THIS short history will interest those of our readers who prize the liberty we enjoy, and who believe that Rome, true to her motto, never changes. Sarpi, the Servite friar, rose from his little village amongst the Dolomite Mountains to be a tower of strength in Venice in her days of glory, and became a shield for her against Papal tyranny. He was unexampled in learning and in memory, and was gifted in perception and in power of deduction to a most marvelous degree.
Sarpi was a Reformer, or, shall we say, a barrier within the Romish Church, in whose faith he died, yet a man whose heart and faith were in God and Christ and not in Popes and priests. We may suppose that, if Sarpi had broken entirely with the Pope, as did Luther, he would have left a nobler mark than he has done in history; but perhaps we should know less of Papal intrigue had this been the case.
Sarpi’s great work on the Council of Trent should be translated into our tongue; and we may hope that when Venice keeps her promise, and gives this work of “the king of Venetian writers” to Italy, England may also profit by it.
Dr. Robertson paints his pictures forcibly and brilliantly and with but little labor, and we heartily commend his work to our readers.
The effort of Pope Paul V. to obtain Sarpi’s assassination is well told. He was returning from the Doge’s palace to “his quiet abode in the Servite monastery” with an aged patrician and a servant, when “suddenly four ruffians sprang out of the darkness behind them. The patrician and the servant were instantly overpowered, while the leader of the gang set upon Fra Paolo with a dagger, and, stabbing him in mad fury about the head and neck, left him for dead with the stiletto buried in his temple.” Assistance having been obtained, he was carried to his cell in the monastery, and, in due time, he recovered. “Immediately after the execution of the deed the assassins divided, some going straight to the palace of the Papal Nuncio,” while others, reaching their gondola, made for the open lagoon. “By the help of the Nuncio” they all made good their escape.
Again and again the life of this great patriot was attempted by the paid servants of the Pope; and, even after his death, for generations Popes have pursued his dead body to desecrate it.
Fra Paolo Sarpi died in 1623; and until 1892 his bones were carried from place to place and hidden, to save them from the hand of implacable Popes! But at length liberty from Papal tyranny was won by Italy; and in 1892, on Italy’s memorable 20th of September―Venice, with all dignity and state, erected a fitting monument to the greatest of her sons. May a nobler monument to his memory be reared the publication of his great work on the Council of Trent!
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THE ENTRANCE OF THE WORD INTO THE HEART.
ON some the Word falls like showers upon the mown grass―so gratefully is it received; on others it falls like the hammer, which breaks the rock in pieces―so sternly is it resisted; yet in either way its entrance into the soul is life. Some are led to Jesus gently and tenderly, others are forced to flee from the wrath to come.
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ON READING THE BIBLE.
“LET us feed our souls by the meditation on the divine writings; let us satisfy our hunger and quench our thirst by the heavenly meat and drink which it affords. Let us seek instruction in this school, so noble and so worthy of the children of God.” ―Augustine.