that they would be angels of God: so much had the devil, to whom they had given themselves up as a prey, deceived them.""-pp. 263-266.

Dr. M'Crie adds the conclusion to this dreadful story:-" By the time that the persecutors were glutted with blood, it was not difficult to dispose of the prisoners who remained. The men were sent to the Spanish galleys; the women and children were sold for slaves; and, with the exception of a few who renounced their faith, the whole colony was exterminated. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth,' may the race of the Waldenses say, 'Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth. My blood, the violence done to me and to my flesh, be upon' Rome!"

At Rome matters had gone to a similar extremity, though the executions were not precisely on the same scale. A description of the state of persecution at Rome, in the year 1568, from the pen of one residing in Italy, shows the pitch to which the bigoted fury of the pope vented itself:

"At Rome some are every day burnt, hanged, or beheaded; all the prisons and places of confinement are filled; and they are obliged to build new ones. That large city cannot furnish gaols for the numbers of pious persons who are continually apprehended. A distinguished person, named Carnesecchi, formerly ambassador to the Duke of Tuscany, has been committed to the flames. Two persons of still greater distinction, Baron Bernardo di Angole, and Count a Petiliano, a genuine and brave Roman, are in prison. After long resistance, they were at last induced to recant on a promise that they should be set at liberty. But what was the consequence? The one was condemned to pay a fine of eighty thousand crowns, and to suffer perpetual imprisonment; and the other to pay one thousand crowns, and be confined for life in the convent of the Jesuits. Thus have they, by a dishonourable defection, purchased a life worse than death.' The same writer relates the following anecdote, which shows the base stratagems which the Roman inquisition employed to get hold of its victims. 'A letter from Genoa to Messere Bonetti states, that a rich nobleman at Modena, in the duchy of Ferrara, was lately informed against as a heretic to the pope, who had recourse to the following method of getting him into his claws. The nobleman had a cousin at Rome, who was sent for to the castle of St. Angelo, and told, Either you must die, or write to your cousin at Modena, desiring him to meet you at Bologna at a certain hour, as you wish to speak to him on important business.' The letter was dispatched, and the nobleman having ridden in haste to Bologna, was seized as soon as he had dismounted from his horse. His friend was then set at liberty. This is dragon's game.'”—pp. 272–274.

We shall now turn to some of the individual cases of persecution, borne with exemplary fortitude, which, while they inspire the reader with indignation, are edifying and consolatory: the history of the fate of MOLLIO is a fine example of intrepidity and resolution.

"We have already met repeatedly with Giovanni Mollio, the Bolognese professor, who was held in the highest esteem through Italy for his learning and holy life. After the flight of his brethren Ochino and Martyr, in 1542, he was frequently in great danger, and more than once in confinement, from which he had always providentially escaped. But after the accession of Pope Julius III. he was sought for with great eagerness, and being seized at Ravenna, was conducted under a strong guard to Rome, and lodged in a strait prison. On the 5th of September, 1553, a public assembly of the inquisition was held with great pomp, which was attended by the six cardinals and their episcopal assessors, before whom a number of prisoners were brought with torches in their hands. All of them recanted and had penances imposed on them, except Mollio, and a native of Perugia, named Tisserano. When the

