"b. 
 
 x <a» moment # 
 
 *» PRINCETON, N. J. *# 
 
 Presented by S^n^ £7\ LAVV\ O Y~ 
 
 BR 872 .L8 
 
 Luzzi, Giovanni, b. 1856. 
 The struggle for Christian 
 truth in Italy 
 
The 
 
 MAR 7 191! 
 
 Struggle for Christian 
 Truth in Italy 
 
 BY 
 
 GIOVANNI LUZZI, D.D. 
 
 Professor in the Waldensian Theological 
 Seminary, Florence 
 
 New York 
 
 Chicago 
 
 Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 London 
 
 Edinburgh 
 
Copyright, 1913, by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago: 125 N. Wabash Ave. 
 Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W. 
 London: 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street 
 
MY WIFE 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 FIVE out of the seven chapters of this book 
 were first delivered at Princeton Theo- 
 logical Seminary, as the Students' Lectures 
 on Missions for 1912-13, and were repeated at 
 other Universities and Seminaries in the United 
 States. To these five lectures two new chapters 
 have been added, as well as all the notes, and a 
 great deal of supplementary matter beside. 
 
 For all that concerns the origin of the Christian 
 Church in Rome and the earliest protests against 
 the ever-growing pretensions of the Papacy 
 (Chap. I) I am greatly indebted to the works of 
 my old professor, afterwards my affectionate col- 
 league, Dr. E. Comba. 1 Also in resuming the early 
 history of the Israel of the Alps (Chap. IV) I have 
 followed Professor E. Comba and Professor J. 
 Jalla, the best authorities on the history of the 
 Waldenses. To what they have said nothing new 
 can be added until some fresh document be dis- 
 covered. 
 
 1 Introduzione alia Storia della Riforma in Italia. I nostri 
 Protestanti. 
 
8 Prefatory Note 
 
 To some it may appear that I have been too 
 lavish in my use of quotations. I would say that 
 this is due to a deliberate purpose. Writers upon 
 religious history in particular are in danger of 
 being thought too subjective, or even biassed in 
 their statement of fact by their own cherished 
 convictions. I know no better way of guarding 
 against such a suspicion than by citing as fully 
 as is possible the statements made about these 
 same facts by other men who hold other faiths or 
 none at all. 
 
 Finally, I have to express my deepest gratitude 
 to my most faithful co-worker for the last twenty- 
 three years of my life (to whom this book is in- 
 scribed), and to Mr. William P. Henderson for so 
 effectually polishing, here and there, my English. 
 My thanks are also due to my publishers 
 for so courageously undertaking the issue 
 of a book such as this, written by one who is 
 an ardent admirer of America but till now almost 
 completely unknown on this side of the ocean. 
 
 G. LUZZI, 
 
 New York, Palazzo Salviati, 
 
 January 1, 1913 
 
 51, Via de' Serragh, 
 Florence, Italy. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 L THE DAWN OF CHRISTIANITY IN ROME 
 — THE WRONG PATH — FIRST CRIES 
 OF ALARM 15 
 
 The Christian Church in Rome — Her origin — Her 
 early history — Her early organisation — The birth of 
 Papacy — The gerrn-theory — First cries of protest — 
 The Tu es Petrus — Conflicts in the third century — 
 Hermas — Hippolytus — Schisms — Heresies — The age 
 of Constantine — From Gregory I to Charlemagne — 
 From Charlemagne to Gregory VII — From Gregory 
 VII to Boniface VIII — Voices of protest — Jovinian 
 
 — Vigilantius — Claudius of Turin — Ratherius of 
 Verona — Mediaeval reactions — Arnold of Brescia — 
 The Catharists — The Waldenses — The monastic move- 
 ment — St. Dominic and St. Francis — Dante Alighieri 
 
 — Francesco Petrarca — Giovanni Boccaccio. 
 
 II. THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION AND 
 
 ITS ECHO IN ITALY .... 53 
 
 Italian Renaissance — Attempts at reformation of the 
 Church made by the Church herself — The three Reform 
 Councils — The sixteenth century in Italy — The "Prot- 
 estant revolution " in Germany — Causes that prepared 
 the Reform movement in Italy — Causes that brought it 
 about — Extension of the Reform movement in Italy — 
 Locarno — Istria — Venice — Padova — Vicenza — 
 Treviso — Milan — Ferrara — Modena — Florence — 
 Siena — Lucca — Viterbo — Rome — Naples — How 
 the Reform movement spread in all social classes — The 
 movement doomed to be a failure — The reasons of the 
 failure — Conclusion. 
 
 9 
 
10 Contents 
 
 III. THE DRAMATIC HISTORY OF THE 
 
 BIBLE IN ITALY 105 
 
 The first Latin translation of the Bible — The Vulgate 
 of St. Jerome — The Council of Trent and the Vulgate 
 
 — The Sistine and Clementine editions of the Vulgate — 
 The first Italian versions of the Bible — The Italian 
 translations by Giovanni Diodati and Monsignor Martini 
 
 — Endeavours to provide Italy with other versions of the 
 New Testament and portions of the Old since Diodati's 
 and Martini's time — The Pious Society of St. Jerome 
 for the spread of the Holy Gospels — The Fides et Amor 
 Society — One of Italy's glories which she herself has 
 completely forgotten. 
 
 IV. THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS . . .147 
 
 The origin of the Israel of the Alps — Peter Valdo and 
 the beginning of the Waldensian mission — Doctrine 
 and organisation of the "Waldensian church in the Mid- 
 dle Ages — The refuge of the Waldensian church in the 
 valleys of the Cottian Alps — The Waldenses during the 
 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries — The Waldenses 
 and the Reformation — The hurricane of persecution — 
 The exile — The "glorious return" — The Waldenses 
 during the eighteenth century and the dawn of the nine- 
 teenth — The 17th February, 1848, and the Edict of 
 Emancipation of the Israel of the Alps. 
 
 V. MISSIONARY BLOSSOM AND EVANGEL- 
 
 ICAL FRUIT IN THE GARDEN OF 
 ITALY 189 
 
 The religious revival in Italy during the first half of 
 1800 — Its origin — The Protestant communities founded 
 in Italy by foreigners for their countrymen in Italy and 
 the so-called "Children's Schools" — Their connection 
 with the dawn of the Tuscan evangelical mission — 
 Count Piero Guicciardini — The first converts and the 
 
Contents 11 
 
 first secret meetings — Italian services in the Swiss 
 church — The persecution — The Waldensian church 
 associates herself with the new movement purified and 
 sanctified by the fire of persecution — The schism — 
 The Waldensian church at the dawn of the nineteenth 
 century and after the Edict of her emancipation — The 
 sister churches and other Christian works in the Italian 
 field — The Italian mission from the point of view of its 
 results — The reasons why they have not been and are 
 not more numerous and more conspicuous. 
 
 VI. IN THE LAND OF EXILE . . . .245 
 
 Political condition of Italy during the period between 
 1815 and 1848 — The Italian exiles — Gabriele Rossetti 
 — Luigi Desanctis — Camillo Mapei — Alessandro 
 Gavazzi — The three great centres of Italian emigration 
 and evangelical mission: Malta; Geneva; London — 
 Giuseppe Mazzini and the "Italian Free School" — 
 The "Echo of Savonarola" — The " Italian Mutual Help 
 Society" — The Italian church in London — Italian 
 evangelical hymnology and its birth in the land of exile. 
 
 VII. MODERNISM, OR THE PRESENT EF- 
 
 FORT FOR REFORM WITHIN THE 
 ROMAN CHURCH 289 
 
 Why a definition of modernism is impossible — Modern- 
 ism a misleading term — The importance of the move- 
 ment — Modernism not a new phenomenon — The 
 forerunners of the present movement — How this revolu- 
 tionary movement has been brought about — Condition 
 of Roman Catholicism in Italy — Protestant influence on 
 the Roman Catholic reform movement — The programme 
 of modernism — A modernist message to America — 
 The future of modernism. 
 
THE DAWN OF CHEISTIANITY IN ROME. 
 THE WRONG PATH. FIRST CRIES OF 
 ALARM 
 
THE DAWN OF CHRISTIANITY IN ROME. 
 THE WRONG PATH. FIRST CRIES OF 
 ALARM 
 
 "*\ TOUR faith is spoken of throughout the 
 j[ whole world." 1 These glorious words 
 were written in the spring of the year 59 
 by the Apostle of the Gentiles at Corinth to the 
 church of Rome. What of the origin of a church 
 so spiritually flourishing as to deserve such praise 
 from the greatest of all the apostles? It is 
 strange, but we know absolutely nothing of the 
 origin of this strategic point, which very probably 
 was the first stormed by Christianity to conquer 
 Europe to the new faith. We know that the 
 church of Rome was born in the apostolic century; 
 we know that she was born before any of the 
 apostles had ever come over to the West; we 
 know therefore that when we call her " apos- 
 tolic," we must understand her to be such not 
 directly, but only indirectly; and that is all. So 
 
 Romans i. 8. 
 
 15 
 
16 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 it happens in this world : What we are most eager 
 to know, remains often an unfathomable mystery 
 to us all; and as it almost always happens that 
 popular fancy largely supplies with its romantic 
 legends the silence of history, so, in our case, the 
 same popular fancy which created the legend of 
 Eomulus to explain the origin of Rome, created 
 also the legend of Peter, of his episcopacy, and of 
 his twenty-five years pontificate, to explain the 
 origin of the Church of Rome. 
 
 When in Rome, I like to wander at sunset 
 through the ruins of the palace of the Caesars. 
 Sunset in Rome is not like sunset in any other 
 town of Italy. In Venice it is the hour of dreams 
 of love in fairyland; in Florence it is the hour 
 of glorious visions of art ; in Naples it is the hour 
 in which life seems to merge all its anxieties in 
 an immense wave of fantastic music and bright 
 melody; in Rome it is the solemn hour in which 
 one feels the infinite, the mysterious hour of great 
 historical reconstructions. And there, beyond the 
 Tiber, east of the Janiculum and south of the 
 Vatican, I rebuild in my imagination the ancient 
 Ghetto, the miserable ? almost hidden quarter 
 
Dawn of Christianity in Eome 17 
 
 swarming with the squalid descendants of those 
 Jews whom Pompey brought to Eome as slaves. 
 That Ghetto was the cradle of the Christian 
 Church. How the Church happened to be born 
 there is not easy to explain. Every year from the 
 Koman Ghetto not a few pious Jews directed their 
 steps towards Jerusalem to offer their sacrifices 
 in the Temple. Some of those Jews were to be 
 seen on the day of Pentecost among the crowd to 
 whom St. Peter preached. Is it not natural to 
 think that some Jew, converted on that great day, 
 brought to Eome the first seeds of the Gospel? 2 
 Again we know that the foundation of the church 
 of Antioch was due to a handful of laymen driven 
 away from Jerusalem by the storm of persecution ; 
 we also know that those faithful men sowed the 
 good seed all over Syria ; and as from Syria, from 
 Asia Minor, and from Greece people used to flock 
 to Eome continually and in great numbers, should 
 we be far wrong if we conjectured that it was 
 through this channel that the first news of the 
 Gospel reached the Eternal City? 
 
 Be this as it may, there remains the fact : that 
 the Christian church of Eome came to light in the 
 Jewish cradle of the Ghetto. There the first Chris- 
 
 2 This is the view of Baur, Reuss, Thiersch, Mangold, A. Saba- 
 tier, Renan, Holtzinann, and others. 
 
18 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 tian missionary movement had its beginning and, 
 undisturbed, 3 grew to such an extent as to cause 
 uproars in the Ghetto, which decided the Em- 
 peror Claudius, in the year 52, to issue the first 
 decree of banishment against the Jews. 4 And see 
 how wonderful are the ways of God ! As the perse- 
 cution which broke out at Jerusalem became the 
 means by which a handful of faithful emigrants 
 took the Gospel through all Syria so that from 
 Syria the Gospel was able to find its way to Kome, 
 so, in a like manner, the decree of Claudius ban- 
 ished from Kome, among others, Priscilla and 
 Aquila, 5 who, after having found a refuge in 
 Corinth and Ephesus, became the hosts, partners, 
 and protectors of the Apostle Paul. 
 
 • The presence of the princes of the house of Herod (of Idumsean 
 origin) at the Imperial Court was sufficient to protect the Jews 
 of Rome during the greater part of Claudius' reign (41-54). 
 
 4 Acts xviii. 2. " Judseos impulsore Chresto adsidue tumul- 
 
 tuantes Roma expulit" (Svet. in Claud. XXXV). 
 
 Herzog (Real-Encykl., s.v. Claudius) thinks that the Chrestus 
 mentioned in the edict is not Jesus Christ, but some seditious 
 Roman Jew. But the assumption is supposed to be very unlikely. 
 
 B Renan says: "Aquila and Priscilla are, therefore, the first 
 known members of the Church of Rome. And to think that they 
 have in Rome scarcely a souvenir! Legend, which is always 
 unjust, because it is invariably ruled by political reasons, ousted 
 from the Christian Pantheon the two obscure artisans in order to 
 ascribe the honour of founding the Church of Rome to a more il- 
 lustrious person, and thus to harmonise more readily with the 
 haughty pretensions which the capital of the Empire, already a 
 Christian city, was then unable to surrender. As far as we are 
 
Dawn of Christianity in Rome 19 
 
 The decree of banishment was bound to be a 
 terrible blow to the rising church; still, the blow 
 appears not to have been fatal, for, seven years 
 later, Paul was able to write to the Christians of 
 Rome : ' ' Your faith is spoken of throughout the 
 whole world. ' ' Moreover, in the very letter which 
 contains this magnificent eulogium, we find the 
 interesting physiognomy of the Roman church 
 outlined. Professor F. Godet, in his classical 
 Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, has 
 shown that the church of Rome was composed of 
 a minority of Christians converted from Judaism 
 who had not yet completely freed themselves from 
 the law of Moses and the traditional rites of their 
 fathers, and of a majority of believers from 
 the ranks of heathenism. This means that the 
 church, born and nurtured in the bosom of 
 the Synagogue, afterwards left the Judaic 
 trenches to attack vigorously the heathen encamp- 
 ments. 
 
 What remains is too well known. In the spring 
 of 62 the church was visited by the Apostle Paul, 
 
 concerned, we believe that the place where western Christianity 
 was born, was not the theatrical basilica dedicated to St. Peter, 
 but the old Ghetto of Porta Portese. . . . And instead of those 
 proud umbrageous basilicas, would it not be much better to erect 
 a poor chapel to the memory of the two good Jews from Pontus, 
 who were expelled by the police of Claudius because they were 
 followers of Christ?"— Saint Paul, p. 112. 
 
20 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 who for two years remained in Eome as a pris- 
 oner, still enjoying, however, great freedom of 
 action. About the end of 63, or at the beginning 
 of 64, Peter also was in Eome. The evidence relat- 
 ing to this sojourn of Peter in Eome is too positive 
 to be discarded by impartial criticism; 6 but his 
 sojourn lasted only a few months; at the most 
 till August, 64, when the apostle fell a victim to 
 the Neronian persecution. 
 
 The Christian community of Eome, at the dawn 
 of its ecclesiastical life, had no bishop. It was a 
 church represented by a council of elders. When 
 Paul wrote his great letter to this church in 59, al- 
 though she was already so far developed as to 
 attract the attention of all and to possess ecclesi- 
 astical offices more or less organised, 7 yet she had 
 no bishop ; nor had she a bishop until fifty years 
 later, when the Eoman community sent their words 
 of advice and exhortation to the community of 
 Corinth through Clement. 8 The letter of Ignatius 
 
 •Clement of Rome (d. 101), Clement of Alexandria (d. 220), 
 St. Dionysius of Corinth (d. 1G5), the Muratorian Fragment (ab. 
 170 or 180), Irenseus (d. 202), Tertullian (d. 218), and Gaius 
 (d. 200). 
 
 T Romans i. 1, 6 and xii. 4, 9. 
 
 'A.D. 91 or 100 (uncert.); Clem, of Rome; 1 Corinthians 1 
 and 44, etc. 
 
Dawn of Christianity in Rome 21 
 
 to the Romans 9 and the first revelations of Her- 
 nias, 10 contained in the Shepherd, show that under 
 the reign of Trajan X1 and in the first years of the 
 reign of Hadrian 12 the church of Rome was still 
 governed by presbyteral rule. It is only about the 
 middle of the second century that the Roman ec- 
 clesiastical government was changed. Anicetus, 13 
 by that time, was already ruling the church with 
 an authority altogether episcopal. And it is at 
 this point that we approach a crisis of the great- 
 est historical importance. In the days of Anicetus, 
 Polycarp, the aged Bishop of Smyrna, came to 
 Rome to confer with the Roman bishop as to the 
 proper time for keeping Easter. 14 The discussion 
 did not lead to a perfectly mutual understanding; 
 the Bishop of Rome and the Bishop of Smyrna 
 held fast to their own individual rights, but fra- 
 ternally partook of the Holy Communion. The 
 reciprocal autonomy of the churches of Rome on 
 
 •Ignatius (d. ab. 112). 
 
 10 ab. 142. "98-117. "117-138. "157-168. 
 
 "Polycarp and the churches of Asia, following the example of 
 St. John, kept the day of the Crucifixion on Nisan 14, irre- 
 spective of the day of the week. Anicetus, on the other hand, with 
 his predecessors and the churches of the West, always observed 
 Friday as the anniversary of the Crucifixion, and Sunday as that 
 of the Resurrection. Each could quote high authority and 
 abundant precedent for their respective views, and neither the 
 Bishop of Rome nor the Bishop of Smyrna felt justified in altering 
 a custom which had been handed down by the traditions of their 
 fathers. 
 
22 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 one side, and of the churches of Asia, which Poly- 
 carp represented, on the other, was acknowledged 
 and accepted. 15 Now, if all this proves that the 
 Asian churches were greatly concerned with the 
 fellowship of the churches of Eome, it proves 
 also that by that time the most perfect equality 
 reigned among the bishops. Half a century later, 
 the same discussion arose again. Victor, 16 how- 
 ever, did not act as Anicetus had done ; he abruptly 
 ended the controversy by an act of authority; ex- 
 communicated and declared heretical all the 
 churches of Asia or of any other region that in 
 this question of the date of Easter had not followed 
 the Roman practice. This happened in the year 
 19-4; a momentous year, because it was by that 
 imperious edict that Papacy was brought to life. 
 Auguste Sabatier has well said: " From the days 
 in which Victor speaks as a universal bishop and 
 proclaims heretical the churches resisting his au- 
 thority, nothing more is to be done. The token of 
 truth is no longer in doctrine, but in the external 
 attitude one takes before Rome. To be subject 
 to her, is to be orthodox ; to be severed from her, 
 is to be heretical." 
 So, the church of Rome, which down to the reign 
 
 15 Irenseus relates this fact in a letter to Victor, Bishop of 
 Rome, preserved by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl, V, 24. " 190-202. 
 
Dawn of Christianity in Eome 23 
 
 of Hadrian 17 had had no bishop properly so called, 
 accepted a papistic bishop in the year 194; a 
 bishop who imposed himself on the community, 
 and became the synthesis of the whole community. 
 Therefore, as A. Sabatier says, " owing to the 
 plurality of bishops who thus became the heads 
 of the various churches, the fatal law of inexorable 
 logic necessitated the creation of the bishop of 
 bishops, the synthesis of episcopacy and the soul 
 of catholicity. In order the better to assimilate 
 episcopacy with the apostolate, Peter was thrust 
 by force into the series of bishops, as first link of 
 the mystical chain ; the link on which all the chain 
 depended. Exegesis did not refuse its co-operation 
 in the work of erecting the papal edifice; and it 
 was in the days of Victor and Callistus 18 that the 
 Tu es Petrus 19 was for the first time applied by 
 the Eoman exegesis to the successors of Peter.' ' 
 Then, as we shall see, came Constantine, 20 his 
 famous donation and the forged Decretals of Isi- 
 dore, 21 " the two magic columns, as Gibbon says, 
 of the spiritual and temporal monarchy of the 
 Popes. ■ ' Finally, under the pontificate of Gregory 
 
 "117-138. 18 Victor, 190-202. Callistus, 219-222. 
 
 "Matthew xvi. 18, 19. ,0 312-337. 
 
 a Constantine's donation is understood to be the grant of the 
 town and the neighbouring territories of Rome which he is sup- 
 posed to have made to Pope Sylvester. The latter is believed to 
 be the Pope who baptised the emperor and cured him of leprosy. 
 
24 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 VII, 22 the idea of infallibility began to appear; 
 and this idea, treated for the first time as an article 
 of Catholic theology by Thomas Aquinas, 23 became 
 a dogma on the 18th of July, 1870, when, in the 
 very Church for which a God had made Himself 
 man, a man had the impudence to proclaim him- 
 self god. 
 
 But let us not anticipate events. 
 
 The modern apologists of Eoman Catholicism 
 explain this evolution (as they are very fond of 
 calling it), which started from the democratic pres- 
 byteral council of the apostolic times and ended 
 in the absolute sovereignty of the infallible Pope 
 of 1870, by the germ-theory; and have for their 
 
 That grant should, therefore, be considered as the nucleus of the 
 " States of the Church." To strengthen the power of the Church 
 a series of documents were put forward toward the middle of the 
 ninth century, claiming to be the official letters (Decretals) of 
 some of the earlier bishops of Rome, — beginning with Clement as 
 successor of Peter, — which asserted and emphasised the supreme 
 jurisdiction of the Church, and of the Pope as Head of the Church, 
 over all secular authority. These were added to the recognised 
 collection of Canons and Acts of Councils compiled by Isidore of 
 Seville, and are known as the Forged Decretals of Isidore. Their 
 genuineness — especially that of the donation of Constantine — 
 was attacked by Laurentius Valla in 1441; they were more thor- 
 oughly criticised by Erasmus, about 1530; and their authenticity 
 is considered to have been finally disproved by the Magdeburg 
 Centuriators, a group of Protestant scholars and Church his- 
 torians, about 1580. Roman Catholic historians, while acknowl- 
 edging the forgery, plead the circumstances which doubtless jus- 
 tified the authors in their own eyes. 
 ° 1073-1085. a 1226-1274. 
 
Dawn of Christianity in Rome 25 
 
 patron saint Cardinal Newman, whom they con- 
 sider as the Darwin of Church history. But we 
 must not distort words, or deceive ourselves as 
 to the true meaning of facts. An institution which, 
 beginning with the purest spirituality, ends in the 
 grossest formalism; which, beginning in a free 
 Christian spirit, ends in the most merciless 
 tyranny; which, beginning with the idea of being 
 a means for the triumph of the Kingdom of God 
 in the world, ends by becoming itself a worldly 
 kingdom and by coveting the homage of royalties 
 even if those royalties be infidels and if their 
 hands be stained with Christian blood, surely can- 
 not be considered an institution which has passed 
 through a normal and healthy evolution; it is a 
 corrupt institution; an institution issued from 
 the hands of God, yes, but dragged by its own am- 
 bition to abase itself in the world. 
 
 Is it possible that all this degenerating process 
 could pass unobserved, without arousing in the 
 bosom of the Church herself some cries of pro- 
 test? Cries of protest were heard, but they were 
 impotent to stop the current of worldliness and 
 the thirst for dominion that had invaded the 
 Church. 
 
26 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 It might be most interesting to try and catch 
 the impressions produced by the rise of Papacy 
 in other churches than that of Rome. For in- 
 stance : The famous Tu es Petrus already referred 
 to did not assume the meaning and the dogmatic 
 importance that the theologians of Papacy have 
 ascribed to it, until the third century; when the 
 bishops of Rome were in need of it to uphold their 
 rising pretensions. But against such an exegesis 
 inspired by polity, Tertullian 24 lifted high his 
 voice to assert that these words of Jesus and the 
 privilege that they implied had reference only to 
 the person of Peter; so that the Roman bishops 
 had no right whatever to apply them to them- 
 selves and to their See. 25 More freely still and 
 with less polemic intention than Tertullian, 
 Origen 20 declared that the promise was not made 
 by Jesus to the person of Peter, who a little fur- 
 ther on is called Satan, but to that very faith of 
 which at that moment Peter was the mouthpiece, 
 and on which the Church is grounded. 27 
 
 The whole third century is full of conflicts 
 created by the haughty pretensions of the bishops 
 of Rome. Let me only mention the most important 
 
 " 160-230. 
 
 25 " Domini intentionem hoc personaliter Petro conferentem."— 
 De Pudic, XXI. 
 " d- 254. w Commentary on Matthew xvi. 18. 
 
Dawn of Christianity in Kome 27 
 
 and most symptomatic of them : I mean the conflict 
 that broke out about the middle of the century be- 
 tween Stephen of Rome 28 and Cyprian of Car- 
 thage, 29 on account of the baptism of heretics. 30 
 Cyprian would have liked a peaceful and amicable 
 solution of the difficulty. Stephen, instead, in- 
 sisted on imposing his own solution by virtue of 
 his prerogative as successor of Peter, and threat- 
 ened with excommunication all those who dared to 
 refuse it. Cyprian defined Stephen's behaviour 
 as intolerable abuse. Two Councils held at Car- 
 thage 31 took Cyprian's side. The larger number 
 of the Eastern bishops, with Dionysius of Alex- 
 andria at their head, arrayed themselves against 
 Stephen. It was a regular insurrection of almost 
 the whole episcopacy, in defence of their rights and 
 of their independence so openly menaced by Rome. 
 But we must not allow ourselves to be distracted 
 by fascinating Africa; it is in the West that we 
 must remain, and especially in Italy, in order to 
 catch the cries of protest that were heard com- 
 
 18 253 or 257. »d. 258. 
 
 80 When a heretic was converted, the Roman Church regarded his 
 previous baptism as valid, and admitted him into membership 
 by simple confirmation, or laying on of hands. On the other 
 hand, in the churches of Asia, previous heretical baptism was 
 ignored, and a convert was required to undergo baptism anew. 
 This also was the custom of the North African churches. 
 
 91 254 and 256. 
 
28 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 ing not from the outside, but from the very bosom 
 of the Church. Here we have to stay until the 
 breaking out of the Protestant revolution which, 
 in the history of Christianity, made the sixteenth 
 century so memorable. 
 
 The first cry of protest recorded in history is 
 the cry of a layman against the evils of the Church, 
 and was uttered in the very middle of the second 
 century. It is the cry of Hermas, whose Shepherd, 
 read at first in the churches and afterwards placed 
 as an appendix to the Sacred Volume, nearly 
 found its way into the Christian Canon. It has 
 been called the Pilgrim's Progress of the second 
 century; but that is an exaggeration; because if 
 the Shepherd and the Pilgrim's Progress are 
 somewhat alike in their general features, they dif- 
 fer as far as the spirit and the correctness of doc- 
 trine are concerned. In this their diversity is to be 
 found the reason for the fact that the fame and 
 the popularity of the Shepherd did not and will 
 not last as long as that of Bunyan's inspired work. 
 Notwithstanding this, Hermas ' protesting cry has 
 great value. Towards the middle of the second 
 century Papacy was not yet born ; but the abuses 
 had already begun. As the Shepherd says : 
 11 Customs have become worldly; discipline is 
 relaxed; the Church is a sickly old woman in- 
 
Dawn of Christianity in Rome 29 
 
 capable of standing on her feet ; rulers and ruled 
 are all languishing, and many among them are 
 corrupt, covetous, greedy, hypocritical, conten- 
 tious, slanderers, blasphemers, libertines, spies, 
 renegades, schismatics. Worthy teachers are not 
 wanting, but there are also many false prophets, 
 vain, eager after the first seats, for whom the 
 greatest thing in life is not the practice of piety 
 and justice, but the strife for the post of com- 
 mand. Now the day of wrath is at hand ; the pun- 
 ishment will be dreadful ; the Lord will give unto 
 every one according to his works"! Hermas, 
 therefore, in the spirit of one of the prophets of 
 old, exhorts the Church to repentance; and in 
 sparkling, apocalyptic language gives to his read- 
 ers the vision of the Church of his heart, which is 
 like a tower that God has built, and whose founder, 
 corner-stone, and door is Christ. 
 
 Such, says E. Comba, is the mystic and awful 
 protest of Hermas ; the cry of a man who, removed 
 not more than half a century from the death of the 
 last of the apostles, seems to be more a forerunner 
 of monastic asceticism than one who carried on the 
 apostolic work; nevertheless it is the cry of an 
 honest man which was bound to echo in a Church 
 already so convulsed and harassed. 
 
 The voice of the layman Hermas was followed, 
 
30 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 half a century later, by the voice of a churchman : 
 Hippolytus. 32 Was he simply an elder or a bishop f 
 a Pope or an Antipope? an excommunicated man 
 or a martyr? All this has been asked. "We shall 
 not occupy ourselves with a search for the best 
 answers to these queries ; what is really of impor- 
 tance to us here are the following facts, which by 
 several means 33 we have been able to ascertain : 
 That he lived in Rome under Zephyrinus 3 * and 
 Callistus, 35 and that he lashed Zephyrinus, whom 
 he described as " a weak and venal fool," 38 and 
 especially Callistus, whom he speaks of as " a 
 cheat,' ' " a sacrilegious swindler, an infamous 
 convict, and an arch-heretic ex cathedra." 37 And 
 he was perfectly right. Callistus was a wicked 
 and corrupt man; so ambitious and unscrupulous 
 that he bargained with heretics and renegades for 
 his election to the episcopal See. He was the first 
 to restrict to the Roman See the power of forgiv- 
 ing all kinds of sins ; 38 and he exercised this power 
 
 M 198-236. 
 
 83 In 1842 a MS. of his Philosophumena, or a Refutation of all 
 the Heresies, was discovered on Mount Athos. The first of the 
 ten books of these Philosophumena had long been printed to- 
 gether with the works of Origen. In 1551 a fine statue of Hip- 
 polytus was dug up in Via Tiburtina, Rome, which represents the 
 venerable man clad in a toga and pallium and seated on a bishop's 
 chair, on the back of which is engraved a list of his writings. 
 
 - 202-217. » 217-222. » Philosoph., p. 278. 
 
 "Neicman Tracts, p. 222 (1874). ** Philosophy IX, 12. 
 
Dawn of Christianity in Rome 31 
 
 largely not in order to increase but to weaken 
 evangelical discipline and to make the Church a 
 slave to episcopacy. He used to liken the Church 
 to the Ark of Noah, containing all sorts of ani- 
 mals, clean and unclean, dogs and wolves included. 
 Anxious not to lose the support of the clergy, 
 he granted them all sorts of iniquitous conces- 
 sions; and in order to keep the favour of the 
 Patricians, he went so far as to tolerate shame- 
 lessly their concubinage. 
 
 When we think of these spiritual and moral 
 conditions of the Church, we feel as in a dream. 
 Who would ever believe that such were the condi- 
 tions of a period removed scarcely a century from 
 the golden age of Christian piety? If the Church, 
 led by men such as Zephyrinus and Callistus, did 
 not perish miserably, it was not because men did 
 not do their best to dishonour and kill her, but be- 
 cause God saved her with His mighty hand. And 
 is it to be wondered at if the voice of Hippolytus 
 thundered in the midst of such moral disorder? 
 if he pitilessly unmasked Callistus, brought to 
 light his perfidy, and called him a sorcerer on ac- 
 count of his art of seducing souls, and an impostor 
 on account of his false doctrines? Hippolytus 
 called in question the authority and the primacy 
 of all bishops of that kind and denied the legit- 
 
32 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 imacy of the impious dualism : the moral character 
 of a man and the office entrusted to him. The 
 Church, he said, is not an Ark containing all kinds 
 of animals ; it is a ship, if you like ; but a ship hav- 
 ing Christ as pilot and the cross as the ensign; or, 
 if you prefer to call her an edifice, you must re- 
 member that Christ, and no one else but Christ, is 
 her corner-stone. 
 
 Hippolytus was worsted; but the Christians of 
 Rome never forgot his name; they blessed his 
 memory ; they piously kept his remains and erected 
 a chapel, as a memorial, where the people used to 
 go regularly to pray. 39 
 
 If men of God such as Hippolytus, who without 
 leaving the Church thundered against the abuses 
 of the Roman bishops, had succeeded, Christianity 
 would have been spared many troubles, and the 
 Kingdom of God would have continued more speed- 
 ily its triumphal march. But, alas, the period be- 
 tween 150 and 250 was decisive in the growth of 
 sacerdotalism and of the papal spirit, and noth- 
 ing could stop the Church in her fatal descent. 
 Persecutions had so far checked the corruption 
 of faith and of customs, but did not lead the 
 
 M The crypt where the remains of Hippolytus were laid wa9 
 discovered recently in Via Tiburtina, opposite the Church of San 
 Lorenzo. Vide de Rossi: Bullett., 1882, p. 56, and 1883 passim. 
 His statue was discovered on the same site in 1551 (vide n. 33). 
 
Dawn of Christianity in Eome 33 
 
 Church back to her original purity and simplicity ; 
 and it was just at the end of the two awful years 
 during which Decius scourged the Church almost 
 to death by his persecution, that the first schisms 
 broke out. These are the link between the in- 
 dividual protests and the heresies properly so 
 called. 
 
 Eome, at that time, had in her midst the No- 
 vatians, whose leader, Novatianus, was the 
 preacher of " the old severity of customs " as the 
 only remedy against the evils of general apos- 
 tasy, and the apostle of a Church composed en- 
 tirely of " Catharists," namely "puritans." 40 
 Novatianus, like Montanus 41 in the East, was a 
 man animated by the best of intentions; but as 
 both went beyond the limits of reasonableness, 
 they yielded themselves to the exaggerations of 
 reaction, and knew not how to keep their own faith 
 pure from defilement. They failed to produce in 
 
 40 They held that the other churches had fallen off, and baptised 
 again those who joined their church, for they did not recognise 
 the baptism of the Roman Catholic Church as valid. They also 
 regarded as impure all those who partook of communion with the 
 lapsi, that is, with those who had recanted in order to avoid 
 torture. 
 
 41 The Montanistic sect arose a few years after the death of 
 Hippolytus (d. 236). It was an outbreak of the spiritualistic 
 fervour which cut adrift, like Quakerism or Methodism, from the 
 formalities of the Church, and claimed to be a new dispensation, 
 under the immediate guidance of the Holy Ghost. It was, aa 
 Baur explains, a sort of Gnosticism reversed. 
 
34 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 the Church the effect they had in view, and which 
 it would have been a great blessing had they been 
 able to attain. Add to all this the incessant at- 
 tempts of the heretical sects who tried their best 
 to revive either Judaism or Paganism in the bosom 
 of the Church, which had dominated but not alto- 
 gether subdued them; add, that is to say, the 
 deleterious working of the Nazarenes and of the 
 Ebionites, who had gone back completely into 
 Judaism, and after having denied the divinity of 
 Christ had set themselves up as a special sect; 
 add the working of Valentinus 42 and the Gnostics, 
 who, inspired by the Oriental gnosis, introduced, 
 secretly at first and then openly, the dualistic 
 theories into the new Manichaean form which they 
 adopted ; add the Unitarian heresy 43 which had ex- 
 isted in Rome since the end of the second century, 
 and you will have an idea of the conditions of the 
 Church at the end of her second period. 
 
 It was about the middle of the third century 
 that the Church found herself in a most critical 
 condition, torn by all kinds of hypocrisies, ambi- 
 tions, and internal strifes. Gallienus, 44 the son 
 
 ^Valentinus was in Rome from 140 to 160. 
 
 "The Unitarian heresy was represented in Rome (about the 
 end of the second century) by Theodotus, the Currier, and by a 
 second Theodotus, the Money Changer, one of his disciples, 
 
 "2G0-2G3. 
 
Dawn of Christianity in Borne 35 
 
 of Valerian, reversing his father's policy, had 
 practically granted toleration to the Christians; 
 and for about forty years after this, the Church 
 enjoyed an almost unbroken rest. But rest, when 
 not consecrated to God and to the Cause of God, 
 is as dangerous to the life of individuals as to 
 the life of the churches; the Evil One is sure to 
 make use of it for his own purposes; then the 
 persecution of Diocletian, the last and most 
 formidable of all persecutions, not excepting that 
 of Decius, broke out; 45 and with this persecution 
 we are led to the age of Constantine ; to the age 
 in which the Eoman Empire, from being the enemy 
 and persecutor of the Church, became her pro- 
 tector and patron. The Church entered into an 
 alliance with the State, which was to prove so 
 fruitful of consequences in the subsequent history 
 of Europe, both for good and evil, but more for 
 evil than for good. 
 
 When Christianity became the religion of the 
 Empire, 46 it became also the fashion of a luxurious 
 
 a 284-305. 
 
 * s Christianity was declared the religion of the Empire by Con- 
 stantine, in the year 324. From this time (excepting the short 
 reign of Julian) it continued to be the State religion as long as 
 the Empire existed. The Empire was divided at the death of 
 
36 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 and decaying society. That was in the era from 
 Constantine to Gregory I; 47 an era of great de- 
 cline for the Church; and the decline was more 
 evident in Rome than anywhere else. " Chris- 
 tianity in Rome/' says Gregorovius, 48 "became 
 in a very short time corrupt ; and this is not to be 
 wondered at, because the ground in which the seed 
 of its doctrines had been sown was rotten and 
 the least apt of all other grounds in the world 
 to bring forth good fruit. . . . The Roman char- 
 acter had not been changed from what it was of 
 old, because baptism cannot change the spirit of 
 the times.' ' Christian piety, that had made the 
 first classical period of the faith so glorious and 
 which, in the second period, had gone through so 
 many vicissitudes, grew in this third period into 
 a formal and churchly piety without any moral 
 effect whatever on the life of individuals and of 
 the community. Conversion became nothing but a 
 round of ceremonies and perfunctory duties. 
 Many believed that by almsgiving and by partak- 
 ing of the Communion they might atone for sinful 
 lives. Baptism became an easy means of rescue 
 
 Theodosius (395) into the Eastern (or Greek) and Western (or 
 Latin) Empires. The Eastern Empire lasted until 1453, when 
 Constantinople was taken by the Turks. The Western Empire 
 perished in 47G. 
 
 •813-590. 
 
 48 Storia ddla citla di Roma ncl Medio Evo, Vol. I, p. 155. 
 
Dawn of Christianity in Rome 37 
 
 from perdition, and hence many deferred to re- 
 ceive it until frightened by the approach of death. 
 Christianity in a short time became the religion of 
 the rich and powerful; and as soon as that was the 
 case, the desire to set up a severe simplicity 
 against the splendour of pagan temples was less 
 felt and the primitive aversion to art in worship 
 began to pass away. Churches of more imposing 
 proportions and more costly furnishings were 
 erected. Pictures, especially those representing 
 Bible scenes, were generally adopted in the 
 churches, and towards the end of the fourth cen- 
 tury the use of images had already become preva- 
 lent. People began to prostrate themselves before 
 them, and many of the more ignorant to worship 
 them. The adoration of Mary became general; 
 and whilst baptism, with the addition of supple- 
 mentary rites, lost its original simplicity, the 
 Lord's Supper became a sacrificial offering by 
 the Christian priests. Therefore it was quite 
 natural that as the Lord's Supper was little by 
 little losing its primitive character of a simple 
 commemoration of the death of Christ and becom- 
 ing a sacrifice, the ancient presbyter should also 
 little by little transform himself into a priest. 
 
 The era from Gregory I to Charlemagne was the 
 era of the founding of the Church among the 
 
38 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 English and the Germans; a period of political 
 and ecclesiastical disorder, out of which the papal 
 power emerged with added strength. The Pope 
 who mostly contrihuted to such a result was 
 Gregory I, 49 a really great man, considering the 
 time of extreme spiritual and moral desolation in 
 which he lived. Those were times eminently pro- 
 pitious for the new triumphs of the Eoman See. 
 So much so that Gregory, ruling as a true dictator 
 in Rome, was the first Pope to see the peoples of 
 the West humbly gathered round the apostolic See. 
 The era from Charlemagne to Gregory VII 60 
 was one in which the Tree of Christianity stretched 
 out its branches and gathered in its shade the 
 peoples of the north and east of Europe. During 
 that period a movement of no little importance 
 took place. The civil and the ecclesiastical power 
 had at that time only one ideal ; namely, to secure 
 the primacy ; and the primacy was doomed to fall 
 into the hands of Papacy, to whose help came fraud 
 and falsehood. Charlemagne, in fact, who was 
 conscious of being the protector and defender of 
 the Church and of her members, received the oaths 
 of allegiance from the Popes and admonished them 
 as to their duty even in matters of doctrine. But 
 when Charlemagne died in 814 and his empire was 
 
 48 590-604. «o 800-1073. 
 
Dawn of Christianity in Rome 39 
 
 broken up by warring factions, the Popes im- 
 proved every opportunity afforded them by the 
 disorders of the times, to make themselves more 
 independent. The movement of the whole age was 
 toward papal ascendency; and so as to assert the 
 superiority of the Church over the State and to 
 crown Papacy with the aureola of temporal power, 
 the fictions of Constantine's donation and the 
 Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals were brought forward. 
 On the 22d of April, 1073, Hildebrand, later known 
 as Pope Gregory VII, the restorer and upholder 
 of the Decretal system and the founder of papal 
 authority, was suddenly called to ascend the pon- 
 tifical throne amid the acclamations of the clergy 
 and people. 
 
 The period from Gregory VII to Boniface 
 VIII 51 is too well known for me to spend many 
 words on it. It was the period of the full sway of 
 Papacy in Western countries ; the period of celi- 
 bacy and investiture, of the Crusades, of the 
 bloodthirsty Inquisition, 52 the period in which the 
 
 n 1073-1294. 
 
 "The papal legates had long before been invested with in- 
 quisitorial powers to crush heresy. Bishops were especially 
 charged in 1215 by the Fourth Lateran Council to ferret out and 
 punish heretics or to appoint agents for the purpose. In 1229 
 the Council of Toulouse more thoroughly reorganised this epis- 
 copal inquisition. In 1232 and 1233 the work was entrusted to 
 monks of the Dominican order. 
 
40 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 Church, intoxicated with the spirit of earthly- 
 dominion, almost completely forgot the Kingdom 
 and righteousness of God. With Boniface VIII 
 Papacy found itself on the decline ; and whilst the 
 dawn of modern times was breaking, the need of 
 reform began to be felt. 
 
 Now, in the midst of such spiritual and moral 
 deviation of the Papacy, the clergy, and the whole 
 laity from truth and right, is it possible that not 
 one word of protest was heard in Italy during al- 
 most ten centuries of the restless, turbulent, spas- 
 modic, and abnormal life of the Church? 
 
 Already at the end of the fourth century two 
 powerful voices were raised; that of Jovinian, 53 
 who thundered against the idea of the Church be- 
 ing an assemblage of baptised beings instead of a 
 body of faithful followers of Jesus Christ, and 
 who also denounced meritorious works and com- 
 pulsory celibacy; and that of Vigilantius 54 against 
 compulsory celibacy, the worshipping of martyrs, 
 and pilgrimages. Later on, in the first half of 
 
 "Jovinian was, according to some, a Roman; according to 
 others, a Milanese. He died about 406. 
 
 "Vigilantius was born in 364 in the small village called, in 
 Old timet, Galagorris, and to-day Houra, in the Comminges Dis- 
 trict, in Gascony. 
 
Dawn of Christianity in Rome 41 
 
 the ninth century, the voice of Claudius of Turin 5B 
 was heard, condemning the worshipping of images 
 and of the cross; and in the tenth century Ra- 
 therius of Verona 50 denounced idolatry, bitterly 
 reproved the immorality of the clergy and the 
 negligence of the bishops, and tried to remind the 
 priesthood, who were stupefied by vice and igno- 
 rance, that " God is a spirit and must be wor- 
 shipped in spirit and in truth.' ' But what could 
 he do when, at Verona, after having preached on 
 the spirituality of God, many of his clergy pro- 
 tested, saying: " What is then to be done? We 
 thought we knew something about God, but God 
 is nothing at all if He has not a head "! 57 
 
 But, alas, these sporadic protesting voices, in the 
 midst of those times of such a complete decline, 
 became more and more feeble. One would have 
 thought that the Church was altogether beyond 
 any possibility of reform, and that she was doomed 
 to fall in ruins on the judgment day when God was 
 expected to punish the world. That terrible day 
 was thought to be at hand. The rumour was more 
 and more insistently circulated that the first hour 
 of the year 1000 would be the last for the world. 
 But neither was the world destined to crumble 
 
 65 d - 839 - M ab. 890-974. 
 
 "Ratherius: germ. I, " De Quadragesima." 
 
42 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 away nor was Christianity to remain without re- 
 form ; and the individual protests which we have 
 already mentioned were soon followed by a new 
 sequence of reaction, which we shall call : Mediae- 
 val reaction. 
 
 During the great struggles between Papacy and 
 the Empire, between the Guelfs and Ghibellines, 
 Arnold of Brescia 58 for nine years led a Kepublic 
 in Rome in open defiance of Emperor and Pope. 
 The populace of Rome had broken out in rebellion 
 against Pope Lucius II, 59 who was stoned to death, 
 and they kept his successor, Eugene II, a monk of 
 Bernard's own training, in perpetual exile. Ar- 
 nold, who had been a disciple of Abelard, began to 
 preach a free Gospel, to denounce priestly vices, 
 and to proclaim that the clergy must give back all 
 property and secular dominion to the State and 
 return to the simplicity enjoined by the Gospel 
 and practised by its first ministers. His religious 
 fervour developed into political enthusiasm, which 
 kindled town after town of his native Lombardy 
 and carried him on a wave of popular triumph to 
 his brief rule in Rome. But betrayed into the 
 hands of Frederick Barbarossa and delivered over 
 to Adrian IV, as part of a new compact of alli- 
 ance, he was first strangled as a rebel, then burned 
 
 "1100-1155. "1145. 
 
Dawn of Christianity in Rome 43 
 
 as a heretic; and his ashes were cast into the 
 Tiber, lest anything that had been his should be 
 kept as a sacred relic among the people. Thus 
 vanished the martyr; but his ideal did not vanish. 
 It remained, as we shall see, and inspired, later, 
 many other vigorous protests. 
 
 The Catharists, whom the populace in Lom- 
 bardy used to call Patarenes, 60 appeared in Pied- 
 mont at the beginning of the eleventh century. 61 
 They were not free from doctrinal errors, but, 
 as much as we know of them, by the purity of their 
 lives, by their self-denial, their humility, their love 
 for the New Testament, by the simplicity of their 
 worship, and their abhorrence of sacred images, 
 and by their missionary zeal, they made an ener- 
 getic protest against Rome. They spread all over 
 Italy, from Piedmont to the far end of Sicily; and 
 when they disappeared, about the fourteenth cen- 
 tury, exterminated by persecution in that very 
 Piedmont where they had first commenced their 
 
 60 During the time of Gregory VII (1073-85), a handful of the 
 lowest class of the inhabitants of Milan, led by a fanatic called 
 Arialdo, rose to protest against the papal innovations, especially 
 against investitures and the celibacy of the clergy. These in- 
 surgents were called Patarenes, which in the Milanese dialect 
 means hawkers, or because they dwelt in a wretched quarter of 
 the town called Pataria. When the Catharists (or puritans) 
 first appeared in Lombardy, they were immediately called Pata- 
 renes by the people. 
 
 "About 1028. 
 
44 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy- 
 work, they left their protest to the Waldenses as 
 an inheritance. 
 
 Of the Waldenses we shall speak in a special 
 chapter ; but here, if only by the way, mention must 
 be made of the great monastic movement which 
 was so momentous at the time which we have now 
 been led to by our study. Monasticism, which ap- 
 peared in the East through Paconius 62 and Basil, 63 
 had already, as early as the time of Athanasius 
 and Augustine, 04 greatly affected the imagination 
 of Western Europe ; but only in the sixth century 
 did it find in Benedict of Norcia 65 a powerful and 
 intelligent organiser. Monasticism, in the East, 
 had been essentially ascetic; in the West, with 
 Benedict, it became more practical, more active, 
 more human, although still with a limited horizon. 
 Benedict, who died in prayer beside his own grave 
 which he had prepared for himself, shows us in the 
 most vivid manner the nature of his monastic 
 ideal. But from the thirteenth century onwards, 
 the monastic institutions assumed a different as- 
 pect, through the appearance of the so-called 
 Mendicant Orders. The Dominicans and the Fran- 
 ciscans came out of their life of meditation and 
 
 prayer and tried to re-awaken in the mind of all 
 ra d. 348. ea d> 379 
 
 •* Athanasius (d. 373); Augustine (354-430). 
 w 480-543. 
 
Dawn of Christianity in Eome 45 
 
 the idea of the Church as a religious institution at 
 a time when, for so long, it had been nothing else 
 but a political instrument in the hands of princes. 
 The Dominicans, defenders of the faith, founded 
 the Inquisition; the Franciscans revealed to the 
 people the mysticism of Christianity as they un- 
 derstood it ; and, through the creation of the Ter- 
 tiaries, put monastic piety within reach of all 
 members of the Church. They were true, faith- 
 ful servants of Eome ; notwithstanding that, they 
 had their share in shaking the very foundations 
 of the Eoman system, inasmuch as they insisted 
 on the fact that true piety consists more in life 
 than in forms, and opposed their simple, sober 
 virtues to the pomp, ignorance, and ambition of 
 the great dignitaries of the Church. 
 
 How it happened that by their rivalries and 
 internal quarrels, by their proscribing all that 
 might have helped them in their intellectual de- 
 velopment and scientific progress, they in their 
 turn fell short of what might have been expected 
 from them, is not for us to question here. We 
 must not pass on, however, without touching on 
 the two great personalities of St. Dominic 66 and 
 of St. Francis. 67 Both were great men; they 
 were very different from each other ; and there is 
 
 ee d 122 i. 87 d. 1226. 
 
46 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 no doubt that, of the two, St. Francis was by far 
 the more attractive and prepossessing. " There 
 was no magnetic power of love in Dominic to draw 
 men to him, even while zeal and goodness directed 
 his labours,' ' says Professor Herkless; 69 "he 
 lacked the one thing needful, whatever it was, 
 which Francis had, to make captive the heart/ ' 
 Nevertheless it is a fact that in an age when the 
 people were ignorant of the Bible, when the priests 
 of the Church were dumb, he trained men to 
 preach, and he himself preached the Gospel of 
 Jesus Christ; and if Dominicans went beyond the 
 limits when they tried to suffocate the heretics in 
 blood by means of the Inquisition, " the founder 
 of their Order was wise when he taught them that 
 heresy must be met by learning and educated wis- 
 dom, and was strong when he organised a company 
 of men well trained in theology and sent them forth 
 to meet the critics and enemies of the Church." 69 
 11 St. Francis,' ' says Sabatier, " was par excel- 
 lence the saint of the Middle Ages. Owing nothing 
 either to the Church or to the School, he was 
 truly a theodidacte. . . . If we search for the 
 origin of his ideas, we shall find it absolutely 
 
 '"Francis and Dominio and the Mendicant Orders, by John 
 Herkless, D.D. 
 
 "John Herkless, D.D.: Ibid. 
 
