found now an honourable member to divide with him his unpopularity among Free Churchmen. On the motion of Sir James, the bill was lost (July 20th) by a majority of 98 to 59.

MORE ANNUITY TAX VICTIMS.

FLUSHED by the success of their military operations in the case of the late roupings, the established clergy of Edinburgh have been emboldened to undertake a loftier enterprise for the honour of their church and the security of their beloved Annuity Tax. The sale of Mr Darlington's furniture, in the face of an indignant city, was a feat of some consequence. It showed that pith was slumbering in the arm which many had supposed to be paralysed since 1843. It established beyond question that the State Kirk was only stunned not killed by the stroke of the disruption. But having proved herself to be alive, she was next to demonstrate, if possible, that she had gathered strength by her quiescence, and could rise to her work like a giant refreshed. The successful roupings were something: but how complete the demonstration of living power, if the capture of the chairs and tables were followed up by the capture of an Edinburgh magistrate! This magnanimous act the reverend gentlemen have attempted, and by the help of their faithful ally, the civil power, they have triumphantly succeeded." Who now will deny that in a particular walk the cstablished ministers of Edinburgh are irresistible? The empty pews to which some of them preach may lead to a doubt whether, as a body, they have much ability in handling the gospel, but it is no longer a question whether they are powerful in the use of law.

On Tuesday, 1st August, Joseph H. Stott, Esq., one of the bailies of Edinburgh, was incarcerated in Calton Jail for arrears of Annuity Tax and there, in company with Mr Georgeson, a sufferer in the same cause, he is still immured at the time of our present writing. Mr Stott, it seems, had earnestly solicited that the claimants of the tax would satisfy their demand upon his property in some way that should not involve his active participation, which he felt would be a violation of his conscience. And he promised that they should be per

mitted to poind without any disturbance as far as he was concerned, and to effect a sale where they pleased. But no. He must pay the money, or leave the money in his till for them to take out, otherwise his reverend pursuers had determined he must go to prison! It is some consolation to these chosen victims of the State Church, that their sufferings are working for good to the cause of Christian liberty. Nothing could have happened better to secure, during the coming recess of Parliament, a brisk agitation against the compulsory system. The sympathy of their fellow citizens, as attested by the numerous deputations of magistrates, ministers, the electors of the ward he represented at the Council Board, divinity students, the Anti-State Church Society, and other bodies who have paid their respects to the prisoners, as well as by the voice of indignation which has been ringing through Scotland and England in reference to this flagrant business, proves that the naked exhibition of State Churchism, such as is now exposed to the gaze of the people of Edinburgh, is all that is needed to make the country demand that government will leave the support of religion where its Divine Founder placed it, on the liberality and faithfulness of the Christian people.

The obnoxious proceedings of the Edinburgh city clergy have led to the formation of an Anti-Annuity Tax League, which promises to be a useful auxiliary in the Voluntary controversy. At the formation of the League (August 1), Mr Cowan, M.P. for Edinburgh, took a distinguished part, and effective speeches, opposing the tax on the principles of Voluntaryism, were delivered by several ministers well known for their services in the cause. Mr Hume has called the attention of Parliament to the subject, and is preparing to bring in a bill for the abolition of the tax.

[In accordance with a resolution of the inhabitants of the first ward, which Bailie Stott represents in council, a penny subscription was entered into to raise the sum for which he and Mr Georgeson were incarcerated. The money having been raised in this manner, the two victims were released on Saturday, 19th August; and on Monday, the 21st, were entertained at a banquet, held in their honour, in the Queen Street Hall.]

THE beginning of the sixteenth century presented a dark and troubled prospect to the friends of reform in Italy. Divine truth was almost universally trodden down in the streets, and civil liberty was crushed under the tyranny of the priesthood and a few powerful families in the states. The house of the Medici at Florence, though the patrons of learning and the fine arts, were the foes of true freedom among the people, and, by their ambition for power, they forced multitudes of noble spirits to sigh for better days. In the midst of their splendid city, the fervent Savonarola had sounded the first notes of reformed truth in Italy, and, dragged to the stake under their eye, he had nobly fallen a martyr for Christ. When the witness of the truth was silenced, the Romish priesthood may have thought that the word of his testimony would be no more heard, but they were sadly mistaken. Though the faithful die the truth still lives, and the spirit of the martyrs re-appears in others, "who are chosen, and called, and faithful." "I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus

* SIMLERI, Oratio de Vita et Obitu Petri Martyris Vermilii; PETRI MARTYRIS VERMILII, Loci Communes et Epistolæ; GER

DISII, Italia Reformata.

NO. X. VOL. II.

and for the word of God, and they lived and reigned with Christ." In the year 1498 Savonarola died at the stake at Florence, and it was only two years after, when a successor appeared in the same city to take up the martyr's testimony, and to bear it forward to the generation to come. To this witness of Christ we now direct attention.

