formers  for  many  years,  till  subdued  by  her  husband's
harshness  and  threats  of  the  Inquisition;^  the  great  scholar
and  professor  of  eloquence,  Aonio  Paleario,  friend  of  Ochino,
who  taught  with  freedom  and  power  in  most  of  the
chief  towns  of  northern  Italy,  unconscious  or  disdainful  of
danger,  till  he  was  seized  and  after  two  years'  imprisonment
hanged  and  burned  in  Rome  at  the  age  of  seventy ;  even
Reginald  Pole,  a  cardinal  and  a  Plantagenet,  cousin  of  the
Tudors,  a  friend  of  the  Reformers  and  advocate  of  some  of
their  opinions,  yet  counseling  them  to  keep  their  doctrine
to  themselves,  and  consenting  weakly  to  the  cruelties  of
Bloody  Mary :  *'  whether  of  good  or  bad  faith  in  all  this,
God  knows,"  says  an  Italian  compiler  of  these  times.'^

The  writings  of  Valdes  include  the  counsels  of  personal
piety  already  mentioned  ;  a  brief  digest  called  '*  One  Hun-
dred and  Ten  Considerations,"  held  to  be  his  most  char-
acteristic exposition ;  and  comments  on  several  books  of
Scripture,  of  which  those  on  the  Psalms  {Saltario),  on
"  Matthew,"  and  on  *'  Romans  "  are  best  known.  In  gen-
eral, these  counsels  and  comments  are  purely  those  of  prac-
tical and  personal  religion,  extraordinarily  free  from  any
assumption  or  even  hint  of  dogma.  The  one  point  of
Christ's  sacrifice  is,  indeed,  incessantly  urged,  in  the  gen-
eral sense  of  the  Reformers,  and  with  no  reference  what-
ever to  the  mystery  in  which  it  has  been  enveloped  by  the
church  ;  but,  apart  from  this,  there  is  little  or  nothing  to
suggest  an  opinion  on  any  point  in  controversy.  As  to
such,  he  is  betrayed  into  no  statement  that  may  not  be  put
in  the  very  words  of  Scripture :  this  makes  what  is  some-
times called  "  his  private  opinion  on  the  Trinity."  In  the
commentary  on  Matthew  (for  example),  perhaps  the  most

1  Geuerosa  Wanivio,  colta  di  spirito,  gciililc  di  i/mdi,  c  og^^rfio  d\i>n»iirazi-
one  per  qtiauti  la  circoiidaratio.