Dawn of Christianity in Rome 47 
 
 among the people of his time; and it is just on 
 account of this, that, at the beginning of the thir- 
 teenth century, he incarnates the Italian soul just 
 as Dante incarnates it a century later. He was 
 of the people, and the people recognised them- 
 selves in him. He possessed their poetry, their 
 inspirations ; the claims of the people he made his 
 own claims. ... As far as his attitude before 
 the Church is concerned, it was the attitude of an 
 obedient son. This may sound strange, speaking 
 as we do of a preacher who had not been sent, 
 but who was speaking to the world in the name 
 of his own personal and immediate inspiration. 
 . . . But for men like St. Francis the Church 
 was what our fatherland is for us ; we may wish 
 to overturn the government, to upset the adminis- 
 tration, to change the Constitution; yet, in spite 
 of all this, we do not believe ourselves to be in 
 the least less loyal to our country. In like man- 
 ner, in those ages of a faith so naive, when re- 
 ligious beliefs seemed to be rooted in the very 
 flesh of humanity, Dante could attack the clergy 
 and the Roman Court with violence such as has 
 never been surpassed, and at the same time re- 
 main a good Catholic. St. Francis so strongly 
 believed that the Church had been untrue to her 
 calling, that in his symbolic language he spoke 
 
48 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 of the widowhood of his Dame Poverty, who, from 
 Christ to his own time, had not found a bride- 
 groom. How could he better have declared his 
 projects and made others divine his dreams? 
 What he wanted was far more than the foundation 
 of an Order. We wrong him when we so restrict 
 his attempt. He wanted a true revival of the 
 Church in the name of that evangelical ideal which 
 he had found anew. ' ' 70 
 
 Among the voices which in the bosom of the 
 Church were raised to protest against the abuses 
 of Papacy and to unmask the vices of the clergy, 
 we have to record the creator of the great Italian 
 national poetry (whom I have already alluded to 
 in quoting Sabatier) : Dante Alighieri, 71 I mean, 
 the " voice of ten silent centuries,' ' the poet who 
 sings us " his mystic unfathomable song. ,, 72 To 
 his divine Poem Italians have had recourse in all 
 times, when, crushed by political or spiritual 
 tyranny, they longed for an inspired word of cour- 
 age, of concord, of trust in their own spurned 
 dignity or in the coming unity of their own be- 
 loved country. 
 
 With Dante, Francesco Petrarca 73 may be 
 
 T0 Paul Sabatier: Vie de S. Francois d' Assise (Introduction). 
 T1 1265-1321. 
 
 ™ Tieck, quoted by Carlyle in Lectures on Heroes, " The hero as 
 poet^Dante." 78 1304-1374. 
 
Dawn of Christianity in Rome 49 
 
 recorded ; he was inferior to Dante as a poet and 
 as a man of character, but he also protested 
 against Eome. His indignation may not always 
 have burst from the deep anguish of his heart ; it 
 was more often a kind of academic indignation 
 poured forth in magniloquent Latin prose or in 
 most elegant, harmonious sonnets; but still, he 
 too, when necessary, knew how to be terrible; as 
 when he called the See of the Popes : 
 
 "A school of errors, a temple of heresy; 
 Rome, once; now false, wicked Babylon, 
 Hell of the living " ,4 
 
 However, all those cries of denunciation against 
 Papacy and the clergy had not yet been able to 
 find their way into the conscience of the people; 
 but the subtle and biting raillery with which 
 Giovanni Boccaccio, 75 the maker of Italian prose, 
 scourged to death the vices and the scandalous 
 life of the priests, of the friars, and of the nuns 
 of his time, quickly and most effectively reached 
 
 74 Fontana di dolore, albergo d'ira, 
 Scola d'errori, e tempio d'eresia; 
 Gia Roma, or Babilonia falsa e ria, 
 Per cui tanto si piagne e si sospira: 
 O fueina d'inganni, o prigion d'ira, 
 Ove'l ben more, e'l mal si mitre e cria; 
 Di vivi inferno; un gran miracol fia 
 Se Cristo teco al fine non s'adira. 
 ™ 1313-1375. 
 
50 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 the popular conscience. Raillery was the mighti- 
 est weapon that could be used to hasten the fall 
 of that spiritual power which, trusting in the 
 strength of princes, had for centuries caused hu- 
 manity to weep and to moan. And no man, with 
 the exception perhaps of Aristophanes, ever knew 
 how to make use of the ridiculous, with better skill 
 than did Boccaccio. So, in those classical times 
 when humanity was coming out of the terrors of 
 the Middle Ages, and Dante, by setting reason 
 and science against religious authority, was giving 
 the signal of a great revolution, the dissolute life 
 of the clergy, and the sharp raillery of the merry 
 story-teller, completed the work by making the 
 way smooth for Martin Luther and his great 
 reformation. 
 
n 
 
 THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION AND 
 ITS ECHO IN ITALY 
 
II 
 
 THE PROTESTANT EEVOLUTION AND 
 ITS ECHO IN ITALY 
 
 DANTE ALIGHIERI is rightly considered 
 still a man of the Middle Ages ; but with 
 Francesco Petrarca, whom Pasquale Vil- 
 lari has called " the first modern man," we are 
 already in the Renaissance; in the time of the 
 revival of ancient classical influences which took 
 its rise in Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
 turies, and which moved the whole of Europe. 
 This Renaissance gave, in the fifteenth century, 
 a last and fatal blow to the religious belief which, 
 at the end of the Middle Ages, and referred to in 
 the previous chapter, we had left in a dying con- 
 dition. 
 
 When the Mohammedans began to occupy the 
 cities of the Greek Empire, especially after Mo- 
 hammed II had taken Constantinople, many 
 learned men who preferred exile to subjection to 
 those conquerors came to Italy, bringing with 
 them a quantity of old manuscripts; they settled 
 
 53 
 
5-i The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 down in the principal Academies, and were at once 
 surrounded by a crowd of literati. The fifteenth 
 was a century of great decline in Italian literature 
 and art ; and the more intellectual minds, eager to 
 preserve both literature and art, saw no other way 
 of doing so than by going back to the ancient 
 classics. In consequence, during that century, the 
 want of originality was as great as the want of be- 
 lief. Many went to excess, and were possessed by 
 a frenzy for servile imitation. " It looked as 
 if Italians,' ' says Pasquale Villari, " did not 
 wish so much to imitate the old world as to sum- 
 mon it from its grave and make it live again ; in so 
 doing they felt they were coming back to them- 
 selves, and entering, as it were, into a second life : 
 a regeneration. . . . They worked, therefore, with 
 unremitting energy, but, in doing so, their re- 
 ligious sentiment vanished, their moral sense got 
 weaker and weaker, and the worship of form grew 
 in them to the detriment of substance; a failing, 
 which we see reappearing for centuries in Italian 
 literature. . . . When the historian considers such 
 wonderful intellectual activity which reproduces 
 itself in a thousand different forms, always grow- 
 ing richer and more brilliant, and at the same 
 time always followed by evident moral decline, 
 he feels dismayed, as if in the presence of a mys- 
 
The Protestant Revolution 55 
 
 terious contradiction pregnant of future woe. 
 When the evil that inwardly torments this people 
 comes to the surface, a terrible catastrophe is 
 inevitable. ' ' * 
 
 The mysterious contradiction alluded to by Pas- 
 quale Villari will not escape the notice of the in- 
 vestigator of this period. The Renaissance found 
 faithful disciples among the heads of the clergy, 
 and " erudition itself," says Villari, 2 " ascended 
 the cathedra of Peter, with Pope Nicholas V. ' ' 8 
 These ecclesiastics used to meet in the Vatican, in 
 a hall which they themselves called " the Work- 
 shop of Lies "; and here the Tuscan Poggio Brac- 
 ciolini used to entertain the meeting with his ob- 
 scene " Jests." In the field of art we know that 
 Perugino, the master of Raphael, did not believe 
 in the immortality of the soul ; that Leonardo da 
 Vinci, the painter of the " Cenacolo," always 
 doubted the truth of Roman Catholicism; that 
 Titian drew the inspiration for his " Assump- 
 tion " from the daughters of Pietro Aretino; and 
 that the original of many of Raphael's " Ma- 
 donne " is to be found in the trivial and lustful 
 figure of the Fornarina. " In the life of the 
 
 1 Pasquale Villari : Niccold Afachiavelli e i suoi tempi. Firenze, 
 1874. See E. Comba in Intr. alia St. delta Rif. in Italia. 
 2 Pasquale Villari: Ibid. 
 8 1447-1455. 
 
56 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 artists of that time everything is inconsistent and 
 contradictory,' ' writes Guerzoni. " They spend 
 half their days painting Madonnas and dying 
 Christs, in laying out plans for new churches, in 
 painting frescoes in chapels and convents ; and the 
 other half, in leading a debauched life. Their 
 sculptures and their paintings are the glorifica- 
 tion of faith ; but more often not a spark of faith 
 illuminates their soul. As artists, they are in 
 heaven ; as men, they are on earth, and very often 
 in the lowest part of it. No one knows what they 
 believed. There is a partition, a division, a gap 
 in their soul. Between what they do and what 
 they think there is an abyss." 4 At that time the 
 Church of St. Peter was being built in Eome. It 
 was a masterpiece of art, but at the same time it 
 was an absolute negation of genuine Christian 
 sentiment. Edmondo de Amicis, writing his im- 
 pressions after seeing it, said : l ' A seducing mag- 
 nificence, a fascinating splendour, but not an in- 
 spiring grandeur. There, one gets the impression 
 more of a theatre than of a church. ' ' 5 And Taine, 
 also, when thinking of it, wrote: " Never was a 
 Christian God worshipped in such a pagan way." 6 
 Paganism triumphed in the field of philosophy 
 
 * Guerzoni : Michelangelo credente. Quoted from E. Comba. 
 6 De Amicis: Impressioni di Roma. Quoted from E. Comba. 
 Taine: Voyage en Italic 
 
The Protestant Kevolution 57 
 
 with Aristotle and Plato; and the triumph of 
 Paganism was followed by the downfall of theol- 
 ogy. What chance could theology ever have when, 
 in Eome, the Popes themselves lived a life which 
 was the most shameless insult to Christianity? 
 Nicholas V, who, at the beginning of this age, had 
 been the great patron of the Eenaissance, was suc- 
 ceeded by Sixtus IV, 7 who made a market of the 
 Church, filled Italy with blood so as to insure some 
 sovereignty or other for his sons and nephews, 
 kindled the conspiracy of the Pazzi, and caused 
 Giuliano de' Medici 8 to be murdered in Florence 
 at the foot of the altar in the Cathedral, at the 
 moment of the elevation of the Host. Sixtus IV 
 was followed by Innocent VIII, 9 a man simoniacal 
 and greedy, living a life so debauched, that the 
 very name of Innocent which he assumed, made 
 people laugh as if he had intended it as a joke. 
 And Innocent's successor was Alexander VI, 10 the 
 Nero of Papacy; the man who made the whole of 
 Rome shudder for fear of assassination, had but 
 one aim in life: to enrich his numerous family, 
 and, above all, his son Cesare, the most abandoned 
 wretch that ever lived, of whom it has been said : 
 ' ' He gave audience to nobody but to the execu- 
 tioners he employed.' ' So that it is not to be 
 
 7 1471-1484. 8 1478. 8 1484-1492. 10 1492-1503. 
 
58 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 wondered at if Niccolo Machiavelli 1X was led to 
 write the following memorable words: " The na- 
 tions nearest to the Roman Church, the head of our 
 religion, have the least religion of all. ... On 
 account of the evil example of the Roman Court, 
 Italy has lost all devotion and religion. . . . We 
 Italians owe, therefore, to the Church and to the 
 priests the fact of our having become irreligious 
 andbad. ,,12 
 
 11 The pagan revival," says Professor Allen, 
 1 ' had to be followed by a Christian revival, which 
 we term the Reformation, or the last state of man- 
 kind would be worse than the first. Culture and 
 refinement can never take the place of the strenu- 
 ous thing we call Virtue. Whatever we hold to be 
 the source of the Moral Law, of Christianity not 
 as a creed or ceremony but as a spirit and life, it 
 is the only salvation mankind has found as yet 
 from those horrors of ancient society against 
 which its first revelation was made; horrors to 
 which Learning itself may open the door, and Art 
 can only decorate the way." 13 
 
 A first attempt to reform the Church was made 
 
 u 1469-1527. " Machiavelli : Discorsi, L. I, C. 12. 
 
 U J. H. Allen: Christian History; 2d vol., "The Middle Age." 
 
The Protestant Kevolution 59 
 
 by the Church herself; and in this classic year, 
 1400, three Councils were held, of which history 
 has handed down the record to us by the name of 
 Keform Councils. They are : the Councils of Pisa, 
 Constance, and Bale. 
 
 What was their practical result? Here it is 
 summed up in a few words. 
 
 The arrogant claims of Boniface VIII soon led 
 to a violent conflict with the French King Philip 
 IV, resulting in the Pope's imprisonment and 
 death. 14 Two years later, a French Cardinal, on 
 being elected Pope as Clement V, removed the 
 Papal Court to Avignon; whence the Babylonian 
 Captivity, which lasted seventy years, 15 and pre- 
 sented the spectacle of two Popes : one at Avignon, 
 the other at Some. 16 To remove the scandal, the 
 Council of Pisa was convened, which, after con- 
 demning the two absent Popes as guilty of heresy, 
 deposed them and appointed a new Pope who 
 assumed the name of Alexander V, an aged monk, 
 who died within a year of his election. Thus the 
 practical result of the Council of Pisa 17 was to 
 leave the Church with three Popes instead of two. 
 
 14 1303. 1S 1309-1378. 
 
 "In Rome: Urban VI (1378-1389), then Boniface IX (1389- 
 1404), then Innocent VII (1404-1406), and Gregory XII (1406- 
 1410). 
 
 In Avignon: Clement VII (1378-1394), then Benedict XIII 
 (1394-1424). "1409. 
 
60 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 Alexander V was succeeded by a Neapolitan, 
 possessed of political ability and daring, but no- 
 torious for many crimes, who assumed the name of 
 John XXIII. This man, impelled by the Emperor 
 Sigismund, summoned the Council of Constance, 
 which sat four years. 18 The whole work of this 
 second Council may be summed up as follows. 
 It condemned 44 propositions from the writings 
 of Wiclif, sentenced John Huss to be burned, 19 
 condemned Jerome of Prague, who was burned 
 upon the same spot as John Huss, whose zealous 
 and eloquent coadjutor he had been. 20 John 
 XXIII, charged by the Council with the manifold 
 crimes of his life, was deposed and compelled to 
 abdicate. Otto Colonna was chosen as his suc- 
 cessor, and took the name of Martin V. 21 " The 
 new Pope," says Professor Gr. P. Fisher, " soon 
 showed his real attitude towards the reform move- 
 ment. He sanctioned the abuses on which the 
 Roman Court had flourished during the reign of 
 John XXIII, and before the Council was dis- 
 solved, asserted the papal supremacy in terms 
 which contradicted the doctrine of conciliar au- 
 thority, which had been solemnly promulgated 
 in its fourth and fifth sessions. The members of 
 
 18 1414-1418. "July 6, 1415. "May, 1416. 
 
 "November 11, 1417. 
 
The Protestant Revolution 61 
 
 the Council, wearied by their long-continued and 
 apparently futile labours, were in no mood to 
 withstand the schemes or pretensions of the Pope. 
 They satisfied themselves with a decree embody- 
 ing a few reforms upon which they were all 
 united, and voted to leave the rest to be arranged 
 in concordats with the several nations. The sub- 
 stantial failure of this Council to achieve reforms 
 which thoughtful and good men everywhere 
 deemed indispensable, was a proof that some more 
 radical means of reformation would have to be 
 found. ,,22 
 
 The last attempt to reform was made during 
 the Papacy of Eugene IV, 23 by the Council of 
 Bale, which sat ineffectually for eighteen years. 24 
 The Council was assembled by Martin V, who, 
 however, died on his way to attend it; his suc- 
 cessor, Eugene IV, did his best to procure its dis- 
 solution. The only act of importance framed by 
 the Council was a compromise with the Hussites. 25 
 It was crippled by the hostility of the Pope, whom 
 it attempted to depose, 26 but without effect. The 
 Popes showed themselves hostile to the so-called 
 
 22 G. P. Fisher: History of the Christian Church. 
 
 23 1431-1447. * 1431-1449. 
 
 25 The use of the cup (calix) by the laity in the Eucharist was 
 granted as a compromise at the Council of Bale (1433), and is 
 still enjoyed in Bohemia. 26 1435. 
 
62 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 Reform Councils ; especially to those of Constance 
 and Bale; which makes it clear that, personally, 
 they neither wanted the reform of the Church, nor 
 were inclined to allow the Councils to succeed. 
 Did they at least encourage the several men who 
 were doing all in their power to institute reform! 
 Alas, the eloquent answer to this is given by the 
 dying fifteenth century, which witnessed the mar- 
 tyrdom of Girolamo Savonarola. 27 " What is 
 called the irony of history,' ' says Professor Allen, 
 1 ' has no more tragic example than the condemna- 
 tion of the last great preacher of ecclesiastical 
 righteousness by the most profligate of Popes. 
 Savonarola was tortured, strangled, and burned 
 by sentence of Alexander Borgia. . . . Sacerdotal 
 Christianity was thus fatally dishonoured; but 
 the forces were already in training, which in the 
 next century were to deliver their assault under 
 the new banner of Salvation by Faith." 28 
 
 So we come to the glorious sixteenth century, 
 during which Italy witnessed romantic epic poetry 
 brought to the height of its lustre by Lodovico 
 
 "May 23, 1498. 
 
 28 J. H. Allen: Christian History; 2d vol., "The Middle Age." 
 
The Protestant Revolution 63 
 
 Ariosto ; 20 the art of history brought to ligM by 
 Machiavelli, 30 Guicciardini, 31 and a crowd of other 
 minor men ; and the fine arts, painting especially, 
 which were protected by Popes 32 and princes, 
 brought to a height of perfection by the architect 
 Bramante, Raphael, the king of painters, Leo- 
 nardo da Vinci, Andrea del Sarto, Antonio Allegri 
 da Correggio, and Michelangelo, called " the man 
 with four souls ' ' on account of his being a sculp- 
 tor, painter, architect, and poet. 
 
 But the times were bad. The end of the fif- 
 teenth century had seen Italy invaded by foreign- 
 ers; and the following century saw Italy in the 
 hands of princes 33 who did not maintain the power 
 and dignity of their position but only its name, 
 and who, like Cosimo I at Florence, after having 
 secured for themselves dominion over their States, 
 favoured fine arts and learning solely to make the 
 people completely forget their right to freedom. 
 In the first half of this century the Renaissance, 
 
 29 1474-1533. so 1469-1527. 31 1483-1540. 
 
 83 Julius II (1503-1513), Leo X (1513-1521), Clement VII 
 (1523-1534), Paul III (1534-1549), Gregory XIII (1572-1585), 
 Sixtus V (1586-1590), Clement VIII (1592-1605). 
 
 83 In Naples and in Sicily, Spain through two viceregents. In 
 Florence, the Medici; in Ferrara, and later on at Modena, the 
 Estensi. In Mantoa, Guastalla and Padua, the Gonzaga. In 
 Urbino, the Montefeltro and the Delia Rovere. In Piedmont, 
 Emanuel Filiberto. 
 
64 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 as far as literary perfection was concerned, had 
 exerted its influence; but the Italians, unfortu- 
 nately, derived from it only religious indifference 
 and more unrestrained licentiousness than ever. 
 In the works of Lodovico Ariosto we feel the crav- 
 ing for pleasure; and when he speaks of Chris- 
 tianity, we perceive at once that the poet has it 
 only in his mind ; not in his heart, which is empty. 
 In the works of Machiavelli and Guicciardini we 
 find a political ideal which has success principally 
 in view, without any moral consideration. Story- 
 tellers and dissolute poets abounded more than 
 ever at that time. " In spite of all this," says 
 Piero Misciattelli, " the spiritual atmosphere of 
 the Italian sixteenth century, which was per- 
 meated with beauty and humanistic thought, had 
 become unfit to breathe for all those who had a soul. 
 The art of Michelangelo, with the sad meditations 
 of his Prophets, with the desperate attitudes of 
 his Prisoners, with the religious melancholy 
 of his statue l Pieta,' expressed with intensity 
 the unsatisfied feeling and the inward strife 
 of the few souls of his time, who, chained to the 
 earth, eagerly desired heavenly things. The most 
 powerful manifestations of Michelangelo's art are 
 but the cries of a restive genius who tries to free 
 himself from the classical models which the 
 
The Protestant Ee volution 65 
 
 Eenaissance worshipped. Michelangelo was a de- 
 stroyer of idols. He moved the ocean of Thought. 
 He was a lover of war, not of peace. Vasari, his 
 friend, understood him but little; his disciples, 
 small-minded men, only saw the outward forms 
 of his art ; Raphael, a sublime lover of the beau- 
 tiful, hated him with a hatred full of admiration ; 
 the Popes, who were patrons of fine arts, appreci- 
 ated Michelangelo as a magnificent decorator of 
 their imperial palace ; princes snatched him from 
 each other as a builder of mausoleums. Only Vit- 
 toria Colonna, with the intuition of her inward 
 eye troubled by religious inquietude, saw the abyss 
 of despair in the soul of the old artist; and for 
 this reason did Michelangelo dedicate to her, in 
 love sonnets, his own spiritual autobiography." 34 
 During 1494-1498, Savonarola entirely changed 
 the mental atmosphere of Florence; and this 
 change extended into the field of art and is 
 recorded in the work of several artists. Sandro 
 Botticelli, 35 for instance, after the martyrdom of 
 Savonarola ceased to paint peaceful Greek god- 
 desses and classic myths, and began to paint Ma- 
 donnas, in whom the joy of the " Magnificat " 36 
 completely disappeared to give room to the inef- 
 
 "Piero Misciattelli: Mistici Senesi; Chap. VI, " B. Ochino 
 e l'eresia in Siena." 
 
 »s 1444-1510. 86 Painted about the year 1465. 
 
66 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy- 
 fable expression of pain of a " Mater Dolorosa ": 
 11 not of her beneath the cross, but of a young 
 Mother with the ever-present sword of a forebod- 
 ing sorrow piercing her heart, with the knowledge 
 of what was to come, of which others around her 
 were ignorant, and in which, therefore, they could 
 offered her no sympathy "; 37 a Madonna, such as 
 only the sermons of Fra Girolamo had had the 
 power to inspire. And in his celebrated picture of 
 " Calumny, " now in the Uffizi Gallery of Flor- 
 ence, 38 Botticelli handed down to us, on immortal 
 canvas, the piteous story of Savonarola's martyr- 
 
 » T Colonel G. F. Young, C.B. : The Medici. 
 
 ,a Steinmann in his Botticelli thus describes his famous picture: 
 " The scene is laid in a stately judgment hall in the classic style, 
 on the decoration of which every resource of art has been ex- 
 pended. Between its lofty arches there is a distant view of a 
 calm sea; life-sized marble figures stand in the niches of the 
 pillars of the hall (like the figures outside Orsanmichele ) , and 
 every vacant space is adorned with richly-gilded sculpture. It 
 is a magnificent Renaissance building, which fancy imagines a 
 place in which wisdom and justice alone would exist, a place 
 of refuge in which poets and thinkers may prepare new in- 
 tellectual achievements as they walk in this stately portico by 
 the sea. Instead of this we witness a fearful deed of violence. 
 In bitter contrast with the splendid marble all round, in ironical 
 mockery of the solemn statues of justice and virtue on the walls, 
 a noisy throng is dragging the innocent victim of calumny be- 
 fore the tribunal of the Unjust Judge, who sits with crown and 
 sceptre on a richly-decorated throne. Two female figures, Igno- 
 rance and Suspicion, whisper in the long ass's ears of the Unjust 
 Judge, while in front of him Envy declaims with imperious force. 
 With his right hand Envy leads Calumny, who holds a burning 
 torch before her as a treacherous symbol of her pretended love of 
 
The Protestant Kevolution 67 
 
 dom. 39 Thus, towards the decline of the century, 
 while licentiousness in writing seemed to have 
 become more moderate, or at least not so bare- 
 faced, the writers appeared more serious and 
 
 truth. She dashes impetuously forward, with her left hand 
 grasping mercilessly the hair of her victim, who lies on the 
 ground stripped naked, with his folded hands raised to heaven 
 in assertion of his innocence. Calumny's appearance is plausible 
 and crafty; her clothing is costly, and her two attendants, Fraud 
 and Deception, are busy twining fresh roses in her golden hair. 
 Behind these (as what follows from injustice and cruelty) comes 
 the tormentor Remorse, a hideous hag clothed from head to foot 
 in ragged mourning attire, who, clasping her trembling hands 
 before her, turns her face round over her shoulder, to look at 
 the figure behind her of naked Truth (a slim female figure 
 recalling Botticelli's Venus), who gazes upwards and lifts her 
 right hand to heaven in adjuration against the scene of in- 
 justice, cruelty, and wrong." (Quoted from Colonel G. F. 
 Young's The Medici.) 
 
 89 See Colonel G. F. Young's The Medici: "At first sight this 
 picture repels us by its strange scene of grotesque violence; but 
 it has its meaning in the history of the time. For in this picture 
 Botticelli writes, for those who may come after, the story of how 
 Savonarola was done to death. In the stately Renaissance hall, 
 the refuge for poets and philosophers, with its solemn statues of 
 Wisdom and Justice, and its profuse decoration by Art, Botti- 
 celli represents Florence as for sixty years it had been. In the 
 Unjust Judge, with his ass's ears, seated on a throne with 
 crown and sceptre which he is not fit to bear, and in the scene 
 of violence enacted in front of him, the painter represents the 
 government of Florence as it had become; still occupying the 
 localities where such different sentiments had once prevailed. In 
 the figures of Ignorance and Suspicion, Envy and Calumny, Fraud 
 and Deception, he represents the motives and the methods which 
 had prevailed to put to death their victim, Savonarola. While 
 the figures of Remorse and Truth embody Botticelli's prophecy of 
 what shall afterwards follow." 
 
68 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 thoughtful, and here and there some poet did not 
 disdain to choose a Christian subject for his 
 rhymes, until the reawakening of the Moslem 
 wrath against Europe and the subsequent victory 
 of Lepanto 40 kindled anew in many the desire to 
 fight the Crusades over again, and Torquato 
 Tasso 41 was moved to describe " the deliverance 
 of Jerusalem "; Torquato Tasso, who expressed 
 in verse the revival of Christian sentiments and 
 the dejection and sadness of the Italian people, bet- 
 ter than any other writer of the sixteenth century. 
 
 Meanwhile what were the Popes doing? 
 
 Alexander VI, of vile memory, died in 1503. 
 He was succeeded by Pius III, but only for twenty- 
 six days; then succeeded Julius II (1503-1513), an 
 irritable and ambitious Pontiff, a man more fitted 
 for the sword than the tiara, who was Pope only 
 in name and habiliments; he was followed by 
 Leo X, 42 the Medicean Pope, whose love of fine 
 arts, science, luxury, pleasure, hunting, and plays, 
 was only surpassed by his carelessness for re- 
 ligion. During the reigns of Julius II and Leo 
 X a Council was held, known as the fifth Lateran 
 Council. 43 This ought to have answered the cry 
 of ecclesiastics and laymen for the repression of 
 
 40 1571. 41 1544-1595. "1513-1521. 
 
 "Opened in 1512 by Julius II. 
 
The Protestant Revolution 69 
 
 the most scandalous abuses, for a barrier to stop 
 the ever-rising torrent of corruption. But alas ! 
 the Council, composed of 95 bishops, all Italians, 
 did nothing but annul the decisions of the Council 
 of Pisa, 44 cause the subjects of France to rebel 
 against their King, decree that the soul is im- 
 mortal (and surely there was much need of it, if, 
 as Francesco de Sanctis has said, Leo X himself 
 was a materialist) ; 45 and having, or believing that 
 it had nothing else of importance to do, busied 
 itself with the grave matter of the removal of an 
 annual fair from Lyons to Grenoble ! 4S 
 
 But if a kind of slumberous spirit had invaded 
 Pope, Cardinals, and Councils, God was not slum- 
 bering; and the Lateran Council had just closed 
 when the first crash of the Reformation resounded. 
 That was in 1517. With Martin Luther and his 
 ninety-five Theses concerning the lawfulness of 
 Indulgences, dawned the era of the Protestant 
 Reformation. 47 
 
 My aim here is not to study the origin, the 
 spirit, and the vicissitudes of the Reformation 
 in the land where it was born and from whence it 
 
 44 1409. 
 
 "Francesco de Sanctis: Leziom sopra il Cinquecento. 
 
 *° 3d Session, * 3 Jst of October, 1517. 
 
70 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 spread its shining light throughout Europe. In 
 the nineteenth century, par excellence " the cen- 
 tury of criticism/ ' critics did not spare the move- 
 ment which has been called " the Protestant revo- 
 lution.' ' Even the critics of the most radical 
 school, however, who consider the Protestant 
 Reformation as " one of the great calamities of 
 human history,' ' are obliged to admit that it was 
 the Church of Rome which made such a calamity 
 " unavoidable," and must recognise that Luther 
 made men aware of a new relation in which they 
 stood before God and all divine realities. " Lu- 
 ther," says Professor Allen, " carried them right 
 back to the Bible itself, especially to the Psalms 
 and Epistles, in which they found the very foun- 
 tain-head of religious truth. All the enormous 
 mass of tradition, ceremony, penance, that had in- 
 tervened, was suddenly swept away, as a mist by 
 a gust of wind; and there was opened to them, 
 very literally, a new heaven and a new earth, quite 
 hidden from them till then. They, too, were face 
 to face with the Infinite. In the joy and strength 
 of that thought, they were emancipated from the 
 yoke of fear." 48 
 
 The German Reformation found a powerful 
 echo on the Italian side of the Alps; and after 
 
 48 J. H. Allen: Christian History; 3d vol., "Christian Phases." 
 
The Protestant Eevolution 71 
 
 having called the Italians back from the wild and 
 noisy way of living of the century of Leo X to the 
 earnestness of life and to the consideration of the 
 great spiritual problems, it opened to them a new 
 horizon: vistas of emancipation from all illegiti- 
 mate authority and of subjection to Christ only, 
 the head of the true Church. 
 
 There were causes, in Italy, that paved the way 
 for this movement, and causes that brought it 
 about. 
 
 The way was prepared by the spirit of the peo- 
 ple who, by individual and collective protests, had 
 several times shown that they knew how to shake 
 off the yoke of the spiritually arrogant power of 
 Eome. Let it be sufficient, as far as individual 
 protests are concerned, to recall the names of 
 Claudius of Turin, of Arnaldo da Brescia, of Sa- 
 vonarola ; and as far as the collective protests are 
 concerned, let us only mention the Milanese epis- 
 copacy which refused to recognise the primacy of 
 the bishops of Eome, although that primacy had 
 already been imposed on the remotest churches of 
 the West; 49 not only that, but it also dared to 
 resist Gregory VII in the delicate question of the 
 
 49 It was not until the eleventh century that the Popes suc- 
 ceeded in establishing their authority in Milan and induced the 
 Milanese archbishops to ask for their " pallium " from Rome. 
 
72 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 celibacy of the clergy. 50 It was prepared by the 
 Renaissance, when the writings of the Fathers 
 were brought to light and compared with the creed 
 of the Church, and when the Scriptures of the 
 Old and New Testaments were studied in their 
 original languages; so that the renovated knowl- 
 edge of the sources of Christian doctrine revealed 
 the differences between the native simplicity of 
 the Gospel and the doctrinal and ecclesiastical sys- 
 tem which professed to be founded upon it. 
 Finally, the way was opened to the new revolu- 
 tionary ideas by the invention of the press, by 
 which means their propagation was made possible. 
 The causes which brought about the reform 
 movement in Italy may be summed up as follows : 
 the religious corruption of the times; the influ- 
 ence of the Bible, which, in Italy, in the first half 
 of the sixteenth century was, as we shall see, 
 studied more than is generally believed ; the fre- 
 quent interchange of correspondence between the 
 two countries ; the presence of German students in 
 Italian universities, and of students from Italy in 
 universities in Germany. Even the war between 
 Charles V and Francis I brought to Italy many 
 adherents to the Reformation who, with the en- 
 
 60 In 1074 the Milanese clergy opposed the decree of Gregory 
 VII forbidding marriage to the priests. 
 
The Protestant Revolution 73 
 
 thusiasm of the neophyte and with the boldness of 
 the soldier, quickly spread the new doctrines. 
 
 What about the extension and the importance 
 of the Reform movement in Italy? 
 
 " In Italy,' ' wrote Voltaire, " very few fol- 
 lowed Luther; the Italian people, ingenious, and 
 busy with intrigues and pleasures, kept themselves 
 aloof from that agitation." 51 The staunch Ro- 
 man Catholic Cantu, however, thought otherwise, 
 for he said : ' ' Although the love for the new ideas 
 did not carry away either the people or the 
 princes, and although those who were anxious 
 about the condition of their own belief were very 
 few, compared with the number of those who lived 
 believing without ever analysing their creed, yet, 
 he who thinks that the Reformation had neither 
 extension nor civil and political consequences on 
 this side of the Alps, makes a great mistake." 52 
 Facts amply show that Cantu was right. To prove 
 the truth of my assertion I ask you to follow me in 
 my rapid flight over the beautiful peninsula. 
 
 To the north is Locarno, on the enchanting 
 Lago Maggiore. There in 1526, that is to say, nine 
 
 81 For more details see McCrie : La Riforma in Italia. 
 83 C. Can til: Gli eretici d' Italia. Quoted from McCrie. 
 
74 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 years after Luther's Theses, Baldassarre Fontana 
 sowed the first seed of the Reformation which the 
 Locarnese apostle, Giovanni Beccaria, nurtured 
 and surrounded with loving care until it developed 
 into a united and zealous church. Turn to Istria, 
 to the peninsula which then belonged to the Queen 
 of the Seas. It is the furthest corner of Northern 
 Italy; the last to accept the Reformation; but 
 it is from that corner that Pier Paolo and Giovan 
 Battista Vergerio came; the two brothers and 
 bishops to whose efforts it was due that, previous 
 to 1546, the greater part of the population of that 
 country had opened their hearts to the Gospel. 
 Then there is Venice, the glorious republic, whose 
 Senate, jealous of its own autonomy, resisted the 
 intrusions of Rome and insisted on having its 
 right of sanctuary respected, as sacred to all. 
 It is quite certain that Gerdesio exaggerates when 
 he calls " aurea libertas " the freedom then en- 
 joyed in the shadow of St. Mark; it is quite cer- 
 tain that Venice, absorbed as she was in her love 
 for money, did not consider it practical or profit- 
 able to spend too much time on the religious prob- 
 lems of the day; it is equally certain that she 
 tolerated the Holy Office calmly slaying its vic- 
 tims under the very eyes of the winged lion, for 
 want of that sympathy which seems to be com- 
 
The Protestant Revolution 75 
 
 pletely unknown to those who have not learnt 
 by experience what misfortune is; and it may 
 be that pride more than noble-mindedness made 
 Her resist Rome and insist on her rights be- 
 ing respected. In spite of this, the fact remains 
 that in Venice men like Pietro Carnesecchi, Baldo 
 Lupetino, Baldassarre Altieri were allowed to 
 work indefatigably for the Reformation, and with 
 no little fruit; that from the Venetian printing 
 offices were issued versions of the Bible and re- 
 ligious tracts, which inundated Italy; and that in 
 1528 the news of the great progress made by evan- 
 gelical doctrines reached Luther, who, filled with 
 enthusiasm, wrote thus to a friend: " By impart- 
 ing to me the news that the Venetians receive the 
 Word of the Lord you cause me great joy. God 
 be praised and thanked." 53 In Padova many stu- 
 dents and some of the professors in the celebrated 
 university, accepted the new ideas. Verona, 
 Bergamo, Brescia, also were stirred up; but the 
 movement was more intense in Vicenza, Treviso, 
 and the neighbourhood round about, which was in 
 more immediate contact with Venice. " Vast is 
 the harvest,' ' Altieri wrote to Luther and to the 
 brethren in Germany . . . " our ardent wish is 
 
 "Luther's Samtliche Schriften, Vol. XXI, p. 1092; ed. J. G. 
 Walch. 
 
76 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 that the Word of God may be spread over all the 
 country; but we have nobody to nurture us, un- 
 less you, in your abundance, come forward to 
 help us in our necessity." 54 
 
 In Milan the Reformation had already made its 
 appearance in 1524; and in twelve years had so 
 progressed, especially through the zeal of Celio 
 Secondo Curione, as to give Paul III food for seri- 
 ous and anxious thought. But it is to Ferrara 
 that we must come, if we wish to find the principal 
 bulwark of the Italian Eeform movement. There, 
 in the very Court of Casa d'Este, a safe refuge 
 was found for not a few of the Italian and foreign 
 reformers ; there the most powerful champions of 
 the great fight against superstition and error were 
 initiated into, for them, the entirely new evangel- 
 ical doctrines; there the learned and beautiful 
 Duchessa Renata, the daughter of Louis XII of 
 France, one of the brightest stars of the sixteenth 
 century, professed herself an open friend of the 
 Reformation; there, finally, although many deny 
 it, we know as an irrefutable fact through Theo- 
 dore de Beza, that Calvin himself went between 
 March and April, 1536. 55 At Modena the first bold 
 men in Italy who dared to put themselves in direct 
 
 M Seckendorf, Book III, p. 401. 
 
 "Beza: Vita Calvini. Muratori: Antichita Estensi, T. II, p. 
 389. McCrie: La Riforma in Italia. 
 
The Protestant Revolution 77 
 
 correspondence with Martin Luther were found; 
 and its famous Academy to which Castelvetro, 
 Francesco and Bartolomeo Grillanzoni, Camillo 
 Molza, Falloppio belonged, was pointed out by all 
 as a powerful centre of heresy. Things were so 
 advanced at Modena, that Cardinal Morone, in 
 writing to Cardinal Contarini, said: " There is 
 rumour that the whole town has become Lu- 
 theran." 5a We might stop at Faenza and Imola, 
 and there also we should find traces of the new 
 movement; but time flies and we must cross the 
 Apennines. In 1525 Florence already had her 
 heretics, and gave to the Reformation excellent 
 translators of the Scriptures, and. such men as 
 Pietro Carnesecchi, Pier Martire Vermigli, whom 
 we shall have to mention again, and a cloud of 
 other heroes, who were compelled to ask from 
 other countries the freedom of conscience which 
 they could not expect from Cosimo de' Medici. 
 Father Antonio Caracciolo, attracted by a long- 
 ing to magnify the work of the Holy Office, wrote : 
 " Carnesecchi and Pier Martire Vermigli had so 
 infected Florence that I heard Signor Pietr' An- 
 tonio Bandini, the father of Cardinal Bandini, 
 often say : If it had not been for the Holy Office 
 Florence would have been left without a scrap of 
 
 68 In 1542. 
 
78 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 faith.' ' Of Siena let it be sufficient to mention 
 Aonio Paleario and the very frequent visits paid 
 to the Sienese by Bernardino Ochino, during his 
 apostolic peregrinations, when he exhorted them 
 to accept the Eeformation. Lucca, the native city 
 of Giovanni Diodati, had an imposing nucleus of 
 lovers of the new religious movement; and in 
 the shade of the severe basilica of San Frediano, 
 the young clerics of the seminary founded by 
 Vermigli breathed the pure atmosphere of the ris- 
 ing Reformation, and were instructed by him and 
 Celso Martinengo, Emanuele Tremellio, Girolamo 
 Zanchi, and Paolo Lazise. In Viterbo, in 1541, a 
 strong and most important group of adherents to 
 the Reformation gathered round Cardinal Reginald 
 Pole, a friend of the movement, and a nephew of 
 the Duke of Clarence, whose brothers ascended 
 the throne of England as Edward IV and Richard 
 III. Rome also, as well as Sicily, opened its 
 heart to the new revolutionary ideas ; but the shin- 
 ing beacon of the south of Italy was in Naples, 
 where, in a palace at Chiaia, a pious and learned 
 Spanish gentleman, Juan de Valdes, attracted the 
 flower of Italian piety, represented by men such as 
 Pier Martire Vermigli, Bernardino Ochino, Marco 
 Antonio Flaminio, Pietro Carnesecchi, Jacopo 
 Bonfadio the historian, Lattanzio Ragnoni of 
 
The Protestant Eevolution 79 
 
 Siena, Bartolomeo Spataforo, a nobleman of Mes- 
 sina, Donato Kullo from Puglia, Mario Galeata 
 from Naples, Placido di Sangro or de Sanguine, 
 the head of the Academy of de' Sereni, Giovan 
 Galeazzo Caracciolo, son of the Marquis of Vico, 
 Vittoria Soranzo and Gian Tommaso Senfelice, 
 who had once upon a time been chamberlain of 
 Pope Clement VII, Giovanni Buzio from Montal- 
 cino, 57 Vittoria Colonna, Marchioness of Pescara, 
 a literary star of her century and twin soul of the 
 great Michelangelo, Giulia Gonzaga, Duchess of 
 Trajetto and Countess of Fondi, a woman of ex- 
 quisite piety and famous for her misfortunes not 
 less than for her fascinating beauty, and Donna 
 Isabella Brisegna, the wife of Don Garzia Man- 
 riquez, the Governor of Piacenza. 
 
 Thus the movement, spread simultaneously and 
 spontaneously, is amazing, when one thinks of the 
 political conditions in Italy in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. It looked, says McCrie, as if the scattered 
 members of the national body were going to be 
 knit together once for all not only by the influence 
 of an intellectual reawakening such as that of the 
 
 5T He is generally known to historians by the name of Mollio. 
 Precise information relating to his family name and martyrdom 
 (1533) is given in a document in S. Giovanni Decollato in Rome. 
 Tomo III, f. 66, dated 4th September, 1553. (See Antonio Ago- 
 etini: Pietro Carnesecchi e il Movimento Yaldesiano.) 
 
80 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 magnificent sixteenth century, but also by the in- 
 fluence of a true spiritual revival in the Italian 
 conscience. 
 
 And the movement was spreading over all so- 
 cial classes. Cantu says : ' ' Whilst the Reforma- 
 tion in Germany was associated with princes, and 
 in France with the nobility, in Italy it principally 
 touched the men of letters." 58 Principally, but 
 not exclusively } because the religious movement 
 of the century of Martin Luther, in Italy, did not 
 only affect literary men, but also philosophers, 
 monastics, noblemen, men of the sword, courtiers, 
 and women, such as Isabella Manrica di Bresegna, 
 Lavinia della Eovere, Madonna Elena Rangone di 
 Bentivoglio, Giulia Gonzaga, Vittoria Colonna, and 
 Olimpia Morata. Ernesto Masi, one of the few 
 Italians who studied dispassionately the Reform 
 movement in his country, said with more truth 
 than Cantu that it began " in high places/ ' In 
 fact, when one looks back to that " Oratorio del 
 Divino Amore," founded almost at the door of 
 the Roman Court, where men like Giberti, Sado- 
 leto, Latino Giovenale, Giuliano Dati, and Caraffa, 
 who afterwards became Paul IV, 59 met to pray 
 
 68 C. Cantu: Gli crctici d'ltalia. Quoted from McCrie. 
 
 "• Paul IV was afterwards " the viper that bit the rising evan- 
 gelical Reformation in Italy more venomously than any one 
 else." — E. Comba: Btoria della Riforma in Italia, 
 
The Protestant Revolution 81 
 
 and to study the Bible ; when one remembers that 
 in 1537 Paul III himself was bound by the spirit 
 of the times to appoint the " Collegium de emen- 
 danda Ecclesia, ,, composed of four Cardinals and 
 five prelates, to study the best way in which to 
 bring about a reform of the abuses of the 
 Church ; 60 when one takes into account the fact 
 that the Reformation in the sixteenth century had 
 created not only two currents, one heretical and 
 the other reactionary, but also a third which, in 
 the very bosom of the Roman Court, aimed at con- 
 ciliating the other two ; and when one remembers 
 also that the Duke Ercole of Ferrara took great 
 delight in the theological discussions of his time, 
 that the Duchess Renata favoured the heretics and 
 gave hospitality in her own castle to Aonio Pale- 
 ario, Pietro Vergnanini, Francesco Porto, Giro- 
 lamo Bolsec, John Calvin, Clement Marot, and that 
 this heresy had found its way into the very house- 
 hold of the Medici, it will appear evident that 
 Ernesto Masi was right. He errs, however, when 
 he asserts that the movement so begun " in high 
 
 "The Report of this "Collegium" was entitled: "Concilium 
 Delectorum Cardinalium et aliorum praelatorum de emendanda 
 Eeclesia, S.D. N.D. Paulo III ipso jubente conscriptum et ex- 
 hibitum anno MDXXXVIII," and was signed by Cardinals Con- 
 tarini, Caraffa, Sadoleto, Pole, and by five other prelates. 
 
82 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 places " " did not descend." To show how wrong 
 he was in his assertion, Professor E. Comba men- 
 tions Venice and the country round about, where, 
 in 150 trials for heresy in the Holy Office, not one 
 single name of a person belonging to the nobility 
 is to be found, and where the new ideas had so 
 stirred the people as to excite the apprehension 
 of the government. It is, therefore, legitimate to 
 conclude that the Reform movement spread, more 
 or less, throughout all social classes. It began in 
 literary circles and Academies ; gripped the most 
 noted men famous for their doctrine, influence, and 
 nobility of descent ; found its way into the Italian 
 Courts, and thence descended to the army and 
 among the people. Not a corner could be found in 
 the Peninsula where the Reformation had not its 
 proselytes. The Bible was circulated everywhere, 
 and was eagerly read and studied together with 
 many other books of reformed theology; among 
 which were the Commentaries on the Epistle to 
 the Romans and on the Gospel of St. Matthew, 
 by Bucer; the Discourses on the Songs of De- 
 grees, by Luther; the One-hundred and Ten 
 Divine Considerations, by Valdes; the Institutes 
 of the Christian Religion, by Calvin, translated 
 into Italian by Giulio Cesare Paschali, and dedi- 
 
The Protestant Revolution 83 
 
 cated to Galeazzo Caracciolo, Marquis of Vico, 61 
 and, above all, the most valuable Trattato del 
 Beneficio di Cristo (Treatise on the Benefit of 
 Christ), by San Benedetto da Mantova, which 
 for so long was erroneously attributed to Aonio 
 Paleario. 62 In these volumes souls weary of the 
 
 "Giulio Cesare Paschali: Instituzione delta Religione Cris- 
 tiana. Ginevra. Coi tipi di Jacopo Burgese, Antonio Davodeo 
 e Francesco Jacchi compagni. 4 Agosto, 1558. 
 
 62 Until a few years ago nobody knew precisely who was the 
 author of this most important work. Some, like Schelhorn and 
 Babington, ascribed it to Aonio Paleario ; others, instead, ascribed 
 it to one of the following: Ochino, Vermigli, Flaminio, or Valdes. 
 Pietro Carnesecchi, however, in his evidence before the judges of 
 the Holy Office, clearly says that the author of the Benefizio was 
 "a negro monk of St. Benedetto, called Don Benedetto da Man- 
 tova, who said that he had written it in his monastery in Sicily 
 near Mount Etna. The said Don Benedetto handed it over to a 
 friend of his, M. Marcantonio Flaminio, and asked him to be so 
 good as to polish it up with his beautiful style, so that it might 
 be all the more readable and attractive. Flaminio left the mat- 
 ter untouched, but altered the form to suit his own taste." (See 
 Extract of Pietro Carnesecchi's trial, edited by Giacomo Man- 
 zoni, Turin, 1870.) This same information is found repeated by 
 Antonio Caracciolo in a manuscript Life of Paul IV, also by 
 Vergerio in his Commentary on the " Index Librorum Prohibi- 
 torum," and is confirmed in the trial of Cardinal Morone. In 
 1540 or 1541 it had already been transcribed by Pietro Car- 
 nesecchi in Naples; but we do not know if at that time it had 
 been printed or not. What we know for certain is that in 1543 
 it was published in Venice, and that, without taking into account 
 other editions issued contemporaneously, 40,000 copies of it were 
 issued and sold, until 1549, in Venice alone. This is attested by 
 Vergerio in his Discourse on the Venetian Index of 1549. (See 
 Antonio Agostini: Pietro Carnesecchi e il Movimento Val- 
 desiano; K. Benrath: Chi fu Vautore del Benefizio di Cristo t in 
 Rivista Cristiana. Anno 1876. Gennaio. Eduard Boehmer: 
 
84 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 world and thirsty for truth and righteousness, 
 found spiritual and moral nourishment. Char- 
 acters were transformed under the powerful action 
 of the spirit of God, and men died heroically for a 
 holy ideal, in a century that had completely lost 
 all ideality. They died as Gioff redo Varaglia 63 
 did, who answered thus to the executioner who 
 begged his forgiveness for the painful duty im- 
 posed upon him: " Not only do I forgive you, but 
 I forgive those also who have arrested me and 
 brought me here, and who have condemned me to 
 this death. Be of good courage, fulfil your duty; 
 be sure that my dying will not be in vain." Or as 
 Pietro Carnesecchi 64 did, who, as is recorded by 
 the historian Carlo Botta, witnessed with marvel- 
 lous endurance the very last preparations for his 
 martyrdom, and went to the stake as if to a feast. 
 Dressed in his best, wearing immaculate linen, and 
 holding in his hand a white handkerchief and a new 
 pair of gloves, he walked steadily forward, calm 
 and serene. " It seemed," says Agostini, 65 " as 
 if in that slender, delicate body, which, on account 
 
 Cenni biografici sui fratelli Giovanni e Alfonso di Valdesso. 
 1861. Appendix to the volume: he Cento e died Divine Con- 
 siderazioni di Giovanni Valdesso. Halle in Saxony. MDCCCLX.) 
 
 "Turin, 17th December, 1557. "Rome, 1st October, 1567. 
 
 "Antonio Agostini: Pietro Carnesecchi e il Movimento Val- 
 desiano. 
 
