view, the Nuncio committed to prison a professor of theology of the name of Julius, called, from the place of his nativity, Julius of Milan, who had declared in favour of the Reformation. Ochin was highly incensed at this treatment of his friend, and expressed his indignation in strong terms in his public discourse. "What course," he exclaimed, "is left to us, Sirs? To what purpose, oh most excellent of cities, queen of the Adriatic! do we undergo so many labours and afflictions, if they who preach the truth to thee are placed under restraint, immured in prisons, and confined in chains and fetters? What other place, what freer field remains for truth? Would that the truth could be openly and freely proclaimed! How many blind, now excluded from the light, and trembling in darkness, would then be illuminated!" These offensive words were soon reported to the Nuncio, who immediately suspended Ochin from his office. The Senate, however, with whom Ochin was a great favourite, interposed their powerful mediation, and prevailed upon the Nuncio to withdraw his interdict, which remained in force only three days. During the remainder of his term, Ochin, who was aware that the Nuncio kept a strict watch over his conduct, spoke with more caution, and escaped further animadversion.

As soon as Lent was concluded he went to Verona, where, as the head of the order, he assembled some young men who were destined for the office of preachers among the Capuchins, for the purpose of giving them some instructions to qualify them for their charge. With this view he delivered to them a course of Lectures on the Epistles of Paul, in which he took occasion to inculcate many things that were adverse to the doctrines of the Church. The Pope being apprised of this circumstance, and also of his proceedings at Venice, became highly exasperated against him, and ordered him to appear forthwith at Rome. His displeasure, however, was disguised, that Ochin might not be alarmed, and think it necessary to take precautionary measures to secure his safety. He immediately obeyed the summons, and proceeded as far as Bologna on his way to Rome. At Bologna he changed the direction of his route and

went to Florence. Here he found Peter Martyr, whom he immediately consulted on the state of his affairs. Their deliberations terminated in a resolution that they should both, with as little delay as possible, quit Italy for some Protestant state. Ochin ac cordingly took his departure instantly for Geneva, and in a few days afterwards Martyr went to Zurich. Ochin's sudden resolution not to proceed to Rome appears to have been occasioned by a report which reached him on the road, that his death had been determined upon, and that the management of his case had been entrusted to six Cardinals, who had instructions to proceed against him to the last extreinity. This rumour derived great probability from a fact which he afterwards ascertained, that an armed force had been sent to Sienna and Florence to apprehend him, but that he had providentially escaped it by his sudden departure.*

The circumstances attending Ochin's flight from Italy have been somewhat differently related. It has been stated that while preaching before the Pope he openly accused him of pride, contrasting his pomp and state with the humble condition of Jesus when he entered Jerusalem; that after the termination of his discourse the Pope's high displeasure was intimated to him by a cardinal, who persuaded him instantly to depart. But this account is extremely improbable, and is supported by no good evidence. It has also been asserted, that in preaching on the subject of the Trinity, he stated at length the arguments against the doctrine, and then, under pretence that the time was elapsed, postponed the arguments on the other side to a future opportunity; but that immediately after quitting the church he left Italy, and escaped the Inquisition. But this account seems equally unfounded with the preceding, for there is not the slightest proof that Ochin entertained any scruples on the doctrine of the Trinity till long after he

of the year 1542. Whence it appears Ochin quitted Italy in the autumn that he could not have been a member of the College of Vincenza at the time of its dispersion in 1546, as stated by Lubieniecius and others. The probability is, that he never belonged to it.

had quitted Italy. A Catholic historian ascribes Ochin's desertion of the Church of Rome to disappointed ambition. He affirms, that on the elevation of Paul the Third to the pontifical chair, when hats, mitres and crosses were distributed in great profusion, Ochin expected to have been made a Cardinal, or at least a Bishop; but that failing in this object, he turned against his Church and joined her enemies. There is, however, nothing but the assertion of the writer to support this statement, and it is satisfactorily confuted by what is known of Ochin's habits and character.

Ochin, in quitting Italy, seems to have been determined in his choice of Geneva for the place of his retreat, by its already containing many Italian exiles, who had formed themselves into a separate church, but were as yet destitute of a minister. He thought he might be able to officiate to them in this capacity; for at this time he observes that he had no objection to the discipline and laws of that state. Among the many gross calumnies by which it has been attempted to blacken the character of Ochin, it has been confidently asserted, that when he left Italy he took with him a young female whom for some time he kept as his concubine, and then married. The fact upon which this story is grounded is simply this, that he was accompanied into Switzerland by a male relation and his sister, who had relinquished Popery, and who afterwards attended him to Augsburg. ↑

The desertion of Ochin to the Reformers excited very general astonishment among the Catholics. Some of his former companions addressed to him letters of expostulation, warning him of his danger and entreating him to return. But of all his ancient friends, the Capuchins seem to have most deeply felt the stroke, and to have had most occasion to bewail his secession. The apostacy of the general drew upon the whole fraternity a suspicion of heresy, and caused a most rigid scrutiny to be instituted into their religious opinions. The Pope was in the highest degree incensed, and in the first ebullition of

*Lamy, ut supra, p. 232.

