justice, is given to very imperfect;-that righteousness is imputed in consideration of faith, to him who is not completely righteous."-pp. 257, 8. "The instability of our nature disqualifies us for the exact observance of any precise rules, and especially of any by which our passions are to be controlled. Only the sincere and earnest disposition to obey is, therefore exacted from us; that when we unavoidably err from weakness, we may be excused: and we are only called upon for repentance when we are conscious of guilt; that we may not be condemn | ed for faults of which, from ignorance we are unaware."-pp. 280, 281. We shall offer no other comment upon these statements, than this; that we have no doubt of their being perfectly acceptable to those persons for whom the author writes; namely, such as, having hitherto slighted the claims, and set at nought the precepts of christianity, wish for a religion in accordance with their own inclinations, that may lull their consciences to sleep. They may be rejoiced to hear, if they can swallow the bait, that they may err without mistake, and sin without danger; that the doctrines of religion are of no importance, and its precepts equally accommodating; that God exacts nothing more from them than they are inclined to practise, and that a faith without works is a compensation for all deficiencies. A writer who stigmatizes as irrational, inconsistent, silly, and ridiculous, the notions of all other teachers of different sects, would have no reason to complain of the heaviest chastisement that might be inflicted on his arrogance and licentiousness: but we have no disposition to recriminate. Seldom have we met with a more striking illustration of the words of St. Peter: "In which (the epistles of Paul) are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable, wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction." From the Eclectic Review. HISTORY OF THE PROGRESS AND SUPPRESSION OF THE REFORMATION IN ITALY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY: including a Sketch of the History of the Reformation in the Grisons. By Thomas M'Crie, D.D. 8vo. pp. 446. Price 10s. 6d. Edinburgh. 1827. We must apologise for our involuntary neglect of this valuable and highly interesting volume. Accidental circumstances alone have delayed our notice of a work which ought to be in the hands of every man seeking acquaintance with one of the most important sections of ecclesiastical history-that which records the progress of religious truth, its struggles with error and oppression, and its unsubdued energy, even when pressed down by the iron bondage of priestcraft and state policy. We are too apt, in common and cursory reading, to catch the enthusiasm of success; to pursue the triumph, and partake the gale' of fortune's favourites, regardless of the perhaps nobler struggles which have been made by high-prin cipled and constant spirits, amid depression, failure, suffering, in the face of privation, torture, and miserable death. We read with delight of Luther and his victorious stand against destructive error and spiritual wickedness in high places. We trace his steady progress through difficulties and fearful hazards; we wonder at his bold bearing amid ravening enemies, and the uncompromising intrepidity with which he confronted his persecutors; and we follow on his brave career through all its casualties and vicissitudes, to its final triumphs. But there are other chapters of the same great record, on which it is painful to dwell, and which we are, therefore, somewhat too ready to overlook. If truth prevailed in Germany, in Switzerland, in the Low Countries, in Sweden, and in England, there were other regions where it laboured, and strove, and fought the good fight; but where it was beaten down with a strong and bloody hand, trampled in the dust, and its relics burned with fire. With the circumstances of these dark doings, we must make ourselves familiar, if we are making inquiry concerning the ways by which Providence has wrought out its purposes of good; and if we would contemplate the effect of conscientious conviction in bracing up human resolution to the utmost intensity of effort and endurance. The extirpation of the Albigenses, the deepdyed atrocities of the Spanish Inquisition, the unrelenting inflictions of the 'rod of Alva,' the merciless visitations of the Cevennes amid all these miseries and agonies were the brightest manifestations of Christian heroism-the noblest victories of conscience over pain and temptation. "The reformation in Italy" will seem a strange combination of words to those, and to those only, who have paid but little attention to the actual course and influence of events, or who are but slightly conversant with the phenomena of mind and the operations of principle and feeling. The great tendency of man, as ́a being not merely capable of religion, but incapable of existing without it, is to superstition, when the means of sound religious instruction are absent or perverted. Without religion, men may have been found; but never, in that case, without superstition. Of this cardinal infirmity, the Romish hierarchy has taken full advantage. Its system of domination is established on this principle; and the machinery employed in effecting its purposes of