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Memoirs of Leonardo Aretino.

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Cardinals with no pleasant counte- | Librafatta, in the neighbourhood of nance, and said, "I command that no which a skirmish took place, and one of you arise." This first speech some of the horsemen were wounded. of his struck the auditors with sudden When intelligence of this was brought astonishment; and whilst one was to Lucca, the Prince of that city, fearlooking indignantly one way and an- ing to provoke the anger of the Floother another, Henrico, the Cardinal rentines by this apparent violation of of Tusculum, said, "What is this, holy their territory, arrested the horsemen Father, and what is the meaning of who had done this mischief, immedithis command?" Since,' says the ately on their return. His Holiness Pontiff, 'I cannot carry on affairs pro- was also much hurt by the error of perly in association with you, I in- his soldiers, and was extremely contend to provide for the safety of the cerned at this infringement of the Church. To this Henrico, with a rights and dignity of the Florentine countenance glowing with passion, re- republic. He, therefore, instantly plies, Nay, you intend to destroy the sent for Marcello Strozza, a man of Church.' Here, when all were indig- considerable eminence, who then renant, but still kept their seats, Ray-sided at his court, and myself; and naldo, deacon of St. Vitus in Macello, a man, as I then thought, preeminent above the rest in courage, suddenly arose, and said, 'Let us rather die.' He is, as you know, a man of tall stature. Most of the Cardinals, therefore, followed his example.

·

"In these new and unexpected circumstances, it was easy to determine upon the view, how much vigour of mind was possessed by each individual. Some were red, others pale; some scolded, others supplicated. I saw Cardinal Colonna at the feet of the Pontiff, entreating him to forego his resolution; the Cardinal of Lodi, on the contrary, I beheld in a menacing and angry attitude; whilst the Cardinal of Bourdeaux, acting the part of a mediator, now attempted to assuage the wrath of his angry brethren, and now addressed prayers to the Pontiff. Thus the council was dismissed without having transacted any business-but not before an edict was issued by the Pontiff, forbidding the Fathers to leave Lucca, or to meet without his authority. This edict was thought to indicate on the part of the Pontiff no small degree of asperity and suspicion. Greater commotions, therefore, immediately followed, which broke through all restraints; for after the publication of this edict, the Cardinal of Lodi put on a disguise, and effected his escape from Lucca. When this was known, some horsemen were sent to bring him back by force. These, following him with little attention, proceeded to the territory of Pisa, which is under the dominion of the Florentines. In the meantime, the Cardinal had escaped there by taking refuge in the town of

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assured us that what had taken place, had happened in pursuance of no command of his, but merely through the rashness of his soldiers; and he ordered us to go to Florence, and make the necessary explanations to that state.

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“Whilst we were in his presence, receiving his instructions, some one suddenly entered, and announced the intelligence that all the Cardinals were gone away in a body. On the receipt of this news, the Pontiff immediately dismissed us, being obliged to turn his attention to other matters. true indeed were the tidings of the departure of the Cardinals, who having, by the arrest of the horsemen, been rid of the fear which they had formerly entertained of them and of the Prince, had determined to make no secret of their secession. They were assisted in this enterprise by a citizen of Florence, who had arrived a few days ago at Lucca, and who loudly complained of the invasion of the territory of his country by the pontifical troops. Alarmed by his clamour, and dreading to be made responsible for this casual incursion, the Prince of Lucca suffered the Cardinals to take their departure for Pisa, where they arrived on the same day that they quitted his territories. The secession of the Fathers was, indeed, a lamentable spectacle; but in my opinion, the courtiers soon afterwards made a still more pitiful exhibition: for there was on their part great diversity of conduct, some accompanying the Cardinals, others remaining with the Pope, while many were uncertain and wavering. these circumstances, complaints and

In

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Life of Martin Luther.

murmurs every where prevailed. In the course of a little time, the Pontiff created four new Cardinals. I could wish that this creation had been made under better auspices; for, if I am not mistaken, many and terrible calamities impend over us.

