controversy with them; but they parried his attacks 
 with so much dexterity, and exposed the idolatry and 
 abuses of the Romish church with such boldness and 
 severity, as at once to mortify and irritate his emi- 
 nence. Barbara di Montalto, the wife of the first 
 physician of the place, having incurred his greatest 
 resentment, he prevailed on the deputies to issue an 
 order to apprehend her for blasphemies which she 
 had uttered against the sacrifice of the mass. Her 
 husband's house, which had been constructed as a 
 place of defence during the violent feuds between the 
 Guelphs and Ghibellines, was built on the Lake Mag- 
 giore, and had a concealed door, requiring the strength 
 of six men to move it, which opened upon the water, 
 where a boat was kept in waiting to carry off the 
 inmates upon any sudden alarm. This door he had 
 caused his servants to open that night in consequence 
 of an alarming dream, which led him to apprehend 
 danger, not to his wife indeed, but to himself Early 
 next morning the officers of justice entered the house, 
 and bursting into the apartment where the lady was 
 in the act of dressing herself, presented a warrant 
 
232 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 from the deputies to convey her to prison. Rising up 
 with great presence of mind, she hegged them, with 
 an air of feminine delicacy, to permit her to retire to 
 an adjoining apartment, for the purpose of putting on 
 some article of apparel. This being granted, she de- 
 scended the stairs, and, leaping into the boat, was 
 rowed off in safety, before the eyes of her enemies, 
 who were assembled in the court-room to receive her. 
 Provoked at this disappointment, the nuncio and 
 deputies wreaked their vengeance upon the husband 
 of the lady, whom they stripped of his property. Not 
 satisfied with this, they amerced in a large sum two 
 members of the reformed church who had refused to 
 have their children baptized after the popish forms. 
 But the severest punishment fell on a poor tradesman, 
 named Nicolas. He had been informed against, some 
 time before, for using, in a conversation with some of 
 his neighbours, certain expressions derogatory to the 
 Virgin Mary, who had a celebrated chapel in the 
 vicinity, called Madonna del Sasso ; and the prefect 
 Reuchlin, with the view of silencing the clamours of 
 the priests, had punished his imprudence by condemn- 
 ing him to an imprisonment of sixteen weeks. The 
 poor man was now brought a second time to trial for 
 that offence, and, after being put to the torture, had 
 sentence of death passed upon him, which was unre- 
 lentingly executed by order of the deputies, notwith- 
 standing the intercession of the Roman catholic citi- 
 zens in his behalf.* 
 
 The Protestants had fixed on the 3d of March 1555, 
 for setting out on their journey; and so bitter had 
 their life been for some time, that, attached as they 
 were to their native place, they looked forward to the 
 day of their departure with joy. But before it arrived, 
 the government of Milan, yielding to the instigations 
 of the priesthood, published an edict, prohibiting the 
 Locarnese exiles from remaining above three days 
 within the Milanese territory, under the pain of death; 
 and imposing a fine on those who should afford them 
 any assistance, or enter into conversation with them, 
 
 * Muralti Oratio, p. 157, 164—170. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 233 
 
 especially on any matter connected with religion. 
 Being thus precluded from taking the road which led 
 to the easiest passage across the Alps, they sot out 
 early on the morning of the day fixed, and, after sail- 
 ing to the northern point of the Lake Maggiore, 
 passed the Helvetian balliages, by the way of Bellin- 
 zone, and reached Rogoreto, a town subject to the 
 Grison league. Here the Alps, covered with snow 
 and ice, presented an impassable barrier, and obliged 
 them to take up their winter quarters, amidst the in- 
 conveniences necessarily attending the residence of 
 such a number of persons among strangers. After 
 two months, the thaw having opened a passage for 
 them, they proceeded to the Grisons, where they were 
 welcomed by their brethren of the same faith. Being 
 offered a permanent residence, with admission to the 
 privileges of citizenship, nearly the half of their num- 
 ber took up their abode in that country; the remain- 
 der, amounting to a hundred and fourteen persons, 
 went forward to Zurich, the inhabitants of which 
 came out to meet them at their approach, and, by the 
 kind and fraternal reception which they gave them, 
 consoled and revived the hearts of the sad and Aveary 
 exiles.* 
 
 In the meantime, the city of Locarno rejoiced at 
 the expulsion of the Reformed, as if it had been the 
 removal of a plague ; but this exultation was of short 
 continuance. The most industrious part of the com- 
 munity being expelled, the trade of the place began 
 to languish. As if visibly to punish the cruelty with 
 which they had treated their brethren, their lands 
 were laid waste during the succeeding year by a tem- 
 pest, while the pestilence raged with still more destruc- 
 tive violence among the inhabitants. To these cala- 
 mities were added intestine animosities and dissen- 
 sions. The two powerful families of the Buchiachi 
 
 » Muralti Oratio, p. 171, 172. Sleidan, torn. iii. lib. xxvi. p. 506. 
 Schelhorn makes the number of those who reached Zurich one hun- 
 dred and thirty-three. (Ergoctzlichkeiten, tom. iii. p. 1162.) A few 
 persons, attached to the Reformed doctrine, still remained at Locar- 
 no. (De Porta, tom. ii. p. 346.) 
 
 16 
 
234 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 and Rinaldi, who had been leagued against the Pro- 
 testants, now became competitors for the superiority 
 of the neighbouring village of Brisago, vacant by the 
 expulsion of the Orelh; and, in support of their claims, 
 they raised bands of armed men, attacked each other, 
 and committed depredations on the peaceable inhabi- 
 tants; in consequence of which, the Swiss govern- 
 ment was obliged to maintain a garrison at great 
 expense in Locarno.* 
 
 Hard as was the fate of the Locarnese Protestants, 
 it was mild compared with that of their brethren in 
 the interior of Italy, who had no friendly power to 
 save them from the vengeance of Rome, and no asy- 
 lum at hand to which they could flee, when refused 
 the protection of their own governments. To retire 
 in a body was impossible ; they were obliged to fly 
 singly ; and when they ventured to return for the pur- 
 pose of carrying away their families or recovering 
 the wreck of their fortunes, they were often seized 
 by the familiars of the inquisition, and lodged in the 
 same prisons with their brethren whom they had left 
 behind them. While the profession of the truth ex- 
 posed persons to such hardships and perils, we need 
 not wonder that many were induced to recant, while 
 still greater numbers, with the view of avoiding or 
 allaying suspicion, gave external countenance to a 
 worship which they inwardly detested as superstitious 
 and idolatrous. This was the case at Lucca. Averse 
 to quit their native country, and to relinquish their 
 honours and possessions, trusting in their numbers 
 and influence, and deceived by the connivance of the 
 court of Rome at their private meetings for a course 
 of years, the Protestants in that republic became se- 
 cure, and began to boast of their superior courage in 
 maintaining their ground, while many of their brethren 
 had timidly deserted it, and sufl'ered the banner of 
 truth, which had been displayed in different quarters 
 
 * Muralti Oratio, p. 174, 175. Another account of the persecution 
 of the Locarnese, besides that of Muralto, is given in a letter from 
 Simon Sultzer, minister at Basle, to J. Marbach. (Fechtius, Epist. 
 Marbach, p. 46, &c.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 235 
 
 of Italy, to fall to the ground. But this pleasing 
 dream was soon to be dissipated. Scarcely had Paul 
 IV. mounted the papal throne, when orders were 
 issued for the suppression of the Lucchese conventicle; 
 according to a preconcerted plan, its principal mem- 
 bers were in one day thrown into the dungeons of the 
 inquisition; and, at the sight of the instruments of 
 torture, the stoutest of them lost their courage, and 
 were fain to make their peace with Rome on the 
 easiest terms which they could purchase. Martyr, 
 whose apology for his flight they had with difficulty 
 sustained, and whose example they had refused to 
 follow when it was in their power, felt deeply afflict- 
 ed at the dissipation of a church in which he took a 
 tender interest, and at the sudden defection of so 
 many persons in whose praises he had often been so 
 warm. In a letter which he addressed to them on 
 this occasion, he says — "How can I refrain from 
 lamentations, when I think that such a pleasant gar- 
 den as the Reformed Church at Lucca presented to 
 the view, has been so completely laid waste by the 
 cruel tempest, as scarcely to retain a vestige of its for- 
 mer cultivation. Those who did not know you, might 
 have entertained fears that you would not be able to 
 resist the storm ; it never could have entered into my 
 mind that you would fall so foully. After the know- 
 ledge you had of the fury of antichrist, and of the 
 danger which hung over your heads, when you did 
 not choose to retire, by availing yourselves of what 
 some call the common remedy of the weak, but which, 
 in certain circumstances, I deem a wise precaution, 
 your friends were disposed to say, ^ These tried and 
 brave soldiers of Christ, will not fly, because they are 
 determined, by their martyrdom and blood, to open a 
 way for the progress of the gospel in their native 
 country, emulating the noble examples which are 
 given every day by their brethren in France, Belgium, 
 and England.' Ah, how much have these hopes been 
 disappointed! What matter of boasting has been 
 given to our antichristian oppressors ! But this con- 
 
236 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 founding catastrophe is to be deplored with tears, 
 rather than ".vords."* 
 
 Notwithstanding these severities, the seeds of the 
 reformed doctrine were not extirpated in Lucca. In 
 the year 1556, some of the best famihes in that city, 
 with the view of enjoying the free exercise of reh- 
 gion, transferred their famihes and wealth to Switzer- 
 land and France. The Micheli, Turretini, Calendrini, 
 Burlamacchi, Diodati, Balbani, and Minutoli, who 
 have made so great a figure in the state and church 
 of Geneva, came originally from Lucca. Irritated by 
 their departure, the government barbarously offered 
 three hundred crowns to the person who should kill 
 one of them in Italy, France, or Flanders. The 
 council of Geneva wrote to Lucca requesting the re- 
 call of this proclamation, but all their solicitations 
 were in vain, though it does not appear that the re- 
 fugees were molested any further than by being put 
 in fear of their lives.t We find the popish writers 
 complaining that, in the year 1562, the heretics in 
 Lucca kept up a correspondence with their country- 
 men in foreign countries, and, by means of merchants, 
 procured Protestant books from Lyons and Geneva. J 
 In 1556, more families from Lucca arrived at Gene- 
 va ;§ and, in the following year, a severe ordinance 
 came from the Lucchese authorities, prohibiting all 
 intercourse, by speech or letters, with those who had 
 been denounced "rebels for the cause of religion."|| 
 
 The refugees from Lucca appear to have been 
 allowed to remain in quietness until 1679, when an 
 unexpected occurrence showed that they were not 
 
 * Martyris Loc. Com. p. 771, 772. 
 
 t Picot, Histoire de Geneve, torn, ii, p. 110. 
 
 t Raynaldi Annales, ad an. 1562. 
 
 § Leti, Historia Genevrina, parte iii. p. 162. 
 
 II Bibl. Modenese, torn. v. p. 125. Among the persons named in 
 this ordinance as rebels, is "Messer Siinoni Simone, Medico." This 
 ingenious but versatile man resided at Geneva, Heidelberg, Leipsic, 
 Prague, and Cracow, and was as unsettled in his religious creed as 
 in his place of residence; having been successively a Calvinist, Lu- 
 theran, Arian, Jesuit, and (if we may believe his countryman Squar- 
 cialupo) Atheist. fBezaeEpist. ep. 53, 56. Brucker, Hist. Philos. 
 iv. 2b6. Bock, i. 834, 910.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 237 
 
 altogether forgotten in tlie land of their fathers. This 
 was a letter addressed to them by cardinal Spinola, 
 at that time bishop of Lucca, in which his eminence 
 declared that, in his paternal solicitude for the diocese 
 over which Innocent XI. had placed him, he had 
 learned with grief that, during the troubles of the 
 bygone century, multitudes, remarkable for the no- 
 bility of their extraction and the superiority of their 
 talents, had left a city in which they filled the highest 
 offices, to repair to Geneva; that the affection he felt 
 for the descendants of these men would not allow 
 him to rest until he had taken this step, with the view 
 of prevailing with them to return to the bosom of 
 their mother church, for the success of which he had 
 ordered a public supplication throughout the whole 
 of his diocese ; and that he trusted they would remem- 
 ber, that there was nothing more glorious nor more 
 conducive to their safety than to yield to God, and 
 betake themselves to the only sanctuary of truth. The 
 refugees at first thought it most prudent to return no 
 answer to this letter, lest truth should oblige them to 
 say things unpleasant to a prelate who had spoken of 
 their ancestors in such flattering terms; but being 
 aware that there was, at that time, a general concert 
 among the Roman catholic powers to make proselytes 
 of the Protestants, and hearing that reports unfavour- 
 able to their steadfastness were abroad, and that the 
 cardinal was actually applying to the pope for their 
 absolution, they felt it incumbent on them to publish 
 to the world their real sentiments. After giving a 
 sketch of the progress which the reformed religion 
 had made at Lucca, they, in their answer, analyze the 
 cardinal's letter, and conclude with an affectionate 
 and forcible appeal to their " kinsmen according to 
 the flesh," who were still groping in the darkness of 
 popish Lucca.* When the reply came into the hands 
 of Spinola, he sent one copy of it to the pope and 
 
 * Lettre de M. le Cardinal Spinola, eveque de Luqucs aux origi- 
 naux Luquois qui demeurent h Geneve. Avec les Considerations 
 qu'ils ont fait ii ce sujct. A Geneve, 1680. The cardinal's letter 
 was dated the 19th of May 1679. 
 
238 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 another to the Congregation of the Holy Office, who 
 ordered him to cause all the copies to be burnt by the 
 executioner.* 
 
 Two facts are sufficient to estabUsh the severity of 
 persecution in the duchy of Mantua. In the year 
 1566, GugUelmo, duke of Mantua, respecting the 
 rights of his subjects as well as his own authority, 
 refused to send certain persons accused of heresy to 
 Rome for trial. This drew down upon him the indig- 
 nation of Pius v., who threatened him with excom- 
 munication and a declaration of war, as one who had 
 made Mantua a nest of heretics; and his holiness 
 would have carried his threats into execution, had 
 not the princes of Italy prevailed on him to pardon 
 the duke on his submission.! Two years after, a per- 
 son, allied to the duke, having been seized by the in- 
 quisition on suspicion of heresy, his highness begged 
 the chief inquisitor to release the prisoner. This re- 
 quest was refused by the haughty monk, who re- 
 plied, that though he acknowledged the duke as his 
 temporal lord, yet, in the present case, he acted for 
 the pope, who possessed a power paramount to that 
 of any secular prince. Some days after, the duke 
 sent a second message, pressing his former request, 
 when the inquisitor, holding out the keys of the dun- 
 geon, told the messengers insolently they might re- 
 lease the prisoners at their peril.:}: 
 
 In no quarter of Italy were more cruel methods 
 employed to extirpate the new opinions than in the 
 Milanese, especially after it fell under the dominion of 
 Philip II. of Spain. Galeazzo Trezio, a nobleman of 
 Lodi, while attending the university of Pavia, had 
 imbibed the reformed doctrines from Maynardi, who 
 acted at that time as an Augustinian preacher, and 
 was afterwards confirmed in them by the instructions 
 of Curio. Having fallen into the hands of the inqui- 
 
 * Leti, Historia Genevrina, parte v. p. 351 — 366. The reply was 
 written by the pastor Burlamacchi, from materials furnished by the 
 pastor Turretini. 
 
 t Bzovii Annales, ad an. 1566. 
 
 t Epibt. Tob. EgUni ad H. Bullingerum, 2 Mart. 1568 : De Porta, 
 torn. ii. p. 486. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 239 
 
 sition in 1551, and retracted some concessions which 
 he had been induced to make at his first apprehen- 
 sion, he was sentenced to be burned aUve, a punish- 
 ment which he bore with the utmost fortitude.* The 
 persecution became more general when the duke of 
 Alva was made governor. In the year 155S two per- 
 sons were committed alive to the flames. One of 
 them, a monk, being forced by an attending priest 
 into a pulpit erected beside the stake to make his re- 
 cantation, confessed the truth with great boldness, 
 and was driven into the fire with blows and curses. 
 During the course of the following year, scarcely a 
 week elapsed without some individual being brought 
 out to suffer for heresy; and, in 1563, eleven citizens 
 of rank were thrown into prison. The execution of a 
 young priest in 1569 was accompanied with circum- 
 stances of peculiar barbarity. He was condemned 
 to be hanged and dragged to the gibbet at a horse's 
 tail. In consequence of earnest intercessions in his 
 favour, the last part of the sentence was dispensed 
 with; but, after being half-strangled, he was cut 
 down, and, refusing to recant, was literally roasted 
 to death and his body thrown to the dogs.t 
 
 Persecution was also let loose within the territories 
 of Tuscany. In 1547, a law was proclaimed at Flo- 
 rence, calling upon all who possessed heretical books, 
 particularly those of Ochino and Martyr, to deliver 
 them up within fifteen days, under the pain of a hun- 
 dred ducats, and ten years' confinement in the galleys; 
 threatening a personal visit to the houses of suspected 
 persons after the expiry of the limited time; and for- 
 bidding, under heavy penalties, the printing of such 
 books. After the establishment of the inquisition, 
 more decisive measures were adopted by the commis- 
 sioners of the Holy Office, the vicar of the archbishop, 
 the provost of the metropolitan church, and the spe- 
 dalingo or director of the hospital of Santa Maria 
 Nuova. In December 1551, an auto deft was cele- 
 
 * The account of this martyr was furnished by Celio S. Curio to 
 Pantaleon. (Rerum in Eccl. Gest. p. 247—249. Conf Hicronymi 
 Marii Eusebius Captivus, f. 105.) 
 
 t De Porta, torn. ii. p. 295, 296, 486, 488. 
 
240 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 brated in the city of Florence, in which twenty-two 
 persons walked in procession as penitents, among 
 whom was Bartolommeo Panchiarichi, a wealthy 
 citizen, who had serv^ed the duke in the capacity of 
 ambassador to the court of France. They were 
 clothed in caps and cloaks painted with crosses and 
 devils, and were publicljr " reconciled" in the cathe- 
 dral church, while the books found in their possession 
 were burned in the piazza. At the same time a 
 number of females went through this ceremony pri- 
 vately in the church of San Simone. The zeal of the 
 inquisitorial commissioners Avas soon after signalized 
 in the case of a native of Piacenza, who had come to 
 Florence in 1547, and having dedicated to the duke a 
 translation of Xenophon, continued his literary pur- 
 suits in that city. The record of his process, which 
 has been preserved, bears, " that Ludovico Domeni- 
 chi, a learned man of about thirty years of age, had 
 translated, from Latin into the vulgar tongue, the 
 Nicodemiana of Calvin, caused it to be printed, and 
 corrected it, the book being most dishonest, and printed 
 in Florence, not at Basle, as it falsely pretended, on 
 which account he was suspected of heresy, though he 
 denied having ever held any dangerous opinions: that 
 he should therefore abjure, as one violently suspected, 
 having a copy of the book translated by him hung 
 from his neck, and be afterwards condemned to the 
 galleys for ten years, less or more, for transgressing 
 the laws which regulated the press. ""^ These severi- 
 ties increased at a subsequent period. Under the 
 pretext that it was dangerous to entrust to a number 
 of persons the secrets which transpired in the course 
 of examination, Pius V. discharged the three com- 
 missaries who had hitherto taken part in trials for 
 heresy, and committed the whole business to a single 
 inquisitor, which was the same thing as transferring 
 the power to the congregation at Rome, by whose 
 directions he was regulated. This, together with the 
 facile conduct of Cosmo in delivering up to the pope 
 Carnesecchi, whose fate will afterwards be recorded, 
 
 * Galluzzi, i. 143, 144. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 241 
 
 spread terror and discontent over the city. Numbers 
 betook themselves to flight, and others were sent to 
 Rome. The inquisitor, fond of displaying his power, 
 and anxious to recommend himself by his activity, 
 harassed the inhabitants incessantly, interrogating the 
 unlearned on the profoundest mysteries of religion, 
 and converting into heresy what proceeded from mere 
 ignorance. In the year 1567, the regent remonstrated 
 with the pope against these iniquitous proceedings, 
 and insisted that the archbishop and nuncio should 
 be associated with the inquisitor; but all that could 
 be obtained was the removal of the latter, and the 
 substitution of one less indiscreet and ignorant. The 
 consequence was, that Florence, which had long been 
 the resort of enlightened men from all parts of the 
 world, was shunned by foreigners ; and as the minds 
 of the inquisitors were filled with the notion that 
 emissaries were sent from Germany and France to 
 disseminate the new opinions in Italy, persons coming 
 from these countries, unless they were furnished with 
 the most unexceptionable testimonials, were subjected 
 to infinite trouble and vexation.* 
 
 These proceedings drove many persons, eminent 
 for their talents and rank, from Tuscany. Micliael 
 Angelo Florio, a popular preacher in his native coun- 
 try, became pastor to a congregation of Italian Pro- 
 testants, first in the Orisons and afterwards in Lon- 
 don.t The name of Nardi, so familiar to those ac- 
 quainted with Italian literature, appears in the cata- 
 logue of those who forsook Florence from love to the 
 
 * Galluzzi, ii. 203, 204. 
 
 t Florio is the author of a very rare and curious work, including 
 a life of the unfortunate and accomplished Lady Jane Gray : — " His- 
 toria do la Vita e de la niortc de I'illustriss. SignoraGiovanna Graia, 
 gia Regina eletta e publicata d'Inghilterra : e de la cose accadute in 
 quel Regno dopo la morte del Re Edoardo VI. nella quale secondo le 
 Divine Scritture si trata de i principali articoli de la Religione Chris- 
 tiana. Con I'aggiunto d'una doctiss. disputa Theologica fatta in Os- 
 sonia, I'anno 1554. L'Arguinento del tutto si dechiaro ne TAuuerti- 
 mento sequentc, e nel' Proemio de I'Authore, M. Michel-angelo Florio 
 Fiorentino, gia Predicatore famoso del Sant Evangelio en piu cita 
 d'ltalia, et en Londra. — Stampate appressi Richardo Piltore ne I'anno 
 di Christo 1607." 
 
242 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 gospel.* Pietro Gelido, a native of Samminiato, was 
 an ecclesiastic of great learning, who having been 
 educated in his youth at the court of Clement VII. 
 took up his residence in Florence.! He had served 
 the duke in the character of secretary at the court of 
 France, and acted as his resident in Venice from 1552 
 to 1562, during which period he acquitted himself 
 equally to the satisfaction of the republic and of his 
 prince. During the visits which he paid to Ferrara, 
 Gelido had imbibed the doctrines of the Reformation, 
 and gave great offence to the clergy by the intercourse 
 which he held with Germans, and the protection 
 which he extended to those who were suspected of 
 heresy. This induced him to retire to France, and 
 to take up his abode with the duchess Renee of Fer- 
 rara. But he was not permitted to enjoy this retire- 
 ment. A spy of his former master gave false infor- 
 mation against him to the Florentines who surrounded 
 queen Catharine ; and being accused at court, he found 
 it necessary to retreat to Geneva, where he joined the 
 Italian congregation already erected in that city. 
 From that place he addressed a letter to Cosmo, vin- 
 dicating his own conduct, and urging the duke to use 
 his influence with the pope to assemble a council in 
 the heart of Germany, and to attend it in person. J 
 The example of Gelido was followed, at a later period, 
 by Antonio Albizio, who belonged to one of the 
 noblest families in Tuscany. He was the founder of 
 the academy of Alterati at Florence, and had been 
 sent by the grand duke as ambassador to the emperor 
 Maximilian II. ; but having discovered the truth by 
 reading the Scriptures, he made a voluntary sacrifice 
 of his honours, and retired to Kempten in Suabia, 
 where he divided his time, until his death in 1626, 
 between devotional exercises and literary studies. 
 
 * Joannes Leo Nardus, Florentinus, Tabularum duarum Legis 
 Evangelical, Gratiae, Spiritus, et Vitce, Libri quiiique, Bas. 1553. 
 
 + We learn from Galluzzi, that he was commonly called " il Pero," 
 and he is no doubt the person mentioned by that name in a letter 
 from Paulus Manutius to Carnesecchi. (Lettere di Tredeci, p. 294, 
 edit. 1565.) 
 
 I Galluzzi, ii. 77, 78. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 243 
 
 Great influence was used by his friends to recover 
 him to the ancient faith, but without effect; and his 
 process was going on before the inquisition at Rome 
 when he died.* 
 
 Similar proceedings took place in Sienna, which 
 had now fallen under the dominion of the grand duke 
 of Tuscany. During a number of years after the dis- 
 covery of the defection of Ochino, the Soccini, and 
 Paleario, from the Roman faith, the clergy and inquisi- 
 tors alarmed the government with reports of the spread 
 of heresy in the city and territories of Sienna. In 1 560 
 the bishop of Bologna was sent to conduct a process, 
 which was deemed of greater importance; it was that 
 of Cornelio Soccini, who was accused of having adopt- 
 ed the peculiar opinions of his relation, Faustus Soci- 
 nus. As all that could be drawn from him by exami- 
 nation was, that he believed whatever was contained 
 in the Scriptures, he was, with the consent of the duke, 
 transferred to Rome. In the year 1567 the persecu- 
 tion became severer, and many were driven from the 
 country, subjected to process, or delivered up to the 
 Holy Office. Even Germans, who had come, under 
 the security of the public faith, to study at the univer- 
 sity of Sienna, were seized and placed in the hands of 
 the pope.t 
 
 At Naples, the Protestants enjoyed a reprieve from 
 persecution during the dissensions excited by the re- 
 newed attempt to introduce the Spanish Inquisition.:]: 
 But the people were satisfied with the abandonment 
 of that measure by the government, which, in its turn, 
 not only forgave the pope for fomenting the late oppo- 
 sition to its measures, but entered into a treaty with 
 him, in which it was agreed to take common mea- 
 sures for rooting out the new opinions. Lorenzo Ro- 
 
 * Mazzachelli, Seriltori Italian!, torn. i. part i. p. 337. He was 
 the author of t^temniata Principum Christianorum, Aug-. Vind. 1612, 
 and of Exercitationes Thuologicae, Campodnni, 1616. An account of 
 his conversion was published by Jac. Zeamanfl in 1692, and his life 
 by F. D. Haeberlin in 1740. 
 
 t Galluzzi, ii. 202, 203. 
 
 t Gonc^alo de lllescas, Historia Pontifical y Catholica, parte ii. f. 
 418, a.— 420, b. Burgos, 1578. 
 
244 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 mano, a native of Sicily, had, at a former period, 
 instilled the doctrine of Zuingle into the minds of 
 many of the inhabitants of Caserta, a town lying 
 about fifteen miles north of Naples. Having gone to 
 Germany, where he was more fully instructed in the 
 truth, he returned to the Neapolitan territory in 1549, 
 and, having opened a class for logic, took occasion to 
 expound the Scriptures to his scholars. But the jeal- 
 ousy of the clergy was awake, and he was soon dela- 
 ted to the Inquisition. Romano did not possess the 
 firmness of a martyr: alarmed at the danger which 
 he had incurred, he sought an interview with the 
 Theatine cardinal, confessed his errors, and informed 
 him of the numbers, including persons of the first 
 rank, male and female, who had embraced heresy, 
 both in the capital and in other parts of the kingdom. 
 He was condemned to abjure his opinions publicly in 
 the cathedral churches of Naples and Caserta, and to 
 undergo certain other penances at Rome ; after which 
 he obtained his liberty.* In consequence of his infor- 
 mation, the inquisitors sent by the pope commenced 
 a rigorous search after heretics in the city of Naples, 
 which was afterwards extended over the kingdom. 
 Many were thrown into prison, and not a few sent to 
 Rome to undergo the fiery ordeal. These severities 
 continued, with intervals of relaxation, during several 
 years. On the 24th of March, 1564, two noblemen, 
 Giovan-Francesco d' Alois, of Caserta, and Giovan- 
 Bernardino di Gargano, of Avarsa, after being con- 
 victed of heresy, were beheaded in the market-place, 
 and their bodies consumed to ashes in the sight of the 
 people.! 
 
 The prosecutions for heresy, together with the 
 dread in which the inhabitants were kept of the intro- 
 duction of the court of inquisition, had a fatal influ- 
 ence on the interests both of trade and literature. 
 Whole streets in the city of Naples were deserted by 
 their inhabitants? The academies of the Sireni, Ar- 
 denti, and Incogniti, lately erected for the cultivation 
 
 * Giannone, Hist. Civ. de Naples, b. xxxii. chap. v. sect. i. 
 t Ibid. sect. ii. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 245 
 
 of poetry, rhetoric, and astronomy, were shut up by 
 the viceroy, under the pretext that the members, after 
 giving out a question on some branch of secular 
 learning, dropped it, and entered on discussions re- 
 specting the Scriptures and divinity.* 
 
 Two things conspired with this violence to ruin the 
 reformed cause in Naples. The first was, the coming 
 of certain adherents of anabaptisni and arianism,who 
 got introduced to the secret meetings of the Protes- 
 tants, and made disciples to their peculiar tenets.t 
 The second was the practice which some of them 
 indulged of attending the popish worship, partaking 
 of mass, and conducting themselves in pulDlic in every 
 respect as if they had been papists. These have been 
 called Valdesians by some writers, because they jus- 
 tified themselves by appealing to the example of 
 Valdes, and to the advice which he gave those whom 
 he had instructed in the doctrine of justification, but 
 whose minds were yet fettered by prejudices in favour 
 of the church of Rome and the ancient rites. This 
 practice, which became more general as the persecu- 
 tion increased, not only offended those conscientious 
 individuals who shunned the popish worship as idola- 
 trous, but it gradually wore oft' from the minds of the 
 conformists the impressions of that faith which they 
 had embraced, and prepared them for sacrificing it on 
 the slightest temptation. Notwithstanding all their 
 caution, not a few of them were seized as suspected 
 persons, and purchased their lives by recanting those 
 truths which they had professed to hold in the highest 
 estimation. But this was not all: having once incur- 
 red the jealousy of the inquisitors, and exposed them- 
 selves to the malice or avarice of informers, some of 
 them were seized a second time, and subjected to 
 tortures and a cruel death, as relapsed heretics.:}: 
 Afraid of incurring the same punishment, or actuated 
 by a desire to enjoy the pure worship of God, a con- 
 siderable number of Protestants agreed to quit Italy; 
 
 * Giannone, lib. xxxii. chap, v. sect. i. 
 
 •f Lite of the Marquis of Vico, chap. vii. p. 13. Lond. 1635. 
 
 i Life of the Marquis of Vico, chap. vii. p. 14. 
 
246 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 but when they came to the Alps, and stopped to take 
 a last view of theh beloved country, the greater part, 
 struck with its beauties, and calling to mind the 
 friends and the comforts which they had left behind, 
 burst into a flood of tears, and, abandoning their pur- 
 pose, returned to Naples. They had scarcely arrived 
 there, when they were thrown into prison, and, hav- 
 ing submitted to penance, spent the remainder of their 
 lives distrusted by those around them, and preyed 
 upon by remorse and a consciousness of self-degrada- 
 tion.* 
 
 When the reformed opinions had been suppressed 
 in the capital, the Neapolitan government permitted 
 the inquisitors to roam through the country like wild 
 beasts let loose, and to devour its innocent subjects. 
 Of all the barbarities of which Rome was guilty at 
 this period, none was more horrible than those which 
 were inflicted on the descendants of the ancient Wal- 
 denses. It would seem as if she wished to exceed 
 the cruelties committed during the dark ages, in the 
 crusades which Simon de Montfort, of bloody me- 
 mory, had conducted against the ancestors of that 
 people, under the consecrated banners of the church. 
 
 The Waldensian colony in Calabria Citeriore had 
 increased in the sixteenth century to four thousand 
 persons, who possessed several towns in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Cosenza, of which the principal were 
 Santo Xisto, belonging to the duke of MontaJto, and 
 La Guardia, situate on the sea-coast. Cut ofl" from 
 intercourse with their brethren of the same faith, and 
 destitute of the means of education for their pastors, 
 this simple people, at the same time that they observ- 
 ed their own forms of worship, had gradually become 
 habituated to attend on mass, without which they 
 found it diflicult to maintain a friendly intercourse 
 with the original inhabitants of the place. Their 
 curiosity was awakened by hearing that a doctrine 
 bearing a strong affinity to that of their fathers was 
 propagated in Italy ; they eagerly sought to become 
 acquainted with it, and being convinced that they had 
 
 * Life of the Marquis of Vico, chap. x. p. 21. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 247 
 
 erred hitherto in countenancing the popish worship, 
 they appUed to their brethren in the valleys of Pragela, 
 and to the ministers of Geneva, to obtain teachers 
 who should instruct them more perfectly, and organize 
 their churches after the Scripture pattern.* By dili- 
 gent preaching and catechizing, these missionaries not 
 only promoted the knowledge of the truth among 
 those to whom they were sent, but propagated it in 
 the neighbouring towns, and in the province of Basi- 
 licata.t 
 
 No sooner was this known at Rome, than the sacred 
 college sent two monks, Valerio Malvicino and Alfonso 
 Urbino, into Calabria, to suppress the churches of the 
 Waldenses, and reduce them to the obedience of the 
 holy see. On their first arrival, the monks assumed 
 an air of great gentleness. Having assembled the 
 inhabitants of Santo Xisto, they told them, that they 
 had not come with the view of hurting any person, 
 but merely to warn them in a friendly manner to 
 desist from hearing any teachers but those appointed 
 by their ordinary: that if they would dismiss those 
 men who had led them astray, and live for the future 
 according to the rules of the Roman church, they had 
 nothing to fear; but that, if they acted otherwise, they 
 would expose themselves to the danger of losing their 
 lives and property, by incurring the punishment of 
 heretics. They then appointed a time for celebration 
 of mass, which they required all present to attend. 
 Instead of complying with this injunction, the inhab- 
 itants, in a body, quitted the town and retired into 
 the woods, leaving behind them only a few aged per- 
 sons and children. Concealing their chagrin, the 
 monks immediately went to La Guardia, and having 
 caused the gates to be shut, assembled the inhabitants, 
 and told them that their brethren of Santo Xisto had 
 renounced their erroneous opinions, and gone to mass, 
 exhorting them to imitate so dutiful and wise an 
 example. The poor simple people, crediting the report 
 
 * Zanchii Epistolae, lib. ii. p. 3G0. Leger, Hist, des Eglises Vaud. 
 part ii. p. 333. 
 
 t Giannone, lib. xxxii. chap. v. sect. ii. 
 
248 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 of the monks, and alarmed at the danger which they 
 held out, complied ; but no sooner did they ascertain 
 the truth, than, overwhelmed with shame and vexa- 
 tion, they resolved instantly to leave the place with 
 their wives and children, and to join their brethren 
 who had taken refuge in the woods; a resolution 
 from which they were with difficulty diverted by the 
 representations and promises of Salvatore Spinello, 
 the feudatory superior of the town. In the mean- 
 time, the monks procured two companies of foot sol- 
 diers to be sent into the woods, who hunted the in- 
 habitants of Santo Xisto like beasts of prey, and, 
 having discovered their lurking-place, fell on them 
 with cries of Ammazzi, trmmazzi, ^^ Murder them, 
 murder them." A part of the fugitives took refuge on 
 a mountain, and having secured themselves among 
 the rocks, demanded a parley with the captain. After 
 entreating him to take pity on them, their wives, and 
 children, they said, that they and their fathers had 
 inhabited that country for several ages, without hav- 
 ing given any person cause to complain of their con- 
 duct; that if they could not be allowed to remain in 
 it any longer without renouncing their faith, they 
 hoped they would be permitted to retire to some other 
 country; that they would go, by sea or land, to any 
 place which their superiors were pleased to appoint; 
 that they would engage not to return; and that they 
 would take no more along with them than what was 
 necessary for their support on the journey, for they 
 were ready to part with their property rather than do 
 violence to their consciences by practising idolatry. 
 They implored him to withdraw his men, and not 
 oblige them reluctantly to defend themselves, as they 
 could not answer for the consequences, if reduced to 
 despair. Instead of listening to this reasonable offer, 
 and reporting it to his superiors, the captain ordered 
 his men to advance by a defile, upon which those on 
 the hill attacked them, killed the greater part, and put 
 the rest to flight."^ 
 
 * Perrin, Hist, des Vaudois, part. i. p. 199 — 202. Perrin relates 
 this under the year 1560, and speaks of it as having taken place after 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 249 
 
 It was immediately resolved to avenge on the whole 
 body this unpremeditated act of resistance on the part 
 of a few. The monks wrote to Naples that the coun- 
 try was in a state of rebellion, upon which the viceroy 
 despatched several companies of soldiers to Calabria, 
 and, to gratify the pope, followed them in person. On 
 his arrival, listening to the advice of the inquisitors, 
 he caused a proclamation to be made, delivering up 
 Santo Xisto to fire and sword, which obliged the in- 
 habitants to remain in their concealments. By another 
 proclamation, he offered a pardon to the bannitti, or 
 persons proscribed for crimes, (who form a numerous 
 class in Naples,) on the condition of their assisting in 
 the war against the heretics. This brought a number 
 of desperate characters to his standard, who, being 
 acquainted with the recesses of the woods, tracked out 
 the fugitives, the greater part of whom were slaugh- 
 tered by the soldiers, while the remainder took refuge 
 in the caverns of the high rocks, where many of them 
 died of hunger. Pretending to be displeased with 
 the severity of military execution, the inquisitors 
 retired to some distance from the place, and cited the 
 inhabitants of La Guardia to appear before them. 
 Encouraged by the reports which they had heard, the 
 people complied ; but they had no sooner made their 
 appearance, than seventy of them were seized and 
 conducted in chains to Montalto."* They were put 
 to the question by the orders of the inquisitor Panza, 
 to induce them not only to renounce their faith but 
 also to accuse themselves and their brethren of having 
 committed odious crimes in their religious assemblies. 
 To wring a confession of this from him, Stefano 
 
 Louis Paschal came to Calabria. But I suspect he has placed it too 
 late. At least the author of Busdragi Epistola, which is dated 15th 
 December, 1558, speaking of the progress of the reformed doctrine 
 in Italy, says — " Nam quotidie aliquid novi sentitur, nunc in hac 
 civitate, nunc in ilia. Calabria nuper fere tota tumultuata est." 
 (Serin. Antiq. tom. i. p. 322.) 
 
 * Giannone says, that the heretics had fortified Guardia; and that 
 Scipio Spinelli, finding he could not reduce it by force, had recourse 
 to deceit, and, under pretext of an exchange of prisoners, introduced 
 soldiers into the castle, and gained possession of the town. Hist, de 
 Naples, b. xxxii. c. v. sect. ii. 
 
 17 
 
250 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Carlino was tortured until his bowels gushed out. 
 Another prisoner, named Verminel, having, in the 
 extremity of }3ain, promised to go to mass, the inquisi- 
 tor flattered himself that, by increasing the violence 
 of the torture, he could extort a confession of the 
 charge which he was so anxious to fasten on the Pro- 
 testants. But though the exhausted sufferer was kept 
 during eight hours on the horrid instrument called 
 the hell, he persisted in denying the atrocious ca- 
 lumny. A person of the name of Marzone was strip- 
 ped naked, beaten with iron rods, dragged through 
 the streets, and then felled with the blows of torches. 
 One of his sons, a boy, having resisted the attempts 
 made for his conversion, was conveyed to the top of 
 a tower, from which they threatened to precipitate 
 him, if he would not embrace a crucifix, which was 
 presented to him. He refused; and the inquisitor, in 
 a rage, ordered him instantly to be thrown down. 
 Bernardino Conte, on his way to the stake, threw 
 away a crucifix which the executioner had forced into 
 his hands ; upon which Panza remanded him to prison, 
 until a more dreadful mode of punishment should be 
 devised. He was conveyed to Cosenza, where his 
 body was covered with pitch, in which he was burnt 
 to death before the people.* The manner in which 
 persons of the tender sex were treated by this brutal 
 inquisitor, is too disgusting to be related here. Suf- 
 fice it to say, that he put sixty females to the torture, 
 the greater part of whom died in prison in consequence 
 of their wounds remaining undressed. On his return 
 to Naples, he delivered a great number of Protestants 
 to the secular arm at St. Agata, where he inspired the 
 inhabitants with the utmost terror; for, if any indivi- 
 dual came forward to intercede for the prisoners, he 
 was immediately put to the torture as a favourer of 
 heresy, t 
 
 Horrid as these facts are, they fall short of the bar- 
 
 * Perrin, ut supra, p. 202 — 204. Leger, Hist, des Eglises Vau- 
 doiscs, torn, ii, p. 335. 
 
 t Perrin, p. 205, 206. A priest named Anania, who liad taken an 
 active part in the persecution of that innocent people, wrote an account 
 of it in Latin verse. (Giannone, ut supra.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 251 
 
 barity perpetrated on the same people at Montalto in 
 the year 1560, under the government of the marquis 
 di Buccianici, to whose brother, it is said, the pope 
 had promised a cardinal's hat, provided the province 
 of Calabria was cleared of heresy. I shall give the 
 account in the words of a Roman Catholic, servant to 
 Ascanio Caraccioli, who witnessed the scene. The 
 letter in which he describes it was published in Italy, 
 along with other narratives of the bloody transaction: 
 " Most illustrious sir — Having written you from time 
 to time what has been done here in the affair of 
 heresy, I have now to inform you of the dreadful jus- 
 tice which began to be executed on these Lutherans 
 early this morning, being the 11th of June. And, to 
 tell you the truth, I can compare it to nothing but the 
 slaughter of so many sheep. They were all shut up 
 in one house as in a sheepfold. The executioner 
 went, and, bringing out one of them, covered his face 
 with a napkin, or benda, as we call it, led him out to 
 a field near the house, and, causing him to kneel 
 down, cut his throat with a knife. Then, taking off 
 the bloody napkin, he went and brought out another, 
 Avhom he put to death after the same manner. In 
 this way, the whole number, amounting to eighty- 
 eight men, were butchered. I leave you to figure to 
 yourself the lamentable spectacle, for I can scarcely 
 refrain from tears while I write ; nor was there any 
 person who, after witnessing the execution of one, 
 could stand to look on a second. The meekness and 
 patience with which they went to martyrdom and 
 death are incredible. Some of them at their death 
 professed themselves of the same faith with us, but 
 the greater part died in their cursed obstinacy. All 
 the old men met their death with cheerfulness, but 
 the young exhibited symptoms of fear. I still shudder 
 while I think of the executioner with the bloody 
 knife in his teeth, the dripping napkin in his hand, 
 and his arms besmeared with gore, going to the 
 house and taking out one victim after another, just 
 as the butcher does the sheep which he means to kill. 
 According to orders, wagons are already come to 
 
252 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 carry away the dead bodies, which are appointed to 
 be quartered, and hung up on the pubUc roads from 
 one end of Calabria to the other. Unless his holiness 
 and the viceroy of Naples command the marquis di 
 Buccianici, the governor of this province, to stay his 
 hand and leave off, he will go on to put others to the 
 torture, and multiply the executions until he has de- 
 stroyed the whole. Even to-day, a decree has passed 
 that a hundred grown up women shall be put to the 
 question, and afterwards executed; in order that there 
 may be a complete mixture, and we may be able to 
 say, in well-sounding language, that so many persons 
 were punished, partly men and partly women. This 
 is all that I have to say of this act of justice. It is 
 now eight o'clock, and I shall presently hear accounts 
 of what was said by these obstinate people as they 
 were led to execution. Some have testified such 
 obstinacy and stubbornness as to refuse to look on a 
 crucifix, or confess to a priest; and they are to be 
 burnt alive. The heretics taken in Calabria amount 
 to sixteen hundred, all of whom are condemned ; but 
 only eighty-eight have as yet been put to death. 
 This people came originally from the valley of An- 
 grogna, near Savoy, and in Calabria are called Ultra- 
 montani. Four other places in the kingdom of Naples 
 are inhabited by the same race, but I do not know 
 that they behave ill; for they are a simple unlettered 
 people, entirely occupied with the spade and plough, 
 and, I am told, show themselves sufficiently religious 
 at the hour of death."* Lest the reader should be 
 inclined to doubt the truth of such horrid atrocities, 
 the following summary account of them, by a Nea- 
 politan historian of that age, may be added. After 
 giving some account of the Calabrian heretics, he 
 says — " Some had their throats cut, others were sawn 
 through the middle, and others thrown from the top 
 of a high cliff: all were cruelly but deservedly put to 
 death. It was strange to hear of their obstinacy; for 
 while the father saw his son put to death, and the 
 
 * Pantaleon, Rerum in Eccles. Gest. Hist. f. 337, 338. De Porta, 
 torn. ii. p. 309, 312. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 253 
 
 son his father, they not only exhibited no symptoms 
 of grief, but said joyfully, that they would be angels 
 of God: so much had the devil, to whom they had 
 given themselves up as a prey, deceived them."* 
 
 By the time that the persecutors were glutted with 
 blood, it was not difficult to dispose of the prisoners 
 who remained. The men were sent to the Spanish 
 galleys ; the women and children were sold for slaves ; 
 and, with the exception of a few who renounced 
 their faith, the whole colony was exterminated.! 
 "Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth," 
 may the race of the Waldenses say — " many a time 
 have they afflicted me from my youth. My blood — 
 the violence done to me and to my flesh — be upon" 
 Rome ! 
 
 While the popes exerted themselves in the suppres- 
 sion of the reformed doctrine in other parts of Italy, 
 it may be taken for granted that they were not idle 
 within the territories of the church. It has been 
 stated by some writers, that the procedure of the 
 inquisition was milder in Italy than in Spain: but 
 both the statement of the fact, and the reasons by 
 which it is usually accounted for, require to be quali- 
 fied. One of these reasons is, the policy with which 
 the Italians, including the popes, have always con- 
 sulted their pecuniary interests, to which they post- 
 poned every other consideration. This, however, will 
 be found to hold true as to their treatment of the 
 Jews, rather than of the Lutherans. The second 
 reason is, that the popes being temporal princes in 
 the states of the church, had no occasion to employ 
 the inquisition to undermine the rights of the secular 
 authorities in them, as in other countries. This is 
 unquestionably true; and it accounts for the fact, that 
 the court of inquisition, long after its operations had 
 been suspended in Italy, continued to be warmly sup- 
 ported by papal influence in Spain. But at the time 
 of which I write, and during the remainder of the 
 
 * Tommaso Costo, Seeonda Parte del Compendio dell' Istoria di 
 Napoli, p. 257. 
 t Perrin. ut supra, p. 206, 207. Hist, des Martyrs, f. 516, a. 
 
254 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 sixteenth century, it was in full and constant opera- 
 tion, and the popes found that it enabled them to ac- 
 complish what would have baffled their power as 
 secular sovereigns. The chief difference between the 
 Italian and Spanish inquisitions at that period, con- 
 sisted in their policy respecting the mode of punish- 
 ment. The latter sought to inspire terror by the 
 solemn spectacle of a public act of justice, in which 
 the scaffold was crowded with criminals. Except in 
 the case of the remote and friendless Calabrians, 
 it was the object of the former to avoid all unneces- 
 sary publicity and eclat. With this view, the mode 
 of punishment usual at Venice was sometimes adopt- 
 ed at Rome, as in the case of Bartolommeo Fonzio.* 
 In other cases the victims were brought to the stake 
 singly or in small numbers, and often strangled before 
 being committed to the flames. The report of the 
 autos de fe of Seville and Valladolid blazed at once 
 over Europe: the executions at Rome made less noise 
 in the city, because they were less splendid as well as 
 more frequent, and the rumour of them died away 
 before it could reach the ear of foreigners. 
 
