§ 129. BERNAKDINO OCHINO. 1487-1565. 649
published by an Italian printer at Basel. In these books Ochino discusses the doctrines of predestination, free-will, the Trinity, and monogamy, in a latitudinarian and sceptical way, which made the heretical view appear stronger in the argument than the orthodox.
The most objectionable is the dialogue on polygamy (Dial. XXI.), which he seemed to shield by the example of the patriarchs and kings of the Old Testament ; while monogamy was not sufficiently defended, although it is declared to be the only moral form of marriage.^ The subject was much ventilated in that age, especially in connection with the bigamy of Philip of Hesse and the deplorable connivance of the Lutheran Reformers. A dialogue in favor of polygamy appeared in 1541, under the fictitious name of " Huldericus Neobulus," in the interest of Philip of Hesse. From this dialogue Ochino borrowed some of his strongest arguments.^ This accounts for his theoretical error. He certainly could have had no personal motive, for he was then in his seventy-seventh year, a widower with four children.^ His moral life had always been unblemished, as his congregation and Bullinger testified.
The End.
The dialogue on polygamy caused the unceremonious deposition and expulsion of the old man from Ziirich by the Council, in December, 1563. In vain did he protest against misinterpretation, and beg to be allowed to remain during the cold winter with his four children. He was ordered to quit the city within three weeks. Even the mild Bullinger
1 I learn from Schelhorn (III. 2152), that this dialogue appeared in an English translation, " by a Person of Quality," in London, 1657.
2 The correspondence of the two books has been proven by Schelhorn, I.e., III. 2140 sqq., and I. 631 sqq. Bucer was suspected of being concealed under the Neobulus, but he denied it. See Schelhorn, I. 634.
2 His wife died in consequence of an accident shortly before the Dialogues were published. Benrath, p. o07.
650 THE KEFOKMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
did not protect him. He went to Basel, but the magistrates of that city were even more intolerant than the clergy, and would not permit him to remain during the winter. Castellio, the translator of the obnoxious books, was also called to account, but was soon summoned to a higher judgment (December 23). The printer, Perna, who had sold all the copies, was tlireatened with punishment, but seems to have escaped it.
Ochino found a temporary hiding-place in Niirnberg, and sent from there in self-defence an ill-tempered attack upon Ziirich, to which the ministers of that city replied.^
Being obliged to leave Niirnberg, he turned his weary steps to Poland, and was allowed to preach to his countrymen at Cracow. But Cardinal Hosius and the papal nuncio denounced him as an atheist, and induced the king to issue an edict by which all non-Catholic foreigners were expelled from Poland (Aug. 6, 1564).
Ochino entered upon his last weary journey. At Pinczow he was seized by the pestilence and lost three of his children ; nothing is known of the fourth. He himself survived, but a few weeks afterwards he took sick again and ended his Ironely life at the end of December, 1564, at Schlackau in Moravia : a victim of his sceptical speculations and the intolerance of his age. A veil is thrown over his last days : no monument, no inscription marks his grave. What a sad contrast between the bright morning and noon-day, and the gloomy evening, of his public life !
A false rumor was spread that before his journey to Poland he met at Schaffhausen the cardinal of Lorraine on his return from the Council of Trent, and offered to prove twenty-four errors against the Reformed Church. The offer was declined with the remark : " Four errors are enough." The rumor was investigated, but could not be verified. He himself denied
1 Spongia adversus aspergines Bernardini Ochini, etc., printed in Hottinger's Historia Eccles. N. TL, and in Schelhorn, III. 2157-2194.