CHAPTER I.

THEOLOGY.

Michael Molinos--Bartholomew Carranza--Jerome Wecchiettus--Samuel Clarke--
Francis David--Antonio de Dominis--Noel Bede--William Tyndale--Arias
Montanus--John Huss--Antonio Bruccioli--Enzinas--Louis Le Maistre--Gaspar
Peucer--Grotius--Vorstius--Pasquier Quesnel--Le Courayer--Savonarola--
Michael Servetus--Sebastian Edzardt--William of Ockham--Abelard.


Since the knowledge of Truth is the sovereign good of human nature, it is
natural that in every age she should have many seekers, and those who
ventured in quest of her in the dark days of ignorance and superstition
amidst the mists and tempests of the sixteenth century often ran counter
to the opinions of dominant parties, and fell into the hands of foes who
knew no pity. Inasmuch as Theology and Religion are the highest of all
studies--the _aroma scientiarum_--they have attracted the most powerful
minds and the subtlest intellects to their elucidation; no other subjects
have excited men's minds and aroused their passions as these have done; on
account of their unspeakable importance, no other subjects have kindled
such heat and strife, or proved themselves more fatal to many of the
authors who wrote concerning them. In an evil hour persecutions were
resorted to to force consciences, Roman Catholics burning and torturing
Protestants, and the latter retaliating and using the same weapons; surely
this was, as Bacon wrote, "to bring down the Holy Ghost, instead of the
likeness of a dove, in the shape of a vulture or raven; and to set, out of
the bark of a Christian Church, a flag of a bark of pirates and