 Paul III. threw many of the Protestants into the 
 prisons of Rome ; they were brought forth to execu- 
 tion by Julius III.; and Paul IV. followed in the 
 bloody track of his predecessor. Under the latter, the 
 inquisition spread alarm every where, and created the 
 very evils which it sought to allay. Princes and prin- 
 cesses, clergy and laity, bishops and friars, entire aca- 
 demies, the sacred college, and even the holy office 
 itself, fell under the suspicion of heretical pravity. 
 
 * De Porta, torn. ii. p. 33. Heidegger states, that Fonzio was 
 drowned along with thirteen preachers of the gospel. (Diss.de Mira- 
 culis Eccles. Evang. § 4.').) I conjecture that this writer was misled 
 by a cursory inspection of a letter, (then probably unprinted,) from 
 Frechtus to Bullinger, dated July 24, 1538, which says — " Bartho- 
 lomseuni Fontium Vcnetum, publica fide sibi a Romano Pontifice 
 data, Romam pervenisse et fidei suje rationem dedisse, ac statim ab 
 Antichristo sacco impositum et Tiberi immersurn, in Domino mor- 
 tuum, in hujus locum XIII. emersisse evangelicos prasdicatores, qui 
 Roniae, invito etiam Antichristo, Christum annuncient." (Fueslin, 
 Epist. Reform. Helvet. p. 177.) It is rather a serious mistake to con- 
 found emergo with immergo. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 255 
 
 The conclave was subjected to an expnrgatory pro- 
 cess. Cardinals Morone and Pole, with Foscarari, 
 bishop of Modena, Lnighi Priuli, and other persons 
 of eminence, were prosecuted as heretics. It was at last 
 found necessary to introduce laymen into the inquisi- 
 tion, " because (to use the words of a contemporary 
 writer) not only many bishops, and vicars, and friars, 
 but also many of the inquisitors themselves, were 
 tainted with heresy."* Much of the extravagance 
 displayed at this time is, no doubt, to be ascribed to 
 the personal fanaticism and jealousy of the pontiff, 
 who sent for some of the cardinals to his death-bed, 
 and recommended the inquisition to their support 
 with his latest breath. Such was the frenzied zeal of 
 this infallible dotard, that, if his life had been spared 
 a little longer, the poet's description of the effects of 
 superstition would have been realized, '^ and one ca- 
 pricious curse enveloped all." Irritated by his vio- 
 lent proceedings, and by the extortion and rapine with 
 which they had been accompanied, the inhabitants of 
 Rome, as soon as the tidings of his death transpired, 
 rose in tumult, burnt the house of inquisition to the 
 ground, after having liberated all the prisoners, broke 
 down the statue which Paul had erected for himself, 
 and dragging its members with ropes through the 
 streets, threw them into the Tiber.! 
 
 Pius IV. was naturally of a mild disposition, and 
 put a stop to the violent and arbitrary proceedings of 
 his predecessor. J But he was unable to control the 
 cardinal placed at the head of the inquisition; and, 
 accordingly, his pontificate was disgraced by the mas- 
 sacres in Calabria, and by executions in various parts 
 of Italy. In the room of the edifice which had been 
 demolished in the tumult, a house beyond the Tiber, 
 which belonged to one of the cardinals, was appro- 
 
 * Bernini, Istoria di tutte I'Heresia, secol. xvi. cap. vii. : Puig- 
 blanch's History of the Inquisition, i. 61, 62. 
 
 t Natalis Comes, Hist, sui Teinporis, lib. xii. f. 263, 269. 
 
 t Galluzzi, torn. ii. p. 71. " Du temps de Pie IV. on parloit fort 
 librement a Rome; j'y etois du regne de Pie IV. et V." (Secunda 
 Scaligerana ; Collect, des Maiseaux, torn. ii. p. 504.) 
 
256 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 priated to the inquisitors, and cells were added to it 
 for the reception of prisoners. This was commonly 
 called the Lutheran prison, and is said to have been 
 built on the site of the ancient Circus of Nero, in 
 which so many Christians were delivered to the wild 
 beasts. It was in this prison that Philip, the son of 
 the learned Joachim Camerarius, and Peter Rieter de 
 Kornburg, a Bavarian gentleman, were confined for 
 two months during the year 1565; having been seized, 
 when visiting Rome on their travels, in consequence 
 of the information of a Jew, who mistook Rieter for 
 another German with whom he had quarrelled. But 
 although the mistake was acknowledged by the in- 
 former himself, they were detained as heretics, and 
 obtained their liberty only through the interference of 
 the imperial ambassador, accompanied with a threat 
 from the Protestant princes that the agents of Rome 
 should be treated in the same manner in travelling 
 through Germany.* Pompeio di Monti, a Neapolitan 
 nobleman, who had been seized by the familiars of 
 the inquisition, as he was crossing the bridge of St. 
 Angelo on horseback, along with his relation, Marc- 
 antonio Colonna, was lodged in the same apartment 
 with Camerarius, who derived from his conversation 
 much Christian comfort, as well as useful counsel, to 
 avoid the snares which the inquisitors were in the 
 habit of spreading for their prisoners.! During the 
 subsequent year, Di Monti was sentenced to be burnt 
 alive; but, in consideration of a sum of seven thou- 
 sand crowns being advanced by his friends, he was 
 
 * Schelhorn, Vita Philippi Camerarii, p. 86 — 101. Relatio de 
 Captivitate Romana Philippi Camerarii et Petri Rieteri, p. 7 — 30, 
 54 — 64. Tliis last work was published by Camerarius himself, and 
 contains a particular account of the examinations which he under- 
 went, and of the causes of his release, accompanied with documents. 
 
 t Relatio, ut supra, p. 73, 74. They shared together the use of a 
 Latin Bible, which the baron had procured and kept concealed in his 
 bed. Camerarius having applied for a Psalter to assist him in his 
 devotions, tiie noted Jesuit, Petrus Canisius, by whom he was visited, 
 pressed on him the Office of the Holy Virgin, as more conducive to 
 edification ; and, when it was declined, sent him Amadis de Gaul, 
 and Caesar's Commentaries. (Ibid. p. 14, 15.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 257 
 
 only strangled, and his body afterwards committed to 
 the flames.* 
 
 The flames of persecution were rekindled mider 
 Pius v., who was created pope in the year 1566. 
 The name of this inexorable pontiff" was Michele 
 Ghisleri; and the cruelties committed during the two 
 preceding pontificates are in no small degree to be 
 ascribed to his influence, as president of the inquisi- 
 tion, a situation which he had held, under the desig- 
 nation of the Alexandrine cardinal, since the late 
 establishment of that tribunal, t His elevation to the 
 popedom was followed by a hot persecution in Rome 
 and the states of the church. It raged with great 
 violence in Bologna, where "persons of all ranks 
 were promiscuously subjected to the same imprison- 
 ment, and tortures, and death. "J " Three persons 
 (says a writer of that time) have lately been burnt 
 alive in that city, and two brothers of the noble family 
 of Ercolani seized on suspicion of heresy, and sent 
 bound to Rome." At the same time, many of the 
 German students in the university were imprisoned, 
 or obliged to fly.§ The following description of the 
 state of matters in the year 1568 is from the pen of 
 one who was residing at that time on the borders of 
 Italy : — " At Rome some are every day burnt, hanged, 
 or beheaded: all tlie prisons and places of confine- 
 ment are filled, and they are obliged to build new 
 ones. That large city cannot furnish gaols for the 
 numbers of pious persons who are continually appre- 
 hended. A distinguished person, named Carnesecchi, 
 formerly ambassador to the duke of Tuscany, has 
 been committed to the flames. Two persons of still 
 greater distinction, baron Bernardo di Angole, and 
 count di Petigliano, a genuine and brave Roman, are 
 in prison. After long resistance, they were at last 
 
 * Relatio, ut supra, p. 7, 8. 
 
 t Thuani Hist. lib. xxxix. ad an. 1566. Vita Philippi Camerarii. 
 p. 102. Galluzzi, torn. ii. p. 75. 
 
 t Thobias Eglinus ad Bullingerum, 29 Decern. 1567: De Porta, 
 torn. ii. p. 460. 
 
 § Epistola Joachimi Camerarii, 16 Feb. 1566; et Epist. Petri Rie- 
 teri, prid. Id. Maii 1567: Vita Phil. Camerarii, p. 174, 197. 
 
25S HISTORY OF THE 
 
 induced to recant, on a promise that they should be 
 set at hberty. But what was the consequence ? The 
 one was condemned to pay a fine of eighty thousand 
 crowns, and to suffer perpetual imprisonment; and 
 the other to pay one thousand crowns, and be confined 
 for Ufe in the convent of the Jesuits. Thus have they, 
 by a dishonourable defection, purchased a life worse 
 than death."* The same writer relates the following 
 anecdote, which shows the base stratagems which the 
 Roman inquisition employed to get hold of its vic- 
 tims: — "A letter from Genoa to Messere Bonetti 
 states, that a rich nobleman at Modena, in the duchy 
 of Ferrara, was lately informed against as a heretic to 
 the pope, Avho had recourse to the following method 
 of getting him into his claws. The nobleman had a 
 cousin at Rome, who was sent for to the castle of St. 
 Angelo, and told, ^ Either you must die, or write to 
 your cousin at Modena, desiring him to meet you in 
 Bologna at a certain hour, as if you wished to speak 
 to him on important business.' The letter was des- 
 patched, and the nobleman having ridden in haste to 
 Bologna, was seized as soon as he had dismounted 
 from his horse. His friend was then set at liberty. 
 This is dragon's game."t Speaking of the rigour of 
 the inquisition in Italy, and the suddenness of execu- 
 tions at this period, Muretus said to De Thou — " We 
 know not what becomes of people here : I am terri- 
 fied every morning when I rise, lest I should be told 
 that such and such a one is no more; and, if it should 
 be so, we durst not say a word."| 
 
 Furious as this pope was, he felt himself sometimes 
 forced to yield to a power which he durst not brave. 
 Galeas de San Severino, count de Caiazzo, Avas a 
 favourite of Charles IX. of France, and held a high 
 rank in his army. Having occasion to go into Italy 
 on his private affairs about the year 1568, he was 
 thrown into the inquisition as a Hugonot. Charles 
 
 * Thobias Eglinus ad Bullingerum, 2 Mart. 1568: De Porta, torn, 
 ii. p. 486. 
 
 t Ibid. 20 Mart. 1568 : De Porta, torn. ii. p. 487. 
 t Thuana, Collect, des Maiseaux, torn. i. p. 16. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 259 
 
 instantly despatched the marquis de Pisano with in- 
 structions to insist on the hberation of the count as a 
 French subject. The pope requested time to delibe- 
 rate. After repeated delays, the marquis demanded 
 the release of the prisoner within eight days; and, 
 that time having elapsed, he obtained an audience of 
 his holiness, and told him peremptorily, that, if the 
 count was not delivered to him next day, the ambas- 
 sador of France should be instantly recalled, and a 
 stop put to all the ordinary intercourse with Rome as 
 to ecclesiastical benefices in the kingdom. By the 
 advice of the cardinals, Pius was prevailed on to give 
 up the prisoner, but with great reluctance, saying, 
 that the king had sent him an imbriacone.^ 
 
 It is not my intention to write a martyrology; but 
 I cannot altogether pass over the names of those men 
 who intrepidly displayed the standard of truth before 
 the walls of Rome, and fell within the breach of the 
 antichristian citadel. 
 
 Faventino Fanino, or Fannio, a native of Faenza, 
 within the states of the Church, is usually, though not 
 correctly, said to be the first who suff"ered martyrdom 
 for the Protestant faith in Italy.t Having received 
 the knowledge of the truth by reading the Bible and 
 other religious books in his native language, he began 
 to impart it to his neighbours, and was soon thrown 
 into prison. Through the persuasion of his friends, 
 he purchased his liberty by recantation, which threw 
 him into great distress of mind. On recovering from 
 this dejection, he resolved to exert himself more zeal- 
 ously than before in discovering to his countrymen 
 the errors by which they were deluded, and in ac- 
 
 * A drunkard. De Thou received this anecdote from the marquis 
 himself. (Thuana, Collect, des Maiseaux, torn. i. p. 3, 4.) It was 
 the same nobleman who, when ordered by Sixtus V. to quit his terri- 
 tories within eight days, replied — " Your territories are not so large, 
 but that I can quit them within twenty-four hours." (Ibid. p. 5.) 
 
 t According to Scaliger, a person named Jacobin was the first 
 martyr in Italy. The civilian Cujas, who was present at his exccu- 
 tion, says he was not a Protestant, but merely differed in some 
 things irom the Roman church; for, adds he, "in those days they 
 burnt lor a small matter." (.Scaligcrana Secuada, art. H(Eretici.) 
 
260 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 quainting them with the way of salvation. For this 
 purpose he commenced travelhng through the pro- 
 vince of Romagna. His plan was, after succeeding 
 with a few individuals, to leave them to instruct others, 
 while he removed to another place; by which means 
 he, within a short time, disseminated extensively the 
 knowledge of evangelical doctrine. He was at last 
 seized at a place called Bagnacavallo, and conducted 
 in chains to Ferrara. Neither threats nor solicitations 
 could now move him to waver in his confession of the 
 truth. To the lamentations of his wife and sister, 
 who came to see him in prison, he replied, "Let it 
 suffice you, that, for your sakes, I have once denied 
 my Saviour. Had I then had the knowledge which, 
 by the grace of God, I have acquired since my fall, I 
 would not have yielded to your entreaties. Go home 
 in peace." Of Fannio's imprisonment, which lasted 
 two years, it may be said, that it fell out " to the fur- 
 therance of the gospel, so that his bonds in Christ 
 were manifest in all the palace." He was visited by 
 the princess Lavinia della Rovere, by Olympia Mora- 
 ta, and other persons distinguished for rank or intelli- 
 gence, who were edified by his instructions and pray- 
 ers, and took a deep interest in his fate. When orders 
 were issued to prevent strangers from having access 
 to him, he employed himself in teaching his fellow- 
 prisoners, including several persons of rank, confined 
 for state crimes, upon whom his piety, joined with 
 uncommon modesty and meekness, produced such an 
 effect, that they acknowledged, after their enlarge- 
 ment, that they never knew what liberty and happi- 
 ness was until they found it within the walls of a 
 prison. Orders were next given to put him in soli- 
 tary confinement, when he spent his time in writing 
 religious letters and essays, which he found means of 
 conveying to his friends, and several of which were 
 published after his death. So much were the priests 
 afraid of the influence which he exerted over those 
 who approached him, that his prison and his keeper 
 were repeatedly changed. In the year 1550, Julius 
 HI., rejecting every intercession made for his life, 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 261 
 
 ordered him to be executed. He was accordingly 
 brought out to the stake at an early hour in the morn- 
 ing, to prevent the people from witnessing the scene, 
 and being first strangled, was committed to the 
 flames.* 
 
 At the same time and in the same manner did Do- 
 menica della Casa Bianca suffer death. He was a 
 native of Basano in the Venetian states, and acquired 
 the knowledge of the truth in Germany, when a soldier 
 in the army of Charles V. With the zeal of a young 
 convert he endeavoured, on his return to Italy, to 
 disabuse the minds of his deluded countrymen. After 
 labouring with success in Naples and other places, he 
 was thrown into prison at Piacenza, and, refusing to 
 retract what he had taught, suffered martyrdom with 
 much fortitude, in the thirtieth year of his age.t 
 
 We have already met repeatedly with MoUio, the 
 Bolognese professor, who was held in such high 
 esteem through Italy for his learning and holy ]ite.| 
 After the flight of his brethren, Ochino and Martyr, in 
 1542, he was frequently in great danger, and more 
 than once thrown into confinement, from which he had 
 always providentially escaped. But after the acces- 
 sion of pope Julius III. he was sought for with great 
 eagerness, and being seized at Ravenna, was conduct- 
 ed, under a strong guard, to Rome, and lodged in a 
 strait prison.§ On the 5th of September 1553, a pub- 
 lic assembly of the inquisition was held with great 
 pomp, which was attended by the six cardinals and 
 their episcopal assessors, before whom a number of 
 prisoners were brought with torches in their hands. 
 All of them recanted and performed penance, except 
 
 * Olympiae Moratse Opera, p. 90, 102, 107. Nolten, Vita Olym. 
 MoratEB, p. 127—134. Hist, des Martyrs, f. 186, J 87. Beza? Icones, 
 sig. Hh ij. 
 
 t Hist, des Martyrs, f. 487, b. The following work I have not 
 seen: — "De Fannii Faventini ac Dominici Bassancnsis mortc, qui 
 nuper ob Christum in Italia Rom. Pontificis jussu impie occisi sunt, 
 brevis historia ; Fran. Nigro Bassanensi auclore. 1550." 
 
 t See before p. 94, 124. 
 
 § During his imprisonment he composed a commentary on Genesis, 
 which is praised by Rabus, the German martyrologist. (Gerdesii 
 Italia Reform, p. 302.) 
 
262 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Mollio, and a native of PenigiOj named Tisserano. 
 When the articles of accusation against Mollio were 
 read, permission was given him to speak. He defend- 
 ed the doctrines which he had taught respecting justi- 
 fication, the merit of good works, auricular confession, 
 and the sacraments; pronounced the power claimed 
 by the pope and his clergy to be usurped and anti- 
 christian; and addressed his judges in a strain of bold 
 and fervid invective, which silenced and chained them 
 to their seats, at the same time that it cut them to the 
 quick. "As for you, cardinals and bishops," said he, 
 "if I were satisfied that you had justly obtained that 
 power which you assume to yourselves, and that you 
 had risen to your eminence by virtuous deeds, and 
 not by blind ambition and the arts of profligacy, I 
 would not say a word to you. But since I know, on the 
 best grounds, that you have set moderation, and mod- 
 esty, and honour, and virtue at defiance, I am con- 
 strained to treat you without ceremony, and to declare 
 that your power is not from God but the devil. If it 
 were apostolical, as you would make the poor world 
 believe, then your manner of life would resemble that 
 of the apostles. But when I perceive the filth, and 
 falsehood, and profaneness with which it is overspread, 
 what can I think or say of your Church but that it is 
 a receptacle of thieves and a den of robbers? What is 
 your doctrine but a dream — a lie forged by hypo- 
 crites? Your very countenances proclaim that your 
 belly is your god. Your great object is to seize and 
 amass wealth by every species of injustice and cruel- 
 ty. You thirst without ceasing for the blood of the 
 saints. Can you be the successors of the holy apos- 
 tles, and vicars of Jesus Christ — you who despise 
 Christ and his word, you who act as if you did not 
 believe that there is a God in heaven, you who per- 
 secute to the death his faithful ministers, make his 
 commandments of no effect, and tyrannize over the 
 consciences of his saints? Wherefore I appeal from 
 your sentence, and summon you, cruel tyrants and 
 murderers, to answer before the judgment-seat of 
 Christ at the last day, where your pompous titles and 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 263 
 
 gorgeous trappings will not dazzle, nor your guards 
 and torturing apparatus terrify us. And in testimony 
 of this, take back that which you have given ine." In 
 saying this, he threw the flaming torch which he held 
 in his hand on the ground and extinguished it. Galled 
 and gnashing upon him with their teeth, like the per- 
 secutors of the first Christian martyr, the cardinals 
 ordered Mollio, together with his companion, who 
 approved of the testimony he had borne, to instant 
 execution. They were conveyed, accordingly, to the 
 Campo del Fior, where they died with the most pious 
 fortitude.* 
 
 Pomponio Algieri, a native of Nola, in the king- 
 dom of Naples, was seized when attending the uni- 
 versity of Padua, and after being examined in the 
 presence of the podesta, was sent bound to Venice. 
 His answers, on the different examinations which he 
 underwent, contain a luminous view of the truth, and 
 form one of the most succinct and nervous refutations 
 of the principal articles of popery, from Scripture and 
 the decretals, which is anywhere to be found. They 
 had the effect of spreading his fame through Italy. 
 From regard to his learning and youth, the senators 
 of Venice were anxious to set him at liberty, but as 
 he refused to abandon his sentiments, they condemned 
 him to the galleys. Yet, yielding to the importunities 
 of the nuncio, they afterwards sent him to Rome, as 
 an acceptable present to the newly-elected pope, Paul 
 IV., by whom he was doomed to be burnt alive, in 
 the twenty-fourth year of his age. The Christian 
 
 * Hist, des Martyrs, f. 264, 965. Gcrdesii Ital. Reform, p. 104. 
 Zanchi gives the following anecdote of this martyr, in a letter to 
 Bullinger :— " I will relate what (Mollio of) Montalcino, the monk, 
 who was afterwards burnt at Rome for the gospel, once said to me 
 respecting your book, De origine eiroris. As I had not read or seen 
 the work, he exhorted me to purchase it; ' and,' said he, ' if you 
 have not money, p'uckout your right eye to enable you to buy it, and 
 read it with the left.' By the favour of providence, I soon after 
 found the book, without losing my eye; for I bought it for a crown, 
 and abridged it in such a cliaracter as that not even an inquisitor 
 could read it ; and in such a form, that, if he had read it, lu could 
 not have discovered what my sentiments were." (Zanchii Epist. lib. 
 ii. p,278.) 
 
264 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 magnanimity with which this youthfni martyr bore 
 that cruel death, terrified the cardinals who attended 
 to grace the spectacle. A letter written by him, in 
 his prison at Venice describes the consolations by 
 which his spirit was refreshed and upheld under his 
 sufferings, in language to which I scarcely know a 
 parallel. It appears from this interesting document, 
 that the friends of evangelical truth were still numer- 
 ous in Padua.* 
 
 Equally distinguished was the constancy of Fran- 
 cesco Gamba, a native of Como. He was in the 
 habit of visiting Geneva for the sake of conversation 
 with the learned men of that city. Having on one 
 of these occasions, participated along with them of 
 the Lord's Supper, the news of this fact reached home 
 before him, and he was seized on the Lake of Como, 
 thrown into prison, and condemned to the flames. 
 By the interposition of the imperial ambassador and 
 some of the Milanese nobiUty, his execution was pre- 
 vented for some days, during which interval his firm- 
 ness was assailed by the sophistry of the monks, the 
 entreaties of his friends, and the interest which many 
 of his townsmen of the popish persuasion took in his 
 welfare. He modestly declined the last services of 
 the friars, expressed his gratitude to those who had 
 testified a concern for his life, and assured the judge, 
 who lamented the necessity which he was under of 
 executing the law, that he forgave him, and prayed 
 God to forgive him. His tongue having been perfo- 
 rated to prevent him from addressing the spectators, 
 he kneeled down and prayed at the place of execu- 
 tion ; then rising, he looked round the crowd, which 
 consisted of several thousands, for a particular friend, 
 to whom he waved his right hand, which was loose, 
 as the appointed sign that he died in peace and confi- 
 dence ; after which he stretched out his neck to the 
 executioner, who had been authorized, by way of 
 
 * The autograph of this letter, together with the facts respecting 
 the writer, were communicated by Curio to the historian Henry 
 Pantaleon. (Rcrum in Eccles. Gcst. part. ii. app. 329 — 332. Conf. 
 Bezae Icones, sig. Hh iij.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 265 
 
 favour, to strangle him before committing his body- 
 to the fire.* 
 
 Godfredo Varaglia, though a Piedmontese, and put 
 to death in his native country, deserves a place here 
 from his intimate connexion with Italy. He belonged 
 to the order of Capuchins, and acquired great cele- 
 brity as one of their preachers. Inheriting from his 
 ancestors a strong antipathy to the Waldenses, he had 
 received an appointment to labour as a missionary in 
 their conversion, and the highest hopes of success 
 were entertained from his zeal and eloquence ; but the 
 issue turned out very different, for he became a con- 
 vert to the opinions of his opponents, and, like another 
 Paul, began to preach the faith which he had sought 
 to destroy, t From that time he acted in concert with 
 Ochino.j: When the latter left Italy, he and twelve 
 others of his order were apprehended and conveyed 
 to Rome. The suspicions against them being slight, 
 or their interest powerful, they were admitted to make 
 an abjuration of heresy in general terms, and confined 
 to the capital on their parole for five years. At the 
 end of that period Varaglia was persuaded to lay aside 
 the cowl, and enter into secular orders. His talents 
 had procured him the friendship of a dignitary of the 
 church, from whom he enjoyed a pension for some 
 time ; and his patron being appointed papal legate to 
 the king of France in the year 1556, he accompanied 
 him to that country. But his conscience not permit- 
 ting him any longer to conceal his sentiments, he part- 
 ed from the legate at Lyons, and repaired to Geneva, 
 where he accepted an appointment to preach the gos- 
 pel to the Waldenses in the valley of AngiOgna.§ 
 
 * This account is taken from a letter written by a gentleman of 
 Como to the martyr's brother. (Acta et Monim. Martyrum, f. 270 — 
 272. Wolfii Lect. Memorab. torn. ii. p. 686.) Gamba suffered on 
 the 21st of July 1554. 
 
 t Leger, Histoire des Eglises Vaudoises, p. 29. Hospinian, by 
 mistake, makes Varaglia to have been the founder of the Capucliins. 
 (De Orig. Monach. cap. ix. p. 297.) This order of monks was insti- 
 tuted by Matteo de Baschi. (Observationes Halenses, torn iv. p, 410.) 
 
 t Gerdesii Hist. Ref. tom. iv. p. 360. 
 
 § This is the account which he gave of himself, on his examina- 
 
 18 
 
266 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 He had not laboured many months among that people, 
 when he was apprehended, conveyed to Turm, and 
 condemned to death, which he endured with great 
 fortitude on the 29th of March 1558, in the fiftieth 
 year of his age. When interrogated on his trial as to 
 his companions, he told his judges that he had lately 
 been in company with twenty-four preachers, who 
 had mostly come from Geneva; and that the number 
 of those who were ready to follow them was so great, 
 that the inquisitors would not find wood wherewith 
 to burn them.^ 
 
 Ludovico Paschali was a native of Cuni in Pied- 
 mont, and having acquired a taste for evangelical 
 doctrine at Nice, left the army to which he had been 
 bred, and went to study at liausanne. When the 
 Waldenses of Calabria applied to the Italian church 
 at Geneva for preachers, Paschali was fixed upon as 
 eminently qualified for that station. Having obtained 
 the consent of Camilla Guerina, a young woman to 
 whom he had previously been affianced, he set out 
 along with Stefano Negrino. On their arrival in Cala- 
 bria, they found the country in a state of agitation; 
 and after labouring for some time to quiet the minds 
 of the people and comfort them under persecution, 
 they were both apprehended at the instance of the 
 inquisitor. Negrino was allowed to perish of hunger 
 in his prison. Paschali, after being kept eight months 
 in confinement at Cosenza, was conducted to Naples, 
 from which he \vas transferred to Rome. His suffer- 
 ings were great, and he bore them with the most un- 
 common fortitude and patience, as appears from the 
 letters, equally remarkable for their noble sentiments 
 a.nd pious unction, which he wrote from his prisons 
 to the persecuted flock in Calabria, to his afflicted 
 spouse, and to the church of Geneva. Giving an ac- 
 tion before the supreme court of justice at Turin. (Hist, des Mar- 
 tyrs, f. 4186.) 
 
 * The account of Varaglia was transmitted to Pantaleon by Curio, 
 (Rerum in Eccl. Gest. p. 334, 335. Hist, des Martyrs, f. 418— 
 421.) In 1563, the nuncio Visconli wrote to cardinal Borromeo, that 
 more than the half of the Piedmontese were Hugonots. (Epist. apud 
 Gerdes. Ital. Ref. p. 94.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 267 
 
 count of his journey from Cosenza to Naples, he says 
 — " Two of our companions had been prevailed on 
 to recant, but they were no better treated on that ac- 
 count; and God knows what they will suffer at Rome, 
 where they are to be conveyed, as well as Marquet 
 and myself. The good Spaniard, our conductor, 
 wished us to give him a sum of money to be relieved 
 from the chain by which we were bound to one an- 
 other; and, with the view of extorting a bribe, he 
 put on me a pair of handcuffs so strait that they en- 
 tered into the flesh and deprived me of all sleep ; but 
 I found that nothing would satisfy him short of all 
 the money I had, amounting to two ducats, which I 
 needed for my support. At night the beasts were 
 better treated than we, for their litter was spread for 
 them, while we were obliged to lie on the hard ground 
 without any covering ; and in this condition we re- 
 mained for nine nights. On our arrival at Naples, 
 we were thrust into a cell, noisome in the highest 
 degree, from the damp and the ordure of the pri- 
 soners." 
 
 His brother, Bartolomeo, who had come from Cuni, 
 with letters of recommendation to endeavour to pro- 
 cure his liberty, gives an interesting account of the 
 first interview which, after great difficulty, he obtain- 
 ed with him at Rome, in the presence of a judge of 
 the inquisition. " It was quite hideous to see him, 
 with his bare head, and his arms and hands lacerated 
 by the small cords with which he was bound, like one 
 about to be led to the gibbet. On advancing to em- 
 brace him, I sank to the ground. ' My brother!' said 
 he, ' if you are a Christian, why do you distress your- 
 self thus? Do you not know, that a leaf cannot fall 
 to the earth without the will of God ? Comfort your- 
 self in Christ Jesus, for the present troubles are not 
 worthy to be compared with the glory to come.' — 
 'No more of that talk!' exclaimed the inquisitor. 
 When we were about to part, my brother begged the 
 judge to remove him to a less horrid prison. ' There 
 is no other prison for you than this,' was the answer. 
 — ' At least show me a little pity in my last days, and 
 
268 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 God will show it to you.' — ' There is no pity for such 
 obstinate criminals as you/ replied the hardened 
 wretch. A Piedmontese doctor who was present 
 joined me in entreating the judge to grant this favour; 
 but he remained inflexible. ' He will do it for the 
 love of God/ said my brother, in a melting tone. — 
 ^ All the other prisons are full,' replied the judge, eva- 
 sively. — ^ They are not so full but that a small corner 
 can be spared for me.' — * You would infect all who were 
 near you by your smooth speeches.' — ^ I will speak to 
 none who does not speak to me.' — ^Be content; you 
 cannot have another place.' — ' I must then have pa- 
 tience,' replied my brother, meekly." How convincing 
 a proof of the power of the gospel do we see in the 
 confidence and joy displayed by Paschali, under such 
 protracted and exhausting sufferings ! " My state is 
 this," says he, in a letter to his former hearers — " I 
 feel my joy increase every day as I approach nearer 
 to the hour in which I shall be offered as a sweet- 
 smelling sacrifice to the Lord Jesus Christ, my faith- 
 ful Saviour; yea, so inexpressible is my joy, that I 
 seem to myself to be free from captivity, and am pre- 
 pared to die for Christ, not only once, but ten thou- 
 sand times, if it were possible; nevertheless, I perse- 
 vere in imploring the Divine assistance by prayer, for 
 I am convinced that man is a miserable creature when 
 left to himself, and not upheld and directed by God." 
 A short time before his death, he said to his brother — 
 "I give thanks to my God, that, in the midst of my 
 long-continued and severe affliction, I have found 
 some kind friends; and I thank you, my dearest bro- 
 ther, for the tender interest you have taken in my 
 welfare. But as for me, God has bestowed on me 
 that knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ which as- 
 sures me that I am not in an error, and I know that 
 I must go by the narrow way of the cross, and seal 
 my testimony with my blood. I do not dread death, 
 and still less the loss of my earthly goods ; for I am 
 certain of eternal life and a celestial inheritance, and 
 my heart is united to my Lord and Saviour." When 
 his brother Avas urging him to yield a little, with the 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 269 
 
 view of saving his life and property, he replied, " Oh! 
 my brother, the danger in which you are involved 
 gives me more distress than all that I suffer, or have 
 the prospect of suffering, for I perceive that your 
 mind is so addicted to earthly things as to be indiffer- 
 ent to heaven." At last, on the 8th of September 
 1560, he was brought out to the conventual church of 
 Minerva, to hear his process publicly read; and next 
 day he appeared, without any diminution of his 
 courage, in the court adjoining the castle of St. Ange- 
 lo, where he was strangled and burnt, in the view of 
 the pope and a party of cardinals assembled to wit- 
 ness the spectacle.* 
 
 Passing over others, I shall give an account of two 
 persons of great celebrity for their talents and stations, 
 but whose names, owing to the secrecy with which 
 they were put to death, have not obtained a place in 
 the martyrology of the Protestant church. 
 
 Pietro Carnesecchi was a Florentine of good birth 
 and liberally educated.! From his youth it appeared 
 that he was destined to "stand before kings and not 
 before mean men." Possessing a fine person and a 
 quick and penetrating judgment, he united affability 
 with dignity in his manners, and was at once discreet 
 and generous. Sadolet praises him as "a young man 
 of distinguished virtue and liberal accomplishments;" J 
 and Bembo speaks of him in terms of the highest re- 
 spect and affection. § As he had followed the fortunes 
 of the Medici, he was made secretary, and afterwards 
 apostolical protonotary, to Clement VII., who bestow- 
 ed on him two abbacies, one in Naples and the other 
 in France ; and so great was his influence with that 
 pope, that it was commonly said, "that the Church 
 was governed by Carnesecchi rather than by Clem- 
 
 * Hist, des Martyrs, f. 506—516. Leger, Hist, dcs Eglises Vau- 
 doiscs, part. i. p. 204. 
 
 t Camerarius says, that Francesco Robertello was his preceptor. 
 (Epistolae Flaminii, &,c. apud Schelhornii Amoenit. Litcrarias,tom. x. 
 p. 1200.) If this was the case, the master must have been as young 
 as the scholar. (Tiraboschi, torn. vii. p. 841.) 
 
 t Epist. Famil. vol. ii. p. 189. 
 
 § Lettere, tom. iii. p. 437 — 439. 
 
270 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ent.'^ Yet he conducted himself with so much modes- 
 ty and propriety in his deUcate situation, as not to in- 
 cur envy during the hfe of his patron, and to escape 
 disgrace at his death. His career of worldly honour, 
 which had commenced so auspiciously, was arrested 
 by a very different cause. Being deeply versed in 
 Greek and Roman literature, an eloquent speaker, and 
 a poet, he spent his time, after the death of his patron, 
 in travelling through the different cities of Italy, con- 
 versing with the learned, and adding to his stock of 
 knowledge.* At Naples he formed an intimacy with 
 Valdes, from whom he imbibed the reformed doc- 
 trine ;t and, as he possessed great candour and love of 
 truth, his attachment to these doctrines daily acquired 
 strength from reading, meditation, and conference 
 with learned men. During the better days of cardi- 
 nal Pole, he made one of the select party which met 
 in th^t prelate's house in Viterbo, and spent the time 
 in religious exercises. J When his friend Flamhiio, 
 startled at the thought of leaving the church of Rome, 
 stopped short in his inquiries, Carnesecchi displayed 
 that mental courage which welcomes truth when she 
 tramples on received prejudices, and follows her in 
 spite of the hazards which environ her path.§ After 
 the flight of Ochino and Martyr, he incurred the vio- 
 lent suspicions of those who prosecuted the search 
 after heresy,' and, in 1546, was cited to Rome, where 
 cardinal de Burgos one of the inquisitors, was order- 
 ed to investigate the charges brought against him. 
 He was accused of corresponding with the heretics 
 who had fled from justice, supplying suspected per- 
 sons with money to enable them to retire to foreign 
 
 * Galluzzi. torn. ii. p. 76. 
 
 t Ladcrchii Annales, ad an. 1567. 
 
 t " II resto del giorno passo con questa santa e utile compagnia 
 del Sig-. Carnesecchi, e Mr. Marco Antonio Flaminio nostro. Utile 
 io chiamo, perche la sera poi Mr. Marco Antonio da pasto a me, e 
 alia mig-lior parte della famiglia, de illo cibo qui non perit, in tal 
 maniera che io non so quando io abbia sentito maggior consolatione, 
 ne maggior edificatione." (Lettere, il Card. Keg. Polo al Card. 
 Gasp. Contarini; di Viterbo, alli ix di Decembre 1541 ; Poli Epis- 
 tolae, vol. iii. p. 42.) 
 
 § See before, p. 166. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 271 
 
 parts, giving testimonials to schoolmasters, who un- 
 der the pretext of teaching the rudiments of know- 
 ledge, poisoned the minds of the youth with their 
 heretical catechisms, and particularly with having re- 
 commended to the duchess of Trajetto* two apostates, 
 whom ho extolled as apostles sent to preach the gos- 
 pel to the heathen.t Through the favour of the mild 
 pontiff, Paul III., the matter was accommodated, but 
 Carnesecchi, to avoid the odium which had been ex- 
 cited against him, found it necessary to quit Italy for 
 a season. After spending some time with Margaret, 
 duchess of Savoy, who was not unfriendly to the re- 
 formed doctrines, he went to France, where he en- 
 joyed the favour of the new monarch, Henry II, , and 
 his queen, Catharine de Medicis. In the year 1552, 
 he returned to his native country, confirmed in his 
 opinions by the intercourse which he had with foreign 
 Protestants, J and took up his residence chiefly at 
 Padua, within the Venetian territories, where he was 
 in less danger from the intrigues of the court of 
 Rome, and could enjoy the society of those who 
 were of the same religious sentiments with himself. 
 Paul IV. had not been long seated on the papal 
 throne when a criminal process was commenced 
 against him. As he did not choose to place himself at 
 the mercy of that furious pontifl" by making a personal 
 appearance, he was summoned at Rome and Venice, 
 and failing to appear within the prescribed term, the 
 sentence of excommunication was launched against 
 him, by which he was delivered over to the secular 
 power to be punished as a contumacious heretic. § 
 
 * See before p. 159. t Laderchli Annal. ad an. 1567. 
 
 \ Laderchius says he formed an intimacy with Phihp Melanchthon; 
 but as the latter was never in France, Scheliiorn thinks the person 
 referred to might be Andrew Melanchthon, a relation of that reformer, 
 who was imprisoned for preaching in the Agenois. (Amoen. Hist. 
 Eccles. torn. ii. p. 192.) 
 
 § The process against him was commenced October 25, 1557; the 
 monitory summons was issued March 24, 1558; and the excommu- 
 nication was passed April 6, 1559. (Laderchius, ut supra.) Galluzzi, 
 in his history of the grand duchy of Tuscany, says, that Cosmo, by 
 means of letters of commendation, prorogations, and attestations of 
 infirmity, contrived to avert the sentence during tiie life of that pope. 
 
272 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 When Giovanni Angelo de' Medici ascended the 
 chair of St. Peter, under the name of Pius IV., Car- 
 nesecchi, who had always been a zealous friend to 
 the family of this pontiff, obtained from him the 
 removal of the sentence of excommunication, without 
 his being required to make any abjuration of his opin- 
 ions. The popish writers complain, that, notwith- 
 standing these repeated favours, he still kept up his 
 correspondence Avith heretics in Naples, Rome, Flo- 
 rence, Venice, Padua, and other places both within 
 and without Italy ; that he gave supplies of money to 
 Pietro Gelido, Leone Marionio, and others who had 
 fled to Geneva; and that he recommended the wri- 
 tings of the Lutherans while he spoke degradingly of 
 those of the Catholics. On the accession of Pius V. 
 he retired to Florence, and put himself under the pro- 
 tection of Cosmo, the grand duke of Tuscany, justly 
 dreading the vengeance of the new pope. From 
 papers afterwards found in his possession, it appears 
 that he had intended to retire to Geneva, but was 
 induced, by the confidence which he placed in his 
 protector, to delay the execution of his purpose until 
 it was too late. At a conclave held at Rome for the 
 special purpose, measures were concerted for obtain- 
 ing possession of his person. Cardinal Pacecco, a 
 distinguished member of the sacred college, addressed 
 a flattering letter to the duke, in which, after praising 
 his zeal for the holy see, and telling him that he could 
 never have a better opportunity of testifying it and 
 gratifying his holiness, he added, that it should not be 
 matter of surprise that such eagerness was shown for 
 the apprehension of one man, as the example would 
 draw after it the most important consequences, in 
 which his excellency himself might share. The mas- 
 ter of the sacred palace was sent to Florence with a 
 letter to Cosmo, written with the pope's own hand, 
 and instructions to request him to deliver up a heretic 
 who had long laboured to destroy the Catholic faith, 
 and corrupted the minds of multitudes.* When the 
 messenger arrived and delivered his credentials, Car- 
 
 * Galluzzi, torn. ii. p. 78, 79. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 273 
 
 nesecchi was sitting at table with the duke, who, to 
 ingratiate himself with the pope, ordered his guest 
 to be immediately laid under arrest, and conducted as 
 a prisoner to Rome ; a violation of the laws of hos- 
 pitality and friendship, for which he received the 
 warm thanks of his holiness.* The prisoner was 
 proceeded against without delay before the inqui- 
 sition, on a charge consisting of no fewer than thirty- 
 four articles, which comprehended all the peculiar doc- 
 trines held by Protestants in opposition to the church 
 of Rome.t Achilles Statins, a native of Portugal, who 
 had formerly held the situation of secretary to him, 
 acted on the present occasion as his legal accuser. 
 The articles were proved by witnesses, and by the 
 letters of the prisoner, who, after defending himself 
 for some time, admitted the truth of the main charges, 
 and owned that the articles contained generally a state- 
 ment of the opinions which he entertained. We have 
 the testimony of a popish historian, who consulted the 
 records of the holy office, to the constancy and firm- 
 ness with which the prisoner avowed his sentiments 
 to the last. " With hardened heart," says he, " and 
 uncircumcised ears, he refused to yield to the neces- 
 sity of his circumstances, and thus rendered the ad- 
 monitions and the often repeated delays granted to 
 him for deliberation useless; nor could he, by any 
 means, be induced to abjure his errors and to return 
 to the true religion, according to the wish of Pius, 
 who had resolved, on the appearance of penitence, to 
 visit his past crimes with a more lenient punishment 
 than they merited.''^ The same account is given by 
 the historian of the grand duchy of Tuscany, who says 
 
 * Thuani Hist, ad an. 1566. Laderchius, who has inserted, in his 
 Annals, the pope's letters to Cosmo, admits the truth of Dc Thou's 
 narrative as to the manner of Camesecehi's apprehension, which hfe 
 applauds — " ex bene acta re et optima Cosmi mentc." The letter 
 demanding Carnesecchi is dated June 20, and the letter of thanks, 
 July 1, 1566. 
 
 t The articles are given at large by Laderchius, m his Annals, 
 from which they have been reprinted by Schelhorn, (Ama^n. Hist. 
 Eccles. torn. ii. p. 197—205,) and by Gerdesius, with some abridg- 
 ment. (Ital. Ref. p. 144—148.) 
 
 X Laderchius, ut supra. 
 
274 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 that Cosmo, by letters and messages, sought to move 
 the clemency of th& pope and cardinals ; but that all his 
 efforts were rendered useless by "the fanaticism'^ of 
 Carnesecchi.* On the 16th of August, 1567, sentence 
 was pronounced against him, and on the 21st of Sep- 
 tember it was publicly read in the church of St. Mary, 
 near Minerva, along with those of other heretics.t He 
 was condemned as an incorrigible heretic, deprived of 
 all honours, dignities, and benefices, and delivered over 
 to the secular arm ; after which he was degraded, and 
 clothed with a sanhenito, painted with flames and 
 devils. The final execution of the sentence was, how- 
 ever, delayed for ten days. Whether this delay pro- 
 ceeded from deference to the duke, or a hope of being 
 able to present such a distinguished person as Car- 
 nesecchi in the character of a penitent on the scaffold, 
 it may be difficult to determine. During the interval, 
 a Capuchin of Pistoia was incarcerated along with 
 him, with the view of inducing him to recant ; but as 
 the labours of the friar proved fruitless, Carnesecchi 
 was brought out on the 3d of October, and being be- 
 headed, his body was consumed in the flames. " His 
 fanaticism," says a historian, who has furnished us 
 with some minute particulars respecting him, " sus- 
 tained him to the very last moment. He went to exe- 
 cution as to a triumph, and appeared with new linen 
 and gloves, as his inflamed sanbenito did not admit 
 of his wearing any other piece of apparel.":]: 
 
 * Heresy was the word used in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 
 turies; but the writers of the Church of Rome in the eighteenth cen- 
 tury substitute the word fanaticism, as calculated to lessen the odium 
 of the severities employed against the Protestants, on the minds of 
 men living in an age more distinguished for its liberality than its 
 faith. 
 
 t In the diary of Cardinal Farnese is the following entry, under 
 the 19th September, 1567: — " Sanctissimus Dominus noster hortatus 
 est, et invitavit omnes Reverendissimos Dominos, ut accederent ad 
 videndum, et audiendum abjurationem liEereticorum, qui fieri debet 
 die Dominico proximo futuro in Ecclesia B. Maria3 prope Minervam." 
 To this is added, in the original MS., " Lata est haec sententia die 
 Sabbathi 16 Augusti 1567 ; die vero Dominico 21 Septembris ejus- 
 dem anni, in Ecclesia S. Mariae supra Minervam publico recitata." 
 
 t Galluzzi, tom. ii. p. 80. Laderchius expresses great displeasure 
 at De Thou for saying that Carnesecchi was condemned to the fire, 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 275 
 
 . It has been the barbarous poUcy of the church of 
 Rome to destroy the fame, however well earned, and, 
 if possible, to aboUsh the memory and blot out the 
 very names of those whose lives she has taken away 
 for heresy. Flaminio himself did not escape this 
 "occult censure," as it has been called; and his name 
 was expunged from letters which were published after 
 his death, though he was never formally convicted of 
 heresy, and had several friends in the sacred college.* 
 The subject is curious, and it may not be improper to 
 adduce an example or two. The celebrated Muretus 
 was engaged in publishing a work which was intend- 
 ed to contain a poem in praise of Carnesecchi. In 
 the meantime, a prosecution for heresy was com- 
 menced against the object of his panegyric, which 
 threw the delicate author into great perplexity. 
 Averse to lose the ode, but afraid to associate himself 
 with a person suspected of heresy, he held a consul- 
 tation on the subject, and the result was, that his cau- 
 tion conquered his vanity, and the poem was sup- 
 pressed.! Carnesecchi was the intimate friend of the 
 learned printer, Paulus Manutius, and was godfather 
 to one of his sons. In an edition of his letters pub- 
 lished in 1558, this scholar, writing to Muretus, had 
 spoken in the most kindly manner of his Carnesecchi; 
 but in subsequent editions, including those which 
 proceeded from his own press, we find the harsh 
 name of his friend gratefully softened down to Molini. 
 
 without saying whether he was to be committed to it dead or alive; 
 and he asserts that the Roman Church never decreed that heretics 
 should be burnt ahve. But in his next volume, he found it necessary 
 to correct his error, and to admit the truth of what he had denied. 
 (Annal. tom. xxiii. f. 200.) 
 
