sideration to the Protestant cause, wherever its supporters were found.

At length, in 1589, Henry IV. ascended the throne. Never had a Prince been nurtured amidst greater dangers, concerned in more critical enterprises, or come to a throne more encompassed with difficulties. He had been well educated by his excellent mother, whose prudence and power he inherited, but not her piety. Gay and dissolute in his habits, he lived constantly under the influence of women of evil character. These, however, were in no way suffered to interfere with political matters, which he directed himself, aided by the Duc De Sully, one of the most faithful and able ministers that ever served a monarch. Henry was born in the Protestant faith, and had maintained his profession amidst the greatest temptations to abandon it. He had contended nobly against the religious faction which opposed his cause; and, although inflexibility was not one of his characteristics, he had never, except for a short time after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, been tempted to relinquish his profession. His character was bold and generous, prompt and active, liberal and courteous; and a ruling passion of his mind was the good of his country. In the year 1572, he married Margaret, sister of Charles IX. from whom he was divorced. He married a second time Mary of Medicis. This marriage was the first step by which he allied himself to the Catholics; and it was doubted by some whether to it may not be traced another great error of his life, his abjuration of the Protestant faith, which took place in the year 1592. In the year 1598, however, he granted all his subjects full liberty of conscience by the famous Edict of Nantes, and the Reformation seemed to be established throughout his dominions; but during the minority of Louis XIV. this edict was revoked by Cardinal Mazarine, since which time the Protestants have often been cruelly persecuted; nor has the profession of the Reformed Religion in France, been at any time so safe as in most other countries of Europe.

In the other parts of Europe the cause of the Reformation made a considerable though secret progress. Some countries

threw off the Romish yoke entirely, and in others a prodigious number of families embraced the principles of the Reformed Religion. It is certain indeed, and some Roman Catholics themselves do not hesitate to acknowledge it, that the Papal doctrines and authority would have fallen into ruin in all parts of the world at once, had not the force of the secular arm been employed to support the tottering edifice. In the Netherlands particularly, the most grievous persecutions took place, so that under the authority of the Emperor Charles V. upwards of 100,000 were destroyed, while still greater cruelties were exercised upon the people by his son Philip II. The revolt of the United Provinces, however, and motives of real policy, at last, put a stop to these furious proceedings; and, though in many provinces of the Netherlands, the establishment of the Popish Religion was still continued, the Protestants were delivered from the danger of persecution on account of their principles. In all the provinces of Italy, but more especially in the territories of Venice, Tuscany, and Naples, the superstition of Rome lost ground, and great numbers of people of all ranks expressed an aversion to the Papal yoke. This occasioned violent and dangerous commotions in the kingdom of Naples in the year 1546; which, however, were at last quelled by the united forces of Charles V. and his viceroy Don Pedro di Toledo. In several places the Pope put a stop to the progress of the Reformation, by letting loose the Inquisitors; who spread dreadful marks of their barbarity through the greatest parts of Europe. These formidable ministers of superstition put so many to death, and perpetrated such horrid acts of cruelty and oppression, that most of the reformed consulted their safety by a voluntary exile, while others returned to the religion of Rome, at least in external appearance. But the Inquisition, which frighted into the profession of Popery several Protestants in other parts of Italy, could never make its way into the kingdom of Naples; nor could either the authority or intreaties of the Pope engage the Neapolitans to admit even visiting Inquisitors.

In the earlier years of the Reformation, events occurred in Spain, of a nature the most interesting and surprising, and

which nothing but the prodigious power of the Inquisition has prevented from becoming the admiration and astonishment of posterity. It appears that the Emperor Charles V. and his son Philip II. who succeeded him on the throne of Spain in 1555, conceived measures for the defence of the Church of Rome, which, had they been honestly pursued, would have ensured to those monarchs the applause and gratitude of all posterity. They selected a number of Ecclesiastics, the most distinguished in the Spanish seats of learning for erudition, talents, and piety. These they sent into the Netherlands and Germany, expressly that they might become fully acquainted with the doctrines of the Reformers, and thus might be qualified effectually and unanswerably to refute them. The event was, that all, or nearly all, of these eminent scholars and divines became convinced of the truth of the Protestant doctrines, and returned to Spain glowing with holy zeal to communicate the truth to their countrymen. Their first attempts were very successful. The Gospel light which they communicated, was received by many with full conviction, and was rapidly diffusing itself in all directions. Their success was owing, under the Divine blessing, to the clearness and fervour with which they asserted and established these points: that the Pope is Antichrist; that the worship of Saints and Angels is idolatrous; that the justification of a sinner in the sight of God, can be obtained by no works or merits of his own, but only by faith in the righteousness and atonement of Jesus Christ.

