Leonard
Ryssenius refuted the work in his _Justa detestatio libelli sceleratissimi
Hadriani Beverlandi, de Peccato originali_ (1680). He would doubtless have
incurred a harder fate on account of another immoral work, entitled _De
prostibulis veterum_, if one of his relations had not charitably committed
it to the flames. Before the sentence of banishment had been pronounced he
wrote an apology, professed penitence, and was allowed to remain at
Utrecht, where he composed several pamphlets. Being exiled on account of
the indecency of his writings, he came to England, where he affected
decorum, and his friend and countryman Isaac Vossius, who enjoyed the
patronage of Charles II. and was Canon of Windsor, obtained for him a
pension charged upon some ecclesiastical fund. Never were ecclesiastical
funds applied to a baser use; for although Beverland wrote another book
[Footnote: _De fornicatione cavenda admonitio (Londini, Bateman_, 1697,
in-8).] with the apparent intention of warning against vice, the argument
seemed to inculcate the lusts which he condemned. Having become insane he
died, in extreme poverty, in 1712. He imagined that he was pursued by a
hundred men who had sworn to kill him.
An early poet who suffered death on account of his writings was Cecco
d'Ascoli, Professor of Astrology at the famous University of Bologna in
1322. His poems have been collected and published under the title _Opere
Poetiche del' illustro poeta Cecco d'Ascoli, cioe, l'acerba.
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