This decision, instead of pacifying matters, || evidently to such as consider attentively the produced, on the contrary, new divisions, and nature of the times, and compare the transacformed, among the followers of Luther, a tions of this prince, one with another. Relying schism which placed the cause of the Refor- on the extent of his power, and the success that mation in the most perilous and critical cir- frequently accompanied his enterprises, with a cumstances, and might have contributed either degree of confidence that was highly impruto ruin it entirely, or to retard considerably its dent, he proposed to turn these religious comprogress, had the pope and the emperor been motions and dissensions to the confirmation dexterous enough to make the proper use of and increase of his dominion in Germany, and, these divisions, and to seize the favourable oc- by sowing the seeds of discord among the casion that was presented to them, of turning princes of the empire, to weaken their power, the force of the protestants against themselves. and thereby the more easily to encroach upon V. Amidst these contests Paul III. was their rights and privileges. On the other hand, obliged to quit this life in the year 1549, and ardently desirous of reducing within narrower was succeeded, in the following year, by Ju- limits the jurisdiction and dominion of the lius III., who, yielding to the repeated and Roman pontiffs, that they might not set bounds importunate solicitations of the emperor, con- to his ambition, or prevent the execution of sented to convoke a council at Trent. Ac- his aspiring views, he flattered himself that cordingly, in the diet of Augsburg, which was this would be the natural effect of the apagain holden under the formidable artillery of proaching council. He was confirmed in this an imperial army, Charles laid this matter be-pleasing hope, by reflecting on what had hapfore the states and princes of the empire. The majority of the princes gave their consent to the convocation of this council, to which also the elector Maurice submitted upon certain conditions. The emperor then concluded the diet in 1551, desiring the assembled princes and states to prepare all things for the approaching council, and promising that he would use his most zealous endeavours to promote moderation and harmony, impartiality and charity, in the deliberations and transactions of that assembly. When the diet broke up, the protestants took the steps they judged most prudent to prepare themselves for what was to happen. The Saxons employed the pen of Melancthon, and the Wirtembergers that of Brentius, to draw up confessions of their faith, which were to be laid before the new council. Beside the ambassadors of the duke of Wirtemberg, several doctors of that city repaired to Trent. The Saxon divines, with Melancthon at their head, set out also for that place, but proceeded in their journey no farther than Nuremberg. They had received secret orders to stop there; for Maurice had no intention of submitting to the emperor's views: on the contrary, he hoped to reduce that prince to a compliance with his own projects. He therefore yielded in appearance, that he might carry his point, and thus command in reality.

VI. The real views of Charles, amidst the divisions and troubles in Germany, (which he fomented by negotiations that carried the outward aspect of a reconciling spirit,) will appear

Maurice (who was desirous of regaining the esteem of the protestants of Saxony, which he had lost by his perfidious behaviour to the late elector John Frederic, his benefactor and friend) gave his the following conditions:-1st. That the points of doctrine, which had been already decided there, should be examined and discussed anew; 2dly, That this examination should be made in presence of the protestant divines, or their deputies; 3dly, That the Saxon protestants should have a liberty of voting, as well as of deliberating, in the council; and, 4thly, That the pope should not pretend to preside in that assembly, either in person or by his legates. This declaration was read in the diet, and the elector's deputies insisted upon its being registered, which the archbishop of Mentz, however, obstinately refused.

Consent to the renewal of the council of Trent on

pened in the assemblies of Constance and of Basil, in which the lust of papal ambition had been opposed with spirit, and restrained within certain limits. He also persuaded himself, that, by the dexterity of his agents, and the number of the Spanish and German bishops devoted to his interests, he should be able to influence and direct the deliberations of the council in such a manner, as to make its decisions answer his expectations, and contribute effectually to the accomplishment of his views. Such were the specious dreams of ambition that filled the imagination of this restless prince; but his views and projects were disconcerted by that very individual, that supposed friend, who had been one of the principal instruments of the violence and oppression which he had exercised against the protestant princes, and of the injury he had done to the protestant cause.