But, by the unquestionably wise and good, though awfully mysterious, permission of Providence, the powers of darkness obtained a complete triumph over these auspicious beginnings. The illustrious confessors, with all who had received their doctrines, or manifested a favourable disposition towards them, were thrown into the prisons of the Inquisition; and partly by torture and other modes of secret murder, and partly by being burned alive at the autos da fe, they were all exterminated! This noble army of martyrs included many persons of rank and eminence; but, by the influence of that most diabolical tribunal, whose laws render it penal on the nearest relation to inquire after the fate, or recite the history of its victims, their

very names have been suppressed, and will probably never be completely divulged on earth, unless the archives of the Inquisition, brought to light, as they may some time be, shall disclose the dreadful secrets of the prison-house. It was also the custom to put a gag upon the mouths of those who were publicly executed, in order that no testimony might be borne to truth, or complaint uttered of the infernal wickedness that was practised on the blessed sufferers.

But the hour is at hand, and even now is, when all things shall tend to the establishment of truth; its enemies shall be found liars, and God shall be abundantly glorified. The hand of power cannot always coerce, nor its influence subdue, the progress of the religion of Jesus Christ. We may, therefore, anticipate the now hastening advent of that blessed period, when the God of all Grace will vindicate His own cause, and enable it to triumph over all opposition.

CHAPTER XV.

ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE REFORMATION.

EUROPE, plunged for several centuries in stupor and apathy, interrupted only by wars, or rather by incursions and robberies, without any beneficial object to humanity, received, at once, from the REFORMATION, a new life and a new activity. An universal and deep interest agitated the nations, their powers were developed, their minds expanded by new political ideas. Former Revolutions had only exercised men's arms; this employed their heads. The people, who, before, had been only estimated as flocks, passively subject to the

caprice of their leaders, now began to act for themselves, and to feel their importance and utility. Those who embraced the Reformation, made common cause with their princes for liberty; and hence arose, a closer bond, a community of interest and of action, between the Sovereign and his subjects. Both were for ever delivered from the excessive and burdensome power of the Clergy, as well as from the struggle, so distressing to all Europe, between the Popes and the Emperors, for supreme power. Social order was now regulated, and brought nearer to perfection. In one part of Europe, the Church ceased to form an extraneous state within the State; from which it was easy to foretell, that this change would, one day, be effected through the whole of it, and that its head would be reduced to the simple spiritual primacy. At length, the Catholic Clergy reformed their conduct on the example of the Protestants, and gained in manners, knowledge, and esteem, as much as they lost in power and riches.

Nor has science been less a gainer. It is little more than two centuries, since Galileo, having discovered and collected incontestible proofs of the true motion of the earth, was condemned as an heretic, to perpetual imprisonment, by the tribunal of the Inquisition. The ancient system of Roman Catholicism was diametrically opposite to the progress of knowledge; the Reformation which has contributed to free the human mind from such an adversary, must ever be considered as one of the most fortunate epochs in the intellectual culture of modern nations. The opposite system of liberality, of examination, of free criticism, established by the Reformation, has become the Ægis under which the Galileos of subsequent ages have been enabled securely to develope their exalted conceptions.

The moral effects of the Reformation on the opinions and conduct of mankind, must not be overlooked. The intention of the Reformers, was, in principle, to free themselves from the despotism and infallibility of the Popes; to depend only on the Sacred Writings for the grounds of their belief; and, in short, to overthrow the scholastic divinity which was become the soul of the Roman Theology, and the firm support