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BOOK V.-SECTION 1.

Cruelties of the Inquisition.

Horrible Cruelties inflicted by order of the Inquisition.
Dress of a Male Penitent who recants to the Inquisition.-Dress
of a Female Penitent who recants to the Inquisition.
Dress of a Female condemned by the Inquisition.—Dress of a
Man condemned by the Inquisition.

BOOK V.-SECTION 2.

PLATE XXVI. Rochus, a Carver of St. Lucar in Spain, burnt by order of the

Inquisition.

BOOK V.-SECTION 5.

PLATE XXVII. Torture of Nicholas Burton by the Inquisitors.

BOOK VII.-SECTION 1.

PLATE XXVIII. A Minister of Bohemia inhumanly murdered by a band of Popish

PLATE

Ruffians.

BOOK VII.-SECTION 5.

XXIX. Assassination of the Prince of Orange by Baltazar Gerard.

BOOK VIII.-SECTION 2.

PLATE XXX. Barbarities exercised by the Popish Persecutors on the Waldenses of Calabria.

BOOK VIII.-SECTION 3.

PLATE XXXI. Massacre of the Protestants in Piedmont.

BOOK VIII-SECTION 5.

PLATE XXXII. Inhuman Bulchery of Seventy Protestants, by order of Pope Pius IV. in 1560.

PLATE XXXIII.

PLATE XXXIV.

BOOK IX.-SECTION 1.

The Emperor Henry IV., with his Empress and Son, waiting
three days and nights, to gain admission to Pope Gregory VI.
King John surrendering his Crown to Pandulph, the Pope's
Legate.

PLATE XXXV. Pope Alexander treading on the neck of Frederic, Emperor of

PLATE XXXVI.

PLATE XXXVII.

Germany.

BOOK IX.-SECTION 2.

Burning of Thomas Badby, in Smithfield, in the Reign of
Henry IV.

Burning of Dr. Barnes, the Rev. W. Jerome, and the Rev. T.
Garret, in Smithfield.

BOOK IX.-SECTION 4.

PLATE XXXVIII. A Woman, with her Sucking Infant, tied together in a bag, and thrown into a River in Scotland; and four Men hung at the same time for eating Goose on a Fast Day.

PLATE XXXIX.

PLATE

PLATE

BOOK XI.-SECTION 1.

The Burning of the Rev. John Rogers, Vicar of St. Sepulchre's, at Smithfield, A. D. 1555.

BOOK XI.-SECTION 4.

XL. Burning of Dr. Farrar, Bishop of St. David's, March 30, 1555.
XLI. Martyrdom of Rawlins White, at Cardiff, March 30, 1555.

INTRODUCTION.

In these introductory pages, we purpose to give a few instances of the pernicious influence exercised by the popish priests over the minds of their deluded followers; as to that influence, principally, is to be attributed the sanguinary and ferocious persecutions carried on by the Papists against the Protestants, which form the subject of the greater part of the following pages. In selecting these instances we need not confine ourselves to ancient times; the character of the Romish clergy is, and always has been, the same; proud, insolent, and overbearing, where they have gained the power; hypocritical and insidious where they have it yet to gain—they afford an object of well-founded jealousy to every government and nation; their influence is alike inimical to the people and to the prince; for, while they hold the former in the most abject ignorance and slavery, they allow the latter only to retain the semblance of authority, and are ready to strip him of even that, should he presume to dispute their commands: of this, the following historical facts afford ample proof.

When pope Gregory VII., in the eleventh century, excommunicated Henry IV. emperor of Germany, and caused his subjects to rise in rebellion against him, bigotry had so far extinguished reason and natural affection in the empress Agnes his mother, the duchess Beatrix his aunt, and the countess Matilda his cousin-german, that they joined the party of the haughty pontiff, to deprive their nearest relative of his throne; and contributed money, and levied troops, for that purpose.

Owing to the influence of the Catholic priesthood, John Huss was burned at Constance, in direct violation of the emperor's protection; and Luther would have met the same fate at Worms, but that Charles V. was too firm At the instance of the clergy, Philip III. was induced to banish the Moors from Spain, and Louis XIV. to expel the Protestants from France, which materially injured those kingdoms.

Queen Mary gave her subjects the strongest assurances, by an open declaration in council, that she would permit them to pursue any such religion as their conscience should dictate: and yet, when firmly established on her throne, she countenanced the burning of her Protestant subjects, at the instance of the popish clergy.