PETER MARTYR VERMIGLI was born at Florence in the year 1500. He was descended of an honourable family. There is reason to believe that his father, Stefano Vermigli, had heard the truth of Christ, as it was earnestly preached by Savonarola, and that convictions were thus lodged in his mind which exercised no inconsiderable influence on his illustrious son. Martyr, when a boy, was taught the Latin language by his amiable and accomplished mother, and at a very early period showed that remarkable aptness for acquiring knowledge, which afterwards raised him to such eminence as a scholar and divine. In his boyhood he evinced a singular mildness and amiability of disposition, which, with his untiring diligence and rapid progress in learning, endeared him to his parents and all around him. Being attracted, like many youths of his day, by the outward honours of

T

monastic life, as well as by the opportunities for study it afforded, Martyr, when sixteen years of age, entered the Augustine convent at Fiezoli, near Florence. His parents, it would seem, were able to look through the veil of monastic sanctity to the vices which lurked beneath it, and thus disapproved of this devotion of their boy to a life, in which they had much reason to fear for his future wellbeing. Young Martyr passed three years among the canonsregular in this place, eagerly slaking his thirst for knowledge in the excellent library with which the Medici had furnished the convent, and commending himself to all by his acquirements and virtues. Here he found for the first time the sacred scriptures, and exercised himself in committing large portions of them to memory, an exercise which was of incalculable advantage to him in his future contendings "for the faith once delivered to the saints." He tells us afterwards, that though he saw not clearly at this time the truth as it is in Jesus, yet the word of God made a powerful impression on his youthful mind, imbued, as it was from his childhood, with a certain tenderness and love for divine things.

In his twentieth year, Martyr removed to the university of Padua, where he devoted himself with great diligence to the study of Aristotle and the Greek language. He afterwards visited several of the most famous academies in Italy, and enriched his mind with stores of varied learning. At Bologna he acquired a knowledge of Hebrew from a Jewish physician, and received the degree of Doctor in the twenty-sixth year of We cannot but observe here, how remarkably God was thus preparing his servant for the great work to which he was afterwards called, and may trace a resemblance between Martyr's training in these pursuits, and that of the youthful Saul while yet in the school of the Pha

his age.

risee at Jerusalem.

"Brought up

at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the most perfect manner of the law of the fathers," and doubtless feeling many a severe conflict in his earnest soul, the apostle received a thorough insight into the lifeless heart of Pharisaism, which he was afterwards destined so successfully to assail, and, by his learning, he was being eminently fitted for defending gospel truth before the most subtile disputants, whether Jews or Greeks. In like manner, while yet a devotee of monachism, Martyr was led by a divine hand to pursue those very paths of knowledge, and to become mighty in those scriptures, which afterwards enabled him to stand forth a most powerful witness of the truth, and to encounter with consummate skill and energy the adherents of papal superstition.

In this view, too, the events immediately succeeding in Martyr's life were of vast importance to himself, and to the truth. Being selected by the Augustinians as one of their public preachers, he greatly distinguished himself by the learning and eloquence of his discourses at Rome and elsewhere, and was unanimously chosen as abbot of Spoleto. Here he saw, with shame and sorrow, the universal corruption of manners which prevailed among the monks, and set himself with great zeal to effect a reformation. For three years he anxiously persevered in this work, enforcing his earnest counsels by the purity of his own example and the prudence of his plans. While thus employed, the fame of his talents spread abroad, and he was raised to the office of provost of the college of St Pietro at Naples, a situation of great dignity and emolument. There was much danger now, lest the heart of the servant of Christ should become reconciled to the corrupt system, which heaped upon him such honours. But, through grace, it was not so. Before this, the celebrated theses of Luther

had drawn universal attention to the corruptions of the church in Germany, and the disputation of the hero of the Reformation with the heads of the Papacy at Worms, had awakened deep thoughts in many souls. The tidings of these things had reached Martyr in his fruitless efforts for internal reform at Naples. The full insight, besides, which he had of the innumerable abominations of monastic life around him, sickened his generous and truthful heart. Luther was wont to say, he would not for all the world have wanted his journey to Rome, where he was startled at the discovery of the abounding immoralities of the priesthood; and it cannot be doubted that Martyr derived incalculable benefit from seeing, as he did daily, the corruptions of the hierarchy-grapes of Sodom brought forth by the strange vine.