As to my

self, I do not desert the Pontiff, to whom I am bound by the ties of affection and duty,-duty from which I cannot recede without the loss of my reputation. At the same time I must be permitted to declare, that many transactions which take place here, by no means meet my approbation."*

The laborious and learned editor of the letters of Leonardo Aretino, Lorenzo Mehus, a zealous Roman Catholic, is much scandalized by the freedom with which the learned Florentine animadverts, in the foregoing epistle, on the conduct of the sovereign Pontiff. In a cautionary note, he styles him rash and inconsiderate; and calls upon those who, with himself, regard the Fathers of the faithful with becoming veneration, to reprobate the exercise of such unwarrantable liberty in criticizing the proceedings of the head of the Church. But by Protestant readers, Leonardo will be esteemed as a man of upright feelings and of an independent mind, who could distinguish between obsequiousness and obedience, and who was well aware that the errors of the great are in general occasioned by the flattery of their attendants. His narrative, admitting us within the veil which is suspended before the chair of St. Peter, exhibits to us the Pontiff, urged by worldly ambition, descending to the meanness of prevarication, and attempting to support detestable fraud by open violence. The schism of the west was, indeed, a fatal shock to the pontifical authority. The mutual anathemas of the rival Popes shook the fidelity even of the credulous and of the superstitious. To judge of the contending claims of the adverse parties, reason was necessarily called into exercise; and when once reason is applied | to a system which depends for its support on implicit faith, the doom of that system is sealed-its duration in the plenitude of its power cannot be of long continuance.

(To be continued.)

Leonardi Aretini Epistolæ, lib. ii. ep. 21.

LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.
(Continued from col. 641.)

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When Luther was still at school, he was accustomed, as soon as he had finished his scholastic exercises, to tune, or to make verses, or to devote himself to music. He thus formed himself to a good musician, who not only could sing well, and play well upon several instruments, but was also able himself to compose.

Even that great (artist) musician, the immortal Handel, confessed that he studied Luther's compositions, and had to thank him for much. No wonder then, that Luther entertained a good opinion of every judge and friend of music, and compared those who had no feeling for this noble art to stocks and stones. In his commendatory speech on music, he says, amongst other things, "As I from my heart would willingly laud and extol this beautiful and costly gift of God, this free science of music; so I find also it has great and many advantages, that I do not know where to commence or to end its praise. First, we find from the beginning of the world, it was given to each creature of God; for there is nothing in the world that cannot express a sound or a noise, but even the air, when it is moved or agitated, gives a music or sound. Secondly, in the beasts, and particularly birds, the music, sound, and song, are more wonderful. Ah! what an heavenly music is it which the Almighty Lord in heaven has conferred upon his songster, the lovely nightingale, with all her young scholars, and so many thousand birds in the air, as every species has its own manner and melody, its charming sweet voice and wonderful colouring, which no man upon earth can comprehend. How does king David, that precious musician, who himself says, │* On the same sit the birds of heaven, and sing among the branches;' what shall I say of the human voice then, in comparison of which, all other songs, tune, or sound, is not to be reckoned. For many learned people have endeavoured to investigate the human voice, and to comprehend how it arises, that the air, through a small and trivial movement of the tongue, and after that through a still less motion of the throat or neck, in many different ways and manners, after it is governed and ruled by the will, can

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Life of Martin Luther.

express powerful and forcible words, | sound, song, and noise, that it may be heard and understood by every one far and wide, and all around by every person distinguishably. Therefore, I will recommend to every one this art, and particularly to young people, and herewith caution them, that they esteem and value this precious, useful, and joyful creature of God, by the acknowledgment of which, and industrious cultivation, they may at times drive away evil thoughts, and avoid bad company and vice, and thereafter accustom themselves to know, praise, and magnify God the Creator in this his creature. He, however, who has no love or desire for it, and not moved by such a lovely work of wonder, must truly be a gross block, who is not worthy to hear such delightful melody, but to listen to the asses' wild braying, or the music and song of dogs and swine."

He followed also turning in the sequel, as a favourite amusement, as may be seen by a letter to his friend | Linck, in the year 1525.- I, and my friend Wolf, have taken turnery in hand. We send you herewith a gold guilder, begging you to send us two or three hollow chisels and turning instruments, and also two or three screws. We have certainly some tools, but we want some of your neat Nuremberg ware. Do me this favour; what it costs more I will return with thanks. I know one can procure such things very cheap with you; therewith, in case the world will not give us a living on account of the word of God, we may hereafter get our bread by our own handy work.

When he studied at Erfurth, he found in the library of the university, which he then visited the first time in his life, a Latin Bible, the book which in the sequel he placed in the hands of many millions. The subject is weighty enough, to hear his own words thereupon,--"When I was twenty years old, I had never seen a bible, and thought that the whole bible consisted in the gospels and epistles which were recited every Sunday in the church."

