Bucer, another reformer of Popery, declares that Servetus "ought to have his bowels plucked out, and be torn to pieces;" and Farrel, in a letter to Calvin, says he deserved to die ten thousand deaths; with much more of the same liberal cast. The reformed pastors of the Church of Basil, those of Berne, the ministers of Zurich, and also of Scaff husen, all agree in the sentence of the Senate, or urge that body to severe measures in regard to Servetus.* These facts clearly demonstrate," says Dr. Benson, "that Calvin acted seriously and deliberately in this affair."

The persecutions and martyrdoms at Berne, Basil, Zurich, in Holland, by the Synod of Dort, and even in this country, all shew that the practice is not confined to the Church of Rome, or to princes and priests of that communion. Nor had the spirit of persecution subsided even in much later writers. Chillingworth has very little hope of the salvation of those who live and die in the communion of the

* See the Letters printed at the end of Calvin's Institutes. + They are detailed in the Letters above referred to, at the end of Calvin's Institutes; Gerrard Brandt's History of the Reformation in the Low Countries, Beza's Life of Calvin, Burnet's History of the Reformation, and the other works mentioned in Benson's History of Persecution. Dodd's Church History of England abounds with instances of Protestant per

secution.

Church of Rome ;* yet Chillingworth has been thought by many to have been tinctured with. Unitarianism, a system, perhaps, less stained with persecution than any other, not even excepting the Quakers. Tillotson has his fears on the same subject.† Nay, even much later writers than these have shewn a disposition by no means favourable to the final salvation of Roman Catholics; and the laws still in force against both them and Dissenters, are standing and damning proofs that the age of religious oppression is not yet entirely past. Nor should it be forgotten, that the points for which the reformed have cut the throats of heretics, have been of much less importance, for the most part, than those for which Roman Catholics have contended in the same way. Who does not know what has been said and done in Scotland about the use of the surplice, the ring in marriage, the sign of the cross in baptism, and the genuflexions at the Eucharist? To deny the mystery of the blessed Trinity, the incarnation of the Son of God, the mysterious doctrine of transubstantiation, or the opinions concerning the supremacy of the Pope, the infallibility of the Church, and the belief in purgatory, are, it must be allowed, deviations from the old doctrines of somewhat more spiri

See The Religion of Protestants a safe Way to Salvation, part i. chap. iii. p. 129. Ed. 1674.

↑ See the Sermon on this point in his works.

tual importance than any of the terms of the solemn League and Covenant, the shape of a garment, or the position of the knee at the Lord's supper.*

But Protestants have never been as cruel in their punishments as the Catholics :-the one burned people at the stake; the other only beheaded, hanged, drowned, starved or pinched their victims to death. Alas! I wish it were true that we have never burned heretics; but, alas! Protestants have had their fires also; and were I to adduce all the instances of this nature with which our history is, so much tarnished, it is to be feared many of my brethren would ac

* The persecutions against sectaries have always been numerous and vexatious; and the most powerful and rich have ever thought themselves fully entitled to treat with rigour and contempt the dissenter and the disobedient. Dr. Plot mentions three causes, which it appears have a beneficial effect in suppressing three corresponding evils, now so common in every petty village in the kingdom. The parish of Brightwell, the Doctor observes, is particularly "worthy of memory "for its Christian unanimity; and that "there has not been known any such thing as an ale-house, a SECTARY, or suit of law commenced in the whole parish in the memory of man." This he mentions to "the eternal honour of its inhabitants," and attributes the cause to the piety and prudence of the "Lord of the town," meaning the mayor, the rector, and his predecessors," and the good disposition of the people themselves;" much better antidotes against vice and error than fire and faggot, or even than hanging and starving. The tempers of Christians have improved since A. D. 1676, when Plot wrote. See Plot's Nat. Hist. of Oxfordshire, p. 203.

cuse me of a leaning towards popery, and of prejudice against the Reformation; so little do some Protestants concern themselves to learn the whole truth on this subject.*

But, it will be further asked, are not Roman Catholic priests and bishops bound by an oath to resist and persecute heretics, schismatics, and rebels to the Pope and his successors? To say the least of this, Dr. Troyt has shewn, that in countries not in communion with the See of Rome, that part of the oath is now omitted; but the repeatedly avowed principles, as well as the uniform conduct of the Roman Catholics, have long demonstrated, that no such sense as Dr. Duigenan, and others of the same party, have put upon that oath, is admitted by Catholics. Surely no persons were ever more unfortunately circumstanced than the present race

* The total number of Catholics, who suffered the death of traitors for denying Henry VIII., to be the spiritual head of the Church was sixty. Of these, John Fisher was bishop of Rochester; three were Benedictine Abbots; three others Carthusian Priors; sixteen Monks; twenty-three Clergymen; and the rest Knights, Gentlemen and Yeomen. Besides these, sixty-four other Carthusians or Franciscans were condemned to death, most of whom were starved in prison. See Dodd's Church Hist. vol. i. p. 342, and Sanders de Visibili Monarchia Ecclesia, cited in Milner's Letters to a Prebendary, p. 121.

+ Pastoral Letter, as quoted by Doctor Duigenan, in his speech against the Catholics on the 25th of March, 1805.

of Roman Catholics in this country: They are, told that their faith is hostile to the safety of a Protestant state, and that they cannot be even tolerated without some security for their allegiance. For this purpose an oath is framed, and framed too, for the most part by those who so imperiously demand it.* When this oath is tendered and taken, then the Catholics are again insultingly branded with holding the very tenets they have abjured by all the solemnities of an oath, and all the obligations of the laws. When they complain of this as hard usage, they are called restless, ambitious, turbulent, and persecuting! In these cases well might Mr. Grattan say, that when his opponent imputed, as. he had done, to the Catholic principles which he had thus abjured, it is not the Catholic who breaks faith with him, but it is he (Dr. D.) who breaks faith with the Catholic."

The cruel accusation against Catholics, of not keeping faith with heretics, has been again and again so clearly refuted, that I should not have thought it necessary to enlarge upon it, were I not persuaded that something on this subject will be expected from me: nor would I otherwise waste the reader's time by any formal

See Mr. Grattan's speech in confutation of Dr. Duigenan, on the day above referred to.

† Ubi supra.