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    ff #£ y by the Emperor Josephs illness . The French Revolution was industriously saiifcd upon for the purpose of alarming the Austrian Ctourt with th&bfefief , that its encouragement of new ideas and" plans had tended to product tfevolt and anarchy . The Church made good uSS of the opportunity to ally itself against all innovation , and to crush reform wherever it

    could , as the creature of Jacobinism . Leopold , called to the imperial throne , abandoned Ricci and his plans , and died in 1792 5 and the Bishop , persecuted and degraded , relinquished his see in 1791 . His , system wa £ entirely overthrown ; for the Austrian Government , though it had maintained Joseph's reforms , abandoned those in Tuscany , glad to purchase support at any price . The Pope taking courage , at last , in 1794 , ventured to launch the bull Auctorem Jidei against the acts of the Synod of Pistoia , though even to this period his pretensions were so little relished , that in most < 3 atholie

    countries , —in Spain , Germany , France , Naples , Turin , Venice , Milan , —his Bull was suppressed by authority , and even at Rome was openly libelled and condemned . We are ashamed to add , that the English leagued themselves with all the bigotry and ruffian fanaticism of the most bigoted part of the Italian population , to overthrow , persecute and destroy all resistance to what was now called legitimate authority ; and though the presence of the French at times revived a spirit of resistance to the Papal encroachments ,

    there has since been no government in Italy but what has thought it its interest to maintain its dominion by encouraging every thing that tends to depress and destroy a popular spirit . Ricci himself ultimately submitted somewhat tamely to the Bull , and was reconciled to Pius VII . on his return from crowning Napoleon , soon after which he died in the performance of the most ascetic observances of his church , blended with great practical piety attd active benevolence .

    Some curious details are preserved in these volumes of the efforts made to persecute and destroy the Leopoldists , as they were called , i . e . all those who wers implicated in the reforms conducted under the Government of that Prince , and who were also , after the irruption of the French , confounded in the general name and opprobrium of Jacobins . The most wild and savage

    of these efforts took place in 1799 , by the insurrection of the inhabitants of Arrezzo , who formally chose the Madonna generalissimo of their bands , and set her image on their banners . Ornamented with this decoration , it ap * pears that even the English Minister , Windham , and another person of ambiguous fame who accompanied him , did not scruple to appear at the head of these fanatics at their entrance into Fldrence . One of the first

    consequences was the imprisonment of the Bishop . The most savage measures were pursued against all contemners of legitimate authority , whether temporal or ecclesiastical , and a formal theological defence of these atrocities was put forth , as by authority , by a man who had held and continued to hold a distinguished literary situation . The author of this precious document investigates several questions which he supposes raised on the subject of the propriety of the course pursued . He first proceeds to inquire " whether those who denounce or arreBt those whom he

    calls Jacobins , transgress the divine commandment of pardoning offences , renouncing vengeance , and loving one's neighbour , " which he answers by shewing , that their principles take them out of social relations and deliver them over to the people to bte condemned , executed , knd deflated infamous . Princes and magtewates , he argues , a * e the goda of the people , the vicars and lieutenants of the Supreme Bring . He compares the Jacobins to the unbelieving Jews anti the rebel angels , and « moteft the aMhotity olMSu

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    £ 10 Reviewt—Life of Scipio de Rieci .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1827, page 510, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1798/page/38/