[276] Ranke, vol. ii. p. 362.
[277] This Bellarmine, as is known to many of our readers, was a famous Jesuit, a cardinal, and one of the most fanatic and bigoted in the order, celebrated above all for exalting the Papal authority above every other earthly power. He is the author of a catechism, which is still taught over all Italy, under the name of La Dottrina Cristiana de Bellarmino. He was very learned, and appears not to have been a bad man, as regards his outward conduct.
[278] Jardine is, perhaps, the most impartial guide to follow in inquiring into this tragical event.
[279] Pasquino and Marforio are, or at least were (only one of them being now in existence), two statues placed at the corners of two contiguous streets in Rome, on which the Romans affix those libels in which they, generally speaking, express their hatred of the Roman court and its abominable vices. The statues are supposed to address one another.
[280] Butler, Mem. ii. 51.
[281] “N’ont ils pas conservé en Angleterre le germe qui se développe avec tant de vigueur, et qui en Irlande, après trois cents ans de martyre, devient une révolution légitime?” Vol. iii. 510.
“Ché assolver non si può chi non si pente,
Nè pentere e volere insieme puossi
Per la contradizion che nol consente.”—Dante’s Inferno.