articles of accusation against Mollio were read, permission was given him to speak. He defended the different doctrines which he had taught respecting justification, the merit of good works, auricular confession, and the sacraments; pronounced the power claimed by the pope and his clergy to be usurped and antichristian; and addressed his judges in a strain of bold and fervid invective, which silenced and chained them to their seats, at the same time that it cut them to the quick. As for you, cardinals and bishops,' said he, if I were satisfied that you justly obtained that power which you assume to yourselves, and that you had risen to your eminence by virtuous deeds, and not by blind ambition and the arts of profligacy, I would not say a word to you. But since I see and know on the best grounds, that you have set moderation, and honesty, and honour, and virtue at defiance, I am constrained to treat you without ceremony, and to declare that your power is not from God but the devil. If it were apostolical, as you would make the poor world believe, then your doctrine and life would resemble those of the apostles. When I perceive the filth and falsehood and profaneness with which it is overspread, what can I think or say of your church, but that it is a receptacle of thieves and a den of robbers? What is your doctrine but a dream, a lie forged by hypocrites? Your very countenances proclaim that your belly is your god. Your great object is to seize and amass wealth by every species of injustice and cruelty. You thirst without ceasing for the blood of the saints. Can you be the successors of the holy apostles, and vicars of Jesus Christ—you who despise Christ and his word, who act as if you did not believe that there is a God in heaven, who persecute to the death his faithful ministers, make his commandments of no effect, and tyrannize over the consciences of his saints? Wherefore I appeal from your sentence, and summon you, O cruel tyrants and murderers, to answer before the judgment seat of Christ at the last day, where your pompous titles and gorgeous trappings will not dazzle, nor your guards and torturing apparatus terrify us. And in testimony of this, take back that which you have given me.' In saying this, he threw the flaming torch which he held in his hand on the ground, and extinguished it. Galled and gnashing upon him with their teeth, like the persecutors of the first Christian martyr, the cardinals ordered Mollio and his companion, who approved of the testimony he had borne, to instant execution. They were conveyed, accordingly, to the Campo del Fior, where they died with the most pious fortitude.* ”. —pp. 276-279.

The following articles will furnish a kind of martyrology of Italy during this period: it is as highly honourable to human nature on the one hand, as it is disgraceful on the other.

"Pomponio Algieri, a native of Nola, in the kingdom of Naples, was seized when attending the university of Padua, and after being examined in the presence of the podesta, was sent bound to Venice. His answers, on the different examinations which he underwent, contain a luminous view of the truth, and form one of the most succinct and nervous refutations of the principal articles of popery, from Scripture and the decretals, which is anywhere to be found. They had the effect of spreading his fame through Italy. The senators of Venice, from regard to his learning and youth, were anxious to set him at liberty, but as he refused to abandon his sentiments, they con

"Hist. des Martyrs, f. 264-5. Gerdesii Ital. Reform. p. 104. Zanchi gives the following anecdote of this martyr in a letter to Bullinger: I will relate what (Mollio of) Montalcino, the monk who was afterwards burnt at Rome for the gospel, once said to me respecting your book, De origine erroris. As I had not read or seen the work, he exhorted me to purchase it; and (said he) if you have not money, pluck out your right eye to enable you to buy it, and read it with the left. By the favour of providence, I soon found the book without losing my eye; for I bought it for a crown, and abridged it in such a character as that not even an inquisitor could read it, and in such a form, that, if he had read it, he could not have discovered what my sentiments were.' -(Zanchii Epist. lib. ii. p. 278.)"

displayed the mental courage peculiar to great minds, and pursued it in spite of the hazards that intercepted his path. The account of his life and execution is too long to quote, and must give way to Paleario.