+ Bock, Hist. Antitrin. II. 497.

his anger resolved upon the suppres. sion of the order; from which purpose he is said to have been diverted by the representation of Cardinal Severinus, that such a step would be doing too much honour to Ochin, and would only serve to raise him in the estimation of his new friends.*

Soon after his settlement at Geneva, Ochin published three small picces, containing his reasons, and pleading his justification, for quitting the Church of Rome. These were in the form of Letters, the first addressed to the magistrates of his native city, Sienna; † the second to his friend Claudio Tolomeo; and the third to Hieron. Mutio of Capo d'Istria.About the same time he printed some sermons in the Italian language, for the use of his exiled countrymen. They made their appearance in five portions, which were published at several periods in the years 1543 and 1544. During his residence at Geneva he secured the friendship of Calvin, who on more than one occasion speaks of him in terms of high commendation and eulogy.

In 1545 Ochin went to Basle, where Castalio then resided, and after a short stay proceeded to Augsburg. Here he remained two years, preaching in Italian, with his accustomed po pularity. His discourses were chiefly directed to the explication of Paul's Epistles, and formed the ground-work of two of his publications, which were printed in this city. The first was his Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, which he drew up in Italian, and was afterwards translated into Latin for publication: the other was his Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, which was printed in German.

In 1547, the approach of the Emperor and his army obliged him to quit Augsburg, where he had been very hospitably entertained. He was apprehensive that the Emperor would use his authority to obtain possession of his person, and place him under

La Guerre Séraphique, p. 204.

which is extremely scarce, is now before The first edition of this little piece, me. It is intituled, Epistola di Bernardino Ochino, alli molto Magnifici Signori, Hi Signori di Balia della Citta di Siena. Geneva, 1543.

restraint, or deliver him over to his enemies; and his fears seem not to have been wholly groundless, for Charles, on his arrival, commanded the city to give him up. Ochin had, however, anticipated the order, and hade good his retreat to Basle. From Basle he removed to Strasburg, to Peter Martyr, with whom he shortly after went to England at the invitation of Cranmer, who wished to engage their services to aid the Reformation, under Edward VI. Martyr was appointed Public Professor of Divinity at Oxford, whilst Ochin remained in London, and preached to the Italian Protestants who had there obtained an asylum. In England he wrote a work against the Pope's supremacy, which was translated into English by Dr. John Ponet, and published under the following title- A Tragedy, or Dialogue of the unjust usurped Primacy of the Bishop of Rome, and of all the just abolishing of the same." It was printed in quarto, and dedicated to the King: it was reprinted in octavo in 1724.

The stop put to the Reformation by the premature death of Edward and the accession of Mary, rendered it unsafe for Ochin to remain longer in England, where he had purposed to terminate his days. The Queen, who considered him as the inveterate enemy of the Papists, threatened him with the severest penalties, and compelled him, for security, to quit the kingdom in 1553. He first went to Strasburg, from whence, after a short stay, he proceeded to Geneva, where he arrived on the 28th of October, the day after the inhuman murder of Servetus. Here, whilst flying from the fires of Catholic persecution, he learnt that Protestants had not discarded the spirit of Popery, and could, when it suited their purpose to silence those whom they failed to convince, enforce their arguments by the faggot and the torch. It is to Ochin's credit, that when, on his arrival at Geneva, he was informed of the fate of Servetus, he openly expressed his disapprobation of the proceeding, and thus exposed himself to the displeasure of the actors. This circumstance hastened his departure for Basle. During his stay at Geneva at this time, he married. The only accounts we have of his wife are those of his enemies and slanderers, and are

therefore to be received with caution. She is stated to have been of a very humble or mean condition of life, and without property. Some represent her as having gained her livelihood by washing, and as having, on this account, been designated Madame d'Ochino la lingière, “Madame Ochin the laundress." The date of Ochin's marriage is a circumstance of some consequence, as furnishing a sufficient. refutation of the calumnious charge already noticed, of his having on his first arrival at Geneva married a concubine whom he had brought from Italy.