delusion is, of course, in the highest perfection and activity at the centre of deception, the very seat of the arch-juggler, and his most dexterous and devoted associates. But if it be true, that, in Rome and Italy, the superstitious observances of popery have been exhibited to the public eye in the most splendid and imposing form, and impressed on the general mind by a specious display of reasons and motives the most urgent and seductive; and if, at the same time, these gross appeals were wisely adapted to the superstitious tendencies of man; how is it-we believe the fact to be unquestionable—that there has always been more of infidelity, direct or indirect, among the Italians, than among any other people in Christendom? To this question there may be many replies, and all partially correct, though all evading the entire and specific solution of the enigma. The high find repose. It is at variance with the spirit of man in all its peculiarities and adaptations; with man's impulses and aspirings in every variety of his being, and in every stage of his existence. Hence, although the sceptical disposition had been roused too decidedly and too extensively, to allow of compromise with the charlatanry of the Lateran, it yielded to the bright evidence and genial influences of revealed truth, in its simplicity and integrity. There have been within the pale of Rome, through all the stages of her usurpation, men of sincerity and piety, who, trammelled by certain obscure notions of unity and succession, did not feel themselves licensed to renounce her communion, while they bore an honourable and consistent testimony against the errors and excesses, both doctrinal and ceremonial. The administration they saw and felt to be corrupt: the authority they believed to be legitimate. "It is an undoubted fact, though it may appear improbable 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 ceeded in establishing their authority at Milan, till the eleventh century that the popes sucand prevailed on the bishops of that see to procure the archiepiscopal pall 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, according to the most ancient institutions, was free and independent; that the Roman pontiff had no right to judge or dispose of any thing connected with it; and that they could not, without incurring disgrace, subject to a foreign yoke that see which had preserved its freedom during so many ages. "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 superstitions which proved the firmest support of the pontifical power. Among these was Claud, bishop of Turin, who, in the ninth century, distinguished himself, not only by his judicious commentaries on Scripture, but also by his vigorous opposition to the worship of images and pilgrimages to Rome; on which account he, with his followers in Ita This, then, was in Italy the state of things, so far as religious feeling was concerned. Ambition had compelled religion to become its slave and tool. Enthroned on the consciences of men, and wielding, as its weapons, their fears and their fidelities, priestcraft obtained for itself an eminence of power, which it employed for the worst purposes. But there was re-action as well as action. The mind, driven from the consolations of religion to the false refuges of superstition, and discerning the hollowness of its pleas, and the hypocrisy of its pretences, turned in scorn on its oppressors: having detected the secret of their weakness, it sought eagerly, but mistakenly, for the sources of its own strength. When men had been led to confound the real and the false, to recog-ly, have been branded as Arians, by popish hisnise the simple majesty of Divine truth, in the painted harlotry of Rome, it was a rash but natural advance to the conclusion, that neither was deserving of regard, and to the determination of rejecting religion altogether, excepting as a decent and convenient profession. But the ways of Providence, if mysterious, are remedial; and the process which, by leading men from truth to exaggeration, and from the latter to undisguised error, is but preparing the means of purification. It may be possible for the multitude to take up their rest in the practices of superstition, because, though not religion, it is a specious substitute: but in unbelief it is impossible for human feelings to torians, who are ever ready, upon the slightest pretexts, to impute odious opinions to those who have dissented from the dominant church."— pp. 1, 2. We shall not now touch on the various points of inquiry connected with the history of the Vaudois, though they would lead us deep into important illustrations of our present subject. That glorious narrative has, in former Numbers of this Journal, been more than once adverted to; nor should we now pass it by, but for the circumstance that two or three very interesting volumes are lying on our table, and claiming from us a more specific and enlarged exhibition of their contents than could have been given as an appendage to our review of Dr. M'Crie's work. The pontificate of Leo the Tenth was peculiarly favourable to the illumination of the public mind and the consequent progress of the Reformation. The education of that accomplished prince had been "better fitted for a secular potentate than the head of