INTRODUCTION:

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T is the design of this work to through all the periods of her history, peropen an honest page of the {secution has been the doctrine and prachistory of the church of Rome. {tice of the church, as well those of a mild It makes no attempt to con- as of an inhuman temper; it is an unalterceal the deformity, or excuseable and essential feature of popery, which the wrong which that history { no change or modification can destroy, and discloses. If Romanism is worth knowing no circumstances for a time suppress. at all, it is worth knowing as it is. If the shall be happy if the sad and mournful tale voice of the past utters any lesson, it should we have to tell shall produce a conviction be fully stated and fairly learned. The of this truth. editor does not possess, and therefore has The aspect of the times both favor and not practised upon, that false liberality demand a general and thorough discussion which shrinks from calling things by their of the character and claims of popery. It right names. Truth is good enough and is no longer a question of speculation or kind enough for him; and if the faithful theory. The encroachments which popery recital of the deeds of Rome pain the ear has made upon every department of society, and shock the heart, it can not be the fault and the position of influence, respectability, of him who makes it, but of the system and force, which it is fast assuming, render whose records constitute the revolting de- it fearfully practical. It has become the tails. We desire to create a salutary dread { great question of the age, and whatever of popery, by showing how naturally and may be our reluctance to enter upon it, it inevitably it leads to cruelty, intolerance, can no longer be avoided. At such a time, and superstition. Such has always been it is the belief of the editor, that a work, its history, and, from its very nature, al-presenting the system in the form and asways will be. The assumptions and prin- pect of impartial history, will be both acciples of the system render persecution ceptable and useful. unavoidable. The idea that the church is The work is a diligent and laborious infallible, and that there can be no salva-compilation of Christian Martyrology, from tion out of her, almost sanctifies the persecution of what she esteems heresy, and turns the cruelties and bloodshed, which may be requisite to suppress it, to guard the church from supposed corruption, into positive virtue and benevolence. Thus the purest and most compassionate, under the influence of the system, are equally liable to practise upon the revolting principle, as the ambitious or the cruel. Our design is to illustrate this truth by showing that,

the earliest period to the present time. Access has been had to a great variety of materials, and the editor's aim has been to select and present, in a succinct and striking form, the principal instances of persecution and cruelty practised by the Romish church. The work will contain many facts and illustrations which have never appeared before, and will, when completed, form a complete and accurate portraiture of Rome as it was and Rome as it it. Great ex