gloomy prifons, the inexorable tribunals, the queftions pled under foot. Those women and children who fled to the church were every one dispatched by one of the captains, who at first shewed some reluctance, but was charged to do it under pain of rebellion against the king. Some were burnt or smoked to death in caves; and fuch as remained in the mountains and woods were hunted and befieged like wild beafts, and all were prohibited, under pain of death, from giving them any fuftenance. When they deputed fome to request the favour of being permitted to retire, stripped as they were of every thing, înto ftrange countries, the brutal commander returned this answer, that he would take care that none of them should escape, but he would fend them to dwell in hell with the devils. Yet, when the caufe was folemnly tried before the parliament of Paris fome years after, this monster, after long pleadings and fifty different hearings, was at last acquitted, as it appeared he had acted only according to the orders of the court and clergy. In his defences he glories in the work as a fignal act of piety and justice, like that which the first king of Ifrael was punifhed and degraded by heaven for not performing; and began by repeating the words of David, Plead my cause, O God, against an ungodly nation, &c. The maffacre of Amboife is another inftance of the revengeful and fanguinary fpirit of Popish bigots, in which 1200 persons were slaughtered: the caftle and ftreets of Amboife were made to fwim with blood, and the Loire was full of dead bodies. This was foon followed by the maffacre of Vaffy, by a party headed by the duke of Guife, who fell upon an unarmed aflembly of Proteftants met together for worship in a barn, and killed the minister and 300 of the people, as D'Aubigny teftifies; which was the prelude to the civil wars. "After the “ affair of Vassy,” says one," it is impoffible to count the maffacres; for "they were without number. It may be affirmed with certainty, that there "bad never been so many, in fo fhort time, under the most nie! "perfecutors of the church; as at Cahors Sens-Auxerre Tours "Caftres-Villeneuve- Bagnole-Signe-Paris-Bar upon Seine-Senlis Nevers-Iffou Agen-Tarraube-Meaux-Mans-Aurillac-Valongues "dun-Amiens-Caftelnaudary-Troye-Gaillac-Thouloufe-Orange- St. "Stephen-Gien-Grenade-Marfilargues-Abbeville- Chaalons — Ispernay "-Chatilon-Angers-Cran-Blois-Mer-Moulins-Rouen-in many o"ther places, and through all Provence; and all thefe in less than two years, "with cruelties which have no example among the most barbarous nations. "At Tours 300 were locke up in a church, and left without food for three "days, and afterwards brought bound to the brink of the river, where they were all flain; some of them were strangled, fome beheaded, fome flead alive, "others drowned: infants were fold for a crown, The prefident, who was "fufpected to favour the Huguenots, was beaten, hanged up by one foot with "his head in the water, had his bowels taken out alive, and his heart fuck up "and carried about on the point of a lance. At Agen 500 were executed; 200 "maffacred at Mons, 50 thrown into a fish-pond, and as many into ditches about 1400 in Provence; at Cifterno about 3 or 400 women and children. "In 1562 the parliament of Paris made a decree, that all Catholics fhould rife. ftions, the torturing cordas and veglias, the fanbenitos, the "in arms, found the bells in every place, and (poil, kill, and root out the "Huguenots without diftinction. The fame orders were given at Thoulouse,, "and the bells rung for a general malacre in that city and neighbourhood, "where there were about 30,coo Proteftants, many of whom perished: and thefe orders were given, as approved by the king and the Pope. The pacifications which were made became more murderous to the Proteftants than many wars: during an interval of peace, though of short continuance, fome"times 2, 3, or 4000 affaffinations might be reckoned up. No perfon of that "religion was ever in fafety. If he was a Huguenot, he carried about with him, wherever he went, an original fin for which it was thought lawful to affaffinate him any where; and, though a man was a Catholic, it was enough if he had enemies who could make it be believed that he was a Huguenot, in order that he might poinard him with impunity. After the peace of Chartres, « Mezeray says, “That Proteftants were in greater danger than in the time of "the war. In three months time more than 2000 of them were killed i. different places, either by their particular enemies, or by popular commotions, as "at Amiens near 100 perfons, at Auxerre 159, more at Blois, Bourges, Iffoudun, Troyes, and in twenty other places." But the memory of all thefe horrid deeds was in fome measure loft and fwallowed up in the more horrid maffacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572, a scene of perfidy and wickedness which baffles all defcription, and which will ever remain unequalled in the annals of crimes. When a happy peace and cordial union and friendship feemed to be firmly established; when the Proteftants were more than ever careffed, trusted, honoured, and munificently rewarded; when the chiefs of the party were invited to court, and entertained with feaflings and rejoicings at the marriage which was propofed as the bond of perpetual frie dfhip betwixt the two religions; when they were lulled afsleep with royal promises and oaths; then were the orders and fignals given for executing the hellish defign concerted long before, by which all France became a field of carnage. The commission was to fpare none, not