‘Magna studiosorum caterva, eum a sua domo in auditorium deducebat, et ex eo iterum domum comitabatur.’—_Curionis Historia_, p. 343. Footnote 831: Maimbourg, _Histoire du Calvinisme_, liv. i. p. 61. Footnote 832: Varillas, _Histoire des Hérésies_, ii. p. 499. Brantôme, _Dames Illustres_. Footnote 833: _P. Martyr Vermigli_, par C. Schmidt, p. 11. Footnote 834: ‘Città lutherana.’—Poli, _Epist._ iii. p. 84. CHAPTER XIX. THE GOSPEL IN THE CENTRE OF ITALY. (1520 TO 1536). While Venice, Turin, Milan, Ferrara, Modena, and other cities of Upper Italy were listening to the voice of the Gospel, the centre and south of the peninsula had also their witnesses to the truth. [Sidenote: Character Of Occhino.] Bernardino Occhino, born at Sienna in 1487, four years younger than Luther and Zwingle, and twenty-one years older than Calvin, was the most famous preacher of the age. In his sermons were to be found that elegance, that choice of words and those turns of expression which produce clearness, grace, and facility of style; but at the same time he was not void of imagination or enthusiasm, and possessed a boldness of language which surprises and carries away those who listen to it. Without being one of those firm, solid spirits who search into all knowledge, and weigh and measure all thoughts, he had strong religious cravings, and as he was moved himself, he moved his hearers. ‘From the very beginning of my life,’ he said, ‘I had a great longing for the heavenly paradise.’ He determined to win it, but went astray on the road. His studies were imperfect; he knew little Greek and no Hebrew: his knowledge of Christian doctrine was neither deep nor extensive; he sometimes allowed himself to descend to trifles and even to contradictions; and without denying the essential doctrines of faith, he was found in the latter part of his life employing obscure and equivocal expressions concerning them. He inopportunely defended customs tolerated under the old covenant, but manifestly forbidden under the new, and thus drew down much affliction on his old age. Occhino was a great orator, but not a great divine.