The Protestant Revolution 85 
 
 of sickness and the many trials it had undergone, 
 could scarcely stand, there breathed the breath of 
 a new life and worked a mysterious power.' ' Or 
 as Aonio Paleario 66 did, who, when condemned 
 to the stake, at seventy years of age, wrote thus 
 to his wife on the very morning in which he died : 
 ' ' I should like you not to be grieved on account 
 of my joy. Do not allow what is for my good to be 
 turned into evil for you. The hour has come when 
 I must pass from this life to my Lord, my Father, 
 and my God. I depart joyfully, as if I were going 
 to the marriage of the great King's Son. I have 
 petitioned my Lord to enable me to do so through 
 His Infinite goodness and mercy. So, my dearest 
 wife, be comforted by the thought that this is the 
 will of God and that I am perfectly resigned to 
 it. Care for our desolate family, try to educate 
 and keep the young ones in the fear of the Lord. 
 Be father and mother at the same time. Our chil- 
 dren must think for themselves and be virtuous, 
 and industrious, and live an honourable life. 
 God, the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ and 
 the communion of the Holy Ghost be with your 
 spirit. ' ' 67 Ernesto Masi was right when he wrote : 
 
 66 Rome, 3d July, 1570. 
 
 67 The last letters of Aonio Paleario were reprinted from the 
 Italian original by Schelhorn in his Dissertatio de Mino Celso 
 
86 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 " Whatever may be the opinion one has of these 
 men, this is unquestionable : that, while the nation 
 was dying for want of strong moral convictions 
 and was accommodating herself to slavery in a 
 cowardly fashion, the throbbing of the heart of 
 Italy was only perceptible in the men that ad- 
 hered to the Keformation. They faced prison, 
 torture, poverty, exile, and the stake, for the free- 
 dom of their conscience. Those protestants and 
 philosophers in whom a spark of a new life, of a 
 love for truth and goodness still glowed, were the 
 last noble custodians of human dignity during 
 the second half of the sixteenth century and 
 also in the best part of the century that fol- 
 lowed. " 68 
 
 Notwithstanding all this, the Reformation in 
 Italy was doomed to die. It died a violent death, 
 in fact, after having lived for about half a century ; 
 and its tragic end may be completely and faith- 
 fully recalled by the mention of a few names : Paul 
 III cast it into prison; the Jesuits went about 
 hunting for its friends, investigating its docu- 
 ments, heaping up the materials for its coming 
 trial; the Inquisition judged it and condemned 
 
 68 Ernesto Masi: / Burlamacchi. Quoted from E. Comba. 
 
The Protestant Ee volution 87 
 
 it to death; Julius III brought it to the stake; 
 the Council of Trent endeavoured to disperse its 
 so-called heretical ideas; Paul IV scattered its 
 ashes to the winds: Pius IV, at San Sisto, La 
 Guardia, and at Montalto, steeped in blood the 
 descendants of those Waldenses who, as we shall 
 see later on, had been its forerunners, and Pius 
 V swore that he would wrench from the heart of 
 Italy its very remembrance. 
 
 Now, how is it that a movement such as this, 
 which appeared in a divided and subdivided coun- 
 try like Italy in a sporadic fashion it is true, but 
 at the same time suddenly, spontaneously, and in 
 all classes of society, did not spread throughout 
 the Peninsula and bring forth the fruit that it 
 brought forth in other countries! 
 
 The answer to this question is not easy. The 
 problem implied in the question is a very complex 
 one. Many reasons have been assigned to explain 
 the failure of the Eef orm movement in Italy, such 
 as, for instance : the almost absolute want of true 
 national spirit at the time; the lack of sympathy 
 from princes; the terror inspired by the idea of 
 possible foreign invasions; the form assumed by 
 Protestantism beyond the Alps, a form believed 
 to be not always congenial to the Latin spirit in 
 general and to the Italian in particular; the de- 
 
88 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 ficient organisation of the movement, which in 
 Italy had too many leaders ; the all too thin ranks 
 of the adherents, and the lamentable want of 
 energy. 69 All these are without doubt strong, real 
 reasons, sufficient in themselves to make unfruitful 
 any beneficial movement in a nation. Neverthe- 
 less, if we give the matter deeper consideration, 
 and look at it from all its possible aspects, other 
 and more profound reasons than these will sug- 
 gest themselves to us, which will convey a more 
 satisfactory explanation of the failure of the 
 Eeformation in Italy. 
 
 In the first place, the Eenaissance, in Italy, 
 made religious reform impossible. De Leva has 
 drawn attention to this fact: " The German 
 Reformation,' ' he says, " having as its foundation 
 the religious and moral spirit of the cultivated 
 classes, succeeded; and in spite of all its aberra- 
 tions, bore abundant fruit. On the other hand, 
 our Renaissance, although so beneficial to the cul- 
 ture of our and all other lands, inasmuch as its 
 followers thought that those who were trying their 
 best to harmonise Science with belief were not 
 only not progressing but were falling back two 
 centuries at least, discouraged us in following the 
 
 W E. Comba: Storia della Riforma in Italia. 
 
The Protestant Revolution 89 
 
 great movement, which strengthened so marvel- 
 lously the young nations of Europe.' ' 70 
 
 The Renaissance, which in Germany brought 
 about religious reform, did nothing in Italy but 
 revive paganism in the fine arts and literature, 
 and undermine religious sentiment by doubt and 
 indifference. Now, we all know that to build up 
 any kind of religious reform on a foundation 
 of doubt and indifference is an utter impossi- 
 bility. 
 
 In the second place, what made religious reform 
 in Italy impossible, was the institution of Papacy. 71 
 When the Reformation broke out in Germany, 
 faith no longer existed in Italy. The faith of the 
 sixteenth century, in Italy, was sickly and with- 
 out works; a faith that consisted entirely of ex- 
 terior forms of worship and pompous and solemn 
 ceremonies. To attend mass, perform other re- 
 ligious duties, and to plan grand solemn proces- 
 sions, was all that constituted religion in the 
 sixteenth century. The powerful voice of Sa- 
 vonarola had already thundered against that 
 formalism; but formalism and religious material- 
 ism were bound to render any movement of reform 
 
 T0 De Leva: Storia documentata di Carlo Quinto, Vol. Ill, 
 Cap. V. Quoted from E. Comba. 
 T1 See E. Comba: / nostri Protestanti. 
 
90 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 sterile. Where can the real cause of such calamity- 
 be found? It is to be found in Papacy, whose 
 influence, always spiritually malign, greatly af- 
 fected those who were nearest to it. That explains 
 why in Rome and in the neighbouring country the 
 seed of the Reformation sprouted with much less 
 vigour than in the distant provinces. Machia- 
 velli has well said: " The nations nearest to the 
 Roman Church, the head of our religion, have 
 least religion of all. ... To the Church and the 
 priests we Italians owe the fact of our having 
 become irreligious and bad." 72 Martin Luther 
 and John Calvin also, when visiting Italy, received 
 a sad impression of the spiritual condition of the 
 country. Luther wrote: " The Italians are the 
 most impious among men. They ridicule religion 
 and make fun of us because we believe in the Holy 
 Scriptures. Although imbued with all kinds of 
 false doctrines, they still are prepared to accept 
 many, and even worse ones than they have al- 
 ready; in fact, they are reprobate in their senti- 
 ments.' ' 73 And Calvin, when he came to Ferrara 
 to visit the Duchess Renata, encouraged the mar- 
 tyrs of Italy to die, in order to give the " crooked 
 and perverse " generation in Italy an example of 
 
 72 Machiavelli : Discorsi, L. I, C. 12. 
 
 "Colloq., I, 376; II, 371. Quoted from E. Comba. 
 
The Protestant Revolution 91 
 
 sincerity and magnanimity. 74 In this general 
 bankruptcy of belief brought about by the tyran- 
 nical and antichristian papal government, lies 
 the second reason for the failure of the Eeform 
 movement in Italy. 
 
 The third reason of failure is to be found in the 
 fact, pointed out by Agostini, that the German con- 
 ception of the Church of Rome and of Papacy 
 clashed with the sentiments and aspirations of 
 Italy. While Germany, in order to ensure for her- 
 self a reasonable economic prosperity and to ac- 
 quire political autonomy, was bound to throw off 
 the yoke of the Church of Rome, which was domi- 
 neering over her and crushing her with a thousand 
 impositions, Italy, on the other hand, thought that 
 the best thing to do would be just to leave Papacy 
 as it was, the centre of life and activity in the 
 world. The Pope transacted all kinds of affairs 
 with kings and emperors on a footing of perfect 
 equality, mixed himself in all business concerning 
 the States of Italy; was always the source of all 
 authority. The Pope represented the spiritual 
 and moral unity of the whole Peninsula, which, on 
 account of particular circumstances, had not been 
 able to organise herself so as to form one nation, 
 
 74 " Nation tortue et perverse." Crespin : Hist, des Martyrs, ed. 
 1582, f. 442 verso. Quoted from E. Comba. 
 
92 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 as other countries had done. He, in the midst of 
 all the small States into which Italy had been 
 divided, seemed to be the continuator of the plan 
 of ancient Rome, which had gathered together 
 different peoples and had united them by giving 
 them equal rights, equal customs, and equal insti- 
 tutions. 75 Surely every one is aware, says Ago- 
 stini, that the imposing universality of the great 
 moral power and glory of Papacy is a conception 
 that has always intoxicated Italy to such a degree 
 as to make her forget almost completely the dis- 
 asters, the afflictions, and the shame that Papacy 
 has ever inflicted on her. When I think of Italy 
 and of her relations with Papacy, I seem to hear 
 an enamoured country say to her worst enemy: 
 " Nee tecum possum vivere, nee sine te. n 
 (Neither with thee nor without thee can I 
 live.) 
 
 The fourth reason which prevented the move- 
 ment from spreading throughout Italy, may be 
 summed up in one word : egoism. The Italian peo- 
 ple, who, owing to the Renaissance, had fallen into 
 paganism and sensualism and had no other con- 
 ception of man, of the universe, and of life than 
 a materialistic one, seemed to be reduced to such 
 
 "Antonio Agostini: Pietro Carnesecchi e il Movimento Val- 
 desiano. 
 
The Protestant Revolution 93 
 
 a point as to respond to the vibrations of only one 
 chord : that of self-interest. Italy of the sixteenth 
 century desired to keep Papacy as it was, not only 
 because of national pride, as I have already 
 pointed out, but for a stronger reason, namely: 
 material interest. Papacy, by means of open or 
 secret channels, managed to extract money from 
 all parts of the globe, and spent it on Italy. Cantu 
 says : ' ' The Italians of that time were very sen- 
 sible to the fact that Papacy was ensuring to Italy 
 financial importance, and was attracting to the 
 country, men, commerce, and wealth. ' ' 76 If, as 
 the Reformation wished, the Pope could have been 
 deprived of his power and been reduced to the 
 simple position of a bishop, what would have hap- 
 pened from a financial point of view? asks Ago- 
 stini. " From the very beginning of the Reform 
 movement, this was the great problem in Italy, 
 in the sixteenth century. The same may be said 
 about Indulgences. The trade in Indulgences was 
 carried on in Italy as well as in Germany. It 
 is true that, on account of the miserable condi- 
 tion of the country, trade in Indulgences was 
 growing slack; yet, those who felt inclined to 
 spend money on Indulgences did it willingly, 
 counting on the advantage they had a right to 
 
 78 C. Canta: Gli eretici d Italia. 
 
94 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy- 
 expect from them. It was a matter of personal 
 profit ; the purchasers meant to place their money 
 at a high rate of interest in the Bank of Heaven, 
 and nothing more. The Italian reformers did not 
 approve of Indulgences, and preached against 
 them; but preached to deaf ears. They might 
 have thundered as much as they liked to try to 
 convince their hearers that Indulgences were 
 contrary to the spirit of the Church, and that 
 they were not mentioned by the Fathers; peo- 
 ple all the same willingly continued to pay 
 money that, according to them, was to open the 
 gates of Paradise, and to procure for them on 
 earth abundant benefits." 77 The selfish spirit of 
 the sixteenth century appears in bold relief in the 
 following words of the great historian of those 
 times, Francesco Guicciardini : 78 " I do not know," 
 he wrote, ' * if there be a man more disgusted than 
 I am with the ambition, avarice, and effeminacy of 
 the priests. . . . Nevertheless, my position at the 
 Court of several Popes has made it necessary for 
 me, in view of my own private interests, to love 
 their greatness; had it not been for that reason, 
 I should have loved Martin Luther dearly, not in 
 order to be rid of the laws laid upon us by the 
 
 "Antonio Agostini: Pictro Carnesecchi e il Movimento Vol- 
 desiano. K 1483-1540. 
 
The Protestant Kevolution 95 
 
 Christian religion as it is commonly inter- 
 preted and understood, but in order to see 
 that pack of villains reduced to the point of 
 being either without vices, or without author- 
 ity." 79 
 
 Lastly, a modernist has written recently: " The 
 history of the Eeformation, when studied in a 
 calm spirit, shows that when the Beform move- 
 ment begins from those in power, or by means of 
 their protection, it ends by doing great good to 
 many, if not to all; if, on the contrary, it has its 
 rise in the lower classes, it ends by bringing about 
 schisms, more or less as in Luther's time, always 
 a deplorable thing." 80 Many agree with him. 
 But how differently history speaks to those who 
 know how to read it aright ! It says that reforms 
 begun in high places more often remain there, and 
 do not descend to transform the masses, unless the 
 masses be moved by a conviction of sin, a longing 
 for redemption, and a desire for the divine, in 
 which lie the true foundations of an earnest, deep, 
 and lasting reformation. Did the great and bene- 
 ficial Franciscan movement begin from on high! 
 Certainly not; it began among the people. True, 
 
 "Francesco Guiceiardini. Opere inedite, Ricordo 28. Vide 
 also Ric. 236 and 346. 
 ^Sibilla: Lettere Ghibelline. 
 
96 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 it ended by being recognised and officially ac- 
 cepted by the Church ; but, before that, how many 
 and what dreadful hostilities it had to encounter ! 
 Even in Germany, where the Eeformation was not 
 a ' i deplorable schism, ' ' but, as Abbot Luigi Anelli 
 says, * ' a great revolution the effects of which still 
 exist and will last who knows for how long," 81 
 that Eeformation, I say, would never have taken 
 place, had not the great soul of Germany been 
 awakened before and felt new needs and new 
 aspirations. That Eeformation, effected by the 
 providential and united co-operation of Electors 
 and people, might have arisen through the people 
 without the Electors, but never through the Elec- 
 tors without the people. In Italy the Eeforma- 
 tion had neither the good-will of princes nor the 
 longing of a people hungering and thirsting after 
 truth and righteousness. The princes, blinded by 
 ambition, went to the point, as Cosimo de' Medici 
 did, of betraying their best friends, and of deliver- 
 ing them into the hands of the Pope, to be con- 
 demned to the stake, men of immaculate faith and 
 character such as Pietro Carnesecchi. 82 The peo- 
 
 81 Abate Luigi Anelli: / Riformatori nel secolo XVI. 
 
 82 Cosimo I betrayed his faithful friend Pietro Carnesecchi in 
 his own palace (some say while Carnesecchi was sitting at table 
 as a guest), and delivered him into the hands of the sbirri of 
 Pius V. It was about the end of June, 1566. On the 3d of July 
 
The Protestant Revolution 97 
 
 pie no longer heeded the things of God ; they had 
 completely lost all " mysticalness " as Terenzio 
 Mamiani has called it; the Renaissance had trans- 
 formed their soul into a pagan one, and Papacy 
 had killed the conscience within them. How in the 
 world could the Reformation have succeeded in 
 Italy? 
 
 When, going back to the sixteenth century, 
 which was the glorious century of Italian art and 
 literature, I notice the minor influence that art 
 and literature had on the moral education of the 
 people in Italy, and when I compare that with the 
 great and beneficial influence which the principles 
 of the Reformation exercised on the nations that 
 accepted them, I am more than ever convinced 
 that if greatness of intellect is possible without 
 morality, true morality is not possible without 
 faith. To say that intellect and heart are con- 
 demned to be in everlasting discord in individuals 
 and in nations, is simply absurd; but still, it is an 
 undeniable fact that conflict between the intellect 
 
 the martyr arrived in Rome, and on the 1st October, 1567, after 
 being beheaded, his body was burnt. Two years later, Cosimo I 
 received from the Pope, as the price of his treachery, the title of 
 Grand Duke of Tuscany, which he had so long and unsuccessfully 
 coveted. 
 
98 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 and the heart seems to be a constant characteristic 
 of the Italian people. Will the conflict ever come 
 to an end in Italy ! And if so, how will it end 1 
 
 Several names occur here to my mind, names 
 of men who seem to point out a way of solving the 
 problem. 
 
 On the threshold of the sixteenth century stands 
 the severe and noble figure of Fra Girolamo Sa- 
 vonarola. 83 He closes the door of the Middle 
 Ages and has the key of Modern times. He is true 
 to the religion of his fathers ; he does not give up 
 nor does he wish to give up the dogmas of the 
 Eoman Church, but he dreams of a sacerdotal re- 
 ligion constantly overlooking the institutions of 
 the State; a condition to which his Florentine 
 theocratic republic should serve as the pattern. 
 
 Can that be the way to solve the great problem! 
 
 I do not think so. 
 
 Without the gate that closes the sixteenth cen- 
 tury stands another severe and noble figure ; that 
 of Giordano Bruno: 84 "sad," as Abbot Anelli 
 says, ' ' and longing for better times and for a bet- 
 ter humanity." 85 He tolerates the Protestant 
 revolution; but does so because he considers it 
 as a step towards a religion which, according to 
 
 83 1452-1498. 8 * ? 1550-1600. 
 
 "Abate Luigi Anelli: / Riformatori nel secolo XVI. 
 
The Protestant Kevolution 99 
 
 him, must be essentially philosophical. He is 
 longing for a Church full of holy affection, of 
 godly sentiment; in his vast imagination he pro- 
 poses to transform the whole of Italy, which he 
 wants to be free and moral. Hence, his Spaccio 
 delta Bestia trionfante (The Despatch of the 
 Triumphant Beast) and the Cabala del cavallo 
 pegaseo (The Cabala of the Pegasean Horse), 
 directed against superstition and immoral and un- 
 spiritual orthodoxy. Hence, his effort to restore 
 primitive morality and the inborn respect for duty, 
 because, although religion, according to him, may 
 be useful to all, still it has not the force of law 
 except to the uncultured masses in whom the ra- 
 tional idea of duty has too little authority. 
 
 Can that be the way to solve the great problem f 
 
 I do not think so. 
 
 In the middle of the sixteenth century stands a 
 group of figures ; they seem to wait calmly, looking 
 into the distant horizon, and smiling as people do 
 who cherish a loved ideal. Who are they? They 
 are Pier Martire Vermigli, Bernardino Ochino, 
 Marcantonio Flaminio, Pietro Carnesecchi, Aonio 
 Paleario, Giovanni Buzio, 86 and many others of 
 whom we have been speaking. What do they 
 
 "Giovanni Buzio is always known by historians as Giovanni 
 Mollio. See n. 57. 
 
100 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy- 
 want? They want perfect freedom of research; 
 the " nosce te ipsum " as a basis of individual 
 religion ; Christ, as the only Mediator between God 
 and man ; the Gospel as the only rule of faith and 
 conduct ; eternal life not ensured by money, merit, 
 sacerdotal interference, but offered as a free 
 gift by God to every repenting and believing 
 sinner. 
 
 Is that the way to solve the great problem ! 
 
 Yes, I firmly believe it is. 
 
 When Italy understands that true religion is 
 neither superstitious nor bigoted but a beautiful 
 and holy reality to be accepted as the only founda- 
 tion of any true moral life; when God has freed 
 the country from what still remains in it of the 
 obstacles that frustrated all the efforts of the 
 Italian reformers, then the Italians will not turn 
 to Fra Girolamo in search of inspiration ; because 
 the Church of Rome, such as she is, will no longer 
 satisfy them ; nor will they turn to the great Nolan 
 philosopher; for his idea of duty is too meta- 
 physical and loses itself in the mysterious solitude 
 of the infinity of God. They will then turn to their 
 martyrs, who, with their pen, with their word, and 
 from the stake, have pointed out to all the Christ 
 of the Gospel; Christ, who makes us members of 
 the true Church which, as Buzio from Montalcino 
 
The Protestant Kevolution 101 
 
 said to his judges, " is neither Roman, nor Lom- 
 bard, nor Venetian, but truly Catholic ;" Christ, 
 who gives us not only the notion of duty, but also 
 the perfect example of how to perform it, and the 
 strength necessary to put it into practice. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE DRAMATIC HISTORY OF THE BIBLE 
 IN ITALY 
 
Ill 
 
 THE DRAMATIC HISTORY OF THE BIBLE 
 IN ITALY 
 
 WHEN speaking of the causes that paved 
 the way for the Reform movement in 
 Italy, I mentioned, among others, the 
 dissemination of the Bible. We have now come to 
 the moment for going a little deeper into this in- 
 teresting and important subject. In order to be 
 able to form a fair estimate of the value of the 
 Italian translations of the Bible, we must begin 
 our researches " ab ovo "; that is, from the very 
 first Latin translations of the original texts, be- 
 cause from these sprang the many subsequent 
 Italian translations. 
 
 The first Latin translation we possess is that 
 called by St. Augustine the " Itala "5 this title, 
 however, we must abandon, because it affects the 
 great question of the origin of that version: 
 
 105 
 
106 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 namely, whether it originated in Rome or in North 
 Africa: the two great centres of Western Chris- 
 tianity. St. Jerome more aptly called it " Vul- 
 gata et communis "; and so did St. Gregory, when 
 he named it " the Vetus," " the Ancient.' ' At 
 the beginning of the Christian era, Latin was 
 gradually becoming the language of the West, and 
 was taking the place of Greek as a language in 
 common use. Now, St. Augustine tells us that 
 from the very first introduction of Christianity, 
 the Latin Church possessed several versions of the 
 Scriptures by unknown authors. Here a new and 
 interesting problem arises, and that is whether 
 those versions were really the work of unknown 
 translators. In other words, whether it is a fact, 
 as many suppose, that in those early times any 
 one who found a Greek text and was possessed of 
 some knowledge of Greek and Latin translated 
 that text, or if those versions were nothing more 
 or less than variations of one and the same text, 
 namely, the " Old Latin." I only point out the 
 problem; its solution does not concern us here. 
 The fact is that of all the versions or variations 
 of one version, the " Old Latin " ended by cap- 
 tivating the attention and the confidence of the 
 Christian public, on account of its fidelity and 
 clearness. 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 107 
 
 Where did it first appear? As I have already 
 said, it was either in Rome or North Africa ; more 
 probably, in North Africa. That it appeared 
 about 170, may be affirmed with confidence. 
 Whose work it was, is a mystery. And here, on 
 the threshold of the temple of criticism, we shall 
 stop ; not, however, before noticing the title of this 
 venerable version. St. Jerome called it later on 
 " Vulgata et communis "; that is to say: " in the 
 language of the people and within reach of all." 
 It is needless for me to say here that this " Vul- 
 gate " is previous to that of St. Jerome bearing 
 the same name. The Vulgate which we are refer- 
 ring to here belongs to the second country; that 
 of St. Jerome, which we shall come to later, ap- 
 peared about the end of the fourth century, and 
 was known by the name of ' ' Vulgate ' ' later still. 
 We may here observe that when this very old ver- 
 sion appeared, as the language of the people was 
 Latin, the Bible was translated into Latin: the 
 language that everybody spoke and understood, 
 and that the new translation was allowed a free 
 circulation. 
 
 About the middle of the fourth century, the 
 Western Church deeply felt the need of an official 
 Latin text of the Bible. All the numerous exist- 
 ing translations created great confusion, owing 
 
108 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 to the carelessness of the scribes. Their igno- 
 rance was such that it had reduced the Old Latin 
 version to a pitiable condition. A revision was 
 most necessary; and the providential man for the 
 work appeared in St. Jerome. 
 
 St. Jerome was born of a Christian family in 
 Stridon, a frontier town between Dalmatia and 
 Pannonia, about 340 or 342. In 382, just when the 
 need of that revision was most deeply felt by the 
 Western Church, St. Jerome, this great and 
 saintly man of God, happened to be in Eome. 
 Damaso, 1 Bishop of Eome, perceived at once that 
 here was the man for this important work. He 
 had already been attracted by St. Jerome, had be- 
 come his protector, and had chosen him as his 
 private secretary; he, therefore, entrusted him 
 with the very delicate duty of revising the Vulgate. 
 Jerome, who was well acquainted with Latin, 
 Greek, and Hebrew, 2 set to work. He collated 
 texts, corrected existing versions, translated part 
 of the originals anew, and in 383 published the 
 
 *d. 384. 
 
 3 " In later years, when he was translating the Old Testament 
 from the original, he had attained a thorough knowledge of the 
 Hebrew language, while long residence and travel in the East 
 had given him that first-hand acquaintance with the country and 
 its customs which must be invaluable to any one undertaking a 
 task of this nature." — H. J. White in Dictionary of the Bible, 
 edited by J. Hastings, D.D. 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 109 
 
 four Gospels ; then, in the same year or not much 
 later, he published the Acts and the rest of the 
 New Testament ; and between 390 and 405, he pub- 
 lished the Old Testament. In short, this is what 
 he did. He took the Apocrypha as it stood, from 
 the Old Latin version. From the same Old Latin 
 version, he took the whole of the New Testament 
 and the Psalter, amending them where necessary. 
 The other books of the Jewish Canon he translated 
 anew from the Hebrew. 
 
 St. Jerome's Vulgate is a great work; the work 
 of a philologian, not always immaculate, but 
 learned and conscientious. He is at times more an 
 interpreter or a paraphrast than a translator; at 
 other times he is inclined to give a Messianic 
 significance to passages which they have not got 
 in the original text ; generally his work is not at 
 the same level of excellence throughout; some 
 books have been translated in such haste that they 
 almost indicate negligence and slovenly work. In 
 spite of all this, St. Jerome has left a work which, 
 on the whole, is one of profound doctrine and of 
 exquisite workmanship. 
 
 How did the public receive it? As soon as the 
 Gospels appeared, criticism commenced; and what 
 severe criticism it was ! When the Old Testament 
 was published and the clerical aristarchs noticed 
 
110 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 that Jerome had not followed the Septuagint but 
 had translated directly from the Hebrew text, 
 criticism became more and more violent. Vile 
 rumours were spread secretly ; and the enemies of 
 anything new did not hesitate to assert emphat- 
 ically that they were perfectly content with the 
 translations they already possessed, and that they 
 did not desire or need such innovations. Mean- 
 while, the ignorant clergy who considered the Sep- 
 tuagint as heaven-sent and divinely inspired, and 
 those who envied the great man, were beside them- 
 selves with joy. Even St. Augustine 3 viewed 
 askance the work of Jerome. The following is an 
 incident ; a very small one, but most symptomatic. 4 
 A certain African bishop thought of adopting 
 Jerome's translation for public worship in his 
 church. There seemed at the moment to be no 
 difficulty in the way. But, suddenly, one day, this 
 awful discovery was made: that in the passage 
 of the book of Jonah where it is said that the 
 " Lord God prepared a gourd and made it to come 
 up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his 
 head, to deliver him from his grief," 4 Jerome 
 
 • 354-430. St. Augustine in his Xth Letter clearly says that 
 " Jerome's version differs much from the authentic Septuagint 
 and that the Jews also are averse to it." And in his XlXth 
 Letter he says emphatically that he is not inclined either to 
 adopt it himself, or to allow it to be read in his church. 
 
 'See Hastings: Diet, of the Bible. 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 111 
 
 had taken the great liberty of introducing an 
 innovation. ." Gourd," in Hebrew, is called 
 " K IK A JON "; now, the ancient Latin transla- 
 tors had rendered KIKAJON as cucurbita; 
 Jerome, instead, had dared to translate it as 
 hedera (ivy) . Could you believe it 1 This novelty, 
 introduced into a passage so well known to every- 
 body, became the cause of a terrible turmoil ; and 
 if the good bishop had not hastened to change 
 hedera back to cucurbita, he would soon have seen 
 his church empty. 
 
 And what of Jerome? He was a saint; but one 
 of those saints who might be called " short-tem- 
 pered "; he had a ready tongue, a fiery character, 
 and knew how to retaliate. He called his venom- 
 ous critics "homunculi" (manikins), and " bi- 
 pedes aselli " (two-legged asses) ; and when writ- 
 ing to Marcella said : ' ' I might cover them with 
 contempt. What is the good of playing a harp 
 to asses? If they do not feel inclined to drink 
 water flowing from a pure source, let them then 
 drink the slush from the muddy pools ! " But the 
 storm gradually blew over, as all storms fortu- 
 nately do ; and when the stormy life of the non- 
 agenarian Jerome closed in Bethlehem in 420, his 
 translation had already begun to make its way. 
 For a long time the Old Latin and Jerome's new 
 
112 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 version were used indifferently in churches, ac- 
 cording to the taste of each, or the desire of their 
 founders ; and it was only in the seventh century, 
 when Gregory 1 5 bestowed upon it his papal ap- 
 proval, that Jerome's translation came into gen- 
 eral use. In the thirteenth century it began to be 
 known under its present name " The Vulgate " 
 (Editio vulgata) ; and in 1545 the Council of Trent 
 declared it authentic* including freedom from 
 
 6 540-604. 
 
 6 The Council decreed (Sess. IV) "earn esse ex omnibus latinis 
 editionibus quae circumferunt, pro authentica habendam "; or 
 " that the Vulgate, of all the Latin versions in circulation at the 
 time, should be recognised as the authentic version." And here 
 the correct meaning of the decree must be grasped. The word 
 authentic, the Roman Catholic theology says, implies the con- 
 ception of authority; and, properly and generally, signifies: auc- 
 toritate munitum: what is authoritative; what has the weight 
 of authority. Any document whatever may, therefore, be au- 
 thentic in various ways and degrees, (a) If it be an autograph, 
 an original, its authenticity is absolute, and is called " authen- 
 ticity of identity." (b) If it be an apograph, that is to say, a 
 copy of the original, its authenticity is relative, and is called 
 "authenticity of agreement." (c) If it be a translation, its 
 authenticity is here also relative, and is called " authenticity of 
 faithfulness." Then, there are two kinds of authenticity: The 
 intrinsic (that which arises from the very nature of the auto- 
 graph, from the agreement with the autograph, or from the truth- 
 fulness of the version as regards its reproduction of the original ) , 
 and the extrinsic (that which is given to a writing by other valid 
 reasons; and in the case of the version of the Bible, by the au- 
 thoritative declaration of the Church). 
 
 Now, two things are to be noted: the object which the decree 
 of the Trent Council had in view, and the way in which the au- 
 thenticity of the Vulgate is to be understood. As far as the 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 113 
 
 errors which might lead believers astray as far 
 as doctrine and moral conduct are concerned. 
 Now, to that decree of the famous Council we must 
 attribute the origin of three evils. Firstly : As a 
 consequence of the decree, the originals of the 
 Bible, in the Church of Eome were completely 
 neglected. The Church had now the Vulgate and 
 that was enough. Secondly : Since the decree, the 
 Eoman Church has had several new Italian trans- 
 lations of the Bible; but they are not translations 
 from the original texts, but from the Vulgate; 
 which means that they are translations of a trans- 
 lation, and of a translation not free from defects. 7 
 
 object is concerned, it is clear that the decree does not refer 
 either to the originals, or to the old versions of the Oriental or 
 of the Western Churches, but only to the Latin versions in cir- 
 culation at the time. As far as the way in which the authenticity 
 is concerned, the authenticity of the Vulgate is understood to be 
 extrinsic and intrinsic; extrinsic, inasmuch as it has been authori- 
 tatively declared to be the only authentic version accepted by the 
 Church; intrinsic, inasmuch as in its principal and substantial 
 parts relating to belief and to morals it is faithful to the original. 
 7 Rufinus, a priest of Aquileia (d. 408), wrote a special book 
 with the intention of pointing out to Jerome (who, in 374, was 
 his friend) the mistakes of the Vulgate and criticising them. 
 The very learned Sisto da Siena (XVI cent.) in his valuable 
 work, BiMiotheca Santa (7th Book), maintains that a large 
 number of passages are to be found in the Vulgate differing 
 from the original text. The famous Dominican theologian, 
 Natalis Alexander (1639-1724), in a long and learned disserta- 
 tion, speaks of and proves the mistakes in the Vulgate, and 
 quotes 103 passages, which, he says, are completely falsified. 
 Santi Pagnini and Benedetto Montano (called also Arias), 
 
114 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 Thirdly : The decree led to the complete abandon- 
 ment of the critical and exegetical study of the 
 original texts: a study which was instead culti- 
 vated with rare zeal and great skill in the churches 
 over which the Council of Trent had no authority. 
 The abandonment of such a study of the Bible is 
 now producing very interesting consequences. In 
 our day, when biblical study is being cultivated 
 in a surprising manner in the Church of Kome, 
 Eoman Catholic students are obliged to draw their 
 materials from those very Protestant sources 
 against which the Council of Trent had hurled 
 its furious " anathemas.' ' 
 
 But let us go back to the Vulgate. When once 
 adopted universally in the Western Church, copies 
 rapidly multiplied; and with the multiplication 
 of copies, mistakes also were multiplied; these 
 mistakes were due, almost always, to ignorance; 
 
 two Orientalists of great repute and most zealous Roman 
 Catholics, translated the Bible anew from the originals in order 
 to revise the many mistakes in the Vulgate. And here an im- 
 portant fact is worth mentioning. When the Council of Trent 
 asserted the Vulgate " esse ex omnibus latinis editionibus quae 
 circumferunt, pro authentica habendam," it made a gross scientific 
 error. At the time of the Council (1545-1563), the Latin trans- 
 lation which the Dominican Santi Pagnini had edited at Lyons 
 in 1527-1528, and dedicated to Clement VII, had already been 
 issued. In any case, that was the translation which, already 
 authentic by intrinsic authentia, the Council should have de- 
 clared authentic " out of all the Latin versions in circulation at 
 the time " by extrinsic authentia, instead of St. Jerome's Vulgate. 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 115 
 
 sometimes, to malice. Attempts were made to 
 correct them; but they brought more confusion 
 than enlightenment. Even to the 54 bishops who, 
 at Trent, had declared it " authentic,' ' tangible 
 proofs were produced to show that the Vulgate 
 was swarming with mistakes. But what was to be 
 done? A decree of that nature is infallible and 
 cannot be withdrawn. Sixtus V then intervened, 
 and appointed a special committee, headed by 
 Cardinal Caraffa; and this Committee he en- 
 trusted with the revision of the Vulgate, whilst 
 he also threw himself into the work. In 1590, 
 Sixtus V published a new and splendid edition 
 of the Vulgate, and solemnly declared in a Bull 
 that the ' ' authentic ' ' Vulgate referred to by the 
 Council of Trent was the one he had published; 
 and threatened with the punishments laid down by 
 that Council all those who dared to question his 
 dictum. A true case, as every one perceives, of 
 sleight of hand. But, alas, even the Bible of Six- 
 tus V was soon found to be faulty; and among 
 others, by the very famous Jesuit Bellarmino. 8 
 Sixtus V had mortally offended the Jesuits by 
 having placed a book by Bellarmino 9 on the Index. 
 And when one has mortally offended the Jesuits 
 (Sixtus V should have known it!), there is very 
 
 •d. 1621. 9 De dominio Papce directo. 
 
116 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 little chance of his being left in peace. Bellarmino 
 did not lose such a favourable opportunity ; after 
 having ascertained with great care the numerous 
 mistakes in the papal edition, he openly condemned 
 it in a strong letter to Clement VIII. The out- 
 burst caused by that step was such that Clement 
 was obliged to withdraw all the copies, and to 
 order a revised and corrected edition of the Vul- 
 gate. This new edition was issued in January, 
 1592; and in order to avoid any possible objec- 
 tions and not to run the risk of compromising the 
 papal authority, Clement availed himself of what 
 we shall call a " pious fraud." He ordered that 
 the name of Sixtus should appear on the title page 
 as the author, instead of his own; so that the 
 public, which generally does not examine these 
 features too closely, was led to believe that his 
 (the Clementine) Bible was that of Sixtus. The 
 Preface to the Clementine edition was written by 
 Bellarmino, who artfully informed the reader 
 that just as the Sistine edition was about to be 
 issued, Sixtus V had noticed several errors and 
 had ordered that edition to be withdrawn and a 
 new one to be prepared. Bellarmino also stated 
 that the death of Sixtus had prevented this being 
 done, but that Clement VIII was carrying out the 
 intentions of Sixtus. — It should be noted here, as 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 117 
 a fact worthy of attention, that the Sistine edition 
 contains not more than about forty printers 7 er- 
 rors, whereas the Clementine edition differs from 
 the Sistine in about three thousand places. 10 
 
 In Italy, the first versions of the Bible lead us 
 back to the time when Latin was the language of 
 the learned and the clerics, whilst Italian was that 
 of the people. The name " Vulgate " for the 
 popular edition of the Bible in Latin, therefore, 
 became a misnomer, and a necessity very naturally 
 arose for a translation of the Latin text, which 
 the uncultured laymen no longer understood, into 
 the spoken language. We possess few vague and 
 uncertain indications of the very first translations. 
 We know only this about them: that they were 
 taken not from the originals but from the Vul- 
 gate; that they were generally the work of priests 
 or friars, and that they appeared in the twelfth 
 and thirteenth centuries when movements were 
 
 10 A Commission has been appointed by the Church authorities 
 in Rome with a view to restoring the Vulgate of St. Jerome to 
 its primitive text. Meanwhile, the Latin New Testament has 
 already been published in very valuable critical editions by the 
 B. and F. Bible Society jointly with the Oxford University Press, 
 and by Dr. Eberhard Nestle of Maulbronn. 
 
118 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 arising to protest against the Court of Borne. 11 
 These movements were led by men who vowed 
 themselves to poverty in order to be better able 
 to counteract the craving for worldliness, earthly 
 power, and material riches which had invaded the 
 Church. These heroic rebels against Kome drew 
 all the inspiration, strength, and comfort they 
 needed for their great work from the Bible. 
 Professor S. Minocchi, in a valuable pamphlet on 
 The Bible in the History of Italy, says : " The Old 
 Testament was little liked by many; some sects 
 of the Catharists believed it to be written by the 
 Evil One, and considered it the Gospel of Satan 
 as opposed to the Gospel of Jesus. Nevertheless, 
 among the Waldenses and others, versions of its 
 most noted and precious books, such as the Psalms, 
 the book of those who suffer, pray, and hope, or 
 the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, which are full of 
 such deep wisdom and profound melancholy, were 
 largely circulated. The New Testament was 
 sought after, and so was spread about ; and in its 
 pages were found the condemnation of the Church 
 of Eome and of its faulty clergy, and at the same 
 time the hope of a religious revival among the 
 
 11 Let it be sufficient to mention : th« Catharists of North Ital j 
 (XII cent.), Pietro di Bruys (d. 1124), Amalrico di Bene (d. 
 about 1207), Peter Valdo (d. 1197), the Patarenes (XII and 
 XIII cent.). 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 119 
 
 people. The book of the Revelation, in the image 
 of Babylon, gave them a picture of the horrors of 
 the Church; in the New Jerusalem they viewed 
 the Christian restoration, which they were long- 
 ing for. The Epistles of St. Paul fascinated them 
 by their deep religious feeling, their wisdom so 
 profound, their thought so spiritually free, their 
 description of customs so simple. The Acts of the 
 Apostles gave them an insuperable model of a 
 poor, virtuous, and happy life, such as that of the 
 primitive Christians with their simple rites and 
 with their having all things in common. But it was 
 the Gospel, above all, that showed them, in the 
 poor and humble figure of Jesus, the perfect ideal 
 of true religious life, so different from that of the 
 ostentatious pontiffs of Rome! " 12 
 
 About the middle of the thirteenth century there 
 appeared in Italy the first Italian version of the 
 Bible. Whose work was it? Literary tradition 
 has attributed it to one or other of the three great 
 Dominicans, Jacopo da Voragine, Archbishop of 
 Genoa, Jacopo Passavanti, and Domenico Cavalca. 
 Professor Minocchi calls that tradition " a triple 
 hypothesis without any foundation. ' ' According 
 to his views, the thirteenth century version of the 
 
 u Salvatore Minocchi : La Bibbia nella Storia d'ltalia. Firenze, 
 1904. 
 
120 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 Italian Bible " sprang, like many of the other old 
 versions, anonymously, from the people who re- 
 quired a means of affirming the religious ideas 
 born in them by the change that had taken place 
 in their minds and conscience. But if we consider 
 its intimate relationship with the contemporary 
 heretical translations of France, Provence, and 
 Savoy, we may safely believe that the first Italian 
 version had its origin in some centres of the sect 
 called the ' Poor of Italy ' ; and if we consider 
 its phraseology, we may hold even more definitely, 
 that it was issued by the Tuscan Patarenes." 13 
 
 Professor Minocchi's opinion will not be con- 
 sidered altogether groundless when we bear in 
 mind that it is not a fact, as some say, that the 
 public was averse to the Bible and to reading it, 
 in the century of Dante and those immediately 
 preceding and following it. That the people did 
 read and cherished the Bible is clearly shown by 
 the Manuscripts of those days. ' * The Florentine 
 Libraries alone," says Professor Minocchi, " pos- 
 sess more than fifty of them; and others are at 
 Siena, Venice, and in other cities. . . . And all 
 such Manuscripts had evidently their origin 
 among the people. The Gospels in the San Marco 
 Library in Venice were written by a poor prisoner 
 
 13 Ibid. 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 121 
 from Trieste, who comforted himself in the gloomy 
 silence of the ' Pozzi,' by copying them. Nearly 
 all the Florentine manuscripts were copied by 
 nobles, merchants, notaries, and artisans, for their 
 own private use. In a ledger belonging to the 
 celebrated family < dei Eicci ' is to be seen a tran- 
 scription of the whole book of Genesis; other 
 manuscripts bear names well known in the com- 
 mercial aristocracy of the fifteenth century, such 
 as Strozzi, Serragli, Vettori, Mellini, Baroni. Our 
 good old ancestors, then, at any rate before the 
 ducal yoke of the Medici fell on the neck of their 
 children, read the Bible. Moreover, during the 
 very years that Savonarola was condemning from 
 his pulpit in S. Marco the paganism of the Eenais- 
 sance in the name of the Bible for the freedom 
 of his people, Lorenzo de' Medici, in the restful 
 peace of Poggio a Caiano, was teaching his chil- 
 dren to read the Gospels and the Psalms. That 
 high-spirited sceptic, even in the midst of his wild 
 revelry, had not forgotten the legacy of the Bible 
 which his mother, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, had left 
 him." 14 
 
 In 1471 there appeared in Venice two editions 
 of a translation by Nicolo Malherbi, a monk of 
 Camaldoli. There is now no reason to doubt that 
 "Ibid. 
 
122 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 he was no other than "an impudent plagiarist 
 who was so audacious as not only to ill-use the 
 golden version of the thirteenth century, but even 
 to ascribe it to himself. ,, 15 
 
 We now come to the century of the Kef ormation. 
 The Bible, which had been almost forgotten dur- 
 ing and on account of the Renaissance, became 
 again, in the sixteenth century, the book most 
 sought after and the most read, as providing the 
 greatest food for thought and meditation. 
 Learned men read it in its Latin versions; the 
 people returned eagerly to the search of the 
 Italian version of the thirteenth century, and, 
 therefore, complete or partial editions of the Bible 
 multiplied in Florence and Venice. The thirteenth 
 century version, however, was no longer able to 
 supply the want of the times. The need of a new 
 translation was deeply felt; and he who supplied 
 this want in Italy was a Florentine man of letters : 
 Antonio Brucioli, whose translation appeared in 
 Venice in 1532. Brucioli, was a red-hot repub- 
 lican, highly gifted, and a skilled writer on sacred 
 
 "The first edition (by Wendelino da Spira, in August, 1471) 
 was the more correct, and was published in a convenient size; 
 the second edition (by Nicola Jenson in October, 1471), full of 
 misprints but more correct where Wendelino's text had been fol- 
 lowed, was the only edition issued; and it could not be other- 
 wise, considering that it was of a large, most incommodious size, 
 and therefore perfectly useless to the public. 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 123 
 
 subjects ; he was for a long time recognised as a 
 powerful champion of the religious reformation; 
 but as he unfortunately recanted later, though 
 much may be said in mitigation, a shadow was 
 cast on his fame. " Had he remained steadfast/ ' 
 says Dr. G. P. Pons, who exhumed the record of 
 his trial from the Archives of the " Frari " in 
 Venice, l i no one, better than he, would have hon- 
 oured the Eeformation. ,, 16 Brucioli's version, 
 which was based not on the originals but on the 
 Latin version by Santi Pagnini 1T of Lucca, was 
 revised by the Florentine Santi Marmocchino of 
 the Preaching-friars, and by Filippo Eustici, a 
 medical man from Lucca. 18 Fra Zaccaria of 
 Florence, a Dominican friar, also published a 
 New Testament; but this was only Marmocchi- 
 no 's version reissued under Fra Zaccaria 's 
 name. 10 
 
 With the mention of the translations of the New 
 Testament by Castelvetro (Lodovico Mura tori's 
 evidence on this point is open to doubt), by Mas- 
 simo Teofilo, a Florentine, 20 and by several other 
 anonymous translators, and by the two transla- 
 tions of the whole Bible by Giovanni Diodati and 
 
 18 G. P. Pons: Antonio Bruoioli, in Rivista Cristiana. Anno 
 III, 1° Serie. See E. Comba: Intr. alia St. d. Rif. in Italia. 
 "1527. 18 S. Marmocchino, 1538; Ph. Rustici, 1562. 
 
 " 1542. ■ 1551. 
 
124 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 Monsignor Antonio Martini, we come to the end 
 of all that is of interest to us here. 
 
 As the translations of the Bible by Diodati and 
 Martini are now the official translations in both 
 the Italian Protestant and Eoman Catholic 
 Churches, we are constrained to say something 
 more about them. 
 
 Let us hie in imagination to Lucca, the capital 
 of the small Eepublic, which I have already men- 
 tioned in a previous chapter, and one of the 
 Italian towns most influenced by the Eeformation. 
 The pious and learned Agostinian Pier Martire 
 Vermigli 21 founded a School there, which he in- 
 tended should have been to Italy what Witten- 
 berg was to Germany. 
 
 In the autumn of the year 1541, there was great 
 excitement in Lucca, which was awaiting the ar- 
 rival of Pope Paul III and the Emperor Charles 
 V. These, the two most powerful Sovereigns in 
 the world, had arranged to meet there in order 
 to discuss several matters of great importance. 
 Among the most prominent of these were the 
 Protestant revolution in Germany and the con- 
 vocation of the Council of Trent so insistently 
 
 *■ 1500-1562. 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 125 
 
 demanded on all sides ; moreover, the Turks were 
 also at that time causing those crowned heads no 
 little trouble. 
 
 The two potentates arrived at last, and were met 
 by the head of the republic, Michele Diodati. On 
 the 17th September, when Messer Michele had 
 so much to attend to, Donna Anna, his wife, pre- 
 sented him with a son. Charles V and Paul III 
 soon came to hear of this interesting event, and 
 sent for the proud father. — " I wish to be his god- 
 father, and the child to bear my name," said 
 Charles. And Paul added: " I shall administer 
 the sacrament." 
 
 Do you know who this Carlo Diodati became? 
 A staunch Protestant, and the father of Giovanni, 
 the translator of the Italian Protestant Bible. 
 See the irony of human events ! Neither the fact 
 of being held at the baptismal font by an emperor 
 hostile to the Eeformation as Charles V was, nor 
 the sacrament administered by a Pope such as 
 Paul III, were sufficient to preserve Carlo Diodati 
 and his posterity from the taint of heresy! 
 
 From the point of view of the Reformation, the 
 visit of the Emperor and the Pope was a disaster 
 to Lucca. Pier Martire Vermigli, first closely 
 watched, had at length to flee ; the School he had 
 founded was broken up; and many who had 
 
126 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 adopted the new ideas, after no little persecution, 
 were obliged to leave their country. Carlo Dio- 
 dati, when grown up, went to Lyons for instruction 
 in commerce ; there, the seed sown in his heart by 
 Pier Martire, began to spring up. When the mas- 
 sacre of the Huguenots 22 struck all Protestant 
 France with terror, Carlo fled to Geneva. There 
 he openly declared his adherence to the reformed 
 Church. He married twice, and by his second wife 
 had seven children; Giovanni, the eldest, was 
 born on the 3d June, 1576, and baptised by Nic- 
 cola Balbani, also an exile from Lucca. 
 
 Giovanni Diodati at the age of 19 was already 
 a Doctor in Divinity; at 21 he was Professor of 
 Hebrew in the Genevan Academy. In 1603 he be- 
 gan to translate the Old and the New Testaments 
 from the originals ; in 1607 he published his trans- 
 lation at Geneva, which was republished soon after 
 in a second edition, and in 1641 he issued a third 
 edition with notes. 
 
 As soon as the version appeared, published at 
 his own expense, which reduced him to utmost 
 poverty, it was most favourably received by the 
 best men of the time. Even those who criticised 
 it pitilessly were, nevertheless, bound to recog- 
 nise that it was a great and most valuable work, 
 
 a 1572. 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 127 
 
 even though the Old Testament was a better work 
 than the New. There is no doubt about it, that 
 it surpasses all the other Italian translations of 
 the Bible. The Italian exiles immediately recog- 
 nised its superiority, and began to make use of it, 
 putting aside the versions by Malherbi, Massimo 
 Teofilo, and Brucioli, which they had been using 
 up to that time ; and though it is not a fact that 
 it is cited by the Accademia della Crusca for its 
 classic language, as many have asserted, Cesare 
 Cantu among others, yet it has at all times de- 
 served the praise even of Eoman Catholic critics, 
 and of men such as Scaligero, Giordani, Cardinal 
 Mai, and Monsignor Tiboni. Eight years after 
 the publication of his translation, 23 Giovanni 
 Diodati entered into his rest, at the age of seventy- 
 three, mourned by all Geneva. 
 
 And now I come to the Eoman Catholic trans- 
 lation by Monsignor Antonio Martini- 
 Martini was born at Prato in Tuscany on the 
 20th April, 1720. 
 
 He was Principal of the College of Superga, in 
 Piedmont, when he issued his translations of the 
 New and Old Testaments in 1769 and 1776 re- 
 spectively. As Professor Minocchi says, " these 
 simple dates cover a long and most deplorable 
 
 28 13th October, 1649. 
 
128 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 history of envy, calumny and intrigue, by means 
 of which many prelates and clerics, at Eome and 
 Turin, tried their best to ruin the success of Mar- 
 tini's work and to throw him into the hands of the 
 Holy Office. " 24 On account of his noble work, 
 Pius VI, urged by the strong recommendations of 
 the House of Savoy, conferred on Martini the 
 bishopric of Bobbio ; and Martini was on his way 
 to Eome to be consecrated, when the Grand Duke 
 Leopold I of Tuscany stopped him, and succeeded 
 in persuading him to accept the archbishopric of 
 Florence ; and there he died at the advanced age of 
 eighty-nine years. 
 
 What was his purpose when he undertook the 
 translation of the Bible? He has told it himself 
 in the Preface to his work: " My purpose,' ' he 
 says, " has been to translate faithfully our Vul- 
 gate." And further on: " What I have aimed at 
 is to prepare a strictly literal translation of the 
 Vulgate, keeping, as far as possible, the same 
 phrases, the same images, the same order of the 
 words." Such was his plan. Whereas in Dio- 
 dati's version the translation of the Old Testament 
 is on the whole better than that of the New, so 
 Martini's translation of the New Testament is 
 
 " See Cesare Guasti : Storia aneddota del volgarizzamento dei 
 due Testamenti, fatto dalV Ab. Antonio Martini, in Rassegna 
 Xazionale, 16 Sett. 1885, pp. 235-282. 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 129 
 
 better than that of the Old ; and, as I have already 
 stated that Diodati's translation is the best of 
 all the ancient Italian translations taken directly 
 from the originals, so I am bound to say that 
 Martini's translation is one of the best of the 
 Italian translations of the Vulgate. But the great 
 drawback to a work such as that is that Martini 
 translates from the Vulgate, which, as I have al- 
 ready shown, is far from being perfect; so that, 
 even overlooking the many inherent defects of 
 Martini's version, the fact remains that it is noth- 
 ing but a good rendering of an imperfect transla- 
 tion. This is sufficient to show that, compared 
 with Diodati's version, it is found to be greatly 
 inferior. 
 