even infants at the breast. In the darkness of night the work of death was begun at Paris, and every quarter of the city was filled with bands of murderers, running from place to place, dispatching unfufpecting Proteftants wherever they found them, in the streets, in their houses, or in their beds, with many kinds of death, and fome with more kinds than one. A ruffian told the king, that he had flain 150 the night preceding; and another boasted, that he had killed 400 for his part. Seven days were employed in this manner at Paris, and the first three efpecially, with unabating fury. Letters were fent to every city, commanding them to begin a maffacre on the fame day, and at the fame hour, and many of them too punctually obeyed; fo that the butcheries were continued through the kingdom for feveral months. In Roan above 6000 were flaughtered: at Thoulcufe fome hundreds were hewed to pieces with axes, c. at Orleans, the Papifts confeffed they had cu off 12,000, fome faid $8,000 at Lyons, after the gates were fhut, they fell upon all the Huguenots without mercy: 350 of them were fhut up in the archbishop's house, which in the the famarettas, and auto-da-fes of the infernal Inqui 66 fition, the space of an hour and an half were cut to pieces: fome more humane Catholics, upon feeing the heaps of flain, said, They furely were not men, but "devils in the fhape of men, who had done this." The whole number of those who perished in the massacre cannot be precisely ascertained. Mezeray makes the number 25,000, Thuanus 30,000 in Paris alone, of whom 500 were noblemen, or gentlemen of diftinction. The duke de Sully fays, “The number "mallacred during eight days, throughout the kingdom, amounted to 70,000 :” and he alfo adds, "I have writings fill in my hands, which would confirm the report of the court of France having made the most preffing instances to the "neighbouring courts to follow its example with regard to the Protestants, or at leaft to refufe an afylum to thefe unfortunate people." The Catholic bishop of Rodez confeffes the number of the flain to have been 100,000. " Yet all this work of death was performed with the knowledge, advice, and approbation of Rome; and there have not been wanting fʊme to defend and applaud it. Peter Charpentier wrote an apology for it. John des Caurres, principal of the college of Amiens, praised it in an ode, infert.d among his printed work, The learned M. Antonio Muret, who was preferred at Rome, made an oration in praise of it. Even the wife and moderate De Thou was fo mean as to compliment the king in a fpeech, wherein he commended the courtly art of diffimulation, though he abhorred the monftrous villany in his heart, and applied to it the lines of Statius : Excidat illa dies avo, nec poftera eredant The most luxuriant encomiums were alfo beftowed upon these bloody Parifian nuptials in a speech pronounced before Philip II. When the news of the maffacre reached the Spanish army in the Netherlands, they were received with figns of the most extravagant joy. The skies refounded with reseated firing of cannon, and the mingled founds of drums and trumpets and at night bonfires blazed every where around the camp. The head of the great and valiant Admiral Coligni, who was the first facrifice, was fent to the king and queen-mother, and by them to the Pope and cardinal of Lorraine, as a grateful prefent. To render the impiety of the fcene complete, the Pontiff, as Strada informs us, upon hearing of these execrable deeds, appointed solema prayers and thanksgivings, and went in proceffion to the church of St. Lewis, and gave thanks to God for the good news, egit ultori Deo grates, and published a bull of large indulgences to fuch as implored the heavenly affiftance to the king and kingdom of France. The whole abominable tranfactions indeed appear to have been influenced both by the pernicious principles and counfels of Rome. They were previously concerted, between the king and Cardinal Alexandrin the legate, at the court of France. The legate, it is faid, cared not that the marriage of Henry with the king's fifter fhould be made ufe of as a pretext for it; but Charles having convinced him, that it was a fure way to be revenged of their enemies, be confented fition *. could have effected it. All engagements, which confented to it without any fcruple. The king offered him a ring to insure the execution of the crime: "But," fays an Italian biographer," he refused to "take pledges for the fecurity of the word of fo great a king; though, after "St. Bartholomew's day, Charles IX. fent him that ring as a token of his "adherence to his oaths, with this motto engraved upon it, Nec pietas poffit mea fanguine folvi.” Clement VIII. who was then auditor and companion to Cardinal Alexandrin, afterwards told Cardinal D' Offat, that, when the tidings came to Rome, the cardinal said, God be praised; the king of France has kept his word with me. And farther, to preserve the memory of this deed, and to fhew his apoftolic fatisfaction with it, the Pope caufed magnificent paintings to be drawn, and medals to be caft, on the joyful occafion. The death of the admiral was represented in three different pieces, which were hung up in the hall in which the Pope gives audience to ambassadors, as a trophy of the church's triumph. The first represents him as wounded by the affaffin Morevel, and carried home; having this infcription below, Gafpar Colignius Amirallius accepto vulnere domum refertur Greg. XIII. Pont. Max. 1572. In the second, the admiral is maffacred in bis house, with Teligni his fon-in-law, and