Note 26 — SPECIMEN OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE HISTORY OF THE LEAGUE. (continued 2)

Robert Bellarmine, one of the most able controversialists whom the church of Rome has produced, and whose very name became a sort of war-cry of polemical divinity. He was born at Monte Pulciano, in 1542, and entered, in 1560, the order of Jesuits, of which he soon became a distinguished ornament. In the year 1599, he was honoured with a cardinal’s hat, but not till he had carried the principle of “Nolo Episcopari” so far, that the pope was obliged to threaten an anathema, should he persist in declining the proffered honour. Bellarmine died 17th September, 1621, leaving behind him sundry huge volumes of polemical divinity.