James II., on his accession, gave the most solemn assurances, that he would maintain the established government in church and state; and yet, under the advice and influence of the Jesuits, in direct violation of his oath, he immediately began to pursue arbitrary measures, and to subvert the Protestant religion, for which attempt he justly lost his crown. In his memorial, framed at St. Germain, after his abdication, under the direction of popish priests, by whom he was surrounded and influenced, he declared "That the justice and moderation of his government had been such, that he had never, since his accession to the crown, given any reason of complaint."! He says, his desire for calling a free parliament was, "that he might have the best opportunity of undeceiving his people, and showing the sincerity of those protestations he had often made, of preserving the liberties and the properties of his subjects, and the Protestant religion, more especially the church of England, as by law established." He says, "that the charges made against him were calumnies and stories, and that it was now time for them (his subjects) to open their eyes, when they were reduced to slavery;" alluding to the glorious

revolution, by which the constitution was unquestionably ascertained and confirmed. Though he had lodged the government of Ireland in the hands of Papists exclusively, had disarmed the Protestants, and had given his assent to a bill, for attainting every person in that kingdom of the established church, seized of landed property, his inconsistency and duplicity were such, that he declared in that memorial, " that in Ireland the defence of his Protestant subjects, and of the Protestant religion, had been his special care."! "Whensoever," he says, "the nation's eyes shall be opened, to see how they have been imposed upon by the specious pretences of religion and property, and that, being sensible of the ill condition they are in, they shall be brought to such a temper, that a legal parliament may be called; then he will return, and even venture his life to redeem them from the slavery they are fallen under, and to settle liberty of conscience."!

In his declaration, dated Dublin Castle, May 8th, 1689, and addressed to all his subjects in the kingdom of England, (which was so replete with falsehood and inconsistencies, that it was ordered, by a vote of the English House of Commons, to be burnt by the common hangman) he says, "that nothing but his own inclinations to justice could prevail with him to such a proceeding, as that of his care of his Protestant subjects in Ireland; and hopes his Protestant subjects in England will make a judgment of what they may expect."! Thus this infatuated monarch was led, by his spiritual advisers, to violate his oath and his honor, and to forfeit his crown; and yet, so blinded by bigotry was he, that he appears to have been scarcely conscious that his conduct was. at direct variance with his professions.

Sigismund, king of Sweden, in whom popish influence had extinguished al principles of honor and good faith, lost his dominions by attempting, in violation of his coronation oath, to introduce the Romish superstition into them; and in the year 1607, the duke of Sudermania, his uncle, as Charles IX. was placed on the throne.

When the emperor and the Roman Catholic princes of Germany concluded the peace of Westphalia, in the year 1648, with the Protestant princes, after a bloody war of thirty years, they mutually bound each other to its observance, by a solemn oath; on which the pope published a bull, declaring it to be null and void, as no oath could bind any of his sectaries to heretics!

A decrotal of Gregory II. is couched in the following words, "Those who are bound by any compact, however strongly confirmed, to persons manifestly fallen in heresy, shall know they are absolved from the duty of fidelity and homage, and all obedience."

In the preliminaries of the treaty of Utrecht, between the emperor and Louis XIV. it was agreed, that the Protestants of Germany should enjoy the same privileges which had been granted to them by the treaty of Westphalia; on which the pope wrote to the emperor an epistle, in which he declared the treaty to be null and void, though it had been ratified and secured by an oath. This epistle is found among the briefs and epistles of Clement XI. vol. ii. p. 179.

The people of England, at an early period, were so convinced of the great and dangerous influence of popish priests on the moral and political principles of their sovereigns, that the privy-council, in the reign of Richard II., ordered his confessor, in that monarch's presence, not to enter the court but on the four grand festivals.

During the progress of the rebellion of 1641, cardinal Pamfilio, by the pope's orders, wrote to Rinuncini, his holiness's nuncio in Ireland, “that the holy see never would, by any positive act, approve the civil allegiance which Catholics pay to an heretical prince."

These instances might easily be multiplied, but we refrain from a task at once tedious and unnecessary; in the course of this volume, scarcely a page will be found, which does not exhibit Popery in the same character as we have painted it above; and we, therefore, need only refer our readers to any part of the work now laid before them, for an ample justification of our

statements.

