not done, however, without another chivalrous exploit: once more does the broad-shouldered O'Murrogh arrest the forces of the carriage of Lady Knocklofty, when, driven by drunken postillions, they are hastening to destruction. After so gallant an achievement, the hero is of course asked to supper, and the visit ends in his staying all night:-the two aunts, all the time, not aware of what has become of their hopeful nephew. An application for a change of linen informs them of his safety, and of his present place of retreat. We shall give his aunt's letter in answer: and it is the last extract we can make with praise. It must be premised that O'Brien had made his escape from the dinner-table early, and in the course of a ramble "among the rocks and cliffs," had fallen in with the carriage of Lady Knocklofty, returning from Bog Moy to Beauregard.

"Dear Murrogh,-I must take lave to inform you that I am highly displazed with your whole behaviour and conduct in regard of the Brigadier, who never left his own table as long as he could sit at it nor after, more particularly on a Jug Day. No scrambler over rocks nor cliffs nor bookworm; and wonders much ye got to the bottom with life, being the first bird or baste ever climbed down Carrig-na-Phouka. And am highly delighted ye saved Lady Knocklofty's life under God's mercy to whom all praise with best regards, and would have written as intended (also my sister Monica) but not a scrap of paper left in the place, though have meditated sending for half a quire by Paddy the post from St. Grellan this week back, for which call on your return at Mrs. Costello's. I send a change of linen with your foreign riding coat, also the pony and boy tied up in your white French cambric pocket handkerchief. No need of saddle-bags which you can ride home the boy walking. And lay my commands and injunctions on you to return to dinner, not forgetting the lock of the Brigadier's fusil at Peter Lynch'sMajor O'Mailly shooting himself here to-morrow-so mind you are back to the minute, as you value the regard of your affectionate aunt,

"MABLE MAC TAAF.'"

The end of the intimacy at Beauregard may be briefly stated: O'Brien being implicated in some treasonable intrigues, or suspected to be so, which is much the same thing, endeavours to escape an arrest. Lady Knocklofty penetrating his design, joins him in his flight, aud persuades him to spend a night at a woodland retreat in the neighbourhood of her husband's castle. She had reason, she alleges, for not conducting him to the house, "neither the innocence of my conduct, nor the purity of my motives, would save me from censure, were it known that you accompany me. But alight; and if that fishing house is open, I will communicate there what else I have to say." Lady Morgan shall give the conclusion of the affair in her own inimitable manner. The asterisks, we beg to say, are not

ours.

"He led her to a sofa; and leaned over a chair beside her. She wept freely; and relieved by this indulgence, she recovered her self-possession, and drew from her bosom a packet of papers: - There,' she said, 'are copies of the informations which have been lodged against you. The facts they contain may serve you in your hour of trial.'

"Lord Arranmore pressed the generous hand that offered them to his lips. 'My hour of trial!' he exclaimed, with emotion. Oh, Lady Knocklofty!'

"The storms of a night, in which all the elements had been thrown into fearful contest, were gradually subsiding into the low broken sobs of the gushing wind, the distant roll of retreating thunder, and the faint gleam of

History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in Italy in the Sixteenth Century: including a Sketch of the History of the Reformation in the Grisons. By Thomas M'Crie, D.D. Edinburgh: W. Blackwood. 1827.

DR. M'CRIE IS one of those men who, by their learning, piety, and enlightened liberality, do honour to the church to which they belong. His former works were erudite, well digested, and full of important information: the present volume is deficient in no one character that should adorn the writings of a historian and a divine. The subject is a chapter in the grand revolution which was agitated all over Europe about the same time: the spring, it is well known, was seated in Germany; but it is very little known that it had flowed in so large a stream into Italy, the very throne of the dominant corruptions. It is long since that Dr. M'Crie formed an opinion to this effect, and he has now come forward to prove it, by a careful accumulation of the facts connected with the question. They prove to be of a most interesting nature.

Two years had not elapsed from the time of Luther's first appearance against indulgences, before his writings found their way into Italy. In a letter addressed to the reformer, by John Froben, a celebrated printer at Basle, the following information is conveyed :

"Blasius Salmonius, a bookseller of Leipsic, presented me, at the last Frankfort fair, with several treatises composed by you, which being approved by all learned men, I immediately put to the press, and sent six hundred copies to France and Spain. They are sold at Paris, and read and approved of by even the Sorbonists, as my friends have assured me. Several learned men there have said, that they for a long time have wished to see such freedom in those who treat divine things. Calvus also, a bookseller of Pavia, a learned man, and addicted to the muses, has carried a great part of the impression into Italy. He promises to send epigrams written in praise of you by all the learned in Italy; such favour have you gained to yourself and the cause of Christ by your constancy, courage, and dexterity."