 * " Neque tamen occultam censuram cfFugit, (Flaminius,) ejus 
 nomine passim in epistolis, quK postea publicataB sunt, expuncto." 
 (Thuani Hist, ad an. 1551.) Schelhorn has produced a number of 
 instances in illustration of the truth of De Thou's assertion. Ergoctz- 
 lichkeiten, tom. i. p. 201—205. 
 
 t The passage relating to this subject is in a letter to Paulus Manu- 
 tius, and begins in the following characteristic strain — " Erat ad 
 Petrum Tiv ^n^ox^r^v (finge aliquod ejusmodi nomcn aut latinuiii aut 
 vernaculuni, ita quern dicam intcUigcs) ode una jam pridcm scripta ; 
 de qua, quid faciam, nescio," «fec. (Mureti Oral, ct Epist. lib. i. p. 
 442. Lips. 1672.) 
 
i276 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Again, in a dedication of the works of Sallust to car- 
 dinal Trivulzi, printed in 1557, Manutius mentions 
 " Petrus Carnesecus, the protonotary, an honoured 
 person, distinguished for every virtue, and excelling^ 
 in a cuhivated mind, all that I have met with in the 
 course of my life;" but in the subsequent editions of 
 the dedication we look in vain for the name of the 
 " honoured" protonotary ! The same person printed, 
 in 1556, select letters of illustrious men, containing 
 one written in a laudatory strain by Cosmo Ghieri, 
 bishop of Fano, to " Carnesecchi, apostolical protono- 
 tary;" but in an enlarged edition of the work pub- 
 lished at Venice in 1568, the office only, and not the 
 name of the person to whom that letter was addressed, 
 appears. " It is not so much to be wondered at," 
 says Schelhorn, when speaking of the verses written 
 in praise of this martyr, "that they should have been 
 afraid to mention, at least in Italian, his name, at a 
 time when the funeral pile, on which his body was 
 consumed to ashes, was yet smoking; but that, at the 
 expiry of nearly two centuries, such innocent and 
 beautiful poems, which do not treat of religion, and 
 had been published, should be still suppressed, merely 
 because they were addressed to Carnesecchi, is a clear 
 proof that the prohibitory laws of Rome continue to 
 have no small authority in the Venetian states."* 
 About the middle of the eighteenth century, an edition 
 of the poems of Flaminio was published by one of his 
 countrymen, who found it necessary, or judged it 
 prudent, to omit the odes addressed to Carnesecchi, 
 " lest he should incur the censure of those who have 
 said and written that Marcus Antonius Flaminius was 
 a heretic, because he cultivated the friendship of Car- 
 nesecus."! Nor is this all; for the learned editor, 
 in quoting from a dedication to a former edition of the 
 
 * Schelhorn, Ergoetzlichkciten, torn, 1. p. 205 — 209. 
 
 t Flaminii Cannina, ex prelo Cominiano, 1743, p. 375. The 
 editor, Franciscus Maria Mancurtius, had included the odes referred 
 to, in a former edition of the work printed in 1727. (Schelhorn, 
 Erg-oetzlichkeiten, torn. i. p. 189, 191, 197. Conf. AmcEn. Hist. Eccl. 
 torn. ii. p. 209.) I subjoin one of the poems, from which the learned 
 reader will judge of the violence which the editor must have done to 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 277 
 
 poems, in v/hich Carnesecchi was highly praised,* 
 suppresses his name ; forgetting, perliaps, that the ex- 
 cellent author whose works he was editing had him- 
 self been formerly subjected to the same unworthy 
 treatment. It is impossible to say how far this system 
 of suppression was carried. Another instance of it 
 may be given. A letter of Cardinal Maffei to Lodo- 
 vico Castelvetro, in which his eminence expresses the 
 highest esteem for that scholar, was published in 1556, 
 among a collection of the epistles of illustrious men; 
 but in a new edition of the work which appeared in 
 1568, after Castelvetro had incurred the stigma of 
 heresy, his name is not to be seen.t These facts are 
 not foreign to our subject. They will suggest to the 
 intelligent reader a train of reflections as to the fatal 
 influence which bigotry and intolerance must have 
 exerted at this time in Italy over all that is liberal in 
 
 his taste, when he prevailed on himself afterwards to exclude it: — 
 
 Ad Petrum Carnesecum. 
 
 O dulce hospitium, O lares beati, 
 
 O mores faciles, et Atticorom 
 
 ConditaB sale coUectiones, 
 
 Quam vos, aegro animo et laborioso, 
 
 Quantis cum lacrymis, miser relinquo I 
 
 Cur me sceva necessitas abire, 
 
 Cur vultum, atque oculos, jocosque suaves 
 
 Cogit linquere tarn veuusti amici ? 
 
 Ah reges valeant, opesque regum, 
 
 Et quisquis potuit domos potentum 
 
 Anteponere candidi sodalis 
 
 Blandis alloquiis, facetiisque; 
 
 Sed quanquam procul a tuis ocellis, 
 
 Jucundissime Carnescce, abibo 
 
 Regis imperium mei secutus, 
 
 Non loci tamen ulla, temporisve 
 
 Intervalla, tuos mihi lepores, 
 
 Non mores ipsa adiment. Manebo tecum, 
 
 Tecum semper ero, tibique semper 
 
 Magnam partem animas mea3 relinquara, 
 Mellite, optime, mi venuste amice. 
 * Schelhorn, Ergoetz. tom. i. p. 196, 197. The dedication was ad- 
 dressed to Margaret, sister of Henry II. of France, and contained 
 these words : — " Cum Petrus Carnesecus, lectissimus Sc ornatissimus 
 vir, de tua singulari erga Deum pietate, et assiduo litteraruni studio, 
 ad me multa scripsisset," &,c. Mancurti gives the passage thus: — 
 "Cum lectissimus ct ornatissimus quidam vir," &.C. 
 t Biblioteca Modenese, tom.i. p. 437. 
 
278 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 letters or generous in spirit. If it is only after the 
 most laborious search, and often in the way of catch- 
 ing at obscure hints, detecting fallacious names, and 
 cross-examining and confronting editions of the works 
 of the learned, that we have been able to discover 
 much of what we know of the Reformation and its 
 friends in that country, how many facts respecting 
 them must remain hid, or have been irrecoverably 
 lost, in consequence of the long continuance of a prac- 
 tice so indefensible in itself and so disgraceful to the 
 republic of letters. 
 
 We have already spoken of Aonio Paleario, or, 
 according to his proper name, Antonio dalla Paglia.* 
 On quitting the Siennese about the year 1543, he em- 
 braced an invitation from the senate of Lucca, where 
 he taught the Latin classics, and acted as orator to 
 the republic on solemn occasions. To this place he 
 was followed by Maco Blaterone, one of his former 
 adversaries, a sciolist who possessed that volubility of 
 tongue which captivates the vulgar ear, and whose 
 ignorance and loquacity had been severely chastised, 
 but not corrected, by the satirical pen of Aretino. 
 Lucca at that time abounded with men of enlightened 
 and honourable minds; and the eloquence of Paleario, 
 sustained by the lofty bearing of his spirit, enabled 
 him easily to triumph over his unworthy rival, who, 
 disgraced and driven from the city, sought his revenge 
 from the Dominicans at Rome. By means of his 
 friends in the conclave, Paleario counteracted at that 
 time the informations of his accuser, which, however, 
 were produced against him at a future period.! Mean 
 
 * Tirabosclii, Storia, vii. 1452. The wretched iambics in which 
 Latinus Latinius charges Paleario with having renounced his bap- 
 tism by changing his Christian name, and alleges that his dropping 
 the letter T from it was ominous of the manner in which " the 
 wretched old man expiated his crimes on a gibbet," have been 
 thought worthy of a place in the Menagiana. De la Monnoye, who 
 wrote an epigram in Greek and Latin in opposition to them, says — 
 " They are so frigid, that they would have quenched the flames in 
 which Paleario was consumed." (Menag. tom. i. p. 217.) 
 
 t Epistolee, lib. iii. : Opera Palearii, p. 525—531, 550—554, edit. 
 Halbaueri. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 279 
 
 while, his spirit submitted with rekictance to the 
 drudgery of teaching languages, and his income was 
 insufficient for supporting the domestic establishment 
 which his wife, who had been genteelly bred, aspired 
 to.* In these circumstances, after remaining about 
 ten years at Lucca, he accepted an invitation from the 
 senate of Milan, which conferred on him a liberal 
 salary, together with special immunities, as professor 
 of eloquence.! He kept his place in that city during 
 seven years, though in great perils amidst the severi- 
 ties practised towards those suspected of favouring 
 the new opinions. But in the year 1566, while de- 
 liberating about his removal to Bologna,J he was 
 caught in the storm which burst on so many learned 
 and excellent men at the elevation of Pius V. to the 
 pontifical chair. Being seized by Frate Angelo de 
 Cremona, the inquisitor, and conveyed to Rome, he 
 was committed to close confinement in the Torre 
 Nona. Plis book on the benefit of Christ's death, his 
 commendations of Ochino,§ his defence of himself 
 before the Senators at Sienna, and the suspicions 
 which he had incurred during his residence at that 
 place and at Lucca, were all revived against him. 
 After the whole had been collected and sifted, the 
 charge at last resolved itself into the four follow- 
 ing articles : — that he denied purgatory ; disapproved 
 of burying the dead in churches, preferring the an- 
 cient Roman method of sepulture without the walls 
 of cities ; ridiculed the monastic life ; and appear- 
 ed to ascribe justification solely to confidence in 
 the mercy of God forgiving our sins through Jesus 
 Christ. II For holding these opinions, he was con- 
 demned, after an imprisonment of three years, to be 
 suspended on a gibl3et and his body to be given to 
 the flames ; and the sentence was executed on the 3d 
 
 * Epist. lib. iv. ; Ibid. p. 563. 
 
 t Halbauer has given the diploma of the civic authorities in his 
 life of Paleario, p. 27— 29. 
 
 t Tiraboschi, Storia, vii. 1454. 
 
 § Palearii Opera, p. 102, 103. 
 
 11 Laderchii Annales, torn. xxii. p. 202. 
 
280 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 of July 1570, in the seventieth year of his age.* A 
 minute, which professes to be an official document of 
 the Dominicans who attended him in his last moments, 
 but which has neither names nor signatures, states 
 that Paleario died confessed and contrite.! The testi- 
 mony of such interested reporters, though it had been 
 better authenticated, is not to be implicitly received: 
 as it is well known that they were accustomed to 
 boast, Avithout the slightest foundation, of the conver- 
 sions which they made on such occasions.! In the 
 present instance it is contradicted by the popish con- 
 tinuator of the annals of the church, who drew his 
 materials from the records of the inquisition, and re- 
 presents Paleario as dying impenitent. His words are 
 — "When it appeared that this son of Belial was ob- 
 stinate and refractory, and could by no means be re- 
 covered from the darkness of error to the light of truth, 
 he was deservedly delivered to the fire, that, after 
 suffering its momentary pains here, he might be 
 bound in everlasting flames hereafter."§ The un- 
 natural and disordered conceptions which certain per- 
 sons have of right and wrong prompt them to impart 
 facts which their more judicious but not less guilty 
 associates would have concealed or coloured. To this 
 we owe the following account of Paleario 's behaviour 
 on his trial before the cardinals of the inquisition: — 
 " When he saw that he could produce nothing in de- 
 fence of his pravity," says the annalist last quoted, 
 "falling into a rage he broke out in these words — 
 ' Seeing your eminences have so many credible wit- 
 nesses against me, it is unnecessary for you to give 
 
 * Writers have varied as to the year of his martyrdom, which, 
 however, may be considered as determined by an extract from a 
 register kept in San Giovanni de' Fiorentini di Roma, which was 
 printed in Novelle Letterarie dell' Anno 1745, p. 328, and reprinted 
 by Schelhorn. (Dissert, de Mino Celso Senensi, p. 25.) 
 
 t Diss, de Mino Celso, p. 26. Tiraboschi, following Padra Lago- 
 marsini and Abbate Lazzeri, has adopted this opinion, but solely on 
 the ground referred to in the text. 
 
 t Conringius has shown this from a variety of examples. (PrtB- 
 fat. ad Cassandri et Wicelii Libr. de Sacris nostri temporis Contro- 
 versiis, p. 148.) 
 
 § Laderchii Annal. torn. xx. f. 204. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 281 
 
 yourselves or me longer trouble. I am resolved to 
 act according to the advice of the blessed apostle 
 Peter, when he says, Christ sulfered for us, leaving 
 us an example that we should follow his steps, who 
 did no evil neither was guile found in his mouth, who, 
 when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suf- 
 fered threatened not, but committed himself to him 
 that judgeth righteously. Proceed then to give judg- 
 ment — pronounce sentence on Aonio, and thus gratify 
 his adversaries and fulfil your office.' "* Instead of 
 supposing that the person who uttered these words 
 was under the influence of passion, every reader of 
 right feeling will be disposed to exclaim, " Here is 
 the patience and the faith of the saints !" Before 
 leaving his cell for the place of execution, he was per- 
 mitted, by the monks who waited on him, to write two 
 letters, one to his wife, and another to his sons, Lam- 
 pridio and Fedro.t They are sliort, but the more 
 affecting from this very circumstance ; because it is 
 evident, that he was restrained by the fear of saying 
 any thing which, by giving ofience to his judges, 
 might lead to the suppression of the letters, or to the 
 harsh treatment of his family after his death. They 
 testify the pious fortitude with which he met his 
 death, as an issue which he had long anticipated and 
 wished for, and that warmth of conjugal and paternal 
 affection which breathes in all his letters.:}: They also 
 afford a negative proof that the report of his recan- 
 tation was unfounded ; for if he had really changed 
 his sentiments, would he not have felt anxious to 
 acquaint his family with the fact? or, if the change 
 was feigned, would not the monks have insisted, 
 on his using the language of a penitent, when they 
 granted him permission to write ? 
 
 Paleario had, before his apprehension, taken care 
 to secure his writings against the risk of suppression, 
 by committing them to the care of friends whom he 
 could trust; and their repeated publication in Protes- 
 
 * Laderchii Annal. torn. xx. f. 205. 
 t He left two sons and two daughters. 
 t The two letters will be found in the appendix. 
 19 
 
282 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 tant countries has saved them from those mutilations 
 to which the works of so many of his countrymen 
 have been subjected. From his letters it appears that 
 he enjoyed the friendship and correspondence of the 
 most celebrated persons of that time both in the 
 church and in the republic of letters. Among the 
 former were cardinals Sadolet, Bembo, Pole, Maffei^ 
 Badia, Filonardo, Sfondrati ; and, among the latter, 
 Flaminio, Riccio, Alciati, Vittorio, Lampridio, and 
 Buonamici. His poem on the immortality of the 
 soul was received with applause by the learned."^ It 
 is, perhaps, no high praise to say of his orations, that 
 they placed him above all the moderns who obtained 
 the name of Ciceronians, from their studious imitation 
 of the style of the Roman orator; but they are certain- 
 ly written with elegance and spirit.! His letter on 
 the council of Trent, addressed to the Reformers, and 
 his testimony and pleading against the Roman pon- 
 tiffs, evince a knowledge of the Scriptures, soundness 
 in the faith, candour, and fervent zeal, worthy of a 
 Reformer and confessor of the truth.J His tract on 
 
 * Tiraboschi, Storia, vii. 1454 — 1456. Sadolet says of it, in a 
 letter to Sebastian Grypha^us, " Tam graviter, tarn erudite, tarn 
 etiam et verbis et numeris apte et eleganter tractatum esse, nihil ut 
 i'erme nostrorum temporum leg-erini, quod me in eo genere delectavit 
 magis." — (Palearii Opera, p. G27; conf. p. 624,) 
 
 t MorhofF says — " Longe aliter sonat quod Palearius scribit, quim 
 Longolius et alii inepti Ciceronis imitatores." (Colleg. Epistolic. 
 p. 17.) Crenius has collected several testimonies to the merit of Pa- 
 learius. (Animad. Philolog. et Historic, part. ii. p. IS — 23, Conf. 
 Miscell. Groning. torn, iii, p. 92, 93. Des Maizeaux, Scaligerana, 
 &c. torn. ii. p, 483. A Life of Paleario is in Bayle and in Niceron. 
 
 t The letter appears to have been written with the view of being 
 sent along with Ochino v»^hcn he retired from Italy ; and one copy 
 of it was addressed to Bucer and another to Calvin. Salig gave an 
 account of it without knowing the autlior ; (Historic dcr Augsbur- 
 gischen Confession, torn. ii. lib. v, p. 66 ;) but it was published, for the 
 iirst time, in 1737, by Schelhorn, along with a short account of the 
 martyrdom of the author. (Amcenit. Hist. Eccles. torn. i. p. 425 — 
 462.) The other work, entitled Tesii/nonia et Actio in Fordijices Ro- 
 nianos et eorum Asseclas, though intended also by the author to be 
 sent across the Alps, Vv'as first Ibund in his handwriting at Sienna in 
 the year 1596, and printed in 1606 at Leipsic. (Halbauer, Vita Pa- 
 learii, p. 49.) The only peculiar opinion which the author adopted 
 was the unlawfuhiess of an oath in any case, which he endeavours 
 to support at some length. (Opera, p, 317, &.c.) When he calls 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 283 
 
 the benefit of the death of Christ was uncommonly 
 useful, and made a great noise at its first publication. 
 Forty thousand copies of it were sold in the course of 
 six years.* It is said that cardinal Pole had a share 
 in composing this work, and that Flaminio wrote a 
 defence of it;t and activity in circulating it formed 
 one of the charges on which cardinal Morone was 
 imprisoned, and Carnesecchi committed to the flames. :j: 
 When we take into consideration his talents, his zeal, 
 the utility of his writings, and the sufferings which 
 he endured, Paleario must be viewed as one of the 
 greatest ornaments of the Reformed cause in Italy. § 
 
 A number of other excellent men sufi"ered about 
 the same time with Carnesecchi and Paleario, of 
 whom the most noted were Julio Zannetti and Barto- 
 lommeo Bartoccio.|| The latter was the son of a 
 wealthy citizen of Castel, in the duchy of Spoletto, 
 and imbibed the Reformed doctrine from Fabrizio 
 Tommassi of Gubbio, a learned young gentleman, 
 who was his companion in arms at the siege of Sien- 
 
 marriage a sacrament, he appears to me merely to mean that it was 
 a divine or sacred ordinance. (Ibid. p. 305, 315.) 
 * Schelhorn, Erg-oetzlichkciten. torn. i. p. 27. 
 t Schelhorn, Amoenit. Hist. Eccles. torn. i. p. 156. Laderchii An- 
 nal. torn. xxii. p. 326. 
 
 t Wolfii Lect. Memorab. torn. ii. p. 656. Schelhorn, ut supra, torn, 
 ii. p. 205. The only writer for two centuries, so far as I know, who 
 has seen the original of this rare work, is Reiderer. The proper title 
 is — Trattato utilissimo del beneficio de Giesu Christo crucifisso, ver- 
 so i Christiani. Venetiis apud Bernardinum de Bindonis, Anno Do. 
 1543. (Nachrichten zur Kirchen-gelerten and Biicher.geschichte, 
 torn. iv. p. 121.) An answer was made to it by Ambrogio Catarino, 
 who was afterwards rewarded with an archbishopric. 
 
 § The Italian works of Paleario, printed and in MS., including 
 some poems, are mentioned by Tiraboschi. (Tom. vii. p. 1456.) 
 Joannes Matthaeus Toscanus, the author of Peplus JtalicB, who was 
 a pupil of Paleario, composed the following verses, among others, on 
 his master : — 
 
 Aonio Aonides Graios prompsere lepores, 
 
 Et quascunque vetus protulit Hellas opes. 
 Aonio Latiae tinxerunt melle Camoenae. 
 
 Verba ligata modis, verba soluta modis. 
 Quae nee longa dies, ncc (quae scelerata cremasti, 
 Aonii corpus) perdere flamma potest. 
 II Thuani Hist, ad an. 1556. Mat. Flacii Catal. Test. Vcrit. ap- 
 pend. 
 
284 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 na.* On returning home he zealously propagated the 
 truth, and made converts of several of his relations. 
 During a dangerous sickness by which he was attack- 
 ed, he refused to avail himself of the services of the 
 family confessor, and resisted all the arguments by 
 which the bishop of the diocese attempted to bring 
 him back to the catholic faith ; upon which he was 
 summoned, along with his companions, before the 
 governor Paolo Vitelli. Though still weak with the 
 effects of his distemper, he rose in the night time, 
 surmomited the wall of the city by the help of a pike, 
 and escaped first to Sienna and afterwards to Venice. 
 Having ascertained by letters that there was no hope 
 of his being allowed to return to his native place, or 
 of his receiving any support from his father, except 
 in the way of recanting his opinions, he retired to 
 Geneva, where he married, and became a manufac- 
 turer of silk. In the end of the year 1567, while 
 visiting Genoa in the course of trade, he imprudent- 
 ly gave his real name to a merchant, and was appre- 
 hended by the inquisition. The magistrates of Ge- 
 neva and Berne sent to demand his liberation from 
 the Genoese republic ; but before their envoy arrived, 
 the prisoner had been sent to Rome at the request of 
 the pope. After suffering an imprisonment of nearly 
 two years, he was sentenced to be burnt alive. The 
 courage which Bartoccio had all along displayed did 
 not forsake him in the trying hour; he walked to the 
 place of execution with a firm step and unaltered 
 countenance; and the cry, vitioria, vittoinal was 
 distinctly heard from his lips, after his body was en- 
 veloped in the flames, t 
 
 But it is time to bring this distressing part of the 
 narrative to a close. Suffice it to say, that, during the 
 whole of this century, the prisons of the inquisition in 
 Italy, and particularly at Rome, were filled with vic- 
 tims, including persons of noble birth, male and fe- 
 male, men of letters and mechanics. Multitudes were 
 condemned to penance, to the galleys, or other arbi- 
 
 * In 1555.. t Histoire des Martyrs, f. 757, 758. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 285 
 
 trary punishments; and, from time to time, individ- 
 uals were put to death. Several of the prisoners were 
 foreigners, who had visited the country in the course 
 of business or of their travels. Englishmen were 
 peculiarly obnoxious to this treatment.* At an ear- 
 lier period. Dr. Thomas Wilson, afterwards secretary 
 to Queen Elizabeth, was accused of heresy, and 
 thrown into the prisons of the inquisition at Rome, 
 on account of some things which were contained in 
 his books on logic and rhetoric. He made his escape 
 in consequence of his prison doors being broke open 
 during the tumult which took place at the death of 
 pope Paul IV.t Among those who escaped by this 
 occurrence was also John Craig, one of our reformers, 
 who lived to draw up the national covenant, in which 
 Scotland solemnly abjured the popish religion. J Dr. 
 Thomas Reynolds was less fortunate. After residing 
 for some time at Naples, he was informed against to 
 the bishop, who sent him to Rome, along with three 
 Neapolitan gentlemen, accused of heresy. With the 
 view of forcing him to depose against his fellow pris- 
 oners, he was subjected to the torture called by the 
 Italians la tratta di corda, and by the Spaniards 
 Vastrapado; and, in consequence of this and similar 
 treatment, he died in prison in November 1566.§ In 
 the year 1595 two persons were burnt alive in Rome, 
 the one an Endishman and the other a native of Si- 
 lesia; the former having, in a fit of zeal, indiscreetly 
 torn the host from the hands of the priest who was 
 carrying it in procession, had his hand cut off at the 
 
 * Histoire des Martyrs, f. 758, a. 
 
 t Dr. Wilson, after giving an account of his imprisonment and 
 escape, in a new edition of one of his works printed in 1560, adds 
 facetiously — " And now that I am come home, this booke is shewed 
 me, and I am desired to looke upon it and to amende it where I 
 thought meete. Amende it? quoth I. Nay; let the book first 
 amende itself, and make me amendes. For surely I have no cause 
 to acknowledge it for my booke ; because I have so smarted for it. 
 If the Sonne were the occasion of the father's imprisonment, would 
 not the father be offended with him, think you?" (Art of Rhcto- 
 rike. Prologue, sig. A 5. Lond. 1583.) 
 
 X Life of John Knox, vol. ii. p. 55. 
 
 § Strype's Annals, vol. i. p. 526. 
 
286 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Stake before he was committed to the flames. The 
 nobleman who relates this fact, and was then study- 
 ing at the university of Padua, adds, in a postscript to 
 his letter, that he had just heard of some other Eng- 
 lishmen having been thrown into prison at Rome.* 
 Notwithstanding all these severities, persons secretly 
 attached to the reformed doctrines were to be found 
 in that country during the seventeenth century ; and 
 some of our own countr^anen, who had been induced 
 to expatriate themselves out of zeal for popery, were 
 converted to the Protestant faith during their residence 
 in Italy.t 
 
 After these details of cruelty, it may appear a matter 
 of trivial interest to trace the measures adopted for 
 the suppression and destruction of books. From the 
 period of the invention of printing, the regulation of 
 the press had belonged to the civil authorities, who 
 issued, from time to time, orders for suppressing par- 
 ticular books, which were deemed dangerous or unfit 
 for the public eye. In the year 1546, Charles V., 
 anxious to arrest the progress of the new opinions in 
 Flanders, charged the theological faculty of Louvain 
 to draw up a catalogue of such books as ought not to 
 be read by the people ; and, ten years after, this cata- 
 logue was enlarged, and authorized by an imperial 
 edict. li: In Rome the laws on this subject were still 
 
 * Letter from John, Earl of Gowrie, Padua, 28th November 1595; 
 printed in appendix to Life of Andrew Melville. It is probable that 
 the following- extract relates to the execution mentioned above : — " II 
 y a eu plusieurs Anglois, (condamnes,) mais sur tout un, qui a Rome 
 au grand temple de Saint Pierre, lors que le prestre consacroit I'hostie, 
 I'arracha d'entre ses mains, le quel fut puny meritoirement. Le 
 Secretaire de Monsieur Dabain m'a dit I'avoir veu executer." (Scali- 
 gerana Secunda, art. Hceretici.) In bishop Hall's epistles, published 
 in 1614, is a letter " To Mr. John Mole, of a long time now a prison- 
 er under the inquisition at Rome ; exciting him to his wonted con- 
 stancie, and encouraging him to martyrdome." (Epistles, Decade 
 vi. ep. 9.) 
 
 t Mr. Evelyn, in his travels through Italy in 1646, met with a 
 Scotsman, an officer of the army, at Milan, who treated him cour- 
 teously, and who, together with an Irish friar, his confidant, concealed 
 their Protestantism from dread of the inquisition. (Evelyn's Memoirs, 
 vol. i. p. 215—217.) 
 
 t An account of the first register of prohibited books, written in 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 287 
 
 local, and no attempt had been made to extend their 
 authority over the catholic world. But in 1559, pope 
 Paul IV., emulating the zeal of the emperor, resolved 
 to frame a catalogue still more rigid in its prohibitions, 
 and to make its observance universal. Accordingly, 
 he published an index of books, accompanied with a 
 denunciation of the highest pains at his pleasure, and 
 particularly of deprivation of ecclesiastical benefices, 
 censures, and infamy, against all who should not, be- 
 fore a certain time, deliver sach books to the persons 
 appointed to receive them. This index was divided 
 into three classes. The first contained the names of 
 those authors whose whole works, whatever the sub- 
 ject might be of which they treated, were interdicted. 
 The second contained the names of those persons of 
 whose works some only were specified as forbidden. 
 The third pointed out certain books printed without 
 any author's name, and contained a prohibition of all 
 anonymous books published since the year 1519, and 
 of all of the same description which might be publish- 
 ed for the future without the approbation of the ordi- 
 nary of the place and of an inquisitor. To the whole 
 was added a list of upwards of sixty printers, with a 
 prohibition of all works which proceeded from their 
 press, on what subject and in what language soever 
 they were written. Such was the infamous Index 
 Expurgatorins of Rome, an engine devised to ex- 
 tinguish letters in Europe, and to reduce it to the 
 barbarism from which it had lately emerged.* 
 
 Deputies were despatched without delay to the dif- 
 ferent states of Italy, for the purpose of promulgating 
 the papal decree in confirmation of the index, and 
 seeing it carried into effect. The doom of the con- 
 demned books was the same with that pronounced 
 against heretics — consumption by the flames. Tlie 
 
 the language of the Netherlands, and printed at Antwerp in 1540, 
 is given by Riedcrer, in Nachrichten, toni. i. p. 354 — 361. 
 
 * Index Auctorum ct Librorum qui ab Oflicio Sanctac! Roni, &. 
 Universalis Inquisitionis caveri ab omnibus & singulis in universa 
 Christiana Republica mandantur. Hie Index excusus est— de man- 
 date speciali sacri officii, Romte An. D. 1559. Mensc Januarii. 
 
288 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 arrival of the deputies at Florence threw Cosmo, duke 
 of Tuscany, into great perplexity. On the one hand, 
 he was afraid of irritating his holiness and his myr- 
 midons; on the other, to execute such a decree would 
 have been to forfeit the glory of the house of Medici, 
 and to desecrate a city which boasted of being the 
 favourite seat of letters and the arts. From this 
 dilemma he expected to be extricated by the determi- 
 nation of his neighbours. But the senate of Venice 
 temporized, while the viceroy of Naples and the 
 governor of Milan referred the matter to Philip II., 
 who was then in Flanders, though the disposition of 
 that monarch to suppress every species of liberty was 
 sufficiently known. Torelli, an eminent lawyer and 
 first auditor of the duke, having been required to make 
 a report on the subject to his master, presented a re- 
 monstrance stating, that the execution of this indis- 
 creet law would inflict on the citizens of Florence a 
 loss of more than a hundred thousand ducats, would 
 ruin the printers and booksellers, and reduce to ashes 
 all books printed in Germany, Paris, and Lyons, 
 (which were the most highly esteemed,) including 
 Bibles, Greek and Roman classics, and other works 
 of great value and public utility. The Medicean 
 college, through Andrea Pasquali, the duke's physi- 
 cian, represented the injury which it would inflict on 
 the study of the arts; and the deputies of the inquisi- 
 tion themselves, having been probably dealt with in 
 private by Cosmo, seemed to be ashamed to insist on 
 a rigorous execution of their orders. But the cardi- 
 nal of Alexandria (afterwards PiusV.) insisted on the 
 promulgation of the papal decree, in which he was 
 zealously supported by the monks. To this the duke 
 partially consented, appointing it to be carried into 
 effect as to all books contrary to religion, or which 
 treated of magic and judicial astrology, but suspend- 
 ing its execution as to others; and the monks of San 
 Maria, who intended to yield implicit obedience to 
 the papal decree, were given to understand that, as 
 patron of their convent and library, he could not agree 
 to the destruction of so many books, the gift of his 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 289 
 
 ancestors. On the 8th of March 1559, the condem- 
 ned books were accordingly brought out and commit- 
 ted to the flames, with great solemnity, in the piazzas 
 of San Giovanni and Sante Cruce. Notwithstanding 
 the restrictions, the trade suffered so severely, that 
 the magistrates of Basle, Zurich, and Frankfort, ap- 
 plied to Cosmo to use his influence with the pope to 
 obtain some reparation for the loss which their re- 
 spective cities had sustained.* 
 
 In the meantime, the work of conflagration was 
 carried on, without discrimination or remorse at Rome, 
 throughout the states of the church, and in every part 
 of Italy that was under the influence of the papal 
 court, to the dismay of literary men, foreign and 
 native. " At Rome," says BuUinger, in a letter to 
 Blaurer, "Paul IV. has burned all the works of Eras- 
 mus, and also the works of Cyprian, Jerome, and 
 Augustine, because they are polluted, as he foully 
 speaks, with the scholia of Erasmus."! " So great," 
 says Simler, " was the number of books condemned 
 by the pope, that the professors in the Italian acade- 
 mies complained loudly that they would be obliged 
 to desist from lecturing if the edict remained in force. 
 The magistrates of Frankfort, as weU as ours and 
 those of other cities in Germany, wrote to the senate 
 of Venice, urging them not to admit an edict which 
 would put an end to the mutual traflic in books."f 
 An Italian writer of that age says — " The number of 
 books committed to the flames was immense, so that 
 if they had all been collected into one place, it would 
 have equalled the burning of Troy. There was not 
 a library, private or public, which escaped the dis- 
 aster, or which was not nearly annihilated."§ An- 
 other contemporary writer writes thus from Rome to 
 a friend in Germany: — "Why do you think of setting 
 forth new works, at a time when almost all those which 
 have been published are laid under an interdict? No 
 
 * Galluzzi, Istor. del Granduc. di Toscano, torn. i. p. 366—369. 
 
 t Hottinger, Hist. Eccl. torn. ix. p. 408. 
 
 t Vita H. Bullingeri, p. 33. 
 
 § Natalis Comes, Hist. Sui Temporis, b. xi. p. 263. 
 
290 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 one here will, in my opinion, venture for many years 
 to write any thing, except it may be a letter to an ab- 
 sent friend. It is vain for you to labour on the trans- 
 lation of Demosthenes, or the various readings of the 
 Bible. Faernus has been occupied for several days 
 in clearing and purging his library; and I intend to 
 commence the same operation to-morrow, lest some 
 of the prohibited goods should be found in my posses- 
 sion. This shipwreck, or rather conflagration of books 
 will, I doubt not, have the eff"ect of deterring your 
 learned men from writing, and making your printers 
 cautious of what they undertake. As you regard 
 me and yourself, keep your desk close, lest any thing 
 which comes to you should transpire."* 
 
 On the death of Paul IV. the inquisition after books 
 was relaxed, and a new index was published by the 
 authority of the council of Trent, which, while it in- 
 cluded a greater number of Protestant works under 
 the prohibitory sentence, was more select and discri- 
 minate in its censure of other productions of the press. 
 The names of some popish authors formerly stigma- 
 tized were dropped, and a distinction was made among 
 the works of others. But this led to a practice as 
 barbarous as the former. The tolerated works were 
 mangled by the censors of the press, to whose cor- 
 rection they were subjected. Several copies of the 
 works of the fathers are still to be found, in which 
 the annotations of Erasmus are so much disfigured, 
 by being cut with knives, torn with pincers, or 
 besmeared with glutinous matter, as to be utterly 
 illegible. One of these is plastered over with wood- 
 cuts and figures of different kinds, in such a way as 
 to have the appearance of a historical or cosmographi- 
 cal work, instead of one of the fathers; but, on a 
 more minute inspection, Ave ascertain that these 
 figures consist of views of fields of battle, tourna- 
 ments, and executions, maps of cities and countries, 
 drawings of animals, escutcheons, medals, and other 
 prints, which the inquisitors had ordered to be 
 taken out of Munster's Cosmography, and similar 
 
 * Latinus Latinius, Lucubrat. part. ii. p. 61. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 291 
 
 works, when they were condemned to the flames.^ 
 So strict was the search at this period, that domiciUary 
 visits were appointed with the view of discovering 
 such books as were prohibited; and those who were 
 unwilhng to have them committed to the flames, or 
 who had neglected to dehver them up within the pre- 
 scribed time, adopted the precaution of burying them 
 in the earth, or immuring them in their houses. On 
 taking down an old house in Urbino, in the year 1728, 
 the workmen disinterred a copy of Brucioli's para- 
 phrase of Paul's epistles, with some books of Ochino, 
 Valdes, and others of the same kind, which liad re- 
 mained in concealment for more than a century and 
 a half.t 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FOREIGN ITALIAiN CHURCHES, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE REFORMATION 
 
 IN THE GRISONS. 
 
 An account of those exiles who left Italy from attach- 
 ment to the Protestant cause, forms an important 
 branch of our undertaking. It is important, whether 
 we take into view the testimony which was given to 
 the authority of religious principle and the Reformed 
 faith, by the fact of so many persons quitting their 
 homes and all that was dear to them, in obedience to the 
 dictates of conscience, or consider the loss which their 
 imgrateful country sustained by their emigration, and 
 the benefits which accrued to those countries which, 
 with Christian hospitality, opened an asylum to the 
 unfortunate strangers. 
 
 It was calculated that, in the year 1550, the exiles 
 amounted to two hundred, of whom a fourth or fifth 
 part were men of letters, and these not of the meanest 
 
 * Schelhorn, Ergoetzlichkciten, torn. i. p. 20 — 22. 
 t Apostolo Zeno, Note al Fontanini Bibl. della Eloq. Italiana, torn, 
 i. p. 119. 
 
292 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 name.* Before the year 1559, the number had in- 
 creased to eight hundred.! From that time to the 
 year 1568, we have ground to beheve that the increase 
 was fully as great in proportion; and down to the 
 close of the century, individuals weiC to be seen, 
 after short intervals, flying to the north, and throwing 
 themselves on the glaciers of the Alps to escape the 
 fires of the inquisition. 
 
 The settlements which the Italian refugees made in 
 the Grisons claim our first notice. With a few ex- 
 ceptions they all visited that country in the first in- 
 stance, and a great part of them made it the place of 
 their permanent abode. This was chiefly owing to 
 its proximity to Italy, and its afl'ording them the best 
 opportunities of corresponding with the friends they 
 had left behind them, or of gratifying the hope, to 
 which exiles long fondly cling, of revisiting their 
 natal soil, as soon as such a change should occur as 
 would render this step practicable and safe. But in 
 choosing this as a place of residence, they must also 
 have been influenced by the consideration that the 
 native tongue of the inhabitants in the southern de- 
 pendencies of the Grison republic was Italian, while 
 a language bearing a near aflinity to it was spoken 
 over the greater part of the republic itself. The 
 affairs of the Italian settlers in the Grisons are so in- 
 terwoven with the progress of the Reformation in 
 that country, that the former cannot be understood 
 without some account of the latter. I shall be the 
 less scrupulous in entering into details on this subject, 
 because it relates to a portion of the history of the 
 Reformed Church whicli is comparatively little known 
 among us ; for while the interesting fates of the Vau- 
 dois, who took refuge in the Valais and Piedmont, 
 have attracted the attention of ecclesiastical historians 
 to the Cottian or western range of the Alps, the 
 Rhetian or eastern has been in a great measure over- 
 looked. 
 
 To the south-east of Switzerland, in the higher re- 
 
 * Vergerio, Lettere al Vescovo di Lesina: De Porta, torn. ii. p. 36. 
 f Busdragi Epist. ut supra, p. 322. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 293 
 
 gioii of the Alps, where these gigantic mountains, 
 covered with ice and clouds, are cleft into narrow 
 valleys, and around the sources of the Rhine and 
 Inn, lies the country of the ancient Rhetians and mo- 
 dern Grisons. Secluded from the rest of the world, and 
 occupied in feeding their cattle on the mountains, and 
 in cultivating corn and the vine within their more 
 fertile valleys, the inhabitants, who came originally 
 from Italy, had preserved their ancient language and 
 manners, with little variation, from a period consi- 
 derably anterior to the Christian era. During the 
 middle ages they fell under the dominion of the bisliops 
 of Coire, the abbots of Disentis, and a crowd of other 
 chiefs, ecclesiastical and secular, who kept them in 
 awe by means of innumerable castles, the ruins ot 
 which are still to be seen in all parts of the country. 
 Worn out by the injuries which they suffered from 
 these petty tyrants, and animated by the example 
 which had been set them by their neighbours the 
 Swiss, the miserable inhabitants, in the course of the 
 fifteenth century, threw off the yoke of their oppres 
 sors one by one ; and, having established a popular 
 government in their several districts, entered into a 
 common league for the defence of their independence 
 and rights. The Grison league or republic con- 
 sisted of a union of three distinct leagues, — the 
 Grey league, that of God's House, and that of the 
 Ten Jurisdictions; each of which was composed of a 
 number of smaller communities, which retained the 
 right of managing all their internal affairs, as well as 
 of sending depluies to the general diet, whose powers 
 were extremely circumscribed. In no nation, ancient 
 or modern, have the principles of democracy been 
 carried to such extent as in the Grison republic; 
 and as the checks necessary to prevent its abuse were 
 not provided by a rude people smarting under the 
 recent effects of tyranny, its form of government, ac- 
 cording to the confession of its own as well as foreign 
 writers, not only created great dissensions, but led to 
 gross corruption and bribery in election to offices and 
 
294 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 in the administration of justice.* Toward the be- 
 ginning of the sixteentli century, the Grison repubhc 
 obtained a large accession to their territories, by the 
 possession of the Valteline, Chiavenna, and Bormio, 
 fertile districts situate between the Alps and the Mi- 
 lanese and Venetian territories. 
 
 The corruptions which had overspread the catholic 
 church before the Reformation, were to be found in 
 the Grisons, with all the aggravations arising from 
 the credulity of a rude people utterly ignorant of let- 
 ters. The clergy lived openly in concubinage, figured 
 at revels, rode about the country in complete armour, 
 and claimed and enjoyed, under a republican govern- 
 ment, a complete exemption from the laws, even when 
 they were guilty of the most flagrant crimes and out- 
 rages.! Bands of foreign priests, furnished with bulls 
 from the pope, continually prowled about in search 
 of vacant benefices; and, as they were ignorant of 
 the language of the country, could do nothing but 
 say mass in Latin. Preaching was unknown even 
 among the native clergy for the most part ; and when 
 they did attempt it, on the appearance of the Refor- 
 mers among them, their performances were such as 
 to excite at once ridicule and pity.t In many of the 
 
 * De Porta, Hist. Ref. Eccl. RsRt. torn. i. p. 15 ; torn. ii. p. 264. 
 Zschokke, Des Schweizerlands Geschichte, p. 275 — 279. Id traduit 
 par Monnard p. 222 — 224. Coxe's Travels in Switzerland, vol. iii. 
 let. 85. 
 
 t In the eighteenth century this exemption continued to be enjoyed 
 in the Valteline, not only by the clergy, but also by all who purchased 
 permission from the bishop of Como to wear a clerical dress. (Coxe's 
 Travels in Switzerland, vol. iii. p. 130.) 
 
 X Theodore Schlegel, abbot of St. Luke, in the city of Coire, vicar 
 of the diocese, and one of the acutest opponents of the Reformation, 
 in a sermon preached by him on Christmas 1520, told the people — 
 " St. John was the most excellent of all the Evangelists, on account 
 of his virginity, which enabled him to write in an elevated strain and 
 under Divine inspiration concerning the Godhead. But you will say, 
 Peter returned a good answer to the question of the Lord, when he 
 said. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. I answer, he 
 spoke this ex exteriore conjectura^ computatione, he had acquired the 
 knowledge of it from external things, when he saw him walking on 
 the sea and doing other wonders ; but he did not call him the Son of 
 God from Divine inspiration, as St, John did. As the incarnation of 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 295 
 
 communities the people were as ignorant as brutes. 
 Plalf a century after the hght of the Reformation had 
 penetrated into the Rhetian valleys, the government 
 found it necessary to issue a decree that the Roman 
 catholic priests should recite the Lord's prayer, apos- 
 tle's creed, and ten commandments, for the instruc- 
 tion of the people. There were, however, a few ho- 
 nourable exceptions both among the clergy and laity. 
 The inhabitants of the Grisons first caught their 
 love of evangelical reform, as they had done their love 
 of civil liberty, from the Swiss. A year had scarcely 
 elapsed from the time that Zuingle embarked in the 
 reform of the church of Zurich, when he received a 
 letter from a schoolmaster at Coire, the capital of the 
 league of God's House, informing him that his name 
 was known to many in that country, who approved 
 of his doctrine and were weary of the simony of the 
 church of Rome.^ He soon after received a letter to 
 the same purpose from the stadtvogt or chief magis- 
 trate of the town of Mayenfeld, within the league of 
 the Ten Jurisdictions. In the year 1524, the govern- 
 ment of the Grisons imitated the example of the 
 popish cantons of Switzerland, who, as a means of 
 checking the progress of innovation, had enacted 
 laws for the reformation of the clergy. In a diet 
 held at Hantz, the capital of the Grey league, it was 
 decreed, among other articles, that parish priests 
 should discharge their duty by instructing the people 
 according to the word of God ; and that, provided they 
 failed in this or were unfit for it, the parishioners 
 should have liberty to choose others in their room. 
 These regulations were evaded by the clergy; but 
 they were the means of fixing the attention of the 
 people on a subject to which they had hitherto been 
 
 Christ was brought about through the figures of the law, the promise 
 of the Father, and the writings of the prophets, so truly does he 
 come into the hands of the priest in the bread in the service of the 
 mass ; and whoever denies the latter denies also the former." The 
 writer who has reported this passage, adds — " May we not apply to 
 this preacher tlie adage, Among cows an ox is an abbot ?" (Co- 
 mander ad Zuinglium, an. 1526 : De Porta, torn. i. p. 48.) 
 * De Porta, torn. i. p. 40—51. 
 
296 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 indifferent, and produced unforeseen consequences of 
 the greatest importance. The first public reformation 
 in the Orisons took place in the years 1524 and 1525, 
 when the inhabitants of the valley of St. Anthony, of 
 Flesch, and of Malantz, in the high jurisdiction of 
 Mayenfeld, though surrounded by powerful neigh- 
 bours addicted to popery, embraced with one consent 
 the Protestant doctrine and abolished the mass.* This 
 produced so great an effect, that within a short time 
 the new doctrine began to be preached by some of 
 the priests, and was eagerly listened to by the people, 
 in various places throughout the three leagues. Among 
 these preachers, the most distinguished were Andrew 
 Sigfrid and Andrew Fabritz at Davos, the chief town 
 in the league of the Ten Jurisdictions : and in the 
 leagile of God's House, James Tutschet or Biveron, 
 in Upper Engadina; Philip Salutz or Gallitz,in Lower 
 Engadina; and John Dorfman or Comander, who, in 
 consequence of the late regulations of the diet, had 
 been chosen parson of St. Martin's church, in the 
 town of Coire.t The two last afterwards became 
 colleagues at Coire, and they may with propriety be 
 designated the joint reformers of the Grisons, having 
 contributed beyond all others to the advancement of 
 knowledge and' rehgion in their native country. Co- 
 mander was a man of learning, sound judgment, and 
 warm piety. To these qualities Gallitz added great 
 dexterity in the management of pubhc business, an 
 invincible command of temper, and uncommon elo- 
 quence both in his native tongue and in Latin. :{: The 
 conversion of John Frick, parish priest of Mayenfeld, 
 was brought about in a singular manner. Being a 
 zealous catholic and of great note among his brethren, 
 he had warmly resisted the new opinions when they 
 first made their appearance. Filled with chagrin and 
 alarm at the progress of innovation in his innnediate 
 neighbourhood, he repaired to Rome to implore the 
 
 * De Porta, torn. i. p. 57—68. 
 
 t De Porta, p. 58, 59, 76—78. Ruchat, Hist, de la Reform, de 
 la Suisse, torn. i. p. 273, 274. 
 t Ibid. torn. i. p. 67, 79; torn. ii. p. 278. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 297 
 
 assistance of his holiness, and to consult on the best 
 method of preventing his native country from being 
 overrun with heresy. But he was so struck with the 
 irreligion which he observed in the court of Rome, 
 and the ignorance and vice prevaihng in Italy, that, 
 returning home, he joined the party which he had 
 opposed, and became the reformer of Mayenfeld. In 
 his old age he used to say to his friends pleasantly, 
 that he learned his gospel at Rome.* 
 
 In the meantime, the clergy, aroused from the slum- 
 bers into which they had sunk through indolence and 
 the absence of all opposition, had recourse to every 
 means within their power to check the progress of 
 the new opinions. Bonds of adherence to the catho- 
 lic faith were exacted from the parish priests. The 
 most odious and horrid representations of the reform- 
 ers and their tenets were circulated among the peo- 
 ple. Individuals belonging to the anabaptists who 
 had been banished from Switzerland came to the 
 Grisons, and laboured to make proselytes among the 
 reformed by pretending to preach a purer and more 
 spiritual religion than was taught by Luther and 
 Zuingle, whom they put on a level with the pope. 
 The popish clergy secretly encouraged these enthu- 
 siasts,! at the same time that they had made use of 
 
 * Schelhorn, Amcen. Hist. Eccl. torn. ii. p. 237. Ruchat, torn. i. p. 
 275. 
 
 t Their leader, who went by the name of Blaurok, in allusion to 
 the colour of his cloak, was an ex-monk of the Grisons, who had 
 made a great noise in Switzerland. At Zurich, he said "he would 
 undertake to prove that Zuinglius had offered greater violence to the 
 Scriptures than the Roman pontiff himself" (Acta Senat. Tigur. 
 apud De Porta, torn. ii. p. 86.) The following is an extract from one 
 of his letters : — " I am the door, he that entereth in by me shall find 
 pasture ; he that entereth by any other way is a thief and a robber. 
 As it is written — » I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd givcth 
 his life for the sheep,' so I give my life and my spirit for my sheep, 
 my body to the tower, my life to the sword, or the fire, or the wine- 
 press, to squeeze out the blood and flesh, as Christ gave his on the 
 cross. I am the restorer of the baptism of Christ, and the bread of 
 the Lord, I and my beloved brethren, Conrad Grebel and Felix Manx. 
 Therefore the pope, along with his followers, is a thief and a robber ; 
 and so also are Luther with his followers, and Zuinglius and Leo 
 Juda with theirs." (De Porta, torn. ii. p. 89.) Blaurok and his 
 associates were banished from the Grisons in the year 1525. 
 
