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    illustrious rank , who had been forced , by the terrors of the Inquisition , to bid adieu to their native Italy . * The preceding statement contains a brief abstract of the history of the Reformation in Italy , as far , at least , as respects the first manifestations of open hostility to the doctrines and discipline of the Roman Church . The

    subsequent ecclesiastical history of that country would supply many additional facts of an interesting kind , which cannot now be noticed , but which might be used as materials for a work that is yet a desideratum in this branch of literature—an Italian

    Protestant Martyrology . In tracing the means by which the work of reformation was carried on in Italy , it is evident that a great part of its success is to be attributed to the labours of churchmen , who , like Peter Martyr , employed themselves in explaining the Scriptures , and instilling into the minds of their hearers the

    principles of the German or the Swiss Reformers . But J-he most extensive effects in this way were produced by the general circulation of the writings of these eminent men , which were translated into the Italian language , and read with great avidity , f

    Ano-* De Porta , ut supra , Tom . I . Pt . n . Cap . i . ii , ; Gerdes , p . 86 . f One of the earliest of the works that were translated was MeIancthon ' s " Loci Communes , " which was printed at Venice about the year 1529 , under the following

    title : " 1 Principi della Theologia , di Ippofilo de Terra Nigra . " Afterwards appeared , without the author ' s name , Luther ' s explanation of the Lord ' s Prayer , and his Catechism , which latter , not

    being suspected to he an heretical work , was greatly esteemed by the Catholics . About the same period , Bucer published an Italian edition of his Commentary on the Psalms , under the feigned name of Aretius Felinus . Calvin ' s Catechism was

    also printed m Italian , without his name ; and , in 1557 , his Institutes were translated into Italian by Paschali , and dedicated to Galeazzo Caracdoli . In 1526 , Bucer translated Luther's < c Postillas" from the

    German into Latin , for the use of the Italian Reformers . Having taken some liberties with his original in omitting and altering some passages relating to the doctrine of Consubstantiation , he drew upon himself the severe displeasure of Luther , " who styled his preface sacrilege ,

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    ther circumstan . ee to whjeh important consequences are deservedly attached was the translation of the Scri ptures into the vernacular tongue . In 1530 Antonio Bruccipli printed , at Venice ' an Italian version of the ^ New Testament ; , and he followed up his design , by a translation of the Old Testament ' which was published in 1540 . These

    translations are erroneously classed , by Le Long and Father Simon , among the Catholic versions ; but they were instantly disowned by . tjie Roman Church , and . placed in the . catalogue of prohibited books ** .

    Exclusively of those who appear to have acted in concert , or as associated bodies , there were many individuals of distinguished eminence who sided with the friends of the Reformation in Italy , and became exiles on account of their

    religion . In the number of these , we may here just mention the names of Olympia Fulvia Morata , a native of Mantua ; Ccelius Secundus Curio , born of a noble family in Piedmont ; Minus Celsus , a native of Sienna ^ an < d ^ George

    Blandrata , a physician of Piedmont , afterwards the orjppnent ,-and persecutor of Francis David , irrTransylvania . It may be remarked , in respect to the Italian Reformers in . general , that most of those who were in

    circumstances to emigrate , and were fortunate enough to escape the agents of the Inquisition ^ transported themselves , in the first instance , to Switzerland , and obtained settlements in the Grisons , at Geneva , and in some of the other states . Some of them were

    readily admitted into the Swiss churches , whose opinions they had embraced , and to whose discipline they did not object to conform . In the course of time , as has alread y

    been observed , churches were formed of their own body , to which ministers were appointed from among their exiled countrymen . Some of the more learned of the ecclesiastics were appointed to professorships in the Swiss

    and his note * poisonous glosses— venenatorum glossematum . Bucer , in consequence of this complaint , afterwards printed the altered passages in their original state , In & separate book , in which he inserted lather ' s tetters of remonstrance . See De forta , ut supra , Tom . 1 . Pt . ii . p . 8 . ,, . -... * Gerdes > pp . 14 and 56 .

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    92 TTieNonConfvtmist . No . XXIII-

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1822, page 92, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2509/page/28/