the church:" and, forgetting that darkness was the congenial | element of his sway, he lavished his patronage on literature and the arts. It is every way deplorable to find such a man lending himself to a system of persecution, and labouring to bind in fetters, not merely the limbs and movements, but the intellect and better energies of his fellows. The unrelenting despotism of Hildebrand, the stern domination of Montalto, the fierce ambition of Rovere, have in them nothing of astonishing; they are in the order of things, and whatever of indignation or disgust they may excite, they awaken none of that deep regret which affects us at the contemplation of high character degraded, and golden opportunities flung recklessly away. But that the son of Lorenzo de Medici, the discriminating and munificent benefactor of learned and ingenious men-that Bembo and Sadoleti, men of high talent and elegant literature, the gifted and graceful associates of the pontiff whose name has attached itself, as its distinctive epithet, to an age of genius and learning—that these men should join in the savage chase of soul and body, and cheer the bloodhounds of persecution forward to their prey-to look on such a spectacle as this, blends with our sympathy for the oppressed, and our loathing of the oppressor, a deeper feeling of sorrow for brilliant qualities perverted and debased, for the degradation of an illustrious name, for the insensibility of power to the luxury of doing good. The writings of the Reformers found their way into Italy, notwithstanding the rigorous measures of the spiritual police. "Some of them were translated into the Italian language, and, to elude the vigilance of the inquisitors, were published under disguised or fictitious names, by which means they made their way into Rome, and even into the palace of the Vatican; so that bishops and cardinals sometimes unwittingly read and praised works, which, on discovering their real authors, they were obliged to pronounce 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 Melanchthon were printed at Venice, with this title, par Messer Ippofilo da Terra Negra.* These Common Places being sent to Rome, 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 original edition, discovered the trick, and denounced the book as a Lutheran production from the pen of Melanchthon. It was proposed to punish the poor printer, who probably could not read one word of the book; 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. The works of Zuingle were circulated under the name of Coricius Cogelius; 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 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, will send forth the book as the production of Aretius Felinus, which, indeed, is my name and surname, the former in Greek, and the latter in Latin.""-pp. 34-36. The most beneficial effect produced by these stirrings of the public mind, was the intense desire that seems to have been awakened for a real and intimate acquaintance with the Scriptures;-not that strained and alembicated knowledge which was to be obtained through the medium of a spiritual director, himself probably but imperfectly initiated into the learning of Holy Writ, but that habitual use of it, as a sacred manual, which its importance deserves, and its peculiar character demands. Amid many difficulties, discouragements, and dangers, conscientious men adventured themselves in this matter, and though they were jealously watched and hemmed in by barriers of all kinds, their efforts were not fruitless. Light dawned, the brightness of Divine truth was reflected on the very walls of the Vatican, and good men cherished the hope that Rome itself might shake off the bondage that, through centuries of despotism and delusion, had restrained the free range of inquiry, and pent up the elasticity of sentiment and feeling. War itself, with all its miseries, brought truth and freedom in its train. Among the Germans of Charles the Fifth, and the Swiss mercenaries of Francis the First, were many of the new faith; and these men were neither slow nor scrupulous in expressing their contempt of the jugglery around them, as well as in extolling the privileges they enjoyed at home; the possession of the Scriptures, and the free hearing of the word of God. The coarse humour of the corps de garde vented itself in practical jokes calculated to make a strong impression on the populace. *" Schwartzerd, which was his original name, signifies, in German, as Melanchthon does in "A party of German soldiers, mounted on Greek, and Terra Negra, in Italian, black earth. horses and mules, assembled one day on the The Italian translator of the Common Places is streets of Rome. One of them, named Grunsupposed to have been the celebrated critic, Lu-wald, distinguished by his majestic countenance dovico Castelvetro." and stature, being attired like the pope, and 4, language of the ignorance and corruption of the clergy and Cardinal Morone, then bishop of that see, complained, probably with considerable exaggeration, that "the whole city was turned Lutheran." Florence, under the interested sway of the Medici, was no safe dwelling-place for the partizans of the Reformation; yet, there were not wanting those who welcomed the new light, and among them severa! who sought, in the privations and uncertainties of voluntary exile, liberty to worship, after the dictates of their own consciences, the God of their salvation. wearing a triple crown, was placed on a horse | richly caparisoned. 