 Since Martini's time endeavours have not been 
 wanting to provide Italy with a version of the 
 New Testament and portions of the Old more true 
 to the original and more modern in language and 
 expression. Attempts were made by G. B. de 
 Eossi, Samuele David Luzzatto, David Castelli; 
 Gregorio Ugdulena, Niccolo Tommaseo, Carlo 
 Curci, Salvatore Minocchi; Alberto Kevel, Gio- 
 vanni Biava, Oscar Cocorda; but inasmuch as 
 they were simply individual efforts, they did not 
 
130 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 and could not succeed in ensuring for them the 
 favour of the general public. 
 
 A strange, unexpected, and incredible event 
 now occurred in the Church of Rome. 
 
 Let us trace the steps which led up to it. 
 
 In 1564 Pius IV, in order to check any possible 
 attempt at a Eeform movement in Italy, pro- 
 hibited the reading of any version whatever of the 
 Bible. In 1757, Benedict XIV, 25 to the great dis- 
 gust of several bishops and cardinals, revoked 
 the decree of Pius IV ; but the revocation of Bene- 
 dict became a dead letter under Clement XIII, 26 
 who succeeded him. He was a man of narrow and 
 despicable views, intolerant of progress, and quite 
 different to his predecessor. Martini had to wait 
 until the pontificate of Clement XIV, 27 a pontiff of 
 broad views and similar in this respect to Bene- 
 dict, before he was able to begin his work. Mar- 
 tini's Bible was not popular; it was published in 
 large unwieldy volumes, with long and wearisome 
 explanatory notes, and in most editions with the 
 Latin text in parallel columns. It was written in 
 a polemic and apologetic spirit, more with the 
 intention of commenting on the text than with 
 
 ■ 1740-1758. M 1758-1769. 
 
 * 1769-1774. The Pope who, on the 21st July, 1773, sup- 
 pressed the Order of the Jesuits was Clement XIV (Lorenzo 
 Ganganelli). 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 131 
 
 regard to clear and simple explanations. It, there- 
 fore, could not and did not become popular ; and 
 those who wished to read the Bible, in spite of 
 clerical prohibition and prejudice, preferred Dio- 
 dati's translation, which the British and Foreign 
 Bible Society had put within their reach. 
 
 On the 27th April, 1902, a Society was formed, 
 called La Pia Societd di San Girolamo per la dif- 
 fusione de 9 Santi Vangeli (The Pious Society of 
 St. Jerome for the spread of the Holy Gospels). 
 This Society, which took the name of the great 
 author of the Vulgate, prepared and widely dis- 
 tributed a new translation of the four Gospels and 
 the Acts of the Apostles. The translation, in an 
 easy and popular style, was the work of the Eev. 
 Professor Giuseppe Clementi; the notes, concise, 
 reverent, and without polemical intention, were by 
 Padre Giovanni Genocchi of the Sacred Heart ; the 
 preface, clear and eloquent, which set forth with 
 great moderation and exactness the Protestant 
 principles relating to the authority of the Scrip- 
 tures, and in which, perhaps for the first time 
 since the Eeformation, Protestants were called 
 " our separated brethren/ ' was by Padre Gio- 
 vanni Semeria, a Barnabite; the indexes, five in 
 number, were by Padre Giuseppe Valdambrini. 
 This nice little volume, printed at the Vatican press 
 
132 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 and adorned with six engravings, contained, im- 
 mediately after the preface, the beautiful pas- 
 sage out of The Imitation of Christ referring 
 to the spirit in which the Holy Scriptures should 
 be read, 28 and added some reminders and instruc- 
 tions regarding the reverent perusal of the Holy 
 Gospel 
 
 It seemed as if the Society could not have com- 
 menced its work under better auspices. More than 
 two hundred bishops signified their approval of 
 it, and many promised their assistance. Leo XIII 
 granted an Indulgence of three hundred days to 
 the faithful who read the Gospel for at least a 
 quarter of an hour a day, and plenary Indulgence 
 once a month, on a day to be selected, to those 
 who, for the space of one month, had dedicated a 
 quarter of an hour daily to this reading. Later 
 on, Pius X 29 granted plenary Indulgence on the 
 feast day of St. Jerome 30 to all those who in any 
 way whatever belonged to the Pious Society. 
 After three years of activity the Society had cir- 
 culated 300,000 copies of the Gospels in popular 
 editions, first at 20 centimes and then at 25 per 
 copy; and to facilitate the circulation still more, 
 it published the Gospels of St. Matthew and of St. 
 
 28 Book I, Chap. V. M August 28th, 19C3. 
 
 80 30th September. 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 133 
 
 Luke singly, at 5 centimes the copy. Moreover, 
 to render the inspired writings more useful to the 
 pious reader, it underlined many of the passages 
 which place in high relief the fundamental doc- 
 trines and moral principles of Christianity. In 
 1907 the 880th thousand of these books was issued 
 from the Vatican printing press, and with the 
 100th stereotyped edition in 1908, the number 
 cannot have fallen short of a million. 
 
 It must not be concluded, however, that every- 
 thing went smoothly. The little volume, in its gen- 
 eral aspect, with its index of passages from the Old 
 Testament quoted in the New; with its little Con- 
 cordance and synoptic tables, its underlined verses, 
 its illustrations, and its price, savoured too much 
 of Protestantism not to be unpalatable to some. 
 The usual atrabilious press fell upon it, and began 
 to denounce the Society of St. Jerome as one whose 
 object was " a new and suspicious kind of propa- 
 ganda.' ? There is nothing more interesting, or 
 rather nothing more contemptible and more sad to 
 witness, than what went on behind the scenes in 
 the Society of St. Jerome. There, in the back- 
 ground, the iniquitous conspiracy was woven by 
 the eternal enemies of Truth, which was to ex- 
 tinguish a Society begun so auspiciously and with 
 such promise of a glorious future. It was not 
 
134 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 enough that the unfortunate Society should be 
 presided over by a cardinal, nor that its meetings 
 should be held in the Vatican; the Curia, as soon 
 as it perceived that the fortunes of the Society 
 were going to be very different from what it had 
 expected, became diffident and nervous, and soon 
 found a way of ridding itself of an institution 
 whose birth it had blessed, but which had been so 
 ill-advised as to disturb its placid slumbers; and 
 this, you may be sure, was done without com- 
 promising its own authority, or the signatures of 
 Lepidi and Ceppetelli, who had given their ' ' im- 
 primatur.' ' It began by amending, touching up, 
 correcting, and lopping in its own way all the 
 work the Society of St. Jerome had done. Later 
 on, and little by little, some of the notes disap- 
 peared, some were mutilated, and others were 
 added to, so that they might mean what they had 
 not been intended to mean. The admirable phrase 
 " our separated Protestant brethren " so Chris- 
 tian in spirit, which aroused so much enthusiasm, 
 and at the same time gave the good Padre Semeria 
 no little trouble, was cancelled. Every allusion 
 which the annotator had made to the Greek text 
 was ruthlessly expunged, and every breath of 
 criticism or of independent opinion that appeared 
 in the notes, was suffocated. Finally, in the last 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 135 
 
 edition of the book, a little " Manual of Prayers " 
 was added, containing the Mysteries of the Holy 
 Rosary, the Litanies of the Blessed Virgin, sev- 
 eral invocations to Mary and to St. Joseph, and a 
 large number of ejaculatory prayers, intended as 
 an antidote to eternal perdition, for those who, 
 peradventure, might have been poisoned by read- 
 ing the pure and simple Gospel! With its in- 
 quisitorial censure the Curia sought to render the 
 work of the Society of St. Jerome innocuous, and 
 at the same time dug its grave and kept it ready. 
 The end of the sad story can be told to-day in 
 a few words. The Society of St. Jerome has not 
 been dissolved by any express official act, but it 
 has, nevertheless, been dissolved. The Curia has 
 not killed the Society directly, but has so man- 
 aged that it should expire gradually, slowly, and 
 of itself. The noble members of the " Pious So- 
 ciety " have dreamt a beautiful dream, and noth- 
 ing more ; they have learned by painful experience 
 that the Curia fears a reawakening of the people's 
 conscience, and, therefore, does not desire the free 
 circulation of the Gospel of Christ. 
 
 # # 
 
 Has the history of the Bible in Italy been closed 
 with this gloomy chapter? 
 
136 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 No, God be thanked, another chapter has just 
 opened; a chapter as full of light and hope as 
 that of the Society of St. Jerome was full of 
 shadows and disappointment. 
 
 The ideal vanished with the Society of St. 
 Jerome, has been revived in another Society under 
 the name of Fides et Amor (Faith and Love), and 
 founded by laymen actuated by a Catholic spirit, 
 in the fullest sense of the word; that is: non- 
 sectarian and truly universal. 
 
 The Fides et Amor was founded on the same 
 day, but seven years after the Society of St. 
 Jerome; that is: on the 27th April, 1909. Its 
 aims and organisation may be gleaned from the 
 following extracts from its Statute : 
 
 (1) A Society under the name of Fides et Amor 
 has been constituted in Italy. It is independent 
 of any church or religious associations, and has 
 its seat in Eome. 
 
 (2) The Society has not as its object the special 
 interests of any particular church, but aims at 
 the triumph of the Kingdom of God through the 
 spread of the Gospel of Christ in Italy and in coun- 
 tries where the Italian language is spoken. 
 
 (3) The Society welcomes, as members, all 
 Christian believers without distinction of names. 
 
 By the efforts of this Society the religious lit- 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 137 
 
 erature of Italy has already been enriched by an 
 important addition : the translation of the whole of 
 the New Testament. This translation is from the 
 original Greek, and it marks, therefore, an impor- 
 tant advance over that of Monsignor Martini, who, 
 as we know, translated from the Vulgate. It is in 
 modern, living language, and is, therefore, far 
 ahead of that of Giovanni Diodati, whose transla- 
 tion dates from the beginning of the seventeenth 
 century. The translation is enriched with notes, 
 which are neither polemic, nor parenetic, nor one- 
 sided, but simply explanatory of the text; and 
 on this account it may be said to have taken up 
 and completed the work left unfinished by the 
 " Pious Society of St. Jerome,' ' but in a wider and 
 more independent spirit than that which was per- 
 mitted to the Pious Society. Each of the twenty- 
 seven books of the New Testament is preceded 
 by a concise preface, rich with information relat- 
 ing to the authors, authenticity, date, and place 
 where each was written, and its first readers. The 
 volume, the first of its kind in Italy, is nicely bound 
 in cloth, has two good maps, is printed in clear 
 type on good paper, and only costs lire 1.20 in 
 Italy, and lire 1.50 abroad. 
 
 One of the appeals of the Society closes with 
 these words: " This is a solemn hour. A wave of 
 
138 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 the Eternal Spirit is passing over Italy. Minds 
 are opened, consciences feel new religious and 
 moral needs, which Science is unable to satisfy. 
 Only the Christ of God has the power to satisfy 
 them; and our aim, in issuing this New Testament, 
 is solely to put the Italian conscience into immedi- 
 ate contact with ' Christ Jesus, who of God is 
 made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanc- 
 tification and redemption.' " 
 
 The possibility of a society such as this, is not 
 a Utopian idea, but is, on the contrary, a reality. 
 This has already been proved by facts. The 
 Fides et Amor includes already Roman Catholic 
 priests and laymen, members of the Greek Or- 
 thodox Church, and Protestants. The volume 
 already referred to has been cordially accepted 
 by the best-known literary men of Italy; the 
 liberal press has reviewed it very favourably, 
 and, in spite of the thunderbolts hurled against it 
 by the Jesuitical press, it is courageously and 
 serenely making its way throughout the cities and 
 the countries of Italy. 
 
 That the times are not yet altogether ripe for 
 a society such as the Fides et Amor, is un- 
 fortunately too well proved by the 5th article of 
 the Statute, which runs thus: "If necessary, 
 names of members are recorded in cipher, and the 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 139 
 
 roll of membership is kept only by the President." 
 In other words : men belonging to the three great 
 branches of Christianity are not allowed to study 
 together, to think and to believe in full communion 
 of spirit and to love each other fraternally, except 
 in secret. To do so openly, especially in the case 
 of members of the Roman Catholic and the Greek 
 Orthodox Churches, is to run the risk of censure 
 from the ecclesiastical authority on which they 
 depend. This is sad indeed, but the fact that a 
 Society such as the Fides et Amor is possible 
 and does exist, is more than a symptom, it is a 
 guarantee that the past is gone forever, and is 
 also an assurance that the light of Truth which 
 is already spreading on the tops of the mountains 
 will not be long in penetrating the whole valley 
 to gladden it with its rays full of brightness and 
 life. 
 
 The time has come to furl our sails. 
 
 In these our times when so many in Italy take 
 pleasure in extolling everything that is foreign 
 to the detriment of all that is genuinely national, 
 it is dear to me, in concluding, to draw attention to 
 one of Italy's glories which she herself has com- 
 pletely forgotten. 
 
140 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 While biblical studies were widely and so ear- 
 nestly cultivated in countries beyond the Alps 
 during the sixteenth century as to lead up to the 
 Protestant Keformation, it must not be supposed 
 that these studies were ignored and neglected in 
 Italy at or before that period. 
 
 It is well known that after the invention of 
 printing, 31 Italy, about the end of the fifteenth 
 and the beginning of the sixteenth century, even 
 in the printing of the sacred text took the lead, 
 although later on she was surpassed. Nothing 
 would be more instructive than to take up the 
 early history of the art of printing in Italy, to 
 watch its progress, to learn of its early vicissi- 
 tudes in the heart of the Italian Jewish colonies, 
 and to trace the connection between the printing 
 of the Hebrew sacred text and the development of 
 the study of the Semitic languages. It would be 
 most interesting to visit, in spirit, convent cells 
 and the sumptuous palaces of bishops and other 
 high dignitaries of the Church, and thus surprise 
 friars, bishops, and cardinals absorbed in the 
 study of God's Word at the time when the pagan 
 Pope Leo X was enjoying the obscenities of 
 Machiavelli 's Mandragora, and his secretary 
 Cardinal Bembo, in writing to a colleague, Sado- 
 
 * 1436. 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 141 
 
 leto, said: " Do not read the Epistles of St. Paul, 
 lest his barbarous style should corrupt your taste; 
 leave those trifles (ineptice) alone; they are not 
 worthy the attention of a serious scholar. ' ' 
 
 But I must not allow myself to be carried away 
 by these researches, however fascinating and 
 important they may be. I must limit myself only 
 to a few but momentous facts. 
 
 The first printed Hebrew Psalter was issued 
 in Italy in 1477; the first printed Hebrew Bible 
 appeared at Soncino, a town of the Cremona 
 Province, in 1488 ; and we know that the Hebrew 
 text of the Old Testament which Martin Luther 
 had under his eyes when preparing his classical 
 translation, was the third edition of a text issued 
 in Brescia. In 1518 Daniele Bomberg had already 
 published, in Venice, editions of the Bible and 
 Eabbinical Commentaries which form a glorious 
 chapter in the history of Italian printing ; and by 
 the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the 
 sixteenth century, Italy took pride in many Ori- 
 entalists of no little renown. The first edition of 
 the Septuagint, that is to say, of the Greek version 
 of the Old Testament, was incorporated in the 
 famous Complutensis 32 of Alcala; but when the 
 
 ■ Complutum is the Latin name for AlcaU in Spain (Province 
 of Madrid). As the monumental work to which I am alluding 
 
142 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 Complutensis, although already printed, had not 
 yet been published, Andreas Asolanus, father-in- 
 law of the elder Aldus Manutius, issued from the 
 Venetian Aldine press a complete edition of the 
 Greek Bible, in February, 1518. 33 In 1527 Santi 
 Pagnini of Lucca published a Latin translation of 
 the Bible, after having spent twenty-five years of 
 his life in preparing it; but already in 1560 the 
 nuns of Ripoli, near Florence, had issued a beau- 
 tiful printed edition of the Gospel of St. John; 
 and in 1471 the anonymous translation of the thir- 
 teenth century, which has already been referred 
 to, appeared, and ran through nine editions in the 
 fifteenth century and twelve in the sixteenth. One 
 of these editions, that of 1490, was illustrated by 
 Bellini and Sandro Botticelli. In 1542 Isidoro 
 Clario, Abbot of Monte Cassino, published the 
 Vulgate, following the best Manuscripts, and en- 
 riched it with a preface and notes ; a work, which 
 had the honour of ecclesiastical censure and mu- 
 tilation, because the worthy Abbot had committed 
 two great sins: he had dared to correct the Vul- 
 
 was printed there (1502-1517, under the auspices of Cardinal 
 Ximenes de Cisneros), it was called the Complutensis ; that is to 
 say: printed at Alcala. 
 
 88 The Complutensis, although prepared before, had the ap- 
 proval of the Pope only in 1520, and was only issued four years 
 after (1522) that Aldine edition. 
 
Dramatic History of the Bible in Italy 143 
 
 gate and had openly admitted having done so, and 
 had also embodied in his notes extracts from 
 Protestant commentaries. In those days, as Tira- 
 boschi remarks, " to quote from a Protestant work 
 was a crime worthy of capital punishment.' ' Not 
 so now, when Eoman Catholics freely and with im- 
 punity plunder the works of Protestant authors. 
 
 What I have related, corroborated by the fact 
 of the existence and circulation of several other 
 Italian translations of the Scriptures such as those 
 of Antonio Brucioli, 34 Santi Marmocchino, 35 Fra 
 Zaccaria, 36 Massimo Teofilo, 37 Filippo Eustici, 38 
 shows us clearly that in the century of the Eefor- 
 mation the Book of Books, the light of the soul 
 and the message of spiritual liberty, was freely 
 circulated also in Italy, and was loved not only in 
 convents and in the palaces of bishops and car- 
 dinals, but also by the nobility and people of all 
 classes. 
 
 I have already pointed out in a previous chap- 
 ter how it was that so many bright hopes which 
 sprang in Italy in that glorious age, were followed 
 by so much tragic, bitter, and disheartening dis- 
 appointment. Here, I will only say that the angel 
 of liberty has already removed the principal 
 
 34 The New Testament: Venice, 1530. The whole Bible in 1532. 
 85 1538. 86 1542. "1551. * 1562. 
 
144 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy- 
 causes that have hindered the Bible from bearing 
 in Italy the fruit that it has brought forth in other 
 lands ; so that it is quite reasonable to predict that 
 the present revival of biblical studies and pre- 
 occupations which cheer all true lovers of the wel- 
 fare of that great country, will no longer be 
 threatened with destruction by the storm of per- 
 secution, but, caressed by the breeze of a true 
 renaissance of Christian faith, will bring to ma- 
 turity an abundance of ' ' abiding ' ' fruit. 
 
 A great mission is entrusted to the Bible in 
 Italy: To gather together all those who are 
 languishing for want of the Divine; to enamour 
 the people of Italy of noble and holy ideals, and 
 to point out to that young but strong and glorious 
 nation the way that leads to that moral greatness, 
 without which any other kind of greatness is al- 
 most altogether unavailing and worthless. 
 
IV 
 THE ISRAEL OP THE ALPS 
 
IV 
 
 THE ISRAEL OF THE ALPS 
 
 A SPECIAL chapter is due to the " Israel of 
 the Alps," as the Waldenses have rightly 
 been called. From the point of view of his- 
 tory, they are the oldest Protestant body in Chris- 
 tendom ; and geographically, with regard to their 
 position in the classic land of Papacy, they are in 
 the van of European Protestantism. 
 
 What about the origin of this people? John 
 Milton describes the Waldenses as having kept 
 God's 
 
 "... truth so pure of old 
 When all our fathers worshipt stocks and stones"; 
 
 and, as Professor E. Comba has shown, that is the 
 legend which has arisen to make up for the silence 
 of history, and which has enamoured poets. To- 
 day history speaks, legends vanish, and the calm 
 and serene language of facts takes the place of 
 poetry. 
 
 In the first chapter we already noted that at a 
 
 147 
 
148 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 very early date, especially in the North of Italy, 
 energetic protests against the superstitions and 
 the thirst for earthly power of Kome were not 
 wanting; and we have certainly not forgotten the 
 names of Jovinian, Vigilantius, Claudius of Turin, 
 and Arnold of Brescia. 
 
 Soon after the martyrdom of Arnold, a man 
 arose, whom Providence had called to gather to- 
 gether all the dispersed remnants of the different 
 protests which had preceded him, and which 
 Papacy had done its best to crush pitilessly. The 
 name of that man was Peter Valdo. 1 Where he 
 came from, nobody exactly knows ; we know, how- 
 ever, that he was born about 1140, that he 
 was a merchant, that he settled down in Lyons, 
 that he was married, had two daughters, and that 
 he became well-to-do. 
 
 On a warm summer day in 1173 he was con- 
 versing on the threshold of his house with some 
 friends, when one of them suddenly fell down 
 dead at his feet. Valdo, as soon as he was alone, 
 put himself this question in his grief: " If I, in- 
 stead of him, had been so suddenly called before 
 my Supreme Judge, what would have become of 
 me? n Some time afterwards, whilst the impres- 
 
 x The best authorities on this subject are: E. Comba: Histoire 
 des Vaudois. Storia dei Valdesi. Jean Jalla: Histoire des 
 Vaudois des Alpes. 
 
The Israel of the Alps 149 
 
 sion of that scene was still fresh in his mind, he 
 stopped one Sunday to listen to a minstrel who 
 was singing the ballad of St. Alexis to a crowd 
 which had gathered. This Roman noble, said the 
 ballad, abandoned his spouse, his relations, his 
 position and riches on his wedding day, in order 
 to go as a pilgrim to the Holy Land. When he 
 came back nobody knew who he was, and so he 
 concealed his name; but when he died he was 
 recognised by a mark on his body, just in time 
 for his remains to be honoured by a solemn 
 funeral. His relations comforted themselves with 
 the thought that he was blessed and glorified in 
 heaven. 
 
 This beautiful example of a man giving up a 
 brilliant position to please his God moved the 
 worthy merchant of Lyons, and he was led to 
 ask a divine : ' ' Which is the safest way to 
 reach perfection f ' ' The divine, following Eoman 
 casuistry, pointed out to him several ways. At 
 last, as Valdo insisted on knowing the safest of 
 all, the passage was quoted to him: " If thou wilt 
 be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to 
 the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven ; 
 and come and follow Me." 2 The direction was 
 clear, and Valdo followed it. He gave back every- 
 
 2 Matthew xix. 21. 
 
150 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 thing that he had gained unjustly ; what remained 
 he divided into two parts: houses and estates 
 formed one part; commercial goods and ready 
 money, the other. His wife, whom he left free to 
 choose, chose houses and grounds. Out of the other 
 part he provided for his daughters, whom he sent 
 to be educated in the famous Abbey of Fontevrault 
 in Poitou, and gave the rest to the poor. A famine 
 was raging in Lyons; Valdo ordered a regular 
 distribution of food to be made three times a 
 week; and while providing for the bodies, he 
 gave to the souls the " bread of life " and 
 preached them the Gospel through which he him- 
 self had found peace. Helped by two priests, 
 Stephen d'Ansa, who translated from the Latin, 
 and Bernard Ydros, who copied, he was able to 
 possess several copies of not a few of the books 
 of the Bible in the vulgar tongue. These books 
 he read and distributed to the people, always ac- 
 companying the distribution with a word of ex- 
 hortation. 
 
 Such was the beginning of the Waldensian mis- 
 sion, and it was started by a layman. Opposition 
 from the ecclesiastical authorities could not fail 
 to manifest itself; Archbishop Guichard of Lyons 
 forbade his preaching, asserting that only church- 
 men had the right to do so. Peter Valdo an- 
 
The Israel of the Alps 151 
 
 swered: u We ought to obey God rather than 
 men." 3 And being threatened with expulsion 
 from the Church, he appealed to the Third Lateran 
 Council, which had already been convoked in 1179. 
 The Council denied to the Waldenses — that is to 
 say, to Valdo and his disciples whom he used to 
 send two by two into countries and towns to evan- 
 gelise — the right to preach without the approval of 
 the clergy in every place where they stopped. 
 This decided the Waldenses to separate from 
 Eome. As they continued preaching notwith- 
 standing the veto of the Council, the new Arch- 
 bishop of Lyons, Jean de Belle-mains, in 1182, ex- 
 pelled them from his diocese. The following year, 
 the Council of Verona excommunicated them to- 
 gether with other groups of Christians who had 
 severed themselves from Rome. 
 
 It will now be worth while to stop a moment to 
 investigate how the Waldenses, at this point of 
 their history, stood as far as their religious con- 
 victions and ecclesiastical organisation were con- 
 cerned. 
 
 People called them Valdesii, Valdesi, Vaudes, 
 after the name of their leader Valdo ; they were 
 also called the " Poor of Lyons,' ' because they felt 
 bound to give up all riches and to live in poverty, 
 
 8 Acts v. 29. 
 
152 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 according to the precepts of the Gospel, as was 
 the case in all movements of reaction against 
 Kome between the twelfth and the thirteenth cen- 
 tury. They were pledged to the three monastic 
 vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. They 
 refused to accept Purgatory, or the gross prac- 
 tices that Eomanism had inherited from pagan- 
 ism, and the worship of the saints and the Virgin, 
 although they regarded the mother of Jesus with 
 exceptional respect. They retained confession, 
 but the formula of absolution was not : " I absolve 
 thee," but " May God absolve thee from all sin." 
 The penance they imposed was fasting and the 
 repetition of the Lord's Prayer. Lying was pro- 
 hibited in all forms and under all pretexts. They 
 held capital punishment to be contrary to the 
 - Scripture, and refused to take an oath. 
 
 The Waldensian community, which assumed the 
 name of " Brotherhood," was composed of dea- 
 cons, presbyters, and bishops. Very probably, 
 however, these two last offices were one and the 
 same; at any rate, the office of bishops ceased to 
 exist. They had a yearly Capitulum, which later 
 on became a Synod; it elected a Rector and a 
 Coadjutor. All office-bearers in the church were, 
 therefore, chosen by election. The presbyters 
 were usually called Barbi, a name which means 
 
The Israel of the Alps 153 
 
 Uncle, and even nowadays is used in the Walden- 
 sian valleys and in other parts of Italy as a term 
 of respect to persons not belonging to the same 
 family circle. Where they were sufficiently numer- 
 ous, they maintained a Home, called Hospice, kept 
 by a Rector and by some aged women. There 
 they entertained the travelling brethren and wor- 
 shipped in secret. The order of their worship 
 was very simple. They read or recited the Word 
 of God, which they knew for the greater part by 
 heart, and expounded it in a practical and popu- 
 lar manner. They sang only in private, so as not 
 to be heard and discovered by the enemies to their 
 faith, and they never administered the sacra- 
 ments ; when these were needed, they had recourse 
 to the Roman Catholic priests. 
 
 Such were the general lines of the doctrine and 
 organisation of the Waldensian church in the 
 Middle Ages. 
 
 After the banishment of the Waldenses from 
 Lyons nothing certain is known about Valdo ; but 
 the Waldenses, after their expulsion, followed the 
 way which had been prepared by the Catharists, 
 called Albigenses in the South of France, and 
 Patarenes in Italy. 4 We find them united with 
 the Catharists in almost every country in Europe : 
 
 4 See Chap. I, Note 60. 
 
154 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 Provence, Languedoc, Spain, England, Switzer- 
 land, Alsace-Lorraine, Brandenburg, Pomerania, 
 Saxony, Bohemia, Austria, Italy, Greece, and Con- 
 stantinople. But in Italy their union was even 
 closer with the movement known as the " Umili- 
 ati " (the Humble) or " Poor of Lombardy," 
 which was contemporary with and had the same 
 objects as theirs. Being thus united, they enjoyed 
 for a certain period the protection of the Milanese 
 authorities, and were enabled to open a public 
 school in Milan. On account of dissensions which 
 occurred, the Waldenses who settled in Lombardy 
 separated from those beyond the Alps, in 1205. 
 In a Conference held at Bergamo in 1218 the two 
 Waldensian branches tried to come to an agree- 
 ment, but this was not possible. The Waldenses 
 beyond the Alps and those of Lombardy, there- 
 fore, continued their missionary work independ- 
 ently, not, however, without keeping in brotherly 
 touch with each other. And though we shall not 
 entirely lose sight of the Waldensian branch be- 
 yond the Alps, we are here obliged to limit our- 
 selves to following the Lombard branch, which 
 had settled eventually in the Cottian Alps. 
 
 What induced them to go there? 
 
 Several things: the configuration of the coun- 
 try, well adapted as a natural fortress of religious 
 
The Israel of the Alps 155 
 
 freedom; the greenness and fertility of the Italian 
 side of the Alps, so different to the arid and rocky 
 conditions on the other side; lastly, the good- 
 nature of the inhabitants; simple folk, imbued 
 with genuine Christian piety, born and nurtured 
 in the atmosphere of the followers of Claudius of 
 Turin and, perhaps, also of Pierre de Bruys, 5 who 
 very likely had sought and found their refuge 
 there, when harassed by persecution. 
 
 The valleys of the Cottian Alps, where the Wal- 
 denses found refuge, are about one hour and three- 
 quarters distant, by rail, from Turin. The valleys 
 are numerous, as any one who knows an Alpine 
 district can well imagine ; but there are three prin- 
 cipal ones— the valley of the Pellice, the valley of 
 Angrogna, and the valley of San Martino.— In 
 those valleys, round the little huts hidden amidst 
 rocks and chestnut-trees, the sublime memories of 
 the Waldensian church still clung. 
 
 Let us, in imagination, go through these three 
 valleys, just a hurried visit, but sufficient to enable 
 
 6 The legend says that St. Paul and St. James on their way 
 to Spain passed through those Alpine valleys, where they planted 
 the Christian faith. Claudius of Turin (d. 839). See Chap. 
 I, Note 55. Piero di Bruys for twenty years (1104-1124) fought 
 against the errors of Rome, more especially in Dauphiny, Pro- 
 vence, and Languedoc. He was at times too violent; for instance, 
 when he caused all crucifixes to be destroyed by fire in the pub- 
 lic squares. He was burnt at Saint-Gilles, Gard, by a furious 
 mob at the instigation of the priests (1130). 
 
156 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 one to obtain an idea of the chief places of in- 
 terest. 
 
 The railway line from Turin passes through 
 Pinerolo, climbs towards the Alps, and ends at 
 Torre Pellice. Here you look up at the peak be- 
 fore you which rises from the shoulder of the 
 Vandalino, and you see Castelluzzo ; opposite and 
 lower down the slope, are the ruins of a fort. 
 Both of these places have holy and touching mem- 
 ories of heroism and tears. Here, on the plain, 
 between the mountain and the slope, is the fruit 
 of that heroism and of those tears — the modern 
 Waldensian church. Further on, ascending the 
 course of the torrent Pellice which gives its name 
 to the valley, you reach Villar; and at the end of 
 the valley is Bobbio. 
 
 To enter the second valley, that of Angrogna, 
 a return to Torre Pellice is necessary; and as you 
 go along the torrent, look up; there, behind the 
 mountain opposite, is Bora, the birthplace of 
 Janavel, the Gideon of the Israel of the Alps, the 
 man of iron temper sanctified by God's grace. 
 You enter the valley of Angrogna, and ascend the 
 torrent which gives its name to the valley. A 
 few hours will suffice to explore it all; but what 
 hours ! Every spot here has its story, every rock 
 has a stain of blood, upon every stone is inscribed 
 
The Israel of the Alps 157 
 
 the name of a hero. Here is the oldest church 
 in the valleys; here are the Waldensian Cata- 
 combs ; here is Cianf oran, which we shall have to 
 speak of further on; here is Pra del Torno, with 
 its holy memories of the " Barbi," which in them- 
 selves are a poem. 
 
 To reach the third valley, those who do not care 
 to cross the mountains, must return to Pinerolo, 
 and take the tramway to Perosa. At Perosa we 
 leave the road leading to Fenestrelle on the right, 
 and enter, on the left, the valley of St. Martino. 
 This valley is traversed by three streams, which 
 pour their waters into the Chisone at Perrero, 
 and go by the names of the Germanasca of Prali, 
 of Salza, and of Massello. Here also historical 
 memories abound, which centre in two heroic 
 names : the Balsiglia and Prali ; two places which 
 we shall shortly have to come back to. 
 
 During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, 
 the "Waldenses in their Alpine refuge were con- 
 tinually molested and persecuted by the princes of 
 Savoy and by the papal inquisitors. In 1393, the 
 Inquisition burnt alive 280 Waldenses in the Dau- 
 phiny valleys. On Christmas eve of 1400 the per- 
 secutors crossed the mountains that divide the 
 valley of Susa from that of the Chisone, and fell 
 on those poor mountaineers, who, completely sur- 
 
158 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 prised, fled to the snowy heights of the Albergian, 
 where they passed the whole night in bitter cold, 
 while their aggressors made merry in the homes 
 they had abandoned. At dawn many of the eighty 
 mothers who had started with a child in their 
 arms, were pressing to their bosoms only a poor 
 little frozen corpse. 
 
 These two centuries, during which the Inquisi- 
 tors never ceased to shed the blood of and squeeze 
 money from the wretched Waldenses, lead us to 
 the terrible crusade proclaimed in 1487 by the in- 
 famous Innocent VIII, which, in 1488, sowed ter- 
 ror, misery, and death throughout the valleys of 
 the Dauphiny. Whilst, however, the angel of 
 death was passing through the valleys beyond the 
 Alps, the Waldenses on the Italian side were ex- 
 tending themselves and pitching their tents in the 
 very south of Italy, where they founded colonies, 6 
 of which the most important, about the middle of 
 the fourteenth century, were those in Calabria, 
 where they established themselves first near Mont- 
 alto not far from Cosenza; afterwards, at San 
 
 6 About the middle of the fourteenth century the Waldenses also 
 founded colonies in Provence. In the first years of the sixteenth 
 century there were in Provence not less than 10,000 Waldensian or 
 Lutheran homes, where 23 Barbi, at least, preached the Gospel. 
 This colony was exterminated by fire, plunder, and torture in 
 1545. 
 
The Israel of the Alps 159 
 
 Sisto and La Guardia. The Waldenses in these 
 colonies were visited regularly by the pastors 
 from the valleys, and were not only persevering in 
 their faith, but were also shining lights amidst 
 the darkness of the country they inhabited. One 
 of their pastors is especially recorded in history: 
 Giovanni Lodovico Pascale, who, on the 15th Sep- 
 tember, 1560, died at the stake in Rome, in Piazza 
 di Ponte St. Angelo. A year later the Inquisitors 
 of Rome had suffocated in blood those flourishing 
 colonies, and were able to boast of having extir- 
 pated heresy from Calabria. 
 
 But let us not anticipate events; another im- 
 portant fact calls our attention here : that of the 
 relation between the Waldenses and the Reforma- 
 tion. 
 
 First of all, let us inquire : What about the be- 
 lief and the organisation of this people on the 
 eve of the Reformation? 
 
 At the very end of the Angrogna valley, at Pra 
 del Torno, there was a school for those who de- 
 sired to prepare themselves for the ministry. 
 Those who frequented it, for the most part, were 
 adults, from twenty-five to thirty years of age. 
 They attended the school during three or four 
 
160 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 months in winter; then, when the snow disap- 
 peared, they went back to their work in the fields. 
 The " curriculum " lasted three or four winters. 
 In the school they studied only one book: the 
 Bible, which they learnt, as far as possible, by 
 heart, and copied for their own benefit and for 
 that of the people. They earned their daily bread 
 by carrying on a trade or a profession. Some 
 of them practised medicine; others were pedlars. 
 John G. Whittier, the American poet, who felt so 
 deeply the sorrows and the joys of his country 
 and the poetry of all things truly human and 
 truly beautiful, was attracted by the ideal image 
 of the wandering Waldensian pedlar, and thus de- 
 scribed him in beautiful verse, full of exquisite 
 harmony and Christian sentiment: 
 
 THE VAUDOIS TEACHER 
 
 " Lady fair, these silks of mine are beautiful and rare, — 
 The richest web of the Indian loom, which beauty's queen might 
 
 wear; 
 And my pearls are pure as thy own fair neck, with whose radiant 
 
 light they vie; 
 I have brought them with nic a weary way, — will my gentle 
 
 lady buy ? " 
 
 The lady smiled on the worn old man through the dark and 
 clustering curls 
 
 \Vhich veiled her brow, as she bent to view his silks and glitter- 
 ing pearls j 
 
The Israel of the Alps 161 
 
 And she placed their price in the old man's hand and lightly 
 
 turned away, 
 But she paused at the wanderer's earnest call, — "My gentle 
 
 lady, stay! 
 
 " O lady fair, I have yet a gem which a purer lustre flings, 
 Than the diamond flash of the jewelled crown on the lofty brow 
 
 of kings; 
 A wonderful pearl of exceeding price, whose virtue shall not decay, 
 Whose light shall be as a spell to thee and a blessing on thy 
 
 way! " 
 
 The lady glanced at the mirroring steel where her form of grace 
 
 was seen, 
 Where her eye shone clear, and her dark locks waved their 
 
 clasping pearls between; 
 " Bring forth thy pearl of exceeding worth, thou traveller grey 
 
 and old, 
 And name the price of thy precious gem, and my page shall count 
 
 thy gold." 
 
 The cloud went off from the pilgrim's brow, as a small and 
 
 meagre book, 
 Unchased with gold or gems of cost, from his folding robe he 
 
 took! 
 " Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price, may it prove as such to 
 
 thee! 
 Nay, keep thy gold — I ask it not, for the Word of God is free ! " 
 
 The hoary traveller went his way, but the gift he left behind 
 Hath had its pure and perfect work on that highborn maiden's 
 
 mind, 
 And she hath turned from the pride of sin to the lowliness of 
 
 truth, 
 And given her human heart to God in its beautiful hour of youth! 
 
 And she hath left the grey old halls, where an evil faith had 
 power, 
 
162 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 The courtly knights of her father's train, and the maidens of 
 
 her bower; 
 And she hath gone to the Vaudois vales by lordly feet untrod, 
 Where the poor and needy of earth are rich in the perfect love 
 
 of God! 
 
 The candidates for the ministry, when they had 
 finished their studies, spent a year or two in one 
 of the Hospices, of which we have already spoken. 
 There, in retirement and meditation, they waited 
 for ordination by the Synod. Once ordained, 
 they were admitted as coadjutors with an elder 
 Barba, or regidor. And so, two and two, the Barbi 
 went throughout Italy, France, and a part of Ger- 
 many, confirming the brethren and preaching the 
 Gospel to all those with whom they came in con- 
 tact. These journeys lasted about two years. 
 This itinerant ministry did not favour conjugal 
 life, which they were not very anxious about, be- 
 lieving that celibacy was a holier state than matri- 
 mony. When stopping at a place, they visited 
 each family and heard the confession of each indi- 
 vidual. When there was a possibility of meeting 
 for public worship, the two Barbi (the elder of 
 whom always led the service) read or recited 
 passages of the Scriptures, adding an explana- 
 tion and some words of exhortation. In time of 
 peace, they gathered together in the open air; in 
 time of persecution, they met among the rocks and 
 
The Israel of the Alps 163 
 
 in caves. Their doctrine was not altogether free 
 from elements of Romanism, such as salvation 
 through works, transubstantiation, though not in 
 the gross, material sense held by the Komanists, 
 penance after voluntary confession followed by 
 absolution in the form I have already mentioned, 
 celibacy, and baptism, which, as I have previously 
 said, they did not administer themselves but left 
 to be administered by the Eoman priests. On the 
 other hand, they rejected the mass as an expi- 
 atory sacrifice, purgatory, indulgences, the wor- 
 ship of the Virgin and saints, papal supremacy, 
 and other novelties introduced into Christianity 
 by Romanism. They considered the Bible as the 
 only and sufficient basis of belief. In this last 
 principle they were brought near to the Reforma- 
 tion; and it is clear that the influence of the 
 Protestant revolution could not have been but 
 beneficial to their religious convictions. 
 
 When, in the sixteenth century, the strong 
 breeze of the Reformation began to be felt in Eu- 
 rope, Piedmont was the region of Italy which, on 
 account of its geographical position, felt the effects 
 of the innovating spirit most. The works of Lu- 
 ther, Melanchthon, and of other German re- 
 formers, translated into Latin and Italian, began 
 to circulate among educated persons; and the peo- 
 
164 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 pie at large came little by little to the knowledge of 
 the new doctrines through the Waldensian Barbi 
 and through the numerous German Protestants 
 and Huguenots enlisted in the armies of Charles 
 V and of Francis I. 
 
 But what attitude were the Waldenses to adopt 
 " officially/ ' if I may use the word, towards the 
 new Eeform movement? 
 
 That was to them a most pressing problem. 
 
 In order to be able to find a satisfactory solu- 
 tion, they all felt the necessity of precise and 
 detailed information. And so, first in 1526, then 
 in 1530, representatives of these peasants crossed 
 their mountains, studied the movement on the 
 spot, and returned with their reports. A solution 
 of the problem was now quite possible; but only 
 a General Synod had the power to pronounce a 
 final decision ; and as the elder and more influen- 
 tial among the Barbi were at that time in Cala- 
 bria and in Puglie, the solemn assembly could 
 only be convoked for the 12th September, 1532. 
 Two Barbi were sent to Switzerland to invite to 
 the Synod the reformers of Neuchatel and Vaud, 
 with whom, on account of their language, they had 
 had more frequent intercourse than with German- 
 speaking reformers. With the two messengers 
 came back Saulnier, Olivetan, and Farel. The 
 
The Israel of the Alps 165 
 
 Synod was held, on the appointed day, under the 
 chestnut-trees of Cianforan in the Angrogna val- 
 ley, and was attended by a large number of Barbi 
 and by a crowd of people. After a long and 
 heated discussion, all the articles proposed by the 
 reformers were accepted. The conservative party, 
 composed of ex-priests and of those who wished 
 that absolutely nothing should be changed in the 
 doctrinal and ecclesiastical Waldensian traditions, 
 irritated by their discomfiture, went to Bohemia, 
 where they made it widely known that the Wal- 
 denses had accepted the Eeformation, and, to use 
 their own words, that, " influenced by some for- 
 eign divines, they had left the religion of their 
 fathers and had become renegades." The Bo- 
 hemian churches sent them back to the valleys, 
 the bearers of a letter in which they reproached 
 their brethren of the Alps with great severity for 
 their infidelity; but the Synod held at Prali in 
 1533 confirmed the decisions taken at Cianforan, 
 and answered the brethren of Bohemia by show- 
 ing them clearly that the two Barbi had completely 
 misled them. 
 
 At the Synod of Cianforan it was also decided 
 that a sum of " 1,500 ecus d'or " (equivalent to 
 about $12,000) should be devoted to the propaga- 
 tion of the Holy Scriptures; and Olivetan, who 
 
166 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy- 
 knew Greek very well and Hebrew still better, 
 was charged to prepare a French translation. 
 The Bible was, in fact, issued at Neuchatel on the 
 4th of June with the date : ' ' From the Alps : the 
 12th February, 1535,' ' and at once took the place 
 it deserved in the field of the French Reformation ; 
 a place which the superficial version of Jacques 
 Lefevre d'Etaples, then in use, had never suc- 
 ceeded in securing for itself. Olivetan's transla- 
 tion, the Old Testament especially, which Pro- 
 fessor E. Reuss defined as " a true masterpiece,' ' 
 is the block of " granite,' ' says Professor Dou- 
 mergue, " which perpetuates the features of the 
 author more clearly and exactly than any statue. ' ' 
 " And let us never forget," adds the learned Pro- 
 fessor, in his monumental work on Jean Calvin, 
 " that Olivetan's version was the Bible of our 
 forefathers, the Bible read secretly in our fami- 
 lies, meditated upon in prisons and in caves, burnt 
 at the stake and on the c Autos-da-fe. ' No wonder 
 copies of it have become so rare. How is it pos- 
 sible to turn over their leaves without being 
 moved 1 Their pages, now so yellow, sum up all 
 the piety and all the heroism of our fathers. Cer- 
 tainly, if Protestants preserved relics, those copies 
 would of a surety be reckoned amongst the most 
 valuable and precious." 
 
The Israel of the Alps 167 
 
 Supported by the Reformation, the Waldenses 
 began to build churches. About 1556 they had 
 already erected seven. Eome raged, and the Pope 
 induced the kings of France to persecute the Wal- 
 denses, who, between the French kings and the 
 princes of the Hapsburg House, often at war with 
 each other, found themselves in a very difficult 
 position. The attacks they had to suffer by the 
 troops under the Conte della Trinita of execrable 
 memory, were especially terrible on account of 
 cunning and cruelty. They enjoyed some respite 
 after the peace signed at Cavour, 7 which, owing 
 to the loyalty of Emanuel Filiberto, was signed in 
 defiance of all the anger of Rome. But persecu- 
 tion soon broke out again ; and it would be impos- 
 sible here to relate all the scenes of bloodshed that 
 took place one after the other up to the year 1630, 
 when, in addition to all other troubles, a fearful 
 scourge fell on them : the terrible pestilence, which 
 Alessandro Manzoni has described in immortal 
 pages, 8 and which brought to the valleys, as well 
 as other places, desolation and mourning. All that 
 seemed destined to be but the beginning of other 
 calamities. On the ducal throne of the House of 
 Savoy in Piedmont sat Charles Emanuel II, under 
 the regency of his mother, Christina, daughter of 
 
 7 6th June, 1561. 8 A. Manzoni: I Promessi Sposi. 
 
168 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 Henry IV and of Marie oV Medici; the country 
 was convulsed with civil war, and the Waldenses 
 armed themselves to serve their prince. But, alas, 
 with what ingratitude were they repaid ! On the 
 25th January, 1655, the Duke, who by that time 
 had come of age, anxious to give an eloquent proof 
 of his religious zeal, signed an unjust and cruel 
 edict, by which all the Waldenses living in the 
 territories of Torre, San Giovanni, Luserna, Bib- 
 biena, and the neighbouring places, were ordered 
 either to recant or to go into exile under the pain 
 of death and forfeiture of all their goods. The 
 Waldenses at once sent a deputation to the Court, 
 but it was not received. Meanwhile, a ducal army 
 of 15,000 men, partly French, partly Irish, and 
 partly brigands, guided by friars, all under the 
 command of the Marquis of Pianazza, fell on the 
 unarmed peasants; and on the 24th of April, 
 Easter Day, that abominable butchery known as 
 " le Pasque Piemontesi " (Piedmontese Easter) 
 began: the Waldenses resisted valiantly; two cap- 
 tains, Jahier and Janavel, proved themselves to 
 be true heroes ; but, alas, not even heroism was of 
 any use against the overpowering number and 
 the bloodthirstiness of a cruel enemy. The infa- 
 mous outrages and terrible tortures inflicted on 
 men, women, and children before their death can- 
 
The Israel of the Alps 169 
 
 not be retold. Such as escaped, died in great num- 
 bers on the mountains where the snow was still 
 deep, whilst the soldiers of the Eoman Catholic 
 church were setting fire to churches and houses, 
 uprooting trees and vineyards, and reducing the 
 whole country to a wilderness, strewn with naked 
 and mutilated corpses. When the soldiers had 
 satiated themselves with slaughtering, nailing up, 
 and flaying their victims, they dragged those who 
 remained into prison, for the purpose of giving up 
 some to public execution for the benefit of the 
 inhabitants in the plains, and of leaving the rest 
 to die of hunger, in fetid jails. The children, 
 dispersed all over Piedmont, were brought up in 
 the faith of those murderers. A cry of horror 
 arose from the valleys which was heard through- 
 out all Europe ; Cromwell intervened with threats ; 
 even Louis XIV interposed to stop the inhuman 
 massacre, the memory of which Milton transmitted 
 to posterity in his immortal sonnet : 
 
 " Avenge, O Lord ! thy slaughtered saints, whose bones 
 Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold; 
 Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old, 
 When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones, 
 Forget not: in thy book record their groans 
 Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold 
 Slain by the bloody Piemontese that rolled 
 Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans 
 
170 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 
 To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow 
 O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway 
 
 The triple tyrant; that from these may grow 
 A hundredfold, who having learned thy way 
 Early may fly the Babylonian woe." 
 
 But Louis XIV, advanced in age, was getting 
 anxious about securing absolution from the 
 Church for his impure and scandalous life; and 
 to make certain of getting it, he revoked the Edict 
 of Nantes ; 8 that is to say, he let loose the fierce 
 fanaticism of the Church of Eome against Prot- 
 estants. He did not want to have all the glory of 
 such an iniquitous undertaking for himself; and, 
 therefore, he asked Victor Amadeus II, Duke of 
 Savoy, to share it with him ; and the Duke, on the 
 30th January, 1686, published an edict of per- 
 secution, in consequence of which blood flowed 
 freely again in the valleys, 14,000 Waldenses were 
 dragged into prison, 2,000 children were forcibly 
 confined in houses and monasteries in order to be 
 taught the Eoman catechism, and a remnant of 
 armed peasants had to go into exile. Of the 
 14,000 who were imprisoned, 11,000 perished of 
 hunger, fever, and infection, in the darkness of 
 their damp and pestilential jails. Of the surviv- 
 ing remnant only 2,500 arrived by the end of 
 April, 1687, in hospitable Geneva, excluding about 
 
 8 22d October, 1685. 
 
The Israel of the Alps 171 
 
 800 who, during that very severe winter, died of 
 hunger and other sufferings, and marked with 
 their corpses the " Via Crucis " of their exile. 
 
 But God was with that handful of heroes; and 
 about three years later, on the night of the 15th 
 and the 16th August, 1689, 10 they left the wood of 
 Prangin, on the north bank of the Lake of Geneva, 
 to return to their beloved land. They were about 
 a thousand men in all, divided into twenty com- 
 panies ; among them were several hundred French 
 refugees. They were led by Henri Arnaud, pastor 
 and captain at the same time, following a plan 
 drawn up by Janavel. How can I recall here all 
 the glorious episodes of that march, which Na- 
 poleon I called the grandest military enterprise 
 of the century? 
 
 On the 27th August they first set foot in their 
 native country. 11 They were then reduced to 400 ; 
 of the other 600, part had fallen in battle, or had 
 been taken prisoners; and others, especially the 
 French, had deserted, exhausted and discouraged 
 
 10 The date referred to here is based on the Julian Calendar, 
 which was then still in use among Protestants. (Some say: the 
 night between the 16th and the 17th August, instead of the night 
 between 15th-16th.) According to the Gregorian Calendar, which 
 had by that time been adopted by Roman Catholics, the date 
 would be: the night between 25th-26th (or, according to the 
 statement of those already referred to: the night between 26th- 
 27th). 
 
 "At the hamlet of Balziglia. 
 