Burchard Schenk, a German nobleman, writes to Spalatinus, chaplain to the Elector of Saxony, under the date of September 19th, 1520:-" According to your request, I have read the books of Martin Luther, and I can assure you that he has been much esteemed in this place for some time past. But the common saying is, ' Let him beware of the pope!' Upwards of two months ago ten copies of his books were brought here and instantly purchased, before I had heard of them; but in the beginning of this month, a mandate from the pope and the patriarch of Venice arrived, prohibiting them; and a strict search being instituted among the booksellers, one imperfect copy was found and seized. I had endeavoured to obtain that copy, but the bookseller durst not dispose of it."

But in spite of pontifical bulls, and the activity of agents employed to watch over their execution, the writings of Luther, Melancthon, Zuingle, and Bucer, continued to be circulated, and read with avidity and delight in all parts of Italy. Some of them were translated into Italian, and published under fictitious names: so that bishops and cardinals unwillingly perused and praised works which, on discovering their real authors, they were obliged to pronounce dangerous and heretical. Thus were the common-places of Melancthon printed at Venice, with the title "Par Messes Ippofilo da Terra Negra." The copies of this work being sent to Rome, a whole impression was rapidly consumed, and another supply sent for; when, in the mean time, a Franciscan friar had discovered the trick, and it was agreed to suppress the affair, and burn the copies. Luther's Epistle to the Romans, and his Treatise on Justification, were eagerly read for some time, as the productions of Cardinal Fregoso. The works of Zuingle were circulated under the name of Coriaris Cogelius: and several editions of Martin Bucer's Commentary on the Psalms, were sold in Italy and France as the work of Aretius Felinus. It is, however, justly observed by Dr. M'Crie, that it is one thing to discover the errors and abuses of the church of Rome, and it is another and a very different thing to have the mind opened to perceive the spiritual glory, and feel the regenerating influence of Divine truth. So that many who could easily discern the former, remained complete strangers to the latter, as preached by Luther and his associates. Many, however, did "receive the love of truth"-some paint in strong colours their ardent thirst for an increase of knowledge; and many more by their preaching, their lives, and especially the fortitude with which they submitted to torture and death, bore testimony to the rectitude of their religious conceptions. Dr. M'Crie's Italian Martyrologies will astonish those who are not minutely acquainted with this obscure portion of history; and will show in the most convincing manner, the extent and nature of the doctrines which had met with so favourable a reception, and which were so firmly retained by the conscientious and inquiring spirits of Italy.

It was in the year 1542 that all the court of Rome became seriously alarmed at the progress of the new opinions in Italy. At this time the clergy, and particularly the friars, poured in complaints from all parts of the country, of the danger of the Catholic faith: at the head of them was Pietro Caraffa, commonly called the Theatine Cardinal, a prelate who made high pretensions to sanctity, and distinguished himself by his violence when he afterwards mounted the pontifical throne, under the name of Pius IV. The inquisition was established in Italy for the purpose of checking this moral contagion, and all those suspected of favouring the new doctrines were surrounded by spies and agents, who quickly circumvented them. In some instances the secular authorities of the Italian states resisted the interference of the papal agents, but they were quickly obliged to yield to the will of the reigning pontiff. Even at Venice, when the senate had made an order forbidding the proceedings against its citizens for heresy, numerous and revolting imprisonments, tortures, and executions, were visited upon the unfortunate professors of the new faith. Here, however,

"Drowning was the mode of death to which they doomed the Protestants, either because it was less cruel and odious than committing them to the flames, or because it accorded wich the customs of Venice. But if the autos da fe of the queen of the Adriatic were less barbarous than those of Spain, the solitude and silence with which they were accompanied was calculated to excite the deepest horror. At the dead hour of midnight the prisoner was taken from his cell, and put into a gondola or Venetian boat, attended only, beside the sailors, by a single priest, to act as confessor. He was rowed out into the sea beyond the Two Castles, where another boat was in waiting. A plank was then laid across the two gondolas, upon which the prisoner, having his body chained, and a heavy stone affixed to his feet, was placed; and, on a signal given, the gondolas retiring from one another, he was precipitated into the deep."-pp. 232, 233.

