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291 I Henry Newton to Peter Hieronymus Barcellinus, Abbot of St. Eusebius de Urbe.4 Being at length returned safe and well to Florence, from Leghorn and Pisa, where through the Intemperateness of the Air I was very near contracting a Fever; the first thing I had to do, most excellent Barcellinus, being furnished with the most noble Library of the illustrious Magliabechius,5 was to discharge my Promise concerning that great Man Hugo Grotius, and to show from his Writings, particularly his Letters, in which Truth, Candour, Integrity of Heart, and the inward Thoughts of his Mind are discovered; how highly he thought and wrote concerning us all his Lifetime , and a little before his Departure, and when Death and Immortality were in his View. I know what was said of him by that Chief of his Rank Petavius, Brietius and Valesius,6 and many other celebrated Men of your Communion, who wished well and favourably to a Man born for the publick Good of Christianity. It is known to all how greatly he suffered in Goods, Honour and Report, from the Calvinists, both in his own Country and in his Banishment, even after he was advanced to a higher Rank by Foreigners; and how much the Heats of Controversy (whilst he 4. Abbot of the monastery of St. Eusebius in Rome. Until the early nineteenth century , the church of St. Eusebius and adjacent monastery belonged to the Celestines, a branch of the Benedictine Order named after Pope Celestine V (b. 1215). 5. Antonio Magliabechi (1633–1714), librarian to Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany. 6. Denis Pétau or Dionysius Petavius (1583–1652), French Jesuit and eminent Catholic theologian; Philippe Briet or Philippus Brietius (1601–68), French Jesuit; Henri Valois or Henricus Valesius (1603–76), French philologist who studied under the Jesuits. 292 testimonies concer ning hugo grotius set his Mind upon this one thing, to establish Peace in the Commonwealth and between the Churches, which highly displeased many; a strange and grievous thing!) fretted that Disposition, which was otherwise peaceable and modest, after he saw himself treated in such an unworthy manner by his own Friends; and sometimes prevailed over that meek Wisdom which was in him both by Nature and Judgment. Yet these did not hinder his Son,7 who was also a great Man, from saying those things which I shall presently add, concerning his Father, to that great Prince, Charles the IId of Great Britain,8 to whom he dedicated his Father’s Works, and in him to all others; and this when he had no Reason to flatter or fear him, because in the Commonwealth, he was of the contrary Part to Charles’s Sister’s Son;9 and because he was a private Man, wedded to a country and learned Life, and an old Man, not far from Death, nor consequently from Liberty: For he published his Father’s Works, but saw them not after they were published; and his own Life is to be seen and read with the Life of his Father in the same Volume. For thou, says Peter Grotius, art he alone, whom if not the greater, yet the wiser Part of the Christian World, have for a long time acknowledged for their Protector. Thou art he to whose Protection or Defence the Christian Faith willingly commits itself; in whose Kingdoms principally, that Knowledge of the Sacred Writings, that Worship of the Deity, that Moderation of the too free Exercise of Liberty in disputing concerning the secret Doctrines of Faith, is established; whose Agreement with which the Author, my Father, has long since declared, and publickly professed in his Writings. Hear now Hugo Grotius’s own Words, how he expresses his own Sense, in his Epistle to Johannis Corvinis,10 dated in the Year MDCXXXVIII, who was not an English, but a Dutch Divine, of another Church, and also a Lawyer, and consequently skilled in Matters both Divine and Humane; concerning the Reformation of Religion made amongst us in the last 7. Peter Grotius or Pieter de Groot (1615–78). 8. Charles II (1630–85), king of England, Scotland, and Ireland (r. 1660–85). 9. William III (1650–1702), king of England, Scotland, and Ireland (r. 1689–1702), and prince of Orange. He was the son of the sister of Charles II, Mary, princess royal (1631–60), princess of Orange. 10. Hugo Grotius to Johannes Arnoldi Corvinus, 28 May 1638 (BW vol. 9, No. 3595, p. 319). [52...

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