Untitled article | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, August 20, 1867

BOWER'S ESCAPE FROM THE INQUISITION.

(Concluded.)

The other instance of the cruelty of the Inquisition, related in the spurious account of my escape published by Mr. Baron, happened some years before I belonged to the Inquisition; and I do not relate it as happening in my time, but only as happening in the Inquisition of Macerata. It is related at length in the annals of that Inquisition, and the substance of the relation is as follows: An order was sent from the high tribunal at Rome, to all the Inquisitors throughout Italy, enjoining them to apprehend a clergyman minutely described in that order. One answering the description in many particulars being discovered in the diocese of Osimo, at a small distance from Macerata, and subject to that Inquisition, he was there decoyed into the Inquisition, and by an order from Rome, so racked as to lose the use of his senses. In the mean time the true person being apprehended, the unhappy wretch was dismissed by a second order from Rome; but he never recovered the use of his senses, nor was any care taken of him by the Inquisition. Father Piazza, who was then Vicar at Osimo to Father Monterecouli, Inquisitor at Macerata, and died some years ago a good Protestant, at Cambridge, published an account of this affair, that entirely agrees with the account I read of it in the records of the Inquisition.

The deep impression that the death of my unhappy friend, the most barbarous and inhuman treatment he had met with, and the part I had been obliged to act in so affecting a tragedy, made on my mind, got at once the better of my fears; so that forgetting in a manner the dangers I had till then so much apprehended, I resolved, without further delay, to put in execution the design I had formed of quitting the Inquisition, and bidding forever adieu to Italy. To execute that design with some safety, I proposed to beg leave of the Inquisitor to visit the Virgin of Loretto, but thirteen miles distant, and to pass a week there; but in the mean time, to make the best of my way to the country of the Grisons, the nearest country to Macerata, out of the reach of the Inquisition. Having therefore, after many conflicts with myself, asked leave to visit the neighboring sanctuary, and obtained it, I set out on horseback the very next morning, leaving, as I proposed to keep the horse, his full value with the owner. I took the road to Loretto, but turned out of it at a small distance from Recanati, after a most violent struggle with myself, the attempt appearing to me, at that juncture, quite desperate and impracticable; and the dreadful doom reserved for me, should I miscarry, presented itself to my mind in the strongest light. But the reflection that I had it in my power to avoid being taken alive, and a persuasion that a man in my situation might lawfully avoid it, when every other means failed him, at the expense of his life, revived my staggered resolution; and all my fears ceasing at once, I steered my course, leaving Loretto behind me, to Rocca Contrada, to Fossombrone, to Calvi in the dukedom of Urbino, and from thence through the Romagna into the Bolognese, keeping the by-roads and at a good distance from the cities of Fano, Pesaro, Rimini, Forlì, Faenza, and Imola, through which the high road passed. Thus I advanced very slowly, travelling, generally speaking, in very bad roads, and often in places where there was no road at all, to avoid, not only the cities and towns, but even the villages. In the mean time, I seldom had any other support but some coarse provisions, and a very small quantity even of them, that the poor shepherds, the countrymen, or wood cleavers, I met in those unfrequented by-places, could spare me. My horse fared not much better than myself; but, in choosing my sleeping-place, I consulted his convenience as much as my own, passing the night where I found most shelter for myself, and most grass for him. In Italy there are a very few solitary farm-houses or cottages, the country people there all live together in villages; and I thought it far safer to lie where I could be any way sheltered, than to venture into any of them. Thus I spent seventeen days before I got out of the ecclesiastical state; and I very narrowly escaped being taken or murdered on the very borders of that state; it happened thus:

