150 THE SWISS KEFORMATION".
cese. He retired to Riva on the Lago di Garda, not far from Trent.
In 1548 lie paid a visit to Padua to take some of his nephews to college. He found the city excited by the fearful tragedy of Francesco Spiera, a lawyer and convert from Romanism, who had abjured the evangelical faith from fear of the Inquisition, and fell into a hell of tortures of conscience under the conviction that he had committed the unpardonable sin by rejecting the truth. He was for several weeks a daily witness, with many others, of the agonies of this most unfortunate of apostates, and tried in vain to comfort him. He thought that we must not despair of any sinner, though he had committed the crimes of Cain and Judas. He prepared himself for his visits by prayer and the study of the comforting promises of the Scriptures. But Spiera had lost all faith, all hope, all comfort; he insisted that he had committed the sin against the Holy Spirit which cannot be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come ; he was tormented by the remembrance of the sins of his youth, the guilt of apostasy, the prospect of eternal punishment which he felt already, and died in utter despair with a heart full of hatred and blasphemy. His death was regarded as a signal judgment of God, a warning example, and an argument for the truth of the evangelical doctrines.^
Vergerio was overwhelmed by this experience, and brought to a final decision. He wrote an apology in which he gives
1 I have given a full account of this tragedy in an appendix to my (German) book on the Sin against the Holy Ghost (Halle, 1841), pp. 173-210, from a rare publication of 191 pages (then in possession of Dr. Hengstenberg in Berlin) : Francisci Spiera., qui, quod susceptam semel evangelicce veritatis professionem abnegasset damnassetque, in horrendam incidit desperationem, Historia, a quatuor summis viris summa fide conscripta, cum clariss. virorum prcefationibus,Colii S. C et lo. Calvini et Petri Pauli Vergerii Apologia : in quibus multa hoc tempore scitu digna gravissime tractantur. . . . Basil. 1550. It was reprinted at Tiibingen, 1558. Vergerio first published an account in his Apologia, 1548 (not 1549), which is contained in that book, and informed Calvin of it in a letter. Sixt gives large extracts, pp. 125-160. See Comba, Francesco Spiera, Firenze, 1883.
§ 38. THE REFORMATION IN THE ITALIAN VALLEYS. 151
an account of the sad story, and renounces his connection with Rome at the risk of persecution, torture, and death. He sent it to the suffragan bishop of Padua, Dec. 13, 1548.
He was deposed and excommunicated by the pope, July 3, 1549, and fled over Bergamo to the Grisons. He remained there till 1553, with occasional journeys to the Valtellina, Chiavenna, Ziirich, Bern, and Basel. He was hospitably received, and developed great activity in preaching and writing. People of all classes gathered around him, and were impressed by his commanding presence and eloquence. He founded a printing-press in Poschiavo in 1549, and issued from it his thunderbolts against popery. He preached at Pontresina and Samaden in the Upper Engadin, and effected the abolition of the mass and the images. He labored as pastor three years (1550-53) at Vicosoprano in Bregaglia. He travelled through the greater part of Switzerland, and made the acquaintance of Bullinger, Calvin, and Beza.
But the humble condition of the Grisons did not satisfy his ambition. He felt isolated, and complained of the inhospitable valleys. He disliked the democratic institutions. He quarrelled with the older Reformers, Comander and Gallicius. He tried to get the whole Synod of the Grisons under his control, and, failing in this, to organize a separate synod of the Italian congregations. Then he asj^ired to a more prominent position at Ziirich or Geneva or Bern, but Bullinger and Calvin did not trust him.
In November, 1553, he gladly accepted a call to Wiirtemberg as counsellor of Duke Christopher, one of the best princes of the sixteenth century, and spent his remaining twelve years in the Duke's service. Hei resided in Tubingen, but had no official connection with the University. He continued to write with his rapid pen inflammatory tracts against popery, promoted the translation and distribution of the Bible in the South Slavonic dialect, maintained an extensive correspondence, and was used in various diplomatic and