thize with them. In his estimation, many of them were no better than fanatics, whom he was quite as much disposed to pity or blame as to praise. On his account, Mr. Scott makes some very proper strictures. With the following passage we have been ceedingly pleased.

6

ex

"But the sentence in Dr. Robertson's account of him, which would give me much more pain than any other, were there reason to believe it correct, is the following: Towards the close of Luther's life, though without any perceptible diminution of his zeal or abilities, the infirmities of his temper increased upon him, so that he grew daily more peevish, more irascible, and more impatient of contradiction.' This is the very imputation which his worst enemies labour to fix upon him. Never,' says Maim bourg, was this heresiarch more violent or more extravagant in his hostility to the church and the Pope, than imme. diately before his death and for this he assigns, as a reason, his dread of the council of Trent, and other causes equally imaginary. But Seckendorf, on the contrary, affirms that his writings against the papacy were no more severe than they had been almost ever since the diet of Worms; that he was never more inclined to peace; for the sake of which he was willing to leave the Pope and the Bishops in possession of all their wealth and dignity; and to tolerate all ceremonies which could be considered as indifferent, -provided only pure doctrine were allowed, and persecution abandoned. Bossuet would extend the same injurious representation to his conduct to the sacramentarians, and even to his own immediate friends; and towards the former we must acknowledge that he at all times acted with very unwarrantable harshness. But, with respect to the charge of increasing irascibility of temper as the close of life approached, we may first remark, that certainly no traces of it are to be discovered amid all the employments which filled up several of his last weeks. In his undertaking the business which carried him to Eisleben, in his journey thither in the depth of winter, in his preaching by the way, in the manner in which he passed his time there, in his

sermons, his labours, his intercourse with his friends, and his devotions, we find nothing but what was peaceable, benevolent, and pious. Nor do I recollect any thing particularly of a contrary kind subsequent to his return to Wittemberg, in the summer of 1545. But it is in his previous sudden departure from that place,

with the causes and the state of feeling which led to it, that, I conceive, we trace representation, too hastily, as I trust, what has given occasion to the painful adopted by Dr. Robertson. We have before stated, however, that there is reacloud, shedding a gloomy influence over son to believe that to have been a passing the reformer's mind, (such as the firmest and best regulated spirit may not always escape,) rather than any thing permanent; and surely, under all the circumstances of the case, we may admit that it calls more for our condolence than for severe censure. Luther was worne down with care and labour, with discase and pain. External events also were, at that juncture, peculiarly harassing; and all this acting upon a temper naturally irritable, and, it is admitted, not so much softened and subdued as it ought to have been, for a time overcame him. He was peevish and impatient to those about him, and he could no longer bear the scene of his vexations. The course, however, which he took, was the proper one; he retired, he relaxed himself, he visited his pious friends, Amsdorf, George of Anhalt, and others, and no doubt he communed with his God. The elector wrote affectionately to him; the university solicited his return. He complied, and we hear no more of his fretfulness and desertion of his duties. I trust this is the true account of the case which, while, from the censures entailed upon Luther, it may admonish us, how much it behoves even the greatest and best of men never to relax their watchfulness, but to pray to the last,

Hold thou me up and I shall be safe,' may teach us also candour and forbearance in our judgments, and may especially guard us against confounding what is transient in the feelings of any one, with what is habitual and a part of his character."-pp. 495-498.

We should be glad to go on with extracts from, and observations on this valuable work, but our limits forbid. We thought it more desirable to give our readers a few specimens, than any connected view of the work, which would have reduced our article to a mere dry epitome. We are sure all who feel interested in history of the Church of Christ, will read and examine it for themselves. Mr. Scott has conferred great obligations on us by what he has already done, and we trust he will have sufficient encouragement to proceed with what

the

remains of his undertaking. The period which he is next to approach, is one which will require all his discrimination, and all his candour; but we have no doubt he will treat it in a manner no less worthy of the subject than creditable to himself. With one quotation more, on the spirituality of Luther's character, we

shall take our leave.

