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No. CCeXLL Character of Louis XIW The in...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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No. Cccxl. Real Heresies Of Priests In T...
much . " ( Hist . Ang . ad an . 1257 *) But he has said quite enough to confirm the discoveries subsequently made by writers of every communion , respecting this extraordinary fact , and to make known in what state Dante
found the religion of Europe . The Inquisitors , in the mean time , were by no means remiss in burning astrologers and persons accused of practising the art of magic , though it sometimes happened that an astrologer triumphed over them . Of two
contemporaries of Dante , one , Cecco d ' Ascoli , was burned by order of the Dominican Iuquisition at Florence ; * and the other , Pietro d ' Abano , who was reputed to be confederate with devils , and openly professed astrology , upon being accused at Paris , retorted
the charge of heresy upon the Dominicans—summoned them to appearconvicted them of heresy by fortyfivespeciaj arguments—procured their expulsion and exclusion from Paris for a considerable period—and was himself pronounced innocent by the
Pope at Rome , f The people , however , believed in the power of this magician . It is mentioned in the chronicles of that age , and still repeated in the villages of Padua , that Pietro had seven spirits at his command ; and that when lie was going
to be hanged he substituted an ass in his place . The fact is , that notwithstanding his canonical absolution , Pietro had admitted in his writings the influence of tUe stars upon human actions , and denied absolutely the existence of demons , t The
philosophy of Epicurus had made some progress among the higher orders in the age of Dante ; Guido Cavalcauti , his intimate friend , was pointed out by the people for his Meditations against the Existence of God . Art . Dante , in Edin . Rev . No . LX . Vol . XXX . pp . 327—329 .
¦* . Gio . Villani , B . x . Ch . xxxix . f * Michael Savonarola , ad an . 1292 , 1299 . Petri Abani conciliator , differentia , 10 . J ; This curious observation was first made by Pico m of Mirandola . See De JRerum Pr < enotationeyS $ cU v *
Tqs - "' ¦* Gleanings*
TQS - " ' ¦* Gleanings *
No. Ccexll Character Of Louis Xiw The In...
No . CCeXLL Character of Louis XIW The intrusion of any popular voice was not likely to be tolerated in the reign of Louis XIV ., a reign which has been so often celebrated as the zenith of warlike and literary splendour , but which has always appeared to me to be the consummation of
whatever is afflicting and degrading in the history of the human race . Talent seemed , in that reign , robbed of the conscious elevation , of the erect and manly port , which is its noblest associate and its surest indication .
The mild purity of Feuelon , * the lofty spirit of Bossuet , the sublime fervour of Corneille , were confounded by the contagion of ignominious and indiscriminate servility . It seemed
as if the ** representative majesty ' of the genius and intellect of man were prostrated before the shrine of a sanguinary and' dissolute tyrant , who practised the corruption of courts without their mildness , and incurred
the guilt of wars without their glory * His highest praise is to have supported the stage-trick of royalty with effect ; and it rs surely difficult to conceive any character more odious and despicable than that of a puny libertine , who , under the frown of a
strumpet or a monk , issues the mandate that is to murder virtuous citizens * to desolate happy and peaceful hamlets , to wring agonizing tears from widows and orphans . Heroism has
a splendour that almost atones for its excesses ; but what shall we think of him , whoj from the luxurious and dastardly security in * which he wallows at Versailles , issues with calm
and cruel apathy his orders to butcher the Protestants of Languedoc , or to lay in ashes the villages of the Palatinate ? On the recollection of such scenes , as a scholar I blush for the prostitution of letters ; as a man I blush for the patience of humanity . Vindicice Gallicce . ( By Sir James Mackintosh . ) 1792 . 4 th Ed . pp . ] 9—21 .
* AndjCambray , worthy of a happier doom , ct The virtuous slaye of Louis and af Rome . **
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 22, 1819, page 108, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_22021819/page/40/
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