172 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 by the fatigues endured for a country that was not 
 theirs. And, behold, there at last is Prali, at the 
 foot of the Germanasca valley, the highest of the 
 hamlets in all the valleys. There, Arnaud, the 
 great leader, standing on a boulder, so as to be 
 heard better, preached on some verses of the 124th 
 Psalm. It was the first sermon heard by the Wal- 
 denses since their return to the land of their 
 fathers; and the Lord so ordered it, that they 
 heard it at Prali, whose saintly pastor had been 
 captured in 1686, the year of the exile, while sing- 
 ing Psalms among the rocks, and had been taken 
 to Luserna for his final sufferings. Not far from 
 Bobbio, on the Pellice torrent, is Sibaud. There 
 the repatriated exiles took the historical oath by 
 which they engaged themselves to be true to each 
 other, to honour God, to obey their superiors, and 
 vowed to God ' ' that they would snatch the rest of 
 their brethren from the hand of cruel Babylon.' ' 
 One hour distant from the village of Massello is 
 Balziglia, a hamlet overshadowed by the ruins of 
 a castle on the slope of the mountain. There, the 
 400 heroes passed the winter, the severe winter of 
 the high Alps, living in the midst of all kinds of 
 privations ; and when it looked as if man could do 
 nothing more for them, God came to their rescue, 
 by disclosing, when the first spring breezes began 
 
The Israel of the Alps 173 
 
 to thaw the snow, fields of corn that the Savoyards 
 had not been able to reap, and that had remained 
 untouched under a white wintry mantle. There, 
 the 400, reduced still further, strove against 12,000 
 soldiers of Victor Amadeus II and 10,000 of Louis 
 XIV. There, this handful of heroes, when the 
 French commander had sent to say to them: 
 " Come and treat with us now, for it will be too 
 late when the cannon roars," boldly replied: " If 
 your cannon roars, our rocks will not be afraid, 
 and we shall stop to listen! " There, a dense fog 
 suddenly covered the Balziglia, and the besieged, 
 concealed from the eyes of the enemy, got away 
 safely when all seemed lost, to receive, freed from 
 the jaws of the lion, the glad news that the Duke 
 had broken his alliance with Louis XIV, and re- 
 quired their aid against the French. 
 
 The seventeenth century closed in the valleys 
 with the splendour of this glorious * ' Eeturn ' ' ; 
 and the eighteenth dawned, bringing with it very 
 little hope of liberty of conscience to the people. 
 What could be hoped for when Victor Amadeus 
 II, after having addressed Arnaud and his com- 
 panions in the famous words : " If, as is your duty, 
 you risk your lives in my service, I will risk mine 
 for you; and as long as I have a piece of bread I 
 will share it with you," renewed his friendship 
 
174 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 with Louis XIV and made a treaty with him, 
 whereby Arnaud and 2,300 of his companions, who 
 had risked their lives for him, had to tread again 
 the way to exile? 12 But even princes cannot with 
 impunity break their promises ! Thirty-four years 
 later, 13 alone, deprived of his crown, almost out of 
 his mind, after having exclaimed : * ' My son, my 
 son ! let me at least see my son again ! . . . " in the 
 same castle of Moncalieri where the above promise 
 was made, Victor Amadeus expired without see- 
 ing his son again, and vainly asking from the set- 
 
 12 The Waldenses and the French refugees, who had enrolled 
 themselves in great numbers under the flag of Savoy, gallantly 
 shed their blood in several battles between 1690 and 1697. Not- 
 withstanding, the Duke, having made peace with the King of 
 France, in order to gratify him, issued an edict on 1st July, 
 1698, expelling from Piedmont all Protestants born in France. 
 On the strength of this iniquitous decree even Arnaud, who had 
 then been living in the Waldensian valleys for more than thirty 
 years, was forced into exile with 2,300 inhabitants of those moun- 
 tain villages, and thirteen of their ministers. In the summer 
 of 1699, almost all settled in Wurtemberg and in Hesse. There 
 they grouped themselves according to their native hamlets, 
 founded villages, giving them the names of those in their be- 
 loved far-away country, and established Protestant churches. 
 So that even to-day one finds in those States a population speak- 
 ing German, but still bearing Waldensian names, and villages 
 called Perosa, Pinasca, Villar, and so on, as in the Piedmontese 
 valleys. And among those peasants whom he had twice led in 
 search of a home-land, Arnaud passed away peacefully on the 
 8th September, 1721, at the age of eighty years. His memory is 
 deservedly kept in great veneration among the Waldenses of Ger- 
 many and those of Italy as well. 
 
 "31st October, 1732. 
 
The Israel of the Alps 175 
 
 ting sun the smile and the kiss which every even- 
 ing for eleven years had gently rested on the tomb 
 of Arnaud, in the little chapel of Schonenberg. 
 What could be hoped for when Charles Emanuel 
 III ordered a complete collection of the past 
 edicts of oppression to be made, to remind the 
 Waldenses, as it were, that it was in vain to hope 
 for a little respite? 
 
 Putting aside the concessions enjoyed in the 
 times of the French domination, and dearly paid 
 for after the restoration, and excepting some oc- 
 casional gracious act on the part of those in 
 authority, who at times were more indulgent than 
 the laws themselves, a few words will describe the 
 wretched social condition of the Waldenses during 
 the eighteenth century and up to the 17th Feb- 
 ruary, 1848: Extraordinary taxes, demands for 
 payment of old debts, missions by rapacious 
 priests, prohibition of books connected with their 
 worship and schools; their residence on the soil 
 of the valleys barely tolerated, and always more 
 or less insecure, at the will of the prince. The 
 population increased, but the law forbade any 
 extension in the limits of their country; outside 
 the valleys no Waldensian could retain any pos- 
 sessions; and only surreptitiously a Waldensian 
 could succeed in exercising his industry or carry 
 
176 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 on commerce outside the valleys. All public posts 
 were forbidden them, except that of Syndic ; no one 
 could become an advocate ; three or four individ- 
 uals alone, out of a population of more than 20,000, 
 could be notaries ; and if any one succeeded in be- 
 coming a doctor, he could only practise the heal- 
 ing art among his coreligionists. A Waldensian 
 could be pressed in every imaginable way to 
 change his religion; woe to him, however, if he 
 spoke of his faith to a Eoman Catholic. Eoman 
 Catholic churches could be multiplied ad infinitum 
 in the valleys ; but not an evangelical church could 
 be added to those already in existence. Any slan- 
 derer could, at will, publish any kind of calumny 
 regarding the faith, life, or person of a Walden- 
 sian; but it was made impossible for him to 
 defend himself. And there was worse yet. A 
 boy over twelve years, or a girl over ten, had 
 the right to throw off all paternal authority 
 on the pretext of wishing to become a Eoman 
 Catholic! 
 
 Such a state of things, at least, in the very mid- 
 dle of the nineteenth century, was evidently an 
 anachronism, not to say an iniquity. A priest, 
 Vincenzo Gioberti, writing a short time before the 
 Edict of 1848, although he calls the Waldenses 
 " heretics,' ' yet is far from approving of their 
 
The Israel of the Alps 177 
 
 treatment in the past. " That persecution was an 
 error must be kept in mind, ,, he wrote, " and we 
 must remember this in order to inspire us to re- 
 pair, as amply as possible, the wrongs committed 
 by our forefathers. ' ' 14 And when the ' ' Statuto ' ' 
 of the kingdom of Piedmont was announced, 
 which in its first article declared the State re- 
 ligion to be Eoman Catholic, and so left people in 
 doubt as to whether non-Roman Catholics were to 
 be granted full liberty or kept in slavery, the 
 liberals themselves called loud and strong for the 
 emancipation of the Waldenses and the Jews. 
 Charles Albert received a petition covered with 
 signatures, amongst the first of which were those 
 of Roberto d'Azeglio, of Camillo Cavour, of 
 Cesare Balbo, and of not a few members of the 
 Roman Catholic clergy ; in which petition the min- 
 ister, Roberto d'Azeglio, said: " We submit to the 
 wisdom of the King the advisability of a measure 
 which, bringing our dissenting brethren within the 
 shelter of the common laws, should cause the pro- 
 hibitions, which exclude them from the rights of 
 property and from honourable professions, to 
 cease ; so that, recognising by long experience the 
 uselessness of proselytising by force and persecu- 
 tion, we may try to go forward in the way of 
 
 "Vincenzo Gioberti: Del Primato morale e civile degli Italiani. 
 
178 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 charity and brotherhood, in the spirit of Catholic 
 Truth.' > 
 
 The Government, in spite of the apprehensions 
 of the clerical party, convinced that force and vio- 
 lence are inefficient custodians of religion, pub- 
 lished on 17th February, 1848, the Edict of 
 Emancipation, which runs as follows : 
 
 " CHARLES ALBERT 
 "by the grace of god, etc., etc. 
 
 " Taking into consideration the loyalty and good-will of the 
 Waldensian people, Our royal predecessors have by degrees, and 
 with successive provisions, abrogated in part or moderated the 
 laws which formerly restrained their civil powers. And We, fol- 
 lowing in their footsteps, have conceded to please Our subjects 
 more ample facilities, granting them frequent and large dis- 
 pensations in the observance of the said laws. Now that the 
 motives which prompted these restrictions have ceased, the pro- 
 gressive system favourable to them can be completed, and We 
 have resolved, with all good-will, to make them sharers in 
 every advantage in keeping with the general maxims of Our 
 legislation. And therefore in this Edict, with Our Royal Au- 
 thority, and with the approval of Our ministry, We have com- 
 manded and do command the following: — The Waldenses are 
 admitted to enjoy all the civil and political rights of Our sub- 
 jects, to attend schools and universities, and to acquire academical 
 degrees. 
 
 " Nothing is thereby altered in regard to the exercise of their 
 religion and the schools conducted by them. 
 
 " We annul every law contrary to this one, which We send 
 to Our Senate and to the Office to be registered, and to whom- 
 soever is concerned in the observance of it, or in causing it to be 
 observed; ordering that it should be inserted in the archives of 
 State. 
 
 " Chables Albert, etc.*' 
 
The Israel of the Alps 179 
 
 On the proclamation of the Edict, the palaces of 
 the English and Prussian Embassies, and the 
 houses of the Waldenses and other coreligionists 
 in Turin, were illuminated as if by magic. 
 
 In the valleys of Pinerolo there were great re- 
 joicings; addresses were delivered, hymns sung, 
 bonfires lighted. More than a hundred fires 
 crowned Castelluzzo and Vandalino. Every 
 breast was adorned by the blue cockade, and on 
 the roads they sang the new songs of liberty and 
 eulogised King Charles Albert and Italy. 
 
 At Turin the public rejoicings attained a na- 
 tional importance. Eoberto d'Azeglio himself 
 was the promoter of a demonstration on Sun- 
 day, 27th February, to celebrate the proclama- 
 tion of the Statuto even before it came into 
 effect. 15 
 
 From the Saturday, Turin was in a commotion. 
 Groups of citizens awaited at the gates of the 
 town those who were arriving from the country 
 and province ; and at every meeting the manifesta- 
 tions of joy and enthusiasm were renewed. 
 Hands were clasped amidst embraces, kisses, 
 tears ; and at the same time the air resounded with 
 joyous songs, saluting the sudden appearing of 
 the angel of freedom and peace. 
 
 "The Statuto was promulgated on the 4th March. 
 
180 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 The night was short, and when the gun from 
 the castle announced that the new day had risen, 
 all Turin was on foot, and the streets, which for a 
 few hours had been deserted, were crowded anew. 
 At nine o'clock, on the " Campo di Marte," there 
 appeared, pouring out of the streets, the numerous 
 companies which composed the procession. There 
 were those from Sardinia, Liguria, Nice, Savoy; 
 all the provinces of Piedmont were represented 
 with great standards at their head and thousands 
 of small banners behind; bands played martial 
 music interspersed with the singing of national 
 hymns, and often drowned by the " Ewivas " of 
 the excited populace. 
 
 The streets through which the procession was 
 to pass, were in holiday dress ; everywhere tapes- 
 tries, garlands, inscriptions, and a sea of banners. 
 But the centre of the display was the " Piazza 
 Castello." On the balcony of the palace was the 
 Queen with her ladies and a group of officers ; in 
 front, in a semicircle, between the balcony and the 
 castle, was the King on horseback with the princes 
 at his side, and all round a crowd of generals and 
 of illustrious and powerful personages. The peo- 
 ple could not be numbered ; they were everywhere 
 — in the square, at the windows, on balconies, on 
 roofs, and even on the towers of the castle. An 
 
The Israel of the Alps 181 
 
 immense spectacle, grand, indescribable! Those 
 who saw it have never forgotten it. 
 
 And here comes the procession. As each depu- 
 tation passes, a resounding " Ewiva " comes 
 from thousands of throats. One banner among 
 the others attracts the attention of all. On an 
 azure ground was an inscription surmounted by 
 the royal arms; the inscription was: To Charles 
 Albert from the grateful Waldenses. About six 
 hundred men followed that banner. By a delicate 
 thoughtfulness on the part of those who arranged 
 the festival, so that in this day of common glad- 
 ness the Waldenses might no longer remember 
 the humiliations endured for so many centuries, 
 their banner was given the place of honour, at the 
 head of the corporations of the capital. — " They 
 have been last long enough," the organisers of 
 the cortege said ; — ' ' let them be first this time ! ' ' 
 
 At the Campo di Marte, the Genoese deputation 
 had tendered them their congratulations on the 
 freedom obtained ; and in those very streets where 
 the name " Waldensian " had only been heard 
 coupled with insults and opprobrium, one cry 
 alone was raised when the six hundred passed 
 along: " Long live our Waldensian brothers! 
 Hurrah for the Emancipation of the Waldenses ! " 
 
 The banner passed before the students, and a 
 
182 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 frantic cry was raised : ' * Long live liberty of con- 
 science! Long live liberty of worship! " and to 
 that cry the other responded : ' ' Long live our 
 Waldensian brethren ! ' ' While their Waldensian 
 brethren passed, hands grasped theirs, and more 
 than one of these young men broke through the 
 ranks and threw himself upon the neck of these 
 grave mountaineers, whose voices were so choked 
 with emotion that they could only reply by tears 
 of recognition. Who could tell what emotion the 
 six hundred felt when, reaching the balcony of the 
 Palace, they found themselves suddenly in the 
 presence of the magnanimous Prince, who, break- 
 ing asunder the chains of their ancient servitude, 
 had called them and their children into the enjoy- 
 ment of a new existence? 
 
 In this same square, overcrowded with people, 
 three hundred years before, on the 29th March, 
 1558, GiofTredo Varaglia, pastor of the Walden- 
 sian parish of San Giovanni in the Luserna val- 
 ley, suffered martyrdom. To the executioner, 
 who, according to custom, asked his forgiveness, 
 he replied: " Not only do I pardon you, but also 
 those who have imprisoned me, those who have 
 brought me hither, and those who have condemned 
 me. Take courage, do your duty; my death will 
 not be in vain," And he began to pray; aloud 
 
The Israel of the Alps 183 
 
 he invoked his God; and the executioner, having 
 strangled him, set fire to the pile. — His death was 
 not in vain! " The blood of the martyrs is the 
 seed of the Church "; and the six hundred of '48 
 saluted, doubtless, the sacred memory of Giof- 
 fredo Varaglia and of the Waldensian martyrs of 
 all ages who, with their love for the Truth and 
 with their self-sacrifice, insured to their church a 
 liberty which no one will ever again take from 
 her. " The gifts of God are without repentance.' ' 
 What the world cannot give, God gives ; and when 
 He has given it, the world cannot take away ! 
 
 Throughout all Italy, from the Alps to the very 
 end of Sicily, wherever there is a group of 
 brethren having for their crest the candlestick 
 and seven stars, there the 17th February is com- 
 memorated every year; commemorated in peace, 
 without hatred or indignation. 
 
 On the 17th February we do not think of In- 
 nocent VIII, or of the baptism of blood 18 which 
 our church received at his hands among the 
 rocks of Pra del Torno and of the Colli della Croce 
 e d'Abries; we forget that many a time, wander- 
 ing among those rocks, we seemed to hear the 
 
 16 27th April, 1487. 
 
184 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 lamentations of women outraged, of men muti- 
 lated, and of children torn asunder; but, remem- 
 bering the mocking inscription on the Pope's 
 tombstone in St. Peter's at Eome: " Innocentia 
 mea ingressus sum," " I have entered into my 
 rest through my innocence,' ' we only say to our 
 little ones: " Children, do not wait until others 
 cover your iniquities with the mantle of a lying 
 epitaph; prepare your epitaph yourselves by liv- 
 ing a pure life, a Christian life, a life entirely con- 
 secrated to Goodness." 
 
 On the 17th February we forget the " Pasque 
 Piemontesi," 17 we forget Charles Emanuel II, 
 Innocent X, and Maria Christina who reigned for 
 Charles, and Donna Olimpia who acted as Pope 
 for Innocent. History, not we, will tell the world 
 that there, in the Waldensian valleys, in the mid- 
 dle of the seventeenth century, at their instigation, 
 human sacrifices were offered to the glory of the 
 God of the New Covenant, who is the God of Love ! 
 
 The 17th February is not a day of recrimina- 
 tion ; it is a day of oblivion, or pardon ; not only, 
 but also a day of solemn " memento " and of 
 special expressions of gratitude. Of solemn 
 " memento," I say, because the Church of the 
 martyrs must not forget (and in my next chapter 
 
 "15th May, 1650. 
 
The Israel of the Alps 185 
 
 I shall show that she has not forgotten) that 
 civil liberty was granted to her not as an end, but 
 as a means of making others spiritually free. 
 And of special gratitude also: of gratitude to- 
 wards the great ones who first put in a word in 
 favour of her emancipation; of gratitude to the 
 noble hearts who promoted the petition which 
 brought about the freedom; of gratitude to the 
 prince who signed the Edict, and, above all, of 
 gratitude towards God; for, as the heroes of the 
 " glorious Eeturn " recognised their deliverance 
 from the executioners of Louis XIV and Victor 
 Amadeus as a gift from God, so does the Walden- 
 sian church to-day recognise the Edict of her 
 emancipation as His loving and unspeakable gift. 
 
MISSIONARY BLOSSOM AND EVANGEL- 
 ICAL FRUIT IN THE GARDEN OF 
 ITALY, 
 
MISSIONAEY BLOSSOM AND EVANGEL- 
 ICAL FRUIT IN THE GARDEN OF 
 ITALY 
 
 WE have already seen how God raised up 
 in Italy the Waldensian church and kept 
 her alive through many fiery persecu- 
 tions. Evidently God, in so doing, had an aim, a 
 special mission to entrust to the church of His 
 heart. As He intended ancient Israel to be the 
 evangelist of the world, so He intended the Israel 
 of the Alps to be the evangelist of Italy. How far 
 the Israel of the Alps understood its mission we 
 shall shortly see. First of all, however, I think 
 it necessary to speak of a spiritual revival which 
 took place in Italy independently of the Walden- 
 sian church and which was already secretly in 
 action in the Italian field when the Waldensian 
 church was still chained to her rocks awaiting an 
 edict that would emancipate her from her im- 
 memorial bondage. 
 
 During the first half of 1800, Italy, divided and 
 
 189 
 
190 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 subdivided, was oppressed by the tyranny of for- 
 eigners, of Jesuits, and of the Inquisition; the 
 failure of the Italian revolution of 1831 had 
 caused the bitterness of delusion to take the place 
 of the first enthusiasm for a liberty so long hoped 
 for ; the hurricane of the French Eevolution pass- 
 ing over Italy, had carried away from the mind of 
 even the best that small remnant of religion which 
 they no longer possessed in their hearts; when, 
 suddenly, freedom appeared to revive in the 
 Italian field of literature and science, and it seemed 
 as if it would revive in the field of religion also. 
 
 The cradle of the religious revival which I am 
 alluding to, was in Tuscany; and in Florence 
 especially. 
 
 How did it come about? 
 
 Nobody can say exactly; " the wind bloweth 
 where it listeth and thou hearest the sound 
 thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and 
 whither it goeth." 1 The British and Foreign 
 Bible Society had already begun to print the 
 Italian New Testament in 1808, and the Italian 
 Bible followed in 1821. The sacred volumes, which 
 were sold at a low price, were circulated in great 
 secrecy, and sometimes in ways as ingenious as 
 those in which Tyndale's version was scattered 
 
 ^ohn iii. 8. 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 191 
 
 far and wide throughout the country in spite of 
 the utmost vigilance at English ports. 2 English, 
 Scotch, and American people who were in Italy, 
 attracted by the mildness of the climate and the 
 poetic beauty of the land, did not forget the com- 
 mand of their Master to be His witnesses, and 
 lent themselves, with no little personal danger, to 
 the secret propagation of the Word of God in that 
 country. Hermann Reuchlin relates 3 that during 
 the revolution in 1831, a large number of Bibles 
 had already been introduced into the pontifical 
 States. The Roman Catholics, however, had been 
 warned, since the year 1816, against all Bible So- 
 cieties, which were called a " pestilence "; and in 
 1824 Leo XII told them that through the activity 
 of such societies " the Gospel of Christ had be- 
 come nothing but the word of man ; nay, more ; the 
 word of the devil.' ' Rome watched with Argus' 
 eyes and pitilessly delivered into the hands of the 
 secular arm any one found to be the possessor or 
 the circulator of Bibles or New Testaments. Many 
 hid the sacred volumes underground or in secret 
 corners of their houses so as to avoid falling into 
 
 3 William Tyndale (b. 1484, d. at the stake on 6th October, 
 1536) completed in Worms, in 1526, the printing of his transla- 
 tion of the New Testament, which he had begun in Cologne in 
 1525. 
 
 3 Ermanno Reuclin: Storia d'ltalia, Vol. I, p. 231. 
 
192 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 the clutches of the police ; others threw them into 
 rivers ; and not a few of them providentially came 
 to light again, sometimes in the most unexpected 
 ways, and so became, in their turn, means of a 
 revival. Two men, for instance, went one day to 
 bathe in the Arno near Signa; they saw a book 
 being carried away by the current; one of them 
 got hold of it, and found that it was a Bible; 
 he began to read and study it, and in a short time 
 was led from the darkness of Eoman superstition 
 to the truth as it is in Christ. Perhaps, in God's 
 Providence, even the Protestant soldiers who had 
 come to Italy to enroll themselves in the army of 
 the Pope or of the Bourbons may have had a share 
 in the spreading of the Gospel in Italy; what is 
 certain is that the Protestant communities 
 founded by foreigners for their countrymen in 
 Italy, and the so-called " Children's Schools,' ' had 
 a not unimportant share in the revival. As the 
 dawn of the Tuscan evangelical mission is inti- 
 mately connected with the two last named insti- 
 tutions, some more information about them may 
 not be out of place. 
 
 The Protestant communities scattered here and 
 there in the larger Italian cities were generally 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 193 
 
 composed of Swiss, Dutch, German, and English 
 people. The most ancient of these was in Venice, 
 for we read of certain rights granted to it by the 
 Eepublic as far back as 1565. Then come those 
 of Leghorn, 4 Bergamo, 5 Rome, 6 Genoa, 7 Naples, 8 
 Florence, 9 and Milan. 10 To those communities 
 other institutions were sometimes attached, such 
 as the * ' Peres de Famille ' } X1 in Florence, and 
 later on the " Deaconesses of Kaiserwerth," 12 
 which were non-confessional, but had a distinctly 
 Protestant stamp. All these institutions were un- 
 able to engage openly in evangelical mission work, 
 
 4 The Chiesa Olandese-Alemanna of Leghorn, organised in 
 1607, was at first a Roman Catholic body. In 1773 a Protestant 
 minister was called as pastor. In 1828 a society was formed in 
 Leghorn to introduce Protestant worship in French. This society 
 joined the " Olandese-Alemanna " congregation in 1837. 
 
 5 The Swiss-Italian Protestant community at Bergamo was 
 founded in 1807. 
 
 6 The Protestant community of Rome was founded in 1819 by 
 the great B. G. Niebuhr and had as pastors, among others, Rothe, 
 Tholuck, Thiele. 
 
 7 The Protestant community of Genoa was founded in 1824. 
 
 8 Naples had a German Protestant church (attached to the 
 Prussian Legation), inaugurated about 1824. Then, in 1825, 
 Adolphe Monod commenced a French Protestant service in the 
 drawing-room of a family in which he lived as a tutor. The 
 French Protestant community, however, was organised in Naples 
 only about 1827. 
 
 •The Evangelical Reformed Church of Florence dates from 
 2d July, 1826. 
 
 10 The "Comunita Svizzero-Alemanna " of Milan dates from 
 1850. 
 
 "Founded in 1838. "Opened in 1860 by Theod. Fliedner. 
 
194 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 on account of the times, but they kept the torch 
 of Christian testimony alight in days of super- 
 stition and darkness. Bankers, business men, 
 " attaches " to the foreign Courts, though they 
 did not actually preach, still, by their earnest, act- 
 ive, honest, and pure lives, testified to the truth; 
 and, by their straightforward dealings, caused all 
 who came into contact with them to believe that 
 a religion able to produce lives and characters 
 such as these, could not, after all, be the infamous 
 thing which the priests always asserted that it 
 was. 
 
 With regard to the " Children's Schools,' ' Giu- 
 seppe Montanelli, Professor in the University of 
 Pisa and President of the Council of Ministers 
 at the time of Leopold II, the Grand Duke of Tus- 
 cany, has left us an amount of precious informa- 
 tion. 13 He has told us how the liberals of 1821 
 introduced these schools into Tuscany for popular 
 education. During the period following that of 
 the " Giovane Italia " (Young Italy), "Chil- 
 dren's Schools " were started which, persecuted 
 by the priests from their birth, had to be con- 
 ducted cautiously and secretly. The promoter 
 and pioneer of the first of these schools, which 
 
 18 Giuseppe Montanelli : Memorie sulV Italia e specialmente 
 sulla Toscana. Torino, 1853. 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 195 
 
 originated in Pisa, was Miss Matilde Calandrini, a 
 Genevan lady, a descendant of one of those Lucca 
 families who, having accepted the Reformation 
 in the sixteenth century, had to go into exile. She 
 was at Pisa on account of her health, and thought 
 of founding there an educational work on the lines 
 of those of her own fatherland. She needed a 
 helper and found one in Luigi Frassi, a staunch 
 republican and liberal of 1799, an old man with a 
 young heart. 1 * The school could not be opened 
 without a proper license ; and Frassi, knowing too 
 well that if he asked for it, the authorities would 
 certainly never grant it, started the first " Chil- 
 dren's School " in his own house. The police did 
 not dare to violate the domicile of one of the most 
 respected citizens of Pisa; tolerance was inter- 
 preted as a kind of tacit approval, and so the bene- 
 ficial institutions, little by little and almost 
 secretly, were established in Tuscany. Those lib- 
 erals who felt inclined to encourage this work, if 
 not with a view of helping the lower classes at any 
 rate to seize the opportunity it afforded them of 
 showing the poor that they wanted to be friendly 
 and protect their liberties, formed a kind of 
 brotherhood which spread from Pisa throughout 
 
 14 Frassi died in 1838. He had a worthy successor in Lorenzo 
 Ceramelli, a large-hearted man of sound judgment and great 
 perseverance. Frassi's son helped him greatly. 
 
196 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 the rest of Tuscany, and beyond. By means of 
 that brotherhood the members came into contact 
 with Frassi, Don Ferrante, Aporti of Cremona, 
 Enrico Mayer of Leghorn, Carlo Torrigiani of 
 Florence, Andrea Buovi of Bologna, Lorenzo 
 Valerio of Turin, all illustrious men noted for 
 their culture as well as for their charity. And 
 here the opinion of Giuseppe Montanelli is of 
 great value to us, inasmuch as it is an independent 
 opinion. " Ma tilde Calandrini," he says, " be- 
 longed to that so-called Evangelical communion, 
 which, in our times, is notable for its religious fer- 
 vour. She respected the religious convictions of 
 others and did not take advantage of the 6 Chil- 
 dren's Schools ' to carry out a Protestant propa- 
 ganda as the priests charged her with doing. The 
 greater number of those who were associated with 
 her in trying their best to educate the people, were 1 
 men imbued with the philosophy of the eighteenth 
 century, indifferent to religious matters, although 
 baptised in the Koman Catholic Church ; still, con- 
 tact with that earnest, ardent Christian soul pro- 
 duced in them the most extraordinary results. 
 Miss Calandrini was in the habit of holding fam- 
 ily worship regularly in the evening, which con- 
 sisted of the reading of the Bible and extempore 
 prayer uttered from the fulness of her heart. It 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 197 
 
 was impossible for all those present to listen to 
 the outpourings of such a believing soul without 
 being moved, and without being afterwards com- 
 pelled to reflect. Many, later on, in moments when 
 they were led to feel their own weakness and the 
 need of prayer, thought of those memorable even- 
 ings, and were inflamed with religious fire, and 
 thus were brought from indifference to Christian 
 faith. It was in that way that the first Tuscan 
 religious brotherhood arose from the educational 
 brotherhood. The first Tuscan converts used to 
 hold prayer-meetings, and were zealous in spread- 
 ing the Holy Scriptures translated into the lan- 
 guage of the people. Among those converts Count 
 Piero Guicciardini was conspicuous; he belonged 
 to the family of the great Florentine historian of 
 the sixteenth century." 15 
 
 With the mention of Count Piero Guicciardini 
 we come to the real and true Tuscan evangelical 
 revival, which, as we shall see, is intimately con- 
 
 15 Giuseppe Montanelli, in his Memorie sulV Italia e special- 
 mente sulla Toscana (Torino, 1853), shows in the most elo- 
 quent way how the testimony faithfully rendered to the Gospel 
 by men who were not afraid of the wickedness of the times did 
 not remain unfruitful, and he describes in pages of deep interest 
 the psychological condition of the best men of that wretched 
 period. {Vide especially Vol. I, pp. 82-89.) 
 
198 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 nected with the foreign Protestant community of 
 Florence and with the " Children's Schools " we 
 have already mentioned. 
 
 After the political movements of 1833 the Grand 
 Duke of Tuscany, 16 impressed by the miserable 
 condition into which public instruction had fallen, 
 saw the absolute necessity of a reorganisation. 
 He consulted Count Piero Guicciardini, who was 
 a friend of his, and entrusted him with the delicate 
 task of reforming it. Guicciardini began his work 
 at once, and hearing about the good and modest 
 work of Miss Calandrini, he made her acquaint- 
 ance, and received the Bible from her. In that 
 Bible he found the " pearl of great price." Not 
 all of a sudden did he find it, but after many re- 
 searches ; it was " as the shining light that shine th 
 more and more unto the perfect day. ' ' 17 A Ro- 
 
 18 When in 1737 the house of the Medici died out with Gian 
 Gastone, the Powers decided that Tuscany should be handed 
 over to the house of Lorraine. The first Grand Duke of Tuscany 
 was Francesco II, who remained in Florence for four months 
 only, and afterwards went to Austria, leaving at the head of 
 the State a regency largely composed of Tuscans. This regency 
 was followed by Leopold I, a true reformer-prince, who came to 
 Florence in 1765. In 1789 he became Emperor of Austria and 
 gave up the Grand Duchy of Tuscany to his brother Ferdinand 
 III, who died in 1824. Ferdinand III was succeeded by Leopold 
 II, who was driven out on the 27th April, 1859, the day when 
 the glorious Italian freedom dawned. He was, however, most 
 courteously accompanied to the Tuscan frontier by the Florentines, 
 who there bade him a none too regretful " farewell." 
 
 "Proverbs iv. 18, 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 199 
 
 man Catholic priest, EafTaele Lambruschini, a 
 very liberal man, was the one to tell Guicciardini 
 that there was in the world such a thing as the 
 precious "pearl." Miss Calandrini put him in 
 possession of it; and a simple cobbler was the 
 means of revealing to him its great value. In fact, 
 even before Miss Calandrini had given him the 
 precious volume, one day, whilst Guicciardini was 
 returning from an interview with the Grand Duke, 
 he met Lambruschini in the entrance hall of the 
 ducal palace, and said to him: " You who know 
 all about these things, will you, please, tell me 
 what book of good, moral stories I can choose 
 for the use of the children in my schools f ' ' Lam- 
 bruschini cast a glance round to make sure that 
 nobody could hear him, and: " Get the Gospel! " 
 he whispered, and hurried away. When Guic- 
 ciardini got the Gospel and began to study it for 
 the benefit of the children of his schools, he felt 
 that it had a personal message for himself : a mes- 
 sage that deeply troubled his conscience and his 
 mind. One day, as he was coming down the stairs 
 of his palace, he noticed that his porter (who was 
 also a cobbler and had his tool-bench in the lodge) 
 was reading a book, which he hastily hid under the 
 bench as soon as he saw the Count. The Count, 
 moved by curiosity, went forward and insisted on 
 
200 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 seeing the book. It was a Bible. — " Now, what 
 ever can you understand of this book! " asked he. 
 — " I think I understand something of it," an- 
 swered the cobbler. — " Well," replied the Count, 
 " come and let us talk it over." That was the 
 beginning of a long series of conversations, during 
 which the Spirit, by means of this humble man 
 of the people, opened the mind and the heart of 
 the aristocrat. 
 
 Meanwhile a kind of selection was taking place. 
 Men like Montanelli and others who felt attracted 
 towards politics threw themselves entirely into 
 the political arena. The priest Lambruschini 
 withdrew from the evangelical movement into the 
 quite rural retirement of San Cerbone ; 18 Enrico 
 Mayer gave himself to the secret circulation of 
 the anti-papal writings of Gabriele Eossetti; 
 Stanislao Binaciardi, although in sympathy with 
 the movement, kept aloof from it ; but Count Guic- 
 ciardini, Salvatore Ferretti (who, while still a 
 priest, had received the Bible from the Swiss 
 Pastor Emile Demole), the young advocate Giu- 
 seppe Orselli and many others, both men and 
 women, of all social classes, including several lib- 
 eral priests and friars, continued to hold regular 
 meetings, where they prayed and studied the Gos- 
 
 18 Near Figline in Valdarno (Florence.) 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 201 
 
 pel. Every Saturday evening Adv. Tito Chiesi 
 came from Pisa to Florence; " on business/ ' peo- 
 ple said ; but it was well known that bis principal 
 business was to spread Bibles and Gospels among 
 the people. 
 
 About this time a revolution broke out in Tus- 
 cany; and on the 17th February, 1848, the people 
 obtained a Constitution from the Grand Duke 
 Leopold II. In its first article, after having pro- 
 claimed the Koman Catholic religion to be the only 
 religion of the State, it added: " all other forms 
 of worship already established are, however, tol- 
 erated. " Every convert, after that, began, more 
 energetically than ever, to do his best to foster 
 the religious revival. The first meetings, ar- 
 ranged by a Genevan, C. Cremieux, and Count 
 Guicciardini, were held in Piazza Sta. Maria 
 Novella in the house of Francesco and Bosa 
 Madiai, the Aquila and Priscilla of the young 
 church. He was a native of Casentino in Tuscany, 
 and his wife a Boman. The secret meetings multi- 
 plied; a record still remains in Florence of those 
 held in seven different houses, where the converts 
 met often, prayed, read, and explained the Word 
 of God, and " broke bread "; and while an Irish- 
 man, Admiral Packenham, opened his house to the 
 brethren, a Genevan professor, Theodore Paul, 
 
202 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 with a boldness which ended in his banishment 
 from Tuscany, distributed his own excellent re- 
 ligious tracts right and left. 
 
 In 1848 four of the best young Waldensian 
 evangelists, Bartholomew Malan, Frangois Gay, 
 Bartholomew Tron, and J. Pierre Meille, went to 
 Florence from the valleys to give a greater im- 
 pulse to the work. While studying and acquiring 
 a thorough knowledge of the Italian language, 
 they preached in the Swiss church. They were 
 allowed to do so by the authorities, and in Italian, 
 with the understanding, however, that those 
 Italian services should only be held for the benefit 
 of Swiss of the Grisons, residing in Florence; but 
 other " brethren " and " adherents " in the city, 
 thirsty for light and truth, thronged the church. 
 Admiral Packenham generously busied himself 
 with the printing of new editions of the Roman 
 Catholic translation by Martini of the New Testa- 
 ment, as well as the Protestant one by Diodati; 
 but, alas, 1849 came, and with it reaction broke 
 out. The Grand Duke, pressed by Austria and 
 the Pope, not only revoked his Constitution, but 
 set himself to purge Florence of all heresy. The 
 Admiral was arrested, condemned on the general 
 charge of attempts at proselytism, and banished 
 from Tuscany; 3,000 copies of Martini's version 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 203 
 
 of the New Testament, printed by Giovanni 
 Benelli, were seized by the police, and afterwards 
 burned near the Arno. The printer Benelli was 
 condemned to pay a fine of 50 " scudi " ($58) 
 and costs. In spite of all this, the Italian services 
 in the Swiss church continued, and so did the dis- 
 tribution of the Scriptures. In connection with 
 this circulation of the Scriptures two names must 
 be here mentioned with feelings of special grati- 
 tude: those of Dr. Stewart 19 and the Rev. R. M. 
 Hanna, 20 the first two ministers of the Scotch 
 Presbyterian Church in Leghorn. 21 I am glad to 
 be able to quote here the words of Rev. J. Wood 
 Brown, a son-in-law of the late Dr. Stewart, who 
 has published 22 the memoirs of the saintly man 
 
 "The Rev. Robert Walter Stewart, D.D., was born in 1812 
 in the little rural manse of Bolton in Scotland. On the 12th 
 June, 1845, he landed in Leghorn, the first missionary chaplain of 
 the Scotch church established on the Italian mainland. 
 
 20 The Rev. R. M. Hanna, minister of Girthon and Anwoth, 
 was sent abroad and resided in Pisa on account of his health. 
 During 1847, his first year there, he was unable to undertake 
 any duty; but in the following year he filled the pulpit in Leg- 
 horn, while Dr. Stewart was absent in Scotland. Later on, the 
 Colonial Committee of the Church of Scotland having agreed to 
 establish a church in Florence, Mr. Hanna was selected as its 
 first minister. There, " in his own hired house," on the 26th 
 September, 1849, he opened his home to a small congregation of 
 visitors who came to join in Divine service. Such was the humble 
 beginning of the Scotch church in Florence. 
 
 21 The Scotch church in Leghorn was opened in 1849. 
 
 82 Rev. J. Wood Brown, M.A.: An Italian Campaign. 
 
204 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 of God: " Leghorn, as the port of Tuscany, was 
 charged with the duty of introducing Bibles into 
 the country. Florence, central among the scat- 
 tered groups of converts, presided over the dis- 
 tribution of these books. Even the details of such 
 a traffic are interesting, and we may find in them 
 a vivid picture of times and scenes that have 
 passed away, let us hope for ever. The Bibles or 
 other books, packed in bales like ordinary mer- 
 chandise, were addressed as ' stationery ' to the 
 Messrs. Henderson in Leghorn. They remained 
 stored in the office of that firm, or in Mr. Bruce 's 
 house, 23 until, in small parcels or as single volumes, 
 they could be gradually conveyed in the pockets 
 of private passengers to Florence. As may be 
 supposed, the Leghorn custom-house was a great 
 hindrance to this traffic; and all kinds and some- 
 times curious means were used to evade its re- 
 strictions. . . . Many were the willing hands 
 which helped in this work, and not a few godly 
 women were of the greatest service in the way of 
 
 23 Mr. Thomas H. Bruce came out to Leghorn on account of his 
 health, in 1846 or '47. When he got better, he opened an Eng- 
 lish school for boys. After some years the school was closed 
 by the Grand-ducal authorities, and then Mr. Bruce occupied him- 
 self in teaching until 1861, when he was appointed Agent for 
 the British and Foreign Bible Society. He was an elder of the 
 Scotch church in Leghorn, an earnest Christian, and ever fore- 
 most in all good works. He died in 1881. 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 205 
 
 conveying the books from Leghorn to Florence 
 by rail. . . . The superintendence of what was 
 done naturally remained in the hands of Dr. 
 Stewart and Mr. Hanna. Theirs it was to ar- 
 range and counsel and direct a lively correspond- 
 ence — carried on for the sake of security in a 
 kind of jargon — passed constantly by private 
 hand during these years of oppression between 
 the house at Leghorn and the Scotch minister's 
 lodging at Florence. In these letters Dr. Stewart 
 is addressed as Br. Erskine; Mr. Hanna as Sir 
 Girthon Anwoth, and Bibles are alluded to as 
 incorruptible seed." 
 
 Under the protection of the Swiss church a 
 strong nucleus of believers was formed, anxious 
 to be properly organised. The four young Wal- 
 densian ministers had gone back to their country, 
 but had left a lasting impression in Florence ; so 
 much so that, in June, 1850, Adv. Tito Chiesi, 
 with the full approval of Count Guicciardini and 
 in the name of many brethren, went up to Torre 
 Pellice to ask the Waldenses for an evangelist. 
 Signor B. Malan, one of the original four, was 
 sent and was soon followed by Signor Paolo Gey- 
 monat. The two evangelists set themselves to 
 work, confirming the brethren, and announcing 
 the Gospel to all. But the police were not asleep. 
 
206 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 Every day they redoubled their vigilance and 
 severity ; and as the number of Tuscans who were 
 interested in the Gospel preached in the Swiss 
 church was growing daily, the authorities, pressed 
 by the priests, sent spies to see and report. On 
 the three Sundays, 19th, 26th January and 2d Feb- 
 ruary, 1851, men sent by the police went to the 
 services and took note of those who were present. 
 A great many of them were afterwards called up 
 and examined; about 120 were forbidden to at- 
 tend the services again, under threat of from 
 eight to sixty days' imprisonment. The Govern- 
 ment had recourse to Mr. De Eeumont, attache 
 of the Prussian Legation at Eome, who, after a 
 short correspondence with the Consistory of the 
 Swiss church in Florence, obliged it to give up the 
 Italian service. In this way many people were 
 deprived of the opportunity of hearing the Word 
 of God. Private house-to-house meetings then 
 became more intense, more zealous; but the vigi- 
 lant eyes of the police, alas, soon found them out. 
 And here begins the story of the stormy year 
 1851. In the month of March the Pastor Paul Gey- 
 monat was arrested at a meeting, imprisoned for 
 a short time, and removed from Tuscany, chained 
 to a felon. Pastor Malan also was expelled from 
 Tuscany and, by a miracle, saved himself from 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 207 
 being cast into prison. On the 7th May Count 
 Guicciardini and six others 24 were arrested in the 
 house of Fedele Betti, and a few days after con- 
 demned to six months ' imprisonment. Their 
 crime consisted in sitting round a table and read- 
 ing the 15th Chapter of St. John's Gospel in Dio- 
 dati's version. When they arrived at the prison 
 of the Bargello, where they were taken after 
 arrest, Count Guicciardini, taking a small Testa- 
 ment from an inner pocket, which the police had 
 not been able to find when they searched him, said 
 in the most natural way, addressing his com- 
 panions: < And now, brethren, let us resume our 
 meditation." So they did, and no little comfort 
 did they derive from it. I cannot help thinking that 
 in that solemn moment Count Piero Guicciardini 
 completely obliterated the stain with which Ms 
 illustrious ancestor, the Florentine historian, had 
 soiled their great name when, with an egoism that 
 seemed almost cynical, he wrote the words I have 
 already quoted in the second chapter: " I do not 
 know if there be a man more disgusted than I am 
 with the ambition, avarice, and effeminacy of the 
 priests. . . . Nevertheless, my position at the 
 Court of several Popes has made it necessary for 
 
 24 Count Piero Guicciardini, Cesare Magrini, Angiolo Guarducci, 
 Carlo Solaini, Sabatino Borsieri, Giuseppe Guerra, and Fedele 
 Betti. 
 
208 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 me, in view of my own private interests, to love 
 their greatness ; had it not been for that reason, I 
 should have loved Martin Luther dearly." 25 
 
 The sentence on the Count and his friends was 
 afterwards commuted to exile from Tuscany, and 
 only twenty-four hours were allowed them to pre- 
 pare for their departure from Tuscan territory. 
 On the 17th August, the police made a search in 
 the house of Francesco Madiai, where they found 
 two copies of Diodati's version of the Bible. At 
 the same time they arrested Francesco Madiai, 
 Mr. Arthur Walker, Francesco Mannelli, and 
 Alessandro Fantoni, and conducted them at once 
 to prison. Mr. Walker was released on the repre- 
 sentation of the British Minister ; but, on the day 
 following, Eosa, wife of Francesco Madiai, was 
 arrested and imprisoned. Francesco Mannelli 
 and Alessandro Fantoni, after eight days' im- 
 prisonment, were condemned to exile from Tus- 
 cany, on the charge of being accomplices of the 
 Madiai, who stood accused of impiety by prosely- 
 tising. The two Madiai remained in prison till 
 the 27th June of the following year, when they 
 were condemned: the husband to four years and 
 eight months' hard labour in the fortress of Vol- 
 
 28 Francesco Guicciardini. Opere inedite, Ricordo 28. Vide 
 also Ric. 236 and 346. 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 209 
 
 terra ; the wife to three years and nine months of 
 " reclusion " in the prison of Lucca. The Madiai 
 were finally released after their case had been 
 taken up by all the Protestant States of Europe. 
 I could continue for a long time the sad tale of 
 arrests, heavy sentences, and iniquitous imprison- 
 ments ; 26 but time fails me, and my aim here is not 
 
 28 "On the night of the 16th November, 1851, the house of 
 Damiano Bolognini was searched by the police, and several copies 
 of d'AubignS's History of the Reformation and of Count Guic- 
 ciardini's Confession and Narrative discovered. Bolognini, having 
 heard this in his absence at the time from his own house, saved 
 himself by flight, and went into voluntary exile. 
 
 " About the same time, search was made for Angelo Calaman- 
 drei, suspected of circulating evangelical tracts at the instance 
 of parties concerned in the Protestant Propaganda. Calaman- 
 drei, having remained several days in hiding, succeeded in escap- 
 ing from Tuscany. 
 
 " Towards the close of the same year, 1851, Stefano Benelli, of 
 Florence, was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the 
 Protestant movement. A number of Protestant books, tracts, and 
 Bibles having been found in a room belonging to him, but used 
 by other parties, Benelli was condemned to three months' im- 
 prisonment, and the books were seized by the police. 
 
 " On the 20th of January, 1852, Daniele Mazzinghi and Gaetano 
 Carini were arrested on suspicion of having encouraged an in- 
 valid to refuse the sacrament at the hands of a priest. Carini, 
 not a Tuscan by birth, was banished from the Grand Duchy, and 
 Mazzinghi was condemned to six months' imprisonment in the 
 fortress at Volterra, whither he was conducted in chains; but in 
 a short time the sentence was commuted into exile from Tuscany. 
 
 "In the month of November, 1852, the police made a per- 
 quisition in the house of Angelo Guarducci, formerly compro- 
 mised in the arrest of Count Guicciardini. A Bible and a few 
 tracts having been found, Guarducci was arrested, and im- 
 prisoned in Florence, where he was kept for about ten months. 
 
210 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 to write a minute and complete chronicle of the 
 evangelical mission in that heroic age. Still, I 
 must not forget the names of three gallant Eng- 
 lish ladies, Miss Johnson, Miss Weston, and Miss 
 Brown, ardent propagandists, who, when molested 
 by the police, had to flee for a while from Florence, 
 only to return and distribute with unparalleled 
 courage copies of the Scriptures and religious 
 tracts; of Dr. Luigi Desanctis, the rector of the 
 
 As nothing could be proved against him, he was not brought 
 to trial; but simply kept in prison on suspicion. Finally, he 
 obtained permission to leave Tuscany, and went into exile. 
 
 "In the month of January, 1853, Carlo Carrana, of Florence, 
 was condemned to two years' imprisonment in Florence, for 
 holding opinions contrary to the religion of the State, and also 
 on suspicion of sympathising with political parties opposed to 
 the Government. 
 
 " In the month of August, 1853, there was a perquisition in 
 the house of Natale Lippi, baker, of Florence; and several copies 
 of Diodati's version of the Bible and a few religious tracts hav- 
 ing been found in the house, Lippi, along with his son-in-law, 
 and Alessandro Barli, also of Florence, was arrested and im- 
 prisoned. After fifteen days, Lippi's two companions were re- 
 leased; but he himself was condemned to three months' im- 
 prisonment, on the ground that he had been overheard by his 
 neighbours reading the Bible in his own house, and that sundry 
 persons had been present for the purpose of hearing him read. 
 
 " Giovanni Ruggero, of San Piero in Bagno, was arrested 
 in the month of April, I believe, and afterwards conducted to 
 the public prison in Florence. After eight months' imprison- 
 ment, he was tried and acquitted; the Royal Court of Florence, 
 before which he was tried, holding, however, that the long im- 
 prisonment already suffered before the trial was well deserved, 
 as the accused had spoken in private conversation against con- 
 fession and the worship of the Virgin. 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 211 
 
 Maddalena in Eome, who had been converted to 
 Christ and had already preached the Gospel in 
 1848 in the Swiss church in Florence and in the 
 Scotch church at Leghorn " in demonstration 
 of the Spirit and of power "; of Adv. Bona- 
 ventura Mazzarella of Gallipoli in Calabria, 
 a political exile of 1848, who got a Bible from the 
 Waldensian church and by means of it spiritual 
 freedom in Christ; of the Albarellas d'Afflitto, 
 
 "In the month of November, 1853, Pietro Baldi and Michele 
 Manzuoli, of Sesto, were arrested and thrown into prison, on the 
 charge of impiety by means of proselytism. They were con- 
 demned by the Royal Court of Florence to ten months' im- 
 prisonment in the House of Correction, besides undergoing three 
 months' imprisonment before their trial. 
 
 " Giovanni Gimignani, of Leghorn, trunk-maker. In the spring 
 of 1853, he was accused to the Government of being guilty 
 of propagandism, by reading the Word of God and other Protes- 
 tant books to his wife and only son, a lad of fifteen years of age. 
 A woman living on the same landing with them, acted as spy — 
 listened at the door to hear what was read — and made this known 
 to the priest at confession. 
 
 "In the month of October, 1854, Eusebio Massei, of Ponte- 
 dera, was arrested and condemned by the Prefecture at Pisa to a 
 year's imprisonment at Imbrogiana, for having expressed opinions 
 contrary to the Romish Church, and for having spoken disre- 
 spectfully of the Supreme Pontiff and the priests of the Roman 
 Catholic religion. 
 
 " On the 25th of March, 1855, Domenico Cecchetti, of Florence, 
 was arrested and condemned to a year's imprisonment at Im- 
 brogiana, for having failed to instruct his children in the 
 Roman Catholic religion; and also for holding Protestant opin- 
 ions, and reading the Bible with his family. After nearly four 
 months of imprisonment, on the representation of the British 
 Minister, the sentence was commuted into exile. 
 
212 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 southern Italians, men of great minds and large 
 hearts, to whom the evangelical work in those early 
 times was immensely indebted; and finally let me 
 not forget the beloved name of Mr. John Lenox 
 of New York, the constant and munificent sup- 
 porter of the evangelical cause in Italy from its 
 very beginning. 
 
 The work was progressing; the fire of persecu- 
 tion did not check it, but purified, sanctified, in- 
 tensified it ; and, as in the days of the persecution 
 in Jerusalem, the exiles carried everywhere the 
 incorruptible seed of the Word of God; which, 
 being sown by some and watered by others, God 
 caused to increase in a marvellous way. I have 
 spoken especially of Florence, for, as I have 
 pointed out, Florence was the cradle of the Italian 
 religious revival ; but in all Tuscany, in Leghorn, 
 Pisa, Prato, Pistoia, Bagni di Lucca especially, 
 the Gospel had free course and was glorified by 
 men and women who accepted it as " the power 
 
 "About the month of May, 1855, Giovanni Ruggero, of San 
 Piero in Bagno, was found in a grove with a friend reading the 
 Bible. Ruggero, having been compromised in a former trial (as 
 already stated), was at once arrested and along with his friend 
 cast into prison. 
 