VII. The most considerable princes, not only of Germany, but even of all Europe, had, for a long time, addressed to the emperor their united entreaties for the deliverance of Philip, landgrave of Hesse, and John Frederic, elector of Saxony, from their confinement; and Maurice had solicited, with peculiar warmth and assiduity, the liberty of the former, who was his father-in-law. But all these solicitations produced no effect. Perceiving at length that he was duped by the emperor, and also convinced that this ambitious monarch was forming insidious designs upon the liberties of Germany, and the jurisdiction of its princes, the elector entered, with the utmost secrecy and expedition, into an alliance with the king of France and several of the German princes, for the maintenance of the rights and liberties of the empire. Encouraged by this respectable confederacy, the active Saxon led a powerful army against the emperor in 1552, with such astonishing valour and rapidity, that he surprised Charles at Inspruck, where he lay with a small force in the utmost security, and without the least apprehension of danger. This unforeseen event alarmed and dejected the emperor to such a degree, that he was willing to make peace on almost any conditions; and, consequently, he not only concluded, at Passau, the famous treaty of pacification with the

protestants,* but also promised to assemble, || trine and worship they thought the purest, and within the space of six months, a diet, in which all the tumults and dissensions that had been occasioned by a diversity of sentiment in religious matters should be entirely removed. Thus did the same prince, who stands foremost in the list of those that oppressed the protestants, and reduced their affairs to extremities, restore their expiring hopes, support and render triumphant their desperate cause, and procure for them that bulwark of peace and of liberty which still remains. Maurice, however, did not live to see this happy issue of his glorious expedition; for he lost his life in the following year, by a wound received at the battle of Siverhausen, while he was fighting against Albert of Brandenburg.†

VIII. The troubles of Germany, with several other incidents, rendered it impossible to assemble the diet, which the emperor had promised at the pacification of Passau, so soon as the period mentioned in the articles of that treaty. This famous diet met, however, at Augsburg, in 1555, was opened by Ferdinand in the name of the emperor, and terminated those deplorable scenes of bloodshed, desola-|| tion, and discord, that had so long afflicted both church and state, by that religious peace (as it is commonly called) which secured to the protestants the free exercise of their religion, and established this inestimable liberty upon the firmest foundations; for, after various debates, the following memorable acts were passed, on the 25th of September; that the protestants who followed the confession of Augsburg, should be for the future considered as entirely exempt from the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff, and from the authority and superintendence of the bishops; that they were left at perfect liberty to enact laws for themselves, relating to their religious sentiments, discipline, and worship; that all the inhabitants of the German empire should be allowed to judge for themselves in religious matters, and to join themselves to that church whose doc

As this treaty is deemed by the German protestants the basis of their religious liberty, it will not be amiss to insert here some of its principal articles. By the three first articles it was stipulated, that Maurice and the confederates should lay down their arms, and should lend their troops to Ferdi nand to defend Germany against the Turks, and that the landgrave of Hesse should be set at liberty. By the fourth it was agreed that the rule of faith, called Interim, should be considered as null and void; that the contending parties should enjoy the free and undisturbed exercise of their religion, until a diet should be assembled to determine amicably the present disputes (which diet was to meet in the space of six months;) and that this religious liberty should continue always, if it should be found impossible to come to an uniformity in doctrine and worship. It was also resolved, that all those who had suffered banishment, or any other calamity, on account of their having been concerned in the league or war of Smalcald, should be reinstated in their privileges, possessions, and employments; that the Imperial chamber at Spire should be open to the protestants as well as to the catholics; and that there should be always a certain number of the Lutheran persuasion

in that high court.

Albert, marquis of Brandenburg, after the pacification of Passau, to which he refused to subscribe, continued the war against the Roman catholics; and afterwards committed such ravages in the empire, that a confederacy was formed against him, at the head of which Maurice was placed.

the most consonant to the spirit of true Christianity; and that all those who should injure or persecute any person under religious pretexts, and on account of opinions and belief, should be declared and proceeded against as public enemies of the empire, invaders of its liberty, and disturbers of its peace.* The difficulties that were to be surmounted before this equitable decision could be procured, the tedious deliberations, the warm debates, the violent animosities, and bloody wars, that were necessary to engage the greatest part of the German states to consent to conditions so agreeable to the dictates of right reason, as well as to the sacred injunctions of the Gospel, show us, in a shocking and glaring point of light, the ignorance and superstition of these miserable times, and stand upon record, as one of the most evident proofs of the necessity of religious reform.