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 concourse 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, 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, a large cup was put into his hands, from which he drank to the health and safe custody of Clement, in which he was pledged by his attendants. He then administered to his cardinals an oath, in which he joined; engaging that they would yield obedience and faithful allegiance to the emperor, as their lawful and only prince, that they would not disturb the peace of the empire by intrigues, but, as became them, and according to the precepts of Scripture, and the example of Christ and his apostles, would be subject to the civil powers. After a speech, in which he rehearsed the civil, parricidal, and sacrilegious wars excited by the popes, and acknowledged that Providence had raised up the emperor Charles to revenge these crimes, and bridle the rage of wicked priests, the pretended pontiff solemnly promised to transfer, by testament, all his authority and power to Martin Luther, that he might remove all the corruptions which had infected the apostolical see, and completely refit the ship of St. Peter, that it might no longer be the sport of the winds and waves, through the unskilfulness and negligence of its governors, who, entrust- "We beseech and obtest you by the faith ed with the helm, had spent their days and of Christ (though you are sufficiently disposed nights in drinking and debauchery. Then, to this already, and need not our admonitions) raising his voice, he said 'All who agree to to employ every means in your power with the these things, and are willing to see them car-religious emperor, and to leave no stone unried into execution, let them signify this by lifting up their hands;' upon which, the whole band of soldiers, raising their hands, exclaim ed, 'Long live Pope Luther! Long live Pope Luther! All this was performed under the eye of Clement VII."-pp. 60, 61. Bologna, in the sixteenth century, belonged to the States of the Church, but its celebrated university was the resort of the liberal and enlightened. Mollio, one of its professors about the year 1533, advanced, publicly, dangerous propositions concerning the doctrine of justification by faith, and was cited to Rome on a charge of heresy. He made his defence with such skill and dexterity as to procure a conditional acquittal;-his opinions were allowed on the score of truth, but condemned on the ground of inexpediency; and he was commanded to abstain from commenting on the writings of St. Paul. He returned to Bologna, and resumed his instructions so effectively as to provoke his removal from the university. Dr. M'Crie cites, on the authority of Seckendorf, a very remarkable and interesting document, which very strongly illustrates the state of feeling at Bologna. The Elector of Saxony having sent Planitz as his ambassador to Charles the Fifth, then in Italy, for the understood purpose of per suading the Emperor to use his influence with the Pope, in furtherance of the great object of reform, by the instrumentality of a general council; certain Bolognese citizens addressed the envoy in a letter, from which the following paragraphs are extracted: turned, to obtain 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, demanded, expected, and loudly called for by the most pious, learned, and honourable men, in the most illustrious 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 most reasonable and consonant to the constitutions of the apostles and holy fathers, that Christians shall have liberty to examine one another's confessions, since the just live not by the acts of others, but by their own faith, otherwise faith is not faith; nor can that persuasion which is not produced in a divine manner upon the heart be properly called per Ferrara, the principality of the illustrious house of Este, was one of the earliest states that afforded an asylum to the new opinions. Ercole D'Este married, in 1527, Renée, a princess of France, daughter of Lewis XII., an elegant, virtuous, and accomplished woman, who had a decided leaning to the principles of the Reformation. At her court, the celebrated French poet, Clement Marot, when persecuted for his Protestantism in his own country, found a cordial welcome: and Calvin himself, though under a feigned name, resided there for some months. The education of her children was entrusted to men of high literature and enlight-suasion, but rather a violent and forced impulse, ened sentiments. At Modena, also, which was under the government of the same family, evangelical truth made great progress. The Academia del Grillenzone, which included among its members some of the most distin literati of Italy spoke in measured which the simplest and most ignorant must perceive to be utterly unavailing to salvation. But, if the malice 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! instances of this abominable practice occur; and if this is not a mark of the reign of antichrist, what is it, when the law, and grace, and doctrine, and peace, and liberty of Christ are so openly opposed, trampled upon, and rejected?'"'