Parthenope, cecini pascua, rura, duces.
The country life and the warlike exploits which the prince of Latin poets sang have great attractions to many minds; but the visitors at Pausilippo, whose history we are relating, had higher aspirations, and conversed on topics which it is our duty to record.
‘In what do the sons of God differ,’ they asked, ‘from the sons of Adam?—Why is the state of a Christian who believes with difficulty better than that of him who believes with ease?—Why does God give a child to a Christian and suddenly take it away?—The man from whom God takes away the love of the world, and to whom He gives the love of God, experiences nearly the same thing as he who ceases to love one woman and becomes enamored of another.[[909]]—To believe with difficulty is the sign of a call from God.—Those who tread the Christian path without the inward light of the Holy Spirit, are like those who walk by night without the light of the sun.—How can God make himself felt, and how can he permit himself to be seen?—The evils of curiosity, and how we ought to read the Scriptures without curiosity.—Why are the superstitious severe, while true Christians are merciful?—How God reigns by Christ, and Christ is the head of the Church.—The three kinds of conscience: that of the natural law, that of the written law, and that of the Gospel.—Is justification the fruit of piety, or piety the fruit of justification?—How does it happen that the wicked cannot believe, that the superstitious believe easily, and that pious men believe with difficulty?—How to resist the imaginations which confuse our Christian faith.’—Such are some of the thoughts with which the noblest minds were then busy on the enchanting shores of the bay of Naples.[[910]]
The Sermons Of Occhino.
The sermons of the celebrated Occhino helped to give a wider circulation to the thoughts which engrossed the evangelicals of Chiaja. In the early part of 1536, the great orator of Italy was invited to Naples to preach the Lent course. Valdez immediately felt the living faith by which the orator was animated: he became intimate with him, and introduced him to the Christian circle around him. The well-known name of Occhino, his strange appearance, his coarse dress, and reputation for holiness, attracted an immense crowd to the church of S. Giovanni Maggiore. He seemed called to scatter among the people the religious ideas which Valdez and Peter Martyr were propagating among the noble and the learned. De Vio, Cardinal of Gaeta, before whom Luther had appeared, was a man of singular perspicacity, and he immediately suspected heresy.[[911]] Struck with the power of the three doctors, he fancied he saw the formation of a league, one of those triumvirates which destroyed the Roman republic. ‘These triumvirs of the republic of Satan,’[[912]] he said, ‘are circulating doctrines of startling novelty, and even of detestable impiety about purgatory, the power of the sovereign pontiff, freewill, and the justification of the sinner.’ The cardinal protested in vain: not only the Christian society of Naples, but a great crowd of the nobility and people, attended Occhino’s sermons.
Struggles Of Giulia.
The beautiful Duchess of Trajetto did not miss one of them. She was at that time suffering under great domestic trouble: her brother Luigi, wishing to recover a castle that had been taken from his sister, perished in the assault, and Luigi’s widow, Isabella Colonna, who was also the duchess’s daughter-in-law, went to law with her for a portion of her inheritance. Giulia, roused by her vexations from the worldly indifference in which she had lived, sought consolation in God, and hoped to find in Occhino’s words a relief from her sorrow. An event which at this time gave splendor to Naples might have diverted her from these thoughts: the emperor arrived, and held a brilliant court. It was natural that the monarch and the daughter of Gonzaga should meet, for he had desired to avenge her when he gave up Tunis to be pillaged; but Giulia would willingly have dispensed with the honor done to her in Africa. Besides, her troubles and the awakening of her mind estranged her from the court; the great lady, the ornament of every fête, did not appear at those which were given to Charles V. If they did not meet at court or ball, they probably met at church. The emperor having heard much of the great orator of Italy, went like the rest to the church of S. Giovanni Maggiore. He was surprised and struck by Occhino’s eloquence, and said as he went out: ‘That monk would make the very stones weep.’[[913]]
