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deny that he met with other Unitarians at Venice in 1546 . The Sdcini are very slightly noticed . In Dr . M'Crie ' s view , these men had nothing to do with " the Reformation" hut to disturb it ; and to dwell upon their names would excite feelings unpleasant to an admirer of Calvin , who would willingly shut his eyes to that great man's infirmities . To have mentioned Oribaldi , might have rendered it necessary to say that he died of the plague just in time to escape dying ( thanks to the mercy of the Calvinists ) by the
hand of the executioner , a fate which could not be escaped by the more unfortunate Gentili , who was put to death among the Lutherans at Bern . We know that Dr . M'Crie is really an enemy to cruelty and intolerance , but we cannot help remarking that his dislike of any doctrines but his own has led him to approve of acts in principle as bad as those just now alluded to , which he wisely passes over in silence . Speaking of Alciati and Blandrata , ( who visited the Grisons a second time in 1579 , and were ordered to depart immediately , ) he adds , " After this the country does not appear to have been disturbed with these controversies" about the Trinity . To be sure it
was not disturbed , because if , instead of discussing with your opponents , you drive them away , you are not likely to be disturbed by their controversies . In other times a zealot would say of these good people , on the same principle , " They are carrying their opinions to some place , where perhaps they will find ignorant persons to delude ; therefore , instead of banishing , the effectual remedy is to burn them , that they may not disturb any country with their controversies . " Thus did the holy Inquisition , and in defence of it
urged the very same reason , namely , that where there was the blessing of a holy office , the country was not disturbed by controversies on religion . But it is said , " They were strangers—they fomented discord and endangered the existence of the whole colony , by propagating sentiments equally shocking to the ears of Papist and Protestant . " Were not the Englishmen and Germans who were burned at Rome and elsewhere in Italy foreigners } Did not they foment discord , and endanger not a mere colony , but what was considered the true and universal church of God ? And as for their
propagating sentiments shocking both to Protestants and Catholics , does not a Jew or a Mahometan do the same } Consequently , the kings of Spain were right in driving all the Jews and Mahometans from their dominions , and in burning those who did not depart . Besides , we would wish to understand how far this is to go . Carlostadt was a Protestant 9 we suppose ; but merely because he promulgated tenets shocking both to Papists and Lutherans about the real presence , he too was banished by the kind intervention of Luther , and driven both by him and Zwingle to live miserably by hard daily labour * Xs this within the justification pleaded ?
We do not intend to enter here into the details of Dr . M'Crie ' s History , It contains a good deal of matter which it is not easy to find elsewhere ; and , Whatever we may think of the deficiency and exclusivehess of his p lan , and the partiality of his execution , his hook is certainly , upon the whole , interesting and useful . We might , perhaps , remark , that he appears to us to repose rather too indiscriminate a confidence in his authorities .
Whatever may be thought of their high characters , the reformers , and in general the Protestant Writers , particularly those who were nearer the times of the Reformation , are not to be blindly trusted when they speak of Papists , of the Inquisitidn , of heretics , and so on . We cannot helo , for instance , observing , that Calvin is a suspicious authority for an affirmation on which # rea& Std be laid , that Servetus " Was known to be as zealous of propa-
Untitled Article
108 Review . —M ' Crie * * Italian Reformation .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1828, page 108, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2557/page/36/
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