IX. During these transactions in Germany, the friends of genuine Christianity in England deplored the gloomy reign of superstition, and the almost total extinction of true religion; and, seeing before their eyes the cause of popery maintained by the terrors of bloody persecution, and daily victims brought to the stake, to expiate the pretended crime of preferring the dictates of the Gospel to the despotic laws of Rome, they deemed the Gerinans happy, in having thrown off the yoke of an imperious and superstitious church. Henry VIII., whose personal vices, and whose arbitrary and capricious conduct, had greatly retarded the progress of the Reformation, was now no more. He died in 1547, and was succeeded by his only son, Edward VI. This amiable prince, whose early youth was crowned with that wisdom, sagacity, and virtue, that would have done honour to advanced years, gave new spirit and vigour to the protestant cause, and was its brightest ornament, as well as its most effectual support. He encouraged learned and pious men of foreign countries to settle in England, and addressed a particular invitation to Martin Bucer and Paul Fagius, whose moderation added a lustre to their other virtues, that, by the ministry and labours of these eminent men, in concert with those of the friends of the reformation in England, he might purge his dominions from the vile fictions of popery, and establish the pure doctrines of Christianity in their place. For this purpose he issued the wisest orders for the restoration of true religion; but his reign was too short to accomplish fully such a glorious purpose. In 1553, he was taken from his loving and afflicted subjects, whose sorrow was inexpressible, and suited to their loss. His sister Mary, (the daughter of Catharine of Arragon, from whom Henry had been separated by the famous divorce,) a furious bigot to the church of Rome, and a princess whose natural character, like the spirit of her religion, was despotic and cruel, succeeded him on the English throne, and imposed anew the arbitrary laws and the tyrannical yoke of Rome upon her reluctant subjects. Nor were

* Jo. Schilteri Liber de Pace Religiosa.-Christ. Lehmanni Acta Publica et Originalia de Face Re ligiosa.

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CHAP. IV.

HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION.

the methods she employed, in the cause of su-|| ciple of Calvin, whose eloquence was persuaperstition, better than the cause itself, or tem- sive, and whose fortitude was invincible. This pered by any sentiments of equity or compas-resolute reformer set out from Geneva for sion. Barbarous tortures, and death in the Scotland, in 1559, and, in a very short time, most shocking forms, awaited those who op- inspired the people, by his private exhortations posed her will, or made the least stand against and his public discourses, with such a violent the restoration of popery. And, among many aversion to the superstitions of Rome, that the other victims, the learned and pious Cranmer, greatest part of the Scottish nation abandoned archbishop of Canterbury, who had been one them entirely, and aimed at nothing less than of the most illustrious instruments of the Re- the total extirpation of popery. From this formation in England, fell a sacrifice to her period to the present times, the doctrine, worfury. This odious scene of persecution was ship, and discipline that had been established happily concluded, in 1558, by the death of at Geneva by the ministry of Calvin, have the queen, who left no issue; and, as soon as been maintained in Scotland with invincible her successor, the lady Elizabeth, ascended the obstinacy and zeal; and every attempt to inthrone, all things assumed a new and a pleas- troduce into that kingdom the rites and going aspect. This illustrious princess, whose vernment of the church of England, has proved sentiments, counsels, and projects, breathed a impotent and unsuccessful.‡ spirit superior to the natural softness and delicacy of her sex, exerted this vigorous and manly spirit in the defence of oppressed conscience and expiring liberty, broke anew the despotic yoke of papal authority and superstition, and delivering her people from the bondage of Rome, established that form of religious doc-employed in acts of devotion, and comforted himself trine and ecclesiastical government which England still enjoys. This religious establishment differs, in some respects, from the plan formed by those whom Edward VI. had employed for promoting the cause of the reformation, and approaches nearer to the rites and discipline of former times, though it is widely different from, and in the most important points entirely opposite to, the principles of the Roman hierarchy.