 20 
 
29S HISTORY OF THE 
 
 their excesses to excite prejudice against the cause of 
 the Reformation.* When the general diet of the re- 
 pubhc met at Coire in the year 1525, the bishop and 
 clergy presented a formal accusation against Coman- 
 der and the other reforming preachers, praying that 
 they might be punished by the secular arm, for prop- 
 agating impious, scandalous, and seditious heresies, 
 contrary to the faith of the catholic church during 
 fifteen centuries, and tending to produce that rebel- 
 lion and outrage which had lately been witnessed at 
 Munster and other places. Comander having, in the 
 name of his brethren, declared their readiness to vin- 
 dicate the doctrine which they held against these 
 criminations, a day was appointed for a conference or 
 dispute between the two parties at Ilantz, in the pres- 
 ence of certain members of the diet. The dispute 
 which ensued added seven to the number of the re- 
 formed preachers, who were previously above forty; 
 while the articles which formed the subject of dispute 
 having been printed and circulated throughout the 
 valleys, multiplied converts among the laity.t 
 
 In the meantime, an event occurred which had well 
 nigh proved fatal to the reformed party. Irritated by 
 the assistance which the Grisons had given to Francis 
 I., the emperor and duke of Milan encouraged the 
 turbulent John de Medicis, marquis of Muss, to attack 
 their southern territories. Having possessed himself 
 of the castle and town of Chiavenna, he threatened to 
 attack the Valteline. This obliged the republic to 
 recall their troops from Italy before the famous battle 
 of Pa via; but having failed, after all, in recovering 
 the castle, they had recourse to the mediation of the 
 Swiss cantons. The deputies sent by the Swiss were 
 keen Roman catholics, and asserted that they had it 
 in charge from their constituents to obtain a pledge 
 that heresy should not be permitted to spread in the 
 Grisons, without which they could not co-operate in 
 bringing the negotiations to a favourable issue. The 
 
 * De Porta p. 87—92. 
 
 t Ruchat, torn. i. p. 408—416. De Porta, torn. i. p. 96—100, 
 102—130. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 299 
 
 marquis covered his ambitious project with the pre- 
 text of zeal for the church, aud was, besides, under 
 the influence of his brother, tlien an ecclesiastic in the 
 Valteline, and afterwards raised to the pontifical chair 
 under the designation of Pius IV. Availhig himself 
 of these circumstances, the bishop of Coire prevailed 
 on the deputies to insert in the treaty an article which 
 provided for the maintenance of the ancient rehgion, 
 and the punishment of all who refused conformity to 
 it. An extraordinary diet was called to deliberate on 
 this affair; and so great was the influence of the 
 bishop and mediators, together with the anxiety of 
 the nation to put an end to the war, that a majority 
 voted for the article respecting religion. It was, how- 
 ever, warmly opposed by the representatives of seve- 
 ral districts, including the city of Coire, which refused 
 to affix its seal to the decree. The manner in which 
 the decree was expressed seems to intimate that it 
 partook of the nature of an understood compromise 
 and temporary measure ; for, Avhile it provided that 
 the mass, auricular confession, and other rites, should 
 be observed, it added that, "along with these the 
 gospel and word of God should be preached;" and in 
 declaring that non-conformists should be subjected to 
 an arbitrary punishment, the diet "reserved to itself 
 the liberty of altering its measures, upon being better 
 informed by disputations, councils, or any other 
 way.""^ The first eff*ect of this law was the banish- 
 ment of Gallitz, whose talents and success rendered 
 him peculiarly obnoxious to the abettors of popery. 
 Several of his brethren were also obliged to retire 
 from the country to avoid the processes intended 
 against them. But the city of Coire, in spite of their 
 bishop, maintained Comander in his situation ; their 
 example was followed in other places; and though 
 the clergy endeavoured to push the advantage which 
 they had gained, they found that a spirit was abroad 
 in the nation too powerful for all their efl'orts, even 
 when supported by legislative enactments. The sub- 
 ject was brought before the next national diet by the 
 * De Porta, torn. i. p. 131—134. 
 
300 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 report of the commissioners appointed to attend the 
 dispute at Uantz ; and, after consuhation, it was 
 moved and agreed to, '^ That it shall be free to all 
 persons of both sexes, and of whatever condition or 
 rank, within the territories of the Grison confedera- 
 tion, to choose, embrace, and profess either the Roman 
 catholic or the Evangelical religion ; and that no one 
 shall, publicly or privately, harass another with re- 
 proaches or odious speeches on account of his reli- 
 gion, under an arbitrary penalty." To this was added 
 the renovation of a former law, "that the ministers 
 of religion shall teach nothing to the people but what 
 is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New 
 Testament, and what they can prove by them; and 
 that parish priests shall be enjoined to give themselves 
 assiduously to the study of the Scriptures as the only 
 rule of faith and manners."* 
 
 This remarkable statute, which, whatever infrac- 
 tions it may have suffered, and whatever attempts 
 may have been made to overthrow it, remains to this 
 day the charter of religious liberty in the Grisons, 
 was formally sealed and solemnly confirmed, by the 
 oaths of all the deputies at Ilantz, on the 26th of 
 June 1526, along with a number of other regulations 
 of great importance. The power of appointing ma- 
 gistrates and judges was taken from the bishop of 
 Coire and his ecclesiastics, and given to the people in 
 their several communities. Where persons had be- 
 queathed sums of money to churches and convents 
 for offering anniversary masses and prayers for their 
 souls, both they and their heirs were declared free 
 from any obligation to make such payments for the 
 future, " because no good ground could be shown for 
 believing that this was of any benefit to the deceased." 
 It was decreed that no new members, male or female, 
 should henceforth be admitted into monasteries; that 
 the existing monks should be restrained from beg- 
 ging; and that after appropriating a certain sum for 
 
 * Ruchat, torn. i. p. 416. De Porta, torn. i. p. 146. Anabaptists 
 and those of other sects, if they retained and propagated their errors 
 after due information and admonition, were subjected to banishment. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 301 
 
 their support during life, the remainder of the funds 
 should be returned to the heirs of those who originally- 
 bestowed them, and, failing them, be disposed of as 
 each league thought best. The power of choosing 
 and dismissing their respective ministers was given 
 to parishes.* All appeals from secular courts to the 
 jurisdiction of the bishop were strictly prohibted; 
 annats and small tithes were abolished, and the great 
 tithes reduced to a fifth part.t 
 
 It thus appears that a great deal more was done on 
 this occasion by the authorities of the Grisons than 
 merely recognizing and sanctioning religious liberty. 
 A national reformation was introduced, which, so far 
 as it went, must have been attended with the most 
 beneficial consequences to the state, and to indivi- 
 duals, whether popish or Protestant. The grand prin- 
 ciple of the Protestant reformation was, in fact recog- 
 nized by the legislature, when it declared the sacred 
 Scriptures to be the only rule of religion. Some of 
 the grossest abuses of popery, and those which draw 
 many others after them, were abolished. And the 
 liberties of the Roman catholics were secured, not 
 only against attacks from the Protestants, but also 
 against the more dangerous encroachments and de- 
 mands of their own clergy, and of a foreign priest 
 who claimed dominion over both. It is impossible to 
 read the document on which we are commenting 
 without being convinced that the Grisons possessed 
 at this period statesmen of enlightened minds and 
 liberal principles. The historians of that country 
 have gratefully preserved the names of the men by 
 whom the deed was drawn up, and through whose 
 influence chiefly it was adopted by the supreme 
 council of the republic. Two of them were distin- 
 guished above their brethren — Jolm Guler, whose 
 name often occurs in the history of his country, and 
 
 * The words of this article arc—" Ad hinc etiam penes singulas 
 parochias esto suos pastorcs omni tempore cligeudi, conducendi atque 
 rursus quando lubituin fucrit, dimittendi." (De Porta, toni. i. p. 150.) 
 Formerly the bishop of Coire had the power of apiiaintinj; and re- 
 moving the parish priests throughout the wliole of his diocese. 
 
 t De Porta, torn. i. p. 148—151. Ruchat, torn. i. p. 416, 417. 
 
302 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 John Travers, neither of whom had at that time joined 
 the reformers. The latter, who belonged to a noble 
 and ancient family of Zuts in Upper Engadina, had 
 received his education at Munich, and improved his 
 mind by travelling in different parts of Europe. His 
 abilities and learning, adorned by the most unim- 
 peachable integrity, secured the confidence of his 
 countrymen, who intrusted him with the highest 
 offices of the state and the management of their most 
 delicate affairs. He was equally distinguished as a 
 soldier and a scholar, a politician and a divine, ^'he 
 first book ever written in the Grison language came 
 from his pen,* being a poem on the Avar against the 
 marquis of Muss, in which he had himself commanded 
 the forces of his country. The late period at which 
 he renounced the communion of the church of Rome 
 was beneficial to the evangelical cause, as his col- 
 leagues in the senate and his countrymen at large 
 entertained on that account the less jealousy of the 
 measures which he proposed in favour of religious 
 liberty. After joining himself to the reformed church, 
 he promoted its interests with the utmost zeal. The 
 Protestant minister settled in his native city being a 
 young man and meeting with great opposition from 
 the principal families of the place, Travers asked and 
 readily obtained from the ministers permission to act 
 as his assistant. The whole country was struck with 
 astonishment to see a man of rank, and renowned for 
 his services in the senate, the field, and foreign courts, 
 mount the pulpit. The Roman catholics tried to con- 
 ceal the chagrin and alarm which they felt, by circu- 
 lating the report that he was mad or in dotage; but 
 his performances soon put to silence their invidious 
 and artful allegations. t 
 
 * It does not appear that this work was printed. 
 
 t De Porta, i. 229, 233—241. Coxa's Travels in Switzerland, iii. 
 295 — 298. A fine letter which Gallitz addressed to Travers, on his 
 application for liberty to preach, iias been preserved. " O felicem 
 terram quae tales nanciscitur doctores et raagistros ! — Sed quvs mo- 
 destia est ista explodenda, imo quod facinus hoc, quod permittis tibi 
 petere a nobis auctoritatem, quum fecerit opus concionandi? Tu, 
 inquam, qui RhfEtice nostrae primoribus auctor fuisti, veniain nobis 
 concedendi ut prsedicemus evangelium," &c. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 303 
 
 The publication of the edict in favour of rehgious 
 liberty was followed by the rapid spread of the new 
 opinions; but the formation of churches was much 
 slower. This proceeded partly from the plan pursued 
 by the first reformers, who, to use their own expres- 
 sion, " sought to remove idols from the hearts of the 
 people before they removed them from the churches;" 
 and partly from the democratical nature of the gov- 
 ernment, which required the unanimous or at least 
 general concurrence of each community previously 
 to any change on the public worship. In the year 
 1527, the mass was abolished, images removed, and 
 the sacrament of the supper celebrated after the re- 
 formed mode, in St. Martin's church at Coire, under 
 the direction of Comander. The same thing was 
 done at Lavin in Lower Engadina, under the direc- 
 tion of Gallitz; at Davos in the Ten Jurisdictions, 
 under the direction of Fabritz ; and at Ilantz, in the 
 Grey league, under the direction of Christian Hart- 
 man. The example set by these places was soon imi- 
 tated by others. The reformed religion was embraced 
 earliest in the league of the Ten Jurisdictions, where 
 it soon became almost universal. Within the league 
 of God's House it prevailed generally in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Coire, but made little progress in Enga- 
 dina and other places to the south until 1542, when 
 the Italian exiles arrived. In the High or Grey league 
 the number of its adherents was still smaller.* 
 
 Had the Reformation continued to move forward 
 with the same rapidity which marked its progress 
 during the six years which succeeded the declaration 
 of religious liberty, the ancient religion must soon 
 have disappeared before it. Various causes, how- 
 ever, contributed to arrest its progress. One of these 
 is to be found in the languages of the country. The 
 Rhetian, Italian, and German tongues were all spoken 
 in the Grisons, so that the inhabitants of two adjacent 
 valleys were often incapable of understanding one 
 another. This of itself must have proved a great liin- 
 
 * De Porta, torn. i. cap. 8. Ruchat. i. 274. 117. 418. Coxe, iii. 
 250—253. 
 
304 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 derance to the communication of knowledge, espe- 
 cially as the number of teachers was small. But this 
 was not all. The Rhetian or Grison tongue is divided 
 into two dialects, the Romansh and the Ladin, and 
 there was not a single book in either of them at the 
 time of the Reformation. Nobody had ever seen a 
 word written in that tongue, and it was the common 
 opinion that it could not be committed to writing.* 
 There can be little doubt that the rapid and extensive 
 spread of the reformed doctrine among the inhabitants 
 of the Ten Jurisdictions was owing, in a great degree, 
 to their speaking the German tongue, and consequently 
 having access to the Scriptures and other books in 
 their native language. The same remark applies to 
 the citizens of Coire and of some other places. But 
 the inhabitants of those districts where nothing was 
 spoken but the original language of the country, were 
 long confined to oral instruction. The reformed min- 
 isters laboured assiduously in supplying this defect, 
 and they at last practically demonstrated the fallacy 
 of the ignorant prejudice which the priests had fos- 
 tered in the minds of the people. In this respect, 
 their country is under unspeakable obligations to them. 
 Other nations owe their literature to the Reformation: 
 the Grisons are indebted to it for their alphabet. But 
 a number of years elapsed before the preachers, occu- 
 pied with other labours and straitened in their finances, 
 could bring their writings from the press; and, by that 
 time, the desire for knowledge which the first promul- 
 gation of the reformed doctrines had excited must 
 have been in some degree worn off from the minds of 
 the people. A translation of Comander's German 
 catechism into the Ladin, by James Tutchet or Bive- 
 
 * De Porta, i. 19 ; ii. 403. Coxe, iii. 294. In addition to a collec- 
 tion of words and phrases in Romansh, Ebel has inserted a disserta- 
 tion on the history of that language, (which he calls " la langue 
 Hetrusco-Rhetienne,") by Placidus a Specha, capitular of Disentis. 
 From this it would appear that a number of old MSS., written in that 
 language during the middle ages, were preserved, the greater part of 
 which, however, were destroyed when the French burnt the monas- 
 tery of Disentis in 1799. (Manuel du Voyageur en Suisse, torn. i. p. 
 318—337.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 305 
 
 roni, printed at Puschiavo in the year 1552, was the 
 first work which had appeared in the Rhetian lan- 
 guage. " At the sight of this work/^ says a historian 
 then ahve, "the Orisons stood amazed, hke the Israel- 
 ites of old at the sight of the manna." Biveroni 
 printed, in 1560, his translation of the New Testa- 
 ment into the same language, which was followed in 
 1562 by a metrical version of the Psalms, and a col- 
 lection of hymns, composed by Ulrich Campel.* 
 
 Another cause was the poverty of the pastors, which 
 inflicted a lasting injury on the Reformed church. t 
 While the popish priests possessed the tithes, in ad- 
 dition to what they gained by private masses and con- 
 fessions, the Protestant ministers received a small 
 stipend from their congregations, and, in many cases, 
 were reduced to the necessity of supporting them- 
 selves by manual labour. Gallitz, a man of liberal 
 education, states, in one of his familiar letters, that 
 he and his family had been for two years in great 
 straits, were obliged to sleep during the night in the 
 clothes which they wore through the day, seldom 
 tasted flesh, were often without bread, and, for weeks 
 together, lived solely on vegetables seasoned with salt. 
 Yet he trained his son for the church; and when the 
 young man had an advantageous ofl^er made him 
 during his attendance at the academy of Basle, his 
 father declared it would be impiety in him to accept 
 it, when there were so few persons capable of preach- 
 ing to his countrymen in their native language. J 
 But it was not to be expected that the first Reformers 
 would be succeeded by men of the same nobleness of 
 mind. The consequence was, that the people, in 
 
 * De Porta, ii. 404 — 407. The Bible was published in the Ladin 
 of Lower Engadina, for the first time, in 1679; and in the Romansli 
 of the Grey league so late as 1718. (Coxe, iii. 301 — 304.) 
 
 f In Travellers Guides through theGrisons it is to this day a com- 
 mon direction, "If the town to which you come be catholic, call for 
 the cure of the parish, who will entertain you hospitably: if it be 
 Protestant, you may ask for the pastor, who will direct you to the 
 best inn ; for the salaries of the pastors are so sorry, and their houses 
 so bad, that, however willing, they cannot show hospitality." 
 
 t De Porta, i. 181,186, 187. 
 
306 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 many parts of the country, remained destitute of pas- 
 tors, or were induced to receive illiterate persons of 
 low character, who disgraced the office by their mean- 
 ness or their vices. " Assuredly," says the excellent 
 man last mentioned, " covetous persons are most cruel 
 to themselves, while they choose rather to be without 
 good pastors than to be at the expense of maintaining 
 them. Oh ! the ingratitude of men, who, a little ago, 
 cheerfully gave a hundred crowns for teaching lies, 
 and now grudge to give twenty for preaching the 
 truth!"* Another radical defect of the Grison refor- 
 mation consisted in neglecting entirely to provide the 
 means of education for youth. This the Reformed 
 ministers exerted themselves to remedy, and they suc- 
 ceeded at last in providing parochial teachers for the 
 chief towns, and in persuading the legislature to ap- 
 propriate the residuary funds of such monasteries as 
 were suppressed to the establishment of a national 
 seminary at Coire.t These evils were aggravated by 
 the political state of the country. Proud of their 
 liberty, the natives of the Grisons were weakly jea- 
 lous of those common measures Avhich were in fact 
 necessary to preserve it; while they roamed about 
 their valleys without control, they forgot that savages 
 are free ; and, pleased to hear their mountains re-echo 
 the votes which they gave at the election of a muni- 
 cipal landamman or of a deputy to the diet, they did 
 not perceive that their voices were in reality at the 
 command of a few men of superior intelligence, many 
 of whom had sold themselves, and were prepared to 
 sell them, to the highest bidder. Foreign princes had 
 their pensioners resident in the Grisons; the chief 
 statesmen were secretly in the interest either of the 
 emperor or of the king of France ; and, between the 
 two factions, the country was at once distracted, cor- 
 
 * Gallicius ad Henr. Bullingerum, 6 Mart. 1553 : De Porta, i. 
 180. 
 
 t This academy was opened in tlie year 1542 ; and the individual 
 first placed at the head of it was John Pontisella, a native of Prega- 
 lia, for whom Bulhnger, at the request of the Grison Reformers, had 
 obtained a gratuitous education at Zurich. (Ibid. i. 187, 192 — 197.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 307 
 
 riipted, and betrayed. Next to his labours in reform- 
 ing religion, Zuingle is entitled to immortal praise for 
 denouncing, at the expense of incurring the odium of 
 his countrymen, the practice of hiring themselves out 
 as mercenaries to fight the battles of foreign princes. 
 The Grison Reformers imitated his example, and they 
 met his reward; their countrymen, imagining that 
 they were hirelings like themselves, punished them 
 by reducing their stipends!* 
 
 The churches in the Grisons were organized in the 
 same manner as those in the Protestant cantons of 
 Switzerland, as to government as well as doctrine and 
 worship. From the beginning, congregations had 
 their consistories. To these were added, probably at 
 a later period, colloquies or presbyteries, of which 
 there were two in each league. The pastors were 
 accustomed to meet together occasionally for consul- 
 tation about the common interests of the reformed 
 body, for examining and ordaining candidates for the 
 ministry, and for rectifying the disorders which 
 occurred. But these meetings were voluntary, and 
 their determinations were given out in the form of 
 advices. The report having gone abroad that a great 
 scarcity of preaching was felt in the Grisons, num- 
 bers flocked into the country from Switzerland and 
 Germany, pretending to be preachers, although they 
 were both illiterate and disreputable in character. 
 Repairing to the valleys, they insinuated themselves 
 into the affections of the country people ; and having 
 clandestinely concluded a bargain Avith them to serve 
 their churches for a small sum of money, they be- 
 haved in such a manner as to open the mouths of the 
 Roman Catholics, and bring great discredit on the 
 
 * In answer to a letter from Bullinger, (Feb. 18, 1544,) dissuading 
 him from leaving his station at Coire, Comandcr writes — " Another 
 reason is, that, six years ago, when- 1 opposed myself to the worthless 
 pensioners in a sermon, as I was in duty bound to do, I excited their 
 rage against me, and they took away thirty-three florins from my 
 stipend, which was before sufficiently small. Hitherto I have digest- 
 ed this injury, and have supplied the deficiency from my own and 
 my wife's fortune ; but if I continue to do this much longer, my 
 children must be reduced to beggary after my death." (Uc Porta, i. 
 183; conf. p. 256.) 
 
308 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 evangelical cause. To remedy this evil, the ministers 
 applied to the diet of the republic for their sanction 
 to the holding of a national synod, which should have 
 power to call to account those who had come from 
 foreign parts, inquire into their qualifications, and 
 exact from them certificates of character; to examine 
 all who should afterwards be admitted to the minis- 
 try, watch over their conduct, censure the disorderly, 
 and, in general, preserve the order and promote the 
 edification of the whole reformed body. This peti- 
 tion was granted by the diet on the 14th of January, 
 1537, and from that time the synod was held regu- 
 larly every year in the month of June, when the 
 passage across the mountains was easiest.* 
 
 Such was the state of the reformed churches in the 
 Grisons, when the exiles from Italy first made their 
 appearance in that country. The encouragement pre- 
 sented to them, in a Avorldly point of view, was cer- 
 tainly far from flattering; but they had come seeking 
 a refuge, not a fortune. They had left a land flowing 
 with milk and honey : what they wanted was a land 
 of religious liberty, and in which there was not a 
 famine of hearing the word of God. Accordingly, 
 they were received in a very different manner from 
 the vagrants formerly mentioned: the tale of their 
 distress had arrived before them, and their sufferings 
 were held to be sufficient testimonials. 
 
 Their first arrival in the country produced an im- 
 pression highly favourable to the interests of the 
 Reformation. The very sight of so many persons, 
 some of them illustrious for birth, learning, and rank, 
 civil and ecclesiastical, who had voluntarily renounced 
 their honours and estates, left their dearest friends,t 
 
 * De Porta, i. 188—192. 
 
 t Julio de Milano, writing to Bullinger, from Tirano, in the Val- 
 teline, 23d June, 1552, says — " The circumstances of the person who 
 will deliver you this letter are as follows: — God has permitted his 
 two sons to be thrown into prison for confessing Christ, and they 
 will soon either suffer martyrdom or be condemned to the galleys for 
 life. They have wives and thirteen children, the eldest of whom, 
 who may be about thirteen years of age, accompanies the unfortunate 
 old man. Do something to prevent this family from perishing by 
 want." (De Porta, ii. 145.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 309 
 
 and encountered poverty, with all the other hardships 
 attendant on exile, rather than do violence to their 
 consciences, while it established the Protestants in 
 the doctrine which they had embraced, struck the 
 minds of their adversaries with astonishment, and 
 forced on the most reluctant the suspicion that such 
 sacrifices could not have been made on slight grounds. 
 No sooner did the exiles find themselves safe than 
 they detailed the cruelties of the inquisition, and laid 
 open the arts of the court of Rome, with the ignorance, 
 superstition, and vice which reigned m it. They dwelt 
 with enthusiasm on the liberty of conscience and the 
 pure preaching of the gospel enjoyed in the Grisons. 
 They grudged no labour in communicating instruc- 
 tion, privately and publicly, wherever an opportunity 
 oifered, by which means they gained many souls to 
 Christ, especially among those who spoke Italian. 
 Some of them made themselves masters of the lan- 
 guage of the country, so as to be able, within a short 
 time, to preach to the inhabitants. They made at- 
 tempts, and often successfully, to preach in parts of 
 the country from which the native ministers deemed 
 it prudent to abstain; and in every place in which 
 they remained for any time, new churches were sure 
 to spring up.* 
 
 Bartolommeo Maturo arrived in the Grisons at a 
 much earlier period than any of his countrymen. He 
 had been prior of a Dominican convent at Cremona, 
 and being disgusted at the lives of the monks and the 
 fictitious miracles by -which they deluded the people, 
 he threw oif the cowl and left Italy. Having preached 
 the reformed doctrines in the Valtehne, he was ac- 
 cused to the diet which met at Ilantz in 1529, and 
 had sentence of banishment passed against him. But 
 he was taken under the protection of one of the depu- 
 ties, and conducted to Pregalia, where he commenced 
 preaching with success. From that place he went into 
 the neighbouring district of Engadina, where Gallitz 
 had hitherto gained very little ground, on account of 
 the determined hostility of the most powerful inhabi- 
 
 * De Porta, ii. 36, 37. 
 
310 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 tants. The first appearance of Mature threatened a 
 tumult, but he persevered, and the matter being re- 
 ferred to the suffrages of the community, he obtained 
 a majority in his favour, and preached openly before 
 the eyes of those who in the late diet had voted for 
 his banishment.* Returning to Pregalia, he under- 
 took the pastoral charge of Vico Soprano and Stampa, 
 where he continued until 1547, and died a pastor in 
 the valley of Toraliasco.t 
 
 Soon after Maturo's removal, Vico Soprano ob- 
 tained for its pastor the celebrated Vergerio. It is 
 true the bishop did not distinguish himself by observ- 
 ing the law of residence, having frequently visited 
 the Valteline, beside the journeys which he undertook 
 into Switzerland and Germany, during the period in 
 which he held this cure.J Some allowance must, 
 however, be made for the habits of a man who had 
 been accustomed all his life to a change of scene and 
 employment. Besides, he was never idle ; and, con- 
 sidering the state of the country at that time, he per- 
 haps did more good by his itinerant labours than he 
 could have done by confining himself to a parish. 
 The stateliness of his figure, his eloquence, and the 
 rank which he had lately held in the papal church, 
 conspired in fixing the eyes of the public upon him; 
 and persons of all classes were anxious to see and 
 hear a man who had repeatedly sustained the office 
 of ambassador from the court of Rome, was supposed 
 to be acquainted with all its secrets, and was not scru- 
 pulous about divulging what he knew. In returning 
 from one of his visits to the Valteline, he passed a night 
 at Pontresina, a town situate on the northern base of 
 mount Bernino. It happened that the parish priest 
 had died that day, and the inhabitants were assembled 
 in the evening at the inn to converse with the landlord, 
 who was judge of the village, about choosing a suc- 
 
 * Ruchat, ii. 458, 459. 
 
 t De Porta, i. 158 ; ii. 14, 27-30. 
 
 t De Porta says that, at this time, Vergerio drew the yearly sti- 
 pend of one liundred and fifty crowns, as ordinary pastor of Vico So- 
 prano; (ii. 46.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 311 
 
 cesser. After engaging their attention by conversing 
 on the subject which had called them together, Ver- 
 gerio asked them if they would not hear a sermon 
 from him. The greater part objecting to this, " Come," 
 said the judge, "let us hear what this new-come 
 Italian will say." So highly were the people gratified 
 with his sermon, that they insisted on his preaching 
 to them again before his departure. Accordingly he 
 preached next day to a crowded audience on the me- 
 rits of Christ's death and on justification, with such 
 effect that the inhabitants soon after agreed harmo- 
 niously in abolishing the mass and giving a call to a 
 Protestant minister. Having preached, during one of 
 his short excursions, in the town of Casauccia, at the 
 foot of mount Maloggia, all the images in the church 
 of St. Gaudentius were thrown down during the fol- 
 lowing niglit ; and the same thing happened after a 
 visit which he paid to Samada. An accusation was 
 brought against him for instigating these disorderly 
 practices, but he was acquitted.* His countrymen 
 were no less diligent in planting and watering churches 
 in that part of the country. In general, it appears 
 that the greater part of the important districts of Up- 
 per and Lower Engadina, and the whole of Pregalia, 
 a district lying on the southern declivity of the Alps, 
 were reformed by means of Italian refugees. This 
 took place between 1542 and 1552; and, from that 
 time, the Protestants became decidedly the majority, 
 comprehending the greater part of the population as 
 well as the wealth of the republic, t 
 
 But the principal scene of the labours of the refu- 
 
 * De Porta, i. 231, 232 ; ii. 46, 47. 
 
 t Castanet was reformed by Jeronimo Ferlino, a Sicilian, who was 
 succeeded as pastor by Agostino, a Venetian, Giovanni Batista, a na- 
 tive of Vicenza, &,c. Jeronimo Turriano of Cremona was the first 
 minister of Bondo, which enjoyed a succession of Italian ministers. 
 Bevers was reformed by Pietro Parisotti of Bergamo, and Siglio by 
 Giovanni Francesco, who had for his successor Antonio Cortcsio of 
 Brescia. Bartolommeo Sylvio of Cremona was pastor at Pontresina; 
 and Leonardo Eremita and several of his countrymen were succes- 
 sively pastors in Casauccia. Vettan was reformed by an Italian 
 named Evandro, who was succeeded by Francesco Calabro. (Uc 
 Porta, i. 226, 232, 233 ; ii. 46—48.) 
 
312 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 gees was in the provinces subject to the republic, and 
 situate between the Alps and Italy. These consisted 
 of the Yalteline; a rich, beautiful, and populous valley? 
 fifty miles long, and from twelve to fifteen broad; the 
 county of Chiavenna which forms the point of com- 
 munication for the trade between Italy and Germany; 
 and the county of Bormio. To these may be added 
 the valley of Puschiavo, a jurisdiction or community 
 within the republic, and lying to the north of the 
 Valteline. In all these districts the language spoken 
 by the inhabitants was Italian. From the time that 
 the new opinions began to prevail in the Grisons, the 
 attention of the court of Rome was directed to this 
 quarter, and precautionary measures were adopted to 
 prevent them from spreading into Italy. As early as 
 1523, the bishop of Como sent a friar named Modesta 
 into the Valteline to make inquisition after heretics; 
 but the inhabitants were so incensed at the extortion 
 of which he was guilty, that they forced him to de- 
 part, and a decree was passed that no inquisitor 
 should afterwards be allowed to enter that territory. 
 The reformed opinions were brought across the Alps 
 by inhabitants of the Grisons who came to reside in 
 the Valteline for the purpose of trade, or on account 
 of the mildness of the climate; and subsequently to 
 the declaration of religious liberty by the diet, it was 
 natural for them to think that they had a right to 
 profess in the subject-states that religion which had 
 been authorized within the bounds of the governing 
 country.* The increase of their numbers, particularly 
 at Chiavenna, where they were joined by some of the 
 principal families, alarmed the priests. They durst 
 not attack the persons or property of the objects of 
 their hatred, for fear of being called to account by the 
 public authorities, but every thing short of force was 
 employed to intimidate and distress them. The minds 
 of the people were inflamed by the most violent in- 
 vectives from the pulpit against the Lutheran here- 
 sies; and recourse was had to arts of a still worse 
 description. A simple maid was decoyed into the 
 
 * De Porta, torn. ii. p. 4. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 313 
 
 belief that the Virgin Mary had appeared to her, and 
 given her a charge to acquaint the inhabitants of 
 Chiavenna, that heaven, provoked by the encourage- 
 ment given to heresy, was about to visit the place with 
 an aAvful calamity, unless the heretics were speedily 
 exterminated. Processions, accompanied with fast- 
 ing and prayers, were immediately proclaimed and 
 observed with great solemnity in the town and sur- 
 rounding villages, and every thing portended some 
 violent explosion of popular hatred against the Pro- 
 testants; but, in consequence of a judicial investiga- 
 tion, it was found that the whole affair had originated 
 in the wicked device of a parish priest to gratify his 
 lust, under the hypocritical covert of zeal for the 
 Catholic faith.* The detection of this imposture, 
 under a governor who was unsuspected of any lean- 
 ing to the new opinions, together with the subsequent 
 conviction of some other priests of notorious crimes, 
 silenced the clergy, and contributed to open the eyes 
 of the people to the fanatical delusion under which 
 they had fallen, t 
 
 A great part of the learned Italians who fled to the 
 Valteline between 1540 and 1543, after refreshing 
 themselves from the fatigues of their journey, crossed 
 the Alps. But a considerable number of them were 
 induced to remain, by the pleasantness of the coun- 
 try, the importunity of some of the principal inhabi- 
 tants, who were anxious to have the benefit of their 
 private instructions, and the prospect which they had 
 of being useful among a people who were entirely 
 destitute of the means of religious knowledge. Among 
 these was Agostino Mainardi, a Piedmontese, and an 
 Augustinian monk. Having been thrown into prison 
 in the town of Asti for maintaining certain proposi- 
 tions contrary to the received faith, he was liberated 
 upon the explications which he gave, and went to 
 Italy. At Pavia and other places^ he acquired great 
 reputation by preaching and disputing in behalf of 
 the truth; and after escaping repeatedly the snares 
 
 * De Porta, torn. ii. p. 15—20. t Ibid. torn. ii. p. 20, 21. 
 
 21 
 
3X4 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 laid for his life, was obliged at last to betake himself 
 to flight. His learning, mildness, and prudence, quali- 
 fied him for the difficult situation in which he was 
 now placed.* Julio da Milano, a secular priest and 
 doctor of theology, who had escaped from the impri- 
 sonment into which he had been thrown at Venice,! 
 proved a zealous and able coadjutor to Mainardi. 
 They were joined by Camillo, a native of Sicily, 
 who, on embracing the Protestant doctrine, took the 
 name of Renato; and by Francesco Negri of Bas- 
 sano, who is known as the author of several books 
 against the church of Rome, which had an extensive 
 circulation at the time of their publication. J The 
 two last were not preachers, as has been erroneously 
 
 * Raynaldi Annales, ad an. 1535. Gelio Secundo Curio, De ampli- 
 tudine regni Dei, p. 15. Museum Helveticum: Gerdesii Ital, Reform. 
 p. 300. t5chelhorn, Ergoetz. torn. ii. p. 16. 
 
 t Gerdes (Italia Ref. p. 279, 280) has confounded this person with 
 Julio Terenziano. They were different individuals. Fucslin has 
 published a letter from Julius Terentianiis, and another from Julius 
 Mediolanensis. (Epistolos Ref. p. 304. 353.) The former, according- 
 to Simler, continued with Martyr from the time he left Italy till his 
 death. (Vita Martyris, sig. b. iiij.) He was with him in England 
 in 1548 and 1553, retired with him to ^^trasburg in the end of that 
 year, and was still with him in 1558 at Zurich. (Serin. Antiq. iv. 
 664. 667. 674. Fueslin, p. 313. 318.) In 1565, bishop Jewel sent 
 to Zurich twenty crowns, " being an annual pension to Julius, who 
 was his dear friend, Peter Martyr's constant servant and assistant." 
 (Strype's Annals, i. 505.) But Julius Mediolanensis was in the 
 neighbourhood of Chiavenna during all that period. (Fueslin, p. 359. 
 De Porta, ii. 30. 40.) Argelati, in his Bibl. Script. Mediol. as quoted 
 by Tiraboschi, (Storia, vii. 383; says, that some sermons by " Giulio 
 Terenziano da Milano" were printed at Venice; but I suspect that 
 these learned writers have mistaken the real author, and that the ser- 
 mons, as well as the work which appeared under the concealed name 
 of Girolamo Savouese, were the production, not of Giulio Terenziano, 
 but of Giulio da Milano. 
 
 I Bock, Hist. Antitrin. ii. 482. Beside the work formerly men- 
 tioned, (p. 318,) Negri was the author of Tragedia de Libera Arbi- 
 trio, which Fontanini characterises as " empia e diabolica," and from 
 which Schelhorn has given extracts. (Ergoetzlichkeiten, torn. ii. p. 
 29 — 31.) Verci has given an account of his writings; and the docu- 
 ments which he has produced refute the opinion of Quadrio and 
 others, that Negri was a native of Lovero, in the Valteline. (Scrit- 
 tori Bassan. i. 60 : Tiraboschi, vii. 383.) " Antonius Nigrus, medi- 
 cus," is mentioned by Melanchthon as having come from Italy ; 
 (Epist. col. 749;) and " Theobaldus Nigrus" is spoken of by Martyr 
 as at Strasburg in 1551. (Loc. Commun. p. 763.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 315 
 
 Stated by some writers,* but confined themselves to 
 the teaching of youth. Camillo had under his charge 
 the sons of several of the principal gentry, and took 
 up his residence at Caspan, in the Valteline, while 
 Negri fixed his abode at Chiavenna.t To them may 
 be added Francesco Stancari, a native of Mantua, 
 who remained some time in the Valteline, and com- 
 menced teaching the Hebrew language, of which, 
 before he left his native country, he had been pro- 
 fessor at Terra di Spilimbergo, in the province of 
 Friuli.t 
 
 Among the distinguished citizens of the Grisons 
 who resided in Chiavenna, was Hercules de Salice or 
 Salis, the descendant of a noble family, who had 
 already gained great reputation as a soldier, and 
 afterwards rose to the first employments in the repub- 
 lic. He entertained Mainardi, who pleased him and 
 the friends who frequented his house so highly, that 
 they determined to have the obstacles which stood in 
 the way of his remaining with them removed. T]ie 
 zealous Roman Catholics insisted that it was a funda- 
 mental law of the democracy, that no religious ser- 
 vice could be set up in any community, town, or vil- 
 lage, without the formal permission of the majority of 
 the inhabitants. The Protestants, on the other hand, 
 pleaded the liberty which had been granted to use 
 the reformed worship within the republic. De Salis 
 brought the affair before the national diet held at 
 Davos in the year 1544, which determined that it 
 should be lawful to such as embraced the evangelical 
 rehgion in the Valteline, Chiavenna, and other places 
 within the dominions of the Grisons, to entertain and 
 keep privately teachers and schoolmasters for the 
 spiritual instruction of their families; and that those 
 who had fled from their native country on account of 
 that religion should be permitted to settle in any part 
 of the Grison territory, upon subscribing the received 
 Protestant confession, and giving such other securities 
 
 * Fueslin, Epist. Ref. p. 254. Gerdcsii Italia Ref. p. 307. 
 
 t Dc Porta, i. 197; ii. 45. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 127. Tiraboschi, vii. 1087. 
 
316 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 as the laws required.* In consequence of this law, 
 Mainardi was established as pastor of the flock which 
 had already been gathered by his private instructions 
 at Chiavenna ; and to this congregation De Sails gave 
 Ills chapel, called Santa Maria del Paterino, together 
 with a house, garden, and salary, to the minister. It 
 increased rapidly, and great care was afterwards 
 taken to provide Chiavenna with able pastors.t 
 
 About the same time, Julio da Milano, after preach- 
 ing with great success in Lower Engadina, founded 
 a congregation at Puschiavo, which enjoyed his min- 
 istry for nearly thirty years, and continued long to be 
 one of the most flourishing churches in the republic. 
 He also laid the foundation of a number of churches 
 in his neighbourhood. J About the time of his death, 
 which happened soon after 1571, an able successor 
 was provided for him by the opportune arrival of 
 Cesare Gafl'ori, a native of Piacenza, who had been 
 guardian of the Franciscans. § The first printing- 
 press in the Grisons was erected in the town of Pus- 
 chiavo by Rodolfino Landolfo, the descendant of a 
 noble family in that place, who expended a large sum 
 on the undertaking. It contributed greatly to the 
 illumination of the country, but was very annoying 
 to the Roman Catholics; and, in 1561, the pope and 
 king of Spain made a formal demand for its suppres- 
 sion as a nuisance, with which however the diet did 
 not comply. II 
 
 * De Porta, ii. 37, 38. 
 
 t Mainardi was succeeded by the celebrated Jeronimo Zanchi, who 
 had Simone Florillo, a Neapolitan, for his colleague; after whom 
 Scipione Lentulo of Naples, and Ottaviano Meio of Lucca, succes- 
 sively occupied this important post. (Zanchii Epist. lib. ii. p. 376. 
 De Porta, ii. 49—54.) 
 
 I Brusio, Ponteilla, Prada, Meschin, and Piuri or Plurs, were all 
 in a short time provided with pastors from amor)g the Italian refu- 
 gees. (Schelhorn, Dissert, de Mino Celso Senensi, p. 34. 46. De 
 Porta, tom. ii. part ii. p. 179.) The village of Plurs was over- 
 whelmed, in the year 1618, by the falling of Mount Conto; on which 
 occasion, all the inhabitants, to the nurnber of more than two thou- 
 sand, were buried in the ruins, with the exception of three individuals 
 who happened at, the time to be in the fields. (Ebel, Manuel du 
 Voyageur en Suisse, tom. ii. p. 390, 391.) 
 
 § De Porta, ii. 40, 41. |1 Ebel, tom. iv. p. 53. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 317 
 
 The Church of Caspan was the first fruits of the 
 Valtehne, having as early as the year 1546, met for 
 worship in a house provided by the Paravicini, one of 
 the most ancient families in that country. It was, 
 however, nearly ruined by the imprudence of an indi- 
 vidual belonging to the family to which it owed its 
 erection. A crucifix having been found broken in one 
 of the churches, the clergy directed the suspicions of 
 the inflamed populace against the Protestant minister, 
 who, on being arrainged and put to the rack, was 
 made to confess that he had committed the sacrilegi- 
 ous deed. On being liberated from confinement he 
 repaired to Coire, and protesting that the extremity of 
 the torture had wrung from him the confession of 
 a crime in which he had no participation, demanded 
 a fair trial. On examination it was found that the 
 outrage on the crucifix had been committed by Bar- 
 tolommeo Paravicino, a boy of thirteen, on the night 
 before he set out for the university of Zurich. But 
 though the innocence of the minister was cleared, so 
 strong were the prejudices of the Roman catholics, 
 that it was not judged prudent to permit him to return 
 to Caspan, and the congregation was directed to choose 
 another pastor in his room.* Teglio, the chief town 
 of the most populous district in the Valteline, obtain- 
 ed for its pastor the pious and learned Paolo Gaddio, 
 a native of the Cremonese, who, after visiting Geneva, 
 had acted as a temporary assistant to the venerable 
 pastor of Puschiavo.t Sondrio, which was the seat 
 of the government, enjoyed for some time the labours 
 of Scipione Lentulo, a learned Neapolitan, who had 
 devoted himself to the service of the Waldensian 
 churches in the valleys of Lucerna and Angrogna, 
 and been exposed to the severe persecution which 
 they suffered, in 1560 and 1561, from Emanuel Phili- 
 bert, duke of Savoy. J His talents and learning were 
 
 * De Porta, ii. 41—44. 
 
 t Fueslin, p. 359. Zanchii Opera, torn. vii. p. 4, 
 
 \ Lcger has inserted an account of the deliverance of the Walden- 
 
 ses, in a letter from Lentulus to an illustrious person at Geneva. 
 
 (Hist, des Eglises Vaudoises, torn. ii. p. 34 — 36.) 
 
318 HISTORY or THE 
 
 of the greatest utility to the reformed cause during his 
 residence at Sondrio, and afterwards at Chiavenna.* 
 Churches were also erected in a number of other 
 places in the Valteline;t and they spread subsequent- 
 ly into the county of Bormio.."}: Upon the whole, the 
 number of Protestant churches to the south of the 
 Alps appears to have exceeded twenty, v/hich were 
 all served, and continued till the end of the sixteenth 
 century to be for the most part served, by exiles from 
 Italy. 
 
 I have brought into one view what concerns the 
 formation of Italian churches in this part of the coun- 
 try; but it was after considerable intervals, and amidst 
 the most violent opposition, that permission was ob- 
 tained to erect the greater part of them. No sooner 
 did the priests perceive the success of the reformed 
 doctrine at Chiavenna and Caspan, than they began 
 to exclaim against the edict of 1544. Not being able, 
 with any decency, to object to the first part of it, they 
 directed their invectives against the liberty which it 
 gi;anted to the Italian exiles to settle among them, 
 exclaiming that it was disgraceful to the republic of 
 the Orisons to give entertainment to banditti (as they 
 called them) whom other Christian princes and states 
 had expelled from their dominions. The popular 
 mind was still further inflamed by a crowd of monks 
 who came from the Milanese, and especially by Ca- 
 puchins sent by the bishop of Como, who, in the 
 fanatical harangues which they delivered during the 
 time of Lent, did all but exhort the people to rebel 
 against their rulers. Failing in their applications to 
 the diet for a repeal of the obnoxious edict, the oppo- 
 nents of the Reformation had recourse to the local 
 government, to which, in the year 1551, they pre- 
 sented a petition, demanding that it should be declared, 
 agreeably to the spirit of an ancient law, that no exile 
 should be permitted to remain above three days in 
 
 * Gerdesii Ital. Ref. p. 281—284. De Porta, ii. 335. 495—500. 
 t Those of Tirano, Rovoledo, Mellio, Morbegno, and Dubino, are 
 particularly mentioned. 
 
 X Coxe, iii. 102. De Porta, ii. 286, 287. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 319 
 
 the Valteline. Anthony de Planta, the governor, was 
 a Protestant; but dreading, from the irritated feeUngs 
 of the populace, a massacre of the refugees, he gave 
 his consent to the measure. In consequence of this, 
 the preachers were obliged to conceal themselves for 
 a time; and several distinguished individuals, both 
 male and female, among whom were count Celso 
 Martinengho and Isabella Manricha, prepared to 
 remove into Switzerland.* The diet was highly- 
 offended at these illegal and disorderly proceedings, 
 but contented itself with renewing, in 1552, its former 
 edict, and charging the governor and vicar of the 
 Valteline to see it strictly observed. 
 
 The firmness of the government repressed, without 
 allaying, the hostility of those who had gained the 
 command over the passions of the Roman catholics, 
 which burst forth, on the slightest occasions, in acts of 
 violence against the Protestant preachers. They felt 
 a strong hatred and dread of Vergerio, and during a 
 visit which he paid to the Valteline in 1553, a depu- 
 tation waited on the governor and insisted on the 
 instant banishment of the bishop; adding, that if their 
 demand was not complied with, " they would not be 
 answerable for the scandals which might ensue." Un- 
 derstanding the meaning of this threat, Vergerio agreed 
 voluntarily to retire; " for," says he, "they meant to 
 oppose me with the dagger, and pistol, and poison." 
 One of the basest methods adopted by the monkish 
 trumpeters of sedition, was to impress on the minds 
 of their hearers that it was unlawful for true catholics 
 to hold civil intercourse with heretics, or to live with 
 them as masters and servants, husbands and Avives; 
 by which means they disturbed the peace and broke 
 
 *De Porta, ii. 50. Frederic de Salis writes, June 20, 1559, that 
 Isabella Manricha (see before, p. 157) was still at Chiavcnna, waiting 
 for her household, and uncertain whether to remain in that place or 
 to remove elsewhere. (Ibid. p. 343; conf. p. 170.) Annibalc Caro ad- 
 dressed a letter from Rome, April 27, 1548, to this lady, who was 
 then at Naples. There are four letters by the same learned man to 
 her son, George Manrichn, from the last of which it appears that 
 this young man was at Milan on the 18th of June 15G2. (Lcttcrc 
 Fam'il. del Commendatore Annibal Caro, tomo i. p. 2GU, 270. 293; 
 ii. 16. 279, edit. 1572.) 
 