 " In the month of September, 1855, a trial was begun at Pisa 
 against sundry persons in Pontedera accused of holding evan- 
 gelical opinions. No fewer than sixteen individuals were im- 
 plicated." (Quoted from Rev. J. Wood Brown: An Italian Cam- 
 paign — Appendix. ) 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 213 
 
 of God unto salvation to every one that be- 
 lieveth. ,,27 
 
 Many of the Tuscan exiles took refuge in 
 Piedmont, where they formed many groups 
 and held meetings everywhere, which were al- 
 ways crowded, inspired, and inspiring. After 
 the stormy political events of 1848-1849, the 
 whole of Piedmont was filled with refugees; an 
 extraordinary number of Neapolitans, Tuscans, 
 Lombards, and Venetians, persecuted by the police 
 for political reasons, took the way of exile, and 
 chose Turin as their shelter. There they fre- 
 quented the evangelical meetings regularly, and 
 a great many of them waited with longing for the 
 political redemption of Italy in order to be able 
 to go back to their native places, bearers of the 
 Gospel of salvation to their relations, friends, and 
 fellow-citizens. In Turin, Pinerolo, Genoa, Novi, 
 Alessandria, Nice, Casale, Sampierdarena, No- 
 vara, and in other centres, souls answered with 
 great alacrity to the appeal for God's grace and 
 were converted to Christ. No preoccupation about 
 church organisation had yet risen to trouble minds 
 and hearts ; the only great preoccupation of all in 
 those days was the triumph of the Kingdom of 
 God. The descendants of the old heroes came 
 
 "Romans i. 16. 
 
214 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy- 
 down from among the rocks of the Waldensian 
 valleys to Turin, Genoa, and Tuscany, and asso- 
 ciated themselves with the young brethren, whom 
 the Word of God had converted almost without 
 human instrumentality; all fraternised, all were 
 " of one accord.' ' Suddenly the preoccupation 
 about church organisation arose; it quickly pre- 
 pared the ground for discord, and in 1854 dis- 
 agreement broke out simultaneously in Turin and 
 in Genoa, where, for the first time, the evangelical 
 churches, as they had simply and beautifully 
 called themselves up to that date, were divided 
 into two branches: the Waldensian churches on 
 the one side, and the Free Italian churches 28 on 
 the other. 
 
 For the present, I shall say nothing more about 
 this schism. I prefer to take a retrospective view 
 of the events which I have already narrated, re- 
 call to mind the memories of those I have not had 
 time to mention, visit in spirit the hundreds and 
 hundreds of places which it has been impossible 
 for me even to speak of, and rejoice in the mar- 
 vellous vision of this beautiful part of the field 
 of God during these heroic times to which I have 
 
 28 In a letter from B. Mazzarella, dated 28th February, 1857, we 
 read: "Our brethren . . . have been sent by the Free Evan- 
 gelical Church of Genoa." 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 215 
 
 tried to transport you. There is scarcely a village 
 in Tuscany without some trace of those glorious 
 days. When walking through the streets of the 
 old part of Florence I pass some of those houses 
 where the police of the Grand Duke used to dog 
 all who met there in great secrecy, as if to per- 
 petrate a crime, the feelings that are aroused in 
 me cannot be described. When I walk along our 
 Florentine Lungarni, I see again in spirit the 
 mysterious boats in which men used to gather to 
 pray and read the Gospel, right in the middle of 
 the river where the police would not surprise them 
 so easily. And up at Fiesole, from the depths of 
 the quarries of Monte Ceceri, some of which look 
 like the ruins of old Egyptian temples, I seem to 
 hear the distant echo of the hymns sung by the 
 brethren who used to meet there, far from the 
 din of the world and the ambushes of the Grand 
 Ducal police. I have had the good fortune to know 
 some of those men and women, the remnant of 
 an old army of Christian heroes; and many a 
 time have I seen their eyes fill with tears while they 
 told me the old story of their arrest, imprison- 
 ment, or banishment ; and when I have heard them 
 lament the lukewarmness of Christian faith in 
 these times of ours which are so rich in religious 
 freedom, and almost regret the times in which per- 
 
216 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 secution kindled the faith, hope, and love of the 
 Church, I have been more than ever persuaded that 
 political freedom is without doubt a great gift; 
 but if instead of being taken as a means to obtain 
 the glorious freedom of the spirit it is taken as 
 an end in itself, it may become an awful danger 
 and a source of terrible evil. Every gift of God 
 implies some responsibility in those who receive 
 it; and the greater the gift, the greater the re- 
 sponsibility. 
 
 Having arrived at this point, we must now go 
 back to the Waldensian church. The nineteenth 
 century dawned gloomily in the Waldensian val- 
 leys. A gust of unbelief blowing from France had 
 invaded all the valleys, which were slumbering in 
 formalism, in enervating religious indifference, 
 and in squalid poverty. But God, who in the past 
 had so miraculously led His people, was certainly 
 not going to abandon them now. He raised up 
 four men who, in His hands, were the salvation 
 of the Israel of the Alps. They were : Felix NefT, 
 Frederic de Waldburg-Truchess, Canon Wil- 
 liam Stephen Gilly, and General Charles Beck- 
 with. 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 217 
 
 Felix Neff, 29 a mighty man of God, who brought 
 new life into the population on the French side of 
 the Alps, crossed over to the Waldensian valleys 
 in 1825. He exhorted the people to repent and 
 to believe as their fathers had done, and was the 
 means of a deep and lasting religious revival 
 among them. Frederic de Waldburg-Truchess, 
 the Prussian ambassador at Turin between 1816 
 and 1844, was used by God to protect the Wal- 
 denses from the legal and illegal inhumanities of 
 the Court and clergy, and the ambassador did his 
 work with zeal and fidelity. With the help of his 
 Sovereign, he was able to establish a regular 
 Protestant religious service, conducted by Wal- 
 densian pastors, in his own palace in Rome. The 
 Anglican Canon W. S. Gilly 30 began to take an 
 interest in the Waldensian church by hearing the 
 reading of a letter in a London missionary society, 
 written by Ferdinand Peyran, a much beloved pas- 
 tor of Pramol in the valleys. Canon Gilly left at 
 once for Italy and visited the old historical church 
 for the first time in 1823. To him, who took a 
 special interest in the classical education of the 
 
 w Felix Neff was born in Geneva in 1797 and died there in 1829. 
 
 80 Canon W. S. Gilly died in England on the 10th September, 
 1855. To his very last he had deeply at heart the spiritual and 
 material welfare of the Waldensian people. 
 
218 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 young and in the preparation of future ministers, 
 are due the foundation and the building of the Col- 
 lege at Torre Pellice and the foundation of a 
 library there, which contains at present 23,000 
 volumes. Charles Beckwith 31 was a lieutenant- 
 colonel in the British army who, on the 18th June, 
 1815, at the close of the battle of Waterloo, 
 lost a leg through a cannon shot. During his 
 forced inactivity the young officer was led to think 
 of the supreme interests of his soul. Having casu- 
 ally come across the first book published by Canon 
 Gilly on the Waldenses, Beckwith was so im- 
 pressed that, in the autumn of 1827, he started 
 for the valleys, which were to become for him a 
 second fatherland. He fostered elementary edu- 
 cation there and founded schools in all the so- 
 called " Quartieri " (Quarters) of the valleys. To 
 him and to his friends whom he succeeded in in- 
 teresting in the work, the Waldenses owe the neat 
 buildings well known as " Beckwith Schools," and 
 the fund for the stipend of the teachers. General 
 Beckwith took a keen interest in every Walden- 
 sian work connected either with the education of 
 youth, the different parishes, or with the mission 
 
 81 General Charles Beckwith was born at Halifax, in Nova 
 Scotia, on the 2d October, 1789. In the Waldensian valleys, 
 where he settled down, he married Miss Caroline Vola of San 
 Giovanni, and died at Torre Pellice on the 19th July, 1862. 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 219 
 
 in the rest of Italy. His memory is and always 
 will be greatly blessed in the heart of the Walden- 
 sian people. 
 
 About the middle of the century, God assured 
 freedom of conscience to the Waldensian church. 
 In the preceding chapter I have related the events 
 connected with the Edict of Emancipation of 17th 
 February, 1848. 
 
 On the 4th February, 1851, a meeting of Wal- 
 densian pastors was held in the college at Torre 
 Pellice to consider, among others, the following 
 problem: " What is now the mission of the Wal- 
 densian church since the Edict has been granted? 
 Has she or not a mission to fulfil? " The answer 
 was clear: " The mission of the Waldensian 
 church is to evangelise Italy, and this is to be 
 held as ' a sacred and holy duty.' " And as the 
 Waldenses had already gone down into Tuscany 
 for evangelistic purposes, thus almost anticipating 
 the result of the meeting, so, in order to give a 
 new impulse to their missionary work, the first 
 stone of the beautiful church in Turin was laid 
 nine months later. 32 
 
 The handful of heroes, survivors of so many 
 persecutions, whom God brought back from exile 
 to their own country, has now become a people 
 
 82 29th October, 1851. 
 
220 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 numbering 12,160 communicants, under the spirit- 
 ual care of 18 pastors in the 17 old parishes in 
 the valleys. Outside the valleys, from Turin down 
 to the furthest limit of Sicily, the Waldensian 
 church has 42 churches, 203 missionary stations, 
 6,603 communicants, about 40,000 adherents, 136 
 workers, of whom 52 are regularly ordained minis- 
 ters, 2,192 scholars in the day schools and 3,140 
 in the Sunday schools. She has a Faculty of 
 Divinity, a College for Classical Studies recog- 
 nised by the Government, 2 charitable educational 
 institutions, a theological review (La Rivista 
 Cristiana), and an evangelistic weekly paper, La 
 Luce (The Light). 
 
 In 1883 the first Waldensian missionary started 
 for South Africa. 83 Later on others followed 
 him, directing their steps towards the land of the 
 Ba-Sutos and towards the inhospitable banks of 
 the Upper Zambesi, where to-day seven Walden- 
 sian missionaries, connected with the " Societe 
 des Missions " of Paris, preach the Gospel to the 
 Ba-Eotse and to the thirty barbarous tribes subject 
 to them. And the name " Waldensian,' ' herald of 
 the Gospel of Christ, is honoured and blessed in 
 several prosperous colonies: in Wiirtemberg, 34 
 
 M Rev. Giacomo Weitzecker. 
 
 "They were founded in 1699 by the Waldenses who had been 
 exiled from their country by the edict of 1st July, 1698. 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 221 
 
 in South America, 35 at Monett in Missouri, 36 in 
 North Carolina, 37 and among the fluctuating but 
 numerous centres of Waldensian emigrants in 
 North America, and in France: Nice, Marseilles, 
 Toulon, and Lyons. 38 
 
 Having spoken of the Waldensian church, let 
 me mention also the sister churches which work 
 so valiantly in the beautiful and attractive Italian 
 field, together with her. 
 
 The evangelical movement, which, as we have 
 seen, began in Tuscany at a time of fiery per- 
 secution, was not unfruitful, but continued its 
 great and beneficial work, and developed into two 
 branches. 
 
 The first kept itself absolutely independent of 
 any church organisation, and held meetings with 
 presiding elders, acknowledging as legitimate the 
 free exercise of the special gifts imparted by the 
 Spirit to the brethren. This branch has to this 
 day strictly retained its peculiar stamp, which is 
 
 86 Founded in 1856. To-day the Waldensian colonies in South 
 America number 7 parishes (Colonia Valdense, Cosmopolita- 
 Artilleros, Belgrano, Lavalla, San Salvador, Tarariras-Riachuelo, 
 Iris), with a total of 6 pastors, 2,172 communicants, and a 
 Waldensian population of 5,956 souls. 
 
 38 Founded by Pastor Salmon and composed of about thirty 
 families. 
 
 "Founded in 1893. 
 
 88 In Marseilles alone there are about 2,000 Waldenses. 
 
222 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 evidently of the " Plymouth brethren " type. 39 
 The second branch of the movement was formed 
 of a nucleus of churches called simply Evangel- 
 ical churches; in 1865 they organised themselves 
 into one ecclesiastical body and held their first 
 General Assembly at Bologna, when they assumed 
 the name of Free Italian Church; in 1876 they 
 formulated their own Confession of Faith, and 
 in 1899 took the name of the Evangelical Church 
 of Italy. In 1905 this " Evangelical Church of 
 Italy " handed over some of her churches and 
 some of her workers to the two branches of the 
 Methodist mission, so that now she is reduced to 
 only two churches: one in Florence and one in 
 Eome, both of which have day and Sunday schools 
 and carry on mission work in the outskirts of the 
 two cities. 
 
 About the end of 1861 the Wesleyan Methodist 
 Church began to work in Italy. In 1872 she 
 divided her work into two districts: north and 
 south ; but in 1902 the whole mission was reunited 
 under one superintendent. 40 
 
 89 This first branch of the evangelical movement in Italy has 
 churches in about 20 towns, and in about 68 smaller places in 
 the Peninsula. 
 
 40 The Wesleyan Methodist Church numbers: 37 churches and 
 a good number of mission stations, 2,335 communicants, 40 min- 
 isters, 802 scholars in day schools, and 1,493 scholars in Sunday 
 schools. 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 223 
 
 In 1866 the Anglo-Italian branch of the Baptist 
 mission, which is now divided into three districts 
 (North, Tuscan, and Central), 41 started its work; 
 and in 1870 it was followed by the American- 
 Italian branch of the same mission. 42 In 1884 the 
 two Baptist missions united and formed the 
 " Christian Apostolic Baptist Union.' ' 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1870, de- 
 cided to extend her missionary activity to Italy. 
 In September, 1874, she held her first District Con- 
 ference at Bologna, and in March, 1881, the Italian 
 mission was regularly constituted at the Annual 
 Conference. 43 
 
 In 1890 the Salvation Army began to unfurl her 
 banner in Northern Italy. 44 
 
 Besides all these missionary efforts, which time 
 
 "The Anglo- Italian branch of the Baptist Mission numbers: 56 
 churches and mission stations, 663 communicants, 20 ministers, 
 886 scholars in Sunday schools. 
 
 42 The American-Italian branch of the Baptist Mission num- 
 bers: 35 churches, 96 stations, 1,017 communicants, 40 pastors, 
 120 scholars in day schools, 947 scholars in Sunday schools, 1 
 theological faculty, 1 theological review — Bilychnis. 
 
 "The Methodist Episcopal Church numbers: 46 churches with 
 12 " diasporas " connected with them, 3,000 communicants, 45 
 ministers, 30 local preachers, 2,300 scholars in Sunday schools, 2 
 flourishing educational institutions in Rome and 1 in Venice, 1 
 theological school, 1 evangelistic weekly paper — L'Evangelista 
 ("The Evangelist"). 
 
 44 The Salvation Army began its work in Italy in 1890 at San 
 Giovanni in the Waldensian valleys. It is now working in 23 dif- 
 ferent centres and has 377 workers (officers and soldiers) in the 
 
224 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 fails me to speak of as amply as they deserve, I 
 must limit myself simply to making mention of the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society, 45 the National 
 Bible Society of Scotland, 46 the Eeligious Tract 
 Society for Italy, 47 the Young Men's Christian 
 Association, 48 the Young Women's Christian As- 
 sociation, 49 the Italian Sunday School Union, 50 
 
 field. In May, 1907, the Salvation Army opened a "Rescue 
 Home" in Milan (Villa Speranza). Since the date of its founda- 
 tion, it has given shelter and offered moral and spiritual salva- 
 tion to 142 girls. 
 
 "The British and Foreign Bible Society began its work in 
 Italy as early as 1809, when 500 Italian New Testaments were 
 sent into the country from Malta. In the year 1817 the Society 
 printed an edition of 5,000 Testaments in Naples, and in the 
 following year it printed 5,000 in Turin. In the year 1819 it 
 was reported that up to that date 19,000 New Testaments had 
 been distributed in Italy. The Italian New Testament was first 
 issued by the Bible Society in 1808, and the Italian Bible in 
 1821. 
 
 48 The National Bible Society of Scotland took the field in 
 Italy in 1860. 
 
 47 The Religious Tract Society for Italy was founded in 1855. 
 Until 1862 it had its seat in Turin, where it established the 
 Claudian Press (which derived its name from Claudius, Bishop of 
 Turin (d. 839), well known for his protests against the super- 
 stitions of the Church of Rome). In 1862 its seat was trans- 
 ferred to Florence, where it still remains. 
 
 49 Independent Y.M.C.A.'s already existed in 1865. They were 
 organized into a National Federation in 1887. 
 
 49 These Associations began in 1892 and were organised into a 
 National Federation in 1898. 
 
 50 In 1891, under the auspices of the "Sunday School Unions" 
 of London and New York, the " National Committee of the Sun- 
 day Schools of Italy " was appointed. In 1894 the " National 
 Committee," in agreement with the " London Sunday School 
 y.nion," appointed a General Secretary. 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 225 
 
 and the Italian branch of the World's Student 
 Christian Federation. 51 With the mention of the 
 flourishing independent Baptist mission of 
 Spezia, 52 several medical missions, 53 various edu- 
 cational institutions, and about fifteen religious 
 papers and reviews which, weekly or monthly, 
 carry the Gospel of the Kingdom of God through- 
 out the whole Peninsula, I think I have given as 
 complete and exact an idea of the missionary work 
 carried on in Italy as it is possible to give. 54 
 
 My sympathy and love are with all these heroic 
 missionary efforts, and I consider it an exceptional 
 privilege to be able to render the homage of my 
 unlimited esteem and warmest admiration to the 
 regiment of Christian soldiers engaged in that 
 work, irrespective of the uniform they wear and 
 the particular flag under which they rally, espe- 
 cially when I think of the brethren who have come 
 among us from beyond the Alps and beyond the 
 
 61 Founded in Rome, in January, 1904. B2 Founded in 1866. 
 
 63 The most important among which are : The " Medical Mis- 
 sion" of Florence, founded in 1880; the "Medical Dispensary" 
 and " Soup-Kitchen," also in Florence, founded in 1892, and the 
 " Medical Missions " connected with several Baptist churches. 
 
 54 In order to make the statement more complete, I shall men- 
 tion three other works : The " Chiesa Evangelica Italiana," with 
 headquarters in Leghorn and possessing a very limited number 
 of small congregations ; an Independent " Conditionalist Baptist 
 Church " founded in 1883 at Torre Pellice in the Waldensian 
 valleys and confined in narrow limits, and a Unitarian move- 
 ment which has just begun its work. 
 
226 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 seas, bringing into our field the sweet odour of a 
 living faith, the true example of unwearied activ- 
 ity, and the eloquent test of the power of a strong 
 character truly consecrated to the Lord. In a 
 land where a language is spoken radically dif- 
 ferent from theirs, where the character of the 
 people is so different from their own, where man- 
 ners, customs, and everything else are at the very 
 antipodes to that which they have been used 
 from their childhood, and surrounded by a cloud of 
 other difficulties, they have always shown them- 
 selves " in all these things more than conquerors 
 through Him that loved them." I wish to em- 
 phasise this testimony of mine because I want it 
 to be well understood that what I am going to say 
 refers only to things in general and not to the 
 individuals, with whom I have had the honour of be- 
 ing a ' ' fellow-labourer ' ' for years and years, and 
 whom I have ever counted as my best and staunch- 
 est friends. We have always worked together 
 respectively under our beloved flags, never, how- 
 ever, forgetting that above our own particular flag 
 waves the great banner of the Kingdom of God. 
 
 In concluding, I ask, as many who know that 
 this Italian mission has been at work for sixty 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 227 
 
 years have already asked: Are the results of the 
 Italian mission in proportion to the work done 
 and to the sacrifices made? 
 
 The answer to such a reasonable and important 
 question depends, according to my thinking, on the 
 idea one has of results, and on how one estimates 
 them. 
 
 One evening I was at a dinner given in honour 
 of a foreign friend, a veteran of the Waldensian 
 mission. Among the guests was a wealthy man, 
 whose colossal fortune only equalled his colossal 
 roughness and want of tact. When the time for 
 " toasts " arrived, the one theme was the mis- 
 sion: the great personal merits of the honoured 
 guest in relation to the Italian work. Suddenly, 
 the rich man got up, and began to talk of our mis- 
 sionary work in the most sceptical way, thus 
 sounding a discordant note, and ended by saying : 
 " From your last report I perceive that your 
 church has added, this year, 600 communicants 
 to the roll of membership, and has spent $50,000; 
 now this means that every new communicant has 
 cost between $83 and $84; and really I reckon 
 that price to be too high! " Naturally, if our 
 work in Italy is to be judged by such a criterion, 
 there is no doubt that it has been and is a failure, 
 for its numbers are not in proportion either to the 
 
228 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 labour or to the money spent. But is it really 
 money that can purchase immortal souls! Once 
 upon a time one could buy slaves with money; 
 to-day, thank God, even slaves can no longer be 
 bought; only oxen and sheep are bargained for. 
 The work carried on by the churches for the tri- 
 umph of the Kingdom of God in the great field, 
 the world, is valued by a different standard. The 
 development of the ' ' mustard seed, ' ' which grows 
 and becomes " the greatest among herbs and be- 
 cometh a tree," is not susceptible to any numerical 
 valuation; and there is no human or mechanical 
 dynamometer able to measure the mysterious 
 process by which the leaven of the Kingdom slowly 
 but radically transforms an individual, a family, 
 or a country. Now consider : Italian converts who 
 once upon a time were looked upon with suspicion, 
 when they were not altogether kept in quarantine 
 as morally infectious, and boycotted in public 
 offices and factories, are, on the contrary, to-day 
 esteemed and sought after as men who honestly 
 and conscientiously do their duty. All doors are 
 open to them ; their word is listened to with inter- 
 est, their advice is accepted and followed, as the 
 advice of people whom one can trust and in whom 
 some authority is recognised. Their children are 
 no longer only tolerated in the schools, they are 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 229 
 
 loved, for, as a rule, they are worthy of being 
 held up by the teachers as an example to others. 
 The press also speaks well of them. The authori- 
 ties protect them and hold them in high considera- 
 tion. Public opinion has turned in their favour. 
 If you ask those around you who the " Evan- 
 gelicals ' ' are, their answer almost always is : 
 " What they are we cannot exactly say; but we 
 know that they are much better than we are "; 
 and often you will hear people who are disgusted 
 with the Church of Eome and with all churches 
 say : ' ' We do not belong any longer to a church ; 
 but if we wanted to, you may be sure that it would 
 not be the Church of Eome ; it would be yours we 
 should join." While the cultivated classes apply 
 to various pastors for evangelical servants and 
 nurses because they are known to be honest, dili- 
 gent, and dutiful, the Eoyal House, which is and 
 must be Eoman Catholic, also entrusts its own 
 children to the care of Protestant governesses. 
 Who can say how far the modern trend of Italian 
 thought towards positive spiritualism is due to our 
 evangelical mission? Is not the modern Eeform 
 movement within the Church of Eome to a large 
 extent due to Protestant influence? Whence the 
 fear of the Vatican of evangelical propaganda? 
 The Vatican is not a child to be easily frightened; 
 
230 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 it is inured to all kinds of assaults and dangers, 
 and does not tremble unless confronted with over- 
 powering peril. All these results of the evan- 
 gelical missions in Italy are not susceptible to 
 any numerical valuation; nevertheless, they do 
 not cease to be of incalculable value. 
 
 The results in the mission field might have been 
 and might be more numerous and more conspicu- 
 ous. Why they were and are not, is a matter 
 worth considering. And we shall consider it, for 
 a moment, calmly and dispassionately. 
 
 At its dawn our missionary work in Italy had a 
 great deal to suffer on account of serious mis- 
 understanding. 
 
 The work began at a time when love for the 
 fatherland and love for Truth were blended. 
 Hatred for the foreign invader and for the old 
 enemy, the Vatican, drew for a time patriots and 
 religious reformers together under one flag; then, 
 little by little, the misunderstanding began; both 
 became one-sided ; the patriots trusted entirely to 
 immediate action, to insurrection, to revolution, 
 and despised all kind of evangelical propaganda ; 
 the religious propagandists, on the other hand, 
 believed entirely in the exclusiveness of their own 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 231 
 
 means, and despised everything pertaining to 
 politics alone. The testimony of Giuseppe Mon- 
 tanelli is important, inasmuch as it is the testi- 
 mony of a well-balanced, impartial witness. 
 " Of those who busied themselves with schools 
 and evangelical propaganda/ ' said he, " some 
 were wrong in setting aside all political questions 
 and in thinking that ' Children's Schools ' and 
 Protestant Bibles were sufficient to restore per- 
 fect freedom to the Italians. But the liberals did 
 even worse, for they were carried away by the 
 idea that the only thing necessary was for the 
 whole nation to be up in arms; they laughed at 
 peaceful activity and disdained to encourage use- 
 ful and popular institutions." 55 
 
 That misunderstanding, that biassed judgment 
 was the cause of the first hindrance to the work 
 of evangelisation. 
 
 The second hindrance was caused by an unfor- 
 tunate but easily understood separation between 
 the Waldenses and the converts from other parts 
 of Italy.— The first meeting of the converts from 
 the different provinces of Italy and the Waldenses 
 freed from their Alpine prison by the Edict of 
 Emancipation, had been a most touching one ; and 
 
 65 Giuseppe Montanelli : Memorie sulV Italia e specialmente sulla 
 Toscana, Vol. I, p. 51. 
 
232 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 the affection demonstrated by those brethren so 
 different in temperament but sanctified by the 
 same Christian Spirit, had been truly sincere. 
 They all were " like them that dream "; and a 
 common hymn of praise was raised from their 
 hearts: " The Lord hath done great things for 
 us; whereof we are glad." 56 But, alas, after that 
 first enthusiasm, there followed the sad, cold 
 tyranny of facts ; and, as we have already seen, a 
 separation became inevitable. The reasons for 
 that separation have been thus explained by Pro- 
 fessor Emilio Comba, in his History of the Wal- 
 denses: " The Waldensian church, which had been 
 isolated for centuries and deprived of contact with 
 men and things, now came forward and tried to 
 impose her ecclesiastical discipline, which was too 
 narrow, too local, and more adapted to her own 
 needs than to those of the newly-risen churches. 
 Her leaders were determined to maintain this dis- 
 cipline, if not to impose it by means of a regular 
 ministry which, though pleasing in a certain way, 
 was too conventional, too absorbing, and insuffi- 
 cient to find favour with a mission which required 
 free development, and the co-operation of every 
 member in the work for the cause which all had 
 at heart. On the one side there were men accus- 
 
 68 Psalm xxvi. 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 233 
 
 tomed to a rough school who never hastened except 
 with caution. They were shy, bashful, undecided 
 where a question of improvement or progress was 
 concerned, and slow in the liberal application of 
 their own laws. On the other hand were men 
 exuberant, audacious, violent, very apt to exceed 
 reasonable limits. The former, moulded by the 
 Eef ormation in a small and limited area, were per- 
 fectly satisfied with their own government; the 
 latter, instead, were eager to emancipate them- 
 selves from all traditional ecclesiastical rules 
 which implied absolute obedience. ' ' 57 A sep- 
 aration was bound to take place, and so it 
 did. 
 
 At its very commencement, the Italian mission 
 had to suffer a third hindrance caused by inter- 
 ference of two kinds: the Anglican and the 
 Darbyite. 
 
 The Anglicans brought no little bitterness into 
 the bosom of the Waldensian church. The great 
 benefactor of the church, General Beckwith, was, 
 like Canon Gilly, an Anglican; he strongly be- 
 lieved that the Waldenses could boast of apostolic 
 origin; that Claudius, Bishop of Turin, 58 was 
 one of them, and one of their most illustrious rep- 
 resentatives ; and convinced that the Waldenses 
 
 "Emilio Comba: Storia de' Valdesi, p. 382. K d. 839. 
 
234 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 were Episcopalians with Claudius, he would have 
 liked to see them organise themselves not accord- 
 ing to the pattern of the churches of the Reforma- 
 tion, but after that of the Episcopal Church. The 
 Waldenses, however, answered: No, our presby- 
 terial, democratic type of ecclesiastical organisa- 
 tion does not descend to us from the Reformation ; 
 it is prior to that period ; it is the pattern of the 
 church of our fathers, and we have it from them 
 as a sacred " inheritance;' ' Now, the truth is 
 that the ancient Waldenses did have bishops, but 
 they were of a very presbyterian nature. And 
 when one thinks that after all what General Beck- 
 with wanted for the Waldenses was not an abso- 
 lute, autocratic Episcopalian church, but an Epis- 
 copal church presbyterially organised, 59 it seems 
 as if an agreement between their great benefactor 
 and the people he benefited ought not to have been 
 so very difficult. Still, it turned out to be not only 
 difficult, but impossible. The bitterness began and 
 lasted; and we know well that the Kingdom of 
 
 "From a letter by General Beckwith to G. P. Bonjour, 28th 
 August, 1844. General Beckwith proposed a Moderator for life, 
 who was not to have a charge of any particular church. He 
 exhorted the Waldenses to assert more energetically than in the 
 past the principle of authority, and, by adopting a liturgical 
 form of worship, to ensure to the church a more active and effi- 
 cient participation in public worship by all members. See E. 
 Comba. 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 235 
 
 God cannot develop in an atmosphere of bitter- 
 ness. 
 
 But the interference of the Darbyites was even 
 more disastrous, inasmuch as it injured the whole 
 Italian mission. The first seeds of their ecclesias- 
 tical anarchy sown among the young converts of 
 Tuscany at the time of the persecution, 60 were the 
 cause of many and serious divisions; first of all, 
 between the early converts themselves; then, be- 
 tween them and the Waldenses, and they were also 
 the reason why such men as Bonaventura Mazza- 
 rella and Luigi Desanctis withdrew from the Wal- 
 densian church. 61 Professor E. Comba rightly 
 remarks: " If foreign Protestantism was prompt 
 in coming forward to help the evangelical mission 
 in Italy, it is unfortunately true that by unwise 
 
 80 The more prominent sowers of those ideas in that earliest 
 period of the Italian mission were three men: Rey, Cremieux, 
 Walker. The first converts adopted those views without realis- 
 ing how far they might be considered to be the views of Darby, 
 which had already spread from Plymouth and Lausanne. The 
 three ladies who bore the names of Johnson, Weston, and Brown, 
 appeared at the last hour; after the banishment of the Walden- 
 sian evangelists they were left alone in the field, and, therefore, 
 free to work as they liked. B. Malan used to call them the 
 three "Plymouth Sisters." The centre of those ideas was a 
 Genevan Committee, founded on the 21st June, 1848, in which 
 Mr. Henri Tronchin acted as President and Charles Cremieux as 
 Secretary. 
 
 M Dr. Luigi Desanctis later on came back to the Waldensian 
 church, was appointed professor of theology in the Waldensian 
 faculty, and died in Florence on the 31st December, 1869. 
 
236 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 interference it brought with it seeds of dissension 
 which unhappily bore fruit. How much better 
 would it have been if those friends of the evan- 
 gelical mission in Italy had stuck to the plan they 
 had always boasted of as their own: to seek not 
 the glory of man but the glory of Christ." e2 
 
 There is no doubt that the spirit in which the 
 various foreign committees have been and are 
 now working in Italy, is wider, more judicious, 
 and, therefore, more beneficent than that shown by 
 the friends of the mission at its beginning. Still 
 — why should we not admit it frankly? — even in 
 our time, drawbacks are not wanting, which hinder 
 the work from advancing. Come with me in spirit 
 into one of the principal cities of Italy and 
 see for yourselves the difficulties I am speak- 
 ing of. 
 
 In wandering through the streets of that city, 
 your attention is attracted by some special in- 
 scriptions on buildings: "Methodist Episcopal 
 Church "; further on, " Wesleyan Church "; then, 
 "Baptist Church"; then, "Church of the 
 Brethren.' ' To you, an American or an English- 
 man, those names have a meaning; they stir up in 
 your heart glorious recollections ; they are names 
 connected with religious movements which have 
 
 62 Emilio Comba: Btoria de' Valdesi, p. 379. 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 237 
 
 had an historical " raison d'etre," a mission, and 
 martyrs; they are the different sections of the 
 Church in which from your childhood you have 
 learned to love the Lord. But what meaning have 
 they to an Italian? 
 
 Do not forget that the Italian who passes by and 
 sees those inscriptions, is a man accustomed to the 
 idea that the true Church is one. Certainly, unity 
 in the Church of Kome is unity of form, not unity 
 of spirit; but he has never been in the habit of 
 inquiring too deeply; the Church, to be true, must 
 be one, he thinks, and that is enough. Now, this 
 man, when passing those several places of wor- 
 ship, and reading the different inscriptions, thinks 
 at once : ' ' Ah, they are foreigners, then ! We 
 have had quite enough of foreigners; they have 
 domineered and harassed us long enough; only 
 lately have we driven them out of our country ; we 
 do not want to see them return under the garb 
 of religion. And, besides, they are divided ; there- 
 fore, they are sects; they cannot belong to the 
 Church; for the true Church is one." Then, fur- 
 ther on, he reads the inscription : ' ' Church 
 of the Brethren.' ' He reflects for a few mo- 
 ments, then says: " But if these are brethren, 
 who are the others'? Cousins, acquaintances, or 
 strangers? " 
 
238 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 How often have I thought : How beautiful if from 
 the very beginning our brethren from beyond the 
 Alps and beyond the seas had said : * ' We want to 
 bring the Gospel to Italy; but we will not trans- 
 plant into Italy our names and our ecclesiastical 
 organisations; we will not make a kaleidoscopic 
 reproduction of our religious denominationalism 
 in Italy. We want to consider Italy as our com- 
 mon mission field. We shall work there not as 
 Methodist Episcopalians, or as Wesleyans, or as 
 Baptists, or as Plymouth Brethren, but simply as 
 evangelists, as missionaries. We shall give Christ 
 and the Gospel back to Italy; and the Church 
 there shall have but one name : that of the Evan- 
 gelical Church of Italy; the Spirit of Christ Him- 
 self will, in His own time, create an ecclesiastical 
 form congenial to the nature, the traditions, and 
 the aspirations of the converted people. ' ' 
 
 Why should we not do now what has been left 
 undone up to the present? at this great moment 
 when consciences are being awakened in Italy, 
 when hearts are opening to the Gospel and souls 
 are hungering and thirsting after what the Church 
 of Rome, inasmuch as she has lost all sense of 
 spirituality, is no longer able to give? 
 
 If what I suggest were done, another advantage, 
 and a great one, would result from it. By con- 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 239 
 
 centrating so many and powerful energies into 
 one common effort, one undenominational work, 
 instead of having many and different places of 
 worship, which often present a shabby and far 
 from aesthetic appearance, it would be possible to 
 have at least one or two churches in every town, 
 built with good taste in the most central part, and 
 built in such a way as not to be out of harmony 
 with the artistic ecclesiastical monuments that are 
 the glory and pride of our Italian cities. Under 
 the shadow of those big churches we might have, 
 here and there in every town, a number of mission 
 halls where evangelists, no longer divided by 
 denominational barriers, could preach Christ to 
 the people, with one mind, with one heart, and 
 following a strategic plan prepared with wis- 
 dom from on high, and in the spirit of united 
 prayer. 
 
 The words of a great Italian who was really 
 such also in mind and sentiment, are worth listen- 
 ing to : " I do not believe, ' ' said he, ' ' that those 
 Italian evangelical buildings which are so bare, 
 and cold, and which look like places of public meet- 
 ings to discuss commercial and worldly matters, 
 are able to attract a people with such lively and 
 fickle imagination as the Italians have. . . . The 
 fact that the excessive outward form of the Roman 
 
240 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 Catholic Church distracts and lulls the spiritual 
 energies by tickling the senses and exciting the 
 fancy and curiosity, does not mean that the Church 
 must lack something able to dispose souls to medi- 
 tation, to prayer, and to worship; something to 
 make them feel that they are not in an ordinary 
 place, but in the house of God." 63 Professor Ma- 
 riano was right. Between an exaggerated ritual- 
 ism which is the death of spirituality, and a place 
 of worship frigid and prosaically barren, lies that 
 just mean which is represented by a church severe, 
 but not divested of that sober symbolism which an- 
 swers to an imperious need of the heart, and which 
 contributes to edification and helps to elevate the 
 soul to God. 
 
 When, freed from this mortal coil, we enter the 
 great temple of eternity, we shall no longer need 
 either cathedrals or symbolism ; but as long as our 
 spirit is kept within the bounds of the flesh, we 
 would not act wisely, I think, were we to persist 
 in overlooking this aesthetic need which, among 
 all needs of the heart, is one of the noblest and 
 deepest. At any rate, we should be utterly in the 
 wrong were we to insist on overlooking it while 
 working amongst a people like the Italians, who 
 
 ^Raffaele Mariano: II pensiero religioso in Italia. A lecture 
 given at the Ninth General Conference of the Evangelical Alli- 
 ance held in Florence, 1891. 
 
Missionary Blossom and Evangelical Fruit 241 
 
 have so delicate an artistic sense as to appear to 
 be unable to worship in a place unless it be 
 in unison with the vibrations of their souls, which 
 cannot live but in an atmosphere of everlasting 
 beauty. 
 
VI 
 IN THE LAND OF EXILE 
 
VI 
 IN THE LAND OF EXILE 
 
 THOSE who wish to make a complete study, 
 in all its aspects, of the evangelical move- 
 ment in Italy, must not neglect that land of 
 exile where so many of our best men either 
 ripened their religious convictions or found there 
 the way of life. Information concerning this 
 special phase of the movement is very scarce; 
 nevertheless, I have done my best to gather the 
 largest possible amount of genuine and reliable 
 material. At the end of the chapter the reader 
 will be able to judge whether this study of mine 
 has been a useless digression, or if it has its 
 legitimate place in the general economy of my 
 work. 
 
 # * 
 
 In order to rightly understand and appreciate 
 the things of which I shall have to speak, it is 
 necessary for me to begin by reminding the reader 
 of the wretched condition of Italy at the time to 
 which I refer. 
 
 245 
 
246 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 As soon as the armies of Wellington and 
 Bliicher had destroyed the unlimited power of 
 Napoleon I at Waterloo on June 18th, 1815, the 
 representatives of European Powers, convoked 
 at Vienna 1 to regulate the destinies of Europe, 
 resolved that Italy should be picked to pieces; 
 and so she was, and remained so until 1859. No 
 nation came out of the Congress of Vienna so mal- 
 treated as Italy. Just glance over the map of 
 Italy of that time. 
 
 In the north, the kingdom of Sardinia, includ- 
 ing Piedmont, Liguria, and Sardinia, was allotted 
 to the House of Savoy ruled over by Victor Eman- 
 uel I; Lombardy and Venice were declared Aus- 
 trian provinces ; the Duchy of Modena and Eeggio 
 was parcelled out to the Austrian archduke, Francis 
 IV; the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza to Marie 
 Louise, the daughter of the Emperor of Austria 
 and the wife of Napoleon I; the Grand Duchy of 
 Tuscany to Ferdinand III of Lorraine ; the Prin- 
 cipality of Lucca to Marie Louise, a Bourbon, as 
 regent for her son Charles Ludovic not yet of age ; 
 the Eoman State to the Pope ; the Kingdom of the 
 Two Sicilies (Naples and Sicily) to the Bourbon 
 
 ^he Congress of Vienna of 1815, with its so-called Final Act, 
 only continued and completed the work begun and suspended by 
 the Congress of Paris in May, 1814. 
 
The Land of Exile 247 
 
 Ferdinand IV; the Canton Tessin to Switzerland; 
 the island of Malta to England; Corsica to 
 France. 
 
 Also these " membra disjecta," directly or in- 
 directly, were in the clutches of the Austrian 
 eagle. Freedom of thought, speech, and con- 
 science was everywhere punished by imprison- 
 ment, hard labour, or death. Public instruction 
 was thwarted, and was in the hands of the Jesuits, 
 who had been allowed to come to the fore again 
 and had become omnipotent. Economical life 
 languished because the political preoccupations of 
 the time gave no room for any thought of agricul- 
 ture, industry, and commerce. 
 
 Is it to be wondered at if on account of these 
 wretched conditions secret societies should begin 
 to arise? When tyranny tries its best to slay free- 
 dom of thought, of speech, and of conscience, it 
 is natural and necessary that secret societies 
 should spring up to keep alive the sacred ideal of 
 fatherland, and to prepare the way for the ruin 
 of despotism and the triumph of liberty. The 
 secret societies which were formed in the various 
 States of Italy after 1815 were several. I give' 
 the names of some of them: I Pellegrini Bianchi 
 (The White Pilgrims) ; I Protettori Repubblicani 
 (The Republican Protectors); La Spilla Nera 
 
248 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 (The Black Pin) ; Gli Oppressi, non vinti (The Op- 
 pressed, but not Subdued) ; La Speranza (Hope) ; 
 I Fratelli (The Brethren) ; La Fusciacca Rossa 
 (The Bed Tie); but the biggest and most im- 
 portant was that called / Carbonari. This so- 
 ciety, which took its rise in the mountains of 
 Abruzzo and Calabria and had for its aim the over- 
 throw of all tyrants and the reconquest of free- 
 dom, had spread all over Italy. It is reckoned 
 that in a very short time it numbered 800,000 
 members. 2 
 
 The influence of these secret societies was im- 
 mense. The movements and revolutions they 
 planned and roused had not all a fortunate issue, 
 for the times were not yet mature ; but in the shade 
 of those conventicles the sacred flame of the pa- 
 triotic ideal was kept alive, ideas were ripened, 
 and men were prepared for the future glorious 
 struggle. The secret societies were to Italy and 
 its political freedom what the Catacombs were to 
 Christianity at the period of persecution. 
 
 Time fails me to describe here the interval be- 
 tween 1821 and 1831 which Italian history records 
 with pages full of the glorious names of martyrs, 
 and with the names of tyrants who were murdered 
 
 2 The " Carboneria " was only a transformation of Freemasonry. 
 Freemasons had the largest part in its foundation. 
 
The Land of Exile 249 
 
 because they obstinately insisted on upholding by 
 means of imprisonment and the gallows what they 
 were in the habit of calling their divine right. 
 In that terrible period the liberals of Piedmont 
 were obliged to go into exile in order to free them- 
 selves from the hands of Carlo Felice, who well 
 deserved the name of Carlo Feroce (the fierce) ; 
 in Lombardy and Venice, men such as Silvio Pel- 
 lico, Federico Confalonieri, Count Porro, Count 
 Parravicini, Pietro Maroncelli, Carlo Oroboni 
 were sent to the horrid prisons of Spielberg by 
 Austria after most iniquitous trials; in the Two 
 Sicilies, Francesco, the son of Ferdinand, 3 ruled 
 through that inhuman beast Del Carretto, who used 
 to send the heads of decapitated liberals through- 
 out the kingdom, enclosed in iron cages. And I 
 wish I could speak here of the revolutions of 
 1831 and of the stormy but important period be- 
 tween 1831 and 1848, the year of the first war of 
 Italian Independence. 4 We must, however, make 
 sail in another direction. 
 
 Before doing so, let me answer a question that 
 may be raised at this point : How were things go- 
 
 3 Ferdinand IV of the Bourbons, when he became King of the 
 Two Sicilies (Naples and Sicily), assumed the name of Ferdi- 
 nand I. He died in 1825. 
 
 4 It was on the night of the 22d and 23d of March, 1848, that 
 the Ministry of Charles Albert decided to declare war on Austria, 
 
250 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 ing on in the Papal States at that time 1 We ought 
 to expect to be right in supposing that under a 
 theocratic government which has always pre- 
 tended to rule in the name of Christ and to take 
 its inspiration from Christianity only, things were 
 being managed, if not in an ideally perfect man- 
 ner, at least better than anywhere else. Not at 
 all. In the States of the Pontiff, under the wings 
 of Papacy, things were going on badly, worse than 
 in many other places. 
 
 The period between the Congress of Vienna and 
 the year 1848 saw five Popes in the so-called St. 
 Peter's chair. The first was Pius VII, who ruled 
 until 1823. He was elected at Venice in 1804 after 
 a very long Conclave. Keleased from prison, 
 where he had been kept for almost five years by 
 Napoleon I (whom he had crowned in Paris as 
 Emperor in 1804), Pius VII re-established, in 
 1814, the order of the Jesuits which Clement VIII 
 had abolished in 1773. Under him the reaction 
 against all liberal movement was most violent. 
 All liberals were persecuted to death. A society 
 was founded about then called the " Society of 
 the Sanfedisti." The members had to take the 
 following oath: " Not to spare one of those be- 
 longing to the infamous liberal party, whatever his 
 birth and his class or fortune in society. To have 
 
The Land of Exile 251 
 
 no pity either for their children or the aged; to 
 shed to the very last drop the blood of those vil- 
 lainous liberals, without consideration of sex or 
 rank. ' ' When Pius VII died in 1823, Leo XII suc- 
 ceeded him. Having as a cardinal belonged to the 
 reactionary party, he began at once to persecute 
 men of liberal ideas. He turned out of the ad- 
 ministration of the State the few laymen still 
 remaining there, favoured the Jesuits and their 
 schools, increased the privileges of the clergy, 
 threatened with the severest punishment all trans- 
 gressors of the commandments of the Church, per- 
 secuted the Jews, compelling them even to sell 
 their property; and in a moment of antiprogres- 
 sional rage prohibited even vaccination. Deter- 
 mined also to suppress all secret societies, which 
 had grown in extraordinary numbers, Leo XII 
 sent the terrible Cardinal Eivarola to Eomagna, 
 who, in 1825, in a single judgment passed sentence 
 on 522 liberals, of whom 7 were put to death. Leo 
 died in 1829 ; and Pius VIII took his place. He 
 inaugurated his reign (which lasted only one year 
 and eight months) by checking with great vio- 
 lence three small revolutions at Cesena, Imola, 
 and Bologna. Gregory XVI, who followed Pius in 
 1831, continued the persecution of the liberals 
 with ferocity. In Komagna there still lives the 
 
252 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 awful remembrance of the hospitality granted in 
 that same year to some thousands of soldiers of 
 the Pope who, at Cesena and Forli, perpetrated 
 nameless atrocities, worthy of Nero. There is no 
 doubt that under the government of Gregory XVI 
 the Eoman State reached its most despicable 
 period. The Pope was an avowed enemy of all 
 progress; he refused to admit railways, tele- 
 graphs, and scientific congresses in his States. 
 Administration and justice were all in the hands 
 of ecclesiastics; he caused ecclesiastical and polit- 
 ical censure to be exercised in a pitiless way, pub- 
 lic education was opposed, and industry and com- 
 merce languished. In Romagna, one of the noblest 
 and most patriotic regions of Italy, he allowed 
 a sect to arise called " the Centurions," which had 
 as its aim the persecution of the liberals, and to 
 whose members everything was allowed and for- 
 given ; even crime, if committed on behalf of the 
 " Holy Cause.' ' No wonder that the spirit of all 
 true patriots was deeply stirred within them. 
 Twice, in 1843 and in 1845, they tried to throw off 
 the papal yoke, but they did not succeed and had 
 to atone for their noble daring by prison, exile, or 
 by their lives. Gregory died in 1846, and sixteen 
 days after, Pius IX was called upon to wear the 
 tiara. 
 
The Land of Exile 253 
 
 He inaugurated his reign by stopping all polit- 
 ical inquisitions, by distributing alms generously, 
 and by limiting the expenses of his Court; small 
 things indeed, but which made the people hope too 
 much from him. On 16th July, 1846, he published 
 an ample decree of amnesty for all who had been 
 exiled and condemned for political reasons. The 
 news of this most merciful act ran throughout all 
 Italy, exciting great joy and deep emotion every- 
 where, and the name of Pius IX was blessed all 
 over the country. The decree of amnesty was fol- 
 lowed by the appointment of Cardinal Gizzi, 
 known to be a liberal, to the Secretaryship of 
 State, and by the formation of special commis- 
 sions charged to study possible reforms. En- 
 thusiasm was greater than ever. In all towns and 
 villages, festivals and illuminations were held in 
 honour of the Pope. So the year 1846 closed in 
 the midst of general rejoicing. The first months 
 of 1847 brought with them nothing new, and symp- 
 toms of diffidence began to show themselves ; but, 
 in March, the law concerning the press was re- 
 formed, that of censorship mitigated, and other 
 reforms were introduced. Universal enthusiasm 
 was rekindled, and all, even the most diffident, 
 seemed quite conquered by the reforming Pope; 
 even Garibaldi and Mazzini wrote two famous let- 
 
254 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 ters, urging him to take the Cause of Italian Inde- 
 pendence to heart. 
 
 But, alas, the dream of the possibility of a lib- 
 eral Pope was doomed not to last. On the night 
 of the 22d and 23d March, 1848, Charles Albert's 
 ministry resolved on war against Austria. In 
 Piedmont and in other parts of Italy the enthusi- 
 asm for this national war was indescribable; 
 everywhere the youth of the country rose in arms 
 ready to hasten to Lombardy, where the destinies 
 of Italy were about to be decided. Suddenly, how- 
 ever, while on the fields of Lombardy victory 
 smiled upon the Italian army, Pius IX, who had 
 bestowed his apostolic blessing on the troops mov- 
 ing to the front, startled the whole land by his 
 new attitude. The enemies of Italian liberty had 
 succeeded in frightening him by cunningly making 
 him believe that if he continued to support the 
 Italian campaign as he was doing, great schisms 
 would surely take place in Germany and Austria ; 
 and he, finding himself with the alternative either 
 of doing his duty as an Italian prince or listening 
 to those who reminded him that before all he was 
 the head of the Roman Catholic Church, abandoned 
 the Italian war, and in the Encyclical of the 29th 
 April declared that he, as the head of a religion 
 of peace and charity, could not either wish or en- 
 
The Land of Exile 255 
 
 courage war between the nations. The irritation 
 caused by this act was great; and the name of 
 Pius IX, which had hitherto been a symbol of na- 
 tional redemption, became the object of hatred 
 and execration. 
 
 All this will suffice, I think, to prove my asser- 
 tion that in the shadow of Papacy things were 
 turning out badly, worse than anywhere else. 
 
 Such were the miserable political conditions of 
 Italy during the first half of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. I want my readers now to make the personal 
 acquaintance of some of those men who were 
 driven away by the storm of persecution into the 
 land of exile and either found there the way of 
 life, or were strengthened in their faith, and be- 
 came, in the hands of God, powerful instruments 
 for the advancement of His Kingdom. 
 
