promised reward--a cardinal's hat and a rich bishopric. His hopes were
doomed to be disappointed. For a short time he received a pension from
Gregory XV., but this was discontinued by Urban VIII., and our author
became dissatisfied and imprudently talked of again changing his faith. He
was heard to exclaim at supper on one occasion, "That no Catholic had
answered his book, _De Republica Ecclesiastica_, but that he himself was
able to deal with them." The Inquisition seized him, and he was conveyed
to the Castle of St. Angelo, where he soon died, as some writers assert,
by poison. His body and his books were burned by the executioner, and the
ashes thrown into the Tiber. Dr. Fitzgerald, Rector of the English College
at Rome, thus describes him: "He was a malcontent knave when he fled from
us, a railing knave when he lived with you, and a motley particoloured
knave now he is come again." He had undoubtedly great learning and skill
in controversy, [Footnote: His opinion with regard to the jurisdiction of
the Metropolitan over suffragan bishops was referred to in the recent
trial of the Bishop of Lincoln.] but avarice was his master, and he was
rewarded according to his deserts. [Footnote: Cf. article by the Rev. C.
W. Penny in the _Journal of the Berks Archaeological Society_, on Antonio
de Dominis.]

The lonely fortress of Mont-Saint-Michel saw the end of a bitter
controversialist, Noel Bede, who died there in 1587. He wrote _Natalis
Bedoe, doctoris Theol. Parisiensis annotationum in Erasmi paraphrases Novi
Testamenti, et Jacobi Fabri Stapulensis commentarios in Evangelistas,
Paulique Epistolas, Libri III., Parisiis_, 1526, _in-fol_. This work
abounds in vehement criticisms and violent declamations. Erasmus did not
fail to reply to his calumniator, and detected no less than eighty-one
falsehoods, two hundred and six calumnies, and forty-seven blasphemies.
Bede continued to denounce Erasmus as a heretic, and in a sermon before
the court reproached the king for not punishing such unbelievers with