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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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loved , to abandon a faith which he had newly embraced under an imperative sense of duty . The difficulties and the dangers of his situation presented them selves at once to his mind in their utmost force . He clearly saw that whilst he remained in the bosom of
his family he should be exposed to strong temptations to give up a profession which he observed to be to them the occasion of so much grief . There appeared to him to be but one course which he could safely follow , — it was to sever himself from the
objects of his affection , and go into voluntary exile . When he had resolved upon this step he communicated his intention to a few confidential friends , who had joined the Reformed party , and obtained their promise to accompany him ; but when the time fixed
for their departure arrived , their courage failed , and they broke their engagement . Nothing dau ' ited by this disappointment , he collected some property which he had inherited from his mother , and quitted Naples in
March , 1551 . In order the better to conceal his real purpose , he went , in the first place , as he had been accustomed to do , into Germany , and joined the Emperor ' Court at Augsburg , where he remained till the middle of
May . He then took his leave , under pretence of going into the Low Countries , but pursued the route of Geneva , where he arrived in safety on the 8 th of June following * .
When the intelligence reached Naples that he had taken up his residence among the Reformers in Switzerland , his family were filled with astonishment and dismay . His father instantly dispatched to Geneva a near relation
attend the emperor's court . See " The Italian Convert , " &c , pp . 28—30 , it is observable that the Author , in the above passage , distinguishes between the Arians * ud Anabaptists , and the Wuldcsians , as he calls them , or the disciples of Val-Jjesso . He seems to exonerate the latter 0111 ^ he Arian heresy , and confines himself to
the reprobation of their temporisln policy in endeavouring to keep upon S ° od terms with their Popish neighbours , and with the church by occasional con-Jorrnity : that is , by countenancing , by tueir presence , the faith and worship of * cnurch which in their conscience they Sieved to be false and idolatrous .
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to represent to him the calamitous consequences to which his conduct was likely to lead , and the affliction in which he had plunged his wife and children . But though the young
Marquis received his friend with great kindness , none of the arguments he advanced , powerfully as they might have affected his feelings , could in the least shake his determination to
remain where he was . Shortly after the return of this messenger , a royal edict was x > ublished , in which Galeazzo was denounced as a traitor , the property which he had inherited from his mother , declared to be confiscated , and himself and his children proclaimed incapable of succeeding to the family honours and
possessions . The extremities to which measures were carried by this severe instrument induced the old Marquis to renew his endeavours to bring him back to the
Roman Church . Having resolved upon a journey into Germany to petition in person for the revocation , or for some modification of the sentence , he wrote to his son to meet him at
Verona , transmitting to him at the same time a safe conduct to relieve him from all apprehensions of being forcibly detained in the territories of Venice . Galeazzo augured no good from . this interview . He determined ,
however , to comply with his father ' s injunctions , and to proceed to the place he had appointed . The conference which followed ended by leaving the parties just ; where they were at its commencement . Galeazzo would
immediately have taken bis departure , but liis father prevailed upon him to remain at Verona till he should return . When he came back be informed him that lie bad succeeded with the
Emperor so far as to obtain the remission of that part of the sentence which related to Galeazzo ' s children , and the appointment of his eldest son to be the heir to the family titles and estates .
Galeazzo now returned to Geneva , but he had scarcely reached the city when a fresh attempt was made to prevail upon him to quit Switzerland and the Reformers . The recent
elevation to the Papal throne of Paul the Fourth , who was his mother ' s brother , having opened to the family new prospects of aggrandisement and political influence , his father thought that a
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Italian Reformation . 323
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1822, page 323, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2513/page/3/
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