 Let us begin with Gabriele Eossetti. It is not 
 necessary to tell you of Maria Francesca Eossetti, 
 authoress of an interesting analytical commentary 
 of Dante's poem, called " A Shadow of Dante/ ' 
 or of Dante Gabriele Eossetti the poet and Pre- 
 Eaphaelite painter, or of William Michael Eos- 
 setti, who attained such high rank as a critic both 
 in literature and art, or of Christina Eossetti, who, 
 
256 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 as William Sharp says, " has achieved a fame 
 which no poetess except Mrs. Browning has 
 equalled, and whose lovely lyrics are known to 
 thousands both in England and in the Colonies, as 
 well as to a large public in the United States." 5 
 This family of poets and artists is well known, 
 but the father of those illustrious children is 
 perhaps not so familiar to most; and this is not to 
 be wondered at, considering that, though he was 
 distinguished as a poet, the details of his life 
 were, up to a short time ago, very little known 
 even in Italy. And it is he who interests us in a 
 special way in connection with our subject. 
 
 Gabriele Eossetti was born on the 1st March, 
 1783, at Vasto in Abruzzo. His parents were Nic- 
 colo Eossetti and Maria Francesca Pietrocola. 
 At Vasto he went through his first studies. He 
 was a born poet ; an " improvvisatore ' ' ; and it 
 was at Vasto that he extemporised his first verses, 
 singing of the charming beauty of his Abruzzo. 
 In 1799, when Gabriele was sixteen years old, a 
 great and sudden convulsion shook his native town 
 on the day of Epiphany. The mayor, Floriano 
 Pietrocola, was found murdered in the church, and 
 
 6 Maria Francesca was born in 1827; Dante Gabriele, whose 
 full name was Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti, was born in 
 1828; William Michael, in 1829; Christina Georgina, in 1830. 
 
The Land of Exile 257 
 
 the whole town was in the hands of assassins and 
 robbers. — " What does all this mean? " asked 
 the bewildered young Eossetti. — " This, yon see," 
 some answered him, " is a revolution in favour 
 of the legitimists and of the Eoman Catholic re- 
 ligion, roused by the Jacobins." Gabriele, who 
 was a young fellow of good heart and right mind, 
 thought : ' ' Surely, that cannot be the way to de- 
 fend either the monarchy or the altar. ' ' The recol- 
 lection of Floriano Pietrocola assassinated in a 
 church in the name of the Church and of the legit- 
 imists haunted him night and day; and when he 
 heard men talk in private of Jacobins, of the 
 French, and of democratic government with the 
 boldness allowed by the tyranny of the times, 
 Gabriele's heart beat fast, and he began to pre- 
 pare those lyrics which later on were destined to 
 rouse and to call to liberty thousands and thou- 
 sands of consciences, which had grown torpid 
 during their moral and political bondage. In 1815 
 he entered the Carboneria, and in 1820 he was the 
 bard of the Neapolitan revolution. 
 
 Here it will be necessary to go back to the 
 events of the time. 
 
 The Congress of Vienna, as I have already 
 said, allotted the kingdom of the Two Sicilies 
 (Naples and Sicily) to the Bourbons. Ferdinand 
 
258 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 IV, detested for the horrors he had committed in 
 1799, had returned from Sicily, where he had taken 
 refuge in 1806, promising forgiveness to the rebels 
 and freedom to all. But how did he keep his prom- 
 ise? As soon as he had assumed the name of Fer- 
 dinand I, King of the Two Sicilies, he abolished 
 the Constitution he had already granted to Sicily, 
 and crushed the whole kingdom under that hard 
 despotism which history records as an example 
 of the most hateful and pitiless tyranny. Mean- 
 while, General Guglielmo Pepe, a staunch liberal, 
 was spreading the ideas of the " Carboneria " 
 throughout the army ; so that it was to be expected 
 that the first signal of revolution should come 
 from the army; and it was so. On the 2d July, 
 1820, two lieutenants of the Nola garrison, with 
 a hundred soldiers, left the barracks and stirred 
 up the liberals everywhere with the cry of ' ' Free- 
 dom! " and " Constitution! " The revolution 
 extended to all the Neapolitan country. Ferdi- 
 nand at first tried to subdue it; then, concealing 
 his rage, he promised to give his people the Con- 
 stitution, and it was arranged that he was to take 
 the oath on the 13th July. On that day, while the 
 people were waiting impatiently for the King, 
 who, in a most aggravating manner, delayed going 
 to the church of Santo Spirito to take the oath, 
 
The Land of Exile 259 
 
 Gabriele Eossetti improvised a very fine sonnet 
 at the " Caffe d 'Italia," which is known to few, 
 and was published for the first time in 1861 by a 
 nephew of the poet. 6 The King pledged his oath 
 to the Constitution (which was the same as that 
 of Spain) ; and in order to throw dust in the eyes 
 of the people, added, of his own accord, the follow- 
 ing words to the formula of the oath: " Almighty 
 God, who, with Thy infinite insight readest the 
 human soul and the future, do Thou send down the 
 thunderbolts of Thy vengeance on my head this 
 very moment, if I lie or come short of my 
 promise.' ' 
 
 Eossetti greeted the Constitution with a poem 
 that became almost the official hymn of the revolu- 
 tion and which is one of the gems of our Italian 
 
 6 This is the sonnet: 
 
 Sire, che attendi piu? Lo seettro ispano 
 Gia infranto cadde al suol, funesto esempio 
 A chi resta a regnar! Vindice mano 
 Gli sta sul capo, che ne vuol lo scempio. 
 
 Sire, che attendi piu? Porgoglio insano 
 Ceda al pubblico voto: il foro, il tempio 
 Voglion la morte tua — resiste invano 
 II debil cortigiano, il vile e Pempio! 
 
 Soli non siam; fin da remoti lidi 
 
 Grido di morte ai despoti rimbomba .... 
 Passa il tempo a tuo danno, e non decidi? 
 
 Sire, che attendi piil? gia il folgor piomba .... 
 O il tuo regnar col popolo dividi, 
 O sul trono aborrito avrai la tomba. 
 
260 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy- 
 literature. The greatest of modern Italian poets, 
 Giosue Carducci, wrote: " The thirty stanzas of 
 this hymn, magnificent in its classic imagery, and 
 sung for many a long time in an undertone by 
 women and children, cost the poet thirty long 
 years of exile followed by death in a foreign 
 land. ' ' Three months after the solemn oath, which 
 he had taken hypocritically, Ferdinand I, taking 
 the opportunity afforded him by the Congress of 
 Troppau, 7 cancelled the Constitution and again 
 imposed despotism on the land. On the 23d 
 March, 1821, 50,000 Austrians entered Naples to 
 re-establish the old, hated, tyrannical government. 
 On the 15th May King Ferdinand returned to 
 Naples; and backed by 35,000 Austrians, who 
 remained in his kingdom to repress the fury of 
 the betrayed people, began his persecution and his 
 revenge. In a decree dated 10th April, the treach- 
 
 7 The Congress of Troppau (Austrian Silesia) was held in Oc- 
 tober, 1820. The sovereigns of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, 
 with the representatives of France and England, met first at 
 Troppau and then at Lubiana to discuss the events in Italy. The 
 King of Naples also was invited to attend; and he, after having 
 left the regency to his son Francesco, went there promising his 
 subjects that he would defend the Constitution he had sworn to 
 maintain. As soon as he arrived, the allies communicated to 
 him that it was their intention to re-establish in Naples the old 
 absolute regime; and he, without making the slightest objection, 
 wrote to Francesco, the Regent, on the 28th January, 1821, direct- 
 ing him to respect and accept the wish expressed by the allied 
 sovereigns ! 
 
The Land of Exile 261 
 
 erous King condemned to death all the " Car- 
 bonari "; and Bossetti especially was aimed at. 
 Canosa, who was then the head of the police, or- 
 dered his sbirri to seize him dead or alive. Bos- 
 setti took refuge in the cellar of a house, and 
 remained there for three months, from March to 
 June. The hiding place was insecure; how was 
 it possible to rescue him ? God did it, in one of His 
 marvellous providential ways. 
 
 In 1820 a squadron of the British fleet, under 
 the command of Admiral Sir Graham Moore, had 
 entered the Bay of Naples. Lady Moore, who 
 knew Bossetti 's poems, wished to make the per- 
 sonal acquaintance of the poet. Eossetti, who was 
 at that time custodian of the Museum of An- 
 tiquities in Naples, was introduced to the Admiral 
 and his wife, who liked him and often invited him 
 to their house. Now Lady Graham did not want 
 to abandon the poet in his misfortune, and per- 
 suaded her husband to save him. The Admiral 
 learnt where the poet was hidden, and sent two 
 of his officers there with a naval uniform. Eos- 
 setti put it on, left the house arm-in-arm with his 
 protectors, crossed Naples in broad daylight in a 
 cab, and at Santa Lucia entered the boat which 
 was to take him safe and sound on board the 
 Rochefort. When Sir Graham Moore, before 
 
262 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 weighing anchor, went, as he was bound to do, to 
 take leave of Ferdinand, the King, almost unable 
 to control his anger, asked him insolently to give 
 up the rebel he had on board. To which Sir 
 Graham answered sternly: " A British Admiral 
 never commits such meanness "; and turned his 
 back on him. 
 
 Eossetti remained three years in Malta, pro- 
 tected by the governor of the island, Sir John 
 Hookham Frere, who was a warm admirer of the 
 poet's talents. Eossetti often improvised in the 
 big hall of the governor before the most intel- 
 lectual company. One day, inspired by the sug- 
 gestive recollections of the island, he filled all 
 with indescribable enthusiasm, by improvising a 
 poem on the " Shipwreck of St. Paul.'' Early in 
 1825 he went to London, where a year later he mar- 
 ried Frances Polidori, sister of Dr. Polidori, who 
 travelled with Lord Byron, and daughter of Signor 
 Polidori, secretary to Alfieri. In 1831 he obtained 
 the post of Professor of Italian Literature at 
 King's College, which he occupied till 1845, when 
 he practically lost his sight, and in consequence 
 resigned the chair ; but though partially deprived 
 of the use of his eyes, he retained his health for a 
 considerable time, his death not taking place till 
 the 26th April, 1854. He died poor, but enriched 
 
The Land of Exile 263 
 
 Italy to the last with songs which will never die, 
 and bequeathed to the land of his adoption, 
 through his children, a rich contribution of new 
 strength to its intellectual and artistic life. 
 
 This is not the time or place to speak of Ros- 
 setti's works ; 8 may I be allowed, however, to point 
 out in a few words his ideal. It was at one time 
 a political and religious one. " Rossetti 's prin- 
 ciples, " wrote Carducci, " shine clearly in each 
 of his songs, and they are: the unity of Italy; a 
 representative monarchy grounded on popular 
 institutions; the abolition of the secular power 
 and spiritual tyranny of Rome; brotherhood 
 among oppressed nations.' ' 
 
 How could such an ideal as that flash into Ros- 
 setti's mind when, with the same perfect clearness 
 at least, during that third period of the Italian 
 revolution, it never flashed into the mind of other 
 men, who, as far as originality of thought, excel- 
 lency of form and power of style are concerned, 
 were superior to him? 
 
 Rossetti obtained his ideal from the Gospel. 
 
 8 The principal works, in prose, of Gabriel Rossetti are: 
 Comento analitico sulla Divina Commedia (1826-1827), Sullo 
 spirito Anti-papale (1832), II mistero dell' amor platonico 
 rivelato (1840), La Beatrice di Dante (1852). His most noted 
 poetical works are: Dio e Vuomo (1840), II Veggente in soli- 
 tudine (1846), Poesie (1847), L'Arpa Evangelica (1852). 
 
264: The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 The great poet, driven from his country for po- 
 litical reasons, through God's providence found 
 Christ and the Gospel in the land of his exile. 9 
 For twenty years he gave most careful attention 
 to spiritual problems. The Bible became his fa- 
 vourite book. Through the letter of the New Tes- 
 tament he found the living person of Christ ; and 
 Christ became his supporter in time of distress, 
 his light in the time of his blindness, his comfort 
 in the supreme crisis of his last hour. 10 
 
 After Gabriele Eossetti comes Luigi Desanctis, 11 
 Doctor of Divinity in the Church of Eome. He 
 was born in Rome on the 31st December, 1808; 
 and after a very brilliant ecclesiastical career, 
 he was called in 1840 to the rectorship of the Mad- 
 dalena della Rotonda in Rome. By the study of 
 the Scriptures, the Fathers, and history, he was 
 convinced of the errors of Rome, and in 1847 
 left the Church. He went to Malta; there he 
 preached the Gospel for the first time in connec- 
 tion with the Evangelical church. In 1848, at 
 
 8 When on the 4th November, 1911, the bust of Gabriele Ros- 
 setti was unveiled in Rome on the Pincio, not one of the speakers 
 thought of or had the courage to point out the fact that the 
 poet, in 1852, in one of his religious writings (L'Eucarestia) 
 had said: "With this writing I most earnestly intend to re- 
 nounce Popery and to adhere to the true Evangelical doctrine." 
 
 10 Giovanni Luzzi: Le idee religiose di Gabriele Rossetti. Flor- 
 ence, 1903. 
 
 u Alete: Biografia di Luigi Desanctis. Firenze, 1870. 
 
The Land of Exile 265 
 
 Florence, Leghorn, and Lucca, he took an active 
 part in the first Tuscan missionary efforts, as I 
 have already mentioned. He returned to Malta, 
 and in 1850 went to Geneva ; thence to Paris and 
 London; and in '56 and '57 began missionary 
 work in Piedmont and Lombardy. It is impos- 
 sible for me here to retrace the missionary vicis- 
 situdes of this great man of God to whom Prot- 
 estant Italy owes her best essays on dogmatics 
 and tracts on polemics. When he passed away on 
 the 31st December, 1869, at Florence, he was Pro- 
 fessor of Apologetics, Polemics, and Practical 
 Theology in the Waldensian Faculty of Divinity, 
 which had called him to the chair in May, 
 1868. 
 
 Then comes Camillo Mapei, another " improv- 
 visatore," and from the same part of Italy as Eos- 
 setti : Abruzzo. He was born in 1809 at Nocciano, 
 a small country town. He became a Canon 
 and a Professor of Dogmatics and Ethics in the 
 Eoman Church. Brought up in a place where 
 superstition was rife and in the midst of degrad- 
 ing political slavery, he still remained a believer 
 but without Roman bigotry, and devoted himself 
 to the Italian liberal cause. In 1840, when perse- 
 cuted by the police, he was obliged to flee and find 
 refuge in exile. I have narrated in a special 
 
 i ©' 
 
266 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy- 
 volume 12 the dramatic history of his perilous 
 flight and of his adventurous life. I have recorded 
 there how he was dogged by the Inquisition in 
 Eome ; how he was nearly drowned at sea ; how he 
 was attacked by Bedouins in Algiers ; how, reduced 
 to starvation, he became a shoeblack in Marseilles ; 
 how, when in Malta, he was in great danger of his 
 life; how he was expelled from there and went 
 to London ; how then followed his religious crisis, 
 his conversion to Christ, his utter poverty, his 
 struggles, his apostolate in England, Scotland, Ire- 
 land, and his peaceful death in an hospital in Dub- 
 lin on the 18th April, 1853. Protestant Italy owes 
 to Gabriele Eossetti first, and then to Camillo 
 Mapei, the best part of her Christian hymnology. 
 Then comes Alessandro Gavazzi, the giant evan- 
 gelist of the heroic period of the Italian mission. 
 He was born in Bologna in 1809, and was the sec- 
 ond of twenty-five children. At fifteen he entered 
 the Barnabite Order, and in 1833, on account of his 
 exceptional eloquence, was appointed preacher of 
 the Order. But the Order was too narrow a sphere 
 for his great Christian heart and patriotic soul. 
 He was in Eome when, in 1848, the news arrived of 
 the triumph of the revolution in Lombardy. 
 
 "Giovanni Luzzi: Camillo Mapei: Esule. Confessore. Inno- 
 grafo. Firenze, 1895. 
 
The Land of Exile 267 
 
 Gavazzi ascended the Capitol; and on that his- 
 torical hill commemorated those who died for the 
 fatherland, and stirred the people up to a state of 
 delirium. Pius IX himself appointed him chaplain 
 to the volunteers called out to help the Lombard 
 brethren; and while Eome was preparing soldiers 
 and arms, Gavazzi preached in the Coliseum with 
 extraordinary eloquence almost every day for two 
 whole months. Then he left for the front, wearing 
 the white Barnabite dress and with the red cross 
 on his bosom; and as a novel Peter the Hermit, he 
 preached everywhere a holy war against the for- 
 eign dominion in Italy. He fought as a hero with 
 word and sword; and while the exterminating 
 angel of death was passing over the fields where 
 the destinies of Italy were being decided, Gavazzi 
 brought words of comfort and peace to the 
 wounded and dying. In 1849, during the short 
 but glorious period of the Eoman Kepublic, he 
 was appointed Inspector of the Hospitals and 
 Head Chaplain of the Kepublican army. When 
 the Eepublic fell, he escaped with his faithful com- 
 panion Ugo Bassi, who, betrayed by a spy, was 
 shot at Bologna by the Austrians. More fortunate 
 than his friend, Gavazzi was able to take refuge 
 in the house of the American Consul in Kome ; and 
 armed with a passport granted by the French 
 
268 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 general Oudinot, he embarked and arrived safely 
 in London. On his arrival in that metropolis, he 
 began to give lessons in Italian, but had great diffi- 
 culty in keeping the wolf from the door. After 
 months of semi-starvation, two of his orations to 
 his fellow-countrymen were, happily, translated 
 in The Daily News by Father Prout, and Gavazzi 
 became famous. Then he went through Great 
 Britain and Ireland, Canada and the United 
 States, for three or four years, drawing crowds 
 to the largest halls and enlisting universal sym- 
 pathy by his monk's garb, his fiery delivery, his 
 eloquent denunciation of Pius IX and Eomish op- 
 pression, and his earnest warnings against the 
 Puseyite viper which was being fondled in the 
 generous bosom of England. And let it be said to 
 his honour : that all proceeds of his lectures were 
 given to his brother exiles and to the Protestant 
 schools in Turin. In 1858, as a result of close study 
 of the Bible and contact with earnest Christians, 
 the greatest event in Gavazzi 's life took place : his 
 conversion to God through a deep conviction of sin 
 and a humble and sincere faith in his Saviour. 
 From that day his life was consecrated to evan- 
 gelical work. In '60 he followed Garibaldi in his 
 campaign in Sicily; in '66 and '67 he followed 
 him to the Tyrol and to Mentana, but always to 
 
The Land of Exile 269 
 
 attend to the wounded, to preach the Gospel of 
 Jesus Christ, and to circulate Bibles and tracts. 
 When not so engaged, he was busy, from 1858 to 
 1870, in preaching and holding missionary meet- 
 ings in all the large towns of his native land. He 
 did so with such a happy effect, that in Italy not 
 many years ago you could scarcely meet with an 
 individual in any rank of life who did not know 
 and respect the great name of Alessandro Ga- 
 vazzi. He was called home suddenly on the 9th 
 January, 1889, in Rome. He died poor as he had 
 always lived ; he, who had enriched so many with 
 the inexhaustible treasures of his eloquence, his 
 faith, and his large heart. 
 
 Time fails me to speak of Salvatore Ferretti, 13 
 the modest evangelist, the indefatigable London 
 editor of Italian literature for evangelical propa- 
 ganda, the intimate friend of Gabriele Rossetti and 
 Camillo Mapei, the philanthropist, the father of 
 the fatherless, the brother of the exiles; — of 
 Filippo Pistrucci, the noble representative of a 
 whole family of heroes whose name is dear to 
 Italy; a Roman by birth and soul; an " improv- 
 visatore " also, and a staunch patriot and Chris- 
 tian who well understood that the secret of true 
 
 "Salvatore Ferretti, son of Girolarao Ferretti and Stella 
 Stettiner, was born in Florence on the 15th September, 1817, and 
 died there on the 4th May, 1874. 
 
270 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 and lasting redemption for Italy was to be found 
 in the Gospel ; — and of a crowd of others, whom I 
 should like much to record here; but the few I 
 have been able to mention will suffice to give you 
 an idea of what kind of stuff the men were whom 
 God, in ways so various, dramatic, and often 
 tragic, called and prepared to announce the Word 
 of Life to Italy. 
 
 Italian emigration during the classic period of 
 the redemption of Italy was evidently either po- 
 litical, or anti-papal, or political and anti-papal 
 at one and the same time; it became evangelical 
 only little by little. The principal centres where 
 that gradual transformation took place, may be 
 reduced to three: Malta, Geneva, and London. 
 To mention them thus is not to mention them in 
 chronological order, but according to their respec- 
 tive importance. 
 
 In fact, the least important of the three was the 
 Maltese centre. On account of its geographical 
 position, Malta was the first and nearest refuge 
 for ex-priests and ex-monks flying from the 
 clutches of the Eoman Church. The English 
 friends of the Italian evangelical mission had in 
 1841 already procured the means to found an 
 
The Land of Exile 271 
 
 Italian church in Malta. At her head was placed 
 Giacinto Achilli, an ex-Carmelite monk, who, how- 
 ever, did not leave too good a name in the history 
 of the mission there. Achilli, Leonini, Crespi, 
 Moscardi, were some of the ex-Eoman ecclesiastics 
 who formed the nucleus of the Italian church of 
 Malta. In May, 1846, a monthly religious paper 
 appeared in the island for the first time, called the 
 Indicator e (the Indicator). It lived two years 
 only. Desanctis published in it his letter to the 
 Eoman authorities in which he stated the reasons 
 which compelled him to leave the Church of 
 Borne, 1 * and four other letters addressed to his 
 bishop, Cardinal Patrizi. When the Indicatore 
 ceased to appear, Desanctis started the Cattolico 
 Cristiano (the Catholic Christian), on the 1st No- 
 vember, 1848, which excited a great sensation in 
 Malta and elsewhere, and had the honour of being 
 censured by the Bishop of Malta. During De- 
 sanctis' residence in the island, the Maltese church 
 flourished as she had never done before nor ever 
 did after. But the ground was hard ; the islanders 
 had not changed much since the days of St. Paul, 
 and superstition and immorality ruled in the 
 
 "He published it on the 1st October, 1847. It was the letter by 
 which he severed himself from Rome and which he wrote from 
 Ancona to Father Togni, General of the Order " dei Chierici 
 Regolari." 
 
272 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 island. Achilli, Desanctis and the other ex-priests 
 and ex-monks could find no one willing to house 
 them. Bakers and butchers refused to sell them 
 bread and meat, and all because the poor exiles 
 had left the Roman Church! After the fall of 
 the Roman Eepublic in 1849 many of those who 
 had heroically defended it, sought refuge in Malta. 
 Would you believe it? They could scarcely land, 
 as the islanders wanted to kill all the supposed 
 prof aners of the holy city. ' l The Maltese, ' ' wrote 
 one of those exiles, " are so grossly superstitious 
 that, for instance, they do not pray to saints or 
 Madonnas for rain in times of drought, but to the 
 souls in purgatory; and they do so for business 
 reasons ; the souls in purgatory assure an answer 
 within three days of prayer. They are, therefore, 
 much less exacting than the saints and the Ma- 
 donnas, who take their own time to respond." 
 No wonder that the evangelical missionary work 
 could never become deeply rooted in such a re- 
 fractory island. 
 
 The Genevan centre was much more attractive. 
 Geneva had already an Italian church in 1542, 
 in the century of the Reformation; Bernardino 
 Ochino, the great converted friar, was the first who 
 had then the privilege of being called to gather 
 together his fellow-countrymen and to be their 
 
The Land of Exile 273 
 
 pastor. The church passed through a dangerous 
 crisis when, in 1545, Ochino was obliged to leave ; 
 but God sent another man: Galeazzo Caracciolo, 
 who came to Geneva on the 8th June, 1551, to con- 
 tinue the work. In 1552 the Genevan Italian com- 
 munity was for the first time regularly organ- 
 ised. On account of the numerous immigrants 
 from Lucca in 1555, the Italian church there be- 
 came more important than ever ; so much so that 
 the need of a more complete system of organisa- 
 tion was felt. This was in 1556 ; 15 then followed 
 a sad period of dogmatic disputes and of internal 
 discords; notwithstanding, the church continued 
 to live and to spread beneficial influence around 
 until the Italian element disappeared, completely 
 absorbed by the Genevan population. 
 
 15 The Italian-Genevan Church was, in 1556, organised on a 
 purely congregationalist basis, and had a general assembly 
 (congregazione generate) composed of all the Italians inscribed 
 on the roll of the church. This assembly elected all the office- 
 bearers of the church. To the minister {ministro) a catechist 
 (catechista) was added. The lay element was represented by 
 four elders ( seniori ) and by four deacons ( diaconi ) . One of 
 these last four was the treasurer (borsiero) . These officers con- 
 stituted the consistory (collegio) of the Italian Church. Elders 
 and deacons were elected for a year and could be re-elected. To 
 them was entrusted the care of visiting the poor and the sick. 
 Every elder had the charge of a quarter (quartiere) of the town. 
 The congregation had, besides, the church musician (il musico 
 delta chiesa). The Italian Genevan Church had at the beginning 
 a collection of 50 Psalms. The collection, in 1556, was enlarged 
 and printed. 
 
274 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 Geneva, which had opened wide her arms to wel- 
 come the exiles during the century of the Kef orma- 
 tion, again opened them to welcome the new exiles 
 in the first half of the nineteenth century. These 
 exiles, banished from their own land, found spirit- 
 ual freedom in the hospitable city of Geneva, and 
 inaugurated there, on the 10th October, 1853, the 
 1 * Italian Evangelical Community. ' ' Forty mem- 
 bers of this community sent out a warm appeal 
 to the public on the 10th November, 1853, contain- 
 ing a brief, clear, and decided Evangelical Con- 
 fession of Faith, which concluded as follows: 
 " In 1542, in this very city, the Italian exiles who 
 fled from the stake with a Bible in their hand and 
 Christ in their heart, laid the foundation of an 
 Italian church. This church was greatly blessed, 
 she cared for many, and helped many in their 
 journey heavenwards, until at last the Italian ele- 
 ment was blended with the Swiss. The present 
 Italian Evangelical Community aspires to con- 
 tinue that beautiful patriotic tradition and to raise 
 a new and spiritual church. Who knows if this 
 church is not destined to become a refuge to new 
 believers and a haven of rest to fresh victims of 
 papal intolerance which, though seemingly weary, 
 is not yet satiated with human victims! Chris- 
 tian friends of all lands, pray that this wish of 
 
The Land of Exile 275 
 
 ours may be realised; receive our brotherly kiss, 
 and may the peace of the Lord be with you! " 
 
 The most important centre of the Italian mis- 
 sion, however, was London. 
 
 At the time we are speaking of, the first institu- 
 tion we find in this centre is the ' ' Scuola gratuita 
 italiana" (the " Italian Free School "), founded 
 by Giuseppe Mazzini on the 10th November, 1841. 
 It lived and flourished from '41 to '48; then it 
 stagnated, giving only intermittent signs of life. 
 At the time of the exile, it was the connecting link 
 between the evangelical movement which aimed at 
 redeeming Italy morally and spiritually, and the 
 political movement which aimed at redeeming the 
 land from the yoke of the tyrants and from all 
 foreign oppression. Two names are especially 
 connected with the beginning of the school: Giu- 
 seppe Mazzini and Filippo Pistrucci. Pistrucci 
 represented the evangelical idea; Mazzini the 
 political, because Mazzini never could conceive the 
 two as separated from each other. 
 
 What was the aim of the school? 
 
 " The school/ ' said Mazzini, " was intended to 
 give moral and intellectual instruction to several 
 hundreds of children and semi-civilised organ- 
 grinders who, after having laid down their organs, 
 used to come and sit on the school benches for 
 
276 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 half an hour in the evening, between nine and 
 ten. At first, driven by sheer curiosity and almost 
 afraid, they peeped into our very modest rooms ; 16 
 then, little by little, conquered by the loving man- 
 ners of the teachers, they became more amenable, 
 and finished by fraternising cheerfully with their 
 fellows, and ended by experiencing a new feeling 
 of dignity and pride, awakened by the idea of 
 being able to return to their country, well edu- 
 cated.' ' Every Sunday Pistrucci conversed with 
 the pupils on moral subjects and especially on the 
 duties of man. Each anniversary of the school 
 was celebrated with solemnity. All the pupils, 
 about 300, were present; the exiles, too, were 
 naturally invited together with the friends of the 
 work; prizes were distributed to the most diligent 
 and most regular, which consisted of Bibles, New 
 Testaments, other books, and medals. Mazzini 
 himself distributed them. I dearly love to record 
 all these facts; because, though it is true that 
 Giuseppe Mazzini was not a Christian in the or- 
 thodox sense of the word, still we know that he 
 drew his highest ideals from the Bible, and that 
 from his youth he loved the Bible above all other 
 books. When he had to protect his school in Lon- 
 don from the iniquitous attacks of the priests, he 
 
 "The school, in London, had its seat at 5 Hatton Gardens. 
 
The Land of Exile 277 
 
 most emphatically affirmed that he wanted the 
 Italians to think seriously about religion, to 
 abandon the corrupt practices of Rome, and 
 to embrace the religion which Christ had given to 
 humanity. 
 
 The press also had its mission in London ; and 
 well worthy of mention is the heroic monthly Eco 
 di Savonarola (the Echo of Savonarola), which 
 was launched and edited by the valiant Salvatore 
 Ferretti, appeared regularly from 1847 to 1854, 
 and afterwards, intermittently, until 1860. It bore 
 as a motto : Acts xvii. 11, and the words of Savo- 
 narola : " Italia renovabitur. ' ' The first contribu- 
 tors were nine ex-priests or ex-monks and three 
 laymen, namely: Gabriele Rossetti, Filippo Pi- 
 strucci, and a certain Sperandio Tacchella. 
 
 What did the paper aim at! 
 
 " Our aim," wrote Salvatore Ferretti, " is to 
 fight the abuses of the Roman Church, infidelity, 
 indifference, hypocrisy; to proclaim the religion 
 of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of love and peace in all 
 its purity, such as it has been revealed in the Holy 
 Scriptures, which are and shall always be the 
 Word of eternal life. The Echo of Savonarola has 
 for its aim the bringing back to the simplicity of 
 apostolic times of those Italians who have been 
 led astray, leaving at the same time their con- 
 
278 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 science free as far as concerns other secondary 
 matters not contradictory to the fundamental 
 truth of Christianity.' ' 
 
 In 1852 the Newspaper Press Directory had 
 words of high praise for the Echo, and even Punch 
 took notice of it. It said : ' ' There is in London a 
 small but bold brother of ours, called the Echo of 
 Savonarola. We believe they have given him that 
 name, because it will answer.' ' The paper was 
 issued at the cost of enormous sacrifices. All who 
 wrote in it did so without payment ; and the editor, 
 after four years of heavy labour, was $150 out of 
 pocket. The Italians able to subscribe were few in 
 the land of exile ; and there were then few in Eng- 
 land able to read an Italian paper; besides, it was 
 sent gratis throughout Italy, America, Malta, 
 France, Switzerland, Turkey, Greece, wherever 
 the editor knew that some of his fellow-country- 
 men were. 
 
 It was easy to foresee that Rome would de- 
 nounce the paper. Nevertheless, in spite of the 
 thunderbolts of the Vatican and the lynx-eyed 
 political and religious Inquisition, the Echo found 
 its way to the very centre of Italy and even into 
 the Vatican, whence the editor received " letters 
 of encouragement and of true Christian sym- 
 pathy. ' ' But excommunication had to come, and 
 
The Land of Exile 279 
 
 it did about the end of 1847 ; and Salvatore Fer- 
 retti, in January, 1848, wrote : ' ' We believe our 
 readers will be pleased to know that the Echo of 
 Savonarola and its writers have had the honour 
 of papal excommunication bestowed upon them, 
 and have had their names written ' ad perpetuam 
 memoriam ' in the so-called ' Index of Prohibited 
 Books. ' Notwithstanding, the Echo of Savonarola 
 will continue to circulate as usual in every part 
 of the earth where Italians are. We consider this 
 excommunication as a special blessing from the 
 Lord, for experience has taught us over and over 
 again that to prohibit a book is the surest way to 
 make it read all the more widely.' ' 
 
 The exiles in London grouped themselves also 
 into a society which they called the ' ' Italian Mu- 
 tual Help Society.' ' It was founded on the 18th 
 July, 1847. The first report issued by the society 
 bears the names of 85 Italians, all subscribers ; and 
 the list at the end of the report, instead of being 
 headed as it usually is: " Contributions " or 
 " List of Subscribers," etc., was headed thus: 
 " Brethren." The spirit with which the whole 
 society was animated is expressed in the words of 
 the report, which begins: " This society was 
 started in compliance with the doctrine of Jesus 
 Christ, who says : ' A new commandment I give 
 
280 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved 
 you, that ye also love one another. By this shall 
 all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have 
 love one to another.' This society is, therefore, 
 grounded on Christian brotherhood, tolerance, 
 and freedom; and these principles must be the 
 rule of every brother, in public and in private, in 
 his relations to other brethren, and in all commit- 
 tee meetings.' f 
 
 The exiles had also a church in London. On 
 the 6th July, 1847, the ex-Dominican Giacinto 
 Achilli advocated the cause of the Italian church 
 in Exeter Hall. In two consecutive meetings, 17 
 presided over by G. B. Di Menna, an ex-Boman 
 theologian, all was settled: the Confession of 
 faith (perfectly orthodox), the organisation (in- 
 clining towards the Plymouth type), and the 
 liturgy (modelled on the Presbyterian pattern). 
 The church was founded; and the intimations, 
 which were circulated among the London exiles, 
 ran thus : ' * Italians residing in London are in- 
 vited to attend the meeting which takes place 
 every Sunday at 7 Sidmouth Street, Gray's-Inn- 
 Boad, at 5.30 p.m. After the prayers, the singing 
 of hymns and the reading of the Holy Scriptures, 
 
 "The meetings were held at 2 Chapel Street, Bedford Row, 
 on the 25th July and on the 1st August, 1847. 
 
The Land of Exile 281 
 
 a discourse is always delivered on evangelical 
 truths. . . . All those who no longer believe in 
 the imposture of Eome and love the Gospel of 
 Jesus Christ, are invited to the above mentioned 
 chapel. The worship held there is as it ought to 
 be : * in spirit and in truth. . . . ' Italians ! Be- 
 fore trying to reform your fatherland, reform 
 yourselves. What shall it profit if you shall gain 
 the whole world and lose your own souls? Think 
 of it." 
 
 The church that was born thus in the land of 
 exile and that gathered around her the best part 
 of the Italian emigrants in London, was, accord- 
 ing to her founders' idea, destined not to live and 
 die in the land of exile, but to cross the Channel 
 and the Alps and to fix her tents in Italy as soon 
 as political circumstances should allow. 
 
 What ideal had she in view? 
 
 Salvatore Ferretti, who, with Camillo Mapei, 
 was one of the columns of the London church, 
 stated it thus: " We do not want to establish in 
 Italy an English, French, or Swiss Protestant 
 Church, but an Italian Christian reformed Church. 
 How wonderful that is ! The first cry for reform 
 heard in Italy was that of Savonarola: Martin 
 Luther did nothing but what the Italian prophet 
 had advised should be done. And what is still 
 
282 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 more wonderful is that while the religion of Jesus 
 Christ had been corrupted throughout Europe, it 
 had kept its apostolic purity in Italy. When all 
 Christianity was plunged in darkness, the light of 
 the Gospel was shining among the simple inhabi- 
 tants of the Piedmontese valleys/ ' 
 
 According to the ideal of those London emi- 
 grants the Italian church which they had founded 
 in the land of exile, should not only be in time 
 transplanted into Italy, but should unite there 
 with the great and ancient mother-church, the 
 church of the valleys. So when, on the 15th De- 
 cember, 1853, the Waldensian church was inaugu- 
 rated in Turin, which the Edict of Emancipation 
 had made possible, Gabriele Rossetti, the inspired 
 psalmist of the exiles, thus sang: 
 
 " S'io non fossi si vecchio, e gli occhi miei 
 non fosser tai che quasi nulla io scerno, 
 come in pellegrinaggio avido andrei 
 in quel bel Tempio ad adorar l'Eterno; 
 e manderei dal cor questa preghiera 
 ch'io godo replicar mattina e sera: 
 
 Sia questa Chiesa, cara all' alma mia, 
 Chiesa di tutta Italia. E cosi sia." 
 
 (Were I not so old, and were not my eyes 
 such that almost naught can I discern, 
 how eagerly should I, as in pilgrimage, go, 
 to that beautiful Temple, to worship the Eternal 
 
The Land of Exile 283 
 
 and from my heart this prayer should I utter, 
 which morning and evening I love to repeat: 
 
 May this Church, that is so beloved to my soul, 
 become the Church of all Italy. Amen.) 
 
 The intimations circulated among the Italians 
 in London said that at the meetings, after the 
 prayers and the reading of the Scriptures, 
 " Hymns would be sung." 
 
 What hymns? 
 
 To the indefatigable activity of Salvatore Fer- 
 retti the Italian church of London owed a Col- 
 lection of Hymns which occupies an important 
 place in the history of the Italian evangelical 
 hymnology. The Hymnary I am alluding to con- 
 tained 60 hymns, 9 Psalms, and 12 original hymn 
 tunes. Of the 60 hymns, 33 were composed by 
 Mapei ; 8 by Ferretti, 1 was sent by an anonymous 
 poet from Italy, 2 were taken from the Veggente 
 in solitudine {The Seer in Solitude) by Gabriele 
 Eossetti, and 16 were original hymns by Kossetti. 
 The 9 Psalms were either free versions of 
 biblical Psalms, or original Psalms by Mapei, 
 Margolfo, and Gabriele Eossetti. The 12 hymn 
 tunes were composed by Catrufo and Minasi, two 
 Neapolitans; Salvadori, a Florentine; Aspa, a 
 Sicilian, and Bertioli, a Tyrolese. The Hymnary 
 
284 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 was, therefore, truly Italian, with original words 
 and original music. 
 
 The Italian evangelical hymnology, the lyric 
 expression of what overflowed from the hearts of 
 the Italians during the first half of the nineteenth 
 century, after they had left the Roman Church for 
 the purity of the Gospel, was born during the 
 revolution and first saw light in the land of exile. 
 The best hymns among those which are sung at 
 the present time in evangelical meetings through- 
 out the whole Peninsula were composed in Lon- 
 don ; there they stirred the hearts of patriots long- 
 ing to see Italy emancipated not only politically 
 but also morally. Then they crossed the Channel 
 to bring comfort to the conventicles of brethren in 
 Italy during the wretched times of the slavery of 
 conscience ; and they kept alive in the hearts of our 
 martyrs the hope and trust for those better days 
 which they did not see, but fondly welcomed from 
 afar. 
 
 The fact that the Italian evangelical hymnology 
 was born during the revolution and first saw its 
 light in the land of exile explains the reason why 
 it lacks that deep sense of piety which moves souls 
 who have arrived at the maturity of their Chris- 
 tian life. The hymnologists of the epic age of the 
 Italian mission were patriots and fugitives, who 
 
The Land of Exile 285 
 
 had reached Christ through their political strug- 
 gles and with hearts full of abhorrence for the 
 Papacy and those foreign tyrants who had done 
 their best to see them hang from the gibbet or 
 rot in jail. Those early hymns are not lacking 
 in an eager desire for the Divine, an inspiration 
 towards Christ, a longing for the heavenly Home ; 
 no, but more than all that, you feel in them the 
 craving for their far-away beloved Italy, and an 
 ardent desire to see, some time or other, the Vati- 
 can crushed and the dear fatherland freed from 
 the clutches of Italian and foreign relentless 
 fiends. They have scarcely any idea of the soar- 
 ing, throbbing abandonment of a life developing 
 in the atmosphere of spiritual experience and of 
 mystical union with Christ. Christ lived, yes, in 
 those hymnologists ; but their Christian life had 
 had neither time nor opportunity to ripen. The 
 churches, however, which have since arisen and 
 multiplied, have developed spiritually in a normal 
 way; and their successive Hymnaries, that is to 
 say, the thermometers of their spiritual life, have 
 steadily marked points higher and higher on the 
 scale of their spirituality and of the perfecting of 
 their Christian sentiment. And the further they 
 progress in that direction under the omnipotent 
 action of the Spirit of God the more their hymnody 
 
286 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 will become what it really ought to be : a heavenly 
 voice answering to the deepest needs of the hu- 
 man heart; a cry emancipating man from the 
 slavery of egoism ; an inspiration springing from 
 a pure and sacred love; a mysterious " some- 
 thing " that in the midst of so many different 
 nationalities and so many religious confessions re- 
 stores the divine harmony which we, with our poor 
 hearts and with our narrow-mindedness, seem but 
 to disturb continually. 
 
VII 
 
 MODEENISM, OR THE PRESENT EFFORT 
 FOR REFORM WITHIN THE ROMAN 
 CHURCH 
 
VII 
 
 MODERNISM, OR THE PRESENT EFFORT 
 FOR REFORM WITHIN THE ROMAN 
 CHURCH 
 
 THE term " modernism " is quite familiar 
 to us all. Every one talks of modernism; 
 discusses it; but . . . what is modernism? 
 A short, exact, comprehensive definition of it 
 is impossible to give, for it is a complex phenom- 
 enon; and a conglomeration of several different 
 phenomena cannot be defined by a single formula. 
 Nor can the term " modernism " itself lead us to 
 a precise conception of this great movement. 
 The term was not bestowed on the movement by 
 the modernists. As the name " Christian," 
 whether of Latin or Greek origin, was undoubt- 
 edly coined by the pagan inhabitants of Antioch 
 to censure and despise the disciples of Christ, so 
 the name " modernism " has been coined by the 
 enemies of the new movement to discredit and 
 condemn it. This is why the name does not help 
 
 289 
 
290 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 us in the least to understand what the movement is. 
 The Jesuit fathers of Eome invented the term. 
 Leo XIII and Pius X got hold of it and gave it 
 a kind of theological and ecclesiastical consecra- 
 tion. The official Eoman Catholic press received 
 it from the hands of the two Popes, it came into 
 use at once, and is now still used to distinguish 
 and condemn everybody and everything that is 
 not in perfect communion of thought and ideals 
 with the Vatican. Higher criticism, Christian 
 democracy, loyalty to a united Italy with Rome 
 as the capital, aspirations to a reform within the 
 Church, longings for a purer and more spiritual 
 form of Christianity, all that and more is ' ' mod- 
 ernism for the Vatican.' ' In the estimation of 
 the Curia modernism is just " a huge covering 
 that hides a multitude of sins. ,, In fact, the 
 Vatican has defined it as " a satanic cry of re- 
 bellion against religion from the bosom of the 
 Church." Such a definition is an exaggeration 
 due to nothing but fear. In reality "modern- 
 ism " is a cry of rebellion not against religion, 
 but against the tyranny of the Curia; it is an 
 aspiration to a reform within the Church of Rome ; 
 a longing for a purer form of religion, for a re- 
 turn to the primitive simplicity of faith, for a 
 
Modernism 291 
 
 wider, higher interpretation of Christianity more 
 compatible with modern conscience* 
 
 Let no one be deceived about the importance 
 of the movement. The very fact that the Vatican 
 is afraid of it should be sufficient to prove that it 
 is serious and menacing. But much more than 
 that. In an article I wrote in January, 1911, for 
 the Hibbert Journal, 1 explaining the importance 
 of this movement, I said : ' l Modernism is not a 
 system; it is the synthesis of several new direc- 
 tions taken by theological and ecclesiastical 
 thought in the Roman Church ' ' ; and I traced out 
 five of these different directions: (1) That fol- 
 lowed by a group of noble souls who grieve to 
 see popular piety attacked by the disease of an 
 exaggerated and hysterical sentimentalism, and 
 fossilised into a nerveless formalism; (2) that fol- 
 lowed by a group of still more daring modernists, 
 who have already completely disposed of the ques- 
 tion of the temporal power of the Pope, and who 
 say frankly: " In the Church a reform now is 
 necessary to lead back the flock of Christ to the 
 spirit of the Gospel "; (3) that followed by the 
 
 1 Prof. Giovanni Luzzi, D.D.: The Roman Catholic Church 
 in Italy at the Present Hour. Hibbert Journal, January, 1911. 
 
292 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 hypercritical modernists, who have been spiritually 
 nourished by German rationalistic theology; (4) 
 that followed by the group of modernists of the 
 Christian Democracy led by Romolo Murri; and 
 finally (5) that followed by a group of practical 
 modernists anxious to lead the people back to the 
 true source of spiritual life and to place their con- 
 sciences again in immediate contact with the 
 Christ of the Gospel. They rightly thought this 
 was the only way to arrive at the spiritualisation 
 of worship and the restoration of dogmatic 
 formula which the Church longs for, and they, 
 therefore, founded the Pious Society of St. 
 Jerome for the spread of the Holy Gospels.' ' 
 Scarcely two years have elapsed since I wrote the 
 article, and my division into five directions does 
 not hold good any longer, for, while the first two 
 still remain unaffected, I may safely say that there 
 is no more a question of the other three. The 
 hypercritics have progressed; and have pro- 
 gressed so far as to consider Christianity a form 
 of religion already superseded, and the Church 
 as unworthy of their serious consideration. 
 Christian democracy, abandoned as it has been by 
 Komolo Murri, and so left without a leader, has 
 been disbanded. The Pious Society of St. Jerome 
 is dead and buried. One would, therefore, almost 
 
Modernism 293 
 
 feel inclined to believe that modernism is dead 
 also; that it has only been a dream, a beautiful 
 dream, but nothing more than a dream. 
 
 To think so would indeed simply be the grossest 
 of errors. 
 
 Modernism lives, it is stronger than ever, it has 
 invaded the whole of the clergy and the whole 
 of the Church, and it has won the sympathy of 
 a large and thoughtful part of the laity which a 
 few years ago smiled with compassion when the 
 term " modernism " was mentioned. Leone 
 Caetani, a member of the Italian Parliament and 
 one of that great Eoman family who claims as an 
 ancestor Boniface VIII, says : ' ' Modernism, the 
 wood-worm, the deadly bacillus which will eventu- 
 ally kill papal Catholicism, is the purest expres- 
 sion of the present religious conscience. Modern- 
 ism is not a school, but a vague, general tendency, 
 an indefinable sentiment, without exact limits, 
 without any settled goal, without discipline, and 
 without leaders. Whoever has the least shadow 
 of a doubt concerning the most insignificant part 
 of the religious edifice of Roman Catholicism, is 
 already a modernist. The vagueness of its char- 
 acter constitutes its greatest strength, inasmuch 
 as it shows the universality of its tendency and 
 the impossibility of fighting it effectually. It is 
 
294 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 everywhere and nowhere; it is unseizable, but 
 always more alive and evident than ever. The 
 Church of Rome, in pursuing modernism, is pur- 
 suing her own shadow, inseparable from her and 
 at the same time intangible. Modernism is slowly 
 penetrating into the very Vatican and uncon- 
 sciously settling in the minds of those very men 
 who attack reform tendencies most fiercely. 
 Pius X himself, by his Motu proprio 2 promulgated 
 in 1911, in which he postpones to the following 
 Sunday many special religious feasts falling on 
 week days, has shown himself to be a modernist 
 inasmuch as he has acknowledged the moral and 
 material harm done to religion by the super- 
 abundance of feast-days and has at the same time 
 recognised that the attendance at and the rever- 
 ence for them are far from being what they used 
 to be. Papal anti-modernism is not a war against 
 a doctrine, or a defence of true religion, but a 
 desperate attempt to preserve unshaken papal 
 autocratic authority in ecclesiastical matters and 
 its spiritual dominion over believers, for the 
 Church of Rome is threatened in her doctrine 
 and in her ecclesiastical authority, and any calm 
 and impartial observer can see upon her forehead 
 
 'The difference between an Encyclica and a Motu proprio is 
 this: the Encyclica deals only with doctrine; the Motu proprio 
 deals with discipline and practical matters. 
 
Modernism 295 
 
 the mark of a deadly moral disease; a disease 
 which is driving her to suicidal madness; and 
 the suicidal madness with which the spirit of the 
 Vatican is now possessed, shows itself above all in 
 the war it has declared against all new currents 
 of religious belief." 3 
 
 Is this modernism a new phenomenon? No; it 
 is the most recent phase of the antagonism be- 
 tween two tendencies, which in a more or less acute 
 form is found in every period of Church history. 
 We have already seen it in our preceding chap- 
 ters: Hermas and Hippolytus first; then Jovinian 
 and Vigilantius, Claudius and Ratherius; in the 
 Mediseval Ages, Arnold of Brescia, the Waldenses, 
 St. Francis and the Franciscan movement, St. 
 Dominic; at the time of the Renaissance, Dante, 
 Savonarola, Michelangelo ; all the martyrs of the 
 Protestant revolution in Italy and in Europe; the 
 heroes of the first dawn of the Italian evangelical 
 mission; the exiles of Malta, Geneva, and London, 
 what were they all? Were they not modernists? 
 Were they not strong opposers of the tendency of 
 a Church forgetful of her calling and eager to 
 
 'Leone Caetani, M.P.: La erisi morale delV ora presente: 
 religione, modernismo e democrazia. Roma, 1911. 
 
296 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 become altogether worldly! And when the Church 
 became worldly, was it not they who, in the spirit 
 of John the Baptist, said to her : It is not lawful 
 for thee to live as thou dost — and exhorted her 
 to be converted and to go back to her first love 
 and her primitive simplicity? These were mod- 
 ernists, and they wanted exactly what the modern- 
 ists of our time demand : that the Church of their 
 fathers should repent and believe, and that she 
 should remember the greatness of her calling 
 among the Latin race. 
 
 Between the modernists of other times which I 
 have just mentioned and those of the present day, 
 there stands, about the first half of the nineteenth 
 century, a group of thinkers who were the con- 
 tinuators of the former and the forerunners of the 
 latter. 
 
 Let us at least take note of some of them. 
 
 First of all there is Giuseppe Mazzini, 4 who, 
 from the land of exile, wrote : ' t Roman Cathol- 
 icism is nothing but the religion of man. The 
 Church has been corrupted and must be reformed 
 and led back to the simplicity and purity of apos- 
 tolic times. In Italy, the right of reforming her 
 
 4 Giuseppe Mazzini, the great Italian patriot and philosopher, 
 was the spiritual founder of United Italy. He was born at 
 Genoa and died at Pisa (1805-1872). 
 
Modernism 297 
 
 is not the privilege of the few, but of the whole 
 Chnrch, from the lowest to the highest; because 
 by Church I do not mean the spiritual monopoly 
 of a few, but the general assembly of all be- 
 lievers "; and he suggested the convocation of an 
 Italian Council, which he hoped would be able 
 " to save the Church from superstition and in- 
 fidelity. ' ' Then Antonio Rosmini, 5 the immacu- 
 late philosopher, who denounced the five wounds 
 of the Church. Vincenzo Gioberti, 6 who unmasked 
 modern Jesuitism, and in his work Catholic Re- 
 form, which was inspired by Savonarola's 
 words: " Ecclesia indiget reformatione," said: 
 " Hitherto people wanted to reform Rome with- 
 out Rome ; nay, in spite of Rome ; now they must 
 reform Rome through Rome." Father Pas- 
 saglia, 7 a Neapolitan Jesuit, who openly fought 
 against the temporal power of the Popes and in- 
 sisted on the urgent need of reforming ecclesias- 
 tical education and of going back to the primitive 
 
 6 Antonio Rosmini, the Italian philosopher and founder of a 
 new religious order (the Rosminians), was born at Rovereto in the 
 Italian Tyrol in 1797, and died in 1855. 
 