X. The seeds of the reformation were very early sown in Scotland, by several noblemen of that nation, who had resided in Germany during the religious disputes that divided the empire. But the power of the Roman pontiff, supported and seconded by inhuman laws and barbarous executions, choked, for many years, these tender seeds, and prevented their taking root. The first and most eminent opposer of the papal jurisdiction was John Knox, a dis

* This prelate was the less entitled to compassion, as, when in power, he followed the execrable example of the Romanists, by committing to the flames, against the will of the young king, two supposed heretics, two unfortunate foreigners, whom, one would think, every humane Briton would have spared, and whose destruction nothing could justify.-EDIT.

It will not be improper to insert here the character of this famous Scottish reformer, as it is drawn by the spirited, accurate, and impartial pen of Dr. Robertson, in his History of Scotland, book vi. "Zeal, intrepidity, disinterestedness, (says that incomparable writer,) were virtues which he possessed in an eminent degree. He was acquainted, too, with the learning cultivated in that age, and excelled in that species of eloquence which is calculated to rouse and to inflame. His maxims, however, were often too severe, and the impetuosity of his temper excessive. Rigid and uncomplying himself, he showed no indulgence to the infirmities of others. Regardless of the distinctions of rank and character, he uttered his admonitions with an acrimony and vehemence, more apt to irritate than to reclaim; and this often betrayed him into indecent and undutiful expressions with respect to the queen's person and conduct. Those very qualities, however, which now render his character less amiable, fitted him to be the instrument of Providence for advancing the reformation among a fierce people, and enabled him to face dangers, and to surmount opposition, from which a person of a more gentle spirit would have VOL. II.-6

been apt to shrink back. By an unwearied application to study and to business, as well as by the fre quency and fervour of his public discourses, he had worn out a constitution naturally strong. During a lingering illness, he discovered the utmost fortitude, inseparable from his character. He was constantly aud met the approaches of death with a magnanimity

with those prospects of immortality, which not only preserve good men from desponding, but fill them with exultation in their last inoments."

The earl of Morton, who was present at his funeral, pronounced his eulogium in a few words, the more honourable for Knox, as they came from one whom he had often censured with peculiar severity: "There lies he who never feared the face of man." † See Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. i.— Calderwood's History of Scotland's Reformation.Georg. Buchanani Rerum Scoticar. Hist.—Melvil's

Memoirs, vol. i.

The indignation of the people, which had been excited by the vices of the clergy, was soon transferred to their persons, and settled at last, by a and thus the effects of the reformation extended, not transition not unusual, upon the offices they enjoyed; only to the doctrine, but also to the government of the popish church. But in Germany, England, and the northern kingdoms, its operations were checked by the power and policy of their princes, and episcopal hierarchy (which appears to be the most conformable to the practice of the church, since Christianity became the established religion of the Roman empire) was still continued in these countries, under certain limitations. The ecclesiastical government was in a great measure borrowed from the civil; and the dioceses and jurisdiction of patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops, corresponded with the division and constitution of the empire. In Switzerland and the Low Countries, the nature and spirit of a republican policy gave fuller scope to the reformers; and thus all pre-eminence of order in the church was destroyed, and that form of ecclesiastical government estab lished, which has been since called Presbyterian. The situation of the primitive church (oppressed by continued persecutions, and obliged by its sufferings to be contented with a form of government extremely simple, and with a parity of rank for want of ambi tion to propose, or power to support, a subordination) suggested, without doubt, the idea of this latter system; though it would be unfair to allege this consideration as a victorious argument in favour of Presbyterianism, because a change of circumstances will sometimes justify a change in the methods and plans of government. Be that as it may, the church of Geneva, which received the decisions of Calvin with an amazing docility, restored this presbyterian or republican form of ecclesiastical policy: Knox studied, admired, and recommended it to his countrymen, and he was seconded by many of the Scottish nobles, of whom some hated the persons, while many others coveted the wealth of the dignified clergy. But, in introducing this system, that re former did not deem it expedient to depart altogether from the ancient form; for, instead of bishops, he proposed the establishment of ten superintendents, to inspect the lives and doctrines of the other clergy, and preside in the inferior judicatories of the church,

42

HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION.

