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SECT. I.

CBN T, and barbarous laws against all innovators in XVI. matters of religion, and erected that unjust and inhuman tribunal of the inquisition, which would intimidate and tame, as he thought, the manly spirit of an oppressed and persecuted people. 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 the year 1566, with a view to procure the repeal of these tyrannical and barbarous edicts; but, their solicitations and requests being 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 held sacred or respectable by the church of Rome [o]. To quell

these

[2] 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 more opulent citizens kept within the bounds of moderation and prudence. Tho' justly exasperated against a despotic and cruel government, they dreaded the consequences of popular tumults as the greatest of inisfortunes. Nay, many of them united their councils and forces with those of the governess (the duchess of Parma,) to restrain the ambition and turbulent spirit of the people. The Prince of Orange and Count Egmont (whose memories will live for ever in the grateful remembrance of the Dutch nation, and be dear to all the lovers of heroic patriotisma

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XVI. SECT. I.

these tumults, a powerful army was sent from Spain, C E NT, 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 derive 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 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 [q], provided still that they made no attempts against the authority of the government, or the tranquillity of the public [r]. Xill. The 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 such was their influence and authority among the people, that, had the imperious court of Spain condescended to make any reasonable concessions, the public tranquillity might have been again restored, and the affections of the people entirely regained. See Le Clerc, Histoire des Prov. Un. livr. i. P. 18.

[p] In the year 1573.

[9] It is necessary to distinguish between the toleration. that was granted to the Roman Catholics, 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 of the edifices usually set apart for divine worship.

[r] See a farther account of this matter in Gerhard Brandt's Hi tory of the Reformation in the Netherlands, of

Ka

which

XVI.

gress of the

tion in

Spain and

Italy.

CENT. XIII. The Reformation made a considerable SECT. I. progress in Spain and Italy soon after the rupture between LUTHER and the Roman pontif. In all The pro- the provinces of Italy, but more especially in the Reforma- 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 the year 1546, of which the principal authors were BERNARD 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 DI TOLEDO [s]. 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 so many 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 several protestants in other parts of Italy, could not penetrate into the kingdom of Naples, nor could either the authority or entreaties of the Roman

which there was a French abridgement published at Amster dam, in three volumes 12mo, in the year 1730. The original work was published in Dutch, in four volumes 4to.

[] See Giannone, Histoire Civile du Royaume de Naples, tom. iv. p. 108.-Vita Galeacii in Museo Helvetico, tom. ii. p. 524

XVI.

Roman pontifs engage the Neapolitans to admit CBN T within their territories either a court of inquisi-scr. I. tion, or even visiting inquisitors [t].

The eyes of several persons in Spain, were opened upon the truth, not only by the spirit of inqui ry, which the controversies between LUTHER and K 3 Rome

[] 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, and particularly the former, taught the doctrines of the reformation with great art, prudence, and caution, and converted many secretly, without giving public offence. The emperor himself, who heard him at Naples, declared that "he preached with such spirit and devotion as was sufficient to 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 awaked the jealousy of the viceroy Toledo, who published a severe edict against heretical books, ordered some productions of Melancthon and Erasmus to be publicly burnt, looked with a suspicious eye on all kinds of literature, suppressed several academies, which had been erected about this time by the nobility for the advancement of learning; and, having received orders from the emperor to introduce the inquisition, desired Pope Paul III. to send from Rome to Naples a deputy of that formidable tribunal. It was this that excited the people to take up arms in order to defend themselves against this branch of spiritual tyranny, which the Neapolitans never were patient enough to suffer, and which, on many occasions, they had opposed with vigour and success. Hostilities ensued, which were followed by an accommodation of matters and a general pardon; while the emperor and viceroy, by this resolute opposition, were deterred from their design of introducing this despotic tribunal into the kingdom of Naples. Several other attempts were afterwards made, during the reign of Philip II. III. IV. and Charles II. to establish the inquisition in Naples; but, by the jealousy and vigilance of the people, they all proved ineffectual. At length the emperor Charles VI. in the beginning of this present century, published an edict, expressly prohibiting all causes, relating to the holy faith to be tried by any persons except the archbishops and bishops as ordinaries. See Giannone Histoire de Naples, livr. xxxii. sect. 2. and 3.-Modern Univ. History, vol. xxviii. p. 273, &c. edit.

octavo.

CENT. Rome had excited in Europe, but even by those XVI. very divines, which CHARLES V. had brought with

What judg

ment we

concerning

him into Germany, to combat the pretended heresy of the reformers. For these Spanish doctors imbibed this heresy instead of refuting it, and propagated it more or less, on their return home, as appears evidently from several circumstances [u]. But the inquisition, which could not gain any footing in the kingdom of Naples, reigned triumphant in Spain; and by racks, gibbets, stakes, and other such formidable instruments of its method of persuading, soon terrified the people back into popery, and suppressed the vehement desire they had of changing a superstitious worship for a rational religion [w].

XIV. I shall not pretend to dispute with those writers, whatever their secret intentions may be, are to form who observe, that many unjustifiable proceedings the Refor may be charged upon some of the most eminent promoters of this great change in the state of reby which it ligion. For every impartial and attentive obserwas proda- ver of the rise and progress of the Reformation will ingenuously

mation, and

the means

ced.

[This appears from the unhappy end of all the ecclesiastics that had attended Charles V. and followed him into his retirement. No sooner was the breath of that monarch out, than they were put into the inquisition, and were afterwards committed to the flames, or sent to death in other forms equally terrible. Such was the fate of Augustin Casal, the emperor's preacher; of Constantine Pontius, his confessor; of the learned Egidius, whom he had nominated to the bishopric of Tortosa; of Bartholomew de Caranza, a Dominican, who had been confessor to king Philip and queen Mary, with about twenty more of less note. All this gave reason to presume that Charles. V. died a protestant. Certain it is, that he knew well the corruptions and frauds of the church of Rome, and the grounds and reasons of the protestant faith; though business, ambition, interest and the prejudices of education, may have blinded him for a while, until leisure retirement, the absence of worldly temptations and the approach of death, removed the veil, and led him to wise and serious reflections. See Burnet's History of the Reformation, and the book cited in the following note. [w] See Geddes, his Spanish Martyrology, in his Miscella necus tracts, tom. i. p. 445.

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