The first person who suffered martyrdom at Venice, was Julio Guirlanda. When set on the plank, he cheerfully bade the captain farewell; and sank calling on the Lord Jesus. Many other fine examples of fortitude followed him; among the most distinguished was the venerable Fra Baldo Lupetino; of him his nephew has left an account in a book become very rare:

"The Reverend Baldus Lupetinus, sprung from a noble and ancient family, a learned monk and provincial of the order to which he belonged, after having long preached the word of God in both the vulgar languages, (the Italian and Sclavonian,) in many cities, and defended it by public disputation in several places of celebrity with great applause, was at last thrown into close prison at Venice, by the inquisitor and papal legate. In this condition he continued during nearly twenty years, to bear an undaunted testimony to the Gospel of Christ; so that his bonds and doctrine were made known, not only to that city, but almost the whole of Italy, and by it to Europe at large, by which means evangelical truth was more widely spread. Two things, among many others, may be mentioned as marks of the singular providence of God towards this person during his imprisonment. In the first place, the princes of Germany often interceded for his liberation, but without success. And, secondly, on the other hand, the papal legate, the inquisitor, and even the pope himself, laboured with all their might, and by repeated applications, to have him from the very first committed to the flames, as a noted heresiarch. This was refused by the doge and senate, who, when he was at last condemned, freed him from the punishment of the fire by an express decree. It was the will of God that he should bear his testimony to the truth for so long a time; and that, like a person affixed to a cross, he should, as from an eminence, proclaim to all the world the restoration of Christianity, and the revelation of antichrist. At last, this pious and excellent man, whom neither threatenings nor promises could move, sealed his doctrine by an undaunted martyrdom, and exchanged the filth and protracted tortures of a prison for a watery grave."-pp. 235, 236.

The proceedings against the Waldenses, settled in Calabria, were of a still more wholesale and cruel description than the noyades of Venice. When the monkish commissioners, sent to suppress all innovation, had driven the inhabitants of Sante into the woods, they were hunted like beasts of prey by the soldiery, who fell on them with cries of "Ammazzi, ammazzi-kill them, kill them!"

"The monks wrote to Naples that the country was in a state of rebellion, upon which the viceroy dispatched several companies of soldiers to Calabria, and, to gratify the pope, followed them in person. On his arrival, listening to the advice of the inquisitors, he caused a proclamation to be made delivering up Santo Xisto to fire and sword, which obliged the inhabitants to remain in their concealments. By another proclamation, he offered a pardon to the bannitti, to persons proscribed for crimes, (who are a numerous class in Naples,) on the condition of their assisting in the war against the heretics. This brought a number of desperate characters to his standard, who, being acquainted with the recesses of the woods, tracked out the fugitives, the greater part of whom were slaughtered by the soldiers, while the remainder took refuge in the caverns of the high rocks, where many of them died of hunger. Pretending to be displeased with the severity of military execution, the inquisitors retired to some distance from the place, and cited the inhabitants of La Guardia to appear before them. Encouraged by the reports which they had heard, the people complied; but they had no sooner made their appearance, than seventy of them were seized and conducted in chains to Montalto. They were put to the question by the orders of the inquisitor Panza, to induce them not only to renounce their faith, but also to accuse themselves and their brethren of having committed odious crimes in their religious assemblies. To wring a confession of this from him, Stefano Carlino was tortured until his bowels gushed out. Another prisoner, named Verminel, having, in the extremity of pain, promised to go to mass, the inquisitor flattered himself that, by increasing the violence of the torture, he could extort a confession of the charge which he was so anxious to fasten on the Protestants. But though the exhausted sufferer was kept during eight hours on the instrument called the hell, he persisted in denying the atrocious calumny. A person of the name of Marzone was stripped naked, beaten with iron rods, dragged through the streets, and then felled with the blows of torches. One of his sons, a boy, having resisted the attempts made for his conversion, was conveyed to the top of a tower, from which they threatened to precipitate him, if he would not embrace a crucifix, which was presented to him. He refused; and the inquisitor, in a rage, ordered him instantly to be thrown down. Bernardino Conte, on his way to the stake, threw away a crucifix which the executioner had forced into his hands; upon which Panza remanded him to prison, until a more dreadful mode of punishment should be devised. He was conveyed to Cosenza, where his body was covered with pitch, in which he was burnt to death before the people. The manner in which those of the tender sex were treated by this brutal inquisitor, is too disgusting to be related here. Suffice it to say, that he put sixty females to the torture, the greater part of whom died in prison in consequence of their wounds remaining undressed. On his return to Naples, he delivered a great number of Protestants to the secular arm at St. Agata, where he inspired the inhabitants with the greatest terror; for, if any individual came forward to intercede for the prisoners, he was immediately put to the torture as a favourer of heresy."-pp. 261-263.

Horrid as these faults are, they fall short of the barbarity per