"In short, the great charm of Luther's character, and that from which the other

excellencies admired in him even by those for whom this may have less attractions,

derived their origin or their support, was his spirituality. His whole heart and soul were in religion; not in the barren notion of its truths, or in its mere exterior observances, but in the communion with in the love of God and of man, in the righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost,' in the penitence, the faith, the devotion, the deadness to the world, the heavenly mindedness, in which it consists; and in all the practical fruits of righteousness and usefulness which it brings forth. The reader will not forget his correspondence at the period, especially, of the Diet of Augsburg, or the account of those retired devotions, by which his Christian heroism was sustained, given by Vitus Theodorus, his companion at Coburg. He will recal to mind, perhaps, the manner in which he has heard Luther speak of his daily exercising him

God by which it is produced and cherished;

self on the common truths of the cate

chism; and he will not be displeased to receive the further testimony, borne to his devotional spirit, by Melancthon in the oration before referred to, which he pronounced at his funeral. Often have I myself gone to him unawares, and found him dissolved in tears and prayers for the whole church of Christ. He commonly devoted a portion of every day to the solemn recitation of some of the Psalms of David, with which he mingled his own supplications, with sighs and tears; and often has he declared, that he could not help feeling a sort of indignation at those who, through sloth, or under the pretence of other occupations, hurried over devotional exercises, or contented themselves with mere ejaculatory prayer. On

this account, he said, divine wisdom has prescribed some formularies to us, that our minds may be inflamed with devotional feeling in reading them,—to which, in his opinion, reading aloud very much conduced. When therefore a variety of great and important deliberations respecting public dangers have been pending, we have witnessed his prodigious vigour of

mind, his fearless and unshaken courage. Faith was his sheet anchor, and, by the help of God, he was resolved never to be driven from it.'"-pp. 502, 503.

To the work of Dr. M'Crie we turn with very great interest. The success of the Reformation is certainly a more grateful subject than its failure; but from the latter, we may derive much instruction, and be furnished with much cause for gratitude, as well as from the former. Most reading persons are aware, that in Italy and Spain, as well as in the rest of Europe, the principles of the Lutheran Reformation were partially known. But little comparatively is known of the extent to which those principles were propagated, or of the causes of their suppression in those countries. Dr. M'Crie has, with his characteristic diligence and discrimination, supplied us with a large portion of information on these points, which must have procured with great diffi

been

culty.

He first sketches the state of religion in Italy before the Reformation; then notices the introduction of the reformed opinions into Italy; their progress through its several states and cities; details a number of miscellaneous facts respecting the advancement and influence of these principles, and finally traces the causes and effects of their suppression.

It is difficult to give such extracts, from a work of this nature, as shall enable the reader to form some idea of its nature. After noticing the appearance of various works in Oriental and Greek

literature, we have the following account of the early Italian edi tions of the Scriptures.

"The works which have been described were confined to the learned; and however useful they were, it is not probable that any impression would have been made on the public mind in Italy, unless the

been celebrated.

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 Latin, 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. 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 vilified by being translated into the vulgar tongue.' But in spite of this prejudice, translations of the Bible into Italian were attempted, as soon as the language had been purified and moulded by Dante, Petrarch, and others; and they came from the press within a few years after the invention 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 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 supposed, in a rude and barbarous manner. An Italian version of the Scriptures by Nicolo Malermi, or Malerbi, a Camaldolese monk, was printed at Venice so early as the year 1471, and is said to have gone through no fewer than nine editions in the fifteenth, and twelve editions in the sixteenth century; a proof that the Italians were at least addicted to reading in their native 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. Malerini's translation, like those on which it was founded, was made from the Vulgate, and written in a style unsuited to the sixteenth century. A version less barbarous in its diction, and more faithful to the original, had long been desired by the learned. This was at last undertaken by Antonio Brucioli, a native of Florence, who added a knowledge of Hebrew to those classical attaiments for which the inhabitants of his native city had long

After distinguishing himself among the academicians of his native city, he was driven into exile in consequence of an unsuccessful resistance to the usurpations of the Medici, in which he had taken part, and travelled in France and Germany, from which he returned with his mind improved, and an ardent desire to enlighten his native country. But in the year 1529, he was forced a second time from Florence, and narrowly escaped with his life, having incurred the suspicion of heresy. At Venice, where he found an asylum, and where two persons of the same name, his brothers or kinsmen, established a printing office, he published his translation of the Scriptures, and commentaries on them. He was the author of several other works, philosophical and religious, among which was a collection of hymns. His version of the New Testament made its appearance in the year 1530, and was followed at intervals, during two years, by translations of the rest of the sacred books. It is not evident, that Brucioli ever förmally left the communion of the church of Rome, but his prefaces to the different parts of his version, in which he extols the utility of such works, and vindicates the common right of Christians to read the word of God in their own language, are written in the style and spirit of a Protestant. His Bible was ranked among prohibited books of the first class in the index of the council of Trent, and all bis works, published or to be published,' were formally interdicted, But before this prohibitory sentence was issued or could be carried into execution, his translation was eagerly read, and contributed greatly to increase religious knowledge in Italy. Although Italy be the fort and power of the pope's doctrine and empire, since his authority is there most strongly confirmed in the minds of the people, (say the divines of Geneva, in an answer to the cardinal bishop of Lucca,) yet the light could not be prevented from penetrating it in different quarters, and making the scales to fall from the eyes of many blind and chained captives, by means of an Italian translation of the Scriptures by Brucioli, which appeared at that time, and which they did not then judge it advisable to suppress, as they have since attempted to do.' Such was the avidity of the public for the Scriptures at this period, and the disposition of the learned to gratify it, that other Italian versions were called for and produced in the course of a few years after the appearance of Brucioli's. The Bible published by Sante Marmocchini, was rather a revisal of Brucioli's than a new version. Fra Zaccario followed Marmocchini in his translation of the New Testament. Massimo Teofilo, in his version of the New Testament, professes it as his object to