320 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 np the harmony of some of the principal famiUes in 
 the country. A Dominican monk of Cremona, named 
 Fra Angelo, declaiming from the pulpit at Teglio 
 during the festival of Easter 1556, accused the rulers 
 of the Grisons of listening to heretical teachers, and 
 gave a formal challenge to any of the evangelical 
 party, offering to prove from the Scriptures that those 
 who refused the mass were diabolical heretics, and 
 that their spouses were not legitimate wives, but 
 worse than strumpets. On leaving the church the 
 infuriated audience rushed to the Protestant place of 
 worship, attacked Gaddio the pastor, and wounded 
 several of his hearers who attempted to defend him. 
 Instead of calling Angelo to account for instigating 
 this tumult, the Grison government invited him to 
 Coire to maintain the dispute Avhich he had provoked; 
 but although offered a safe conduct, he refused to 
 make his appearance, and orders being afterwards 
 issued to apprehend him, he made his escape into 
 Italy. The procurator who appeared for those who 
 had been active in the riot, did not deny that it was 
 caused by the monks, and had the effrontery to 
 declare, before the judges appointed to examine the 
 affair, "that there would never be quietness in the 
 republic until that religion of the devil (the Protes- 
 tant) was exterminated.'' Yet so forbearing was 
 the government, that it not only passed over the 
 tumult with impunity, but sacrificing private interests, 
 and in some degree the character of the innocent suf- 
 ferers, to public peace, agreed that Gaddio should 
 remove to another place, although his congregation 
 earnestly petitioned for his being allowed to continue 
 with them.* 
 
 This lenity was entirely thrown away on the ene- 
 mies of the Protestants, both within and without the 
 republic. At the very time that the government was 
 labouring to allay animosities, two brothers, Frances- 
 co and Allessandro Bellinchetti, were seized in Italy. 
 They were natives of Bergamo, who, on embracing 
 the reformed religion, had retired into the Grisons and 
 
 * De Porta, ii. 147—149, 264-272. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 321 
 
 settled in the village of Bergun, at the foot of mount 
 Albula, where they wrought an iron mine. Having 
 paid a visit to their native place, they were thrown 
 into the inquisition, and proceeded against on a charge 
 of heresy. On hearing of this, the authorities of the 
 Grisons immediately sent an ambassador to demand 
 their liberation as citizens of the republic; and being 
 referred, by the magistrates of Bergamo and the senate 
 of Venice, to the inquisitors, they wrote to the prior 
 of the Dominican monastery at Morbegno, in the 
 Valteline, to use his influence with his brethren to 
 obtain the release of the prisoners; but he paid no re- 
 gard to the application. Upon this the diet met and 
 came to a peremptory resolution, that if the two 
 brothers were not released within the space of a 
 month, all the Dominicans within the territories of the 
 Three leagues should be banished, and the property of 
 the monastery of Morbegno, movable and immovable, 
 forfeited and applied to the relief of the poor and 
 other pious uses. An extract of this deed haviug 
 been sent to the prior, the prisoners were immediate- 
 ly set at liberty.* 
 
 In the meantime, the foreign monks who had in- 
 vaded the Valteline, confiding in the support of their 
 governments, became every day bolder in their in- 
 vectives and in plotting against the public peace. 
 Through their influence, persons of the first respect- 
 ability for birth, probity, and talents, were not only 
 excluded from civil oflices, but denied the rites of se- 
 pulture, prevented from building places of worship, 
 and exposed to every species of insult. Seeing no 
 end to this illegal and degrading oppression, they at 
 last resolved on laying their grievances formally be- 
 fore the government. Aware of the justice of their 
 complaints, impressed with the equity of extending 
 to the subject-states that religious liberty which had 
 been found so advantageous to the governing country, 
 perceiving that the threats of strangers were heard 
 above the voice of the law in their southern domin- 
 ions, and convinced that it Avas high time to adopt 
 * De Porta, ii. 272, 273. 
 
322 HISTORY or the 
 
 decisive measures unless they chose to allow their 
 authority to sink into absolute contempt, the diet, 
 which met at Ilantz in the beginning of the year 
 1557, unanimously adopted the following decree, 
 which, being ratified by the several communities, was 
 enrolled among the fundamental and standing laws 
 of the republic. It was declared, that it should be 
 lawful to preach the sacred word of God and the gos- 
 pel of our Lord Jesus Christ in all places belonging to 
 the Valteline, and to the counties of Chiavenna, Bor- 
 mio, and Teglio : that in those villages in which there 
 were a plurality of churches, the Roman catholics 
 should have their choice of one, and the other should 
 be given to the Protestants : that in any village in 
 which there was only one church, the Roman catho- 
 lics should have the privilege of using it in the former 
 part of the day, and the Protestants in the latter : that 
 each party should be allowed to perform all the parts 
 of their worship, and to bury their dead, without op- 
 positon from the other: that the professors of the Pro- 
 testant faith should enjoy all honours and be admis- 
 sible to all offices equally with their fellow-subjects: 
 that no foreign monk or presbyter, of whatever religi- 
 ous persuasion, should be admitted to reside within 
 these territories, unless he had been previously ex- 
 amined and approved by the ordinary authorities in 
 the church to which he belonged — the ministers by the 
 Protestant synod in the Three leagues, and the priests 
 by the bishop and chapter of Coire; and that none 
 should be admitted unless he declared his intention to 
 reside at least for a year, and gave security for his 
 good behaviour. In the course of the same year an 
 act was passed, freeing the Protestants from penalties 
 for not observing the popish holidays; and, in the 
 following year two statutes were enacted, one for ex- 
 tending to the subject-provinces the law which pre- 
 vented the admission of new members into monaste- 
 ries, and the other making stated provision for the 
 pastors of the Protestant churches. The former was 
 not executed. In piu'suance of the latter, a third part 
 of the ecclesiastic rents of Chiavenna was allotted to 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 323 
 
 the minister of the reformed church in that village, 
 which, by this time, included the half of the popula- 
 tion. To the pastors in other places forty crowns a 
 year were assigned, to be taken, in the first instance, 
 from the benefices of absentees and pluralists; and, 
 failing these, from the revenues which the bishop of 
 Coire drew from the Valteline, from the funds of the 
 abbacy of Abundio; or, as the last resource, from the 
 common funds of each parish.* 
 
 This was the only legislative enactment by which 
 positive encouragement was given to the Reformed 
 religion in the Valteline; but the Protestant ministers 
 derived little from it except envy, the clergy contriv- 
 ing, by concealment, litigation, and violence, to retain 
 nearly the whole of the funds. It was granted, in 
 consequence of a representation from the Protestants, 
 who pleaded that, though the minority in point of 
 numbers, they contributed the largest proportion to 
 the funds of the clergy, many of whom performed no 
 duty, and the rest confined themselves chiefly to the 
 saying of mass. As is usual on such occasions, those 
 of the laity who contributed next to nothing were 
 loudest in exclaiming, " that they were taxed for up- 
 holding an heretical religion;" while the clergy called 
 upon "the Italian deserters of monasteries" to imitate 
 the example of the apostle Paul, who laboured with 
 his hands that he might not be burdensome to the 
 churches, and of the Egyptian anchorites, with Pe- 
 ter the hermit at their head; and insisted that they 
 could not be the followers of Christ and his apos- 
 tles, inasmuch as they did not work miracles nor live 
 on alms.t It may be proper to mention here another 
 act, though passed at a later period, which gave great 
 ofl"ence to the Roman catholics. The diet of the Gri- 
 son republic agreed to erect a college at Sondrio, in 
 the Vakeline.; It did not partake of the nature of a 
 theological seminary, but was confined to the teaching 
 
 * De Porta, ii. 273—276, 283—287. 
 t De Porta, ii. 287, 289, 560, 561. 
 
 t Though not erected till 1584, this college was planned so early 
 as 1563. (Zanchii Epist. lib. ii. p. 376.) 
 
324 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 of languages and philosophy. The children of papists 
 and Protestants were equally admissible to it, and 
 provision was made for teachers of both persuasions. 
 But notwithstanding the liberal principles on which 
 it was founded, the clergy cried out against it as a 
 Lutheran seminary ; formal representations were made 
 against it by the popish cantons of Switzerland and 
 by the court of Milan; and the republic was obliged 
 to send back the principal, a learned and moderate 
 man, whom they had brought from Zurich, and to 
 remove the institution, after it had subsisted for only 
 one year, to the city of Coire.* 
 
 The Italian exiles were elated by the laws passed 
 in their favour, and looked forward with sanguine 
 hopes to the speedy triumph of the Reformed cause 
 in the Valteline ; but their ultramontane brethren, who 
 were better acquainted with the genius of the inha- 
 bitants, and more indifferent judges of the opposition 
 Avhich might be expected from foreign powers, re- 
 pressed their fervour, and wisely urged upon them the 
 propriety of trusting for success to the gradual illu- 
 mination of the people, rather than to legislative de- 
 crees, which required external force to carry them 
 into execution, t The court of Rome had been, from 
 the beginning, highly displeased at the reception given 
 to the Italian exiles in the Grisons ; but its displeasure 
 was converted into a mingled feeling of indignation 
 and alarm, when it saw the standard of evangelical 
 truth planted in one of the suburbs of Italy, from 
 which, if not speedily dislodged, it might be carried 
 into the interior, and, in process of time, might insult 
 the head of the church in his capital. The extirpa- 
 tion of the colony was resolved on; and, to accom- 
 plish it, the popes exerted themselves in securing the 
 co-operation of the neighbouring catholic powers, 
 especially the Spanish monarch, who had lately ob- 
 
 * De Porta, torn. ii. part ii. 32, 37, 48, 53, 57, 58, 332. The erec 
 tion of a similar seminary in 1614, but on a smaller scale, and with- 
 out deriving any support from the funds of the Valteline, excited 
 equal hostility, and was made one pretext for the rebellion which fol- 
 lowed soon after. (Ibid. p. 252—254, 322.) 
 
 t De Porta, ii. 280, 281. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 325 
 
 tained the sovereignty of Milan. It is difficult to say 
 whether ambition or bigotry had the ascendant in the 
 character of Phihp II., but both principles led him to 
 embark in this scheme with the utmost cordiality. 
 The Valteline bordered on the Milanese, and had 
 formerly belonged to that duchy. Philip, as well as 
 the dukes who preceded him, had ratified the cession 
 of it to the republic of the Grisons, but that did not 
 prevent him from cherishing the idea of recovering a 
 territory which was the key to the communication 
 between Milan and Germany, and the command of 
 Avhich would enable him at all times with safety to 
 convey troops from Austria to his dominions in the 
 north of Italy. For interfering widi the affairs of the 
 Valteline, he found a pretext in the plea, that it was 
 necessary to prevent heresy from spreading in the 
 Milanese, which had already been to no inconsider- 
 able extent tainted by that pestilential malady. 
 
 In the year 1559 the government of Milan erected 
 forts on the confines of the Valteline. Under the 
 cover of these the inquisitors entered the country, 
 and as they durst not seize the persons of the inhabi- 
 tants, collected a large quantity of heretical books, 
 which they burnt with great solemnity. They were 
 followed by a swarm of foreign monks, who, trusting 
 to the garrisons as places of retreat, despised the edict 
 which prohibited them from entering the country, 
 and went about inflaming the minds of the people 
 against the Protestant preachers, and even the local 
 rulers by whom they were protected.* A college of 
 Jesuits was established at Ponte, and maintained itself 
 in spite of repeated orders issued by the diet for its 
 removal.! These strangers kept up a regular corres- 
 pondence with the heads of their respective orders at 
 Como, Milan, Rome, and other places in Italy, the 
 effects of which soon became apparent. It has been 
 already mentioned that Pius IV., who filled the papal 
 throne between 1559 and 1566, had been a priest in 
 the Valteline ; a circumstance which at once disposed 
 
 * De Porta, ii. p. 297—299. 
 t Ibid, p. 302—304. 
 
326 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 him to take a deep interest in the affairs of that coun- 
 try, and made his interposition the more effective. In 
 1561 his legate Bianchi, provost of Santa Maria della 
 Scala at Milan, appeared at Coire. Supported by the 
 presence and influence of Ritzio, the Milanese ambas- 
 sador, the les^ate made a formal demand on the diet, 
 in the name of his holiness, that they should banish 
 the Italian exiles from the Valteline and Chiavenna, 
 allov/ free ingress and egress to foreign monks, make 
 no opposition to the Jesuit college at Ponte, prevent 
 the issuing of books derogatory to the church of Rome 
 from the press at Puschiavo, and, in general, overturn 
 all that they had done in relation to religion in that 
 part of their dominions.* But the influence of Pius, 
 who had not left behind him the odour of sanctity in 
 the Grisons, was small compared with that of his 
 nephew, the celebrated cardinal Borromeo, arch- 
 bishop of Milan. Though this prelate owed his can- 
 onization more to his zeal for Catholicism than to his 
 piety, yet his talents and the decorum of his private 
 character rendered him by far the most formidable 
 adversary who had yet appeared against the Protest- 
 ant interest. It was the great object of his ambition, 
 from an early period of life, to oppose an effectual 
 barrier to the progress of heresy, and to repair and 
 prop the fabric of Popery which he saw tottering on 
 its base. With this view he applied himself to the 
 removal of abuses in Italy ; introduced reforms into 
 the morals of the clergy, particularly of the monastic 
 orders; and erected seminaries in which young per- 
 sons might obtain such an education as should qualify 
 them for entering the lists with the Protestants, and 
 fighting them with their own Aveapons. Hitherto 
 those who had appeared as the champions of the 
 Church of Rome, though often not destitute in talents, 
 were almost always deficient in learning, and could 
 do little more than ring changes, and that for the 
 most part rudely, on the popular prejudices against 
 innovation and in favour of the Catholic Church. But 
 men of learning now came forward who could " make 
 
 * De Porta, ii. 364—371. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 327 
 
 the worse appear tlie better reason" — who, if they 
 did not convince by the sohdity of their arguments, 
 entangled the minds of their readers by their subtlety 
 or dazzled them by the splendour of their eloquence, 
 and contrived artfully to withdraw attention from the 
 real image of the Church as she existed, to one which 
 was the pure creation of their own fancy. All the 
 celebrated champions of the Catholic faith, from Bcl- 
 larmine to Bossuet, proceeded from the school of Bor- 
 romeo. It would have been well if the cardinal had 
 confined himself to methods of this kind; but, be- 
 sides abetting the most violent measures for sup- 
 pressing the reformed opinions within his own dio- 
 cese, he industriously fomented dissensions in foreign 
 countries, leagued Avith men who were capable of the 
 most desperate attempts, and busied himself in pro- 
 viding arms for subjects who were ready to rebel 
 against their lawful rulers, and to shed the blood, of 
 their peaceable fellow-citizens.* 
 
 It is only a general account which I can here give 
 of the course pursued for disturbing the peace of the 
 Grisons, and expelling the refugees from the settle- 
 ment which they had obtained in the Valteline. The 
 goods belonging to citizens of the republic who traded 
 with the Milanese were seized by the inquisitors, and 
 applications for restitution and redress were almost in 
 every instance refused or evaded. Merchants who 
 visited that country were apprehended on a charge of 
 heresy, detained in prison, forced to purchase their 
 hberty with large sums of money, or condemned to 
 different kinds of punishment. Borromeo was not 
 afraid to incarcerate the chief magistrate of the juris- 
 diction of Mayenfeld.t At last a new species of out- 
 rage, unheard of among civilized nations, was resorted 
 to. Bands of armed men haunted the roads of the 
 Valteline, seized the Protestants unawares, and car- 
 
 * The most serious of these charges is supported by tlic cardinal's 
 letter of the 24th May, 1584, to the nuncio Spezzani, pubhshcd by 
 Quadrio, the Catholic historian of the Valteline, and reprinted by De 
 Porta. (Tom. ii. part. ii. p. 33— 3o ; conf. part. i. p. 454, 4S;2.) 
 
 t De Porta, ii. 455. 461. 482. 
 
328 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ried them into Italy. Francesco Cellario, the Protes- 
 tant mmister at Morbegno, was returnmg in 1568 
 from a meeting of the synod held at Zutz in Upper 
 Engadina. He had scarcely left the town of Chia- 
 venna, when some villains rushed from a thicket on 
 the margin of the lake Lario, forced him into a boat 
 which they had ready, and carrying him first to Como 
 and afterwards to Milan, delivered him to the Inqui- 
 sition. Ambassadors were sent to demand the pris- 
 oner, but they found that he had been conveyed to 
 Rome, and were told by the duke de Terranova, the 
 governor, that his abduction was the work of the 
 inquisitors, over whom he had no control.* After 
 being detained nearly a year in prison, Cellario was 
 tried by the Inquisition at Rome, and committed to 
 the flames on the 20th of May, 1 569 A The practice 
 of man-stealing now became a constant traffic in the 
 Valteline; and at every meeting of the diet, for a 
 course of years, complaints were made that some per- 
 sons had been carried off, including not only exiles 
 from Italy, but native citizens of the Grison republic.^ 
 The investigations into these acts of violence impli- 
 cated, in most instances, the monks of Morbegno, who 
 were in the habit of regularly giving such information 
 to the inquisitors as enabled them to seize their prey.§ 
 Nor did they confine themselves to this service. After 
 the abduction of Cellario, Ulixio Martinengho, count 
 
 * Gabutius, in his Life of Pius IV., gives the duke's answer in 
 these words: — " That the pope has an absolute and lawful power over 
 all parts of the world to seize, as often as he pleases, and inflict mer- 
 ited punishment on heretics." (Laderchii Annal. tom. xxxiii. 6, 198.) 
 
 t Laderchius, ut supra. De Porta, ii. 464 — 476. The first of 
 these writers gives, from the records of the Inquisition, the sentence 
 condemning Cellario to be burnt alive. Gabutius says he recanted 
 when he came in sight of the fire. De Porta, on the contrary, states 
 that a native of the Grisons, who was in Rome and witnessed the 
 execution, deposed that the martyr, on being taken from the fiery 
 stake, refused to confess, and was again thrown into the flames. 
 Cellario had been a Minorite monk of the order De Ohservantia, and 
 was twice imprisoned at Pavia. The first time, he was released on 
 making some acknowledgments ; the second time, he broke his chains 
 and made his escape to the Grisons in the year 1558. 
 
 I De Porta, ii. 477, 478. 480. 482; part. ii. 7—9. 50. 88. 95. 
 
 § Ibid. ii. 455. 457. 465. 483. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 329 
 
 de Barcho, a learned and pious nobleman who had 
 resided for a number of years in the Valteline, offi- 
 ciated in his room until the admission of Scipione 
 Calandrino, a native of Lucca, whom the congrega- 
 tion had chosen for their pastor. The monks, who 
 had looked forward to the dispersion of that flock, 
 were greatly irritated at their disappointment; and 
 two of them entering one day the church at Mellio, 
 fired a pistol at Calandrino, while he was in the act 
 of preaching. An old man observed them levelling 
 the piece, and gave warning to Calandrino, who 
 evaded the shot; upon which the ruffians stabbed the 
 old man mortally, rushed forward to the pulpit, and 
 having wounded the preacher, made their escape, 
 amidst the confusion into which the congregation was 
 thrown by this unexpected and disgraceful assault.* 
 The most humiliating circumstance in the whole of 
 this affair is the timidity and irresolution with which 
 the Grison government acted. They sent ambassadors, 
 they craved redress, they ordered investigations, and, 
 on making discoveries, they passed threatening votes; 
 but they took no step becoming the character of a 
 free people in defence of their violated independence 
 and insulted honour. Their neighbours showed them 
 an example worthy of their imitation. Cardinal Bor- 
 romeo, in one of his archiepiscopal visitations, entered 
 the territories of Switzerland. The Swiss govern- 
 ment, not relishing the visit, despatched an envoy to 
 request the governor of the Milanese to recall him. 
 No sooner had the envoy arrived at Milan, than he 
 was seized by the inquisitor and thrown into prison; 
 but the governor, as soon as he learnt the fact, 
 ordered his release, and treated him with marks of 
 great respect. On being informed of what had hap- 
 pened, the Swiss authorities sent a message to the 
 governor, signifying that if the same post which 
 brought the news of the imprisonment of their envoy 
 had not acquainted them with his enlargement, they 
 would instantly have seized the cardinal and detained 
 him as a hostage; upon hearing which, his eminence 
 
 * De Porta, ii. 483, 484. 
 22 
 
330 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 retired from the Swiss territories with less ceremony 
 than he had entered them.* If the authorities of the 
 Orisons had acted in this manner — if they had, as 
 they were advised, confiscated the property belonging 
 to the inhabitants of Milan and Como, and retained 
 it until their own merchants were indemnified for the 
 losses which they had sustained — and, above all, if 
 they had issued peremptory orders to level the monas- 
 tery of Morbegno with the ground, as a watch-tower 
 of spies and a den of thieves — tiie boldness of the 
 measure, supported by its justice, while it gave cour- 
 age to the loyal and checked the disaffected among 
 their own subjects, would have secured the respect 
 and forbearance of foreign powers. But the counsels 
 of the republic were distracted by dissensions, and 
 its arm palsied by corruption. The Grey league, 
 which was composed chiefly of Roman Catholics, 
 refused its consent to any vigorous measure. Spanish 
 gold had found its way into the other leagues; and a 
 Protestant ambassador returned from Milan, bearing 
 the insignia of an order of knighthood conferred on 
 him by a papal brief, instead of bringing the prisoner 
 whose liberty he was sent to demand. France, on 
 whose aid the party opposed to Spain placed its 
 chief dependence, had fallen under the rule of the 
 house of Guise, which was secretly engaged in the 
 league for the extirpation of Protestantism; and the 
 report of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, while it 
 blew up the hopes entertained from the north, gave 
 dreadful note of a similar explosion from the south, 
 which was soon to shake the Grisons to its centre. 
 The proper season of applying the remedy being 
 neglected, the evil became inveterate, and all attempts 
 to cure it served only to inflame and exasperate. 
 Provoked by persevering injuries, alarmed by re- 
 peated conspiracies, and betrayed without being able 
 to discover or convict the traitors, the authorities had 
 recourse to violent measures; and courts of justice, 
 composed chiefly of Protestants, were erected, by 
 which arbitrary and heavy punishments were inflicted, 
 
 * Fra Paolo, Discorso dell' Inquisitione di Venetia, p. 47. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 331 
 
 and individuals were condemned on slight or suspi- 
 cious evidence. These severities were artfully height- 
 ened hy the representations of foreign agents, and 
 ministered fresh fuel to the existing disaffection. The 
 joint influence of these causes led to the catastrophe 
 of 1620, of which no person acquainted with the 
 general history of Europe is ignorant — the indiscri- 
 minate and barbarous massacre of the Protestants in 
 the Valteline, the revolt of all the southern depen- 
 dencies of the republic, and the temporary subjuga- 
 tion of the Grisons by the combined arms of Austria 
 and Spain. Writers professing to have formed an 
 impartial judgment,* impute these disastrous events, 
 in a great measure, to the impolitic zeal with which 
 the government attempted to introduce the Reforma- 
 tion into the Valteline. There can be no question, 
 that if the Reformation had not been admitted into 
 the Grisons, the republic would not have been ex- 
 posed to that hostility which they actually encountered 
 from neighbouring powers. But ought they on that 
 ground to have prevented its reception? And having 
 allowed it in the governing country, would they have 
 been warranted in prohibiting it within the subject 
 states ? Or, are they greatly to be blamed for having 
 given encouragement to those who were their best 
 subjects, and on whom they could rely for an entire 
 and undivided allegiance? If the subject be impar- 
 tially considered, it will be found, I apprehend, that 
 the radical and main cause of the disturbances Avas 
 the retaining of the southern provinces in a state of 
 vassalage, together with the oppression and pecula- 
 tion to which this led on the part of those to whom 
 the administration of their affairs was committed — 
 evils which are almost inseparable from the govern- 
 ment of colonies and dependent provinces, whether 
 they belong to monarchies or republics. Had the 
 Valteline and the adjoining districts been received at 
 first into the confederation as a fourth league, and 
 admitted to all its privileges, the inhabitants would 
 
 * Coxe's Travels in Switzerland, vol. iii. p. 96. 
 
332 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 have turned a deaf ear to the msidious proposals 
 made to them from Milan and Inspruck, and the 
 obstacles to the Reformation would not have been 
 greater in the Cisalpine than they were in the Trans- 
 alpine departments of the republic. 
 
 Before leaving the Grisons, it will be proper to give 
 some account of the internal dissensions which pre- 
 vailed among the Italian exiles. Though the greater 
 part of them were distinguished for their learning, 
 zeal, and piety, and, by their services, amply repaid 
 the kindness of the country which afforded them an 
 asylum, it was soon found that others cherished in 
 their breasts a variety of subtle and dangerous opin- 
 ions, which they at first insinuated in private, and 
 afterwards taught and maintained with such factious 
 pertinacity as to bring scandal on the whole body of 
 the exiles, and to give great offence and uneasiness to 
 those who had been most active in procuring them a 
 hospitable reception. It is impossible to give such 
 an account of the opinions of this party as will apply 
 to all the individuals who composed it. While they 
 agreed in refusing their assent to the received creed, 
 some of them cavilled at one of its articles and others 
 at another. The leaders cautiously abstained from 
 disclosing their system, and contented themselves with 
 imparting privately to the initiated such of their views 
 as they knew to be most offensive and startling to the 
 minds of serious Christians. The more forward, who 
 were usually the most unlearned, advanced crude and 
 contradictory notions; and, their minds being un- 
 hinged and tossed to and fro with every wind of 
 doctrine, they veered suddenly to opposite extremes, 
 so that it was not uncommon to find individuals main- 
 taining one day that God was the author of sinful 
 actions, and that holiness had no connection with 
 salvation, and the next day inveighing against the 
 doctrine of predestination as leading to these odious 
 consequences. In general, however, they were dis- 
 ciples of Servetus, whose creed was a compound of 
 anabaptism and antitrinitarianism, and had, as we 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 333 
 
 have seen, been embraced by a number of the Pro- 
 testants in Italy.* 
 
 Francesco, a Calabrian, and Jeronimo, a Mantuan, 
 were the first who excited a noise by venting these 
 opinions. They had not been long settled as pastors 
 in the district of Engadina, when the report arose that 
 they were inculcating that infants ought not to be 
 baptized; that God is the author of sinful actions; 
 that the body, flesh, or death of Christ, can be of no 
 avail for the salvation of men; and that the souls of 
 the just sleep till the resurrection. The church of 
 Lavin dismissed Jeronimo as soon as they ascertained 
 his sentiments; but the Calabrian, by his address and 
 eloquence, had so fascinated his flock at Vettan, that 
 they clung to him and regarded all his sayings as 
 oracular. This encouraged him to persevere in the 
 course which he had begun, and to despise the admo- 
 nitions of his brethren. Loud complaints being made 
 that his doctrine was corrupting the morals of the 
 people, a public disputation, according to the mode of 
 those times, was held, in the year 1544, at Zutz, 
 which was attended by Roman catholic priests as well 
 as Protestant ministers. Francesco, having appeared 
 before this assembly, was convicted of the chief errors 
 imputed to him, and was afterwards expelled the 
 country.t 
 
 But it was in the Italian churches erected on the 
 south of the Alps that these opinions were most indus- 
 triously propagated and excited the greatest disturb- 
 ances. The author and chief fomenter of these was 
 Camillo Renato, a man of considerable acutencss and 
 learning, but addicted to novelties, captious yet cool, 
 opinionative yet artful and insinuating. As long as 
 he remained at Caspan he had little opportunity of 
 making disciples, though he tainted the mind of Para- 
 vicino, in whose house he lived as tutor. But on his 
 coming to Chiavenna, where the Protestants were 
 numerous, he found a more extensive field for propa- 
 gating his peculiar notions. Mainardi, the minister 
 
 * See before, p. 149—156. 
 
 t Bock, Hist. Antitrin. toin. ii. p. 410. Dc Porta, n. 67— 7o. 
 
334 HISTORY or the 
 
 of the Protestant church in that town, perceivmg that 
 the mmds of some of his flock were corrupted and 
 others scandahzed by the opinions which were secretly- 
 sown among them, remonstrated with Camillo on his 
 conduct, and endeavoured, by friendly conferences, to 
 effect a change on his views, or, at least to prevail on 
 him to retain them within his own breast. Failing 
 to accomplish this, he first gave warning to his people 
 from the pulpit of the danger to which they were 
 exposed, and afterwards drew up, in the name of his 
 congregation, a confession of faith, in which, without 
 mentioning the name of Camillo, he explicitly con- 
 demned his errors. Upon this Camillo and his fol- 
 lowers withdrew from the ministry of Mainardi, and 
 began to meet by themselves. 
 
 The following are the opinions which are said to 
 have been held by Camillo: — That the soul dies with 
 the body, or sleeps until the resurrection; that the 
 same body substantially shall not be raised at the last 
 day; that there shall be no resurrection of the wicked; 
 that man was created mortal, and would have died 
 though he had not sinned; that there is no natural 
 law by which men can know what to do or avoid; 
 that unregenerate men are irrational creatures like the 
 brutes; that the decalogue is useless to believers, who 
 have no law but the Spirit; that the Scripture says 
 nothing of the merit of Christ; that the Saviour had 
 concupiscence residing in him, was capable of sinning 
 though he did not actually sin, and is said to have 
 been made a curse because he was conceived in origi- 
 nal sin, and not because he offered a sacrifice for sin 
 or suffered the death of the cross for sinners; that 
 justifying faith has no need of being confirmed by 
 sacraments; that there is no resemblance betv/een 
 baptism and circumcision ; and that baptism and the 
 Lord's supper are merely signs of what is past, do not 
 seal any blessing, and have no promise annexed to 
 them.'* It is not difficult to perceive in these propo- 
 
 * Mainardi's Confession, which contained these articles, is lost; 
 but Pietro Leonis, a disciple of Camillo, inserted them in a book 
 which he published at Milan, from which they were extracted by De 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 335 
 
 sitions the elements which were afterwards formed 
 into a system by Faiistus Socmus. It is true, Camillo 
 did not profess his disbeUef of the doctrine of the 
 trinity, but some of his disciples who enjoyed a large 
 share of his confidence made no scruple of openly 
 disavowing it. He was also wary as to what he ad- 
 vanced on the immortality of the soul, and, when 
 pushed on that point by his opponents, was wont to 
 reply — " Camillo is ignorant whether the soul be im- 
 mortal or not ; he does not affirm that the soul dies 
 with the body, he only says so for the sake of dis- 
 pute." 
 
 Irritated at the detection of his scheme before he 
 had time to mature and propagate it, Camillo com- 
 plained loudly of the conduct of Mainardi. He drew 
 up several writings, in which, confining himself to the 
 subject of the sacraments, he endeavoured to hold up 
 his opponent as at once ignorant and intolerant, and 
 the true cause of all the discord which had arisen. 
 In this he was encouraged by Stancari and Negri. 
 The former, who, at a subsequent period, excited 
 great contentions in Poland and in Germany, foment- 
 ed the schism in the congregation of Chiavenna, 
 although in his sentiments respecting the sacraments 
 he went to the opposite extreme from Camillo. Negri, 
 a good but weak man, vacillated between the views of 
 Camillo and Stancari, and lent his aid to the faction.* 
 The consequence of all this was, that Mainardi incur- 
 red the censures of some of his countrymen who 
 occasionally visited the place, such as Vergerio and 
 Altieri; and received letters from the Orisons and 
 Switzerland admonishing him to conduct himself with 
 greater moderation. Knowing that he had good 
 grounds for all which he had done, and that the prcr 
 judices raised against him would give way as soon as 
 
 Porta, (ii. 83—86.) That Camillo carried his scepticism into philo- 
 sophy as well as divinity, appears from the following article :—• - 
 " Quod memoria rei alicujus non fiat, ut is qui illam facit, rci vel facti 
 certior fiat." 
 
 * Museum Helveticum, torn. xix. p. 481—487 ; where extracts are 
 given from the letters of Altieri and other distinguished persons at 
 Venice, describing the turbulent temper of Stancari. 
 
336 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the cause came to be investigated, Mainardi did not 
 relax in his vigilance. " The favourers of Camillo," 
 says he in a letter to Bullinger, " tear my sermons in 
 pieces. If I hold my peace, the truth is exposed to 
 imminent danger; if I speak, I am a morose old man, 
 and intolerant. Write to Blasio and Comander not 
 to listen to the statements of one party, but to come 
 and examine the matter before the whole congrega- 
 tion. I purposed to retire into England, but provi- 
 dence has kept me from deserting this little flock. 
 Yet I wish they could obtain a better pastor and one 
 of greater fortitude than I." From the time that he 
 came to the Valteline, Camillo had kept up a cor- 
 respondence with Bullinger by letters, in which he 
 endeavoured to ingratiate himself with him by pro- 
 fessing his agreement with the church of Zurich ; but 
 when his opponent offered to submit the controversy 
 between them to the judgment of that venerable 
 divine, he declined the proposal. The Grison synod, 
 which met in 1547, called the parties before them, 
 but Camillo neither attended nor sent a letter of ex- 
 cuse, upon which they enjoined him to desist from 
 opposing his minister and disturbing the peace of the 
 church. As he disregarded this injunction, and con- 
 tinued his former practices, a deputation, consisting 
 of four of the principal ministers in the Grisons, was 
 sent to Chiavenna in the close of the year 1549, to 
 inquire into the afiair, and put an end to a dissension 
 which now began to make a great noise, and caused 
 no small scandal both among Roman Catholics and 
 Protestants.* The deputation found all the charges 
 brought against Camillo proved, and declared that 
 Mainardi had acted the part of a faithful and vigilant 
 
 * On this occasion, a correspondence of a rather singular kind 
 took place. The Protestant deputies, on their arrival, addressed a 
 letter to the Roman Catholic chapter of Cliiavenna, intimating the 
 design on which they had come, and inviting them to meet with them, 
 and " confer on those common articles of Christianity about which 
 they were both agreed." The chapter returned a polite answer, but 
 declined the meeting, " because there was a great gulf between them ;" 
 adding a number of exhortations to unity and against divisions, the 
 drift of which it was not difficult to perceive. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 337 
 
 minister; but, without censuring the former, they, 
 with the view of restoring harmony, drew up certain 
 articles upon the subjects which had been contro- 
 verted, to which they required both parties to agree. 
 But ahhough Camillo subscribed this agreement, the 
 deputies had scarcely left the place when he resumed 
 his former practices; in consequence of which, the 
 consistory of Chiavenna, agreeably to the advice 
 which had been given them, suspended him from 
 church privileges, and, on his proving contumacious, 
 publicly pronounced the sentence of excommunica- 
 tion against him.* After this we hear little of Ca- 
 millo.t I have been the more particular in my account 
 of him, because there is every reason to think he had 
 great influence in forming the opinions of Lelius 
 Socinus. By their contemporaries, the former is 
 usually spoken of as the master and the latter as the 
 disciple. It is certain that Socinus had interviews 
 with Camillo at Chiavenna; and the resemblance 
 between their opinions and the cautious and artful 
 manner in which they uttered them, is very striking.^ 
 Finding themselves baffled in their attempts to pro- 
 pagate their peculiar tenets, the innovators had re- 
 course to a device which had nearly proved success- 
 ful. They got Celso Martinengho, Vcrgerio, and 
 some other respectable persons, to subscribe a peti- 
 tion for liberty to the Italian ministers to hold a synod 
 of their own, distinct from that which met in the 
 Orisons. In support of this proposal, they pleaded 
 the difficulty of the journey across the Alps, the dif- 
 ference of languages, and certain rites practised in the 
 Orisons which the Italians disliked, and which other 
 reformed churches had laid aside. § But the measure 
 
 * Hottinger, Helvetische Kirchengeschichte, torn. iii. 762, 791 : 
 De Porta, torn. ii. cap. 4. 
 
 t That he was alive and in Chiavenna or the neiglibourhood of it 
 in 1555, appears from a letter of JuHo da Milano to Bullingcr, in 
 which he spealcs of him as requiring still to be narrowly watched. 
 (Fueslin, p. 357.) 
 
 t Illgen, Vita Ljplii Socini, p. 17, 44. Bock, ii. 581, 582. Hottin- 
 ger, iii. 791. Fueslin, p. 356. 
 
 § These rites were the use of unleavened bread in the cucharist, 
 the pronouncing of the angelical salutation (commonly called Salve 
 
338 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 was quashed by the wiser part, who saw that the 
 preservation of the ItaUan churches, both from the 
 arts of internal agitators and from the attacks of their 
 popish adversaries, depended on their maintaining 
 their union with the ciiurches of the Grisons invio- 
 late.* " Our churches in the Valteline," says Julio 
 da Milano, "which are planted at Puschiavo, Tirano, 
 Teglio, and Sondrio, continue harmonious in their 
 adherence to the ancient and simple doctrine trans- 
 mitted from the times of the apostles, and at this day 
 taught without controversy in your churches of Swit- 
 zerland and ours of the Grisons."t 
 
 The noted antitrinitarians, Alciati and Blandrata, 
 stirred the ashes of the late controversy, during a visit 
 which they paid to the Grisons in 1553, on their way 
 from Italy to Switzerland. After this, Michael Angelo 
 Florio, minister of Soglio, and Jeronimo Turriano of 
 Plurs, began to undermine the faith of their hearers in 
 the doctrine of the atonement, by ascribing salvation 
 solely to the grace of God; while the divinity of Christ 
 was directly attacked by others, particularly by Ludo- 
 vico Fieri, a Bolognese and a member of the church of 
 Chiavenna. In 1561, the synod summoned these per- 
 sons before them, and drew up certain articles con- 
 demnatory of their opinions, which Florio and Turri- 
 ano subscribed; but Fieri, avowing his sentiments, 
 was excommunicated, and retired to Moravia. J There 
 were, however, still individuals secretly attached to 
 antitrinitarianism, who continued to correspond with 
 
 Regina) after the Lord's Prayer, and the admitting of godfathers in 
 baptism. In this last character Roman Catholics were sometimes 
 admitted ; and Paul Iter, the popish bishop of Coire, occasionally 
 presented the child for baptism to Comander. The ministers of the 
 Grisons were not rigidly attached to any of these rites, and they dis- 
 approved of the last mentioned practice, though they scrupled to pro- 
 hibit it, (especially after the violence manifested by the priests of the 
 Valteline,) lest it should interrupt the friendly intercourse which sub- 
 sisted between popish and Protestant families. The Italians exclaimed 
 against every thing of this kind as symbolizing with antichrist. (De 
 Porta, ii. 66, 226.) 
 
 * Bock, ii. 466. 
 
 t Epistola ad Bullingerum, a. 1555 : Fueslin, Epist. Helvet. n. 81. 
 
 t De Porta, ii. 397. 497. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 339 
 
 their friends in other countries; and, in 1570, tlie con- 
 troversy was revived in consequence of the arrival of 
 some distinguished persons belonging to the sect, who 
 found it dangerous to remain any longer in Switzer- 
 land. Among these were Camillo Soccini, the brother 
 of Lelius Socinus, Marcello Squarcialupo, a physician 
 of Piombino, and Niccolo Camulio, an opulent mer- 
 chant, who liberally patronized persons of this persua- 
 sion.* Their presence encouraged Turriano to resume 
 his former course, in which he was joined by Sylvio,t 
 the minister of Trahona, and some other individuals. 
 But the proceedings of the synod which met at Coire in 
 the year 1571 induced the visitors to withdraw from the 
 Grisons. Turriano and the other ministers were de- 
 posed, but subsequently restored to their churches on 
 making acknowledgments for their offensive beha- 
 viour. ± Alciati and Blandrata visited the Grisons a 
 second time in the beginning of 1579, but were order- 
 ed by the magistrates instantly to depart, after which 
 the country does not appear to have been disturbed 
 with these controversies. § When we consider that 
 the Italians were strangers, that they had obtained an 
 asylum on condition of their joining themselves to 
 the Protestant church already settled in the country 
 and submitting to its discipline, and that the republic 
 was subjected to great odium on account of the har- 
 bour and protection which it afforded them, we will 
 be cautious in condemning the magistrates for expel- 
 hng individuals who fomented discord and endangered 
 the existence of the whole colony, by propagating 
 sentiments equally shocking to the ears of papists and 
 Protestants. Expulsion was the highest punishment 
 which they inflicted ; and in one instance in which 
 they threatened to proceed further against an indi- 
 vidual, named Titiano, who had provoked them, the 
 ministers interposed and prevailed on them to desist 
 
 » Schelhorn, Diss, de Mino Celso, p. 35. Bock, ii. 483, 554, 576; 
 conf. i. 907—910. De Porta, ii. 508, 543, 544. 
 
 t Bartoloinmco Sylvio was the author of a tract on the Eucharist, 
 printed in 1551. 
 
 X De Mino Celso, p. 35—37, Do Porta, ii. 497—502, 543, 555. 
 
 § Ibid. ii. 632. 
 
340 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 from their intention.* I cannot, however, speak so 
 favourably of the sentiments entertained by many of 
 the ministers respecting the punishment of heretics. 
 This question was keenly agitated after the execution 
 of Servetus at Geneva. Gantner, one of the ministers 
 of Coire, maintained that heresy ought not to be 
 punished by the civil magistrate, and was warmly 
 opposed by Eglin, his colleague. The question was 
 brought under the consideration of the Synod in 1571, 
 which decided in favour of Eglin. It is true, the 
 proposition adopted by the synod refers to seditious 
 heretics; but several of the arguments on which it 
 appears to have been grounded, and by which it 
 was afterwards defended, would (if they have any 
 force) justify the punishment, and even the capital 
 punishment, of persons who are chargeable with sim- 
 ple heresy, and consequently must have tended to 
 betray those who held them into measures of perse- 
 cution.! 
 
 Though it appears, from what has been stated, that 
 a number of the Italian exiles were tainted with 
 Arianism, yet several individuals among them have 
 been suspected of this witliout the slightest reason. 
 Even Zanchi, who succeeded Mainardi,J has not 
 escaped the suspicion with some writers,§ although 
 he was the person selected by his brethren as most 
 fit for opposing this heresy, a task which he performed 
 
 * De Porta, ii. p. 76. 
 
 t Ibid. ii. 533—540. Diss, de Mino Cclso, p. 37—44. J. Jac. Sim- 
 ler, Samlung alter und neuer Urkunden zur Beleuchtung der KircJien- 
 geschichte, torn. ii. p. 805. 
 
 t Mainardi died in the end of July 1563, in the eighty-first year 
 of his age. (Zanchii Opera, tom.vii. p. 35.) He was the author of 
 the following works: — (1.) Trattato dell' unica et perfetta sattisfat- 
 tione di Christo, a. 1551. (2.) Uno pio et utile Sermonc della Gratia 
 di Dio contra Ii meriti humani, a. 1552. (3.) L'Anatomia della 
 Messa. The question concerning the real author of this last work, 
 which Bayle has discussed at great length, but unsatisfactorily, (Diet, 
 art. Vergerio,) had been previously settled by Zanchi. (Ut supra.) — 
 I may add here, that Alessandro Trissino, a native of Vicenza, 
 wrote a long letter to count Leonardo Tiene, exhorting him and his 
 fellow-citizens to embrace the reformed opinions. It was dated from 
 Chiavenna, July 20, 1570, and printed two years after. (Tiraboschi, 
 vii. 383.) 
 
 § Bock, ii. 426, 563. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 341 
 
 with distinguished ability. His assertion that he was 
 " neither Lutheran, Zuinghan, nor Calvinian, but a 
 Christian/' is what every person may adopt whose 
 faith is founded on the word of God, and not on the 
 wisdom and authority of men. The suspicions against 
 Celso Martinengho and Vergerio* appear to have 
 originated entirely in their having at first taken part 
 with Camillo against Mainardi, before they discovered 
 the real sentiments of the former. Martinengho after- 
 wards enjoyed the confidence of Calvin during all 
 the time that he was pastor of the Italian church at 
 Geneva. Vergerio declared himself openly against 
 the anabaptists, and gave early warning of the defec- 
 tion of his countrymen, Socinus and Gribaldi, to the 
 opinions of Servetus.t The fate of this distinguished 
 man was in some respects hard. He forfeited the 
 high character which he had held in the church of 
 Rome,:j: without gaining the confidence of the Protes- 
 tants. By wavering between the sentiments of the 
 Lutherans and Zuinglians, he incurred the displeasure 
 of both. He excited the jealousy of the ministers in 
 the Grisons by affecting a species of episcopal autho- 
 rity as superintendent or visitor of the Italian churches; 
 and they complained that he had not laid aside the 
 mitre, nor forgotten the arts which he had learned in 
 courts. § It is not improbable that, in addition to the 
 finesse which lias been supposed to enter into the 
 Italian character, Vergerio had acquired, from his em- 
 ployments, the habit of using policy to accomplish his 
 ends, and that he felt some difficulty in reconciling 
 himself to the simple life of a Protestant pastor after 
 the splendour and opulence to which he had been ac- 
 customed. But if he had not been sincerely attached 
 to the Reformation, he would have listened to the 
 proposals made to him by the court of Rome, which, 
 though it would have preferred seizing his person, 
 Avas not unwilling to purchase his faith. Though his 
 
 * Bock. ii. 410, 551—553. De Porta, ii. 63, 151—156. 
 
 t De Porta, ii. 158, 159. 
 
 I Bembo, Letterc, tomo iii. p. 389. 
 
 § De Porta, ii. 154, 160— 1G6. 
 
