THE PERSECUTION OF THE MADIAI OF FLORENCE, 1851-1852. We have before called the attention of our readers to this subject; and, since our last number, a Deputation has gone from England, to be met by other friends of the cause of Protestantism on the Continent, and thence to proceed to mediate with the Grand Duke of Tuscany on behalf of these afflicted servants of Christ. Lord Roden, Captain Trotter, the Earl of Cavan, and Sir Culling Eardley, were the four principal persons in the Deputation from England. The sentence was a severe one, as will be seen from what follows, and the Christian sympathy manifested by Protestants may do much good, and probably procure a mitigation of the sentence.

"During the last few years, a religious movement of a most interesting character has been going forward in various parts of Italy. This movement began in the diffusion of Scriptural truth in the native language, at a period when the Word of God, as well as evangelical tracts, could be both printed and circulated without hindrance. In Tuscany and Piedmont especially, the work of evangelization has been in progress. To use the language of Signor de Sanctis (formerly a professor and inquisitor at Rome, now pastor of an evangelical church at Geneva), There are now Christians by hundreds, and there are small flocks, formed by the teaching only of the Word of God. These brethren turn toward the Vaudois Church, because they think it necessary to have an organized Church. The Vaudois brethren go there, and the result is that they are imprisoned, banished, chased from Tuscany. But the Church of Jesus Christ continues to flourish in the midst of persecution. The churches of Florence and Tuscany have furnished zealous confessors.' Among the zealous confessors' to whom reference is here made, the names of Francesco Madiai and Rosa his wife are worthy to be held in lasting remembrance by every lover of the truth as it is in Jesus.' These persons were arrested and put in prison in the month of August, 1851, on a charge of 'impiety,' as defined by the laws of Tuscany.

"After ten months' imprisonment, the trial of the Madiai in Florence commenced before the Corte Regia on the 4th of June, 1852. The answers of the Madiai to the questions addressed to them fully brought out the fact of their having forsaken the Romish Church. After the examination of witnesses, and the production and identification of the books found in the Madiais' house, and the summing up of the public prosecutor, the case closed on the third day. On the next day, the 8th of June, the president, Niccola Nervini, read the following

sentence:

Having examined the decree of this Court of the 25th of November, 1851, and the act of accusation of 6th December of the same year, and having heard witnesses, the public prosecutor, the advocates for the defendants, and the defendants themselves, find, in point of fact, as the result of the public discussion :—

'That Francesco and Rosa Madiai, born and brought up in Catholicism, separated from it four or five years ago to embrace the religion called by them evangelical, or that of the pure Gospel. From that

epoch, since, and more especially in the course of 1851, they lent their own house for meetings for worship and instruction in that faith; that these meetings, under the direction of a foreign teacher, were composed of more than thirty persons, mostly Tuscans, some Catholics, and some still affirming their Catholicism, and belonging to the class of artizans, to whom were given Bibles in Italian, prohibited by the Catholic Church, and other tracts on religious subjects (containing errors condemned by the Church), for the purpose of being distributed also after leaving the meeting among the adepts, divided into bodies of ten each, and forming a society which was called a brotherhood. That in these meetings, by explaining and commenting on the Holy Scriptures, and comparing them with the practices of the Catholic Church, they endeavoured to show that these were contrary to the Gospel. That, although that foreign teacher was expelled from Tuscany, and the thread of that anti-Catholic sect broken by the means of the police, and the visitors of the house of the Madiai were much diminished in numbers, still the meetings were held, and one on the evening of the 17th of August, 1851, in which the public force surprised three indi viduals, who, along with a girl of twelve years of age, whom the Madiai had received into their house for a short time, were occupied in the reading of the Bible translated by Diodati, having each a copy before them. That in the house of the said Madiai were lodged not only different copies of the said Bible, and others in English, and prayer-books for the use of the heterodox, but various works besides of the same kind, and several copies of the same work. That Francesco Madiai, profiting by the opportunity of giving lessons in French to a young man of sixteen, endeavoured, but without effect, to detach him from the Catholic faith, seeking to persuade him that it was false, and offering him a prohibited copy of the Bible in French and Italian. That with other persons, also, the said F. Madiai held discourse intended to insinuate the preference of the religion called evangelical to the Catholic, advising them not to listen to the priests, censuring the worship of the Blessed Virgin and of the saints as idolatry, and deriding particularly the pious custom of keeping a lighted candle before the image of the Virgin. That with two females, hired as domestic servants, and with a third, who lived with them about eight months, from December 1850, the Madiai openly evinced their intention to persuade them to abjure Catholicism, and embrace the religion of the pure Gospel (puro evangelo), holding with them conversations and readings tending to discredit the Catholic clergy, and on the doctrine taught by them; particularly on purgatory, denying its existence; on the holy sacrifice of the mass, calling it the invention of the priests, and impugning the real presence in the conse crated host; on intercession through the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints, calling it impossible and dishonourable to God; on the authority of the Supreme Pontiff, disowning it; on the observance of festivals other than the Sabbath; on the mortification which consists in abstaining from some kinds of food, calling it a device of sinful men; on the communion and sacramental confession, asserting that the first was illunderstood and observed, because there was no transmutation of the bread and wine, and because the cup should not be denied to the laity, and blaming the second as being made to men and not to God.