We cannot more appropriately close this part of our subject than with the following extracts from Mr. Goring's excellent "Thoughts on the Revelations," which give a summary of Popish arrogance, cruelty, and superstition. "Excess of pride and idolatry have been the bane of mankind: they preferred a carnal to a spiritual church; and thence have arisen their miseries. The gospel dispensation taught them a lesson they could not endure; war, lust, avarice, and ambition, were preferable in their eyes to peace, happiness, security, good-will, love, and order. The pomp and blandishments of the Papal church so effectually dazzled men's eyes and captivated their understandings, that to support it, the barriers of the gospel were thrown down, and the popes magnified themselves above the God of Heaven, and doled out the world to their adherents, as best suited their own interests. They not only usurped the seat and authority of their master, but assumed his holy name, by calling themselves the Universal Father, the God of the earth, the vicar of Jesus Christ; thus sanctifying their cruel and bloody deeds, under the sanction of the name of the most merciful God, again crucifying their Savior by exalting the Virgin Mary in his stead, teaching mankind to worship the work of men's hands, and to confide in them instead of their Creator and their Savior.

"History will testify the works of the Popes, when they arrived to the plenitude of their power. Let us judge of them by that unerring rule our Savior left us: By their fruits ye shall know them.' It is not their words, but their works, we should consider. What quarter of the globe has escaped the ravages of their power? If we look to the East; China and Japan, where they once bore rule, exhibit the most cruel and bloody massacres ever heard of, because their satellites aimed at political power, to the overthrow of the lawful governments. If we look to America, where their power was supreme, we freeze with horror at the wanton barbarities inflicted upon the heathens. If we cast our eyes over Europe, the seat of their authority, we again see the like tragedies exhibited; witness in France the massacre of St. Bartholomew, the revocation of the edict of Nantz, the extermination of the Waldenses and Albigenses, the cruel expulsions in Spain, and above all, the cruel and bloody Inquisition, a court which they call holy, but surely the most accursed on earth. If we turn our eyes to our own country, we see the stakes in Smithfield, and the fires lighted to consume the bodies of those holy martyrs, who gave up their lives courageously in defence of their religion; we see the vile mysteries of iniquity discovered at the suppression of the monasteries, and the shameful practices exposed, by which the priests deluded the people. I will not recur to other persecutions, but ask, If this is the religion of the meek Jesus, or if it is not rather the triumph of Satan over fallen men?"

Mr. Goring then contrasts the character of our blessed Savior and of those men who presume to call themselves his "substitutes on earth," in the following manner:

"Jesus Christ, as one of his last acts, left mankind this new law, 'Love one another as I have loved you; by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples.'-Popery hates all that are not of its communion, and condemns them soul and body to the pit.-The blessed Savior declared his kingdom

was not of this world, being spiritual; that he judged no men, but that the words he uttered should judge them in the last day-The Popes claim the dominion of the whole earth, spiritual and temporal, they wear a triple crown, and pretend to judge all men.-The Savior, previous to his death, condescended to wash his disciples' feet, assuring them they should have no part in him unless they submitted to it-The Popes, so far from submitting to this lesson of humility, arrogantly permit them to kiss their feet. Our blessed Lord claimed not a spot upon earth, nor had he a place where to lay his head; to him, sufficient for the day was the evil thereof, both with respect to food and raiment-Not so the Popes; from their votaries they extort the scanty gains of the sweat of their brows, go gorgeously attired, and feed sumptuously every day. Our Savior freely pardoned the sins of his penitent creatures, without fee or reward-The Popes présume to pardon sins; nay, grant indulgences for committing more; but it is for money and the sordid Jucre of gain.

"Can any man find a resemblance in these two characters? Is not the counterfeit easily discovered; and will not men blush with shame when they see how grossly they have been deluded by this deceiver? Let them but fairly read the gospel of Jesus Christ; they will there find he delegated his power to no man, in the way the Popes claim it, and that he alone is the intercessor between God and man, and no man can approach God but through him."

We are convinced, that there is no true Christian, who will not agree unequivocally in the justice of the above observations. They must be convinced that Popery is absurd, superstitious, enthusiastic, idolatrous, and cruel; that it darkens the understanding, and enslaves the conscience of its votaries, and is as much an enemy to virtue as to truth.

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