It cannot appear to us strange, that in those times, when the scholars were forbidden to quote any thing from the bible, when the books of the heathen philosophers were explained in the pulpit, and they spoke only of invo

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cation of the saints, of the mother of God, of adoration of relics, of purgatory, and masses for the dead, pardons and their power,-of fasts, and senseless miraculous stories, that in those times of darkness, every thing was done to keep the poor multitude in ignorance, and to exalt the power and greatness of the hierarchy, and the holiness of the clergy, above all conceptions of religions. They represented (says Luther) a ship called the Christian Church, wherein no laymen sat, nor king nor princes, but only the Pope with the cardinals and bishops, under the Holy Ghost, with Popes and monks at his side, with which they sailed to heaven. The laymen swam in the water around the ship; some sank, some drew themselves to the vessel by cords and ropes, which the holy fathers threw out to them out of favour and reward for their good works, and helped others from drowning, so that they might come to heaven sticking and hanging to the vessel. But in the water there was never a pope, cardinal, bishop, or monk, nothing but laymen.

Whilst Luther studied at Erfurth, he once, in company with his good friend Alexias, paid a visit to his parents at Mansfield. Both were on their return to Erfurth, when suddenly his friend, struck with the lightning, sunk by his side, and Luther also fell down senseless. This circumstance moved his inmost soul, and he made the vow, that he would go into a cloister, because, in conformity with the opinion of that time, he considered that state the best and most pleasing to God, and hoped, through the'exercises of the cloister, to make sure of a joyfal salvation. He himself writes thus: "Thereupon I did not become a monk, on account of eating, or for the belly's sake; but being surrounded with horror and anguish of death, I vowed a forced and constrained vow." Some time after, he entered into the cloister of the Augustines at Erfurth, and became a monk. He found, however, sore cause to repent this step. Through his assiduous studies, he made the monks his enemies, who had the principle, they ought not to spend their time at a cloister on study, but in begging for bread, grain, eggs, fish, meat, and money. From hence, Luther seems to have borrowed his strong description of the monkish state, when

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Life of Martin Luther.

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of schools was not less important with him, and he founded several new ones. Without schools (said he) men would become bears and wolves. It cannot remain as it is; therefore we will put a hand to the work, and provide schoolmasters. I know of no condition upon earth which I would prefer. We must, however, not view it as the world rewards and considers it, but as God esteems it. How much he valued the conscientious schoolman, and how much it pained his kind heart that man underrated that situation to which the state owes so much obligation, may be seen out of the following passage: "An industrious and pious schoolmas

and teaches children, can never be sufficiently rewarded, nor be paid with any money; which even the heathen Aristotle affirms. With us, however, it is shamefully despised, as if it was nothing; and nevertheless we will be Christians. And when I could or must be dismissed from the preacher's office, I know of none I would so soon choose as that of a teacher of boys. For I am convinced, that this, next to the office of preacher, is the most useful, great, and best: for it is very difficult to tame old dogs, and make old sinners pious, at which the priest's office must work, and often much in vain; but the young and teachable one may better draw and turn, notwithstanding many may break in the operation."

he says, Monks are a lazy people, on which account they can neither rule or keep house; they do nothing but prattle in the church, eat, drink, and sleep, and are like fed swine; they therefore become nothing but rude blockheads, and lazy rogues. And in another place he says, A monk is a lad, free from any cares of the church, town's service; or as the louse, a lazy gluttonous brother, eating the goods of other people, obtained by the sweat of their brow. Monks, however, do not permit themselves to be provoked without remark, and Luther must feel their displeasure in all its circumference. They committed to him the most troublesome and dirty work, inter or magister, who truly educates order to keep him from his studies. For instance, he was obliged to wind up the clock, open and close the doors, beg daily for the abbey, and even clean the private places. The university of which Luther was a member and magister, reckoned this a disgrace put upon them, and applied on that account to Doctor Von Stampitz, first deacon of the theological faculty of Wittemberg. Through his mediation, Luther was freed from all his mean occupations in the abbey, and on that account could apply with more zeal to his studies. Respecting his subsequent ordination as priest, he gives the following account. My consecrating bishop, when he made me a priest, and gave me the cup into my hand, spoke no otherwise than thus: Take here the power to atone for the living and the dead. That the earth did not swallow us up, was wonderful, and therefore a proof of the great patience and forbearance of God." When Staxepitz had to undertake a journey in the country of the Elector of Saxony, he entrusted to Luther the direction of 40 Augustin convents, in Thuringia and Meissin, under his inspection. Luther met with the greatest abuses, and in some degree the most abominable excesses, and was more and more filled with horror, for a situation which fattened upon the spoil of pious simplicity; and, alas! too often contributed to the ruin of the remaining part of mankind. He did as much as was possible with his confined means; he undertook in the convents many new arrangements, recommended to the monks an assiduous reading of the holy scriptures, and a way of life consonant therewith. The improvement

