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ter dated the 15 th December , 1558 , and the writer asserts , upon information which he had been at considerable pains to collect , that , antecedently to that time , nearly wei ght hundred
persons , tainted with this contagious malady , ' had fled from Italy on account of their religious opinions ; among whom / ' he writes , " are to be reckoned some men of distinguished
learning and sagacity . " He next complains that those who yet remained in the country pursued the same measures as their predecessors , in promulgating their sentiments , bv their discourses and the distribution of books . " These men , " he observes ,
_ _ __ • • . r + " sadly harass our inquisitors : for they clandestinely penetrate the whole of Italy , sometimes in person , and sometimes by their emissaries , who disperse their books and sermons , and infect more in one day than we are
able , with all our inquisitions and pains , to cure in a year . " The zealous bishop , if such he were , then recommends that , on account of their proved inefficacy , they should thenceforth abstain from the cruel proceedings of the Inquisition , by which , he states ,
that within a period of forty years , or since the beginning of the Reformation , more than one hundred thousand persons had been put to death , without effecting any thing towards healing the disorder \ vhich they were designed to extirpate . He advises that a new
expedient should be tried , in order , if possible , to prevent the whole country irom being contaminated . He proposes that the Pope should interdict all intercourse whatever between Italy and Germany , so that no person from
one country should be allowed to visit the other ; " in order / ' he writes , L L \ tnat our Catholics may not know what our enemies say , or , if they should j ) e made acquainted with it , that they should not at once adopt their opinions
. As , however , obvious obstacles suggested themselves , which would render the execution of this plan impracticable , he expresses himself obijged to conclude that it was extremely ( i * toeult , if not wholly impossible , to
Preserve Italy . He reproves the Venetians for crippling the powers of I . iuisition in their states ; com-Pituiis of Poland because it favoured ^ tneranisrn ; blames the Pope be-4 use he would not acknowledge Fer-
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dinand Emperor , and expresses his wish that his Holiness would not further persecute the Lrtitherarts with his thunders , but would extend to them the same toleration as he granted to the Greeks , and by this means promote the peace and augment the
treasures of the Church . Bock , who has given the preceding account of this singular epistle , justly observes , that it wears more of the appearance of a piece of satire , than of grave advice . It is , indeed , by some / and not without
probability , attributed to Verg-erius , who was one of the earliest of the agents sent by the Pope into Germany to oppose the proceedings of Luther , but who afterwards gave up his bishopric , and joined the Reformers . *
Although the states of Venice contained so great a number of persons who had become converts to the doctrines of the Reformation , it does not appear that here , any more than in Naples , separate societies had been formed for religious worship .- ^ The
vigilance of the agents of the Inquisition , notwithstanding the restraints which were imposed upon their proceedings by the Venetian Senate , rendered it , no doubt , impossible for the Reformers to take so decisive and public a step . The society which is stated
to have met at Vincenza , and to which the origin of Socinianism is commonly ascribed , is probably not to be considered an exception to this remark . Mosheim , indeed , and with him some
other writers , doubt whether tUis much-famed society had any real existence ; but the reasons they assign for their scepticism ar ^ in the extreme weak and inconclusive . J Very little is known of the constitution of this
association . From the title of college , which is so generally applied to it , the presumption is , that it was founded merely for conversation , or , for the
* Bock , ut supra , II . pp . 399 , et seqq . , Gerdes , Lib . cit . p . 9 . f Alterius , in the letter to Luther , above referred to , expressly intimates that they had no . separate churches . Mis
words are : —Ubi nullas publice habemus , sed quilibet sibi ipsi est Ecclesia , pro cujusque arbltrio atque liblcline , &c . X The English reader will find these reasons stated and discussed in the Historical Introduction to " * ftee . s ' s Racovian Catechism , pp . x # i . Sic . Note .
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The Nonconformist . No . XXIII . 89
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1822, page 89, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2509/page/25/
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