I had passed two whole days without any kind of subsistence whatever, meeting with nobody in the by-roads that would supply me with any, and fearing to come near any house, as I was not far from the borders of the dominions of the Pope. I thought I should be able to hold out till I got into the Modanese, where I believed I should be in less danger than while I remained in the papal dominions; but finding myself, about noon of the third day, extremely weak and ready to faint away, I came into the high road that leads from Bologna to Florence, a few miles from the former city, and alighted at a post-house, that stood quite by itself. Having asked the woman of the house whether she had any victuals ready, and being told that she had, I went to open the door of the only room in the house, (that being a place where gentlemen only stop to change horses,) and saw to my great surprise, a placard pasted on it, with a most minute description of my whole person, and the promise of a reward of 800 crowns (about £200 English money) for delivering me up alive to the Inquisition, being a fugitive from the holy tribunal, and of 600 crowns for my head. By the same placard, all persons were forbidden, on the pain of the greater excommunication, to receive, harbor, or entertain me, to conceal, or screen me, or to be any way aiding and assisting me in making my escape. This greatly alarmed me, as the reader may well imagine; but I was still more affrighted, when entering the room, I saw two fellows drinking there, who, fixing their eyes upon me as soon as I came in, continued looking at me very steadfastly. I strove by wiping my face, by blowing my nose, by looking out of the window, to prevent their having a full view of me. But, one of them saying, “The gentleman seems afraid to be seen,” I put up my handkerchief, and turning to the fellow, said boldly, “What do you mean, you rascal? Look at me—am I afraid to be seen?” He said nothing, but looking again steadfastly at me, and nodding his head, went out, and his companion followed him. I watched them, and seeing them, with two or three more, in close conference, and no doubt consulting whether they should apprehend me or not, I walked that moment into the stable, mounted my horse unobserved by them, and while they were deliberating in an orchard behind the house, rode off at full speed, and in a few hours got into the Modanese, where I refreshed both with food and with rest, as I was there in no immediate danger, my horse and myself. I was indeed surprised to find that those fellows did not pursue me; nor can I in any other way account for it, but by supposing, what is not improbable, that as they were strangers, as well as myself, and had all the appearance of banditti, or ruffians flying out of the dominions of the Pope, the woman of the house did not care to trust them with her horses. From the Modanese I continued my journey, more leisurely through the Parmesan, the Milanese, and part of the Venetian territory, to Chiavenna, subject, with its district, to the Grisons, who abhor the very name of the Inquisition, and are ever ready to receive and protect all who, flying from it, take refuge, as many Italians do, in their dominions. However, as I proposed getting as soon as I could to the city of Bern, the metropolis of that great Protestant canton, and was informed that my best way was through the cantons of Ury and Underwald, and part of the canton of Lucern, all three popish cantons, I carefully concealed who I was, and from whence I came. For, though no Inquisition prevails among the Swiss, yet the Pope’s nuncio, who resides at Lucern, might have persuaded the magistrates of those popish cantons to stop me, as an apostate and deserter from the order.

Having rested a few days at Chiavenna, I resumed my journey quite refreshed, continuing it through the country of the Grisons, and the two small cantons of Ury and Underwald, to the canton of Lucern. There I missed my way, as I was quite unacquainted with the country, and discovering a city at a distance, was advancing to it very slowly, as I knew not where I was; when a countryman whom I met, informed me that the city before me was Lucern. Upon that intelligence, I turned out of the road as soon as the countryman was out of sight; and that night I passed with a good-natured shepherd in his cottage, who supplied me with sheep’s milk, and my horse with plenty of grass. I set out very early next morning, making the best of my way westward, as I knew that Bern lay west of Lucern. But, after a few miles, the country proved very mountainous, and having traveled the whole day over mountains, I was overtaken among them by night. As I was, looking out for a place where I might shelter myself during the night, against the snow and rain, (for it both snowed and rained,) I perceived a light at a distance, and making toward it, got into a kind of a foot-path, but so narrow and rugged that I was obliged to lead my horse, and feel my way with one foot, (having no light to direct me,) before I durst move the other. Thus, with much difficulty, I reached the place where the light was, a poor little cottage, and knocking at the door, was asked by a man within, who I was, and what I wanted? I answered that I was a stranger, and had lost my way. “Lost your way?” replied the man, “there is no way here to lose.” I then asked him in what canton I was, and upon his answering, that I was in the canton of Bern, “I thank God,” I cried out transported with joy, “that I am.” The good man answered, “And so do I.” I then told him who I was, and that I was going to Bern, but had quite lost myself, by keeping out of the high roads, to avoid falling into the hands of those who sought my destruction. He thereupon opened the door; received and entertained me with all the hospitality his poverty would admit of; regaled me with sour crout and some new-laid eggs, the only provisions he had, and clean straw with a kind of rug for my bed, he having no other for himself and wife. The good woman expressed as much satisfaction and good nature in her countenance, as her husband, and said many kind things in the Swiss language, which her husband interpreted to me in the Italian; for that language he well understood, and spoke so as to be understood, having learned it, as he told me, in his youth, while servant in a public house on the borders of Italy, where both languages are spoken. I never passed a more comfortable night; and no sooner did I begin to stir in the morning, than the good man and his wife came both to know how I had rested; and, wishing they had been able to accommodate me better, obliged me to breakfast on two eggs, which Providence, they said, had supplied them with for that purpose. I then took leave of the wife, who, with her eyes lifted up to Heaven, seemed most sincerely to wish me a good journey. As for the husband, he would by all means attend me to the high road leading to Bern; which road, he said, was but two miles distant from that place. But he insisted on my first going back with him to see the way I had come the night before; the only way, he said, I could have possibly come from the neighboring canton of Lucern. I saw it, and shuddered at the danger I had escaped; for I found that I had walked and led my horse a good way along a very narrow path on the brink of a very dangerous precipice. The man made so many pious and pertinent remarks on the occasion, as both charmed and surprised me. I no less admired his disinterestedness than his piety; for, upon our parting, after he had attended me till I was out of all danger of losing my way, I could by no means prevail upon him to accept of any reward for his trouble. He had the satisfaction, he said, of having relieved me in the greatest distress, which was in itself a sufficient reward, and he cared for no other.