342 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 writings were not profound and his conduct was 
 marked with versatiUty, Protestants might have treat- 
 ed with a httle more tenderness the memory of a man 
 whose name lent at least a temporary credit to their 
 cause, and who gave the rare example of sacrificing 
 worldly honours and affluence to religious principle. 
 He died on the 4th of October 1565, at Tubingen, in 
 the duchy of Wirtemburg, where he had resided 
 since the year 1553, although he repeatedly visited 
 the Grisons during that interval.^ 
 
 Ludovico Castelvetro, of whom we have already 
 spoken, was among the learned men who found a 
 refuge from persecution in the Grisons. After his 
 flight from Rome,t he concealed himself in Ferrara ; 
 but, hearing that the officers of the inquisition were 
 in eager search for him, left his native country, and 
 retired to Chiavenna, where he found his old friend 
 Franciscus Portus. The removal of Portus, who was 
 called to Geneva, gave him an opportunity of being 
 useful in teaching the Greek language, which served 
 to relieve the languor of his exile. Application was 
 made in his behalf to the council of Trent, but the 
 fathers would not interfere in a cause which was 
 already before the tribunal of the inquisition. Through 
 the interest of his friend Foscarari, bishop of Modena, 
 hopes were given him of a favourable issue to his 
 process, provided he would return to Italy; but he 
 declined this, as well as the proposal made by the 
 nuncio Delfino, who was sent into Switzerland to treat 
 with him, Vergerio, and Zanchi. It was most proba- 
 bly the fears which he entertained for his safety, at a 
 time when many of his countrymen were surprised 
 and carried otf into Italy, that induced him to leave 
 Chiavenna and repair to Lyons. But finding himself 
 exposed to new dangers, from the civil war which 
 
 * Salig, Hist. Auspurg. Confes. torn. ii. p. 1180. Bayle, Diet. art. 
 Vergerio. De Porta, lib. ii. cap. v. Gerdesii Ital. Ref. p. 346 — 350. 
 The first volume of a collection of his works was printed in 1563. 
 The Apologia pro Vergerio adversus Casam, by Schelhorn, I have 
 not seen. 
 
 t See before, p. 203. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 343 
 
 then raged in France between the catholics and Hii- 
 gonots, he retired to Geneva, and soon after returned 
 to Chiavenna, where he opened a private school, at 
 the desire of some young men, to whom he read daily 
 two lectures, one on Homer and another on the Rhe- 
 torica ad Herennium. Encouraged by the reception 
 which his brother had met with at the court of Vien- 
 na, he went there in 1567, and put to press his cele- 
 brated commentary on Aristotle's Art of Poetry, which 
 he dedicated to the emperor Maximilian II. But the 
 plague breaking out in that place, he returned again 
 to Cliiavenna, where he continued till his death, on 
 the 21st of February 1571, in the sixty-sixth year of 
 his age. Previous to his last illness, some of his 
 countrymen, who had settled at Basle, requested him 
 to take up his residence with them ; an invitation with 
 which he seemed willing to comply. Castelvetro was 
 one of the great literary ornaments of his country; 
 an acute and ingenious critic, and extensively ac- 
 quainted with Italian and Provengal poetry as well 
 as with the classics of Greece and Rome, to which he 
 added the knowledge of Hebrew.* 
 
 It is now time that we should quit the Alps, and 
 take a rapid survey of the Italian churches formed in 
 Switzerland and other countries to the north. 
 
 At Zurich the exiles form Locarno obtained from 
 the senate the use of a church, with liberty to cele- 
 brate public worship in their own language. They 
 enjoyed at first the instructions of their townsman 
 Beccaria; but as he had come merely to supply their 
 
 * Muratori, Vita del Castelvetro: Opere Critiche, p. 33—49. Ti- 
 raboschi, Delia Letter. Ital. vii. 1170—1173. Bibl. Modencse, toin. i. 
 p. 456 — 467. Freytag, Analect. Libr. Rar. p. 219. Jacopo, the son 
 of Gianmaria Castelvetro, who accompanied his father and uncle in 
 their exile, took up his abode finally in London, where, in 1591, he 
 published an edition of the Pastorfido of Guarino, and the Aminte 
 of Tasso. Having been induced to go to Venice, probably^ by the 
 dissension which arose between that republic and tlie court of Rome, 
 an accusation was brought against him as a heretic, and he was 
 thrown into prison, from which he escaped by the assistance of Sir 
 Henry VVotton, the English ambassador. (Bibl. Modencse, torn. i. 
 p. 430_43.i.) He was in Edinburgh in the year 1592. (IVIS. in 
 Bibl. Jurid. Edin. A. 4. 18.) 
 
344 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 present necessities, after labouring among them for a 
 few months, he resigned his place to a person of su- 
 perior talents.* Returning to the Grisons, he took up 
 his residence in the valley of Misocco, a part of the 
 country which remained in a state of gross ignorance, 
 and in which he was extremely useful, in the double 
 capacity of schoolmaster and preacher, until 1561, 
 when he was expelled through the agency of cardi- 
 nal Borromeo ; after which he retired to Chiavenna.t 
 Ochino was the person chosen to succeed Beccaria 
 at Zurich. After leaving his native country,:}: he had 
 remained for some time at Geneva, where he acquir- 
 ed the esteem of Calvin :§ but finding himself shut 
 out from employment there, as the only language of 
 which he was master was the Italian, and none of his 
 countrymen had as yet come to that place, he repair- 
 ed to Basle, for the purpose of printing some of his 
 Avorks, and from that went to Augsburg. The magis- 
 trates of this city appointed him Italian preacher, with 
 an annual salary of two hundred florins, partly to pro- 
 vide for his support and partly to gratify the mer- 
 chants and other inhabitants who knew his native lan- 
 guage. || He accordingly commenced preaching on 
 the epistles of Paul, in the church of St Anne, to num- 
 bers, attracted by curiosity and by the report of his 
 eloquence. For the sake of those who could not un- 
 derstand him, his discourses were translated into Ger- 
 man and printed. But the emperor, Charles V., hav- 
 ing come to Augsburg with his army in July 1547, 
 
 * Schelhorn, Ergoetzlichkeiten, torn. iii. p. 1162. 
 
 t Beccaria, who also went by the name of Canesa, continued to 
 visit his flock in Misocco down to the year 1571. (Tempe Helvetica, 
 torn. iv. p. 200—202. De Porta, ii. p. 344—350 ; conf. p. 169.) 
 
 t See before, p. 183, 
 
 § Burmanni Sylloge Epist. torn. ii. p. 230. Lettres de Calvin a 
 Jaque do Bourgogne, p. 36, 108. 
 
 II Schelhorn, in his interesting collections relating to the life and 
 writings of Ochino, has published two decrees of the senate of Augs- 
 burg, in one of which, dated October 20, 1545, they give permission 
 to " Frater Bernhardin Ochinus," along with his brother-in-law and 
 sister, to reside in the city ; and in the other, dated December 3, 
 1545, they assign him the salary mentioned in the text as " Welscher 
 Predicant." (Ergoetzlichkeiten, torn. iii. p. 1141, 1142.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 345 
 
 demanded that Ochino should be dehvered up to him, 
 upon which he fled, along with his countryman Stan- 
 cari, to Constance, whence he went by Basle to Stras- 
 burg."^ Here he found several Italian refugees, and 
 particularly his intimate friend Martyr, with whom 
 he repaired, in the end of that year, to England, upon 
 the invitation of archbishop Cranmer. Martyr ob- 
 tained a professor's chair in the university of Oxford,t 
 while Ochino exercised his talent of preaching in the 
 metropolis. But, in consequence of the change of re- 
 ligion produced by the death of Edward VI., both of 
 them retired in 1554, the former to Strasburg and the 
 latter to Basle. f From this place Ochino was called 
 to be minister of the Locarnese congregation at Zu- 
 rich, to the charge of which he was solemnly admit- 
 ted on the 13th of June 1555, after making an ortho- 
 dox confession of his faith, and swearing to observe 
 the rites of the Helvetic church and the ordinances of 
 its synods. § 
 
 Soon after the settlement of Ochino, his country- 
 man Martyr came to Zurich, to fill the chair of theo- 
 logy and Hebrew, which had become vacant in the 
 university by the death of the learned Conrad Pelli- 
 can.|| This was of great advantage to the Locarnese 
 congregation. His interest with the magistrates and 
 pastors of the city was exerted in its behalf; it had 
 
 * Schelhorn, p. 994—998, 1142, 1143. Salig, torn. ii. p. 419. 
 Seckendorf, lib. iii. p, 613; et Supplem. num. Ivi. 
 
 t " Peter Martyr, doctor of divinity of the university of Padua," 
 was incorporated into the university of Oxford in February 1547. 
 (Wood's Fasti Oxon. p. 126.) 
 
 t Strype's Memorials, vol. ii. p. 189. Burnet's Hist, of the Rcf. 
 vol. ii. p. 53, 250. Sanders, De Schism. Anglic, p. 349. During his 
 residence in England, Martyr lost his wife. On the restoration of 
 popery, her body was, by the orders of cardinal Pole, (once the inti- 
 mate friend of Martyr,) disinterred and thrown into a dunghill ; but, 
 after the accession of Elizabeth, it was removed, under the direction 
 of archbishop Parker, and again honourably buried, (Historia Vera, 
 De Vita, &c. Martini Buceri et Pauli Fagii ; item Historia Catha- 
 rinse Vermilioe, D. Petri Martyris conjugis, f. 196— 2U2. Argent. 
 1562.) 
 
 § Schelhorn, Ergoetz. tom, iii. p. 1162. 
 
 II He came to Zurich in July, 1556. (Mclch. Adam, Vitte Exter. 
 Tiieolog. p. 49. De Porta, ii. 228.) 
 
 23 
 
346 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the benefit of his sound advice in the management of 
 its internal affairs; and he preached to it as often as 
 Ochino was unwell or absent.* It must, therefore, 
 have sustained a severe loss by his death, which 
 happened on the 12th of November, 1562, after an 
 illness of a few days. Of all the Itahan exiles, none 
 left behind him a fairer and better earned fame than 
 Peter Martyr. He possessed eminently the good 
 qualities of his countrymen, without the vices which 
 have been ascribed to them; acuteness without sub- 
 tlety, dexterity without cunning, and ardour without 
 enthusiasm. In Italy he gave great offence by desert- 
 ing the religion of his ancestors and violating the 
 monastic vow; in England he was opposed to the 
 champions of the Catholic faith, after the government 
 had declared itself decidedly in their favour; at the 
 conference of Poissi he appeared in support of the 
 Protestant doctrine, at a crisis when its adversaries 
 trembled at the prospect of its success within the 
 kingdom of France ; and at Strasburg he was involved 
 in a dispute with those who maintained the peculiar 
 sentiments of Luther on the eucharist with more vio- 
 lence than their master had ever shown. But in none 
 of these places did prejudice, strong as it then was, 
 and loud as it often lifted its voice, whisper anything 
 unfavourable to the personal character of Martyr.t 
 His piety and learning were recommended by mod- 
 esty, candour, and gentleness of manners. As an 
 author, his talents were allowed by his adversaries; 
 and in the reformed church, his writings were, by 
 general agreement, placed next to those of Calvin, for 
 judiciousness and perspicuity. His last years were 
 spent happily in the most uninterrupted harmony and 
 cordial friendship with his colleagues in Zurich. Bul- 
 linger, who loved him as a brother, closed his eyes, 
 and Conrad Gesner spread the cloth over his face, 
 
 * Zanchii Epist. lib. ii. p. 284. 
 
 t Speaking of Bucer and Martyr, Walter Haddon exclaims — "O 
 aureum par senum felicissimaB memoriae, quorum doctrinae testes 
 libri sunt ab illis confecti, morum tot habuerunt approbatores quot 
 unquam convictores inveuire potuerunti" (Haddoni Lucubrationes, 
 p. 224.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 347 
 
 while the pastor and elders of the Locarnian church 
 wept around his bed.* 
 
 The year in which Martyr died was remarkable 
 for the death of one of his countrymen, whose name 
 obtained still greater notoriety than his, though on 
 different grounds. This was Lelius Socinus, who had, 
 for a number of years, been a member of the Locar- 
 nese congregation.! He was born at Sienna in 1525, 
 and educated under the eye of his father, Mariano 
 Soccini, the younger, a celebrated professor of law. 
 Having testified a decided partiality to the Reforma- 
 tion, he left Italy in 1548,:]: partly from regard to his 
 safety and partly from a desire to see and confer with 
 the leading divines of the Protestant church, whose 
 writings he had read with delight. He came to 
 Zurich at an early period, and lodged with Pellican, 
 under whom he commenced the study of the Hebrew 
 language. Between 1549 and 1551 he resided at 
 Wittenberg, after Avhich he returned to Zurich, where 
 he spent the remainder of his life, with the exception 
 of what was devoted to short excursions into France, 
 Poland, and Italy. I have already given my reasons 
 for thinking that, before leaving his native country, 
 he had not adopted the creed which has obtained from 
 him and his nephew the name of Socinian, and that 
 his interviews with Camillo Renato at Chiavenna had 
 great influence in leading his mind into that train of 
 thinking. § Soon after his arrival in Switzerland he 
 
 * Josias Simler, who had been appointed his colleague in the theo- 
 logical chair, drew up his life in the Oratio de Vita et ObituD. Petri 
 Martyris Vermilii, to which we have repeatedly referred. There is 
 a beautiful letter in commendation of him, written soon after his 
 death, by Wolfgang Haller to Zanchi. (Zanchii Epist. ut supra.) 
 Besides the collection of epistles appended to his Loci Communes. 
 a number of Martyr's letters were published by Gerdes, in his Serin- 
 turn Antiquarium, tom. iv. 
 
 t Illgen, Vita Lajlii Socini, p. 48. Fueslin, p. 356. 358. 
 
 tCornelio, Camillo, and Celso, three of the brothers of Lelms, 
 embraced the same sentiments, and followed him, at a later period, 
 into Switzerland, as did also his nephew Faustus. (Schclhorn, Do 
 Mino Celso, p. 35. Bock, ii. 576, 577. 624.) 
 
 § The reader may compare the opinions of Camillo, as already 
 stated, with the doubts started by Socinus in his correspondence with 
 Calvin. The letters of Socinus, indeed, arc not extant, but the sub- 
 
348 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 began, in his conversations and epistolary correspon- 
 dence with learned men, to start doubts as to the 
 commonly received opinions concerning the sacra- 
 ments and the resurrection, and afterwards concern- 
 ing redemption and the trinity; but he uniformly 
 proposed these in the character of a learner, not of a 
 teacher or disputant, as difficulties which he was 
 anxious to have solved, and not as sentiments which 
 he held or wished to support. The modesty with 
 which he propounded his doubts, together with the 
 eager desire he showed for knowledge, his courteous- 
 ness, and the correctness of his morals, gained him 
 the esteem not only of Melanchthon and BuUinger, 
 but also of Calvin and Beza. If, at any time, he 
 gave offence or alarm by the boldness with which he 
 pushed his speculations into high and inscrutable 
 mysteries, or by pertinaciousness in urging his objec- 
 tions, he knew how to allay these feelings by prudent 
 concession and ample apologies; and Calvin, after 
 declining farther correspondence with him, was in- 
 duced to renew it and to return a friendly answer to 
 his doubts respecting the doctrine of the trinity.* In 
 adopting this method toward the more learned re- 
 formers, it was probably the object of Socinus to 
 ascertain what they could say against his opinions ; 
 but, in other instances, he exerted himself in secretly 
 making proselytes, and not without success.! He 
 carefully concealed his sentiments respecting the 
 trinity from the divines of Zurich. J On receiving 
 warning of them from the Orisons, BuUinger, whose 
 affections he had gained, laid the matter before him, 
 and, in a very friendly manner, advised him to remove 
 the suspicions which had arisen as to his orthodoxy. 
 Socinus protested that he agreed in all points with 
 the church of Zurich, and complained of the reports 
 
 stance of them is preserved in Calvin's replies. (Calvini. Epist. p. 
 52. 57; Opera, torn, ix.) 
 
 * Coloniesii Opera, p. 502. Conf. Calvini Epist. p. 57 ; Opera, 
 torn, ix. 
 
 t Zanchii Praef. in Libr. de Tribus Elohini; Opera, torn. i. 
 
 t Simla, Assertio Orthod. Doctrinae de duabus naturis Christi, 
 preef. p. 4. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 349 
 
 circulated to his prejudice; but, on being dealt with 
 more closely, he owned that he had indulged too 
 much in abstruse and vain speculations, promised 
 that he would guard against this for the future, and 
 subscribed a declaration of his faith, which was satis- 
 factory to BuUinger.* Julio da Milano, who was 
 one of those from whom the information had come, 
 and knew the correspondence which Socinus held 
 with the antitrinitarians in the Valteline, was sus- 
 picious of the sincerity of his professions; and though 
 he promised to use his influence to induce his breth- 
 ren to accept of the pledge which had been given, 
 implored Bullinger to watch over the purity of the 
 Locarnese congregation.! After this, Socinus was 
 more circumspect: we find no more noise made 
 about his opinions during his lifetime; and there is 
 every reason to think that he continued to communi- 
 cate, as he had formerly done, with the Italian church 
 in Zurich. But after his death, the antitrinitarians 
 who had enjoyed his confidence, thinking themselves 
 no longer bound to secrecy, proclaimed that he was 
 of their sentiments; and as a proof of this, circulated 
 such of his writings as were in their possession. :[: On 
 
 * Illgen, p. 46—55. Bock, ii. 597—602. 
 
 t Fueslin, p. 353 — 359. 
 
 t Bock has given an account of his writings. (Hist. Antitrin. torn, 
 ii. p, 635 — 654.) But Illgen has shown greater discrimination in 
 distinguishing his genuine works from those which are supposititious 
 or were written by others. (Vita La>lii ?^ocini, p. 74 — 85.) His 
 work composed on occasion of the punishment of Servetus, and 
 entitled, " Martini Belhi Farrago de haereticis, an sint prosequcndi, 
 ct omnino quomodo sit cum eis agendum," was first printed at Basic 
 in 1553. The edition which 1 have examined wants the words 
 " Martini Bellii Farrago" in the title, and was printed " Magde- 
 burgi 1554." The following is a specimen of the style of reasoning 
 in that work: — "Suppose one accused of disloyalty at Tubingen, 
 who makes this defence for himself—' I believe that Christopher is 
 my prince, and I desire to obey him in all things ; but as to what 
 you say about his coming in a chariot, this I do not believe, but be- 
 lieve that he will come on horseback; and whereas you say that he 
 is clothed in scarlet, I believe that he is clothed in white; and as to 
 his ordering us to wash in this river, I believe that tliis ought to be 
 done in the afternoon, and you believe it ought to be done in the 
 forenoon.' I ask of you, prince, if you would wish your sul)ject to 
 be condemned for this ? I think not : and if you were present, you 
 would rather praise the candour and obedience of the maji than 
 
350 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 hearing of his death, his nephew, Faustus Socinus, 
 came from Lyons to Zurich, and took possession of 
 his papers, wiiich he afterwards made use of in com- 
 posing his own works. To this, however, he appUed 
 himself at a period much later; for he went imme- 
 diately to Florence, where he spent twelve years in 
 the service of the grand duke of Tuscany, not in pre- 
 paring his mind for the task of illuminating the world, 
 (as the Polish knight who wrote his life has asserted,) 
 but in the idleness and amusements of a court, as he 
 himself has acknowledged.* 
 
 The Locarnese exiles were surprised and distressed 
 at learning that so respectable a member of their 
 church as Socinus had made defection from the evan- 
 gelical faith ; but their painful feelings were heightened 
 by the report, which soon after became current, that 
 their pastor had followed his example. Socinus had 
 failed in his attempts to warp the judgment of his 
 countryman Zanchi;t but his subtlety and address 
 were too powerful for one who was now ad\^anced in 
 years, and who, though possessed of good talents, had 
 read but little on theology, in consequence of his 
 imperfect knowledge of ancient and foreign languages. 
 Without supposing him to have been the slave of 
 popularity, Ochino could scarcely have failed to be 
 flattered with the crowds which flocked to his preach- 
 ing in Italy ; and he must have felt the change, when, 
 on coming to a foreign country, his hearers were 
 necessarily few, fron:i the circumstance of their being 
 confined to those who understood his native tongue. 
 He had, besides, taken up the idea that the divines of 
 
 blame his ignorance; and if any should put him to death on this 
 ground, you would punish them. So is it in the question under con- 
 sideration. A certain citizen of Christ says, I believe in God the 
 Father and Jesus Christ his Son," &,c. (De Ha^reticis, &c. p. 8.) 
 No copy has, for a long time, been seen of his " Paraphrasis in 
 Initium Evangelii S. Johannis, scripta an. 1561," which contained 
 the famed interpretation of the first verse of that gospel, " In Evan- 
 gelii principio erat Dei sermo," «fec. This paraphrase must not be 
 confounded with the " Explicatio Initii Evangelii Johannis," which 
 was the work of his nephew Faustus. 
 
 * Bock, torn. ii. p. 663, 664. 
 
 t Zanchii Opera, torn. i. praef. ad finem. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 351 
 
 Zurich despised him for his want of learning ; and 
 though this suspicion appears to have been ground- 
 less, we have his own authority for saying that it 
 soured his mind.* In this state of his feelings, he 
 was more ready to listen to the objections of his artful 
 townsman, though they struck at the root of senti- 
 ments which had been the favourite topics of his 
 sermons, and in which he had gloried most when he 
 left the church of Rome. 
 
 It appears that surmises unfavourable to the ortho- 
 doxy of Ochino had arisen soon after his arrival in 
 Switzerland. We learn this fact from a letter of Calvin, 
 which reflects honour on the heart of that great refor- 
 mer, and shows that he was far from being of that 
 suspicious and intolerant disposition which many, 
 through ignorance or prejudice, have ascribed to him. 
 " There is another thing of which I must write you, 
 at the request of our friend Bernardin. I understand 
 that it has been reported, through the foolishness of a 
 certain brother, who was one of his companions, that 
 he was somewhat suspected here as not altogether 
 sound on the doctrine of the trinity and person of 
 Christ. I shall say nothing in his exculpation, except 
 simply to state the truth of what happened. As I 
 have not great confidence in the genius of many of 
 the Italians, when he first imparted to me his design 
 of taking up his residence here, I conferred with him 
 freely on the several articles of faith, in such a man- 
 ner that if he had differed on any thing from us he 
 could scarcely have concealed it. It appeared to me 
 that I discovered, and, if I have any judgment, I can 
 safely attest, that he agreed with us entirely on the 
 article referred to, as well as on all other points. The 
 only thing I perceived was, that he felt displeased 
 with the over-curious discussion of these questions 
 which is common among the schoolmen; and, really, 
 when it is considered how much the airy speculations 
 of these sophists differ from the sober and modest 
 doctrine of the ancients, I cannot be of a dilierent 
 opinion. I think it proper to bear this testimony to 
 
 t Ochino, Dialogo, in Schelhorn, Ergoetz., toni. iii. \u 2030. 
 
352 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 a pious and holy man, lest the slightest suspicion 
 should unjustly be attached to his character among 
 us; for he is unquestionably a person distinguished 
 for genius, learning, and sanctity."* Calvin retained 
 the same favourable opinion of him at a subsequent 
 period,! and there is no reason to think that the divines 
 of Zurich were of a different mind. But, in 1558, 
 Martyr received a letter from Chiavenna, stating that 
 Ochino and the brothers of Lelius Socinus were 
 secretly undermining the doctrine of the merit and 
 satisfaction of Christ. Even according to his own 
 explanation, Ochino had forsaken his former views on 
 that point ; but the matter was accommodated by the 
 friendship and prudence of Martyr.:j: About the same 
 time he gave oifence to some of the divines of Switzer- 
 land by one of his books; and on this occasion also, 
 though the work was printed without their knowledge 
 and was far from pleasing them, the ministers of 
 Zurich interposed in his favour. § But he forfeited 
 their protection and exhausted their forbearance, by a 
 work which he published in the course of the year 
 after his countryman. Martyr, died. It was printed 
 privately, not at Zurich but at Basle, and consisted of 
 thirty dialogues, divided into two parts. || In the first 
 part he proves, in opposition to a Jew, that Jesus is 
 the true Messiah, and, on the general argument, his 
 proofs are strong; but when he comes to defend the 
 
 * Calvinus ad Pellicanum, Genevae, 14 Calend. Maias 1543 : Cal- 
 vini Epistolse MSS. vol. i. no. 60, in Bibl. Genev. 
 
 t Calvin, ad Viretum, 6 April. 1547 : MS. in Bibl. Genev. 
 
 X A Jetter which Ochino wrote on this occasion has been preserv- 
 ed by De Porta, torn. ii. p. 392. 393. 
 
 § Schelhorn, Ergoetzlichkeiten, torn. iii. p. 2164. The book refer- 
 red to was his Labyrinthi, in which he discusses the questions respect- 
 ing- free will and predestination. 
 
 II Bernardini Ochini Senensis Dialogi XXX. Basileas 1563. The 
 work was printed from a translation into the Latin made by Castalio. 
 It was afterwards disputed whether the work had undergone the 
 examination which the laws prescribed before its being printed. It 
 appeared, on investigation, that the Italian original, in manuscript, 
 had been put into the hands of Amerbachius, the rector of the uni- 
 versity, by whom, as he did not understand the language, it was 
 committed to Celio Secundo Curio, who denied that he liad ever 
 given it his approbation. (Schelhorn, Ergoetz. torn. iii. p. 1185 — 
 1188.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 353 
 
 sacrifice and satisfaction of Christ, he argues feebly and 
 inconclusively. It was, however, the second part of 
 the work, in which he treats of polygamy and the 
 trinity, which chiefly gave offence. The first of these 
 questions is discussed in dialogue between Tclipo- 
 ligamus, an advocate of polygamy, and Ochinus. 
 Every argument which had been urged in favour of 
 the practice, or which the ingenuity of the author 
 could devise, is put into the mouth of the former, who 
 reasons at great length and with much eloquence; 
 while Ochinus replies at once with brevity and feeble- 
 ness, and in the end materially, though not in so many 
 words, yields the point in dispute to his supposed 
 antagonist. The dialogues on the trinity are con- 
 ducted in the same manner. Some writers insist tliat 
 Ochino cannot be charged with maintaining polygamy 
 and antitrinitarianism; but it will be difficult for any 
 person to read the dialogues impartially without con- 
 ceiving strong suspicions of the author's heterodoxy.* 
 Certain citizens of Zurich, on a visit to Basle, were 
 told in a public company that their town would soon 
 become a sink of vile heresies, as their ministers had 
 already begun to write in favour of polygamy; and on 
 their resenting this as a calumny, they were silenced 
 by the production of the work of Ochino, which had 
 been lately published. Returning home, they gave 
 information to the ministers of the city, and implored 
 them to wipe oif a disgrace which had fallen upon 
 their order and upon the whole city.t The divines 
 of Zurich had, at a former period, been greatly dis- 
 pleased at the conduct of such of the German reform- 
 ers as had countenanced the bigamy of the landgrave 
 of Hesse,:{: which brought so much scandal on the 
 whole evangelical body; and they now felt both 
 grieved and indignant at the conduct of their col- 
 league. Plaving communicated the fact to the chief 
 magistrate, they, at his desire, translated the dialogue 
 
 * The dialogue on polygamy has been republished and translated 
 into our own language (among others) by the friends of that practice. 
 t Sehelhorn, Ergoetzlichkeiten, iii. p. 21GU, :21G1. 
 X Fueslin, Epist. Ref. p. 198—200, 205. 
 
354 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 on polygamy into German, and laid it, with remarks 
 on the other dialognes, before the senate, which came 
 to the resolution of banishing him from the territories 
 of the canton. Being unable to prevent this sentence, 
 he petitioned for liberty to remain during the winter; 
 but this was refused, and he was ordered to depart 
 within three weeks.* 
 
 The banishment of an old man of seventy-six, with 
 four young children, in the depth of winter, was a 
 severe measure, calculated to excite compassion for 
 the sufferer ; and had Ochino left this feeling to its 
 own operation, it is probable that the magistrates and 
 ministers of Zurich would have incurred public odium. 
 But he published an apology for himself, which was 
 answered by the ministers, and injured instead of 
 helping his cause.t Besides the charges brought 
 against the senate and pastors in general, he made a 
 personal attack on BuUinger, whom he represented 
 as one who disliked all foreigners, especially Italians, 
 wished to ruin the Locarnese congregation, had op- 
 posed his election to be their pastor, and persecuted him 
 because he would not worship him as a pope and a 
 god-X Now all this was so contrary to the character of 
 that divine; and his kindness to exiles, his care about 
 the Italian church,§ the tenderness with which he had 
 treated Socinus,and the respect which he had shown for 
 Ochino himself, were all so well known, that the minis- 
 ters scarcely needed to use their "sponge" to wipe off 
 aspersions which served only to throw suspicion on 
 the pen which had discharged them. Nor was the 
 author happier in the defence of his book. His chief 
 
 * Schelhorn, Ergoctz. iii. 2022, 2161, 2166, 2174—2179. Bock, ii. 
 501—504. 
 
 t His apology, entitled " Dialogo, Favellatori — Prudenza humana 
 e Ochino," and the reply to it, entitled "Spongia adversus asper- 
 gines Bernardini Ochini," are both published by Schelhorn in the 
 third volume of his Ergoetzlichkeiten. It would appear, from the 
 reply, that Ochino's apology was printed at that time, though Schel- 
 horn thinks it was only circulated in manuscript. 
 
 X Dialogo, ut supra, p. 2021, 2029, 2030. 
 
 § There is an excellent letter by him to the Protestants suffering 
 persecution in Italy, dated 6th January 1561, and published by 
 Fueslin. (Epist. Ref. p. 445—456.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 355 
 
 apology for the manner in which he had conducted 
 the argument was, that "truth does not stand in need 
 of many words hke falsehood, for it can defend it- 
 self* As if we were warranted to strip truth, and 
 then place her on the pillory, to be insulted and pelt- 
 ed by the mob, while we stood by and contented our- 
 selves with crying out, "Great is the truth, and will 
 prevail!" Ochino alleges, that one chief reason of the 
 keenness with which the ministers of Zurich had per- 
 secuted him was, that, in the obnoxious dialogues, 
 he had exposed their errors and pointed out the de- 
 fects of their boasted reformation. But, as anything of 
 this kind was put into the mouth of the interlocutor 
 whom he opposed, he, by this allegation, virtually 
 acknowledged the deception which he had practised, 
 and deprived himself of his principal defence.! 
 
 On coming to Basle, Ochino was given to under- 
 stand by the magistrates, that his continuing there 
 would be offensive. After residing for some time at 
 Mulhausen, he set out to join his countrymen of the 
 antitrinitarian persuasion who had gone to Poland. 
 But cardinal Borromeo, by express orders from the 
 pope, wrote to cardinal Hosius to keep his eye upon 
 him and prevent his settlement in that country, a ser- 
 vice which was also given in charge to the nuncio 
 Commendone. In consequence of this, he was obliged 
 to retire into Moravia, and died at Slacovia in the end 
 of the year 1564, after having lost two sons and a 
 daughter by the plague, which then raged in that 
 country.:}: Whatever the faults of Ochhio Avere, it is 
 
 * " La verita non ha bisogno di molte parole, sicome il mendacio ; 
 imperoche la verity per se stessa si difendi, resiste, supcra e trionfa ; 
 ma il contrario e del mendacio." (Dialogo, ut supra, p. 2018.) 
 
 t Dialog-o, ut supra, p. 2030—2034, Schelhorn is of opinion that 
 Ochino's Dialogue on Polygamy is not original, and that the greater 
 part of it was borrowed from a dialogue on the same subject, \yrit- 
 ten in defence of Philip, landgrave of Hesse, and published in 1541, 
 under the fictitious name of Hulderichus Neobuliis. (Ergoetzlich- 
 keiten, torn. i. p. 631 — 636; iii, 2136—2150.) There is certainly 
 a striking coincidence between the extracts he has produced Ironi 
 this dialogue and that of Ochino, The charge of plagiarism is, how- 
 ever, weakened by the fact that Ochino was ignorant of German. 
 
 X Bock, torn. ii. p. 504—508. 
 
356 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 impossible'to contemplate this termination of the ca- 
 reer of a man who had been held in such high estima- 
 tion and enjoyed so large a share of popular applause, 
 without feelings of the deepest regret and humiliation. 
 The narrative affords a useful lesson both to preach- 
 ers and hearers: it admonishes the latter not to allow 
 their admiration to usurp the place of their judgment, 
 if it were from no other motive than pity to the gods 
 whom their breath creates ; and it warns the former 
 not to trust themselves to the intoxicating gale of 
 popularity, which, after deceiving them, leaves in their 
 breasts a painful restlessness, prompting them to make 
 undefined and perilous efforts to regain what they 
 have lost. The Roman catholics had felt great mor- 
 tification when Ochino deserted their communion; 
 their triumph was now proportionately great, and his 
 versatility and melancholy fate furnished them with 
 a popular argument against all change in religion and 
 every attempt at Reform. 
 
 The Locarnese congregation, however, continued 
 to flourish and enjoyed a succession of pastors until 
 the emigration ceased, and it was no longer necessary 
 to have the public service performed in the language 
 of Italy.* Some of the most distinguished families 
 at this day in Zurich are descended from Italian ex- 
 iles, who first introduced into it the art of manufac- 
 turing silk, set up mills and dye-houses, and so en- 
 riched the city, by their industry and ingenuity, that, 
 within a short time, it became celebrated beyond the 
 limits of Switzerland.! 
 
 Basle had long been distinguished as a resort of 
 learned men, which induced many of the Italian Pro- 
 testants to select it as the place of their residence. I 
 can only name a few of them. Paolo di Colli, the 
 father of Hippolytus a Collibus, a celebrated lawyer 
 and counsellor of the Elector Palatine Frederic IV., 
 was a native of Alexandria, in the Milanese, from 
 
 * Hottinger, Helvetische Kirchengeschichte, torn. iii. p. 762 — 763; 
 Gcrdesii Ital. Ref! p. 40. 
 
 t Zschokke, Schweizerlands Geschichte, p. 258. Tenipe Helveti- 
 ca, torn. iv. p. 173. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 357 
 
 which he fled hi consequence of the discovery of a 
 Protestant conventicle which was kept in his house.* 
 Gugliehno Grataroli, a physician of Bergamo, was 
 equally distinguished by his piety, his classical learn- 
 ing, and his skill in his own art, on which lie pub- 
 hshed several works.t Alfonso Corrado, a Mantuan, 
 and said to have been the instructor of the wife of 
 Alfonso duke of Ferrara, preached for some time in 
 the Grisons, and published at Basle a commentary on 
 the Apocalypse, " filled (says Tiraboschi) with invec- 
 tives and reproaches against the Roman pontiff."^ 
 Silvestro Teglio, and Francesco Betti, a Roman knight, 
 were both learned men.§ Mino Celso, a native of Vi- 
 enna, is praised by Claudio Tolomeo, and an edition 
 of the letters of that learned man was dedicated to 
 him by Fabio Benvoglienti-H Having left his native 
 country from love to the reformed religion, he became 
 corrector of the press to Petrus Perna, a Lucchese, 
 and long a celebrated printer at Basle, " whose me- 
 mory (says Tiraboschi) would have been still more 
 deserving of honour if he had not tarnished it by 
 apostasy from the catholic rehgion."1[ Mino Celso 
 was the author of a rare work against the capital 
 punishment of heretics, in which he has treated the 
 question with great solidity and learning."^* But the 
 
 * Adami Vitae Jureconsult. p. 207. Tonjolse Monument. Basil, p. 
 124. 
 
 t Thuani Hist, ad an. 1568. Beza? Epistolae, p. 218, 231. Speak- 
 ing of Grataroli, Zanchi says — " In his native country he enjoyed an 
 honourable rank and riches : his piety alone has impoverished him." 
 (Epist. lib. ii. p. 390.) 
 
 X Gerdesii Ital. Ref. p. 231—234. De Porta, ii. 35. Tiraboschi, 
 vii. 383. " Exsecretur me Papa, quaerant me principcs ad neccm, 
 qui sub mentito Inquisitorum haereticoe pravitatis nomine ha>rcsin 
 pessimam defendunt, &c." (Alph. Conradus, Comment, in Apoca- 
 lypsin, Dedic. sig. ii. Has. 1574.) 
 
 § Teglio translated into Latin the Principe of Macchiavelli. Betti 
 was the author of a letter to the marchioness of Pescaro, and after- 
 wards became intimate with Faustus Socinus. (Schelhorn, Dissert, 
 de Mino Celso, p. 62. Bock, ii. p. 665, 817.) 
 
 11 De Mino Celso Senensi, p. 14 — 18. 
 
 IT Storia, vii. 1763. A life of Perna was published at Lucca in 
 1763, by Domenica Maria Manni. 
 
 ** It is entitled, " Mini Ceisi Sencnsis de Hereticis capitali sup- 
 plicio non afiiciendis. Anno 1584." This is the edition I have con- 
 
358 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 most learned person among the refugees who resided 
 in this city, was Cmio, whom we have aheady met 
 with repeatedly in the course of this history. At his 
 first coming from Italy, the senate of Berne placed 
 him at the head of the college of Lausanne, from 
 which he was translated in 1547 to the chair of Ro- 
 man Eloquence in the university of Basle. On that 
 occasion the degree of doctor of laws was conferred 
 on him sitting, a mark of respect which had been 
 shown to none but Bucer. But greater honour was 
 done him by the numbers who came from all parts 
 of Europe to attend his lectures. He received an in- 
 vitation from the emperor Maximilian to the univer- 
 sity of Vienna, from Vaivod, king of Transylvania to 
 Weissemburg, and from the duke of Savoy to Turin; 
 while the pope employed the bishop of Terracino to 
 persuade him to return to Italy, by the promise of an 
 ample salary, with provision for his daughters, and 
 on no other condition than that of his abstaining from 
 inculcating his religious opinions. But he rejected 
 these offers, and remained at Basle till his death in 
 1569.* Beside his writings on religious subjects, he 
 published various works on grammar, and editions of 
 the Latin classics, accompanied with notes, by which 
 he did great service to Roman literature and educa- 
 tion. Of all the refugees, the loss of none has been 
 more regretted by Italian writers than that of Curio.t 
 The testimonies which they have borne to him de- 
 serve the more attention for this reason, among others, 
 
 suited, but the work was first printed in 1577. The author mentions 
 that he was led to treat the question in consequence of his finding- it 
 disputed among the Protestants when he passed through the Grisons 
 in 1569. In the work, he points out the distinction between the 
 kingdom of Christ and secular kingdoms, examines the doctrine of 
 Scripture on the subject, produces testimonies from the fathers and 
 Reformers in favour of the opinion which he maintains, and shows 
 that it is not inconsistent with the exercise of civil authority in re- 
 forming and supporting religion. His reasoning is not confined to 
 capital punishment. 
 
 * Stupani Oratio de Cselio Secundo Curione, ut supra, p. 347 — 
 349. 
 
 t Tiraboschi, Storia, tomo vii. p. 1559 — 1561. Ginguene, Hist. 
 Litter, d'ltalie, tome vii. p. 233—236. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 359 
 
 that some of the most important facts relating to the 
 progress and suppression of the Reformation in Italy 
 have been attested by him; and the greater part of 
 the narratives of ItaUan martyrs proceeded from his 
 pen, or were submitted to his revision before they 
 were published by his friend Pantaleon. The chil- 
 dren of Curio, female as well as male, were distin- 
 guished for their talents and learning, and among his 
 descendants we find some of the most eminent names 
 in the Protestant church.* 
 
 In taking leave of Curio, I am reminded of his in- 
 teresting friend, Olympia Morata. On retiring into 
 Germany,! she and her husband were kindly enter- 
 tained by George Hermann, the enlightened minister 
 of Ferdinand, king of the Romans, through whose 
 influence they were offered an advantageous situation 
 in the Austrian dominions, which they declined, as 
 being incompatible with the free exercise of the Re- 
 formed religion. Olympia felt herself happy in the 
 affection of the worthy young man to whom she had 
 given her heart along with her hand ; and the recol- 
 lection of the ease and splendour in which she had 
 spent the most of her life was lost in the liberty of 
 conscience and Christian society which she now en- 
 joyed. The letters which she wrote at this time to 
 her female acquaintance in Italy and to her fellow 
 exiles, testify that she was in possession of the rich- 
 est of heritages, '^ godliness with contentment." In 
 Schweinfurt, an imperial town of Franconia, and the 
 native place of her husband, she resumed her favour- 
 ite studies, and her friends congratulated themselves 
 on the prospect of her adding to the literary fame 
 which she had already acquired in her native coun- 
 try; but the muses were soon put to flight by the 
 trumpet of war. The turbulent Albert, marquis of 
 Brandenburg, who had been engaged in a predatory 
 warfare with his neighbours, threw himself into the 
 
 * It is sufficient to mention here the names of Buxtorf, Grynoeus, 
 Freyus, and Wercnfels. (Stupani Oratio, p. 363, 3S1, 398. Ryhme- 
 rus, Vita Sam. Wcrcnfelsii, in Tcmpe Helvetica, torn. vi. p. 47.) 
 
 t See before, p. 205. 
 
360 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 city of Schweinfurt, when he was besieged by the 
 German princes.* During the siege, which was tedious 
 and severe, Olympia was obhged to hve in a cellar; 
 and when the town was taken, she, with great diffi- 
 culty, escaped, in disguise, from the fury of the soldiers, 
 and reached the neighbouring village of Hammelburg 
 in a state of exhaustion. " If you had seen me,'^ she 
 writes to Curio, " with my feet bare and bleeding, my 
 hair dishevelled, and my borrowed clothes all torn, 
 you would have pronounced me the queen of beg- 
 gars."! Her library, which she valued above all her 
 property, including her own manuscripts, was entirely 
 destroyed in the sack of the town. Under this cala- 
 mity, she experienced the polite attention of the counts 
 of Erbach; the Elector Palatine provided her husband 
 with a place in the university of Heidelberg ; and her 
 literary frieiids united in sending her books to furnish 
 a new library. Their sympathy and kindness soothed 
 her spirits, but could not restore her to health, or pro- 
 long a life which was fast hastening to a close. Her 
 delicate constitution had received an irrecoverable 
 shock from the agitation and fatigue which she had 
 undergone; the symptoms of consumption became 
 decided; and after a lingering illness, during whicli the 
 sweetness of her temper and the strength of her faith 
 displayed themselves in such a manner as to console 
 even her husband who doated upon her, she expired 
 on the 26th of October 1555, in the 29th year of her 
 age.f Who would not drop a tear over the untimely 
 grave of the amiable and accomplished Olympia Mo- 
 rata! She ceased not to the last to remember her 
 ungrateful but beloved Italy, though every desire to 
 return to it had been quenched in her breast from the 
 time she saw the apathy with which her countrymen 
 allowed the standard of truth to fall and the blood of 
 its friends to be shed Uke water in their streets. Be- 
 
 * Sleidan, torn. ii. p. 410, 449, 468. 
 
 t Olympise Moratas Opera, p. 16U — 162. Nolten, Vita OlympisB 
 Moratae, p. 138—147. 
 
 t Olympise Moratffi Opera, p. 167, 177, 155—192. Nolten, p. 148 
 —163. 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 361 
 
 fore she was confined to bed, slie employed licr leisure 
 time in transcribing from memory some of her poems, 
 which she bequeathed to her friend Curio, by whom her 
 works were published after her death. They consist 
 of confidential letters, dialogues in Latin and Italian, 
 and Greek poems, chiefly paraphrases of the Psalms, 
 in heroic and sapphic verse ; all of them the produc- 
 tions of a pious and highly cultivated mind.* 
 
 Strasburg, one of the free cities of Germany, opened 
 its gates to the Italian refugees. Paolo Lacisio of 
 Verona, highly praised by Robortello for his skill in 
 the three learned languages, came to it along with 
 Martyr, and obtained the situation of professor of 
 Greek in the academy.t Jeronimo Massario of Vi- 
 cenza was about the same time admitted professor 
 of medicine. This learned man, beside what he wrote 
 on the subject of his own science, was the author of 
 a description of the mode of procedure in the tribunal 
 of the inquisition at Rome. In this work he describes 
 the trial of a fictitious prisoner, whom he calls Euse- 
 bius Uranius, and puts into his mouth, during an 
 examination which lasted three days, the principal 
 arguments from Scripture and the fathers against the 
 church of Rome. Though it contains several facts, 
 yet it is rather a controversial than an historical work, 
 and much inferior in usefulness to the account of the 
 Spanish inquisition by Gonsalvo.J The Italians were 
 not so numerous in Strasburg as to require the use of 
 
 * Her works were published in 1553, and went through four edi- 
 tions in the course of twenty-two years. The first edition was dedi- 
 cated to Isabella Manricha, and the subsequent ones to Queen Eliza- 
 beth of England. Two of her letters will be found in tlie Appendix. 
 
 t Simler, Vita Martyris, sig. b iiij. Gerdes, Scrinium Antiq. torn, 
 iii. p. 17. Colomesii Italia Orientalis, p. 67, 688. 
 
 X It is entitled, " Eusebius Captivus, sive modus procedcndi in 
 curia Romana contra Lutheranos— per Hieronyinum Mariuni. iiasi- 
 leaj." The dedication is dated, " Basilcoe iiii. Nonas Novembris, 
 Anno 1553." Colomies says that Hieronymus Marius is the dis- 
 guised name of Cjelius Secundus Curio. (Dcs Maizeaux, Colomcsia- 
 na, torn. ii. p. 594.) But Zanchi, in a letter to Musculus says ex- 
 pressly that Massario had gone to Basle to get the work ijnnted. 
 (Zanchii Epist. lib. ii. p. 312, 317.) He died of the plague at stras- 
 burg in 1564. (VVolfii Notoe in Colomesii Ital. Orient, p. /4, t5. 
 Sturmii Institutiones Literatse, p. 140. Torun. Boruss. 1586.) 
 
 24 
 
362 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 a church, but they met in private and enjoyed for 
 some time the instructions of Jerome Zanchi."^ This 
 celebrated divine was a native of Alzano in the Ber- 
 gamasco, and descended from a family distinguished 
 in the republic of letters.! He was persuaded by his 
 relation, Basilio, to enter a convent of Canons Regu- 
 lar, where he formed an intimate acquaintance with 
 Celso Martinengho. They were associated in their 
 studies in reading the works of Melanchthon, Bullin- 
 ger, Musculus, and other Reformers, and in attending 
 the lectures of Martyr. They left Italy about the same 
 time, and their friendship continued uninterrupted till 
 the death of Martinengho. Having come to Geneva 
 in 1553, by the way of the Grisons, Zanchi agreed 
 to accompany Martyr into England; but when about 
 to set out for this country, he received an invitation 
 to be professor of divinity in the college of St. Tho- 
 mas at Strasburg. This situation he filled, with great 
 credit and comfort, for several years, until, after the 
 death of James Sturmius, the great patron of the 
 academy, who had been his steady friend, he was in- 
 volved in controversy with some of the keen Luther- 
 ans, led on by John Mar bach, who took oflence at 
 him for opposing their novel notion of the omnipre- 
 sence of the human nature of Christ, and for teaching 
 the doctrines of predestination and the perseverance 
 of the saints. J In the midst of the uneasiness which 
 
 * Zanchii Epist. lib. i. p. 131. 
 
 t His father, Francesco, is enumerated among- the historians of 
 Italy. (Tiraboschi, torn. vii. p. 369.) His second cousins, Dionigi, 
 Grisostomo, and Basilio Zanchi, were all learned men. The last was 
 reckoned one of the finest Latin poets in Italy, and a mystery hangs 
 over the manner and cause of his death. It is supposed that he died 
 in prison, into which he had been thrown by pope Paul IV. (Ibid. 
 p. 1182—1184; comp. p. 387—389; and Roscoe's Leo X. vol. i. p. 76.) 
 
 t He gives an account of this dispute in his letter to the landgrave 
 of Hesse. (Opera, torn. vii. p. 1 — 46; torn. iii. epist. dedicat. Conf. 
 Melch. Adami Vitae Exter. Theolog. p. 149.) John Sturmius, who 
 was rector of the academy of Strasburg, and celebrated for the ele- 
 gance of his Latin style, wrote a philippic against the adversaries 
 of Zanchi, to which iMelchior Speccer replied in a letter published by 
 Schelhorn. In this letter he says — " Alterum caput criminationis 
 tuse — Zanchium, suavissimas tuas delicias, vitam tuam, et animulam 
 tuam continet." (Ergoetzlichkeiten, tom. iii. p. 1136.) In a letter 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 363 
 
 this quarrel gave him, he rejected the proposals made 
 to him by the papal nuncio,* but accepted in tlie end 
 of the year 1563, a call from the Italian church at 
 Chiavenna.t In the beginning of 15C8 he came to 
 the university of Heidelberg, where he taught during 
 ten years; but finding that the prejudice which he 
 had encountered at Strasburg followed him to this 
 place, he gave way to it a second time, and removed 
 to Neustadt, where count John Casimir, the adminis- 
 trator of the Electorate Palatine, had recently endowed 
 an academy. He died in 1590, during a visit which 
 he paid to his friends at Heidelberg, in the 7Gth year 
 of his age. J The moderation of Zanchi has been 
 praised by writers of the Roman catholic church, 
 though his love of peace did not lead him to sacrifice 
 or compromise the truth. His celebrity as a teacher 
 procured him invitations from the academies of Zurich, 
 Lausanne, and Leyden. John Sturmius, called the 
 German Cicero, was wont to say that he would not 
 be afraid to trust Zanchi alone in a dispute against all 
 the fathers assembled at Trent. Nor was he less 
 esteemed as an author after his death. His writings, 
 consisting of commentaries on Scripture and treatises 
 on almost all questions in theology, abound with 
 proofs of learning; but they are too ponderous for 
 the arms of a modern divine. § 
 
 Lyons, in the sixteenth century, was a place of re- 
 sort for merchants from all parts of Europe. The 
 Italian Protestants in that city were so numerous, 
 
 to Bullinger, Sturmius praises the learning, piety, courteousness, and 
 placability of Zanchi. (Zanchii Epist. lib. ii. p. 287.) 
 