After a residence of two years at Basle, he removed to Zurich, upon an invitation to take the charge of a Church of Italian Protestants who had retired to that city. They consisted of some of the inhabitants of Locarno, one of the cantons possessed by the Swiss in Italy, who being prevented the public exercise of their religion, by the Catholic cantons, had obtained leave to settle at Zurich. They adopted the articles of faith and the discipline of the Church of Zurich, to which Ochin at this time did not scruple to conform. He discharged the duties of his office here with great acceptance till the year 1563, when the publication of his celebrated Dialogues raised against him a host of enemies, and at length caused his expulsion from Switzerland. The Dialogues were originally written in Italian, and afterwards translated, from the manuscript, into Latin, by Castalio, and printed at Basle in 1563. The first offence charged upon Ochin was the printing of these Dialogues without the approbation and consent of the magistrates of Zurich; and the second, that they contained tenets, especially on the subjects of Polygamy and the Trinity, which were at variance with the orthodox faith. After the work had been examined by Bullinger and others, by order of the Senate, the

According to the writer who favours bles, Raemundus, Ochin was himself so us with this among other ridiculous fagreat a lover of poverty, that he pronounced riches to be a part of the Devil, and maintained that a Christian should have no other property besides his wife. Bock, ut supra, II. 500.

author was sentenced to be expelled from the State of Zurich.

Being thus driven from Zurich, he went to Basle, and applied to the ministers and professors to intercede for him with the magistrates to allow hit to remain in that city. But no intreaties could prevail, not even to obtain for himself and his children an asylum through the winter. The magistrates having taken the opinion of the doctors respecting his work, order ed him instantly to quit their territory. He yielded to the mandate, and went with his children to Mulhausen, though he was then seventy-six years of age, and the roads were every where covered with snow and ice. The celebrated Dudithius, in a letter to Beza, animadverts with just severity upon this transaction, as highly disgraceful to the Protestants. To this letter Beza replied, but with a levity and a forced attempt at wit, which reflected no credit upon himself, and were little likely to satisfy his amiable correspondent. * Beza relatos in the same

Beza thus writes to Dudithius : "Ochinum preterea narras indicta causa, hyeme acri, decursa jam ætate, senem cum uxore et liberis, Tiguro ejectum. Deus bone! quæ est ejusmodi calumniatorum audacia, qui hæc tibi insusurrarunt? Sceleratus hypocrita, Ariauorum clandestinus fautor, Polygamiæ defensor, omnium Christianæ religionis dogmatum irrisor, quum eo tandem audaciæ erupisset, ut sua portenta in publicum ederet (justo sanè Dei judicio ne latere diutiùs tantum malum posset) delatus ad magistratum, pro eo quod severam pœnam pro tantis sceleribus merebatur, non sanè indicta causa (quod qui dicunt, maguam justo et pio magistratui injuriam faciunt) sed non ad vivum resectis omnibus, ut cum illo quàm clementissime ageretur, jussus est è Tigurinorum agro facessere. Magnam certè crudelitatem! At senex erat: tanto nocentior veterator. At hyems erat: nempe longa fuit non unius integri diei via. At uxorem et liberos habebat: de uxore falsum est, quod ex bono Alciato, sive quovis alio cognovisti. Fregerat enim collum horrendo Dei judicio domi impium senem persequente, priusquam foras productum esset ipsius scelus. Basileam igitur venit, ubi quum itidem suos errores damnatos videret, tandem ad suos sive Tritheitas, sive Arianos, sive Samosatenianos contulit."

Dudithius's reply to this unfeeling as cription of the accidental death of

letter, not as a report merely, but as matter of authentic history, that when Ochin was at Schaffhausen, on his way from Basle into Germany, he met Cardinal Lotharingus, and proposed to him to leave the Reformers and return to the Church of Rome, but that tle Cardinal treated the offer with contempt. But notwithstanding Beza's attestation of the truth of this account, the internal evidence against it will, with every reasonable mind, outweigh all his protestations. Ochin was a man whose great talents and celebrity rendered it little likely that the Church of Rome, in the existing state of her contest with the Reformers, would spurn him from her threshhold when he applied to be received back into her communion. doubted that such a proposal would instantly and gladly have been acceded to, and the return of such a penitent held out with great ostentation as an example for others of her apostate children to follow. But it is idle to

