men, or of ordinary malefactors, but delivered over to the fword, the rack, the famine, and the fire: their dead bodies denied the rites of fepulture*, and their bones refused a quiet afylum and repofe in the grave+.

And

world. Bellar. de laic. Gregor. Decret. 1. 5. Sext. Decr. I. v. t. a. c. 18. Suar. dif. 23. Bul. Urb. 4. et Inn. 4. Parf, Philop. p. 109. Becan. cont. Aug. p. 131. Anfw, to Mr. W. A. D.'s Let. to G. H.

* When fuperftition had, like a baleful meteor, fpread its influence over all; when churches and church yards were confecrated, and folemn prayers and religious offices appointed for the dead, the ecclefiaftical laws forbade the burial of fuch as died out of the communion of the church. Their bodies were igno miniously caft into a ditch, or covered with a heap of ftones, which, according to Hoveden, they called imblecare corpus: and in those times it was the facred language of tradition, which like its nurfing father the Pope, it is faid, cannot err; that fuch bodies, however expofed to the weather, could not perish, but would continue incorruptible, as dreadful monuments of divine vengeance which overtook the offenders. If any perfons excommunicated or heretical, happened to be interred in a church or cemetery, they were appointed to be digged up; and thefe polluted places were shut up, no divine office was allowed to be per formed nor dead to be interred therein, till they were first reconciled, and come fecrated anew by the bishop, by the sprinkling of holy water, etc. as prescribed expressly in the canons; Cemeteria in quibus excommunicatorum corpora fepelire contingit reconcilianda erunt afperfione aquæ folemniter benediétæ ficut in dedicationibus, cclefiarum fieri contingit. Hence the bodies of those who have died, or been murdered under the guilt of fuppofed heresy, instead of burial, have often fuffered the utmost indignities, being dragged about, kicked and trampled upon, mangled, hung up in quarters, tumbled into pits, thrown forth to the dogs, or the fowls of the air: they have been exposed to all manner of shame, defiled, roasted on fpits, fricafey'd, and (what is almost incredible) by fome of their perfecuting Chriftian cannibals, eaten. In the time of the Irish rebellion, we are aflured, that the good Catholics made candles of the grease of Protestant heretics ;—as in France the leaguers delighted to have their rofaries made of the ears of Hugue nots ftringed together, on which they might more devoutly tell and roll their Aves and their Paters, as Mathieu, though a Catholic himfeif, records in his biftory. Nor are there wanting inftances of a recent date of the bodies of deceafed Proteftants being grofsly infulted and abused in Roman-Catholic countries; nor are any of them yet become so enlightened as to allow them Chriftian burial except by singular indulgence as we find the eldest for of the church lately condescending to relax a little its difcipline in this refpect, in behalf of his new and good allies, the American heretics. Decr. cap. facris de fepultis. Eveill, Trait. des Excom. ap. Dup. Leger, Hift. gener. des Eglif. evangel, de Piem. par. 2. Math. Hift. 1. i. p. 119.

To fuch lengths has the demon of perfecution driven the antichristian church, that when any friend of truth and liberty may have had the good fortune

And happy had it been for mankind that these had pro ved nothing more than "harmless fpeculations," the mere theories of a few systematic bigots. But the cafe has been far otherwife. Thefe are the principles which have been most

to efcape her rage when living, and to die in peace, fhe hath erected tribunals, fulminated curfes, and prepared torments for them after they have been dead and buried; appointing them, upon the fufpicion or accufation of herefy, to be tried, condemned, excommunicated, and their dust and bones to undergo the punishment of fire years or ages after their decease. The council of Arles decreed in 1238, that the bodies of thofe, who fhould be difcovered after their death to have been heretics, fhould be digged up. Some years before, the inqui fitors ordered the body of one Guido de Lacha in Brixia, who had been honoured for his aufterity and integrity of life, but had died a non-conformist, to be dig. ged up and burnt. Many fanguinary fentences were pronounced by them, in that age, upon the carcafes of the poor Vaudois; many of them were digged up 25 and 30 years after their interment, and publicly burnt, only for having a pretext for confifcating their goods. Herman de Pangeloup having been found to be a heretic, after his death, Boniface VIII. ordered, that he should be treated in the fame manner. The famous Wickliff had the fame fate, having been judged by the council of Conftance, or Siena, condemned as a notorious, obftinate heretic, his memory anathematized, his tomb ordered to be opened, and his bones taken out and burnt; which was afterwards done in 1428, at the inftigation of Pope Martin, by Fleming bishop of Lincoln, and his afhes thrown into the Swift, half a century after his death. For the fame caufe that inhuman and piieft-ridden bigot Philip II. of Spain had well nigh violated the fepulchre of his father Charles V. who after his decease fell under violent fufpicions of having died a heretical Proteftant, though he had perfecuted them the greater part of his life. Dup. Eibl. tome x. p. 120. et tome xi. p 116. et tome xii. p. 135. Leger, Hift. gen. etc. part ii. p. 5. Bafnage, Hift. de la Rel. tome i, p. 240.