It was while at Naples, in this situation, distressing indeed to his pure mind, and when now about thirty years of age, that he became acquainted with the writings of the reformers Zwingle and Bucer, from which divine light burst full on his soul. Formerly he had spent many an hour alone, in musing, and doubt ing, and feeling after the truth; but now, in these writings, his sincere spirit found clear and certain guidance, and he welcomed cordially the hand stretched out to lead him in the way of salvation. Thus, having found the truth himself, he hastened to make it known to others; and, while he spake it from a full heart, he strengthened his own faith in its saving efficacy, and raised up others to be helpers of his joy. Happily, when his views were disclosed, he met with partakers of the like precious faith, who had been silently led by the same divine teacher, and who confirmed him by their convictions and experience. Among these were the devout and stedfast Juan Valdez, a Spanish gentleman, who had learned the truth in his native country

the accomplished Marco Flaminio and the illustrious and nobleminded Isabella Manricha. In his public teaching at this time, Martyr began to expound some of the epistles of Paul; and, wherever he found prevailing doctrines and practices in the church opposed to the word of God, he boldly exposed and denounced them.

As might be expected, this faithful conduct drew down on him the fierce wrath of all who loved or profited by existing abuses, and they prevailed so far as to obtain an interdict, forbidding him to preach. It was a sore trial to the ardent disciple, full of the first joy of finding the truth, to be commanded not to speak of its unsearchable riches. While under this interdict, he was moreover seized by a dangerous illness, in which, for a time, his valuable life was despaired of. Brought thus to the borders of eternity, his hope, founded on Christ's justifying righteousness alone, was solemnly tried, and it was found by him a hope that maketh not ashamed. Through divine mercy his life was spared, and he came out of the furnace of trial more strongly confirmed in his faith of the truth, and more deeply experienced in practical religion. His affliction turned out also to the furtherance of the gospel, in that it gave a powerful impulse to the general feeling in his favour. The admirers of his talents and excellence had been overwhelmed with grief at the prospect of losing such an eminent man; and, on his recovery, their influence raised him to be superintendent of his whole. order. This honour he bore with great meekness, and, instead of meditating revenge on his former enemies, he only sought how he might best employ his high influence for the promotion of the truth and the purification of the church. Guilty consciences, however, are most sensitive under the hand of the faithful physician; and, however great the gentle

ness of the servant of Christ in his touching them on the quick, they winced in pain, though for the present they were forced to repress their wrath. His position required consummate prudence, that he might not give occasion to the enemy to speak reproachfully; and he did all that a man having understanding of the times might do to disarm prejudice of its bitterness. But how may the servant expect to escape the opposition of unreasonable man, when the Master himself endured the contradiction of sinners against him? Martyr had just been made prior of Lucca, and was expounding the Psalms in that city, to the great delight of the church of the convent and the citizens, when a storm of persecution was raised against him. False reports were circulated concerning his doctrines; secret attempts were made to ensnare him in his conduct; most unfounded accusations were carried to Rome with respect to his procedure; and thus his life was in imminent jeopardy from the stratagem and rage of his foes. Under the conviction, that matters were in such a state that he could neither obtain a fair hearing nor a righteous judgment, and thinking that he could better serve the cause of truth by departure than by facing his enemies in such circumstances, he resolved to depart from Lucca, and ultimately found an asylum in Germany.

For this step Martyr was severely blamed by some members of the church then; as frequently since, his conduct has been charged with timidity and cowardice. The accusers forget that true courage is allied to wisdom, and consists not in going forward in any way, whatever danger may lie in it; but in seeking out the right way, and then calmly and fearlessly walking therein. Who will say that Paul displayed less heavenly courage, when "through a window JA in a basket he was let down by the

wall at Damascus," than when he went up bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not moved by any of those things which he might suffer, if only he could finish the ministry he had received of the Lord Jesus? The difference of his conduct on the two occasions proceeded from this, that a conviction of duty, in the one case, prompted him to seek his escape, that he might preach the truth elsewhere; and, in the other, to advance calmly in the way where the Holy Ghost testified that bonds and imprisonment awaited. "If," saith the Lord, "ye are persecuted in one city, flee ye to another." So Peter Martyr displayed, through life, the spirit which his name imported; and never more, we believe, than when, for the truth's sake, he left his beloved labours and brethren at Lucca, In the letters he wrote to friends after his departure, he justified his flight by an appeal to the example and commands of Christ and his apostles; while, at the same time, he poured out the sorrows of his affectionate heart, at being compelled to relinquish a sphere of service, where God had granted him many souls," as his joy and crown, of rejoicing in the presence of the Lord Jesus." In this retirement to which he has gone, we for the present leave the, servant of Christ.

his

We close this sketch of the first part of Martyr's life, by adverting in a single sentence to the fruits of 1 labours, up to this point, in his ministerial course. And it is pleasing to remark, that though the great body of the monks were roused to anger against the reformer, there were not a few among them, on whose hearts the seed he scattered fell ell on good ground. These, in their different spheres, became living witnesses for the truth; and some of them were honoured by their ministry to gather many souls to Christ. Through the labours and prayers of Martyr, too, along with Valdez, and Ochino, a re