"On quitting the Siennese about the year 1543, Aonio Paleario embraced an invitation from the senate of Lucca, where he taught the Latin classics, and acted as orator to the republic on solemn occasions. To this place he was followed by Maco Blaterone, one of his former adversaries, a sciolist who possessed that volubility of tongue which captivates the vulgar ear, and whose ignorance and loquacity had been severely chastised, but not corrected, by the satirical pen of Aretino. Lucca at that time abounded with men of enlightened and honourable minds: and the genuine eloquence of Paleario, sustained by the lofty bearing of his spirit, enabled him easily to triumph over his unworthy rival, who, disgraced and driven from the city, sought his revenge from the Dominicans at Rome. By means of his friends in the conclave, Paleario counteracted at that time the informations of his accuser, which, however, were produced against him at a future period. Meanwhile his spirit submitted with reluctance to the drudgery of teaching languages, while his income was insufficient for supporting the domestic establishment which his wife, who had been genteelly bred, aspired to. In these circumstances, after remaining about ten years at Lucca, he accepted an invitation from the senate of Milan, which conferred on him a liberal salary, together with special immunities, as professor of eloquence. He kept his place in that city during seven years, though in great perils amidst the severities practised towards those suspected of favouring the new opinions. But in the year 1566, while deliberating about his removal to Bologna, he was caught in the storm which burst on so many learned and excellent men, at the elevation of Pius V. to the pontifical chair. Being seized by Frate Angelo de Cremona, the inquisitor, and conveyed to Rome, he was committed to close confinement in the Torre Nona. His book on the Benefit of Christ's Death, his commendations of Ochino, his defence of himself before the senators at Sienna, and the suspicions which he had incurred during his residence at that place and at Lucca, were all revived against him. After the whole had been collected and sifted, the charge at last resolved itself into the four following articles:that he denied purgatory; disapproved of burying the dead in churches, preferring the ancient Roman method of sepulture without the walls of cities; ridiculed the monastic life; and appeared to ascribe justification solely to confidence in the mercy of God forgiving our sins through Jesus Christ. For holding these opinions he was condemned, after an imprisonment of three years, to be suspended on a gibbet and his body to be given to the flames; and the sentence was executed on the 3d of July, 1570, in the seventieth year of his age.

"The unnatural and disordered conceptions which certain persons have of right and wrong, prompt them to impart facts which their more judicious, but not less guilty, associates would have concealed or coloured. To this we owe the following account of Paleario's behaviour on his trial before the cardinals of the inquisition. 'When he saw that he could produce nothing in defence of his pravity,' says the annalist just quoted, ' falling into a rage, he broke out in these words: Seeing your eminences have so many credible witnesses against me, it is unnecessary for you to give yourselves or me longer trouble. I am resolved to act according to the advice of the blessed apostle Peter, when he says, Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps; who did no evil, neither was guile found in his mouth; who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Proceed then to give judgment-pronounce sentence on Aonio; and thus gratify his adversaries and fulfil your office.' Instead of supposing that the person who uttered these words was under the influence of passion, every reader of right feeling will be disposed to exclaim, Here is the patience and

the faith of the saints!' Before leaving his cell for the place of execution, he was permitted to write two letters, one to his wife and another to his sons, Lampridio and Fedro. They are short, but the more affecting from this very circumstance; because it is evident that he was restrained by the fear of saying any thing which, by giving offence to his judges, might lead to the suppression of the letters, or to the harsh treatment of his family after his death.

"From his letters it appears that he enjoyed the friendship and correspondence of the most celebrated persons of that time, both in the church and in the republic of letters. Among the former were cardinals Sadolet, Bembo, Pole, Maffei, Badia, Filonardo, and Sfrondati; and among the latter Flaminio, Riccio, Alciati, Vittorio, Lampridio, and Buonamici. His poem on the Immortality of the Soul was received with applause by the learned. It is perhaps no high praise to say of his Orations, that they placed him above all the moderns, who obtained the name of Ciceronians from their studious imitation of the style of the Roman orator; but they are certainly written with much elegance and spirit. His Letter, addressed to the reformers, on the council of Trent, and his Testimony and Pleading against the Roman Pontiffs, evince`a knowledge of the Scriptures, soundness in the faith, candour, and fervent zeal, worthy of a reformer and confessor of the truth. His tract on the benefit of the death of Christ was uncommonly useful, and made a great noise at its first publication. Forty thousand copies of it were sold in the course of six years. It is said that cardinal Pole had a share in composing it, and that Flaminio wrote a defence of it; and activity in circulating it formed one of the charges on which cardinal Morone was imprisoned and Carnesecchi committed to the flames. When we take into consideration his talents, his zeal, the utility of his writings, and the sufferings which he endured, Paleario must be viewed as one of the greatest ornaments of the reformed cause in Italy."-pp. 297–304.