It cannot be

Ochin's wife to the judgments of God upon her husband's house is admirable, and may be recommended to the perusal of some priestly divines of our age, who deem themselves authorized to direct the avenging thunderbolts of Heaven. "Cum Ochini larva luctaris," he writes, "pœnas etiam ab uxore sumtas divinitus affirmas, quasi ex Cœlo, atque ex Dei senatu delapsus hunc nobis nuntium adfers. Vobis hoc in more positum est video, ut simulac aliquis paulò miserabiliore morte obeat, statim hoc justo Dei judicio factum esse clametis. Non est humanum mortuis insultare, neque à mortis genere de pietate judicium ferri debet: alioqui quid Josiam et alios fuisse dicetis? Quid de Christo et Apostolis, atque infinitis Martyribus, qui omues ignominiosa et horrenda morte extincti sunt, sentietis? Quid denique de vestro Zuinglio respon debitis ? Præclarus ille verbi Dei præco, Christi scilicet discipulus, magistri nimirum et Apostolorum exemplo, in prima acie cæsus esse dicitur; quod genus mortis neque Christiano doctore dignum, ueque non miserabile tamen fuit. Quare desine ita cum vulgo sentire, ut statim impium esse censeas, si quis non leni ac placida morte moriatur.”

The copies of the Epistles of Beza and Dudithius, from which I have transcribed these extracts, are appended to the second edition of the work of Minus Celsus, De Hæreticis Capitali Supplicio non afficiendis.

argue the case, for the whole account has been proved to be fabulous. * From Mulhausen, Ochin soon passed into Poland, where he hoped to settle himself. But the agents of the Pope had taken measures to disappoint his expectations, and availing themselves of a law which had been recently passed to exclude all foreigners who held doctrines at variance with the established creed, they procured an order for his banishment. Some of the nobility who respected his character and commiserated his sufferings, offered to procure for him permission to reside in Poland. But he declined the proposal, alleging that he thought it right to obey the ruling powers, though he should die upon the road, or perish among the wolves in the forests. On quitting Poland, he took the road to Moravia, but before he reached Pinczow he was seized with the plague. Notwithstanding the nature of his malady, he was here most kindly received by Philippovius, one of the Unitarian brethren, whose humane attentions he gratefully acknowledged. He lost from this fatal disease his two sons and a daughter, but recovered sufficiently himself to prosecute his journey as far as Slacovia; here, at the end of three weeks, in the year 1564, he terminated his suffer. ings and his life. Other accounts have been given of the place and manner of Ochinus's death, but they are undeserving of credit. This may be asserted particularly of the statement of Boverius, the annalist of the Capuchins, who affirms that he died at Geneva, after having quitted the Protestants, and been re-admitted to the communion of the Church of Rome.

With respect to the opinions of Ochin, there are but two points that seem entitled to notice in this sketch: the first is, whether he is justly chargable with libertinism, as his enemies allege, in his treatise upon Polygamy; and the second, whether his observations on the Doctrine of the Trinity afford sufficient ground for ranking him among Antitrinitarians?

Nothing certainly but the most perverse and inveterate disposition to calumniate could ever have construed any part of Ochin's writings as favouring licentiousness.

Bock, II. p. 507.

The accusation rests chiefly or wholly upon the Dialogue on Polygamy, and is sufficiently refuted by the perusal of the piece. It is by no means a defence of the practice, designed, as has been represented, to prove that "it is not only permitted but even commanded that Christians should marry as many wives as they please." At the commencement a person is described as consulting the author on a case of conscience, who states that he is desirous of having children; that he has a barren and sickly wife, whose temper is unsuited to his own, and whom he is therefore unable to love; and he asks whether he may lawfully marry another wife without divorcing the first? In the course of the Dialogue the applicant adduces numerous reasons in favour of Polygamy, but Ochin in every instance opposes them, and supports the negative of the question. But if it be admitted that the arguments adduced in favour of Polygamy are occasionally but feebly met by the objections; and it should appear that Ochin thought Polygamy in such a case might be allowed, this would not expose him to a charge of licentiousness, for the whole subject is treated with great gravity and seriousness. It seems probable that the Dialogue was occasioned by a circumstance which at the time formed a subject of general conversation. The Landgrave of Hesse had recently consulted some celebrated German divines upon a parallel case, and they had declared their judgment that he might marry a second wife in the life-time of the first: Ochin's object might possibly have been to shew the grounds upon which such an opinion might be supported.

That Ochin disbelieved the commonly received doctrine of the Trinity towards the close of his life, seems placed beyond all question by his two Dialogues on the subject. The topics of them are thus stated by himself: + Dialogue xix.: Ostenditur tres esse divinas personas, Patrem et Filium, et Spiritum Sanctum, reipsa distinctas tametsi consubstantiales, et coæternas, et ad eos literarum locos et argumen

* Dialogues, II. 186.

+ Idem, pp. 1, &c. By an error of the press they are numbered in the Volume, xviii. xix.