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When Luther was examined before the papal legate and Cardinal Cagitan, a courtier tried to frighten him with this question; Where he would remain, in case he should lose the Elector's protection, who, on his sole account, would hardly go to war? Luther answered, smiling, Under the canopy of heaven. The courtier was silent.

After the fruitless examination before the Cardinal Cagitan, the Pope sent his Chamberlain, Von Miltiz, to Germany, in order to settle the dispute with Luther.-Miltiz possessed far greater knowledge of mankind, and was better furnished with prudence and moderation, than Cagitanin short, he was quite the man that the Pope should have chosen for this business'; and he commenced the matter more in a friendly, than in a theological manner." My dear Martin," was his salutation, the first time he ad

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Remarks on the Poets of Italy.

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very first poets have been indebted to the revivers of literature for a portion of their fame, if even Milton lighted at their shrine that immortal fire which breathes such animation through his works,--to what extraordinary smallness' must have dwindled the powers of Mr. Leigh Hunt, Mr. John Keats, and Mr. Procter, alias Cornwall, if such glorious lights as Dante, Tasso, and Ariosto, had never shone upon their little faculties, or had never been translated for them into English?

dressed Luther, "I thought thou hadst | mate of northern song? But, if our been an old spent theologian, that sat at the fire-side, disputing with himself; but I see thou art a fresh, young, and strong man. If I had even an army of five and twenty thousand men, I should not dare to carry thee from Germany: for I have inquired all around during my journey, how the people were inclined to thee, and what they thought of thee; and I found very much, that where one stood on the Pope's side, there stood three on thy side against the Pope." Miltiz continued in this tone, and by his friendly conversation prevailed with Luther so far, that he promised to be silent respecting the dispute, if his opponents were also enjoined silence. Luther even transmitted an humble letter to the Pope, in which he even submitted, and added the assurance, that he would encourage the people by other writings to obedience. More could hardly take place. But what Miltiz had well done, D. Eck, Professor of Theology at Ingoldstad, spoiled again. This, not ignorant, yet mean-thinking passionate man, full of fanatic zeal for the Catholic religion, challenged Luther to disputation at Leipzig; which was carried on with so much passion and bitterness, that Luther separated himself more and more from the Catholic church. Miltiz therefore found, on a new conversation with Luther, that he was quite changed, and could do nothing with him. He, nevertheless, continued unceasingly, and without letting himself be cast down by the defeat of his plan, to operate in a mild manner.

Remarks on the Pastoral Poets of Italy,
and Thoughts on reading Mr. Leigh
Hunt's Translation of the Aminta of
Torquato Tusso.

(Concluded from col. 608.)

ON perusing this little translation, we could not avoid frequently asking ourselves the question-What would our great poets of England have been without Italy; that rich storehouse of the literature of the ancient world, to which they have continually resorted; -the fountain-head from whence they drew those luscious streams, which fertilized and adorned the colder cli

It is indeed surprising, how much Fanshawe, Fairfax, and Hoole, have done towards facilitating a knowledge of the Tuscan tongue, and supplying our Cit poets with a spirit of imitation, and subjects ready cut and dry to their hand. We often amuse ourselves with thinking what sort of a revenge those great masters of the Tuscan lyre would have exercised upon their caricaturists, our modern versifiers of Italian canzonets and sonnets, had they been as immortal as their works, to see the delicate versions which these gentlemen have made of them. Would they have slit their tongues, or amputated the fore-finger and thumb of their right hands, to dissuade them from exposing their ignorance of the truth and spirit of the models from which they copy? Or would Tasso have quietly expostulated with Mr. Hunt, on the cruelty and impropriety of his making him sit for his portrait, and of presenting it in no manner of likeness in our British gallery of poets? Suppose the shade of Tasso to walk into the artist's daubing room, just as he was about to put his last touch to the Aminta, (we wish, for the joke of the thing, he had.) Here, however, they hold a conference.

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