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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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1 This illustrious man was born in a small town of Old Castile , in 1756 . At the age of ten years he lost botfr his parents , but was kindly taken care of by his mother ' s brother , and by the Head of the Chapter at Calahorra , under whose tuition he acquired a strong religious bias , and at the same time shewed great independence of spirit . He made choice of the ecclesiastical profession , and continued his studies at the University of Saragossa . While still a youth , he evinced a strong spirit of inquiry , and discrimination between truth and the fabrications of the dark ages . He became a candidate for
ecclesiastical preferment at a very early age , and in consequence of his extraordinary learning and . merit , he succeeded , although it was necessary to obtain a dispensation on account of his youth , he being twenty-three , instead of twenty-five—the usual age . He did not aspire to the higher dignities of the church—perhaps he thought himself too open and independent in spirit for
such a station ; but he more than once carried off a number of academic honours . His literary pursuits were of a very varied character , and he came forward at a favourable period for using bis superior knowledge to enlighten bis country—the order of the Jesuits having been just abolished . . When elevated by his bishop to the office of Vicar General of Calahorra , he proved himself truly a father of the church . On several occasions he rendered signal service to the people of his district , and by his boldness and
independence , procured a considerable dimunition of their burthens . It was at this period of his life ( about the year 1784 ) , that M . Llorente ' s labours and studies took a direction which they preserved ever after . He adopted more comprehensive views on the subject of religion , and abandoned the narrow limits of that philosophy in which the Spanish universities had been
confined during three centuries . He was , however , notwithstanding , appointed Commissary of the Inquisition at LogroSo , a town rendered famous by more than one auto-da-fe . It is curious enough , that while the liberality of his creed presented no obstacle to his appointment to this office , the strictest scrutiny was held , to ascertain whether he numbered among his ancestors a Moor , a Jew , or , worse still , a Heretic . It is hardly necessary to say that the terrible powers of the Inquisition , which , though custom had abated their rigour , might at any moment have been revived , lay dormant during the commissariat of M . Llorente . Some years after , in 1793 , he formed an intimacy with Don Manuel Abadla Sierra ,
the Grand Inquisitor of Spam , who was , strange to say , a man of the most liberal and enlightened benevolence . He conceived the project of changing entirely the system of church government in Spain , and communicated to M . Llorente his bold design for reforming the Inquisition . He went so far as to solicit a plan of such a reform , with which he was so much pleased , that he next induced Llorente to commence a complete history of the Holy Office and an examination of the changes proposed .
It would appear that this scheme of the Grand Inquisitor became known , for she . was hastily deprived of his office without any of the usual formalities . The most ingenious manoeuvres were resorted to , to get possession of the work which Llorente had begun ; and he found himself implicated in his friend ' s disgrace , especially as he had rendered himself obnoxious by the independence with which he was known to have avowed his opinions on the state of the church of Spain . The Inquisition , as if determined to have its revenge for the daring attempt to reform it , recommenced its attack upon the Jansenist party , as no heretics appeared at hand ; and M . Llorente was
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MEMOIR OF M . J . A . LLORENTE .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1828, page 164, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2558/page/20/
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