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disclosure of his opinions respecting controverted points of doctrine , some idea may be formed , from the circumstances attendant upon the publication of his two Dialogues , " De Amplitudine Beati Regni Dei . " The main peculiarity in the religious system of Calvin is a belief that God has destined to eternal happiness a comparatively small number of his rational creatures ,
and consigned the larger portion of the human race to everlasting misery . Upon this doctrine a covert attack is made in these Dialogues , in which Curio and Augustine Mainard are the speakers ; the former proposing questions , and the latter undertaking to answer them , and to prove that the number of the elect exceeds that of the reprobated or damned . By thus representing himself under the character of an inquirer , and putting into the
mouth of another person all that was likely to be deemed obnoxious , Curio hoped to avoid giving offence , and at the same time to excite attention to a subject on which the Helvetic Church appeared to have pronounced a hasty as well as an arbitrary decision . These Dialogues were written at least seven years before they were published , and the publication of them
was delayed solely by prudential considerations . While Curio was residing at Lausanne , he placed them in the hands of Martin Cellarius , whom he consulted as to the expediency of their publication . He was aware that they would excite a sensation in the religious world , and wished to fortify himself with the opinion of that learned and excellent man . What the advice of Cellarius was is not known ; but , judging from the delay which
occurred in the publication of these Dialogues , it seems reasonable to infer that he recommended a cautious mode of procedure . Curio afterwards submitted them to the inspection of the censors of the press and ministers of the Reformed Church at Basil , who pronounced them unfit to meet the public eye ; and when , notwithstanding this formal decision , they surreptitiously made their appearance , it required all the sagacity of their ingenious author , combined with some degree of duplicity , to avert the consequences
of so daring a violation of public authority . Curio , in his Apology , addressed to the Senate of Basil , says that his son Horatius published them , in a certain to . wn in the North of Italy ; but the latter part of this assertion is directly contradicted by the testimony of John Oporinus , an eminent printer at Basil , who has included them in a catalogue of works printed by himself . " The author , " says Schelhorn ( Amoen . Liter . Tom . XII . p . 626 ) ,
* ' was afraid of bringing himself into trouble by arr open declaration of the truth , because he published this work without the consent and knowledge of the censors of Basil . " Bayle assures us , ( Diction . Crit . Part I . p . 942 , ) that the first edition of these Dialogues made its appearance at Basil , A . D .
1554 , and if this be true , the other part of Curio ' s assertion is rendered extremely dubious ; for his son , Horatius , upon whom he charges the act of publication , died on the 15 th of Feb . in that very year . But the fact is , that Curio had a violent struggle to maintain between his love of truth and a regard to his own safety ; and if he was sometimes led to prevaricate
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Biographical Notices Qf Eminent Can ( went til ifnitarictns . 645
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1831, page 643, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2601/page/67/
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