by Anne Manning
CHAPTER IX.
DAWN OF A PURE LIGHT.
Even in the darkest period of the middle ages, God had not left Himselfwithout witnesses of the Truth among the Alps. It was in the year 1370that these pure-minded people, finding themselves straitened for room,sent emissaries into Italy in quest of a convenient settlement. Thesedeputies travelled as far south as Calabria, where they treated with theproprietors of the soil for a waste, uncultivated district. Thitheremigrated a chosen body of the Vaudois, under whose industrious handsthe desert soon blossomed as the rose, the thorn and the thistle gaveplace to clustering vines and waving corn; and the blessing of Godevidently rested on a praying people, who fed on His unadulteratedword, and addressed Him without superstition.
This little light in a dark place could not shine unobserved. Theprosperity of the new settlers excited the envy of the neighbouringvillagers, who, seeing that they neither came to their churches norobserved their ceremonies, got up the cry of heresy against them. Theland-proprietors, however, protected their valuable tenants; and thepriests, finding the increasing amount of their regularly paid tithes,winked at their non-conformity. Thus, the little band continued toflourish and increase till the dawn of the short-lived Italianreformation.
From a Calabrian monk of this district, Petrarch acquired a knowledge ofthe then totally neglected Greek language; and Boccaccio learnt it ofthis monk's disciple. These two distinguished Italians, of whom it ispoor praise to say that they would still have been great men, thoughthe one had never written sonnets, nor the other novels, gave an impulseto the benighted minds of their countrymen which eventually led to theglorious restoration of learning. The light went on shining more andmore unto the perfect day, till Greek became the one thing needful; andGreek was the casket which enshrined the New Testament.
It is sorrowful to know, however, that a love of letters does not implya love of religion, and too often accompanies a total disrelish of it.Lorenzo the Magnificent lavished all his patronage on the disciples ofpagan Greece, and Leo the Tenth reserved preferment for the exponents ofa refined heathenism. Erasmus heard a sermon preached before Julius theSecond, in which the Saviour was likened to Phocion and Epaminondas. OfCardinal Bembo, the apostolical secretary, it was thought the highestpraise to say that he rivalled Cicero and Virgil.
A doubtful convert from Judaism, detesting the brethren who now regardedhim as a renegade, obtained a decree from the Imperial chamber that allHebrew books but the Old Testament should be destroyed. Reuchlin, therestorer of Hebrew literature among Christians, rose up to prevent theexecution of this barbarous decree, which would, indeed, have got rid ofthe Mishna and Gemara,[11] but at the expense (perhaps not too great) ofannihilating many a profound and valuable work.
[11] The Mishna, or Duplicate, purports to embody laws given to Moses on the Mount, and delivered by him, not in writing, but by word of mouth, to the elders of Israel. Though a bold imposture, the Jews have accepted it as a divine tradition. The Gemara, or Accomplishment, consists of a mass of Rabbinical expositions, proverbs, and allegories. The two, united, form the Talmud, or Doctrine; and to it the Jews referred all their decisions, "making the Word of God of none effect."--_Finn's Sepharim._
Reuchlin's successful opposition aroused the anger of the clergy, and ahot controversy ensued, in which Luther and Erasmus warmly took part.Thereby many a chink was made in the strong prison-walls that shut inthe undying lamp of Truth; and through these crannies the pure lightstreamed forth.
The works of Luther and Erasmus, Zwingle and Melancthon, were eagerlyread in Italy, but speedily suppressed. Some of them, under feignednames, even found their way into the Vatican.
"We have had a most laughable business before us to-day," wrote theelder Scaliger. "The Commonplaces of Philip Melancthon were printed atVenice with this title, 'Per Messer Ippofilo da Terra Negra.' Being sentto Rome they were speedily bought up and read with great applause, sothat an order was sent to Venice for a fresh supply. Meantime, aFranciscan friar, who possessed a copy of the original edition,discovered the trick, and denounced the book as a Lutheran production ofMelancthon's. It was proposed, at first, to punish the poor printer,who probably had not read a word of the original; but, on secondthoughts, it was decided to burn the copies and hush up the wholeaffair."
Almost as bad as Elizabeth Barrett Browning's having her Greek booksbound like novels from the Minerva press!
It is one thing, however, to perceive the scandals and abuses of theRomish church, and another to appreciate the spirituality of theSaviour's pure doctrine. But there were Italians who could do this.
"It is now fourteen years," wrote Egidio da Porta, "since I, under theimpulse of a certain religious feeling, but not according to knowledge,forsook my parents and assumed the black cowl. If I did not becomelearned and devout, at any rate I appeared so, and for seven years was apreacher of God's word, though, alas, in deep ignorance. I ascribednothing to faith, all to works. But God would not permit His servant toperish for ever. He brought me to the dust. I was made to cry 'Lord!what wilt thou have me to do?' And then the delightful answer was bornein upon my heart, 'Arise, and go to Zwingle,' and he will tell thee whatthou must do!'"