The present and subsequent state of Italy is a standing proof that these measures were successful in destroying open heresy, and perhaps in entirely suppressing the spread of the Lutheran doctrines. A fact which forms an unpleasant exception to the rule, that "blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

THE ANNUALS.

Friendship's Offering; a Literary Album and Christmas and New Year's Gift for 1828. London. Smith, Elder, and Co. 1828.

The Winter's Wreath, or a Collection of Original Pieces, in Prose and Verse. London, Whittaker; and Smith, Liverpool. 1828.

The Pledge of Friendship; a Christmas Present and New Year's Gift. London. Published by W. Marshall. 1828.

The Christmas Box; an Annual Present for Children. Edited by T. Crofton Croker, Esq. F. S. A. London. Ainsworth. 1828.

WE have already given an account of those Souvenir books of this year which won the prize of earliness, if not of excellence, and it is only fair that we should do the same for the three before us, which, though late in the season, are not slow in the race of competition.

The Literary Souvenir is always respectable in all its departments; it contains invariably a certain quantity of verse, which amounts to the pretty-of prose, which is decorously agreeable. Its stanzas are well looked after; the rhymes are properly assorted; the language of the tales is generally neat, sometimes elegant; there is a spice of antiquarianism, a dash of modern life, a touch of passion, a decent story

of humour, and an occasional horror in the shape of a hobgoblin legend. When these are properly mixed up with sonnets, elegies, impromptus, lines, songs, &c. &c. exquisitely printed, bound or boarded, and superbly adorned with plates of the utmost luculence, what more is wanted for a Christmas Souvenir?

In speaking of the preface to the Literary Souvenir, we noticed some angry expressions of Mr. Alaric Watts' against the pretensions of a rival editor, and we rashly surmised that he alluded to the Friendship's Offering: we were quickly informed of our mistake, and the prospectus of another of these pretty works, which by its lofty promises, and its supercilious reference to its rivals, certainly justified the wrath of Mr. Watts. It is better that we rectify the mistake before we proceed.

We have made several complaints against these works, that their contents are spiritless, disjointed, and written with the air of taskwork. The first exception that strikes us with any force is undoubtedly in the contents of this year's Friendship's Offering; a lively and pleasant genius pervades both its poetry and its prose: in some instances there is more successful exertion of talent than in any other case we have seen in these works; but that which we have chiefly remarked, and prefer to dwell upon, is its cheerful gaiety. It is neither common-place, leaden, empty, nor vapid-the faults of publications managed after the fashion of these Souvenirs; and as we have fallen into disgrace with many good-natured readers for our surly denial of merit to books clothed in such shining cases, so prettily printed and superbly adorned, we are glad to make this ready admission of the existence of talent on the first occasion on which we can recognise it. The names of the contributors to the Friendship's Offering, perhaps, may not be so illustrious as those of some other similar works; and perhaps to this circumstance some part of the superiority of the materials may be attributed. In other cases an editor has gone about screwing and twisting from the portfolio of a celebrated writer any scrap, whether worthless or not was indifferent, provided it had the superscription of his name; it was thought that the public, like a banker, would rather look at the endorsing of the bill for the substantial holder, than into its body for the value of its contents. The writers of the Friendship's Offering appear to be chiefly formed from a set known to the world as the writers of the Etonian, one of the best books ever written by young men, though at the same time a work not of much promise for either depth or strength; their talents are of a calibre well adapted for an annual, brisk, painted, and polished. We might particularise many articles which deserve this character. Caçadore, a Tale of the Peninsular War, possessing claims of a somewhat higher cast; for it is written with a freshness and truth which not only show that the author has been a sympathising witness of the events of his story, but that he has recorded them on the inspiration of the moment. But for a knowledge of human nature; for the light and elegant polish of a well-bred pen; for a pleasant familiarity with life as it flies in modern times, and in genteel circles, we prefer the story of the Married Actress; so much so indeed, that we propose to append it to this paper.

The

The Winter's Wreath is a pious production, and the piety is of a