We have seen with our own eyes, the Bible itself persecuted not only in Rome, but in Tuscany also. A scandalous process was instituted against a printer, for having published the New Testament, according to the faithful version of Diodati; at a period, too, when the liberty of the press was pretended to be unrestrained. In Piedmont and Genoa, the people are more fortunate, as the Bible is allowed to circulate among them; and our brethren the Waldenses, since they have obtained their civil freedom, have also had their religious liberty granted them. But in all other parts of Italy even the Jews are better off than we are. They are allowed to assemble together and to open their temples to the public; they can educate their children in their own faith, and they are not subject to the pains and penalties of the Romish Church. The Jews are, at least, tolerated in Rome; but we are not. Still we have our secret meetings, even in the papal city; with a prison staring us in the face, we read our Bibles, and meditate on their contents, and we converse with each other on the essentials of salvation, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the true faith, as revealed in his Holy Word: and to these vital points we adjoin all that is necessary for Christian doctrine, at the same time confuting the errors of the Church of the middle ages. And what our brethren are personally engaged upon in Italy, we, who are banished on that very same account, are carrying on in other countries. The day will assuredly come when we shall be re-united, and publicly return thanks to God, for having associated us in the same faith, and saved us through the same hopes. And this day we trust is not far distant. Eight years have now passed away since I first put my hand to this great work, and it has never, during all that time, ceased to go forward. As a minister of the Gospel, a servant of the Church, I called on my brethren to arise from their slumbers, and witness the brilliant light that was brightening the horizon. I called upon them to break the bonds with which they had hitherto been fettered; and, with the Bible in my hand, I endeavoured to enlighten their eyes, and convert their souls. Could I know that the day would arrive when I might myself behold the salvation of my country, I would ask of the Lord that I might then depart in peace from this life, singing the song of Simeon,[95] and hoping for the benediction of the Almighty.