The Jews contributed their share towards the intelligent study ofBiblical literature. Already the world owed to them that prodigiouseffort of patient industry, the Masora--a verification of every jot andtittle of the Hebrew Scriptures, for the purpose of giving a full andexact text of the Holy Word. The newly invented art of printing now gaveit extension and perpetuity. In 1477, the Hebrew Psalter, and variousbooks of the Old Testament, issued from the press; and in 1488, a Jewishfamily at Soncino, in the Cremonese, brought out a complete HebrewBible. For thirty years afterwards, this department of typography wasalmost entirely engrossed by the Jews; and I have already mentioned howGiulia Gonzaga's nephew, Vespasiano Colonna, subsequently allowed theJews to establish a printing-press in his duchy of Sabbionetta.
Erasmus published his Greek edition of the New Testament in 1516. In1527, Pagnini of Lucca published his Latin translation of the wholeBible. Thus, the minds of the learned were attracted to the Scripturesas literary curiosities; and happily there were some among them whothereby became wise unto salvation. While, however, the Old and NewTestament were still confined to the dead languages, they were onlyaccessible to scholars. But, as early as in 1471, an Italian translationof the Bible was printed at Venice, and it went through many editions. Abetter translation, by Brucioli, was published in 1530.
Travelling and letter-writing contributed to enlarge the minds of theItalians and spread the reformed doctrines. There were also manyReformers in the service of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, who freelybroached their opinions while in Italy. Thus, like fire set to the dryprairie grass, the flame ran across the country, soon dying out where itfound no combustible matter; in other quarters, smouldering unseen, whenit seemed trodden out. The Pope reproached the Emperor; the Emperorrecriminated, and bade the Pope reform his clergy. The sack of Romeunder the Constable de Bourbon was looked on by many of the Italians asa judgment on the Pope for his impiety, and the names of heretic andLutheran were no longer heard with horror. Sermons were delivered inprivate houses against the abuses of Romanism; and the number ofevangelical Christians increased every day.
About this time, there might be seen, pacing along the high-roads ofItaly, a venerable man of most charming aspect. His beard was white assnow, and descended to his girdle: his profile was finely cut, his skintransparent and pale even to delicacy; his large, lustrous, dark browneyes were deep set beneath overhanging brows whose shadow gave themwonderful intensity of expression. He carried a staff, but his figurewas erect and vigorous, his tread firm. When he came to the palace of aprince or bishop, he was always received with the honours due to one ofsuperior rank: when he departed, it was with the same distinction. Thelead in conversation was by common consent yielded to him; people,whether rich or poor, hung on his words, and tried to remember them. Heate o
f such things as were set before him, but sparingly, and as if hedid not care what he ate. He drank water from the spring, or winetempered with water.
This was Bernardino Ochino, the Capuchin friar. He was a native ofSienna, and of obscure parentage. Impelled by religious motives, he hadearly in life joined the Franciscan Observantines, but he afterwardsbecame a member of the Capuchin brotherhood, and adopted the most rigidascetic practices. These altogether failed to give him the peace of mindwhich he sought. At his wit's end, he exclaimed:--
"Lord, if I am not saved now, I know not what else I _can_ do!"
At length he found the very guide he wanted in the Bible, by theattentive perusal of which he became convinced that Christ by his deathhad made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of thewhole world,--that religious vows of human invention were not onlyuseless but wicked,--and that the Romish church, with all her appeals tothe senses, was unscriptural and abominable in the sight of God.
Ochino's natural powers of oratory, improved as they were bycultivation, led to his being chosen for one of the Lent preachers inthe principal cities of Italy. He drew crowds to hear him. The Emperor,when in Italy, attended his sermons. For the time, at any rate, heeffected in his hearers a change of heart and life--made them givelargely of their abundance to the poor, and reconciled theirdifferences. His adoption of the reformed doctrines was not discovered;he seemed aiming at a reformation within the church, while Luther andCalvin were effecting one out of it. The lower orders were becomingimbued with new principles. An Observantine monk, preaching one day atImola, told his congregation that they must purchase heaven by theirgood works. A young boy who was present exclaimed:--
"That's blasphemy! for the Bible tells us that Christ purchased heavenfor us by his sufferings and death, and bestows it freely on us by hismercy!"
"Get you gone, you young rascal," retorted the monk, "you are but justcome from the cradle; and do you take upon you to understand sacredthings which even the learned cannot explain?"
"Did you never read these words," then rejoined the boy--"'Out of themouth of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained praise?'"
On this, the monk, furious with anger, quitted the pulpit, and deliveredthe poor boy over to the secular arm, by which he was marched off tojail; an awful warning to youngsters of his age and degree.
When Giulia Gonzaga arrived at Naples, it was already beginning toferment with the leaven of the new opinions, without having yet drawn onitself the displeasure of the Sacred College. She established herself ina good house in the Borgo delle Vergini, (sleeping every night in thenunnery of Santa Clara,) and immediately sought the society of VittoriaColonna, whose extraordinary interest in the reformed doctrines she wasat first quite at a loss to comprehend.