 * Tiraboschi, vii. 3G9. 
 
 t De Porta, ii. 412—421. 
 
 t Thuani Hist, ad an. 1590. Teissier, Eloges, torn. iv. p. 99— lOJ. 
 Melch. Adami Vita? Exteror. Theolog. p. 148—153. A life of Zan- 
 chi, by Sig. Conte Cav. Giambatista Gallizioli, a patrician of Berga- 
 masco, was printed at Bergamo in 1785. (Tiraboschi, vii. 369.) 
 
 § His works were collected and printed, in eight volumes lolio, at 
 Geneva in 1613. Fridericus Sylburgius, celebrated as llic author o 
 several learned works, and the editor of many of tlic Greek and 
 Roman classics which came from the presses of Wechel andCommc 
 lin, was for some time the servant of Zanchi, to whom he was in- 
 debted for his education. (Zanchii Epist. lib. ii. p. 440, 442.) 
 
364 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 that the popes reckoned it necessary to keep agents 
 among them to labour in their conversion. But so 
 far were they from succeeding in this work, that 
 Lyons came to be regarded at Rome as "the chief 
 seat of heresy," and all who visited it fell under sus- 
 picion.* Several editions of the New Testament, and 
 other religious books, in the Italian language, pro- 
 ceeded from the Lyonese press.t In the beginning of 
 1562, the Italians obtained permission to hold meet- 
 ings for worship, and called Zanchi to be their minis- 
 ter. The magistrates of Strasburg having refused to 
 part with him, he, in the following year, received 
 another pressing invitation from the celebrated Viret, 
 in the name of the Protestant consistory at Lyons ; 
 but he had previously engaged himself to the church 
 of Chiavenna. When afterwards deprived of the 
 preacher Avhom they had chosen, Zanchi received a 
 third call from his countrymen in Lyons, who were 
 again disappointed.^ 
 
 Antwerp was, in that age, the emporium of the 
 world, and frequented by men of all nations. The 
 reformed doctrine had been early introduced into it, 
 and continued to spread among the inhabitants in spite 
 of the severities employed for its suppression. § For 
 many years the Italian Protestants satisfied them- 
 selves with meeting for worship along with the French 
 church, which was erected in that city after the Neth- 
 erlands threw off the Spanish yoke ; but as their num- 
 bers had increased,|| they resolved, in the year 1580, 
 
 * Fontanini Biblioteca Italiana, torn. i. p. 119. 
 
 t Besides the translation of the New Testament by Massimo 
 Teofilo in 1551, an edition of Brucioli's was printed at Lyons in 
 1553, and an anonymous translation in 1558. This last had been 
 published, with a French version, in 1555, by Ludovico Paschali, 
 the martyr; but the place of printing is unknown. (Schelhorn, 
 Ergoetzlichkeiten, torn. i. p. 417 — 419.) 
 
 I Zanchii Epist. lib. ii. p. 287, 375—378, 390. 
 § Gerdesii Hist. Reform, tom. iii. p. 217, 243. 
 
 II The Italian version of the New Testament by Brucioli was 
 printed at Antwerp in the year 1538, accompanied with two pre- 
 faces, in which the advantages of reading the Scriptures, and the 
 propriety of translating them into the vulgar language of every peo- 
 ple, are urged with great force. (Ergoetzlichkeiten, tom. i. p. 408.) 
 
REFORMATION IN ITALY. 365 
 
 to form themselves into a separate church, and invi- 
 ted their countryman Zanchi to be their pastor. With 
 this invitation, though warmly seconded by letters 
 from the senate and ministers, he did not think it 
 prudent to comply.* It is, however, probable, that 
 they obtained Ulixio Martinenghot for their minis- 
 ter; for we find Zanchi, about this time, writing his 
 opinion of that nobleman, at the desire of one of the 
 ministers of Antwerp. "I know him well," says lie, 
 "and can, with a good conscience and in the pre- 
 sence of the Lord, attest that he is incorrupt and Aveli 
 grounded as to doctrine, possesses no common share 
 of learning, is unblamable in his life as a Cliristian, 
 zealous toward God, charitable toward his brethren, 
 and distinguished for prudence and dexterity in the 
 management of business, which, as you well know, 
 is a qualification very necessary in the rulers of 
 churches. The only thing of which I cannot speak 
 is his gift of preaching, for I never heard him from 
 the pulpit; but he speaks Italian well. that I could 
 spend what remains of my life in the company of this 
 excellent servant of God ! Believe me, you will find 
 him, on acquaintance, still better than he appears to 
 be ; sincere, frank, kind, obliging, courteous, and one 
 who adds lustre to the nobility of his birth by the cor- 
 rectness of his morals as a Christian. I am sure he 
 will greatly please your illustrious prince."| 
 
 Of all the foreign Italian churches, none was so 
 distinguished as those which were established in Ge- 
 neva and in London. But as their affairs were inti- 
 mately connected with those of the Spanish refugees 
 who settled in these cities, I shall speak of them in 
 the account which I propose to give of the struggle 
 for reformation in Spain.§ For that work I shall also 
 reserve the remarks I have to make on the inlluence 
 
 * Zanchii Epist. lib. ii. p. 409—414, 424. 
 + See before, p. 328. 
 
 t Zanchius Joanni Taffino : Epist. lib. ii. p. 411 ; conf. p. 366. 
 § See History of the Progress and Suppression of the Rolbnnution 
 in Spain, p. 26iJ— 276. 
 
366 THE REFORMATION IN ITALY. 
 
 which the suppression of the reformed opinions had 
 on the national hterature and character of the Ital- 
 ians, which are applicable, with a very little varia- 
 tion, to those of the Spaniards. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Specimens of the Sermons of Savonarola. 
 [See before, p. 31.] 
 
 In 1540 were printed at Venice a collection of the 
 sermons of this famous preacher, under the following 
 title: — "Prediche del Reverendo Padre Fra Gieroni- 
 mo da Ferrara, per tuto I'anno nuovamente con som- 
 ma diligentia ricorette." They had been taken origi- 
 nally from the mouth of the preacher, and were print- 
 ed from a collation of different manuscripts. The 
 following short epistle to the reader, which is prefix- 
 ed to them, is given here for the sake of the writer, 
 as well as the testimony wliich it bears to the work : — 
 "Accept, then, this small gift — small I call it, in 
 respect of the small hand which I have had in it, 
 though in itself great and very rich, being filled with 
 the most sacred Christian instructions, in reading 
 which your Christian soul may be comforted, while 
 you see this Christian writer with great energy prophe- 
 sying a universal renovation of the church, whicli is 
 now at hand and just about to appear, and which 
 may God perfect, that so all people may give praise 
 to the Creator of the universe, and to his Son, Jesus 
 Christ our Lord and Saviour, to whom be honour 
 and glory for ever. Amen. 
 
 Antonio Brucioli.'' 
 
 The following extracts will give an idea of the 
 talents and manner of the preacher, and arc sutiicii-nt 
 to show that he was not that ignorant fanatic wliich 
 some writers have represented him to be. The ser- 
 
368 APPENDIX. 
 
 mon from which the last extract is taken was preach- 
 ed at the time when he was lying under a papal in- 
 terdict. 
 
 "I showed, a little before, how necessary and natu- 
 ral a thing it is that bodies, which are perishable in 
 their constitution, should either wholly corrupt and 
 disappear, or else pass into some other condition, ac- 
 cording to the maxim of philosophy, Omne contrari- 
 ura est corriiptibile. It follows, of necessity, that 
 there is nothing in a state of union under heaven 
 which does not either corrupt and resolve into its first 
 principles, or make its appearance again under a new 
 form. And so it is with spiritual things. The church 
 is so set together in its different parts as to resemble 
 a body, the form of which is the grace of the Holy 
 Ghost, and the uniformity of which, as upheld by this 
 same grace, is simplicity of heart ; and no sooner does 
 this fail, than the church falls, since the harmony 
 which preserved its union is departed. It was in the 
 first age of the Christian church that this Christian 
 simplicity was peculiarly exemplified, and, according- 
 ly, she stood fast, and was full both of spirit and of 
 life; but now as this simplicity is lost, so purity is de- 
 parted from us. The church has lost her primitive 
 and proper form ; and if you Avould find purity of 
 heart in our days, you must go seek it in the hearts 
 of simple young children. The church is now well 
 nigh extinguished, and so we tell you that she must 
 either fall back into her first elements, and altogether 
 evanish, or otherwise be renewed and reformed. It 
 is impossible that she can again revert to heathenism, 
 out of which she came at first, nor can she altogether 
 disappear from the face of the earth; antichrist is not 
 yet so very near; and, therefore, we declare it to be 
 much more probable that she shall again be renova- 
 ted and restored to her pristine form.'^ — 
 
 "When contrary planets come into contact with 
 each other, bad effects are sure to ensue to the world 
 in natural things. You will say, 'Oh! but God can 
 bring good even out of such untoward accidents as 
 these if he pleases, and it is not inconceivable that 
 
APPENDIX. 3G9 
 
 disunion should continue to prevail among the stars.* 
 And you say rightly: God could do so; but there are 
 many things which it is in his power to do, and which 
 yet he never does. He goes upon a fixed and regu- 
 lar system, which his wisdom has firmly established 
 from the first, and by which it is a settled law that 
 the stars should preserve a mutual harmony and 
 union, before they can exercise their different influen- 
 ces upon our lower world. He has in the same way 
 established a set plan of procedure in the manage- 
 ment of his church, by which it may continue to be 
 regulated to the end of the Avorld, since he has insti- 
 tuted in it, as in the heavens, a certain presiding and 
 governing order of angels, who co-operate in bring- 
 ing forth the elect of God within it. And as all the 
 stars in the firmament stand in their own places, ac- 
 cording as the divine wisdom has disposed them, so 
 these servants of God, whom he has ordained for the 
 good of his church, have an appointed order, which 
 is good and profitable for the bringing forth of the 
 elect of God in his church. Now, there are various 
 kinds of prelates or spiritual planets, and their con- 
 flicting together is attended with as bad effects to the 
 church as that of the stars would be to the material 
 world. Here you may say again, ^Oh! but God, if he 
 choose, can prevent any injurious consequences of this 
 kind.' True ; he could do it now, if he chose, for every 
 thing is in his power; but it so happens that he is 
 never accustomed to do it. For the present he has, by 
 his wisdom, established a certain order, according to 
 which the things which are lower in degree never tail 
 to be influenced by the causes which act above them. 
 Accordingly, at such a time as this, when the higher 
 planets or prelates of the church are tlu'own into dis- 
 order and confusion, how can we look for a reforma- 
 tion, knowing, as we do, that it can be expected only 
 from the outpouring and blessing of the Holy Spirit. 
 Only observe in what a deplorable state the generality 
 of the prelates now are, and you may safely say, tliat 
 those who are placed under their charge arc in no 
 better state, and that any attempt to reform would 
 
370 APPENDIX. 
 
 just increase the evil; but let those in the higher sta- 
 tions be first brought into a right condition, and then 
 there will be less difficulty in restoring those below 
 them to the same. Bad rulers, especially Avhen found 
 in the church of Christ, are the greatest of all scourges, 
 and an evil which points most clearly to a coming 
 judgment. To assure yourselves of this, you need 
 only look into the Old Testament, where you will see 
 that when God would chastise a people for their sins, 
 he gave them bad kings, bad princes and leaders, 
 whom he allowed to give full rein to their wicked- 
 ness. There also you will find that when he wished 
 to punish his people, he allowed David to fall into 
 sin. So also did he permit that bad king Zedekiah 
 to reign in Jerusalem, at the time when his anger was 
 kindled against her, and he was about to send her into 
 her long captivity. And can the abuse which spiritual 
 rulers make of their power be otherwise than produc- 
 tive of bad effects? What wilt thou then, if the Holy 
 Ghost come and himself commence the work of refor- 
 mation? This, at least, I make bold to say, that so 
 long as the present misgovernment and disunion con- 
 tinues, there can be no change whatever expected. 
 The sword then must come forth. Therefore have I 
 threatened Italy, and once again threaten her, with 
 her rulers, that she may repent. I have told her that 
 the sword will come. Repent I say, and delay not 
 your repentance till the sword come." — 
 
 " My chief reason for appearing here to-day, is that 
 I may prove myself obedient. But to whom ? Their 
 lordships? No, indeed. Excuse me, I am not bound 
 to obey what is evil. Well, hast thou come to be 
 persuaded by the people? By no means; it is not to 
 be believed that I would allow myself to be persuaded 
 in this matter by any man. Art thou minded then to 
 obey the higher prelates? Not a word has been 
 spoken to me by any of the prelates. But know, that 
 I have come here to obey one who is prelate of pre- 
 lates and pope of popes. Wouldst thou have me to 
 act contrary to my nature ? I would very willingly 
 remain silent, but it is impossible — I cannot do other- 
 
APPENDIX. 371 
 
 wise than speak: I must obey. I do not appear liere 
 this day, as on former occasions, to gain honour and 
 respect, but to expose myself to persecution. I must 
 tell you that these interdicts are grievous. Whoever 
 disobeys them is punished; and I not the least, since, 
 as you well see, I encounter nothing but hatred, and 
 wrath, and shame, and bodily danger, and reproaches 
 on the right hand and the left. In truth, I know 
 not what to say; but I betake myself to God, and 
 exclaim. Thou hast made me for a reproach to all 
 people. I speak of things which are come to pass: 
 straightway one cries out that I am a fool. I change 
 the subject and speak of other things: every one con- 
 tradicts me. But the more I perceive their contradic- 
 tion, the more I believe the truth of what I have said. 
 Tell me, ye enemies of the truth, when have ye ever 
 in our days witnessed such a storm of opposition? 
 When have you ever seen, that one preached in a 
 city, and his voice was heard throughout all Italy, 
 and beyond it? Every body contradicts me. One 
 has thereby pocketed six thousand ducats; another 
 says that I have slandered the pope and tlie cardi- 
 nals; but nobody thinks of saying, that others have 
 done the same thing, and that publicly. Yes; some 
 who, in public, and indeed from this very pulpit, in 
 presence of the assembled people, have themselves 
 launched out into invectives against the pope, and dis- 
 tinctly mentioned him by name too, have yet black- 
 ened my character to him by circulating that I have 
 spoken contemptuously of him. Thus it is that they 
 succeed in bringing me into odium, and themselves 
 into favour. Now may you see how things go. Some 
 there are who write to Rome; and did you but know 
 who they are, and what insipid stuff it is which they 
 write, truly you would wonder ! They are a s«_^t of 
 shameless men, who, like bugs, smell vilely within 
 and without: at no time do they sleep— througli the 
 whole night are they swarming and running about, 
 paying their visit now here, now there, now to this 
 friend, and now to that. W^hen one of these wicked 
 men is converted, the rest cry out, lie has become one 
 
372 APPENDIX. 
 
 of the fools ! Here I must tell you, that you too 
 easily get alarmed, and allow your spirits to sink, 
 when these base men are slandering you. Know you 
 not that the devil is their head, and that God is the 
 head of the good? Which of these, think you, will 
 overcome, God or the devil? Surely you must believe 
 that God will gain the victory." 
 
 No. II. 
 
 Letter written from Rome, in 1521, concerning Luther.* 
 
 [See before, p. 50.] 
 
 You ask me, among other things, to tell you what we 
 think of Martin and his doctrine ; but you do not con- 
 sider what a dangerous topic this is, especially to be- 
 neficed persons. For who would willingly and with- 
 out necessity expose himself to the indignation of the 
 Roman pontiff and cardinals? I shall, however, com- 
 ply with your request, on condition that you conceal 
 my name and thus screen me from danger. 
 
 Know, then, that there is not an intelligent person 
 in Rome who is not perfectly convinced that Martin 
 has spoken the truth in most things; but good men 
 dissemble from dread of the tyrant, and bad men are 
 enraged, because they are forced to hear the truth. 
 Indignation is mixed with fear in the minds of the 
 latter class, for they are in great alarm lest the affair 
 spread further. This is the reason why such a furious 
 
 * This interesting document, relating to the early history of the 
 Reformation, and the light in which it was viewed by persons re- 
 siding in Rome, was found, in Latin, among the papers of Bilibald 
 Pirkheimer, one of the most distinguished restorers of letters in 
 Germany. It was in the hand-writing of that Scholar, who had 
 translated it from the original Italian, probably to screen the author 
 from detection. He had marked it with the inscription, LitcrtB cu- 
 iusdain e Roma. The year in which it was written is ascertained 
 from internal evidence. It is translated here from a copy published 
 by Riederer, Nachrichten zur Kirchen-Gelehrten und BUcher-Ges- 
 chichte, band i. p. 178—184, Altdorf, 1764. 
 
APPENDIX. 373 
 
 bull has been issued, in opposition to the remon- 
 strances of many good and wise men, who advised 
 that the matter should be deliberately weighed, and 
 that Martin should be dealt with mildly and by rea- 
 soning, instead of being run down by violence and 
 execrations. But indignation and fear prevailed; for 
 the heads of the faction asserted that it was unbe- 
 coming the Roman pontiff to treat with so mean a 
 person, and that force should be employed against 
 the obstinate, lest others should be encouraged to use 
 similar freedoms. In support of this opinion, they 
 referred to John Huss and his disciple Jerome, by 
 whose punishment, they said, many were deterred 
 from the like temerity. 
 
 One of the chief authors of this advice was cardi- 
 nal Cajetan, who is unfavourable to the Germans, 
 because, as he thinks, he was not so honourably re- 
 ceived and rewarded by them as he should have been, 
 for he returned to Rome disappointed and poor. He 
 had discovered, he said, that nothing but fire and 
 sword would keep the Germans from throwing off 
 the Roman yoke. To him were joined Silvester Prie- 
 rias and the whole faction of the Dominicans, espe- 
 cially the enemies of Capnio, who accused the pope 
 of too great gentleness, asserting, that if he had re- 
 pressed, at the beginning, the attempts of Capnio by 
 forcible measures, Martin would never have dared 
 such things ; and, on that occasion, they extorted a 
 sentence against Capnio 's book, ahhough, a little be- 
 fore, the pope had encouraged some persons to print 
 the Talmud, and granted them a privilege for that 
 purpose. JNIany good men felt very indignant at this, 
 as unjust in itself and derogatory to the dignity and 
 character of the pope; but the worst part prevailed. 
 We are of opinion, however, that the Donunicans 
 are carried headlong, by the Divhie displeasure and 
 their own vices, to the extreme of wickedness. Tlie 
 divines of Cologne and Louvain, and many others in 
 Germany, clandestinely urged the measure, promising 
 certain victory as soon as the Roman ensigns (that is, 
 the terrible leaden bulls) were displayed: and it is 
 
374 APPENDIX. 
 
 also said, that certain German princes, whose names, 
 though I knew them, should be secret, were active in 
 the same cause, more from hatred to their neighbours 
 than zeal for the faith. 
 
 Above all, the merchant Fuecker, who has great in- 
 fluence at Rome through his money, and whom we 
 commonly call the king of coins, irritated the pope 
 and those of his faction, not only from hatred, but 
 also for the sake of gain and the traffic in benefices, 
 promising the support of many princes to his holiness, 
 provided he would use force against Martin. For this 
 purpose, he sent to Rome the man of his choice, 
 Eckius, a not unapt instrument of the court of Rome, 
 if you except his sottishness; for he excels in teme- 
 rity, audacity, lying, dissimulation, adulation, and 
 other courtly vices. The only objection to him was 
 his drunkenness, which, you know, is odious to the 
 Italians ; but the favour and power of Fuecker recon- 
 ciled them even to this, nay, turned it into a virtue, 
 so that they applauded the choice, saying, that nothing 
 could be fitter than to send the drunken Germans a 
 drunken ambassador, and that temerity was to be met 
 by temerity. As it was necessary to find a colleague 
 to him, Aleander Avas at last pitched on — an illustri- 
 ous couple of orators! every way suited to the cause, 
 and resembling one another in impudence, rashness, 
 and profligacy. No good man, no person of sane 
 mind, belonging to the German nation, would have 
 undertaken such a task; or if there had, perhaps, 
 been one willing, fear and the greatness of the dan- 
 ger would have deterred him from undertaking it. 
 At first, the Jewish extraction of Aleander appeared 
 to be an obstacle to his appointment, but it was thought 
 that this would be compensated by the drunkenness 
 of Eckius. Thus the purpose, the bulls, and the am- 
 bassadors, were completely of a kind; for what need 
 was there for reason, where rashness and dishonesty 
 only were required? 
 
 War being thus declared, Eckius was furnished 
 with instructions, promises, and bulls; and being 
 charged to execute his task vigorously, promised 
 
APPENDIX. 375 
 
 his ready service, and offered his life for glory, or 
 rather for reward. But you are deceived if you be- 
 lieve that money was given him by the pope, for his 
 holiness is not accustomed to give but to receive 
 money. If Eckius received any money, it was not 
 from the pope hut from Fuecker, though I do not be- 
 lieve even this. The frien.ds of Fuecker say that Eck- 
 ius was furnished Avith money; but it is the custom 
 with courts and proud persons to promise much and 
 pay little, and to make you own that you received 
 what you never touclied, to avoid the disgrace of ap- 
 pearing to have been cheated. 
 
 Nor are you to believe that Eckius has authority 
 to cite and summons whomsoever he pleases. If he 
 has anything of that kind, it is unquestionably surrep- 
 titious; for what madness would it be to cite the in- 
 nocent? No doubt, if he were to cite those who open- 
 ly defend Martin, the pope and his friends would 
 not be greatly displeased, but, as you write, that 
 would be an ocean. If, among the persons cited, 
 you find any of the friends of Capnio, you will easily 
 understand whence the information has proceeded. 
 
 No wonder, then, that these bulls displease many 
 among us, since there are few here who approve 
 them, though they are forced to mutter their dibilike ; 
 for they know that this is not the way of truth. For 
 what — (to pass by other things, for it does not belong 
 to me to search narrowly into each, I Avish they were 
 not too manifest to all) — what can be more unjust 
 than to involve those things which Martin has writ- 
 ten piously and truly in the same sentence of con- 
 demnation with things which are bad.^ Such proce- 
 dure savours more of Jewish perfidy and Mahometan 
 impiety than of Christian religion; for the Turks, 
 knowing that their faith is false, and caimot be prov- 
 ed by reasons, will not permit it to be brought into 
 dispute, but defend it by the sword; and the Jews 
 were accustomed to stone to death those who accused 
 their impiety and wickedness, saying that tliey had 
 blasphemed God and the lawgiver. God never com- 
 manded the Christian faith, which is true, and reason- 
 
376 APPENDIX. 
 
 able, and pious, to be defended by fire and sword; a 
 practice which came from that old deceiver, who, 
 from the beginning, abode not in the truth, for it is 
 not truth, but a lie, cloaked with the appearance of 
 truth and a sophistical garb, that seeks to be defend- 
 ed with such weapons. 
 
 Although the friends of Luther could have wished 
 that he had shown greater moderation in some things, 
 yet they know that his adversaries have provoked 
 him to write and teach many things which otherwise 
 he would not have uttered; not that the truth should 
 be concealed, but that we should avoid giving offence. 
 Further it is universally well known that all who 
 have written against Luther, or impunged his doc- 
 trine, are persons of bad life and immoral character. 
 What wonder, then, that these writings should savour 
 more of their vices than of Christ and integrity? I 
 speak of Roman writers ; what the character of those 
 of Germany is you know better than I, for I do not 
 pretend to be acquainted with them. 
 
 The pope and his supporters will therefore strain 
 every nerve to destroy Luther, and to extinguish his 
 doctrine as pernicious, not to Christians, but to the 
 court of Rome ; and, if I do not mistake, the chief 
 thing that will be treated at your ensuing royal diet* 
 will be what relates to Luther, who is looked upon 
 as a greater enemy to us than the Turk. The young 
 emperor will be urged with threats, entreaties, and 
 flatteries. The Germans will be tempted with the 
 praises of their ancestors, gifts, and promises; the 
 Spaniards will be threatened with the dangers of the 
 sedition which rages in their native country, and flat- 
 tered with the promise of investiture in the kingdom 
 of Naples. We will not neglect to besiege the nobili- 
 ty and others about the emperor's court; for we are 
 familiar with such arts, which seldom fail us. But 
 if we do not succeed in this way, we will depose the 
 emperor, free the people from their allegiance to him, 
 choose one in his place who will favour our cause, 
 raise a tumult in Germany similar to that which pre- 
 
 * The Diet of Worms. 
 
APPENDIX. 377 
 
 vails in Spain, summon France, England, and other 
 kingdoms to arms, and neglect none of those means 
 which onr predecessors so successfully adopted against 
 kings and emperors; in fine, that we may accon^plish 
 our purpose and perpetuate our tyranny, we will set 
 at nought Christianity, faith, piety, and common hones- 
 ty; we will stand in awe of no power, be it of empe- 
 rors, kings, princes, or states; the only fear we have 
 is lest God should visit us with a punishment, the 
 heavier that it has been so long delayed, and set his 
 flock free from mercenary shepherds — an issue which 
 many predictions and omens have announced, and 
 which our vices deserve and loudly demand. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 Account of an Italian book, entitled, A Summary of the 
 Sacred Scriptures.* 
 
 [See before, p. 85.] 
 
 Chap. 1. Of faith and baptism, and what baptism 
 sisfnifies. 2. Additional information as to the mean- 
 ing of baptism. 3. What we profess in baptism, and 
 what kind of profession we make. 4. Of the Chris- 
 tian faith, and what a Christian ought to believe in 
 order to salvation. 5. Of the sure joy of obtaining 
 one's salvation. 6. How we are saved by grace alone, 
 and not in any other way. 7. To whom the grace 
 of God is given. S. How faith produces charity, and 
 charity good works. 9. How we should not serve 
 
 * The reader will be able to form a tolerably correct idea of the 
 nature of this Avork, and of the extent of the information which it 
 conveys, from the table of contents, and the extract here given from 
 the prologue. Gerdes, by mistake, calls it Seminarium Script ura;. 
 (Ital. Reform, p. 82.) It was published at least fifteen years before 
 1549, when Casa included it in his list of prohibited books. Gibcrti, 
 bishop of Verona, was so much pleased with its form, as to pomt it 
 out as a pattern to those who composed works for the instruction of 
 such as could not read Latin. (Ergoctzl. ii. 29.) It is reviewed by 
 Riederer. (Nachrichten, iv. 121, 241—243.) 
 
 25 
 
378 APPENDIX. 
 
 God for reward. 10. How we have disinherited our- 
 selves by our disobedience. 11. Of the two kinds of 
 people living in the world. 12. Of good works, and 
 in what way they are pleasing to God. 13. Of four 
 kinds of faith according to the sacred Scripture, and 
 what Christian faith is. 14. In what Christianity 
 consists. 15. How a man should not be afflicted at 
 death. 16. Of the monkish life, as it was in times 
 past. 17. If the life of a monk is preferable to that 
 of a common citizen. IS. Whence it is that monks 
 do not make progress in the spiritual life, but often 
 become worse. 19. Of parents who wish to enter 
 their children into the religious orders. 20. Of the 
 life of nuns. 21. Of the cloisters of sisters, and their 
 life. 22. How husband and wife should live accord- 
 ing to the doctrine of the gospel. 23. How parents 
 should instruct and rule their children according to 
 the gospel. 24. Of the life of common citizens, arti- 
 zans, and labourers. 25. How the rich ought to live 
 according to the gospel. 26. Of the two kinds of 
 government, secular and spiritual. 27. Information, 
 according to the gospel, concerning governors, judges, 
 and other powers. 28. The Christian doctrine of 
 paying taxes and tribute to rulers, according to the 
 gospel. 29. Of soldiers, and whether Christians can 
 carry on war without sin, an information according 
 to the gospel. 30. How servants and domestics ought 
 to live, a doctrine according to the gospel. 31. Of 
 the life of widows, a brief information according to 
 the gospel. 
 
 Because all cannot read or understand every book, 
 in order that they may understand the grounds of 
 Scripture, and what it teaches us, I have compre- 
 hended in this litde book the grounds and sum of 
 divine Scripture, of which the head and chief is faith, 
 from which proceed hope and charity. Thus every 
 one may know what he ought to believe, what he 
 ought to hope for, why he ought to love God, and 
 how God is our father, and we are the children and 
 heirs of the kingdom of God, as St. Paul teaches in 
 all his epistles. Thus also he may know how we are 
 
APPENDIX. 379 
 
 justified without our OAvn merits, so that wc should 
 not put our confidence in our good works, as the Jews 
 did. In fine, it teaches that we must not neglect good 
 works, but need to know how and why wc should 
 perform them, hoping for our salvation, not from them, 
 but solely from the grace and mercy of God through 
 Christ, by which I have written this tract. — Such is 
 the matter treated of in the first part of this little book. 
 In the second part, I show how persons of every state 
 should live according to the gospel. By this I intend 
 to convince all, how far removed from the doctrine of 
 Christ their life is, to the end that, through the grace 
 of God, they may amend the same. I do not teach 
 that subjects should not be obedient to their princes, 
 nor that monks should fly from their monasteries ; but 
 I show them how they ought to live, and to know 
 their errors and correct them; otherwise it avails 
 more before God to be an humble publican than a 
 holy hypocrite, because God does not look at your 
 external works, but at your internal, and at the inten- 
 tions and secrets of the heart. 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 Extracts from a Treatise by Gabriele Vallicidi entitled, 
 J)e liberali Dei Gratia, et Servo hominis Arbitrio,"" 
 
 [See before, p. 178.] 
 
 To the very reverend father in Christ and worthy 
 bishop of Luna, doctor Sylvestro Benedetto of Sarsi- 
 
 * Nothing is known concerning the author of this book. It was 
 printed at Nurenberg in the year 1536; but it had most probably 
 been previously published in Italy. Melanchthon, in a letter to Veit 
 Dietrich, written in 1530, says--" In Italy there has ari^ai^a new 
 Luther, whose propositions I send you." (Epistohr, p. 43^, edit. 
 Lugd.) But we have no decisive evidence that he refers to the author 
 of this book. Valliculi appears not to have been a man ot talents, 
 but of warm piety; and most probably wrote this treatise atlcr read- 
 ing Luther's celebrated work De Servo Arbitrio. Silv-cstro IJcnctto, 
 to whom it is dedicated, was the nephew of Thomas Bencttus or dc 
 
380 APPENDIX. 
 
 na, with the greatest respect and veneration, Gabriele 
 ValUculi, in Jesus the only son of the Virgin, wishes 
 grace, by which we are freely justified, and peace, 
 according to wliat the angels announced at the nativi- 
 ty of Christ, peace on earth and good-will towards 
 men. 
 
 I am placed in a strait betwixt two, being doubtful 
 whether I should keep silence respecting the free 
 grace of God and the enslaved will of man, in which 
 case death awaits me ; or whether I should treat of 
 them, and run the risk of falling into the hands of the 
 wicked. But the Holy Spirit teaches me that I should 
 choose to fall into the hands of the wicked rather than 
 to sin in the sight of God. Help me, Lord, thou 
 who art my hope, my refuge, my leader, my justifi- 
 cation, my protector and defender. All my safety 
 and confidence is placed in thee, not in human aid, 
 much less in the enslaved will of man. In thee alone, 
 
 God, have I hoped, and on this account shall never be 
 moved. But why am I not confounded when the Holy 
 Spirit cries in my ear. What fruit hast thou of those 
 things whereof thou art now ashamed? It is because 
 
 1 come to thee, my Christ, (not to the enslaved will 
 of man,) and my countenance is enlightened and not 
 covered with shame. When I am confounded by the 
 enslaved will of sin in Adam, I will, by the free grace 
 of God, fly from him to Jesus Christ my Saviour, and 
 then I shall not be confounded. ***** Free and 
 deliver me for thy righteousness sake, not for mine, 
 but for thine : if I should say for mine, then I would 
 belong to the number of those of whom the Holy 
 Spirit has said. Being ignorant of God's righteousness, 
 they go about to establish a righteousness of their 
 own. Being wholly depraved, I am not justified by 
 my own, but by thy righteousness, and if not by mine 
 but by thine, then is righteousness imputed to me by 
 thy sovereign grace. 
 
 Benedictis, bishop of Sarsina and Luna, succeeded his uncle in that 
 bishoprick in 1497, and died in 1537. (Ughelli Italia Sacra, torn. i. 
 p. 556.) The extracts are taken from Riederer, Nachrichten, torn, 
 iv. p. 112, &c. 
 
APPENDIX. 381 
 
 ***** In the first place, then, we are of opinion 
 that the human understanding, from its very nature, 
 is incapable of comprehending any thing but what is 
 carnal, or of distinguishing between good and evil 
 except by a carnal discernment. Poverty, want, 
 ignominy, temporal losses, disease, death, and all 
 worldly misfortunes, it judges to be evil; but wealth, 
 glory, reputation, health, long life, and all worldly 
 blessings, it reckons to be good. It knows nothing of 
 a God merciful, angry, avenging, prescient, predesti- 
 nating, and producing all things; and this the apostle 
 testifies when he says. For we have not received the 
 spirit of this world, nor of reason, intellect, and will, 
 but of the free grace of God, that we may know the 
 things which are given us by God, and not by the 
 understanding and the will — given, saith the apostle, 
 on account of no preceding merit. If they be given, 
 then they must be free ; if free, what merit is there in 
 them? These things I have said, not in the learned 
 words of human wisdom, or of the dreams of the 
 sophists, but by the teaching of the Spirit, comparing 
 spiritual things with spiritual. 
 
 * * * * Observe to what length this blindness of 
 heart and foolishness of understanding have proceed- 
 ed. Men have adulterated the majesty of the immor- 
 tal God, by shadowing out the image of perishing 
 man, and not of man only, but of brute creatures also: 
 they have become corrupt in their own enslaved will 
 and stupidity of heart, and abominable in their pur- 
 suits, because human reason is wholly ignorant of 
 God, and neither comprehends nor seeks after him; 
 and, accordingly, they have turned aside to unprofita- 
 ble things, not perceiving the things of God. But as, 
 by the e'nslaved will of man, sin has abounded, so the 
 free grace of God hath abounded much more; and as, 
 by the enslaved will of man, sin reigned to eternal 
 punishment, so, by the free grace of God, the king of 
 Salem reigns to life everlasting. Wiio is it then that 
 reigns? Not the understanding or will of man, hut 
 our Lord Jesus Christ the Saviour, who has given vis 
 grace without any merit on our part. The plain 
 
3(82 APPENDIX. 
 
 truth is, that, in respect of spiritual judgment, the 
 human understanding is entirely ignorant of God; and 
 though it were, by day and by night, incessantly em- 
 ployed in examinmg, perusing, and ruminating upon 
 the whole Talmud, the Holy Scriptures, and the books 
 of philosophers and divines, both ancient and modern, 
 it could never, without the assistance of the Spirit, 
 comprehend truly his omnipotence, prescience, pro- 
 vidence, mercy or anger. It listens to discourses, pro- 
 fesses to believe them, and hypocritically imitates 
 them, though, in reality, it is quite unacquainted with 
 God, and looks upon heavenly things as fabulous. Oh 
 the profound blindness of man ! as Jeremiah testifies, 
 saying. The human heart is depraved and unsearch- 
 able; who can understand it? The Lord searches 
 the heart and reins ; but the reason of man is incapable 
 of discerning the things of heaven. 
 
 No. V. 
 
 Letter from Tolomei to Ochino.* 
 
 [See before, p. 183.] 
 
 On my return, a few days ago, from the villa to Rome, 
 I was unexpectedly told a piece of intelligence, which 
 seemed to me not only new, but foolish, incredible, 
 and shocking. I was informed, that you, under the 
 influence of some strange advice, had gone over from 
 the camp of the catholics to the tents of the Lutherans, 
 and devoted yourself to that heretical and wicked 
 sect. On hearing this, I was struck with sudden 
 astonishment, and, as we say, made the sign of the 
 cross. Finding the report confirmed by numerous 
 witnesses, and indeed by every one I met, I was 
 obliged, in spite of myself, to believe it, though the 
 news appeared to me as extravagant as if I had been 
 
 * Delle Lettere di M. Claudio Tolomei, p. 237—241, in Vinegia, 
 1578. 
 
APPENDIX. 383 
 
 told that doves had been transformed into serpents, 
 and kids into tigers. But when I considered that Lu- 
 cifer, from being a fair angel, became a devil, I began 
 to perceive how easily the horrible transformation 
 might happen in your case. For some days I was in 
 doubt whether I ought to write you, or whether it 
 might not be more advisable to keep silence, and re- 
 tain within my own breast the grief I felt and still 
 feel on account of the extraordinary and dreadful 
 change which you have made. For, on the one hand, 
 it appeared to me that nothing was to be gained by 
 writing, as you have fixed your affections on this new 
 sect, and shown to the world, not only by your words 
 but your actions, that your mind is completely re- 
 solved ; and then I was afraid lest, while I hoped to 
 reclaim you from the path you have chosen, my own 
 mind should be disturbed by your answer ; for well I 
 know the extent of your learning, and the splendour 
 of your eloquence, by whose attractions I might be 
 beguiled and drawn into danger. But, on the other 
 hand, I was afraid that, by keeping silence, I should 
 be forced to form an unfavourable opinion of you, 
 and that being ignorant of your reasons and motives 
 for departing, I had it not in my power to make a 
 sufficient apology for you to numbers who condemn 
 your conduct, and would be under the necessity of 
 making the common-place excuse, by saying, that I 
 could not believe that a person of so much prudence, 
 such singular goodness, and exalted piety as Frate Ber- 
 nardino Ochino, would make so great a change in 
 his sentiments and mode of life without good reasons. 
 This excuse, I am afraid, would not be sustained, and 
 it would be said, that to make innovations in matters 
 of faith, to disobey our superiors, and to pass from 
 the catholics to the heretics, is no proof either of pru- 
 dence or reUgion; and, in fine, that to depart from 
 that most holy truth which has been handed down 
 from the first apostles to our times, and preserved in 
 the Roman church, is not lawful or permissible m any 
 case; but that, on the contrary, we should endure 
 every thing in confessing and defending it, counting 
 
384 APPENDIX. 
 
 pain to be pleasure, imprisonment liberty, torments 
 joy, poverty riches, and death true and eternal life, as 
 so many ancient martyrs did, who never would be 
 removed from the articles confessed by the catholic 
 church, which (as St. Paul says) is the pillar and 
 ground of truth. When I perceived the manner in 
 which they spoke of you, I was so distracted and 
 grieved, that, at last, I resolved to write, and to beg 
 you earnestly to answer me, and endeavour to dissi- 
 pate the darkness which hangs over this unexpected 
 change of yours, for if I obtain no other light, I can- 
 not believe that this is the light of God. 
 
 Perhaps it may be said, that you left Italy because 
 you was persecuted, and that you have only imitated 
 the example of Christ and of Paul and other holy men, 
 who fled from the hands and the claws of their perse- 
 cutors; and I may be told, that those who are accused 
 by the world are excused by God, and that those who 
 are despised by the world are honoured by God. But, 
 in the first place, I know not that it is lawful for a 
 person to flee contrary to the commandment and 
 orders of his superiors, to whom he has submitted 
 himself, and whom he is bound to obey, as is the case 
 with you. Besides, I do not understand what was 
 the persecution, what was the accusation, or what the 
 dishonour, to which you were exposed, and which 
 made it necessar}^ for you to flee. I remember well, 
 that, in Italy, you were esteemed, honoured, revered, 
 and, as it were, adored like something divine ; and, 
 when you preached the sacred name and true doc- 
 trine of Christ, you were listened to with such devo- 
 tion by all Italy, that you could not desire more favour 
 nor she a better spirit. Nor by being so much hon- 
 oured and revered by the world, were you (as I be- 
 lieve) in less favour with God, but rather in greater, 
 in proportion to the greater fruit which you produced 
 by inspiring the minds of Christians with the love of 
 God; like your first father and master, St. Francis, 
 who was highly revered by the people and by princes, 
 and yet was so dear a servant of God as to be marked 
 with the sacred scars which the Lord Jesus Christ 
 
APPENDIX. 385 
 
 received on the cross. But, perhaps, I will be told, 
 that, in your last sermons, some things spoken by you 
 were marked, informed against, and accused, as con- 
 taining unsound and uncatholic doctrine. To this I 
 would say, either the accusation was just or it was 
 unjust. If unjust, what reason had you to fear? 
 Why did not you the rather, when called, come to 
 Rome? Before a just prince who loved you greatly, 
 the opinion which he had of your goodness and virtue 
 would have been refined like gold in the fire. If San 
 Bernardino had come to Rome and cleared himself 
 of the charges laid against him, the sanctity of his life 
 would have shone forth the brighter, to the great edi- 
 fication of the people. The malice of your accusers 
 could not have prevailed over the force of truth, sus- 
 tained and defended by the favour which you enjoyed, 
 not only in Rome, but through all Italy. But if the 
 accusation brought against you was just and well- 
 founded, I know nothing that can be said, but that, 
 either through ignorance or through malice, you had 
 spread these doctrines among the people. Now, to 
 speak the truth, the one appears to me difficult, and 
 the other impossible, to believe. But be it so, that it 
 is either by the one or the other. If it Avas through 
 ignorance, then you are under great obligation to 
 your accusers, who had reason for their charges; and 
 you ought to renounce the darkness of error and 
 return to the light of truth, which is nothing else but 
 to return to Christ, the fountain and author of all 
 truth. If it was through malice, the very thought is 
 so wicked that no defence can be set up for such con- 
 duct: it is to be blamed in a man, abhorred in a Chris- 
 tian, censured in a monk, anathematized in a preacher 
 of the word of God; and the person guilty of this is 
 no longer a man but is transformed into a demon. I 
 do not forget that the compassionate God does not 
 abandon any who have recourse to him, and that the 
 fruits of the holy sacrament of penance arc sweet, so 
 that there is not a better remedy than, like Peter, to 
 weep bitterly for sin. 
 
 But, perhaps, it will be said, that it was neither 
 
386 APPENDIX. 
 
 ignorance nor malice that led to this change, but a 
 greater illumination in the things of God ; and that 
 Christ has laid open much truth which remained hid 
 to this time, as he was formerly pleased to illuminate 
 the mind of Paul, and to convert him from Judaism 
 to the true faith. Did Christ then teach and reveal 
 the contrary to what he had taught the apostles? Did 
 he teach them false doctrine ; and is the truth turned 
 into a lie? Were Clement, Anaclet, Evarist, Anicet, 
 and other great spirits of God, deceived; and did they 
 deceive others along with themselves? Did Ignatius, 
 on whose heart was found written the name of Christ, 
 not know the true doctrine of Christ? What shall 
 I say of the successors of these men? Shall I believe 
 that IrensBUS, Origen, Cyprian — shall I believe that 
 Athanasius, Didymus, Damascene — shall I believe 
 that the two great lights of Cappadocia, Gregory and 
 Basil — shall I believe that Ambrose, Jerome, Augus- 
 tine, Bernard, and a multitude of other most holy 
 men and renowned doctors of the Christian faith — 
 were all in error? that, instead of holding forth the 
 hght, they were involved in darkness; and, in place 
 of teaching us the truth, they have delivered us over 
 to a lie? No person of sane mind will believe this 
 falsehood, especially as Christ our Saviour hath said — 
 "Wheresoever the body is, thither the eagles shall be 
 gathered together." What shall I say more? Has 
 Christ then, for a long time, forsaken his church? For, 
 seeing the catholic verity was believed by all until 
 the time of the impious Luther, he who believes that 
 it is not true says that Christ has entirely forsaken the 
 church; a thing horrible to think of, Christ liaving 
 said — " Lo ! I am with you always to the end of the 
 world." It is necessary, believe me, that, in this turbid 
 and tempestuous sea of conflicting opinions, there 
 should be one fixed star by which to steer our course 
 in the true way of God ; and this, as all holy and 
 learned men have taught, is and can be no other than 
 the Roman church, begun by Peter, upon whom 
 Christ first founded his church, and which, through 
 uninterrupted succession of the popes, has come down 
 
APPENDIX. 387 
 
 to the present times. In opposition to this, it is of no 
 avail with me that you quote places of Scripture, 
 understood and interpreted in your way, for it is 
 enough for me to recollect the good and faithful coun- 
 sel of Origen Adamantius, that though one should 
 show canonical Scripture in opposition to what the 
 church observes and uses, we must not believe him 
 nor depart from the traditions of the fathers. In fine, 
 I say that no good man will leave the catholic church, 
 and that none who leaves it is to be esteemed good; 
 of which I could give such substantial reasons as 
 would show that perhaps no trutli in any doctrine is 
 more true than this truth. Therefore, the more I 
 reflect on this affair, the more do I find myself at a 
 loss in defending your cause; and I would willingly 
 not love you so much, that so I might not feel that 
 grief which I now endure on account of this your 
 recent calamity. I may be allowed to make use of this 
 ambiguous and perhaps unsuitable word, to moderate 
 the error which has sprung from your will. But 
 since the love, with which your singular virtue for- 
 merly inflamed me, still lives in me, be pleased to 
 give me some consolation, by acquainting me with 
 the reasons of your conduct, which if they do not 
 relieve me entirely of my pain, may perhaps mitigate 
 and alleviate it in some degree. I would counsel you, 
 if, as I believe, you have left Italy for the sake of per- 
 sonal safety, under the influence, perhaps, of too great 
 timidity, that you keep where you are: do not go 
 further; do not preach, do not write, do not speak 
 anything contrary to the catholic doctrine. On the 
 contrary, for anything said or done by you, reier 
 yourself humbly to the judgment of the Roman churcli; 
 in which case, as I have said, the only thing wliich 
 win be found blamable in you will be fear, arising from 
 an excess of counsel. But if you conduct yourself 
 otherwise, by exasperating the matter every day, vou 
 will be condemned for obstinate heresy. In the first 
 case, by remaining quiet and humble, all Italy will 
 rise up in your favour; they will desire you, they will 
 call for you, they will petition in your behalf, and, to 
 
388 APPENDIX. 
 
 their great joy, will obtain for you every kind of 
 favour. In the second case, the remains of love to 
 you which are yet warm in the hearts of many, will 
 be quenched; and hatred, scorn, and indignation, will 
 take their place. I am reduced to this, that, whereas 
 formerly, as you know, I often entreated you to pray 
 to God for me, at present knowing that the necessity 
 is on the other side, I cannot do otherwise than pray 
 to God for you; and now again I do humbly beseech 
 him that he would be pleased to illuminate and assist 
 you. From Rome, 20th October 1542. 
 
