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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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324 Italian Reformation
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favourable opportunity presented itself to weaken or destroy his attachment to his Protestant principles . Under this impression , he invited him to a friendly conference at Mantua . Observing , however , as he had before
experienced , that his son was still inflexible on this point , he endeavoured to shape for him a middle course , and to persuade him to remove his residence to some place within the Venetian territories , where he might be joined by his domestic circle ; and , as an additional inducement , he informed
him , that he had obtained from the Pope a dispensation securing to him full liberty of conscience in the maintainance of his belief . To this proposal , apparently so fair and reasonable , and so powerfully recommended by the prospect of enjoying the society
of his wife and children , he felt at first disposed to accede . But apprehending-, on reflection , that by acting upon it he should place himself in a situation of danger , in which he would be exposed to temptations to apostatize from his adopted religion , he finally resolved to decline it .
The failure of these repeated attempts , which were , no doubt , prompted principally by the affection of his relations , did not wholly discourage
them , or leave them without some hope of ultimate success . It was now determined to try another course , and that his wife should , by a personal interview , endeavour to effect what
his father haa been unable to accomplish . At her solicitation he consented to meet her at a town on the Dalmatian coast , to which she jould easily cross over from his father ' s estates at Vico . After he had readied his
destination , some circumstances prevented the Marchioness from undertaking the voyage , and she sent her two sons to account for her absence . Galeazzo immediately returned to Geneva , where however he had scarcely arrived , when he received a second request to repair to the same place , accompanied by
assurances from his wife that nothing should prevent her meeting him . He was the more disposed to assent to this proposal , by the hope that he might be able to prevail with the Marchioness , if not to change her religion , at least to consent to remove with her children to Switzerland . Some obstacles having delayed her voyage .
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after he had arrived in Daimatva , ^ took the resolution to pass over , at all hazards , into Italy , and meet her at his father ' s mansion . Here a most
affecting interview followed . Hig father , his wife and his children urged every topic which affection could suggest or enforce , to persuade him to remain amongst them ; whilst he , on the other hand , with equal earnestness and feeling , laboured to prevail
upon his wife to become his companion in his self-banishment . But on both sides religious considerations interposed an insurmountable barrier against either proposal . Galeazzo could not sacrifice his principles to
his affections ; and the Marchioness , preparatory to the interview , had been effectually steeled against every sug * gestion of conjugal love by the arguments of her confessor , who had persuaded her to consider her eternal
salvation as depending on her refusal to become the companion of her husband among the enemies of her faith . All solicitations and remonstrances appearing thus to be vain , and no further prospect of accommodation remaining , he bade the man affectionate and final farewell , and quitted his native land for ever .
After the lapse of some years , bis want of domestic comforts suggested to Caraccioli the thought of contracting a second marriage . It seemed to him that the adherence of his wife to a religion which he deemed false and idolatrous , after repeated endeavours to withdraw her from it , and her
peremptory refusal to live with bim where alone he could conscientiously reside , had , in effect , annulled their marriage contract . Upon this difficult and delicate subject he applied to his friend Calvin for his opinion and counsel . Though Calvin did not object to his marrying upon the ground
of the illegality of such a measure , yet he endeavoured to dissuade bim from it by considerations of prudence and policy ; representing to him that lie might thereby occasion some scandal , and give some offence to the church . As , however , these objections did not satisfv Caraccioli , Calvin
recommended him to submit the question to the consideration of the Swiss ministers . This lie accordingly did , and received from them an unanimous derision in his favour . On the grow
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1822, page 324, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2513/page/4/
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