That on one of these females, who was of riper years, and who sustained the discussion on these subjects, their efforts had no effect. That on the other, younger, more needy, and somewhat weak (quasi idiota), enticed by pecuniary presents, and by continual instructions, accompanied by the loan of books fitted for their purpose, they produced the effect of grave doubts respecting her faith. That on the third female, who was little more than twenty years of age, and unfurnished with religious instruction, they produced the effect of her abandoning her own religion and adopting that of her employers. This latter person the Madiai took the trouble to teach to read, and thus rendered her capable of understanding the books which they supplied, namely, the Bible by Diodati, and another, entitled, The Book of Common Prayer,' printed in London, in 1848, by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, in which were found recorded the same maxims and doctrines condemned by the Catholic Church, doctrines which expressly assert that the existence of purgatory, and the worship of images, are foolish inventions*; that in the sacrament of the eucharist there is no real transubstantiation,† and similar notorious heretical pravity indicated above. That the said girl confessed to the reading of the Bible, which was done in common and commented on in the manner above mentioned, abandoned the practice of Catholic worship, got rid, in obedience to the injunction of the Madiai, of the dress, and of the garlands which she wore; participated twice in the communion at their house, in commemoration of the last supper; and would not have recovered from her error if she had not returned for a few days to her father's house, and brought with her an Italian Bible, which was the means of discovering her deviation. That the Madiai, maintaining that no sectarian meetings were held in their house, acknowledge that there is a meeting of a few friends to observe the practices of the religion which they have newly embraced, and granting the apostacy of the girl in their service, maintain that it was of her own accord, and not owing to their insinuations. That, notwithstanding this, neither their affirmations, nor the witnesses produced at the public hearing, have succeeded in overthrowing the facts brought against them in the accusation. That Francesco Madiai has suffered in prison, while the process was depending, from the 26th of August, 1851, and Rosa Madiai from the 27th of August, 1851.

"The Court declares proved the impiety committed by Francesco and Rosa Madiai, by means of proselytism to the said evangelical confession or pure gospel, to the injury and dishonour of the Catholic religion established in the Grand Duchy at the time, and in the manner and circumstances above mentioned. And whereas the crime of impiety in the way of proselytism is manifestly contemplated in the last part of Art. 60 of the law of Nov. 30, 1786; 1, 4, 9, 14, of the decree of March 4, 1849; confirmed by the other of May 5, following; and 34, 35, police regulation of Oct. 22, 1849; and Art. 51 of the regulations of Nov. 22, 1849; and 55 of the said law of Nov. 1786, condemns Francesco and Rosa Madai to punishment, the

*See Article XXII.

+ See Article XXVIII.

