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Valdez had often been thrown into the way of the Reformers in that country ; and when he retired to Naples , he took with him the writings of Luther , Bucer , add the Anabaptists . The celebrated Peter Vermili , usually known by the name of Peter Martyr , was converted to the Protestant faith by the exertions of Valdez ; and by the united efforts of these two celebrated men several persons of rank and distinction in the South of Italy were induced to
embrace the same sentiments , and among the rest Bernard Ochino , general of the order of Capuchins . " True it is , ' * says Coelius Secundus Curio , the subject of our next memoir , ** Valdez did not much follow the court after that Christ had revealed himself to him ; but abode in Italy , spending the greatest part of his life at Naples , where with the sweetness of his doctrine , and the sanctity of his life , he gained many disciples unto Christ ; and especially among the gentlemen and cavaliers , and some ladies , he was very
eminent and praiseworthy in all kinds of praise . It seemed that he was appointed by God for a teacher and pastor of noble and illustrious personages : and not this alone , but he gave light to some of the most famous preachers of Italy , which I very well know , having conversed with them themselves . " The chronology of Valdez ' s life is involved in a considerable degree of obscurity . Some accounts represent his death as having occurred
about the year 1540 , hut Sandius informs us that he flourished A . D . 1542 ; and if Walton's account of him he correct , he must have been living as late as 1555 , the year in which Charles V . resigned the crown to his son Philip , and withdrew from the cares and fatigues of public life . Valdez was the author of " Dialogues between Charon and Mercury , " after the' manner of Lucian ; and of " Considerations on a Religious Life . " An English
translation of the latter work bv Nicholas Ferrar anneared at Oxford in 1638 : lation of the latter work by Nicholas Ferrar appeared at Oxford in 1638 ; and the learned Dr . Jackson , by whom it was edited , describes it as " containing many learned discourses of experimental and practical divinity , well expressed , and elegantly illustrated : and yet , " he adds , ' * there be some few expressions and similitudes in it , at which not only the weak reader
may stumble , and the envious quarrel ; but also the wise and charitable reader may justly blame . " Dr . J . afterwards alludes to " suspicious places , and some manifest errors , " by which he probably means passages which savour of heterodoxy . Beza speaks of this work in very bitter terms , and represents it as the source from which Ochino derived his heretical opinions ; and certain it is that Ochino received his first bias in favour of a liberal
scheme of theology from Valdez , who openly impugned the doctrine of the Trinity and taught that the Father alone is the Most High God , and that our Lord Jesus Christ is his son . Besides the works above mentioned , Valdez wrote on the Psalms , and on the Gospels of Matthew and John ; and published Commentaries on the Epistle of Paul to the Romans , and the first Epistle to the Corinthians , the latter of which , being written in Spanish , was prohibited in the Spanish Expurgatory Indexes . Valdez appears never to have formally seceded from the Church of Rome , and to have laboured principally with a view to the instruction of those who belonged to that
communion . His conduct in this respect was hot unlike that of certain divines of the Church of England in the present day , who , though convinced of the unscriptural nature of the doctrines taught in some of its creeds and articles , and anxious to see the Church •* well rid of them , " nevertheless outwardly continue their conformity . We should not be too severe , however , in condemning the irresolute conduct of these men . It was not before many a hard struggle that the venerable Theophilus Lindsey could prevail upon himself to quit the communion of a church in which be had been educated , and
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366 Biographical Notices of Eminent Continental Unitarians .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1831, page 366, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2598/page/6/
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