censures him for taking upon himself, after a lapse of more than eight hundred and twenty years, to reprove those things that had hitherto been in continual use, as if there had been none before himself that had ever had any zeal for religion. About the same time another writer of the same school, whose name was Theodemirus, wrote to him, giving him to understand that his opinions and behaviour every where gave great offence. His answer to these writers was such as made it quite unnecessary for him to write another treatise on the same or a similar occasion; and in the following extracts from it, the reader may almost persuade himself that he is perusing the pages of the immortal Luther.

"I have received," says he to Theodemirus, “by a special messenger, your letter, with the articles, wholly stuffed with babbling and fooleries. You declare in these articles, that you have been troubled that my fame was spread not only throughout all Italy, but also in Spain and elsewhere; as if I were preaching a new doctrine, or setting myself up as the founder of a new sect, contrary to the rules of the ancient Catholic faith, which is an absolute falsehood. But it is no wonder that the members of Satan should talk of me at this rate, since they called [Christ] our Head a deceiver, and one that had a devil, &c. For, I teach no new heresy, but keep myself to the pure truth, preaching and publishing nothing but that. On the contrary, as far as in me lies, I have repressed, opposed, cast down, and destroyed, and do still repress, oppose, and destroy, to the utmost of my power, all sects, schisms, superstitions, and heresies, and shall never cease so to do, God being my helper, as far as in me lies.

"When I came to Turin, I found all the churches full of abominations and images; and because I began to destroy what every one adored, every one began to open

his mouth against me. These kind of people against whom we have undertaken to defend the church of God, tell us, if you write upon the wall, or draw the images of Paul, of Jupiter, of Saturn, or Mercury, neither are the one of these Gods, nor the other apostles, and neither the one nor the other of these are men, and therefore the name is changed. But surely if we ought to worship them, we ought rather to worship them during their life time, than as thus represented as the portraits of beasts, or (what is yet more true) of stone or wood, which have neither life, feeling, nor reason. For if we may neither worship nor serve the works of God's hand, how much less may we worship the works of men's hands, and pay adoration to them in honour of those whose remembrance we say they are? For if the image you worship is not God, wherefore dost thou bow down to false images; and wherefore, like a slave, dost thou bend thy body to pitiful shrines, and to the work of men's hands? Certainly, not only he who serves and honours visible images, but also whatsoever creature else, whether heavenly or earthly, spiritual or corporeal, serves the same instead of God, and from it expects the salvation of his soul, which he ought to look for from God alone. All such are of the number of those concerning whom the apostle said, that "they worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator."

"But mark what the followers of superstition and false religion allege! They tell us it is in commemoration and honour of our Saviour that we serve, honour, and adore the cross-persons whom nothing in the Saviour pleaseth, but that which was pleasing to the ungodly, viz. the reproach of his sufferings and the token of his death. Hereby they evince that they perceive only of him, what the wicked saw and perceived of him, whether Jews, or heathens, who do not see his resurrection, and do not

consider him but as altogether swallowed up of death, without regarding what the apostle says, "We know Jesus Christ no longer according to the flesh."

"God commands one thing, and these people do quite the contrary. God commands us to bear our cross, and not to worship it; but these are all for worshipping it, whereas they do not bear it at all-to serve God after this manner, is to go a-whoring from him. For if we ought to adore the cross, because Christ was fastened to it, how many other things are there which touched Jesus Christ, and which he made according to the flesh? Did he not continue nine months in the womb of the virgin? Why do they not then on the same score worship all that are virgins, because a virgin brought forth Jesus Christ? Why do they not adore mangers and old clothes, because he was laid in a manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes? Why do they not adore fishing-boats, because he slept in one of them, and [from it] preached to the multitudes, and caused a net to be cast out, wherewith was caught a miraculous quantity of fish? Let them adore asses, because he entered into Jerusalem upon the foal of an ass; and lambs, because it is written of him, "Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." But these sorts of men would rather eat live lambs than worship their images! Why do they not worship lions, because he is called "the lion of the tribe of Judah?" or rocks, since it is said "and that rock was Christ?" or thorns, because he was crowned with them? or lances, because one of them pierced his side?

"All these things are ridiculous, and rather to be lamented than set forth in writing; but we are compelled to state them in opposition to fools, and to declaim against those hearts of stone, which the arrows and sentences of the word of God cannot pierce. Come to yourselves again, ye miserable transgressors; why

ye gone astray from the truth, and why, having become vain, are ye fallen in love with vanity? Why do you crucify again the Son of God, and expose him to open shame, and by these means make souls, by troops, to become the companions of devils, estranging them from their Creator, by the horrible sacrilege of your images and likenesses, and thus precipitating them into everlasting damnation?

"As for your reproaching me, that I hinder men from running in pilgrimage to Rome, I demand of you yourself, whether thou thinkest that to go to Rome is to repent or to do penance? If indeed it be, why then hast thou for so long a time damned so many souls by confining them in thy monastery, and whom thou hast taken into it, that they might there do penance, if it be so that the way to do penance is to go to Rome, and yet thou hast hindered them? What hast thou to say against this sentence, "Whosoever shall lay a stone of stumbling before any of these little ones, it were better for him that a millstone were hung about his neck, and he cast into the bottom of the sea?"

"We know very well that this passage of the gospel is quite misunderstood-"Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven;" under the pretence of which words, the stupid and ignorant multitude, destitute of all spiritual knowledge, betake themselves to Rome, in the hope of acquiring eternal life. But the ministry [of the gospel] belongs to all the true presbyters and pastors of the church, who discharge the same as long as they are in this world, and when they have paid the debt of death, others succeed in their places, who possess the same authority and power.

"Return, O ye blind, to your light; return to him who enlightens every man that cometh into the world.

All of you, however numerous ye may be, who depart from this light, ye walk in darkness, and know not whither ye go, for the darknes has put out your eyes. If we are to believe God when he promiseth, how much more when he swears, and saith, If Noah, Daniel, and Job, (that is, if the saints whom you call upon, were endowed with holiness, righteousness, and merit equal to theirs) they shall neither deliver son nor daughter; and it is for this end he makes the declaration, that none might place their confidence, in either the merits or the intercession of saints. Understand ye this, ye people without understanding? Ye fools, when will ye be wise? Ye who run to Rome, there to seek for the intercession of an apostle.

"The fifth thing for which you reproach me is-that you are much displeased, because "the apostolic lord" (for so you are pleased to nominate the late Pope Paschal) had honoured me with this charge. But you should remember that he only is apostolic who is the keeper and guardian of the apostle's doctrine, and not he who boasts himself of being seated in the chair of the apostle, and in the mean time neglects to acquit himself of the apostolic charge, for the Lord saith that the scribes and pharisees sat in Moses' seat."*

From these extracts, some estimate may be formed of the principles and character of Claude of Turin-a name less known in the present day, and a character less bonoured, than they deserve: By his preaching, and by his valuable writings, he disseminated the doctrine of the kingdom of heaven-and, although the seed were as a grain of mustard seed cast into the earth, the glorious effects ultimately produced by it justify the truth of our Lord's parable, that when it is grown up, it produceth a tree, whose branches are so ramified and extended, that