women of all ages, who would not yield, were not only stripped of all they had, but kept long from sleep, driven about from place to place, and hunted out of their retirements. The women were carried into nunneries; in many of which they were almost starved, whipped and barbarously treated.' The testimony of Bishop Burnet is corroborated by that of Voltaire. After all the churches of the Reformed were demolished, and their pastors banished, nothing more remained than to retain in the Roman communion such as had quitted their religion. There were about 400,000 of these in the kingdom soon after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. These were obliged to go to mass and to communicate ; some who refused the host after having once received it were burnt alive. The bodies of such as refused to receive the sacrament at their death were drawn upon a hurdle and cast upon a dunghill. Ministers returning into the kingdom were subject to the penalty of death, and a reward of five thousand five hundred livres was promised to any one who should inform against them. Several returned and were either hanged or broken upon the wheel. The Protestants assembled everywhere to sing Psalms and to pray, though the penalty of death was denounced against all such as should hold these assemblies.' (Age of Louis XIV.) In Spain "it has been given to the Beast to make war with the saints and to overcome them." It is the boast of that unhappy country that she has, by her Inquisitions and Autos da-fè, driven away all heresy ; Spain but to boast in this is to glory in her shame. has obtained her wish. She has driven away what she is pleased to call heresy; and the consequence is, that by the righteous judgment of God, she is degraded in the scale of nations. In Portugal it has been "given to the Beast to make war with the saints and to overcome them." Who can read Dr. M. Geddes' account of an Act of Faith in Lisbon in the year 1682, and contemplate the exhibition, when the dogs' beards are to be made by thrusting flaming furzes into their faces, which is always accompanied by loud demonstrations of joy; when, by contrivance, the victims are placed so high above the flames, that they are really roasted, not burnt to death; and the intervening cry, Misericordia par amor de Dios,-the whole beheld, as the author repeats in this instance, with such transports of joy and satisfaction, as are shewn on no other occasions, by a people who are yet accustomed tenderly to lament other executions. Who can contemplate a scene like this without involuntarily striving to relieve his sickening spirit with the scriptural exclamation, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?' (See Indexes of the Church of Rome, p. 300.) In Italy, it has been given to the Beast to make war with the saints and to overcome them.' The manner in which the province of Calabria was cleared of heretics was most horrid. We will give the account in the words of a Roman Catholic, servant to Ascanio Carraccioli, who witnessed the scene. 'Most illustrious Sir Having written you from time to time what has been done here in the affair of heresy, I have now to inform you of the dreadful justice which began to be executed on these Lutherans, early this morning, being the 11th of June. And, to tell you the truth, I can compare it to nothing but the slaughter of so many sheep. They were all shut up in one house as in a sheep-fold. The executioner went, and, bringing out one of them, covered his face with a napkin, or benda, as we call it, led him out to a field near the house, and, causing him to kneel down, cut his throat with a knife. Then, taking off the bloody napkin, he went and brought out another, whom he put to death after the same manner. In this way, the whole number, amounting to eightyeight men, were butchered. I leave you to figure to yourself the lamentable spectacle, for I can scarcely refrain from tears while I write; nor was there any person, who after witnessing the execution of one, could stand to look on a second. The meekness and patience with which they went to martyrdom and death are incredible. Some of them at their death professed themselves of the same faith with us, but the greater part died in their cursed obstinacy. All the old men met their death with cheerfulness, but the young exhibited symptoms of fear. I still shudder while I think of the executioner with the bloody knife in his teeth, the dripping napkin in his hand, and his arms besmeared with gore, going to the house and taking out one victim after another, just as a butcher does the sheep which he means to kill. According to orders, waggons are already come to carry away the dead bodies, which are appointed to be quartered, and hung up on the public roads from one end of Calabria to the other. Unless his Holiness and the Viceroy of Naples command the Marquis de Buccianici, the governor of this province, to stay his hand and leave off, he will go on to put others to the torture, and multiply the executions, until he has destroyed the whole. Even to-day, a decree has passed that a hundred grown up women shall be put to the question, and afterwards executed; in order that there may be a complete mixture, and we may be able to say, in well-sounding language, that so many persons were punished, partly men and partly women. This is all I have to say of this act of justice. It is now eight o'clock, and I shall presently hear accounts of what was said by these obstinate people as they were led to execution. Some have testified such obstinacy and stubbornness as to refuse to look on a crucifix or confess to a priest; and they are to be burnt alive. The heretics taken in Calabria, amount to sixteen hundred, all of whom are condemned but only eighty-eight have as yet been put to death. This people came originally from the valley of Angrogna, near Savoy, and in Calabria are called Ultramontani. Four other places in the kingdom of Naples are inhabited by the same race, but I do not know that they behave ill; for they are a simple unlettered people, and, I am told, shew themselves sufficiently religious at the hour of death.' For this account we are indebted to the researches of Dr. M'Crie, who adds ;— Lest the reader should be inclined to doubt the truth of such horrid atrocities, the following summary account of them, by a Neapolitan historian of that age, may be added. After giving some account of the Calabrian heretics, he says, Some had their throats cut, others were sawn through the middle, and others thrown from the top of a high cliff all were cruelly but deservedly put to death. It was strange to hear of their obstinacy : for while the father saw his son put to death, and the son his father, they not only exhibited no symptoms of grief, but said joyfully that they would be angels of God; so much had the devil, to whom they had given themselves up as a prey, deceived them.' (History of the Reformation in Italy, pp. 305-7.) : It is to be observed that these persecutions were sanctioned by the Popes. The canons of the fourth Council of Lateran were drawn up by Pope Innocent III. and the bishops signified their assent in silence. The third canon of this council enforces persecution on Roman Catholics as a duty. The account of the massacre on St. Bartholomew's day (Aug. 24, 1572) was received at Rome with ecstacy, and public thanks returned to heaven. Not only was the assassination of Henri III. applauded throughout the Catholic world; but the Pope went so far as to say that the murderer, James Clement, a Dominican monk, had performed a famous and memorable act, not without the special providence of God, and the suggestion and assistance of the Holy Spirit!' Nor did Sixtus V. stop here; but in the height of his |