CHAPTER V.

HISTORY.

Antonius Palearius--Caesar Baronius--John Michael Bruto--Isaac Berruyer--
Louis Elias Dupin--Noel Alexandre--Peter Giannone--Joseph Sanfelicius
(Eusebius Philopater)--Arlotto--Bonfadio--De Thou--Gilbert Genebrard--
Joseph Audra--Beaumelle--John Mariana--John B. Primi--John Christopher
Ruediger--Rudbeck--Francois Haudicquer--Francois de Rosieres--Anthony
Urseus.


Braver far than the heroes of Horace was he who first dared to attack the
terrible Inquisition, and voluntarily to incur the wrath of that dread
tribunal. Such did Antonius Palearius, who was styled _Inquisitionis
Detractator_, and in consequence was either beheaded (as some say) in
1570, or hanged, strangled, and burnt at Rome in 1566. This author was
Professor of Greek and Latin at Sienna and Milan, where he was arrested by
order of Pope Pius V. and conducted to Rome. He stated the truth very
plainly when he said that the Inquisition was a dagger pointed at the
throats of literary men. As an instance of the foolishness of the method
of discovering the guilt of the accused, we may observe that Palearius was
adjudged a heretic because he preferred to sign his name _Aonius_, instead
of _Antonius_, his accuser alleging that he abhorred the sign of the cross
in the letter T, and therefore abridged his name. By such absurd arguments
were men doomed to death.