I reached Bern that night, and proposed staying some time there; but being informed by the principal minister of the place, to whom I discovered myself, that boats were frequently down the Rhine, at that time of the year, with goods and passengers from Basil to Holland, and advised by him to avail myself of that opportunity, I set out accordingly the next day, and crossing the popish canton of Soleurre in the night, but very carefully avoiding the town of that name, I got early the next morning to Basil. There I met with a most friendly reception from one of the

ministers of that place, having been warmly recommended to him by a letter I brought with me from his brother at Bern. As a boat was to sail in two days, he entertained me very elegantly during that time at his house, and I embarked the third day, leaving my horse to my host, in return for his kindness.

The company in the boat consisted of a few traders, of a great many vagabonds, the very refuse of the neighboring nations, and some criminals flying from justice. But I was not long with them; for the boat striking against a rock not far from Strasburgh, I resolved not to wait till it was refitted, (as it was not my design to go to Holland) but to pursue my journey partly in the common diligence or stage-coach, and partly on post-horses, through France into Flanders.

Having got safe into French Flanders, I there repaired to the college of the Scotch Jesuits at Douay, and discovering myself to the rector, I acquainted him with the cause of my sudden departure from Italy, and begged him to give immediate notice of my arrival, as well as of the motives of my flight, to Michael Angelo Tamburini, general of the order, and my very particular friend.

The rector wrote, as I had desired him, to the general, and the general, taking no notice of my flight, in his answer, (for he could not disapprove it, and did not think it safe to approve it,) ordered me to continue where I was till further orders. I arrived at Douay early in May; and continued there till the latter end of June, or the beginning of July, when the rector received a second letter from the general, acquainting him, that he had been commanded by the congregation of the Inquisition, to order me wherever I was, back to Italy; to promise me, in their name, full pardon and forgiveness, if I obeyed; but if I did not obey, to treat me as an apostate. He added, that the same order had been transmitted, soon after my flight, to the nuncios at the different Roman Catholic courts, and he, therefore, advised me to consult my own safety without further delay.

Upon the receipt of the general’s kind letter, the rector was of opinion that I should repair by all means and without loss of time, to England, not only as the safest asylum I could fly to in my present situation, but as a place where I should soon recover my native language, and be usefully employed, as soon as I recovered it, either there or in Scotland. I readily closed with the rector’s opinion, being very uneasy in my mind, as my old doubts, in point of religion, daily gained ground, and new ones arose upon my reading (which was my only employment) the books of controversy I found in the library of the college. The place being thus agreed on, and it being at the same time settled between the rector and me, that I should set out on the very next morning, I solemnly promised, at his request and desire, to take no kind of notice, after my arrival in England, of his having been any ways privy to my flight, or of the general’s letter to him. This promise I have faithfully and honorably observed; and should have thought myself guilty of the blackest ingratitude if I had not observed it, being sensible that, had it been known at Rome, that either the rector or general had been accessory to my flight, the Inquisition would have resented it severely in both. For, although a Jesuit in France, in Flanders, or in Germany, is out of the reach of the Inquisition, the general is not; and the high tribunal not only have it in their power to punish the general himself, who resides constantly at Rome, but may oblige him to inflict what punishment they please on any of the order obnoxious to them.

The rector went that very night out of town; and in his absence, but not without his privity, I took one of the horses of the college, early next morning, as if I were going for change of air, being somewhat indisposed, to pass a few days at Lisle; but steering a different course, I reached Aire that night, and Calais the next day. I was there in no danger of being stopped and seized at the persecution of the Inquisition, a tribunal no less abhorred in France than in England. But, being informed by the general, that the nuncios at the different courts had been ordered, soon after my flight, to cause me to be apprehended in Roman Catholic countries, through which I might pass, as an apostate or deserter from the order, I was under no small apprehension of being discovered and apprehended as such, even at Calais. No sooner, therefore, did I alight at the inn, than I went down to the quay; and there, as I was very little acquainted with the sea, and thought the passage much shorter than it is, I endeavored to engage some fisherman to carry me that very night, in one of their small vessels, over to England. This alarmed the guards of the harbor; and I should have been certainly apprehended as a person guilty, or suspected of some great crime, fleeing from justice, had not Lord Baltimore, whom I had the good luck to meet in the inn, informed me of my danger, and pitying my condition, attended me that moment, with his company, to the port, and conveyed me immediately on board of his yacht. There I lay that night, leaving every thing that I had, but the clothes on my back, in the inn; and the next day his lordship set me ashore at Dover, from whence I came in the common stage to London.