others: the infcription, Cades Colignii et sociorum ejus. In the third the news are carried to the king, who is pleased therewith: Rex Colignii necem probat. A medal was also ftruck, having the image of the Pope on one fide, and the words Gregor. XIII. Pont. Max. an. 1. and on the reverse a destroying angel, holding a crofs in one hand, and a drawn fword in the other, with which he flaughters a proftrate hoft, with the inscription, Ugonotterum ftrages, 1572, which Molinet confeffes was meant of the Parisian mafficre, and excuses this bloody device of his Holinefs, by his zeal for the Catholic religion. "These medals, fays Mason, are "now become very rare, yet my friends procured me fome of them." Sir John Temple, Hift. of the Irish Rebel. Bish. of Dromore, Serm. 1733. Leger, Hift. gener. des Eglif. Vaud. par. ii. ch. 9. Thuan. I. vi. &c. D'Aubigne, Hift. 1. iii, &c. Maimb. Hift. du Calvin. Mezer. Hift. abregé, &c. Moreri, Di&. Hift. Furieu, Apolog. &c. tome ii. ch. 14. Clark, Martyrol. and Life of Coligny. Memoirs of the Duke de Sully. Strada, de Bello relig. dec. i. l. 7. Courres, Ouvres mor, divcrf. en Hift. pleines de beaus Exemp. etc. liv. iv. Horn, Hift. Ecclef. Girolamo Catena, Life of Pius V. pr. at Rome in 1588. Lettr. D'Offat, a Rome, 1599. Molinet, Hift. Sum, Pontif. per Numism. p. 93. Miffon, Voyage, etc. lett. 28. *The Inquifition is the court established by the church of Rome, chiefly for fearching out, trying and condemning heretics, or offenders against her faith. It is dignified with the name of the Holy Office, of which the Pope is ftill fupreme bead and lawgiver. As this tribunal is entirely formed upon écclesiastical ideas and principles, was erected, fupported, and regulated by the authority of Popes, and the canons of councils, and is almost wholly in the management of priests and friars, it affords one of the most decifive and unequivocal proofs of the true fpirit and genius of the Romish religion, Though there were fome very fevere laws early made by the imperial authority for punishing the crime of which might interfere with this defign, have been ut terly of diffenting from the established religion, yet as these were deemed either too mild and infufficient for restraining the fuppofed evil, or were not fo carefully and vigoroully executed as the interefts or fanguinary wishes of merciless eccle. fiaftics required, they ceafed not till they had fuch delinquents wholly delivered up to their will and power, and had ufurped a jurifdiction over their perfons, lives, and fortunes, independent of the civil authority, to which they left no. thing but the drudgery of executing their iniquitous acts. As this court claims and exercises a coercive power, it is another evidence of the temporal dominion arrogated by the Papacy, and of its encroachments upon the province and rights of the magistrate. It is indeed Rome's masterpiece of craft, cruelty, tyranny, and injustice; an invention calculated for the fuppreffion at once of religion and truth, liberty and knowledge, innocence and virtue, which could proceed only from that wisdom which is earthly, fenfual, devilish, The Inquifition waş eftablisbed in the beginning of the thirteenth century against the Albigeois, to finish what the preaching of miffionaries, anathemas, croifades, and wars, could not fully accomplish. Innocent III. gave an Inquifitorial commiffion to one Rainerius to force heretics to return to the unity of the Catholic faith, and to punish the contumacious with all canonical pains. Immediately after the power of Inquifitor-general was committed to Dominic, and the order of preaching friars of which he was the founder, in whofe hands it has chiefly been intrusted ever fince. This Spaniard was a fierce and cruel bigot, and was preferred to this office because of the flaming zeal, and bloody difpofition whereby he diftinguished himself against the perfecuted Albigenfes, for which kind of virtue and sanctity he was also afterwards canonized. His mother was faid to have dreamed before his birth, that he was with child of a whelp carrying in his mouth a lighted torch, who should put the world in an uproar, and fet it on fire. This he fully verified by his incendiary fermons, and the wars, fires, and faggots, which he kindled in various parts. The coun ils convened about that time by their de crees, an abftract of which we have already given, established the Inquifition and gave it its fettled laws and form: the council of Thouloufe in 1229 was almost wholly employed in regulating the procedure of Inquifitors. Pope Gre gory IX. in 1235 caufed a collection of decretals to be published, in which were contained many extraordinary canons de modo Inquifitionis. The emperor Frederic II. authorized the Inquifition by the most severe edicts, formerly mentioned, which were approved and ratified by Honorius IV. and other Popes. The earls of Thouloufe, and other princes, were forced to become the fupporters and blind executors of the fentences of the Inquifitors. The Popes laboured still to increase their power, and invested them with perpetual authority to administer judgment in their name, independent of all others. Thus fupported, they foon began to enrich themselves with the spoils, and fatiate themselves with the blood of condemned innocents, and to exercise the most unlimited tyranny, to the terror of all forts of perfons. In Thoulouse they excited fuch general abhorrence and indignation, that the people rose against them, deftroyed their houses, burnt their papers, and banished them from the city, with all who favoured them. There |