Froude says, "he was a man whose history has been
lost in his work, and whose epitaph is the Reformation."
Another translator, whose fate was not so tragic, was the learned Arias
Montanus, a Spaniard, who produced at the command of King Philip II. the
famous Polyglot Bible printed at Antwerp in nine tomes. He possessed a
wonderful knowledge of several languages, and devoted immense labour to
his great work. But in spite of the royal approval of his work his book
met with much opposition on the part of the extreme Roman party, who
accused him to the Pope and made many false charges against him. The Pope
was enraged against Montanus, and he was obliged to go to Rome to plead
his cause. He at length obtained pardon from the Pope, and escaped the
"chariots of fire" which bore the souls of so many martyred saints to
heaven. It is a curious irony of fate that Montanus, who was one of the
chief compilers of the _Index Expurgatorius_, should live to see his own
work placed on the condemned list.
The story of the martyrdom of John Huss is well known, and need not be
here related, but perhaps the books which caused his death are not so
frequently studied or their titles remembered. His most important work was
his _De Ecclesia_, in which he maintained the rigid doctrine of
predestination, denied to the Pope the title of Head of the Church,
declaring that the Pope is the vicar of St.
Pages:
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36