66

THE TIMES NEWSPAPER ON "CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION." 345

first to confinement for FIFTY-SIX MONTHS IN THE HOUSE OF FORCED LABOURS (the hulks of Volterra). The second to the Ergastola (the house of correction) for FORTY-FIVE MONTHS, to be counted from the 26th and 27th of November, 1851, and condemns them in costs, which amount to 200 livres, and when their term of imprisonment has expired, subjects them besides to the vigilance of the police for three years.'

"The Madiai listened with the greatest calmness, and were carried back to the prison, where they had been separately confined for the preceding ten months."

An appeal was made against this sentence, but in vain.

The result was intimated to Francesco Madiai, who calmly prepared for his journey to Volterra, where he was to be put in irons in the Casa di Forza. Rosa Madiai had all along been in delicate health; and it was feared that if the appeal failed, fatal effects might ensue; but strength was given her for the day of trial. On the morning of the 11th of August, 1852, this faithful witness for her Lord was removed from the Bargello at Florence, and sent, under the custody of a turnkey and the police, to the Ergastola at Lucca, where, in solitary confinement and at hard labour, she is doomed to undergo the sentence passed upon her. It is not improbable that both she and her husband may die under the hardships and cruelty to which they are exposed.

We hope this may not be the case. Already the kind mediation of Christian friends has effected much in procuring a mitigation of some of the severities attendant upon the rigid execution of the sentence; and the impression is strong on the minds of many, that, through the intervention now going on, the sentence may be repealed, or the time or nature of the punishment lessened; and some are not without hope that permission may be given those now imprisoned to leave the country, and take up their residence in some Protestant State.*

THE "TIMES" NEWSPAPER ON "CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION." -ROMANISTS NOT TO BE CONCILIATED BY CONCESSIONS. THE political concessions which have, from time to time, been unwisely made by Protestants, to the ambition and encroachment of Rome, have been productive of no good whatever. Yielded as they were under the influence of fear and dread of civil war, they have only served to encourage Romanists in assuming a menacing position in our country, and paved the way for insult and aggression.

Those persons who advocated the mistaken policy of concession in the hope of conciliating Romanists, now see their error, and many of them have had the candour to admit it. They unhesitatingly affirm, that if the time were to come over again, they would adopt a very

*The heading of this Article forms the title of a very interesting Tract just issued by the Religious Tract Society.

"I am very glad to hear you have taken in hand, and intend to publish an account of the Romish priesthood; having much to occupy me in this country, I do not expect to be in London before the meeting of Parliament."

"I doubt not but that you have strung together many striking and damning facts that the recent Irish elections must have abundantly furnished, and that you have done this in your customary able manner."

"In my opinion too much publicity cannot be given to such horrible and wicked proceedings as have been carried on in Ireland, and I cannot avoid saying that our Government for many years have encouraged them, and yet have affected to disbelieve them altogether."

"I consider the House of Commons should grant an inquiry as to the causes of disturbance at our late Irish elections, and I fancy it would be a good plan to prevent all clergy of any denomination from taking any part, except possibly of giving their own votes, but certainly the Roman Catholic priests should be restrained."

"I venture to say that I approve of your plan and will patronize it. I hope some steps will be taken to reduce Ireland to proper subjection.

66

called lately on a High Church layman in London, a leading man, who said, 'An union must be brought about with the Church of Rome, and this is what we are about, it must be.' "What a happy thing it would be if all men would speak out."

"I am very glad you have undertaken the matter to which your circular refers."

"In reply to your note of the 13th, relative to a publication of the infamous behaviour of the Roman priests in Ireland during the late election, I think it ought to be known throughout the world, and therefore you have my best wishes for this fresh exposure of the liberty we may expect from them if once in power."

"I think it most desirable that your publication, containing an account of the proceedings of the Romish priesthood, should be published forthwith. Have the kindness to forward me a copy."

"I can only say that I do not think that you could publish anything more desirable just now than a full exposé of the proceedings of those priests of Papal Antichrist during the late Irish elections. I hope the Committee may think likewise.'

"I should think your proposed publication of the late proceedings of