—pp. 82, 83. man reformers, and, in proof of its justness, gave false quotations from a work published by Luther. Curio went up to the friar, after sermon, and producing the book, which he had along with him, read the passages referred to, in the presence of the most respectable part of the audience, who, indignant at the impudent misrepresentations which had been 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 his heretical pravity. As his friends were known to possess great influence, the administrator of the bishopric 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, hav But to enumerate all the Italian cities and states where the principles of the Reformation were gladly received, would be to make the tour of Italy. Towns within the hallowed fence of St. Peter's patrimony, Genoa, Verona, Pisa, Brescia, Capo d'Istria, Rome itself, partook of the contagion; and nothing but the strongest measures, aided by circumstances, could have enabled the enemies of the truth to put out its glorious light. Venice, however, deserves a distinct notice. Its jealous, but in some respects enlightened and liberal oligarchy, uniformly resisted the encroachments of Rome; and the freedom of commerce was favourable to the introduction of heretical books and of heretical teachers. There remains on record, a letter addressed to Luther, on behalf of "the brethren of the church of Venice, Vicenza, and Tre-ing, in his youth, lived in the neighbourhood of viso," in the year 1542. the jail, devised a method of escape, which, The Milanese territory contained adherents through the favour of Providence, succeeded. to the reformed faith; and the adventures of an His feet being swoln by confinement, he prevailindividual who contributed greatly to the spreaded on his keeper to allow him to have his right of the gospel here, are striking enough to induce a brief notice in this place. Selio Secundo Curione, or Curio, born at Turin, 1503, the youngest of twenty-three children, was of noble birth, and highly gifted, both naturally and by education. His father having bequeathed him a MS. Bible, remarkable for its calligraphy, he was, at an early age, led to the diligent study of its contents. He was not quite twenty, when the writings of the German Reformers were put into his hands, by certain Augustinian monks, and their perusal kindled within him the desire of a personal intercourse with their authors. He set out, accompanied by two friends, who were subsequently eminent ninisters of the Reformed church; but their want of caution exposed them to the usual consequences of zealous honesty amid spies and foes. They were cast into prison; but Curio was released and taken into favour by the Cardinal-bishop of Ivrea, who placed him in a religious house which was under his own administration. The youth, however, was not less active than before in disseminating his principles; and having abstracted the contents from the convent reliquary, he substituted a copy of the Bible, with this inscription:-"This is the ark of the covenant, which contains the genuine oracles of God, and the true relics of the saints." He was, of course, compelled to flee, and reached the Milanese in safety. After vi siting Rome, and other cities, he returned to Milan, where he married, and engaged in the business of teaching. The ravages of war compelled him to remove, and, after several changes of abode, he took up his residence in the Savoyard territory. Having gone one day, in company with some of his patrons, to hear a Dominican monk from Turin, the preacher, in the course of his sermon, drew a frightful picture of the Ger 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. He then requested permission to have his other foot relieved, upon which the artificial foot was introduced by him into the stocks, and his left foot was set free. Being thus at liberty, he, during the night, opened the door of his apartment, felt his way through the passages in the dark, dropt from a window, and, having scaled the walls of his prison with some difficulty, made his escape into Italy."pp. 103 5. It is a strong evidence of the prevailing disposition, at this time, to act in defiance of Rome, that Curio was, after a temporary retirement, appointed a professor in the university of Pavia, where, to defend him from the emissaries of the Inquisition, his pupils were accustomed to attend him to and from his lecture room, by way of guard. A threat of excommunication constrained the senate to order his departure, and he removed to Venice. He ultimately left Italy, and died in 1569, professor of Roman Eloquence in the University of Basle. The unfortunate Sacramentarian controversy, which originated the schism between the churches of Germany and Switzerland, found its way into Italy, where it was warmly agitated. Bucer employed his utmost efforts to allay it, and his letters bear testimony to the Christian spirit and sound sense of that excellent man; but Luther, on whose decision the whole matter rested, for peace or for confusion, manifested a different temper. He wrote in terms of bitter animosity against his antagonists, heaped foul epithets on the Swiss reformers, and, to add fuel to the flame, caused |