SECT. I

XI. The cause of the reformation underwent, Mary pursued with fire and sword, and al. in Ireland, the same vicissitudes and revolu- the marks of unrelenting vengeance, the protions that had attended it in England. When moters of a pure and rational religion, and deHenry VIII., after the abolition of the papal prived Brown and other protestant bishops of authority, was declared 'supreme head, upon their dignities in the church. But the reign earth, of the church of England,' George of Elizabeth gave a new and a deadly blow to Brown, a monk of the Augustine order, whom popery, which was recovering its force, and that monarch had created, in 1535, archbishop arming itself anew with the authority of the of Dublin, began to act with the utmost vigour throne; and the Irish were obliged again to in consequence of this change in the hierarchy.submit to the form of worship and discipline He purged the churches of his diocese from established in England. superstition in all its various forms, pulled down images, destroyed relics, abolished absurd and idolatrous rites, and by the influence as well as authority which he possessed in Ireland, caused the king's supremacy to be acknowledged by that nation. Henry showed soon after, that this supremacy was not a vain title; for he banished the monks out of that kingdom, confiscated their revenues, and secularized or suppressed their convents. In the reign of Edward VI. farther progress was made in the removal of popish superstitions, by the zealous labours of archbishop Brown, and the auspicious encouragement he granted to all who exerted themselves in the cause of the reformation. But the death of this excellent prince, and the accession of his sister to the throne, changed the face of affairs in Ireland, as it had done in England.

without pretending to claim either a seat in parliament, or the revenues and dignity of the former bishops. This proposal was drawn up, and presented to a convention of estates in 1561; and what it contained, in relation to ecclesiastical jurisdiction and discipline, would have easily obtained the sanction of that assembly, had not a design to recover the patrimony of the church, in order to apply it to the advancement of religion and learning, been insinuated in it. After this, at certain periods, the name of bishop was revived, but without the prerogatives, jurisdiction, or revenues, that were formerly appropriated to that order. They were made subject to the general assemblies of the clergy, and their power was gradually diminished, until their name and order were abolished at the revolution in 1688, when presbyterianism was established in Scotland by the laws of the state. See Robertson's History of Scot

land.

The learned and pious primate Usher, in his Memoirs of the Ecclesiastical Affairs of Ireland, speaks of archbishop Brown in the following man. ner: "George Brown was a man of a cheerful coun tenance, in his acts and deeds plain down right; to the poor merciful and compassionate, pitying the state and condition of the souls of the people, and advising them, when he was provincial of the Augustine order in England, to make their application solely to Christ; which advice coming to the ears of Henry VIII., he became a favourite, and was made archbishop of Dublin. Within five years after he enjoyed that sce, he caused all superstitious relics and images to be removed out of the two cathedrals in Dublin, and out of all the churches in his diocese; and caused the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Creed, to be placed in gilded frames about the altars. He was the first that turned from the Romish religion of the clergy here in Ireland, to embrace the reformation of the church of England." See a very curious pamphlet in the fifth volume of the Harleian Miscellany, entitled Historical Collec tions of the Church of Ireland.

XII. The reformnation had not been long established in Britain, when seven of the Netherland provinces, united by a respectable confederacy, renounced their spiritual allegiance to the Roman pontiff. Philip II. king of Spain, apprehending the danger to which the religion of Rome was exposed from that spirit of liberty and independence which reigned among the inhabitants of the Low-Countries, took the most violent measures to dispel it. For this purpose he augmented the number of the bishops, enacted the most severe and barbarous laws against all innovators in matters of religion, and erected that unjust and inhuman tribunal of the inquisition, which would