It was easier to draw tears from Giulia Gonzaga’s eyes. That young woman, whose heart was wrung by sorrow, was agitated more and more every day by the powerful words of the great preacher; and it was at this time that the Christian life truly began in her. One day, as she was leaving the church of S. Giovanni Maggiore, Juan Valdez observed her emotion, and accompanied her to her palace. The stricken and agitated widow begged him to stay and enlighten her, and made known to him the distress, the hopes, and the struggles of her soul. Valdez felt that he was called to disperse the darkness in the midst of which Giulia was struggling, and the conversation lasted till evening. The Duchess of Trajetto desired to have nothing more to do with the world, but as yet she had not tasted the peace of God. ‘Ah!’ she exclaimed to Valdez, ‘there is a combat within me. The monk’s words fill me with fear of hell, but I fear evil tongues also. Occhino inspires me with love for paradise, but I feel at the same time a love for the world and its glory. How can I escape from the contest under which I am sinking? Is it by harmonizing these two tendencies, or by rejecting one of them? Pray show me the way; I promise to follow it.’ Valdez replied that the agitation she felt was occasioned by the renewing of the image of God in her. ‘The law has wounded you,’ he said, ‘the Gospel will heal you; for if the Law gives death, the Gospel gives life.[[914]] What I fear,’ he continued, ‘is lest you should attempt to regulate your Christian life in such a manner that those about you should not remark any change in you.’ The duchess confessing that such was her secret wish, Valdez told her to choose between God and the world, adding: ‘I will show you the path of perfection: Love God above everything, and your neighbor as yourself.’—‘Your words surprise me,’ she said; ‘I have heard all my life that monastic vows alone lead to perfection.’—‘Let them say on,’ replied Valdez firmly; ‘the monks have no Christian perfection except so far as they possess the love of God, and not an atom more.’ Valdez then tried to make her understand the only means by which that charity, which is perfection, is produced in the heart. ‘Our works are good,’ he said, ‘only when they are done by a justified person. Fire is needed to give warmth; a living faith to produce charity. Faith is the tree, charity the fruit. But when I speak of faith, Madam, I mean that which lives in the soul, that which proceeds from God’s grace, and which clings with boundless confidence to every word of God. When Christ says: He that believes shall be saved, the disciple who believes must not have the slightest doubt of his salvation.’[[915]]—‘Ah!’ exclaimed the duchess, ‘I will yield to no one in faith.’—‘Take care,’ rejoined Valdez; ‘if you were asked whether you believed in the articles of the faith, you would reply, Yes! but if you were asked whether you believed God had pardoned all your sins, you would say that you think so ... that you are not quite sure, however.... Ah! Madam, if you accept with full faith the words of Christ, then, even while suffering under the pain caused by your sins, you would not hesitate to say with perfect assurance: Yes, God himself has pardoned all my sins.’[[916]]
Such evangelical sentiments, uttered by a Spaniard in a palace at Naples, and received with humility by a Gonzaga, are a feature of the Reformation. We must humble ourselves before we can be exalted. Conscience spoke in Giulia. We have here a woman whose family had given many sovereigns to Italy and princesses to royal houses, the widow of a Colonna, the chief of the most ancient family in the peninsula, which has counted among its members cardinals, illustrious generals, and the celebrated Pope Martin V.; and this Gonzaga, touched by grace, lent an ear to the truth with more humility than her own servants: she had become a little child. If the Acts of the Apostles remark more than once that among the persons converted to Christ in Asia and in Greece, where St. Paul preached, were women of distinction, history will also remark that at the epoch of the Reformation of the sixteenth century the wave mounted from the lowest levels of the shore to the highest peaks. Or rather, the hills did bow before it. Valdez having spoken of a ‘path,’ the duchess manifested a desire to know it. ‘There are three paths,’ he answered, ‘which lead to the knowledge of God: the natural light which teaches us the omnipotence of God; the Old Testament, which shows us the Creator as hating iniquity; and lastly, Christ, the sure, clear, and royal way. Christ is love; and accordingly, when we know God through him, we know him as a God of love. Christ has made satisfaction for sin. An infinite God alone could pay an infinite debt. But it is not sufficient to believe it, we must experience it also.’[[917]]
Meditation And Preaching.