THE 8TORIKS OF NOTED PAINTINGS. 279 



MARTYRDOM OF ANGELTJS MERULA, in 1557. 



By BAREND WYNVELD, Professor in the Academy of Fine 

 Arts, at Amsterdam. Philip II of Spain, a cruel and bigoted 

 supporter of the Inquisition, attempted to force this institution 

 upon the free-spirited Hollanders, who were at this time the sub- 

 jects of Spain. He seems to have had the idea that he could 

 crush out the now rising reform of Calvinism, by hanging or 

 burning all heretics. But a policy which might be effectual witli 

 the Latin race would not and did not succeed with the Germanic. 

 There resulted from it only the famous Revolt of the Nether- 

 lands, which established their independence, and religious liberty 

 in the north of Europe. 



One of the first victims of King Philip's fanaticism was 

 Angelus Merula, who was condemned to be tortured and then 

 burnt alive. When brought, lacerated and bleeding, from the 

 rack to the stake, the old man said his Jast prayer and died. 

 They could then only burn the lifeless body which was done at 

 Mons, in Belgium, on the 26th of July, 1557. 



GALILEO BEFORE THE INQUISITION. 



By T. BANTI, of Florence. Galileo is before the Tribunal of 

 Three called the " Inquisition," in Rome, on the 22d of June, 

 1633. He is seventy years old, and has been summoned from 

 Florence to answer to the charge of heresy, and is here compelled 

 to retract and renounce the theory of the revolutions of the earth 

 on its axis and about the sun. He is made to repeat the odious 

 words, " I abjure, curse and detest the error and heresy of the 

 motion of the earth." But, rising from his knees, the indignant 

 old man could not help saying, though in an undertone, "E pur 

 si muovi" ' yet it does move.' 



MARRIAGE OF THE SEA, AT VENICE. 



After the Canaletto school (about 1750). From the earliest 

 times of the Venetian Republic, it was the custom to celebrate 

 the espousal of Yenice to the Adriatic, on ascension day of each 

 year. With the greatest possible display the ruling Doge was 



