THE TRUE BATTLE OF PROTESTANTISM.
"Ix is an awful fact," says the Report of the Evangelical deputa- tion to Florence on behalf of the Medial, "that the progress of persecution is fearfully advancing." Even in Florence, "a system prevails of entering into every house where suspicion, not of politi- cal, but of religious crime' exists ; hurling men and women, com- mitting them to prison, and breathing out threatenings." Tuscany has been for some ages, indeed down to 1848, the most liberal state of Italy ; but this report, which is upon the whole marked by con- siderable candour, must be taken to show that persecution in Italy has risen to so great a height that it is invading those quarters which used to be regarded as for ever raised above that low species of government. The case of the Madiai is perhaps not the most felicitous that could have been found for political intervention. Franeesoo and Rosa are husband and wife ; Franoesco has been a travelling cou- rier, a fact which might be taken to mark that the two belong to the class of servants. There is good testimony to the excellence of their moral qualities and conduct; and it is quite natural that persons of conscientious feelings, in their rank of life, should attach themselves to the thoughts and habits of those travellers with whom they have come in contact. larthis respect their convictions have induced them to assume a position properly belonging to aliens, at the same time that their birth necessarily subjects them to the responsibilities of natives ; and thus far they must be re- garded, not as the objects of predetermined persecution, but as in- dividuals whose especial position renders the general laws of the country peculiarly inconvenient to themselves. It was a mission very proper for those who took an interest in the propagation of Protestant doctrine to interfere on behalf of the couple, whose case undoubtedly is one of great hardship. But, to regard the question solely on political grounds, it would be a great mistake to -demand a lenient consideration as a matter of right, when it could most properly be sought only as matter of favour. The deputation indeed aver, in their report, that the case submitted to the tribunal, and the sentence pronounced by the judge, are incon- sistent with the law of Tuscany ; but it cannot be competent to any foreign deputation to pronounce what is the law of Tuscany; andwe have not yet seen any statement of the case on the part of the Madiai which proves that express law can be adduced on their be- half. The act of which they were convicted—that of reading the Bible in the vernacular—has indeed a ludicrous aspect as an " of- fence " in English eyes : but we are to remember that the use of the Bible in Roman Catholic countries is controlled by the au- thority of the priesthood, who are considered to be the proper ex- pounders of the Scriptures. Roman Catholics allege, that filled with truth as the Scriptures are, there are also things in those ancient volumes which would be mischievous to the uneducated mind unless they were expounded with the discretion of a com- petent adviser ; and to claim an opposite right, is to beg the whole question in issue between Catholic and Protestant. Of course no claim of that kind ean be a logical ground for intervention in fa- vour of the Madiai; nor is it becoming in any Protestant foreigner to presume that the judicial and legal authorities of Tuscany are in error, when the temporal power defers to the spiritual power in a matter of the kind. Meanwhile, we learn with great satisfaction that the deputation will probably prove to be not un- availing, and that the two prisoners may ultimately he released by the Government ; a result which has justified all the labour that the deputation has undergone. MI it would be a great miscalculation of effort, if Protestants in this country were to exhaust their energies upon intervention on behalf of individuals suffering in the renewed conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism. The issue raised upon those two great principles is much larger than the matter of detail that was in issue in the case of the Radial ; and immense numbers are con- cerned in the conflict much more nearly than those two. The movement of inquiry which has perhaps actuated that humble couple has an extent much wider than individual proselytism. The Neo-Catholic Church of Germany, the liberalized Catholics of Ire- land who attend the Queen's Colleges, have their counterparts also in Italy ; and there is no state of that country which does not pos- sess within its confines a very numerous party, of indeterminate extent, prepared to accept opinions which resemble Protestantism much more nearly than they resemble Catholicism. This party is no novelty in Tuscany. So long ago as the accession of Leopold it had made itself known. That royal reformer was indeed the pa- tron and assistant of an ecclesiastic who did much to secure for Tuscany its comparative freedom Ricci. And if Tuscany is now the scene of persecutions inconsistent with the spirit of his move- ment, it marks a very great reaction. The progress of that reac- tion, indeed, has been made principally within these last twenty years, but most chiefly within the last six. The same party of spiritual movement had previously made its appearance in Rome ; and it was inextricably united with the party of political freedom. The same party now exercises an influence still more practical and active in the states of Sardinia, where attempts have been made by the established Government to withdraw the civil institution of marriage from the absolute control of the Romish Church.
Thus far we have only been stating facts, without endeavouring to put any construction upon them ; and with these facts we can only place in opposition certain other facts, well meriting the consideration of Protestants in this country. Our Govern- ment contributed, according to its express intention, in restoring the Pope to his temporal and spiritual authority. It was that re- storation of the Pope which contributed more than anything else to overawe the previously Liberal Government of Tuscany, and which thus gave an unprecedented impulse to the Romish reaction in that once liberal state. The Government of Sardinia has carried on its struggle with Rome under circumstances of the utmost diffi- culty, and it does not appear to have had any effective support from this country. With this negative position on the part of Protestant England we have noticed a singular association. The Government of France was the companion of the English Govern- ment in reestablishing the Pope ; the Government of France appears as the director of the movements in Sardinia which have helped to embarrass that Government and to cripple it in its contest with _Rome. Throughout these proceedings, if the Government of France has not the concurrence of the English Government, it has at all events its acquiescence. Now it is a fact known to every news- paper reader, that one object of the Government of France is to establish the Roman' Catholic clergy as an instrument for the pur- poses of the new Emperor.
The working of this machinery is seen still more nakedly in Belgium, where the Liberal party is coerced and threatened with the utmost dangers, even to the independence of the kingdom; those threats are conveyed in the proceedings of the Priest party, avow- edly acting as the instrument of Louis Napoleon. Louis Napo- leon, of course, is in the expectation of receiving his quid pro quo as the auxiliary of the Pope; and it is remarkable that in all these quarters Louis Napoleon, auxiliary to the Pope, receives the coun- tenance if not the active aid of the English Government. It is so in Belgium, in the States of Sardinia, in the States of Rome in Tuscany. It has been so even in Hungary, whose Lutheran inde- pendence vanished with her :political independence. But, setting aside that separate case, we see that Engb.n.d is acting with the old Priest party of Belgium, Sardinia, Rome, and Tuscany, not only to put down the spirit of inquiry which is rising even in the Romish Church itself, but to put down organized and recognized constitutional Protestantism.
Those who are anxious for the maintenance of the extension of Protestantism, might well transfer their activity from the small questions which now absorb them, to those much larger questions. It is with entire satisfaction that we see Francesco and Rosa Ra- dial rescued, but how much greater ought to be our anxiety for the integrity and independence of half-Protestant Belgium.; for the defence of newly Protestant Sardinia ; for the encouragement of dawning Protestantism in Tuscany and Rome ? How much greater ought to be our solicitude for the great numbers involved in those large questions than for the personal safety of two indi- viduals? Yes, in the broad fields of Belgium, Sardinia, Rome, and Tuscany, the war of Protestantism and Catholicism is now 'waging: and it is unmistakeable, that while Roman Catholic reaction is advancing in every quarter, the English Government, the ex-officio champion of Protestantism appears as the accomplice of Louis Napoleon, "Protector of the Holy Places," in undermining reli- gious freedom.
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