 •Vincenzo Gioberti (1801-1852), an Italian philosopher and 
 politician, was a native of Turin. 
 
 7 Carlo Passaglia (1812-1887) was an Italian theologian, born 
 in Lucca. He entered the order of Jesuits (1827), from which ho 
 was expelled when he espoused the cause of a united Italy and 
 boldly attacked the temporal power of the Pope. 
 
298 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 discipline of the Church. Monsignor Tiboni, 8 who 
 wanted the Bible to be widely spread among the 
 people and strongly opposed the exaggerated pre- 
 tensions of modern Papacy. Monsignor Live- 
 rani, 9 a man held in high esteem by the Curia, who 
 wrote a remarkable treatise on Papacy, the Em- 
 pire, and the Kingdom of Italy, which made a 
 great sensation. Also Reali, Perfetti, Salvoni, 
 Moretti. But six men especially must not be over- 
 looked. They are: Raffaello Lambruschini, Sta- 
 nislao Bianciardi, Luigi Settembrini, Luigi Prota- 
 Guirleo, Terenzio Mamiani, Father Curci. 
 
 Raffaello Lambruschini 10 was a priest highly 
 respected by all and a great teacher. He put two 
 
 8 Vide II Misticismo Biblico di Mons. Pietro Emilio Tiboni, 
 Dott. in Sacra Teologia, Prof, di Ebraico, etc. Milano, 1853. 
 
 8 Francesco Liverani was born at Castel Bolognese in 1823. 
 He was god-child of Pius IX. His persecution by the Pope com- 
 menced when he began to support Passaglia with great energy 
 and to fight violently against the temporal power of the Popes, 
 and especially against the Papal Court. After the publication 
 of his book: II Papato, Vlmpero e il Regno d'ltalia, he was de- 
 prived of his ecclesiastical dignities (he was a Canon of S. 
 Maria Maggiore in Rome and held other offices), and, being re- 
 duced to poverty, retired into a very quiet private life in order 
 to be able to continue to study and write in peace. 
 
 10 Raffaello Lambruschini was born at Genova in 1788 and died 
 at San Cerbone near Figline in Val d'Arno (Florence) in 1873. 
 He was a Roman Catholic priest; a man with a large heart, and 
 most nobly and spiritually minded. He conceived the idea of a 
 reform in the Church when he saw many intellectual men of his 
 country who, though feeling the need of some faith and not dis- 
 believing the supernatural, still repelled Christianity. On ac- 
 
Modernism 299 
 
 vital questions to himself and the public: " The 
 fundamental principles of the actual doctrines of 
 the Koman Catholic clergy, the directing precepts 
 of the actual ecclesiastical discipline, the spirit 
 animating the teaching and the conduct of the 
 clergy, are they really the principles, the precepts, 
 and the spirit of the Gospel? " His answer was: 
 " No." And again: " Are the accessory parts of 
 religion, the parts which religion can and must 
 adapt to the spirit of the times, in harmony with 
 the spirit of our age ? ' ' Here, too, he was bound 
 to answer, " No." And after having described 
 the miserable condition of the Church of those 
 days, he continued: " We cannot go on in this 
 way. We must break the chains, throw off the 
 yoke of a bondage harder than the Jewish one. 
 We must go back to the liberty wherewith Christ 
 has made us free. We must get hold of St. Paul's 
 Epistle to the Galatians and on it rebuild our 
 religious life. If not, the world will lose itself; a 
 spirit of rebellion will arise; nay, has already 
 arisen. The Church is no longer loved as a 
 mother ; she is detested as a cruel step-mother ; and 
 
 count of his advanced ideas, he was called by Gino Capponi " II 
 Luterino di Toscana" (the little Tuscan Luther). His precise 
 ideas relating to the Church reform he cherished are to be found 
 in a posthumous book of his, entitled: Pensieri di un solitario, 
 and edited by Senator Marco Tabarrini. 
 
300 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 we may be sure that being what she is on account 
 of her errors, her ignorance, and her passions, 
 she will fall as the Synagogue fell. The husk will 
 fall off. The true Church of Jesus Christ will 
 revive, will grow young and beautiful again as 
 His new Bride.' ' Lambruschini knew too well 
 that such a rejuvenescence of the Church could 
 only take place through a radical reform. " The 
 reformation of the Church," he wrote, "is so 
 necessary that it surely will be brought about 
 in one or other of the following four ways: 
 
 (1) By the Pope, or, at least, with the Pope; 
 
 (2) by the bishops, without the Pope; (3) 
 by the minor clergy, without the Pope and 
 bishops; (4) by the laity without the clergy. 
 The first (by the Pope or with the Pope) would 
 be the easiest way, the quietest, the most accept- 
 able; but where is a Napoleonic Pope to be found? 
 The second (by the bishops without the Pope) I 
 think is impossible ; the third (by the minor clergy 
 without the Pope and bishops) I do not think very 
 probable; the fourth (by the laity without the 
 clergy) I think to be even less probable than the 
 third. But God's ways are not man's ways. If 
 liberal-minded Protestants could see their way to 
 unite themselves with reasonable Roman Catho- 
 lics, with a view to bringing about this reforma- 
 
Modernism 301 
 
 tion, it would be greatly helped and facilitated. 
 Nothing could oppose an opinion become so 
 general." 
 
 Stanislao Bianciardi, 11 a noble and deeply 
 spiritually-minded man, started an important 
 paper in those times, intended to foster concord 
 between religion and the State. It was called 
 L'Esaminatore (The Examiner). " Our principle 
 is this," wrote Bianciardi: " We want to examine 
 the Church of Rome as she is at present, and 
 judge her according to the triple rule by means 
 of which the Church herself professes that all 
 her doctrines and practices were and are estab- 
 lished: (1) sound reason; (2) the Word of God 
 as revealed in the Holy Scriptures; (3) the teach- 
 ing of the apostles as universally received and fol- 
 lowed by the early Church.' ' " The supreme aim 
 of this our modest enterprise," he wrote again, 
 " is : To show how the Roman Catholic Church, if 
 called back to her early principles, would be suffi- 
 
 11 Stanislao Bianciardi was born in 1811 in the little village 
 of Montegiovi on Mount Amiata (Siena). He studied law in the 
 University of Siena, where he took his degree in 1831. He held 
 several important public offices, giving every one the impression 
 of an upright and noble-minded man. He translated Bunyan'a 
 Pilgrim'* Progress; Les adicux and Lucilla by Ad. Monod; Ao»fa 
 I'almrio by G. Bonnet, and other momentous Protestant works 
 into beautiful and exquisite Italian. He died in Florence on the 
 22d December, 18G8. 
 
302 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 cient to answer to the moral needs of our times. 
 We shall follow this method : to compare the pres- 
 ent with the past. Now, what are the actual con- 
 ditions of Roman Catholicism in Italy? How has 
 it been reduced to this state? What was it dur- 
 ing the three first centuries of its life? What 
 means should be adopted, within the Church and 
 in the true spirit of the Church, to bring her back 
 to her first purity? " 
 
 The great patriot and man of letters, Luigi 
 Settembrini, 12 wrote from Naples to Bianciardi in 
 August, 1864: " I am reading the Examiner with 
 great pleasure and admiration. ... I wish you 
 every success. Go on ! you will accomplish much 
 good. Political without religious freedom is noth- 
 ing but a short-lived fire, and cannot last. Na- 
 tional conscience is the goal to be kept in view; 
 error must be extirpated from it; and truth im- 
 planted in it. Rome, the great enemy, the first 
 cause of all the evils of Italy, does not lie on the 
 Tiber; she lies here, in our consciences; and here 
 we must fight her. . . . How I wish that all our 
 papers would understand that there is a more 
 
 "Luigi Settembrini (1813-1876), Italian writer and patriot, 
 was born at Naples. Between 1839 and 1860 he spent many 
 years in prison (at St. Stefano) and in exile (in Malta and in 
 London) for his political views, expressed nowhere more forcibly 
 than in the Protesta del Popolo dclle Due Sicilie (1847). 
 
Modernism 303 
 
 serious question than the political one to cope 
 with; namely, the religious question, which ought 
 never to be lost sight of." 
 
 About 1862 a paper called L'Emancipatore Cat- 
 tolico (The Catholic Emancipator) appeared, 
 edited by a Dominican friar, Luigi Prota-Guirleo 
 of St. Domenico Maggiore in Naples. It had a 
 more practical tendency than the Examiner. It 
 served as the official organ of an association of 
 priests who wanted emancipation from Koman 
 bondage. The association grew considerably in 
 numbers. It counted as members about 3,500 
 priests and friars, double the number of laymen, 
 32 members of Parliament, 16 senators, 4 govern- 
 ment ministers, 86 magistrates, 3 generals, 50 
 officers, and had also 32 secondary associations 
 affiliated, scattered about in the various provinces 
 of Italy. The movement was one of great im- 
 portance, and who knows what national propor- 
 tions it might not have assumed, had it not been 
 for internal misunderstandings and the desertion 
 of not a few who could not withstand the persecu- 
 tions of the Curia. 
 
 Count Terenzio Mamiani, 13 the great Italian 
 
 "Count Terenzio Mamiani della Rovere (1709-1885), Italian 
 poet, philosopher, and statesman, was born at Pesaro; took part 
 in the revolutionary movements of 1831, and was banished. He 
 
304 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 philosopher, published his dream, entitled: La 
 Rinascenza Cattolica {The Catholic Renaissance), 
 in the year 1862. In it he anticipated the fall 
 of the temporal power of the Popes, who con- 
 sented to become primi inter pares and to recog- 
 nise as legitimate the harmonious relation of 
 moral and political liberty with religion and the 
 country. Mamiani's dream had its partial realisa- 
 tion eight years later in spite of the Vatican, when 
 the Italians entered Eome on the 20th September, 
 1870, through the breach of Porta Pia. 
 
 The Jesuit Father Curci, 14 an old friend of Pius 
 IX and founder of the Jesuit review, Civilta Cat- 
 tolica, brings us to 1871. Up to this date Curci 
 had always been a staunch defender of the Vatican 
 Curia ; but a few months after the breach of Porta 
 Pia he veered round and first in a pamphlet on 
 the event of the 20th September, and then on sev- 
 eral other occasions, and especially in a famous 
 letter to the Pope, published in the Rivista Eu- 
 
 lived at Paris till 1846, and then became professor of philosophy 
 at Turin. Subsequently he held office several times during 
 Cavour's ministry. 
 
 "Carlo Maria Curci (1809-1891) founded (1850) the review 
 Civilta Cattolica, and wrote (1847) a trenchant answer to 
 Gioberti's 11 Gesuita Moderno. This publication, urging the 
 reconciliation of the Holy See with Italy, resulted in his expul- 
 sion from the Jesuit order (1877). The other books by him, La 
 Nuova Italia (1881) and II Vaticano Regio (1883), were put 
 on the Index. 
 
Modernism 305 
 
 ropea (European Eeview), he expressed the 
 theory that man must resign himself in face of 
 such facts in which it is his duty to acknowledge 
 the hand of God. But the work of this man, whom 
 Italians have too soon forgotten, did not consist 
 of that only. His book II Vaticano Regio (The 
 Vatican Court) was a cry of protest against the 
 Pope's thirst for earthly power, and against the 
 worldliness of the Church ; and his New Testament 
 Translated and Explained, with Exegetical and 
 Ethical Notes, showed how great was the love of 
 this pious man for the Word of God, and how 
 deeply convinced he was that a true and lasting 
 spiritual regeneration of Italy could only be hoped 
 for through the Gospel of Christ. 
 
 If we were to try and concentrate into one 
 voice all the voices raised against papal Rome at 
 a time not very distant from the present, that 
 voice would demand : the abolition of compulsory 
 celibacy for the clergy ; the education of the clergy 
 to be conducted not within the narrow limits of 
 seminaries, but on broader lines and with a more 
 ample horizon and to be completed in the national 
 educational institutions, with a view of bringing 
 together the priesthood and the laity, the Church 
 and society; the Holy Scriptures to be spread all 
 over the country and to become, as Chrysostom 
 
306 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 wanted them to be, the manual of all believers; 
 the abolition of the ordinance directing the same 
 liturgy in a language not understood by the peo- 
 ple to be used in all churches, and a return to the 
 practice of the early Church when every nation 
 prayed to God in her own language and all 
 churches were intimately united by bonds of faith 
 and love; the sacrament of Holy Communion to 
 be administered in its biblical integrity, with the 
 bread and the cup to the people ; the restitution to 
 the clergy and the people of their ancient rights 
 concerning the election of their pastors; the res- 
 toration to the bishops of their ancient diocesan 
 rights by which they occupied not a position of 
 bondage such as at present, but a free and inde- 
 pendent position. 
 
 How has this revolutionary movement or rather 
 this recent phase of antagonism between the two 
 tendencies, the one ultra-conservative and the 
 other progressive, been brought about? 
 
 Two things have caused it : namely, the condi- 
 tion into which Roman Catholicism has fallen, and 
 Protestant influence. 
 
 First of all, I say, the condition into which Ro- 
 
Modernism 307 
 
 man Catholicism has fallen. In order to judge 
 Eoman Catholicism rightly one must not study it 
 as it appears in Protestant lands or in the works 
 of its great writers such as Newman, Manning, 
 or others who have passed over from Protestant- 
 ism to Komanism. Eomanism, in Protestant 
 lands, is quite different to what it is in Latin 
 countries ; there it cannot help being subjected to 
 Protestant influence and so it moderates itself, for 
 it knows that no Anglo-Saxon mind would ever 
 accept as Christianity the many religious exhi- 
 bitions that are accepted as such in the Abruzzi, 
 the Neapolitan provinces, and Sicily; and as 
 far as the great English writers are concerned 
 and whom Roman Catholicism rightly boasts of, 
 everybody knows that they accepted Eomanism 
 not as it is, but as they idealised it. What they 
 describe is not real Eomanism; it is a kind of 
 ideal Eomanism. If they were led intellectually 
 to accept Eoman Catholicism on account of the 
 grandeur of its unity, its tradition, its apostolic 
 succession, its liturgy, and its past providential 
 mission especially at a time when barbarians 
 inundated Europe, it is also a fact that as far as 
 their conscience, their spirituality, and their im- 
 maculate lives were concerned, they still remained 
 what they were, when Protestants ; namely, Chris- 
 
308 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 tians, in the highest, purest, and most exquisite 
 sense of the word. 
 
 In order to judge rightly of Eoman Catholicism, 
 it is not enough to run through Italy from Pied- 
 mont to Sicily in a " train de luxe/' only making 
 momentary stoppages at the principal towns, en- 
 tering the nearest church, and asking for informa- 
 tion from the first person one meets, or to whom 
 one has been given a card of introduction. In 
 order to judge rightly of Eoman Catholicism it is 
 necessary to live in a Latin country, to study the 
 people thoroughly, to examine all their religious 
 practices, to search their very soul, to win the con- 
 fidence of the noblest part of the clergy, and to 
 enter into full communion of spirit and affection 
 with those souls who suffer and mourn, and who 
 long for redemption from a bondage that has be- 
 come intolerable. 
 
 For to such a condition as that have we arrived. 
 
 The young seminarists are in a state of abso- 
 lute unrest; they feel that the teaching imparted 
 to them is far from being up to date; that the 
 way in which they are prepared for practical life 
 is absurd, and, therefore, they publish energetic 
 protests in which they say: " What our school 
 lacks is a fearless trust in science and freedom. 
 Such fatal deficiency in our schools and studies 
 
Modernism 309 
 
 will last just as long as seminaries are not re- 
 formed into sacred places intended to sow lovingly 
 and disinterestedly in the hearts of the young the 
 first seeds of spirituality and science, as long as 
 they remain what they are at present, namely: 
 places where science is monopolised with a view 
 to manufacturing useful and trustworthy ecclesi- 
 astical functionaries. We are living in a world 
 of extraordinary narrowness, where strong vir- 
 tues thrive no longer, but only passive, resigned 
 individualities, pale hot-house flowers which 
 wither as soon as the first winds of spring begin 
 to blow." 15 And the seminarists exhort each 
 other to prepare themselves for the coming insur- 
 rection, saying: " Brethren, the salvation of the 
 Church lies in us! " 
 
 The pure, noble-minded clergy who conscien- 
 tiously keep their vows are the exception; they 
 give themselves heart and soul to works of charity, 
 literature, and science; but all know by now that 
 in Latin countries the larger part of the clergy 
 live immorally and thus form one of the most dan- 
 gerous centres of moral infection in society. Hon- 
 est priests, those who in this respect also want to 
 live in harmony with God and with their con- 
 
 15 From a pamphlet entitled La talvesaa & in not (Solvation 
 
 Lies in Us), and signed: A Group of Seminarists: October, 1909. 
 
310 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 sciences, lift up their voices and cry: " We do 
 not desire a hidden and sinful love any longer, the 
 only one allowed us by the cruel law of celibacy, 
 one full of intrigue and which must be kept in the 
 dark. What we want is the love that does not fear 
 the full light of day; the love of one woman who 
 will devote to us without remorse the whole treas- 
 ure of her affection; a love which is a rest in 
 the beautiful and calm moments of life, and a 
 source of strength when inevitable discourage- 
 ments assail ; in a word, the love of a wife to refine 
 our sentiments, to help us in our endeavours to 
 better our character. And with a wife's love, that 
 also of children. Who can ignore the educative 
 power that emanates from the consciousness of 
 paternity? Why should we, from whom the duty 
 of honesty and straightforwardness is required 
 more than from others, be deprived of such effica- 
 cious means of moral education f ' ' 16 
 
 Outside the Church, religion no longer exists; 
 or, at least, what there is of religion is, to a large 
 extent, a form without true Christian godliness. 
 For instance : at the last census taken in Florence 
 on the 10th June, 1911, out of a population of 232,- 
 
 "From a pamphlet entitled II Processo Don Riva. Appello al 
 laicato e rifiessioni di un gruppo di sacerdoti (The trial of Don 
 Riva. An appeal to the laity. Reflections of a group of priests). 
 Florence, 1908. 
 
Modernism 311 
 
 860 souls, 205,697 returned themselves as Roman 
 Catholics; but you need only ask the most active 
 parish priests of the town what proportion that 
 number bears to the number of true and practising 
 Roman Catholics they come into contact with, and 
 you will be surprised at their answer. Moreover, 
 in a city like Florence, out of 232,860 souls, of 
 whom 6,000 profess to belong to other confessions, 
 21,170 at the time of the census declared that they 
 belonged to no religion whatever. 
 
 In other towns things are still worse; and 
 the forms religion assumes are such that one 
 cannot believe them to be true unless really 
 seen. Last summer (1911) two popular leaflets 
 were widely circulated in Genoa where cholera 
 was raging. The one was entitled: " A Prayer 
 to St. Martha for deliverance from cholera.' ' 
 It said: "I am Martha, Christ's hostess. 
 Whoever confides in me will be preserved from 
 the epidemic. The power to impart this grace 
 I have received from Christ, the Lord." Then 
 followed several other prayers, and at the end 
 was the instruction: "To be carried on one's 
 person." The leaflet cost 5 centimes. The other 
 bore the inscription: " Wonderful effects of the 
 water of St. Ignatius. It is simple, natural water, 
 called by that name because it has been blessed 
 
312 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 with one of the relics of the Saint." Then fol- 
 lowed an enumeration of the prodigious effects of 
 the water, as experienced during all epidemics 
 from 1656 to the present day. After which, came 
 the notice: " The use of this water may be fol- 
 lowed with the Lord's prayer or a prayer to the 
 saint." And at the end, this intimation: " St. 
 Ignatius' water is to be had in the vestry of the 
 Church of the Cinque Piaghe (Five Wounds, a 
 church of the Jesuit Fathers). One could scarcely 
 witness a sadder and more miserable spectacle 
 than that offered by the bigoted women of the 
 people and by people of all ranks of society mak- 
 ing their way to the Church of the Cinque Piaghe 
 with bottles and flasks to be filled with the 
 precious liquid, after they had offered their volun- 
 tary contribution to the Jesuit on duty. The 
 liquid was simply water from a common source 
 into which a bone of the saint had been immersed ! 
 But the awful iniquity of it all lies in this : that 
 the two leaflets bore the Imprimatur of ecclesias- 
 tical authority; which means that those authorities 
 had seen the leaflets, had read and approved them, 
 and had authorised their being spread abroad. 17 
 And what about the south of Italy, where, in 
 several places, penitents have to clean the church, 
 
 "Vide Battaglie d'Oggi: Anno VII, Fasc. V, 1911, p. 280. 
 
Modernism 313 
 
 from the door to the high altar, with their tongue; 
 or to make crosses on the ground with their 
 tongue until it bleeds; or go from their home to 
 the church on their knees? ls where in cathedrals 
 the preachers who are sent to fight Protestant 
 heresy, in order to show their exasperation to all, 
 pretend to wound themselves with instruments 
 devised for the purpose, and make the saints and 
 Madonnas on their altars speak, laugh, or weep, 
 according to their fancy? where just as in the past 
 religion was intimately connected with brigand- 
 age, 19 so it is now in close touch with the camorra 
 and the mafia? 
 
 Is it to be wondered at if the intelligent and 
 honest part of the clergy feel bound to take the 
 matter in hand and to think of the future of the 
 Church? Not long ago a large group of priests 
 wrote a letter addressed to Pius X. " Our so- 
 ciety/ ' they said, " has now for many years 
 entirely held aloof from the Church, which it con- 
 siders as an ancient and inexorable foe. The old 
 cathedrals, which the piety of free, believing peo- 
 ples in the Middle Ages raised to the Virgin and 
 to Patron Saints, are now utterly deserted; men 
 
 "Vide Battaglie d'Oggi: Anno VII, Fasc. VI, 1911, p. 355. 
 " Vide Aw. Giuseppe Leti: Roma e lo Stato Pontificio dal 
 1849 al 1870, Vol. II, p. 61. 
 
314 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 no longer care to draw from religion the strength 
 and light necessary to the soul agitated by daily 
 struggles ; respect and veneration for all that from 
 the cradle has been held most sacred, has van- 
 ished. And that is not all, for the Church is con- 
 sidered to be an obstacle to the happiness of 
 nations ; the priest is insulted in public as a com- 
 mon, ignorant parasite; the Gospel and Chris- 
 tianity are regarded as expressions of a decayed 
 civilisation, because they are entirely insufficient 
 to respond to the ideals of freedom, justice, and 
 science which are moving the masses. ' ' And after 
 pointing out the great evils that harass the Church 
 in our day, they exclaim : ' l We are not rebels ! 
 We are sincere Catholics; and, as such, we desire 
 to stand up for the salvation of Christianity." 20 
 Only a few months ago, Leone Caetani, whom I 
 have already quoted, 21 gave utterance to the follow- 
 ing grave charge : ' ' The Eoman Church has for- 
 gotten her old, popular traditions, and has ceased 
 to exercise the beneficent reforming influence with 
 which she used to stimulate progress and every 
 moral improvement, and which was her principal 
 i raison d'etre ' in the early centuries. She does 
 not live any longer, as she once did, for the de- 
 
 10 Vide ***»*: Lettera aperta a Pio X (An open letter to 
 Pius X). a Vide n. 3. 
 
Modernism 315 
 
 fence of the poor and the humble as against the 
 rich and great of the world. She has herself 
 become worldly, rich, and powerful, and only tries 
 to maintain unchanged the present condition of 
 things ; she shrinks from all innovation ; and to the 
 poor and humble she preaches . . . resignation. 
 Keduced as she is without vigour or power of 
 adapting and evolving herself, benumbed after so 
 many centuries of existence and already threat- 
 ened with her death-blow, she can but repeat ec- 
 clesiastical and theological formulae, one thousand 
 six hundred years old at least, formulae that are 
 in sharp contrast with the deepest moral needs 
 of the present moment. The most ignorant masses 
 in the country and in regions least touched 
 by modern culture, are still faithfully attached 
 to her just as in past centuries; and their at- 
 tachment is explained by the fact that their spirit 
 is still what it used to be a thousand and more 
 years ago. In that lies her intrinsic weakness, 
 for it is especially in the cultivated classes that 
 the elevating power of religion is to be found. 
 A religion, to be true, must be the religion of 
 all, not only of the most ignorant and miser- 
 able/ ' 22 
 
 23 Leone Caetani, M.P.: La crisi morale delV ora presente: 
 religione, modernismo e dcmocrazia. Roma, 1911. 
 
316 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 Such being the condition of things, is it surpris- 
 ing that the modernist movement has arisen? 
 
 The other reason for this revolutionary move- 
 ment is to be found, as I have already said, in 
 Protestant influence. 
 
 During the last sixty years evangelical churches 
 have been built from the Alps to the very end of 
 Sicily, evangelical educational institutions have 
 been established, works of charity have been 
 founded, while the Tract Society for Italy has in- 
 undated the country with polemic, apologetic, 
 ethical, and doctrinal tracts and books, and the 
 London and Scottish Bible Societies have sent 
 their colporteurs throughout the country selling 
 every year thousands and thousands of copies of 
 the Holy Word. Now, is it credible that all this 
 huge combined work should have exercised no in- 
 fluence whatever on the Roman Catholic Church in 
 Italy? It would be possible to show that a larger 
 and deeper influence might have been exercised, 
 had our first missionaries in Italy understood each 
 other better from the very beginning; but the fact 
 is that, in spite of all human weaknesses, a great 
 influence has indeed been exercised by Protestan- 
 tism on the Roman Catholic Church of Italy. The 
 following are the proofs of such an influence. 
 
 I have often thought that if all the presidents 
 
Modernism 317 
 
 of the various Protestant missions in Italy and 
 if all the ministers of the different churches were 
 to gather together all their correspondence— past 
 and present — with Koman Catholic priests and 
 friars, Christian literature would be enriched by 
 many volumes of the most interesting and impor- 
 tant psychological studies. I have a huge pile of 
 those letters myself, and I like to go over them 
 again and again; their repeated perusal enables 
 me to enter better into a deeper fellowship with 
 a number of struggling souls, who mourn over 
 the present condition of the Church they love, and 
 long for a purifying breath from on high and for 
 a general revival of her spiritual life. Some of 
 them would like to leave their Church and join us 
 in our missionary work; but by far the greater 
 number of them want to remain where they are, 
 and to work for a renovation within the Church. 
 If they come to us, it is only to get sympathy, com- 
 fort, and advice. The cultured Italian modernists 
 find their spiritual nourishment in Protestant 
 literature; our latest books are to be found in 
 their private libraries, either in their original lan- 
 guage or in translations ; and in their writings, in 
 their sermons, in their modernistic utterances, the 
 influence of French Protestant literature, espe- 
 cially, is evident. 
 
318 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 Some time ago I was struck by the fact that 
 there seemed to be a revival in the interest shown 
 by the public in Christian preaching in the Koman 
 Catholic Church of Italy. Some names were men- 
 tioned with great appreciation; when a special 
 course of sermons was being delivered, the attend- 
 ance grew day by day; some preachers attracted 
 not only old men and women, but young folk, think- 
 ing men, professors, and officers in the army. All 
 this filled my heart with joy, and I began to make 
 eager inquiries. I went about myself, and en- 
 gaged friends, who I knew were as much inter- 
 ested in the subject as I was, to make inquiries. 
 We soon found that nearly all the preachers who 
 attracted people in great numbers were either 
 modernists or men with new and broad ideas, 
 large hearts, and wide sympathies, and that the 
 reason for such attraction lay in the new style of 
 their preaching. They never assaulted Prot- 
 estantism in the rabid, unjust, absurd way of the 
 ordinary orthodox sermoniser ; they had given up 
 the old fables concerning the immorality of Lu- 
 ther, the heartlessness of Calvin, and the con- 
 viviality of Zwingli, which had been the " pieces 
 de resistance " of the old monks; they took a text 
 from the "Word of God, they quoted it in the lan- 
 guage understood by the people, they applied it to 
 
Modernism 319 
 
 the religious and moral needs of their hearers, and 
 all this was done in simple language, in a pure and 
 unpretentious style; and the people, who had 
 tired of the conventional and high-flown but empty 
 preaching of the ordinary friars, were drawn to 
 this new, natural, spiritual, conversational method 
 of address. I went further in my inquiries. I 
 wrote right and left to the preachers I knew, and 
 asked them to help me in my researches ; and here 
 are some of the answers I received from different 
 parts of Italy. One wrote: " My evangelical ser- 
 mons have stirred the old clerical circles in an 
 incredible way. They have tried in all ways to 
 defame me, but have not succeeded. The most en- 
 lightened priests and friars and the most cultured 
 men we have in this town, have defended me with 
 all their strength. I have done my best always 
 to be theologically correct, avoiding dangerous 
 bones of contention, and limiting myself to affirm- 
 ing most energetically the fundamental truths of 
 the Gospel." Another from a distant town ended 
 his most interesting letter with these sympathetic 
 words : ' i How I love your French evangelical 
 preachers! I am their spiritual son. I am just 
 now engaged in a very unpleasant piece of work. 
 Two Protestant ladies wish me to instruct them 
 in order to enter the Church of Rome. Naturally, 
 
320 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 I cannot refuse ; but I feel sorry for them. What 
 folly to bid good-bye to one's holy freedom for 
 the sake of accepting the yoke of the Church of 
 Eome— a yoke we ourselves are scarcely able to 
 bear any longer. What I teach them is the Gospel 
 of Christ, which, up to the present, they have, 
 spiritually speaking, completely ignored. If, with 
 the help of God, I succeed in putting them into 
 personal contact with the Saviour, I think it mat- 
 ters very little what church they belong to." In 
 a Lombard town I had heard a striking address, 
 which strongly reminded me of some French ser- 
 mon I must have heard or read, but which I had 
 forgotten. As soon as I returned to Florence, I 
 wrote to the preacher, who answered: "Yes, I 
 do not wonder that you felt, as you say, * a breath 
 of your native air ' in my sermon. I will tell 
 you frankly, the Soman Catholic models have had 
 no influence whatever on my preaching; the 
 French and Swiss Protestant preachers, such 
 as Vinet, Adolphe, Horace and Wilfred Monod, 
 Babut, Coquerel pere et fils, Charles Wagner and 
 many others, have been and are my teachers, 
 my models, my inspirers, the makers of what 
 I am." 
 
 Is all this not quite sufficient to show that Prot- 
 
Modernism 321 
 
 estant influence has had its share in the prepara- 
 tion of the modernist movement! 
 
 It is now time to inquire what this reform 
 within the Church so cherished by modernists 
 should consist in. Have the modernists got a pro- 
 gramme? And if so, what is it? 
 
 In 1908 a group of modernists issued a pro- 
 gramme which was translated into French and 
 English. It made a great sensation. As the 
 movement unfortunately began with a conspicuous 
 hypercritical tendency, this programme, which 
 was an answer to the famous Encyclical of Pius 
 X, " Pascendi Dominici Gregis," was hypercriti- 
 cal, and, in its fundamental part, destructive of 
 Christianity. 23 
 
 Had the movement followed that track unswerv- 
 ingly, modernism would have died long ago. A 
 movement like that could not have withstood the 
 force of Eome, and would have been condemned 
 from its birth to sterility and death. But the 
 
 23 ***** : II Programma del Modernisti. Risposta all' En- 
 ciclica di Pio X, "Pascendi Dominici gregis." Roma: Societa 
 internazionale seientifico-religioso editrice, 1908. The papal En- 
 cyclical was issued on the 8th September, 1907 (the fifth year of 
 the Pope's pontificate). 
 
322 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 modernists understood that was not the track to 
 follow in order to reach a practical goal, and so 
 they began to take another direction. To-day, 
 only a handful survive of the representatives of 
 the initial hypercritical movement; they are men 
 who scarcely deign to look your way; they have 
 gone forward and have left Christ and His follow- 
 ers far behind. But while their hypercritical and 
 destructive programme is almost forgotten, the 
 new modernism, healthy and powerful, which has 
 by now penetrated the humble country parish as 
 well as the Vatican, and is especially represented 
 by the young clergy to whom the future belongs, 
 has issued a new programme, which is one of the 
 strongest and most eloquent signs of the times. 
 And this one is as clear and practical as the other 
 was misty and theoretic. 
 
 This is what it sets forth : 24 
 
 First of all, it states that it is the right and 
 duty of the Church alone to accomplish a religious 
 reform; and that by the term Church one is to 
 understand not the ambitious and unscrupulous 
 " ecclesiola " or " sect " gathered round the 
 Pope, but the union of all believers in Christ, who, 
 
 "Gennaro Avolio: La Riforma religiosa. Battaglie d'Oggi. 
 Naples: April, 1911. 
 
Modernism 323 
 
 through their works, show the sincerity of their 
 faith in Him. Then follows a statement concern- 
 ing the reform they aim at: " We want the re- 
 vision of dogma, the revision of all our confessions 
 of faith ; we want to see separated that which is 
 substantial in Christianity from that which has 
 been added subsequently in the interest of the 
 sacerdotal caste. We want the authority of the 
 Pope to be confined to its just limits, and the 
 ancient authority and their rights and freedom 
 to be given back to the episcopacy and to the 
 laity. We want all believers to have the right of 
 free research in all fields recognised as legitimate. 
 We do not want the abolition of the hierarchy, 
 but we want all the grades of the hierarchy, from 
 the humblest to the highest, to be represented not 
 by ambitious, crafty men, or by intriguers, but by 
 men imbued with the apostolic spirit. We want to 
 do away once and for all with the ridiculous fiction 
 of the Pope being a prisoner of the Italian Gov- 
 ernment. We want to see the Pope go himself 
 from diocese to diocese in order to get to know 
 men and things from personal observation and to 
 obtain a personal knowledge of all ecclesiastical 
 abuses, and so to depose all unworthy priests and 
 bishops. Among the rights to be restored to the 
 
324 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 clergy, we want celibacy to be voluntary, not com- 
 pulsory. If it is true that marriage is a sacra- 
 ment for the layman, we want it to be the same 
 for the priest also. Why should it be only a curse 
 and a shame to the priest? As far as worship is 
 concerned, we wish to have it brought back to its 
 ancient simplicity and purity. We want the aboli- 
 tion of the Latin language in the liturgy; the 
 abolition of all those fables and idols, which not 
 only have no justification in any true and certain 
 tradition, but are very often shown by sound 
 criticism to be historically inexistent. We want 
 the veneration due to the great saints of the 
 Church not to replace the worship due to God 
 alone; and we do not want this worship to be 
 material as at present, but to become again the 
 worship * in spirit and in truth.' We want to put 
 a stop to the excessive right of guardianship that 
 the priest has always exercised over the faithful ; 
 that kind of guardianship which may, perhaps, 
 have its use (although we even seriously question 
 this) during spiritual infancy, but which becomes 
 utterly disastrous and humiliating in the case of 
 the spiritually grown-up. The adult must be able 
 to do many things by himself; and as far as his 
 conscience is concerned, he must know that be- 
 
Modernism 325 
 
 tween his conscience and his God there is no room 
 for human mediators. We want the rights of the 
 laity to be fully recognised in the Church; not 
 only in matters of administration, but, above all, 
 where the election of pastors is concerned. We 
 want the separation of the Church from the State. 
 We want the abolition of all false devotional prac- 
 tices; and as a substitute for all morbidly senti- 
 mental books of prayers and pious meditations, 
 we desire the Gospel of Christ, the greatest book 
 that Christianity possesses, the only book able to 
 educate the spirit to a true and manly piety. In 
 concluding, we ask : From whom are we to expect 
 all these reforms and the many others which our 
 Christian conscience demands! It is almost use- 
 less to expect them from those in high places. 
 The only thing they can think of, is : to keep be- 
 lievers chained and silent, and to retain episcopacy 
 in their power, with an iron hand. We believe 
 that the reforming power lies in the people. When 
 Christian conscience awakens in the masses, the 
 day of reform within the Church will not be far 
 off. To accomplish this we must all work ener- 
 getically. The people themselves, possessed once 
 more with the full consciousness of their rights, 
 will enjoin the reform of the Church on those in 
 high places; and the first institution to be abol- 
 
326 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 ished will be that fiction and disgrace of the 
 Church of Christ called ' political papacy.' " 
 
 Now it seems to me to be as clear as daylight 
 that if we want to take any interest whatever in 
 the spiritual welfare of Italy, or if we wish to 
 cherish the idea of a new communion of spirit and 
 love with the Eoman Catholic Church also, in a 
 time such as ours when the atmosphere is satu- 
 rated with the preoccupation of reuniting the 
 churches, even those furthest apart from each 
 other, our sympathies ought to go out not to the 
 official Vatican, not towards the Curia, which are 
 the negation of Christianity, but towards those 
 struggling modernists, who are fighting the Curia 
 and the Vatican in the name of Christianity, so 
 as to free their Church from a bondage that has 
 become unbearable, and to bring her back into the 
 liberty wherewith Christ has made her free. 
 
 When, in preparing this chapter, I arrived at 
 this point, an idea struck me: I wrote to three 
 modernists, one in the north of Italy, one in the 
 centre, and one in the south. I chose three repre- 
 sentative men in order that their answer might 
 not be the voice of one individual, but of hun- 
 dreds and hundreds of Italian priests and friars. 
 
Modernism 327 
 
 I put to them a very simple question. I said: 
 u Iam going to the United States. To the breth- 
 ren beyond the ocean I shall speak of you and of 
 your ideal. Give me a message for them. A short 
 message, but to the point; a message that I may 
 say is one coming from the very heart of Italian 
 modernism." 
 
 The man from the north, a priest, answered : 
 M You know what modernism is aiming at, as 
 well as we do. Put our aim clearly before their 
 eyes. Do your best to persuade them that we are 
 not either hypercritics, or destroyers of Christian- 
 ity, or rebels against the Church of our Fathers. 
 We are Christians, believers in the revelation God 
 has made of Himself in several ways, and finally 
 and completely through Christ; we want the in- 
 spired document of that revelation, the Bible, to 
 become again the unshaken basis of our belief and 
 of our morals ; we want the Church of Rome, winch 
 once upon a time was Christian and is now the 
 corrupt and worldly church of the Vatican, to 
 become again a true branch of the great Church 
 of Christ. Tell our Christian brethren beyond 
 the ocean that we expect their earnest prayers, 
 their brotherly sympathy. " 
 
 The man from central Italy, also a priest, was 
 ill when he received my letter. He wrote thus : 
 
328 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 1 ' I cannot write you a long letter. I am in ill 
 health and am writing to you from my bed. Just 
 a word, then. Tell our American brethren this 
 only, in our name : There are in Italy thousands 
 and thousands of priests, friars, seminarists, in a 
 condition of terrible spiritual bondage. They are 
 longing for freedom, they are righting to the death 
 for their deliverance. The American brethren who 
 are interested in the establishment of the King- 
 dom of God in Italy, must choose between the 
 oppressors and the oppressed. Is it possible that 
 free America will ever waste her sympathy on our 
 spiritual tyrants? " 
 
 The man from the south, a layman of great 
 influence in modernist circles in the southern 
 provinces of Italy, sent me the following address 
 to you : 
 
 " Brethren, what we want is this: We believe 
 in God, in Christ as our Saviour and the Saviour 
 of humanity, in the omnipotent power of the Holy 
 Ghost. We accept as divine the substance of 
 Christianity as set forth by the Gospel and by an- 
 cient tradition, and therefore we fight against 
 everything which man has added, and which is a 
 hindrance to the spiritual progress of humanity. 
 We fight, that is to say, against all errors and 
 abuses of the Church, and, above all, against the 
 
Modernism 329 
 
 sectarian and domineering spirit of the Curia, 
 against the trade in sacred things, the materialisa- 
 tion of religion into a form that no longer reaches 
 the soul, no longer educates and sanctifies, but 
 lulls the conscience to sleep in a kind of morbid 
 piety, which reduces it to a most dangerous and 
 false state. This condition of things cannot and 
 must not last, if the Church herself and society 
 are to be saved. And the first to lift up their 
 voices for the Church must be the children of the 
 Church, just as in all times the voices of the saints 
 were the first that rose up against the abuses of 
 the leaders of the Church. Our protest is inspired 
 not by hatred, but by love, and it cannot remain 
 unfruitful ; it is meant to shake men in high and 
 low condition, but, above all, it is meant to pre- 
 pare a new Italian conscience, the really Christian 
 conscience of the land. Brethren, you who, carry- 
 ing the banner of freedom and civilisation, are in 
 the vanguard in the triumphal march of modern 
 nations, will you not sympathise with us in our 
 great undertaking? " 
 
 I have delivered the messages of my friends. 
 Let them not, I beg of you, be delivered in vain. 
 
 Will the modernists ever succeed in their ef- 
 
330 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 forts ? Will the world ever witness the realisation 
 of their ideal! Will the Church so dear to their 
 hearts, the Church which they think responds best 
 to the genius and temperament of the Latin races, 
 the historical Church, with her episcopal ritual, 
 her strong ecclesiastical organisation, her glori- 
 ous traditions, her majestic cathedrals, ever be 
 inspired anew with the Spirit of Christ, and con- 
 secrated again to God and to His worship " in 
 spirit and in truth ' ' ? 
 
 To be a prophet is always a difficult undertak- 
 ing; but in this case to prophesy is more difficult 
 than ever. Nevertheless prophets and prophecies 
 concerning the religious future of Italy are not 
 wanting. 
 
 Two I will mention as among the most im- 
 portant. 
 
 Leone Caetani, in the momentous pamphlet I 
 have already twice alluded to, 25 has a vision of the 
 future, which is also that of many noble-minded 
 Italians. Let me try to sum up his idea in few 
 words : We must distinguish between religion and 
 religious sentiment. Eeligion is the outward 
 form, the fleeting phenomenon, perpetually chang- 
 ing according to the times, places, and conditions 
 of civilisation among the various branches cf the 
 
 25 Vide notes 3 and 22. 
 
Modernism 331 
 
 human race ; religious sentiment, instead, is a uni- 
 versal, immanent, fundamental, indestructible 
 phenomenon of the human soul. Now, religions 
 controlled by the clergy with rites and dogmas 
 are social phenomena which, although they are 
 long-lived, are doomed in time to disappear. 
 Clergy, rites, and dogma were once upon a time 
 necessary to human society, in the same way as 
 despotic monarchy. Humanity, in her moral in- 
 fancy, needed special moral support to enable her 
 to establish herself as a strong social organisation ; 
 now she steers herself towards religious concep- 
 tions which are purely individual and subjective, 
 free from all ritualistic ties, from all ecclesiastical 
 laws, and from all sacerdotal interference. The 
 social movement of our day opposes the principle 
 of authority, and is widespread in schools, in ad- 
 ministrations, in the family, in the Church, and 
 even in the army. Nothing can stop it. Society 
 aims at a far superior equilibrium than that of 
 the past ; an equilibrium grounded on respect for 
 other people's rights, in order to obtain respect 
 for its own. The religion of the future must as- 
 sume that fundamental characteristic; only by do- 
 ing so will it become a high moral discipline. In a 
 word : the religion of the future will have only one 
 law: the inner will of every single individual; and 
 
332 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 one constant rule: respect for other people's opin- 
 ions and rights. In the new order of things the 
 Church of Borne will be reduced to the condition 
 of an innocuous sect of conservatives, without 
 followers and without prestige. All the anti- 
 religious manifestations of the societies which we 
 see springing up around us will die, for they 
 are nothing but the result of the great power 
 which the Church of Eome still possesses. "When 
 the cause is dead, the effects will necessarily die 
 also. 26 
 
 Such is Caetani's revolutionary conception; a 
 vision possessing true and false elements. The 
 vision is true inasmuch as it admits the indestruc- 
 tibility of religious sentiment in man, but it is ab- 
 solutely false when it exaggerates religious indi- 
 vidualism. The Spirit of Christ, when really at 
 work, instead of isolating those whom it inspires, 
 aims at uniting them and binding them together 
 in a great common cause : that of the triumph of 
 the Kingdom of God : the triumph of Goodness in 
 the life of humanity. It is true that the Church 
 of Eome, as she is now, is nothing but a political 
 organisation and, therefore, a creation of the 
 
 28 Leone Caetani, M.P. : La crisi morale dell' ora presenter 
 religione, modernismo e democrazia. Roma, 1911. Vide pp. 
 46, 48, 49, 52. 
 
Modernism 333 
 
 spirit of the world. But that does not render less 
 true the other fact that there exists a legitimate 
 collectivism created by the Spirit of God. The 
 Pentecostal Spirit that filled the one hundred and 
 twenty in the " upper room,'' created at the same 
 time the Church. It is in the very nature of the 
 Spirit to act in this wise. If it is true that the 
 Spirit sanctifies individuals, it sanctifies them in 
 order that they may form a spiritual body. The 
 Spirit of God is not a spirit of egoism; it is a 
 spirit of brotherhood. 
 
 The second vision I alluded to, I may call: 
 " The vision of the final triumph of modernism.' ' 
 It has recently found expression in a novel en- 
 titled: When We (the Eoman Catholic Church) 
 Will Not Die (Quando non morremo), written 
 by Mario Palmarini. 27 The novel has had a great 
 success, helped by the fact that a few days after 
 it had been issued, the Curia censured it and 
 placed it on the Index; for this is the way 
 people reason in Italy nowadays: The books 
 which the Church censures are always good; 
 such and such a book has been censured by 
 the Church, therefore it is good; let us buy and 
 read it. 
 
 27 Mario Palmarini: Quando non morrcmo. Romanzo eroico. 
 Dutt. Rioeardo Quientieri, editore. Milano: Novembre, 1911. 
 
334 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 The novel depicts things as they will be about 
 fifty years hence. Pius X, dead; Leo XIV, his 
 successor, also dead; but, before dying, he has 
 completely ruined the Church. Meanwhile mod- 
 ernism has continued its work steadfastly, has 
 invaded the Vatican and has conquered the greater 
 number of the cardinals. 28 The heads of the 
 movement have their eyes on a cardinal, Father 
 Silvester from Fermo (Marca of Ancona), a mod- 
 ernist, a large-hearted man, living a truly simple, 
 apostolic life. The conclave meet to elect the new 
 Pope, and Father Silvester is elected by a large 
 majority. He assumes the name of Peter II. The 
 
 28 The idea is not, after all, so absurd as it looks at first sight. 
 Here is what Leone Caetani wrote in 1911, in the pamphlet al- 
 ready quoted in notes 3, 22, 25, 26 : " One of the reasons why- 
 Pius X has not convened the Consistory and for three years has 
 not created new ' Cardinals, is because he has for some time 
 found it morally impossible to get out of the following difficulty: 
 Of the eligible ' Monsignori ' the most intelligent are more or 
 less modernists; and the non-modernists are such moral and in- 
 tellectual nonentities as to make their promotion impossible. 
 The latter would compromise everything in one sense, as the 
 former would in another. Pius X, not knowing what to do, and 
 preferring to leave unchanged the colour, or status, of the Sacred 
 College, decided to take no action in the matter of the election 
 of Cardinals for more than three years. If he has now (Autumn, 
 1911) determined to fill the vacant chairs in the Sacred College, 
 it is because he has been compelled to do so by imperious ex- 
 igencies. The names in his list reveal that of the two evils he 
 has chosen the greater, inasmuch as he has thrown himself com- 
 pletely into the arms of the orthodox reaction." 
 
Modernism 335 
 
 new Pope writes a letter to the King of Italy 
 throbbing with patriotism and deep spirituality. 
 He leaves the Vatican and takes up his residence 
 at Castle Gandolfo. He is often to be seen driving 
 through Rome in his beautiful white motor-car; 
 and on the 2d of June, the great Italian national 
 festival, with his face turned towards the colossal 
 statue of the first King of Italy, the King of the 
 revolution, he blesses the huge crowd in Piazza 
 Venezia. On the 20th September, the date of the 
 first entry of the Italian troops into Rome, and, 
 therefore, of the fall of the Pope's temporal 
 power, he orders the national flag to be hoisted 
 over Castel Gandolfo; and to the astonishment and 
 admiration of the whole world, he purifies the 
 Church from all old and new superstitions, directs 
 the thoughts of the clergy into new and modern 
 paths, and places the consciences of believers in 
 harmony with the teaching of Christ. The im- 
 pression caused by this revolution is so deep, that 
 Protestant nations return to the fold, and the 
 most rabid enemies of Christianity end by de- 
 claring themselves won, and unite their ener- 
 gies to those of Peter II and of the renovated 
 Church, to work with them for the welfare of 
 humanity. 
 
 Palmarini's vision, too, has its weak points. It 
 
336 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 is not necessary to say that the colours are too 
 vivid, even more so than what may be admitted in 
 a book such as this which is a battle-cry, in a 
 novel that the author himself has called " heroic.' ' 
 But the weakest point of the book lies in the Chris- 
 tianity professed by Peter II. He is not a Chris- 
 tian; he is a pantheist; and his reform is to be 
 carried out by love, but a love which is not a reflec- 
 tion of the love of God in man, or a creation of 
 the Spirit, but simply what our poor human love 
 can be. Now what radical reform can ever be 
 expected from a love such as that in a ruined 
 Church like the Church of Rome? 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding the many and great short- 
 comings of the book, I trust that the reform of the 
 Church of Rome will more or less be carried out 
 on the lines pointed out by Palmarini. Let mod- 
 ernism persevere in its work of infiltration, let 
 it become more and more ' ' Christo-centric ' ' in 
 its belief, in its aspirations, in its programme ; let 
 it organise itself in such a way as to envelop the 
 whole Church in a solid network such as that with 
 which the " Carboneria " enveloped the States of 
 Italy at the time of foreign bondage; let it con- 
 tinue to win the confidence of the best part of the 
 laity; let the Protestant churches of Italy come to 
 understand the solemnity of the present hour and 
 
Modernism 337 
 
 resolve to help from without the work which the 
 modernists are accomplishing from within; and 
 on that day in which God gives the historic 
 Church of Rome a truly apostolic Peter II, a 
 Peter far different from that of Mario Palmarini, 
 you will then witness extraordinary things. What 
 harm, I ask, would there be in having in our Latin 
 race a truly Christian Episcopal Church working 
 hand in hand with the other evangelical churches 
 in view of the moral and spiritual redemption of 
 Italy? And even if the form of the Christian 
 Church more congenial to the nature of the Latin 
 race were to be Episcopal and not Presbyterian 
 or Congregationalist as we have perhaps some- 
 times fancied, should we on that account be 
 grieved? After all, which of the great forms as- 
 sumed by ecclesiastical organisations has been 
 justified and which condemned by the teaching 
 of Jesus? Are there not perhaps Presbyterians 
 as clerical as the Pope himself? Are there not 
 perhaps Episcopalians as humble as the humblest 
 of Presbyterians? Do we not find Congregation- 
 alists with such a catholicity of spirit as is seldom 
 displayed by Presbyterians or Episcopalians? 
 Let us learn from Jesus; let us not concern our- 
 selves with forms; let us not expect the Spirit 
 to shape itself according to our mould, but let 
 
338 The Struggle for Christian Truth in Italy 
 
 us rather concern ourselves with the Spirit and 
 leave the Spirit itself to create the forms that will 
 best serve the nature and genius of the nations 
 which Christ has come to redeem. 
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 

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