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the matter with him , but that if Curio would accompany him to Turin , he would convict Luther of having advanced far more dangerous doctrines than these . Upon this Curio took from his pocket Luther ' s Commentary on the Galatians , and proved the utter falsity of the friar ' s charge , by quoting the Reformer ' s own words . This exposure completely discomfited the preacher ,
and the people would have wreaked their vengeance upon him in a summary way , had he not made a precipitate retreat to Turin . Safely arrived there , he applied to the chief inquisitor to arrest Curio , whose lot it was again to suffer imprisonment on a charge of heresy . The old story of the relics was now revived : and he was reminded of the heretical conversation which had
brought him under the displeasure of the Bishop of Ivrea . AH things , in short , seemed to conspire against him ; and his friends were almost upon the point of giving him up as lost . At this critical conjuncture he dexterously managed to elude the vigilance of his keepers , by procuring a false leg , and presenting that to be fettered instead of the true one . This contrivance proving successful , he felt encouraged to proceed in his attempt to extricate himself ; and the premises in which he was confined having been familiarly known to him while he was a student at the university , he found but little difficulty in effecting his escape from them . The superstition of the age attributed his deliverance to the use of magical arts ; and the real
manner in which it was accomplished would probably never have been known , if Curio himself had not discovered it in a dialogue , called Probus , published some years afterwards . He had now become so obnoxious to the Catholic clergy , that his only means of safety lay in flight ; and taking with him his wife and children , he made the best of his way to Sale , a town of Milan which lay at some distance from the high road . Here he was soon
recognized by some gentlemen , who usually spent their summer months at their country houses near this place , and by whom he was prevailed upon , almost against his will , to accept of a Professorship in the University of Pavia ; and although the inquisitors had strict orders to seize him , he was enabled for a long time to set them at defiance , by the vigilance of his pupils , who escorted him daily backwards and forwards between the university
and the place of his residence , for the space of three whole years . At length the Pope threatening to excommunicate the senate of Pavia , if Curio was not delivered up , he was allowed to make his escape , and took refuge in the Venetian territory . The vengeance of his enemies still pursuing him , he sought the protection of Renata , Duchess of Ferrara , by whose interest he obtained a Professor ' s Chair in the University of Lucca : but before the expiration of a twelvemonth , a papal order for his apprehension and removal to Rome was received by the senate , and he once more found it expedient
to consult his safety by flight . He now saw that he could no longer remain in Italy , without being daily in imminent hazard of his life ; and came to the determination of seeking that asylum in a foreign country which was denied to him in his native land . Having procured letters of recommendation , therefore , from the Duchess of Ferrara , he went to Switzerland , and was appointed Rector of the College of Lausanne , an office which he
discharged with great credit and acceptance for about four years . Soon after his settlement in that town , he returned into Italy in quest of his family , and narrowly escaped being taken by the Pope ' s emissaries at Pisa . While seated at dinner , the bargello , or prefect of the Inquisition , unexpectedly made his appearance ; and having . previously secured the approach to the house by a strong guard , he entered the room in which Curio was regaling himself , and arrested him in the name of the chief pontiff . Curio rose from
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Biographical Notices of Eminent Continental Unitarians . 44 J
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1831, page 447, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2599/page/15/
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