 No. VI. 
 
 Extract of a Letter vmlten in prison by Pomponio M- 
 gieri, to his friends in the University of Padua.* 
 
 [See before, p. 264.] 
 
 To allay the grief you feel on my account, I am 
 anxious to impart to you a share of my consolation, 
 that we may rejoice together, and return thanks to 
 the Lord with songs. I speak what to man will 
 appear incredible ; I have found honey in the bowels 
 of the lion, (who will believe it?) pleasantness in a 
 dismal pit, soothing prospects of life in the gloomy 
 mansions of death, joy in an infernal gulf! Where 
 others weep, I rejoice; where others tremble, I am 
 erect ; in the most distressing situation I have found 
 the highest delight, in solitude the best fellowship, and 
 in galling chains rest. But instead of the deluded 
 world believing these things, it will be rather disposed 
 to ask, in an incredulous tone — " How, think you, 
 will you be able to endure the reproaches and threats 
 of men, the fires, the colds, the crosses, the thousand 
 inconveniences of your situation? Do you not look 
 back with regret on your beloved native land, your 
 possessions, your relations, your pleasures, your hon- 
 
 * Translated from the original Latin, in Pantaleon, Rerura in 
 Eccles. Gest. p. 329—332. 
 
APPENDIX. 389 
 
 ours? Have you forgotten the delights of science, and 
 the solace, which it yielded you under all your 
 labours ? Will you at once throw away all tlie toils, 
 watchings, and laudable exertions devoted to study 
 from your childhood? Have you no dread of that 
 death which hangs over you, because, forsooth, you 
 have committed no crime ? Oh! foolish and infatuated 
 man, who can, by a single word, secure all these 
 blessings and escape death, and yet will not! How 
 rude to be inexorable to the requests of senators the 
 most august, pious, just, wise, and good; to turn an 
 obstinate ear when men so illustrious entreat you!" 
 
 But hear me, blind worldlings, while I answer you. 
 What is hotter than the fire which is laid up for you; 
 and what colder than your hearts which dwell in 
 darkness and have no light ? What can be more un- 
 pleasant, perplexed, and agitated, than the life you 
 lead; or more odious and mean than the present 
 world? Say, what native country is sweeter than 
 heaven ; what treasure preferable to eternal life ? Wlio 
 are my relations but those who hear the word of 
 God; and where shall riches more abundant or hon- 
 ours more worthy be found than in heaven? Say, 
 foolish man, were not the sciences, given to conduct 
 us to the knowledge of God? and if they lead us not 
 to this, are not our labours, our watchings, and all 
 our painful exertions utterly lost? The prison is severe 
 indeed to the guilty, but sweet to the innocent; distil- 
 ling dew and nectar, sending forth milk and all delec- 
 table things. This desert place and wild, is to me 
 a spacious valley, the noblest spot on earth. Listen 
 to me, unhappy men, while I rehearse my experience; 
 and then judge whether there be in the Avorld a more 
 pleasant plain. Here kings and princes, cities and 
 people, pass before me in review. Here I behold the 
 fate of battles; I see some vanquished, others victori- 
 ous, some trodden to dust, others lifted into the trium- 
 phal car. I am caught up to Mount Sion, to heaven. 
 Jesus Christ stands in the front, and around are the 
 patriarchs, prophets, evangelists, apostles, and all the 
 servants of God. He embraces and cherishes me; 
 
390 APPENDIX. 
 
 they encourage me, and spread the sacrament before 
 me ; they offer me consolations, they attend me with 
 songs, tan I be said to be alone while surrounded 
 by so many and so illustrious attendants? My inter- 
 course with them affords me example as well as 
 comfort; for in that circle I behold some crucified 
 and slain, others stoned and sawn asunder, some 
 roasted, others fried in brazen vessels, one with his 
 eyes dug out, another with his tongue cut off, one 
 beheaded, another maimed of hand and foot, some 
 thrown into the fiery furnace, others left a prey to the 
 ravenous birds. Here I have no fixed habitation, and 
 seek for myself in the heavens the first new Jerusalem 
 which presents itself. I have entered upon a path 
 which conducts to a pleasant dwelling, and where I 
 doubt not to find wealth, and relations, and pleasures, 
 and honours. In those earthly enjoyments (all of 
 them shadowy, and fading, and vanity of vanities 
 without the substantial hope of a coming eternity) 
 which the supreme Lord was pleased to bestow upon 
 me, I found indeed transient company and solace; but 
 now I taste what endureth. I have burned with heat, 
 I have shuddered with cold, I have watched day and 
 night; but now these struggles have come to a close. 
 Not an hour nor a day has passed without some benefit : 
 the true love of God is now engraven on my heart ; 
 the Lord has filled me with joy; I rest in peace. Who 
 then will venture to condemn this life of mine, and to 
 pronounce my days unhappy? Who so rash as to 
 declare his labours lost who has found the Lord of 
 the world, who has exchanged death for life? "The 
 Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I 
 seek him.'^ If to die in the Lord be not to die but to 
 begin a blessed life, why does rebellious man cast 
 death in my teeth? how pleasant is that death which 
 gives me to drink of the cup of God ! Wliat surer ear- 
 nest of salvation than to suffer as Christ suffered ! * * 
 * * * Be comforted, my most beloved fellow-ser- 
 vants of God, be comforted, when temptations assail 
 you ; let your patience be perfect in all things for suf- 
 fering is our promised portion in this life ; as it is writ- 
 
APPENDIX. 391 
 
 ten — " The time cometh, when he who slays yoii will 
 think he doeth God service." Tribulation arid death 
 are our signs of election and future life : let us rejoice 
 and praise the Lord that we are innocent; for it is bet- 
 ter, if such be the Avill of God, that we suffer for well- 
 doing than for evil-doing. We have a noble pattern 
 in Christ, and the prophets who have spoken in the 
 name of the Lord, whom the children of iniquity have 
 slain. Behold ! we call those blessed who bore up 
 under their trials. Let us rejoice in our innocence and 
 righteousness ; God will reward our persecutors, for 
 vengeance is his. As to what they say concerning 
 the Venetian nobility and senators, extolling them as 
 the most august, wise, just, pious, pacific, and of the 
 highest character and fame, I am willing to give all 
 this its due weight. But the apostle teaches us, ^'that 
 we ought to obey God rather than man;" and, accord- 
 ingly, after first giving God the service due to him, 
 then and not till then are we bound to obey the offi- 
 cial powers of this world. I grant they are august, 
 but as yet they require to be perfected in the Lord ; 
 they are just, but the foundation and seat of justice, 
 Jesus Christ, is wanting ; they are wise, but where is 
 the beginning of wisdom, the fear of God? they are 
 called pious, but I could wish they were made perfect 
 in Christian charity; they are called good, but I look 
 in vain for the basis of all goodness, even God the 
 great and the good; they are called illustrious, but 
 they have not yet received our Saviour, the Lord of 
 glory. I am blamed for not yielding to the lords of 
 Venice. If what I declared before them was not true 
 and just, let it be proved, and I will confess that they 
 proceeded from me and not from the Lord. If otlier- 
 wise, who will lay any thing to my charge? not surely 
 the wise. Who will condemn me? not surely the 
 righteous. But if they should, still the gospel sliall not 
 be frustrated, and the kingdom of God shall the sooner 
 come to the elect of Christ Jesus. Lift up your eyes, 
 my dearly beloved, and consider the ways of God: 
 the Lord has lately threatened with pestilence, and 
 this he has done for our correction: if we do not 
 
392 APPENDIX. 
 
 receive him lie will strike those who rise up against 
 Christ, with sword, and pestilence, and famine. These 
 things, brethren, have I written for your consolation. 
 Pray for me. I salute with a holy kiss my masters, 
 Sylvio, Pergula, and Giusto, along with Fedele di 
 Petra, and the person who goes by the name of Lselia, 
 whom, though absent, I knew, and the Lord Syndic 
 of the university, with all others whose names are 
 written in the book of life. 
 
 Farewell, all my fellow-servants of God; farewell 
 in the Lord, and pray earnestly for me. From the 
 delectable garden of the Leonine prison, 21st July, 
 1555, the most devoted servant of the faithful, the 
 bound 
 
 PoMPONius Algier. 
 
 No. VII. 
 
 Extract of a Letter frora Carnesecchi to Flaminio.* 
 
 [See before, p. 270, comp. p. 166.] 
 
 I received your letter, in which you enlarge, in the 
 way of instruction and admonition, on those topics 
 which we discussed in conversation. Accept of my 
 best thanks for this proof of your piety and great 
 affection for me. When I reflect on the bitter ani- 
 mosity and furious discord Avhich the recent contro- 
 versies about religion have produced, and on the 
 license which the contending parties have taken in 
 inveighing against one another, forgetful of their own 
 credit and the salvation of others, which charity and 
 and the divine caution against giving offence bound 
 them to regard, I am charmed with the moderation 
 
 * This letter is printed at length in Schelhorn, Amosnitates Histo- 
 riae Ecclesiastical et Literariae, torn. ii. p. 155 — 170. It is the only 
 production of Carnesecchi's pen which I have met with. As my 
 object is merely to give the reader an idea of his character, I have 
 not inserted that part of the letter which enters into the merits of the 
 controversy respecting the eucharist. 
 
« APPENDIX. 393 
 
 and mildness of your letter, in which you avoid throw- 
 ing abuse on your adversaries or wounding tliem with 
 biting sarcasm; and, satisfied with pronouncing their 
 sect execrable, discover your usual impartiality by 
 commending such of tliem as are distinguished for 
 their talents, and superior to the rest in modesty and 
 good manners. Conduct like this was applauded by 
 the ancients, and our own age as well as the last has 
 furnished illustrious examples of it. We are told that 
 Jovianus Pontanus commended the studies of all, and 
 never spoke detractingly of any man, either privately 
 or in public. M. Sabellicus would not revenge him- 
 self by retorting the violent and malevolent taunts of 
 his adversaries, though he was by no means deficient 
 in the graces of a copious and elegant style ; a display 
 of generosity which has led some over rigid critics to 
 detract from his genius. Pomponius La3tus, an inhab- 
 itant of Rome, would not permit himself to be dragged 
 into personal controversy, and suffered the calumnies 
 which were uttered against him to pass without reply. 
 In our own age, not to mention others, what examples 
 of modest)^ and mildness have we in Nicolaus Leo- 
 nicus and Jacobus Sadoletus. But the Philelphi, the 
 Poggii, the Valise, and others, their contemporaries, 
 (for I will not name any of the present age,) with 
 what contumely and opprobrium did they not load 
 their antagonists? But you content yourself with 
 simply naming the men who, in your opinion, have 
 injured religion, and treat the subject in controversy 
 with accuracy and gentleness. 
 
 With respect to the question itself, I shall, for the 
 purpose of enabling us to judge of it with greater 
 accuracy, state, with your leave, what has occurred 
 to me in opposition to your arguments, with all the 
 freedom which our friendship warrants; and you, ac- 
 cording to your piety and learning, will judge whether 
 it has any weight in favour of the sentiment of your 
 opponents. I need not remind you that, as in all dis- 
 cussions, the discovery of truth should be our aim, so 
 you should set aside every thing which has a tenden- 
 cy to obstruct this— all respect to custom, long prc- 
 
 26 
 
394 APPENDIX. 4 
 
 scription of time, and the authority of human institu- 
 tions — and steadily fix your eye on that hght which 
 alone can prevent us from wandering in error. You 
 recommend certain books to me, but afterwards, with 
 the view of lessening my labour, are pleased to say 
 that you will rest the defence of your cause on Ire- 
 nseus, an ancient and approved writer. For this I 
 thank you, for really the reading of so many and so 
 voluminous authors would be an arduous and Hercu- 
 lean task. Besides, as it is the duty of an impartial 
 judge to hear the evidence on both sides, I would 
 need to read all the books which are recommended 
 by your adversaries; and where would be the end of 
 that labour? For you know Avell what is the conse- 
 quence of controversies and altercation; both parties 
 wishing to be victorious, each heaps up whatever can 
 be said against his opponent and in favour of his own 
 cause; and this practice having become common to 
 those who pervert truth and those who confute error, 
 truth itself, by being mixed up with artifice, has fallen 
 under suspicion with many, who are afraid that their 
 understandings will be bewildered by the casuistry of 
 disputants. Wherefore passing by these and deroga- 
 ting from none of them, I shall, if you please, proceed 
 to examine and weigh with attention what you have 
 produced from the purer fountains of antiquity. It 
 was unnecessary for you, in writing to me, to estab- 
 hsh the authority of Irenaeus's works, or to commend 
 the author so warmly; for I have long known the 
 universal esteem in which he and his writings are 
 held, and am myself an admirer of both. I often 
 regret that his works have not reached us in the origi- 
 nal Greek, which as appears from the extracts insert- 
 ed in the books of Eusebius, Epiphanius, and others, 
 he seems to have written with fluency, and not with- 
 out elegance. I am astonished that a certain learned 
 writer has expressed a doubt whether he wrote in 
 Greek. As to those of his writings which have been 
 translated into Latin, (such as it is,) I cannot vouch 
 for their fidelity to the original — certainly the style is 
 by no means good ; for the translator makes use of 
 
APPENDIX. 395 
 
 unmeaning words, and his foreign idiom often pre- 
 vents the reader from discovering the sense. 13nt in 
 this, as in many other cases, we must take what we 
 can get, not wliat we would wish. " In those books 
 whicli have been pubhshed, there is a good deal of 
 discussion on subjects of great importance. Let us 
 then examine the excerpt from the fourth book of 
 Irena^us against heretics. It is necessary, however, 
 for understanding what is said, that we attend to the 
 design, the occasion, and the subject; for otherwise 
 the mind of the reader will be unable to form a fixed 
 and determinate judgment of the author's meaning. 
 For example, Christ says — " Without me ye can do 
 nothing:" to commit sin is to do something; does it 
 therefore follow that without Christ no sin is commit- 
 ted ? Again he says — " Give to every one that ask- 
 eth;" are we therefore to give to a person what he 
 may ask for a base and villainous purpose ? I could 
 bring forward many examples of this kind, but these 
 will explain what I mean. * * * * 
 
 Nor does the universal agreement of the catholic 
 church concerning ceremonies — of the Greeks, the 
 Armenians, the Indians, and, if you please, the 
 Ethiopians — help the matter; for the frequency or ex- 
 tent of a corrupt practice will never justify it. It is 
 evident that the purity of religion has been deeply 
 injured in every nation, through the carelessness of 
 those to whom it was intrusted, through ignorance of 
 the polite arts and the turbulency of the times. Con- 
 sider, I pray you, what is now the universal opinion 
 •(Concerning a barbarous style. Shall we condemn 
 those men who have exploded the rude diction long 
 in use, and introduced a purer and more elegant one 
 in its room? But I need not enlarge on this subject 
 to one of your learning. The rest of your letter con- 
 sists of several accusations, some of them bitter, which, 
 however, I do not impute to you, but to those who 
 prefer defending falsehood to embracing truth. Tliese 
 persons, if they had common sense, would consider 
 that no reproaches are more futile and ridiculous than 
 those which recoil, or at least can easily be thrown 
 
396 APPENDIX. 
 
 back, on the head of the author. In yonr letter you 
 censure, with great severity and justice, the obstinacy 
 of those who remain bhndly attached to their own 
 opinion, cloak their pride under a false zeal, arrogant- 
 ly accuse general and established customs, and as 
 you add, are actuated by fears of losing their worldly 
 dignities and emoluments. All of these are bad things. 
 I grant that general and ancient custom ought to be 
 retained, lest the foundations be sapped; but this is 
 the very question in dispute, and it remains still un- 
 determined. Who have transgressed or are opposing 
 the catholic agreement? You say that some have 
 their minds puffed up with contumacy, are blinded 
 by zeal, too confident in their boldness, ambitious, 
 avaricious. Let it then, I would say, be determined 
 who are the persons chargeable with these vices. We 
 know too well how bitterly each party reproaches the 
 other, and how far this evil has proceeded in these 
 dissolute and undisciplined times. In my opinion, we 
 should consider what is true, proper, and laudable in 
 itself — what ought to be done, not what has been done 
 by this or that person. Thus, after deliberation, let 
 us pronounce our sentiments concerning the subject, 
 and then, if it must be so, let us speak concerning the 
 persons. Of these, as I have already signified, I shall 
 say nothing, either in the way of accusation or de- 
 fence ; for what Horace said of the Trojan war, may, 
 if I am not mistaken, be justly applied to this con- 
 troversy — 
 
 Iliacos intra muros peccatur et extra. 
 
 A good man will be cautious what he says to the 
 prejudice of another, lest he spread abroad ill-found- 
 ed reports. I am led to mention this from your 
 naming Bucer, of whom you seem to speak from the 
 report of some malevolent person, and not from your 
 own knowledge. I have heard many accounts from 
 different quarters, both respecting the man and that 
 affair as to which you wish to depreciate him in my 
 esteem. Many letters which I have seen speak high- 
 ly of his piety and learning; and it is well known 
 
APPENDIX. 397 
 
 how zealous he has been in heahng the wounds of 
 the church. I have been informed that he is of a 
 mild temper, and by no means pertinacious, litigious, 
 or severe, although so firm in the cause of the truth as 
 not to be drawn from its defence by any respect either 
 to dignity, fortune, or life. But, as I have already 
 said, we are not to judge of persons but of things. 
 Thus, you have my reply to your letter, less accurate 
 and perhaps less to your mind than you expected. 
 I hope you will take it in good part, and that it will 
 not prevent you from prolonging the discussion, if 
 you think proper, or from continuing to repeat your 
 instructions and advices ; for, in dispassionate contro- 
 versy between friends who happen to differ in senti- 
 ment, the truth is often discovered, and is elicited by 
 the very contention, as fire by the collision of flints. 
 Adieu. 
 
 No. VIII. 
 
 Extracts from a treatise on the Benefit of Christ Crucified, 
 by Ao7iio Paleario/ 
 
 * 
 
 [See before, p. 279.] 
 
 To the Christian readers. There having come to 
 our hands a work more pious and learned than any 
 which has been composed in our day, entitled, {Del 
 Beneficio di Giesu Christo Crocifisso verso i C/irist- 
 iani,) Of the Benefit of Jesus Christ Crucified to 
 Christians, it appeared to us to be for your consola- 
 tion and profit to give it you in print, and witliout 
 adding the name of the writer, that so you may be 
 influenced by the matter rather than by the authority 
 of the author. 
 
 Contents.— Chap. 1. Of original sin, and the 
 misery of man. 2. That the law was given by God, 
 
 * These extracts are taken from a review of tlie original Italian 
 work, by Ricderer, Nachrichten, torn. iv. p. 239 — 241. 
 
398 APPENDIX. 
 
 to the intent that, coming to the knowledge of sin, 
 and despairing to be able to justify ourselves by 
 works, we might have recourse to the mercy of God 
 and the righteousness of faith. 3. That the remis- 
 sion of sins, and justification, and all our salvation, 
 depend on Christ. 4. Of the effects of a living faith, 
 and of the union of the soul with Christ. 5. How a 
 Christian is clothed with Christ. 6. The remedies 
 against distrust — prayer, the remembrance of baptism, 
 the use of the sacrament of the eucharist, and the 
 knowledge of our being predestinated. 
 
 * * * * God has fulfilled his promise in sending 
 us that great prophet who is his only begotten Son, 
 that we might be freed from the curse of the law and 
 reconciled to our God, and has inclined our hearts to 
 every good work, in the way of curing free-will, re- 
 storing in us the divine image which we had lost by 
 the sin of our first parents, and causing us to know, 
 that, under heaven, there is no other name given to 
 men, by which they can be saved except the name of 
 Jesus Christ. Let us fly then, with the wings of a 
 lively faith, into his embraces, when we hear him in- 
 viting us in these words — Come unto me all ye who 
 are troubled and heavy laden, and I will give you 
 joy. What consolation, what delight can be compar- 
 ed to that which is experienced by the person, who, 
 feeling himself overwhelmed with the intolerable 
 weight of his iniquities, hears such grateful and tender 
 words from the Son of God, promising thus mercifully 
 to comfort him and free him from so heavy a burden ! 
 But one great object we should have in view is to be ac- 
 quainted in good earnest with our weakness and miser- 
 able condition by nature ; for we cannot relish the good 
 unless we have tasted the evil. Christ, accordingly, 
 says — Let him that thirsteth come to me and drink ; 
 implying, that the man who is ignorant of his being 
 a sinner, and has never thirsted after righteousness, 
 is incapable of tasting how sweet the Lord is, and 
 how delightful it is to think and to speak of him and 
 to imitate his most holy life. When, therefore, through 
 the instrumentality of the law, we are made to see 
 
APPENDIX. 399 
 
 our infirmity, let us look to the benign Physician 
 whom John Baptist points out to us with tlie 'finger, 
 saying — Behold the Lamb of God who takes away 
 the sins of the world; who, I repeat, frees us from 
 the galling bondage of the law, by abrogating and 
 annihilating its bitter curses and threatenings, heal- 
 ing all our diseases, reforming our free-will, bringing 
 us back to our pristine innocence, and restoring in us 
 the image of God. If, according to St. Paul, as by 
 Adam all died, so by Christ we are all revived, then 
 we cannot believe that the sin of Adam, which we 
 have by inheritance, is of greater efficacy than the 
 righteousness of Christ, which, in like manner, we 
 inherit through faith. Once, indeed, man might, with 
 some show of reason, have complained that, witliout 
 his own instrumentality, he was conceived and 
 brought forth in iniquity, and in the sin of his first 
 parents, through whom death has reigned over all 
 men ; but now all occasion of complaint is removed, 
 since eternal life, together with victory over death, is 
 obtained, in the very same method, without any in- 
 strumentality of ours, by the righteousness of Christ, 
 which is imputed to us. Upon this subject St. Paul 
 has written a most beautiful discourse in Romans, v. 
 12 — 31. * * ^ From these words of St. Paul, it is 
 clear that the law was given in order that sin might 
 be known, and that we might understand that it is 
 not of greater efficacy than the righteousness of Christ, 
 by which we are justified in the sight of God; for if 
 Christ be more powerful than Adam, and if the sin 
 of Adam was capable of rendering us sinners and 
 children of wrath, without any actual transgression 
 of our own, much more will the righteousness of 
 Christ be able to justify us and make us children of 
 grace, without any good works on our part, works 
 which cannot be acceptable, unless, before we per- 
 form them, we be made good and righteous through 
 faith. 
 
 * ■* * * Let us, my beloved brethren, embrace the 
 righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, and make it 
 our own by means of faith. Let us seek establish- 
 
400 APPENDIX. 
 
 ment in holiness, not by our own works, but by the 
 merits of Clirist; and let us live in joy and security; 
 for his righteousness destroys all our unrighteousness, 
 and makes us good, and just, and holy in the sight of 
 God, who, when he sees us incorporated with his Son 
 by faith, does not regard us any more as children of 
 Adam, but as his own children, and constitutes us 
 heirs of all his riches along with his legitimate Son. 
 
 No. IX. 
 
 Letters written by Aonio Paleario, to his Wife and Chil- 
 dren, on the morning of his execution.* 
 
 [See before p. 281.] 
 
 Article and Memorial, copied from a record belong- 
 ing to San Giovanni de'Fiorentini di Roma. 
 
 Monday, the 3d day of July, 1570. Our confra- 
 ternity having been called on Sunday night, immedi- 
 ately preceding Monday the 3d day of July 1570, in 
 Tordinona,t Mr. Aonio Paleario of Veruli, resident at 
 the Hill of Valdenza, was delivered into his hands, 
 condemned to death, in the course of justice, by the 
 ministers of the holy inquisition, who, having con- 
 fessed and contritely asked pardon of God and of his 
 glorious mother, the Virgin Mary, and of all the court 
 of heaven, said that he wished to die a good Chris- 
 tian, and to believe all that the holy Roman church 
 believes. He did not make any testament, except what 
 is contained in the two under-written letters, in his 
 own hand- writing, requesting us to send them to his 
 wife and children at the Hill of Valdenza. 
 
 Copies of the letters verbatim. 
 
 My Dearest Wife, 
 
 I would not wish that you should receive sorrow 
 
 * These letters, with the introductory memorial of the friars, were 
 reprinted in the original Italian by Schelhorn, in his Dissertatio de 
 Mino Celso Senensi, p. 25—27. They arc taken from Novelle Lette- 
 rarie dell' Anno 1745, p. 328, &,c. Firenze. 
 
 t Torre Nona. 
 
APPENDIX. 401 
 
 from my pleasure, nor ill from my good. The hour 
 is now come when I must pass from this Hfc to my 
 Lord and Father and God. I depart as joyfully as if 
 I were going to the nuptials of the Son of the great 
 King, which I have always prayed my Lord to grant 
 me, through his goodness and infinite mercy. Where- 
 fore, my dearest wife, comfort yourself with the will 
 of God and with my resignation, and attend to the 
 desponding family which still survives, training them 
 up and preserving them in the fear of God, and being 
 to them both father and mother. I am now an old 
 man of seventy years, and useless. Our children must 
 provide for themselves by their virtue and industry, 
 and lead an honourable life. God the Father, and 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, and the communion of the 
 Holy Spirit, be with your spirit! 
 
 Thy Husband, 
 
 AoNio Paleari. 
 Rome, ^dJuly, 1570. 
 
 The other letter follows, verbatim. 
 
 Lampridio and Fedro, beloved children. 
 
 These my very courteous Lords do not abate in 
 their kindness to me even at this extremity, and give 
 me permission to Avrite to you. It pleases God to 
 call me to himself by this means, which may appear 
 to you harsh and painful ; but if you regard it pro- 
 perly, as happening with my full resignation and 
 pleasure, you will acquiesce in the will of God, as 
 you have hitherto done. Virtue and industry I leave 
 you for a patrimony, along with the little property 
 you already possess. I do not leave you in debt ; 
 many are always asking when they ought to give. 
 
 You were freed more than eighteen years ago; you 
 are not bound for my debts. If you are called upon 
 to discharge them, have recourse to his excellency tlie 
 duke, who will not see you wronged. I have request- 
 ed from Luca Pridio an account of what is due to me, 
 and what I am owing. With the dowry of your 
 mother bring up your little sister as God shall give 
 
402 APPENDIX. 
 
 you grace. Salute Aspasia and sister Aonilla, my 
 beloved daughters in the Lord. My hour approaches. 
 The Spirit of God console and preserve you in his 
 grace ! 
 
 Your Father, 
 
 AoNio Paleari. 
 Rome, 2d July, 1570. 
 
 Superscription — 
 
 To his dearest wife Marietta Paleari, and to his 
 beloved sons Lampridio and Fedro Paleari, at the 
 Hill of Valdenza, in the suburbs of St. Catarina. 
 
 No. X. 
 
 Letter from Olympia Morata to Madonna Cheruhina 
 
 Orsini* 
 
 [See before p. 360.] 
 
 My Dearest Lady Cherubina, 
 
 To the letter I have already written you, I wish to 
 add a few lines, for the purpose of exhorting you to 
 pray to God that he would give you strength, lest, 
 through fear of those who can kill the body only, you 
 offend that gracious Redeemer who has suffered for 
 our sakes; and that he would enable you gratefully 
 to confess him, according to his will, before this per- 
 verse generation, and ever to keep in remembrance 
 the words of David — " I hate the congregation of sin- 
 ners, and will not sit in the company of the wicked." 
 I am weak, you may be apt to say, and cannot do 
 this. do not say so. Do you imagine that so many 
 saints and prophets, that so many martyrs even in our 
 day, have remained firm in their own unaided virtue, 
 and that it was not God who gave them strength? 
 Then consider that those whose weakness is mentioned 
 in the Scriptures, did not continue always infirm. St. 
 
 * Translated from the original Italian, in Olympice Moratae Opera, 
 p . 218—222. Basileae, 1580. 
 
APPENDIX. 403 
 
 Peter's denial of his Master is not recorded as an ex- 
 ample for our imitation, but in order to display the 
 great mercy of Christ; to show us our frailty, not to 
 excuse it. He soon recovered from his weakness, 
 and obtained such a degree of strength, that he after- 
 wards rejoiced to suffer for the cause of Christ. From 
 these considerations we should be induced, when we 
 feel our infirmity, to apply by prayer to the Physician, 
 and request that he would make us strong. Provided 
 we pray to him, he will not fail to perform his pro- 
 mise; only he does not wish us to be idle and unem- 
 ployed, but to be continually exercising ourselves in 
 that armour of which St. Paul speaks, in the sixth 
 chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians. We have a 
 powerful enemy who is never at rest; and Christ, by 
 his example, has showed us that he is to be overcome 
 by prayer and the word of God. For the love of 
 Christ, then, who has redeemed you with his precious 
 blood, I entreat you to study diligently the Holy 
 Scriptures, praying that the Lord would enable you 
 to understand them. Mark how frequently and with 
 what ardour the great prophet David prays — " Lord 
 enlighten me — teach me thy ways — renew in me a 
 clean heart ;" while we, as if we were already perfect, 
 neither study nor read. Paul, that illustrious apostle, 
 tells the Phi'lippians, that he did not yet understand, 
 but was still engaged in learning. We ought to be 
 advancing from day to day in the knowledge of the 
 Lord, and praying all the time with the apostles that 
 our faith may be increased, and with David — " Hold 
 up my steps in thy ways." We have ourselves 
 to blame for our weakness, because we are contiim- 
 ally excusing it, and neglecting the remedies which 
 Christ has prescribed, viz. prayer and his word. Do 
 you think that, after having done and suffered so 
 much from love to you, he will not fulfil the gracious 
 promises he has made by granting your petitions for 
 strength? Had he not intended to bestow it, lie would 
 not have invited you, by so many promises to ask it; 
 and, lest you should entertain any doubts on this 
 point, he has sworn that all that you request of the 
 
404 APPENDIX. 
 
 Father in his name shall be given you. Nor does he 
 say that he will give this or that thing, but everything 
 you solicit; and St. John declares that he will bestow 
 whatever we ask according to the will of God. Now, 
 is it not agreeable to his will that we desire of him 
 faith and fortitude sufficient to enable us to confess 
 him? Ah! how backward are we, and how ready to 
 excuse ourselves! 
 
 We ought to acquaint the Physician with our dis- 
 ease, in order that he may cure us. Oh ! is it not the 
 proper office of Christ to save us from our iniquities, 
 and to overcome sin ? Knock, knock, and it shall be 
 opened to you. Never forget that he is omnipotent, 
 and that, before your hour is arrived, no one shall be 
 able to touch a hair of your head; for greater is he 
 that is in us than he that is in the world. Do not be 
 influenced by what the majority do, but by what the 
 godly have done and still do to this day. May the 
 word of the Lord be a lamp to your feet, for if you 
 do not read and listen to it, you will fall before many 
 stumbling-blocks in the world. I beg you to read this 
 letter to Vittoria, exhorting her, by precept and by 
 example, to honour and confess God ; read also along 
 with her the Holy Scriptures. Entreat my dear lady 
 Lavinia to peruse frequently a portion of them, and, 
 in doing so, she will experience the efficacy of the 
 word of God. The Lord knows that I have written 
 these exhortations with sincere concern for your sal- 
 vation, and I beg of you to read them with the same 
 feeling. I pray God that you may be enlightened and 
 fortified in Christ, so as to overcome Satan, the world, 
 and the flesh, and to obtain that crown which is given 
 only to those who overcome. I have no doubt but 
 that, in following my admonitions, you will find the 
 Lord strengthening you. Do not consider that it is a 
 woman only who is giving you advice; but rest 
 assured that God, speaking by my mouth, kindly in- 
 vites you to come to him. All false opinions, all 
 errors, all disputes arise solely from not studying the 
 Scriptures with sufficient care. David says — Thou 
 hast made me wiser than aU mine enemies by thy 
 
APPENDIX. 405 
 
 law. Do not listen to those who, despising the com- 
 mandments of God and the means which he has 
 appointed for their salvation, say, if we be predes- 
 tinated, we shall be saved, although we neither pray 
 nor study the Bible. He who is called of God will 
 not utter such blasphemy, but will strive to obey God 
 and avoid tempting him. The Lord has done us the 
 honour and the benefit to speak to us, to instruct and 
 console us by his word ; and shall we despise such a 
 valuable treasure ? He invites us to draw near to him 
 in prayer; and shall we, neglecting the opportunity 
 and remaining inactive, busy ourselves with disputes 
 concerning the high councils of God and the things 
 which are to come to pass? Let us use the remedies 
 he has prescribed, and thus prove ourselves to be 
 obedient and predestinated children. Read and ob- 
 serve how highly God would have his word prized. 
 Faith, says Paul, comes by hearing, and hearing by 
 the word of God. Charity and faith I assure you, 
 would soon become cold, were you to remain idle. 
 And it is not enough, as Christ remarks, to have 
 begun; we must persevere to the end. Let him that 
 stands, says Paul, take heed lest he fall. I entreat 
 you, for the love of Christ, not to conform yourself to 
 the maxims of men, but to regulate your conduct 
 according to the word of God; let it be a lamp to 
 your feet, otherwise Satan will be able to deceive you 
 in a variety of ways. Deliver these admonitions to 
 my sister also. Never think who the person is that 
 speaks to you, but examine whether she speaks the 
 words of God or her own words; and, provided the 
 Scriptures and not the authority of man be your rule, 
 you will not fail to discover the path of duty. Ask, 
 seek, knock, and it shall be opened to you. Draw 
 near to your heavenly spouse, contemplating him in 
 the Bible— that true and bright mirror, in which 
 shines all the knowledge which is necessary for us. 
 May God, for the sake of Christ, grant that I have 
 not written in vain. The pain in my breast has been 
 considerably increased by the exertion, but I smcerely 
 wish I were able by my death to assist you and 
 
406 APPENDIX. 
 
 others in the things which pertain to salvation. Do 
 me the favour to send me a single line, to acquaint 
 me with the state of your health. 
 
 Your Olympia. 
 
 No. IX. 
 
 Letter of Olympia Morata to Celio Secundo Curio. 
 
 [See before, p. 360.] 
 
 My Dearest Father Celio, 
 
 You may conceive how tenderly those who are 
 united by true, that is, Christian friendship, feel for 
 one another, when 1 tell you that the perusal of your 
 letter drew tears from my eyes ; for, on learning that 
 you had been rescued from the jaws of the grave, I 
 wept for very joy. May God long preserve you to 
 be a blessing to his church ! It grieves me much to 
 hear of the indisposition of your daughter, but I com- 
 fort myself with the hopes you entertain of her recov- 
 ery. As to myself, my dear Celio, I must inform you 
 that there is now no hope of my surviving long. No 
 medicine gives me any relief. Every day, and indeed 
 every hour, my friends look for my dissolution. It is 
 probable this may be the last letter you shall receive 
 from me. My body and strength are wasted; my 
 appetite is gone ; night and day the cough threatens 
 to suffocate me. The fever is strong and unremitting, 
 and the pains which I feel over the whole of my frame 
 deprive me of sleep. Nothing therefore remains but 
 that I breathe out my spirit. But, so long as life con- 
 tinues, I shall remember my friends and the benefits 
 I have received from them. I return my warmest 
 thanks to you for sending me the books, and to those 
 worthy persons who have bestowed upon me such 
 valuable presents. Had I been spared, I would have 
 shown my gratitude. It is my opinion that my depar- 
 ture is at hand. I commend the church to your care ; 
 let all you do be directed to its advantage. Fare- 
 
APPENDIX. 407 
 
 well, excellent Celio, and do not distress yourself 
 when you hear of my death; for I know that I shall 
 be victorious at last, and am desirous to depart and 
 be with Christ. My brother, about whom you inciuire 
 is making proficiency in his studies, though he needs 
 the spur rather than the curb. Heidelberg looks like 
 a desert, in consequence of the numbers who have 
 died of the plague or fled for fear of it. My husband 
 sends his comphments to you. Salute your family in 
 my name. I send you such of the poems as I have 
 been able to write out from memory since the destruc- 
 tion of Schweinfurt. All my other writings have 
 perished. I request that you will be my Aristarchus, 
 and polish them. Again farewell. From Heidelberg.'" 
 
 No. xn. 
 
 Letter by Marc- Antonio Flaminio to Carlo GualtcruccioA 
 
 [See before, p. 166.] 
 
 I am extremely glad to hear that the bull has been 
 expedited, not only for my own sake, though it is no 
 
 * Curio received this letter by the same post which brought him 
 the intelligence of the death of the amiable writer. It was the last 
 exertion she made, On looking over what she had written, she per- 
 ceived some mistakes, and insisted on transcribing It; but, alter 
 making the attempt, was obliged to desist, and said to her husband, 
 with a smile whicli completely unnerved him, "I see it will not do." 
 
 t Epistol. Reg. Poll, a Quirino, torn. iii. p. 68 ; tom. v. p. 387. Car- 
 dinal Quirini has inserted this letter in his Dissertation " Dc Vitcr- 
 biensi Card. Poli Sodalitio," as a proof of Flaniinio's orthodoxy, 
 because the work of Thomas a Kempis, wliich he recommends, con- 
 tains some opinions condemned by the Protestants, particularly the 
 invocation of saints. But his eminence did not seem to have been 
 aware how strongly the letter, and particularly the exception which 
 it makes to the doctrine of the Imitation, establishes the agreement 
 between Flaminio and the reformers on the leading article of dispute 
 between them and tlie church cf Rome.— Ueccatcllo, after staling that 
 Cardinal Pole drew Flaminio from the society of Valdcs in Naples to 
 his own house in Viterbo, adds, that the cardinal used to say, " Che 
 non poco servitio, oltra il bencfitio dell' amico, gli parcva haver fatto 
 a' catholici havcndo ritenuto il Flaminio, e non lasciatolo prccipitarc 
 con gli lieretici, come facilmentc havria fatto." 
 
408 APPENDIX. 
 
 small matter to me, but also because your excellence is 
 thereby relieved ojf a great burden, which you have 
 cheerfully borne on my account. As to the advice 
 which you ask respecting the books which you ought 
 to read, what I am about to say will perhaps appear 
 to you absurd and foolish ; but, if I would speak 
 what I think, I must say it. I know not any book 
 (I speak not of the Holy Scriptures) which I can re- 
 commend to you as more useful than that little work 
 which is entitled, " Of the Imitation of Christ;" pro- 
 vided you wish to read, not for the purpose of grati- 
 fying curiosity or furnishing yourself with matter for 
 argument and dispute about Christianity, but that your 
 mind may be edified and you may learn the exercises 
 of the Christian life, of which this is the sum, how the 
 grace of the gospel is received by men, or, in other 
 words, justification by faith. There is one exception, 
 however, which I must make, viz. that I do not approve 
 of the way of fear, which is so often spoken of in that 
 book. But you must observe that I do not condemn 
 every kind of fear; the only thing that I object to is 
 penal fear, which is a sign either of unbelief or of a 
 weak faith. For if I believe, as I ought, that Christ 
 hath satisfied for all my sins past, present, and to 
 come, it is impossible that I should fear condemnation 
 by the judgment of God; especially if I believe that the 
 righteousness and holiness of Christ have become 
 mine by faith, as I must believe, if I wish to be a true 
 Christian. Penal fear, therefore, does not become a 
 Christian, since he ought to cherish filial love. But 
 there is a species of fear which becomes him; he 
 should live continually in fear of himself, being ever 
 afraid lest his affections and appetites should induce 
 him to do any thing unworthy of his profession and 
 dignity, by which the Holy Spirit, who dwells in him, 
 maybe grieved. As a good son, the more kindly 
 he is treated by his father, is on that account the more 
 careful to do nothing which may displease his father, 
 so a Christian must be ever watchful over himself, 
 and ever afraid of doing any thing unworthy of a son 
 of God; but he must, even at the same time, trust in 
 
APPENDIX. 409 
 
 God as an indulgent father, who docs not look npon 
 what he is in himself, but what he is in Christ; for 
 in Christ the Christian is righteous and holy, inasmuch 
 as, being inserted into his body, he is already a par- 
 taker of all his merits. If you peruse the book which 
 I have named, frequently and carefully, and with tVie 
 desire of putting in practice what it teaches, I am 
 sure you will reap the greatest advantage from it, as 
 all who have read it in that manner ''an testify from 
 experience; especially if you are on your guard 
 against that blemish which I have pointed out to 
 you. The less there is of the pomp of eloquence and 
 secular learning in that work, the more worthy is it 
 of being read ; because the more that any thing pos- 
 sesses of spiritual Christianity, and the greater its re- 
 semblance to sacred Scripture, the more perfect it 
 ought to be reckoned. I could name many books 
 which are highly esteemed in the world, but, in doing 
 so, I would speak against my conscience, being per- 
 suaded that the reading of them would do more harm 
 than good; and in this I believe I do not err. Nothing 
 further occurs to me to say, but that I desire with all 
 my heart to commend myself to your excellence. 
 
 February 28, 1542. 
 
 No. XIII. 
 
 Extracts from a Letter of Marc-Antonio Flaminio to Ga- 
 leazzo Caraccioli, Marquis of Vico* 
 
 [See before, p. 166.] 
 
 The happy news of the conversion of your excellence, 
 which I received from Signor Ferrante,t and Sin. (iio- 
 van-Francesco,± gave great joy not only to me, but 
 
 * Epist. Reg. Poli, a Quirino, torn. iii. p. 59. Brixin% 1718. 
 t A friend with whom Flaminio was accu.stomcd to lodj^c at Naples. 
 X The cousin of Caraccioli. See before, p. 126, If he is the same 
 
 27 
 
410 APPENDIX. 
 
 also to the most reverend legate,* and other persons of 
 note; and this joy has been confirmed and increased 
 by the letter you have done me the honour of address- 
 ing to me. My honourable and much respected sir, 
 when I reflect on the words of St. Paul, " You see 
 your calling brethren," &c., I cannot but perceive the 
 singular grace of the Lord God to your excellence in 
 putting you into the number of those few great men 
 whom he raises to an illustrious nobility, making them 
 his sons by a true and living faith. In proportion to 
 the singular favour shown you by God, are you bound 
 to lead a life becoming his sons, by taking care lest 
 thorns, that is, pleasures and the deceitfulness of riches 
 and ambition, choke the seed of the gospel sown in 
 your heart. I trust the Lord God, who hath begun, 
 to his glory, that good work in you, will bring it to 
 perfection to the praise of the glory of his grace. I 
 trust he will create in you such generous sentiments, 
 that, whereas formerly it was your ambition to sup- 
 port the dignity of your birth before the world, so 
 now you will study to maintain the honour of a son 
 of God, whom it becomes in all things to imitate the 
 perfection of his heavenly Father, by exhibiting that 
 holy and divine life which he expects to lead in hea- 
 ven. Honourable and respected sir, remember, in all 
 your thoughts, all your words, and all your actions, 
 that we attain to the dignity of sons of God through 
 Jesus Christ. — If we wish to please him, we must be 
 prepared for displeasing men, and despise the glory of 
 the world for the sake of the glory that is to be en- 
 joyed with God. Did Christ, the only begotten and 
 proper Son of God, willingly bear for us, not only the 
 infamy of the world, but the bitterest torments of the 
 cross? and shall not we, for the honour of Christ, wil- 
 lingly bear the scorn of the enemies of God? Let us 
 then, honourable sir, arm our minds against the 
 calumnies and derision of worldly men with a holy 
 pride, deriding their scorn, while, at the same time, 
 
 person who is mentioned in p. 244, then he obtained the crown of 
 martyrdom. 
 
 * Cardinal Pole. See before, p. 169, 270. 
 
APPENDIX. 411 
 
 like true members of Christ, we bewail tlicir blind- 
 ness, and beseech our God to bestow upon tlicm a 
 portion of that Hght which he has vouchsafed to us, 
 that so becoming the sons of God, they may be liber- 
 ated from the miserable bondage of the prince of 
 darkness, who, together with his servants, persecutes 
 Christ and his members; a persecution which, in spite 
 of the devil and his ministers, shall redound at length 
 to the glory of Christ, and the salvation of his mem- 
 bers, who, being predestinated to reign with Christ, 
 rejoice in suffering for him. Wherever the faith of 
 this exists, it easily resists the persecutions of the devil, 
 the world, and the flesh. Wherefore, my much re- 
 spected sir, let us assiduously pray our eternal Father 
 to increase our faith, and then our soul will long for 
 those sweet and blessed fruits which spring up in the 
 good ground of all the predestinated to everlasting 
 Hfe. If our faith be fruitful in good works, then we 
 are certain that it is a true and not feigned, a living 
 and not dead, a divine and not human faith; and, 
 consequently, that it is a precious pledge of our eter- 
 nal felicity. If we are the genuine members of Christ, 
 we will feel that we are already dead with him, and 
 risen and ascended to heaven with him, that so our 
 whole conversation might be heavenly, and his glori- 
 ous image shine forth in us in some degree. In you 
 this image will be the more lively and admirable in 
 proportion as you are raised above others in birth, 
 riches, and authority. Oh! what a delightful and 
 never enough to be looked upon spectacle will this 
 afl'ord to the eyes of all true Christians, nay, to tiie 
 eyes of God and all the angels, while, reflecting on 
 the frailty of human nature and the vanity of all 
 perishing things, you say, in the words of Christ, " I 
 am a worm and no man," and cry with David, " Look 
 upon me, and have mercy upon me, for I am solitary 
 and poor!" Oh! truly rich and blessed is that man 
 who, by the grace of God, has attained to that spi- 
 ritual poverty which leads him to renounce all that 
 he possesses — to become a fool for Christ's sake — in 
 the midst of riches to say from the heart, " Give us 
 
412 APPENDIX. 
 
 this day our daily bread/' to prefer the reproach of 
 Christ to all the pleasures and favours of this world, 
 and not to wish to enter into the kingdom of God 
 through any other holiness or righteousness but that 
 which he acquires through Christ. Having entered 
 the kingdom of God, glory in this that he hath shown 
 such mercy towards you. This Christian glory- 
 ing Avill make you humble in grandeur, modest in 
 prosperity, patient in adversity, brave in dangers, 
 beneficent to all, firm in hope, fervent in prayer, full 
 of love to God, free from the immoderate love of your- 
 self and the world, and, in one word, a true imitator 
 of Christ. Honourable sir, I have acted contrary to 
 my intention, from a desire to yield to your request ; 
 for, by the grace of God, I perceive every day more 
 and more my own great imperfections and insuffi- 
 ciency, and that it would become me better to act the 
 part of a disciple than that of an instructor. But, at 
 present, I have chosen rather to follow the dictates of 
 my affection for you than of my judgment. The most 
 reverend legate loves you as a brother in Christ, and 
 will be glad of any opportunity of testifying his affec- 
 tion for you. The illustrious marchioness of Pescara 
 and other noble persons here join with me in affec- 
 tionate salutations. May the Lord God grant that 
 you may excel more in poverty of spirit than you 
 abound in the riches and gifts of this life, and that 
 your spiritual poverty may make you rich in all divine 
 and eternal blessings. From Viterbo, the 14th Feb- 
 ruary, ann. 43. 
 
 THE END. 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 -^Mmmmih^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GAYLORD 
 
 
 
 PRINTED IN U.S.A.