preserve the purity of the Italian language, which had been neglected by other translators; but both he, and Filippo Rustici, who published a version of the Bible, defend, in their prefatory and subjoined discourses, the translation of the Scriptures into vulgar languages, and write in every respect like Protestants.pp. 51-56.

Nothing is more interesting in the history of reformations than the notices of individuals who contribute to promote them. The following account of a man who was useful in the Milanese, will be gratifying to our readers.

"This part of our history is intimately connected with some interesting facts in the eventful and chequered life of an individual, who had great influence in promoting 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 of 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 twentieth year, he had the writings of the reformers put into his hands, by means of Jerom Niger Fossianeus, and other individuals in the Augustinian monastery of Turin. This inflamed him with a desire of visiting Germany, to which he set out, accompanied by James Cornello and Francis Guarino, who afterwards became distinguished ministers of the reformed church. Having on their journey incautiously entered into dispute on the controverted heads of religion, they were informed against and seized by the spies of the cardinal-bishop of Ivrée, and thrown into separate prisons. Curio was released through the intercession of bis relations, and the cardinal, pleased with his talents, endeavoured to attach him to himself by offers of money to assist him in his studies, and by placing him in the neighbouring priory of St. Benigno, the administration of which had been conferred on him by Leo. X. In this situation, Curio exerted himself in enlightening the monks, and freeing their minds from the influence of superstition. Having one day opened a box, placed on the altar of the chapel, he abstracted the relics from it, and substituted a copy of the Bible, with the following inscription, This is the ark of the covenant, which contains the genuine oracles of God, and the true relics of the saints.' This was

discovered when the box was opened on a solemn festival, and the suspicion having fallen on Curio, he fled and made his escape to Milan. This happened about the year 1530. After visiting Rome and several cities in Italy, he returned to the Milanese, where, having married a lady belonging to the illustrious family of the Isacii, he devoted himself to the teaching of polite letters, by which he gained great reputation 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 resided for some years in great tranquillity at Casale.

Curio

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. Upon this he retired to a village in the territories of the Duke of Savoy, where he was employed in teaching the children of the neighbouring gentlemen. 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 German reformers, and, in proof of its justness, gave false quotations from a work published by Luther. 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. his friends were known to possess great influence, the administrator of the bishopric of Turin went to Rome to secure his coademnation, 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 providence, succeeded. His feet being swoln by confinement, 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,

As

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. As he extracted the fictitious limb from the stocks, and took 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 published an account of the whole affair in a dialogue, interspersed with humorous and satirical strictures upon some of the popish errors. After remaining some months with his family at Sale, a remote 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 came from other seminaries to attend his lectures, that he was protected for 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 that town with excommunication, he was forced to retire to Venice, from which he removed to Ferrara. The labours of Curio were blessed for opening the eyes of many to the corruptions and errors of the Roman church, during his journeys through Italy, and the temporary residence which he made in several parts of it, especially in the Milanese."-pp. 101-106.

Of the horrible measures resorted to by the Romish Church to extinguish the light of religion and knowledge, the following will make its own impression on the reader's mind.

"In spite of the keen search made for them, many of the 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 administered 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 N. S. No. 34.

making their escape were committed to prison. Numbers fled to the province of Istria; and after concealing themselves there for some timè, a party of them, amounting to twenty-three, purchased 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. But now the senate 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 republic. 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 Venice. But if the autos da fé of the queen of the Adriatic were less barbarous than those of Spain, the solitude and silence with which they were accompanied was 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 gondolas, 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 martyrdom at Venice, was Julio Guirlauda, a native of the Trevisano, When set on the plank, he cheerfully bade the captain farewell, and sank calling on the Lord Jesus. Antonio Ricetto, of Vicenza, was held in such respect, that, subsequently to his conviction, the sena tors offered to restore him not only to his liberty, but also to the whole of his property, part of which had been sold, and the rest promised away, provided he would conform to the church of Rome. The firm. ness of Ricetto was put to a still severer test: his son, a boy of twelve year of age, having been admitted into the prison, 4 B