"Queen Mary, having dealt severely with the protestants in England, about the latter end of her reign signed a commission to take the same course with them in Ireland; and, to execute the same with greater force, she nominates Dr. Cole one of the commissioners. This doctor coming with the commission to Chester on his journey, the mayor of that city, hearing that her majesty was sending a mes senger into Ireland, and he being a churchman, waited on the doctor, who, in discourse with the mayor, taketh out of a cloak-bag a leather box, say ing unto him, Here is a commission that shall lash the heretics of Ireland,' (calling the protestants by that title.) The good woman of the house, being well affected to the protestant religion, and also having a brother named John Edmonds, of the same, then a citizen in Dublin, was much troubled at the doctor's words; but watching her convenient time, while the mayor took his leave, and the doctor complimented hiin down the stairs, she opens the box, takes the commission out, and places in lieu thereof a sheet of paper, with a pack of cards wrapped up therein, the knave of clubs being placed uppermost. The doctor coming up to his chamber, suspecting nothing of what had been done, put up the box as formerly. The next day, going to the water-side, wind and weather serving him, he sails towards Ireland, and landed on the 7th of October, 1558, at Dublin. Then coming to the castle, the lord FitzWalter, being lord-deputy, sent for him to come before him and the privy council; who, coming in, after he made a speech relating upon what account he came over, presents the box unto the lord-deputy, who causing it to be opened, that the secretary might read the commission, there was nothing save a pack of cards with the knave of clubs uppermost; which not only startled the lord-deputy and council, but the doctor, who assured them he had a commission, but knew not how it was gone. Then the lord-deputy made answer, 'Let us have another commission, and we will shuffle the cards in the mean while.' The doctor, being troubled in his mind, went away, and returned into England; and coming to the court, obtained another commission; but staying for a wind on the water-side, news came to him that the queen was dead; and thus God pre served the protestants of Ireland."

Queen Elizabeth was so delighted with this story which was related to her by Lord Fitz-Walter on his return to England, that she sent for Elizabeth Ed

Here Dr. Mosheim has fallen into a mistake, by not distinguishing between the designs of the queen, which were indeed cruel, and their execution, which was happily and providentially pre-monds, and gave her a pension of forty pounds during vented. This appears from a very singular and comical adventure, of which the account, as it has been copied from the papers of Richard, earl of Cork, and is to be found among the manuscripts of Sir James Ware, is as follows:

her life. See Cox, Hibernia Anglicana, or History of Ireland, vol. ii.-Harleian Miscellany, vol. v.

See the life of Dr. George Brown, Archbishop of Dublin, published at London in 1681, and reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany.

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CHAP. IV.

HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION.

intimidate and tame, as he thought, the manly || tempts against the authority of the governspirit of an oppressed and persecuted people. ment, or the tranquillity of the public.* But his measures, in this respect, were as unsuccessful as they were absurd; his furious and intemperate zeal for the superstitions of Rome accelerated their destruction; and the papal authority, which had only been in a critical state, was reduced to a desperate one, by the very steps that were designed to support it. The nobility formed themselves into an association, in 1566, with a view to procure the repeal of these tyrannical edicts; and, when their solicitations and requests were treated with contempt, they resolved to obtain, by force, what they hoped to have gained from clemency and justice. They addressed themselves to a free and an abused people, spurned the authority of a cruel yoke, and, with an impetuosity and vehemence that were perhaps excessive, trampled upon whatever was deemed sacred or respectable by the church of Rome.* To quell these tumults, a powerful army was sent from Spain, under the command of the duke of Alva, whose horrid barbarity and sanguinary proceedings kindled that long and bloody war from which the powerful republic of the United Provinces derived its origin, consistence, and grandeur. It was the heroic conduct of William of Nassau, prince of Orange, seconded by the succours of England and France, that delivered this state from the Spanish yoke; and no sooner was this deliverance obtained, than the reformed religion, as it was professed in Switzerland, was established in the United Provinces; and, at the same time, an universal toleration was granted to those whose religious sentiments were of a different nature, whether they retained the faith of Rome, or embraced the reformation in another form, provided that they made no at

