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    intolerant wish of extinguishing any " light '* brighter " and stronger than that which they themselves kindled , that the Italian inquirers in a great degree owe their destruction , and the desertion of the cause by those of the higher orders , who had hitherto shewn great indulgence to freedom of inquiry and judgment . , ¦> ;

    The materials for the early religious history of Italy and its sects cannot be otherwise than involved in considerable obscurity ; and the circumstance of its being the centre of the papal power would of course enable the progress of discontent to be more skilfully met and dexterously effaced or covered . But it can hardly be expected d priori that inquiry and speculation would be lqast active where literature was best preserved , or that they would fail to produce the same effects as in other countries where the predisposing

    causes were necessarily less active * In fact , we have no doubt that the historian would find throughout Italy abundant traces of practical resistance to ecclesiastical shackles in the . earliest ages ; and that , both among the more ascetic sects , ( of whom traces are in many other places found , ) and among the philosophic and scholastic inquirers who were always abundant in Italy

    there was plentiful preparation made for the ferment which the age of the German reformation produced , to the ruin not only of its own Italian disciples , but of all those other and perhaps more numerous dissidents from the Komish creed whose plan was different , and who either fell victims to the one side or the other , ( both being equally their foes , ) or were fri ghtened back into the arms of the church .

    The whole life of St . Bernard , the great champion of the church in the age when men ' s wits began to be exceedingly sharp on many dangerous topics , would furnish much curious matter . St . Francis and St , Dominic form with St . Bernard the three most eminent combatants in the support of the church , ( though the first two carried on the war on a very different plan , which the altered oosition of societv rendered necessary *} and the Droceed - which the altered position of society rendered necessary ) and the

    proceed-, ings of all as they affect the Italians , and the state of opinions among them , are rich in materials for the historian . Many curious anecdotes with relation to Italian heresy in early times are to be picked up by any one who is curious on the subject . For instance , Landolfo Seniore * relates that , in the year 1040 , Heribert , Archbishop of Milan , went to visit his archbishopric , which extended then as far as Turin . He was informed that near Turin there were

    heretics whose tenets he wished to know particularly . One of them , of the name of Gerard , was brought before him , and being questioned , said , " that they believed in the Father 9 the Son , and the Holy Spirit , and that they believed and read continually the Scriptures . " But Heribert not being quite satisfied with the answer of Gerard about the Trinity , asked him to answer precisely what he thought of the Father , Son , and Holy Spirit , and of each of them . To which Gerard answered very willingly , " that when he spoke

    of the Father he meant the eternal God who made every thing , and on whom every thing depends ; that when he spoke of the Son , he meant the mind ( or soul , animus ) of a man , beloved by God ; and when he spoke of the Holy Spirit , he meant divinarum scientiarum intellectus , by which all things are governed . " The Archbishop further asked him , " Friend , what dost thou say of our Lord Jesus Christ , the word of the Father , born of the Virgin Mary ? " To this Gerard answered , " Jesus of whom thou speakest is that * Landulpb . Senior , Hist . L . ii . c . xxvii ., apud Muratori Her , Ital . script . Tom . iv . n . 88 .

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    Revkw . —M'Crie ' s Italian Reformatioii , 29

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1828, page 29, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2556/page/29/