* Dr. Mosheim seems here to distinguish too little between the spirit of the nobility and that of the multitude. Nothing was more temperate and decent than the conduct of the former; and nothing could be more tumultuous and irregular than the behaviour of the latter. While the multitude destroyed churches, pulled down monasteries, broke the images used in public worship, abused the officers of the inquisition, and committed a thousand enormities, the effects of furious resentment and brutish rage, the nobility and opulent citizens kept within the bounds of moderation and prudence. Though justly exasperated against a despotic and cruel government, they dreaded the consequences of popular tumults as the greatest of misfortunes. Many of them even united their counsels and forces with those of the governess, (the duchess of Parma,) to restrain the seditious and turbulent spirit of the people. The prince of Orange and count Egmont (whose memo ries will live for ever in the grateful remembrance of the Dutch nation, and be dear to all the lovers of heroic patriotism and sacred liberty throughout the world) signalized their moderation upon this occasion, and were the chief instruments of the repose that ensued. Their opposition to the government proceeded from the dictates of humanity and justice, and not from a spirit of licentiousness and rebellion; and their merit and respectability had secured to them such influence and authority among the people, that, had the imperious court of Spain conde. scended to make any reasonable concessions, the public tranquillity might have been restored, and the affections of the people entirely regained. See Le Clerc, Histoire des Prov. Un.

In the year 1573. It is necessary to distinguish between the toleration that was granted to the Roman catholics,

XIII. The reformation made a considerable progress in Spain and Italy, soon after the rupture between Luther and the Roman pontiff. In all the provinces of Italy, but more especially in the territories of Venice, Tuscany, and Naples, the religion of Rome lost ground, and great numbers of persons, of all ranks and orders, expressed an aversion to the papal yoke. This gave rise to violent and dangerous commotions in the kingdom of Naples in 1536, of which the principal authors were Bernardo Ochino and Peter Martyr, who, in their public discourses from the pulpit, exhausted all the force of their irresistible eloquence in exposing the enormity of the reigning superstition. These tumults were appeased with much difficulty by the united efforts of Charles V. and his viceroy don Pedro de Toledo.† In several places the popes put a stop to the progress of the reformation, by letting loose, upon the pretended heretics, their bloody inquisitors, who spread the marks of their usual barbarity through the greatest part of Italy. These formidable ministers of superstition put such a number of supposed heretics to death, and perpetrated, on the friends of religious liberty, such horrid acts of cruelty and oppression, that most of the reformists consulted their safety by a voluntary exile, while others returned to the religion of Rome, at least in external appearance. But the terrors of the inquisition, which frightened back into the profession of popery many protestants in other parts of Italy, could not penetrate into the kingdom of Naples; nor could either the authority or entreaties of the Roman pontiffs engage the Neapolitans to admit within their territories either a court of inquisition, or even visiting inquisitors.

and that which the Anabaptists, Lutherans, and other protestant sects, enjoyed. They were all indiscriminately excluded from the civil employments of the state; but though they were equally allowed the exercise of their religion, the latter were permitted to enjoy their religious worship in a more open and public manner than the former, from whom the churches were taken, and whose religious assemblies were confined to private conventicles, which had no external resemblance to the edifices usually set apart for divine worship.

* See a farther account of this affair in Gerard Brandt's History of the Reformation in the Netherlands.

† See Giannone, Historia di Napoli, tom. iv.Vita Galeacii in Museo Helvetico, tom. ii.

It was an attempt to introduce a Roman inquisitor into the city of Naples, that, properly speaking, produced the tumult and sedition which Dr. Mosheim attributes in this section to the pulpit discourses of Ochino and Martyr; for these famous preachers, particularly the former, taught the doctrines of the reformation with great art, prudence, and caution, and secretly converted many, without giving public offence. The emperor himself, who heard him at Naples, declared that "he preached with such spirit and devotion as might almost make the very stones weep." After Ochino's departure from Naples, the disciples he had formed gave private instructions to others, among whom were some eminent ecclesiastics and persons of distinction, who began to form congregations and conventicles. This awakened the jealousy of the viceroy Toledo, who published a severe edict against heretical books, ordered some productions of Melancthon and Eras. mus to be publicly burned, looked with a suspicious