4

In order to have a fuller idea of the perfecuting spirit and principles of the Romish church, which has thirfted after and drunk fo greedily the blood of the faints, we may here produce the acts and canons of fome councils against the first race of Protestants, under the various names of B.uifcens, Paterins, Arnauldifts, Albigenfes, Waldenfes, Puritans, Pcor men of Lyons, &c, according to which he hath ever fince continued to conduct herself, adding rather to their feverity in fubfequent ages than mitigating them as often as her genius could have free scope for operation. From whence it will appear, that the most barbarous statutes and inhuman butcheries of the Montforts, the Fredericks, the Sigif munds, the Charleses, the Lewifes, the Philips, the Maries, and other tyrants of execrable memory, have been nothing more than copies of the ecclefiaftical edicts, and the too faithful execution of the duties impofed upon them. The council of Thouloufe in 1119, held in presence of Calixtus II. condemned and banished all fuch perfons from the church of God, and appointed them ♦ be suppressed by the fecular powers, including all who defended them in the fame condemna

moft powerfully and generally operative through the wide extended circuit of her dominion, on which fhe hath ever been writing lively and striking comments by her conduct and practices, and from which the hath never departed, but when

sion. The fame canon was renewed in the fecond general council of Lateran in 1139, under Innocent II. The council of Tours, 1163, anathematized all who had any commerce with them, that they might be expofed to want, and left to perish without help: their goods were ordered to be confiscated, and princes ipjoined to hinder their affemblies: Alexander III. convened, and was prefent at the council. The third general council of Lateran, under the same Pope, in 1179, excommunicated them, forbade the burying of them in holy ground, exhorted Catholic princes to make war upon them, to confiscate their goods, and reduce their persons to flavery: granted to those who should take arms against them indulgences in proportion to their fervices, and according to the difcretion of the bishops; excommunicating those who gave them protection, suffered them in their lands, or had any commerce with them.

The third general council of Lateran excommunicated all who rose up again the Catholic faith, and appointed, “ That they should be delivered to the secular powers to be punished as they deferve; that their goods fhould be con"fifcated; that those who lay under violent fufpicions should be laid under an "anathema, if they did not give proofs of their innocence, and should be "fhunned till they gave fatisfaction, and if they continued a year under excom"munication, they thould be condemned as heretics; that lords fhould be ad"vised, and even obliged by ecclefiaftical ce fures, to take an oath to extirpate "heretics and excommunicated perfons out of their lands; but if any should "neglect to purge their lands, they fhould be excommunicated by the bishops, ❝and if, within a year, they did not give fatisfaction, the Pope should be ad"vertised of their obftinacy, that he might lo fe their vaffals from their alle "" giance, and give their lands to Catholics, who, after having exterminated "the heretics, fhould enjoy it without contradiction as the lawful pofleflors. "It grants to all Catholics who should gird up their loins, and take the cross for exterminating heretics by arms, the fame indulgences and facred privile ges with those who go to the Holy Land. It excommunicates all who re"ceive, aid, or protect the heretics; appointing, that, if they did not give fatisfaction within a year, they should be declared infamous, deprived of all "offices, and votes in elections, and not be admitted even as witnesses in any "caufe; that they should be deprived of the right of fucceffion, of the power “ of making testaments, and made incapable of any function or charge. Eccle"fiaftics were forbid to adminifter the facraments to them, to give them Chri"ftian burial, to receive their offerings or alms, under pain of deprivation. "Bishops were obliged to vifit the diocefes in which heretics were said to be, "and to make a certain number of the inhabitants to fwear to delate to the "bishop the heretics which they could discover: `and the bishops were threat

и

"ened

when want of power and influence constrained her, or when prudence and regard to her own intereft made it neceffary. Hence the series of black and difmal events which the page of the faithful historian narrates, and which cannot be

"ened with depofition who neglected to purge their diocefes." This council confifted of the Pope (Innocent III.) in perfon, (who opened it with a discourse from the words, With defire have I defired to eat this passover with you), of above 400 bishops, more than 800 abbots and priors, befides patriarchs, deputies, and ambaffadors from all nations. 1

The council of Thoulouse in 1229, convened by the Pope's legat, appointed that a priest, with two or three laymen, fhould be established in every parish to fearch for heretics, with commiffion to vifit the fubterraneous caverns, and concealed places of every house for that purpose, and that they should be engaged by oath to make a strict scrutiny, and to discover them inftantly to, the bishops, lords, or their bailiffs. All lords were isjoined alfo to search for them, and destroy the places whither they retired: fuch of them as were fufpected to permit them a retreat were to lose their houses, and their persons were to be delivered unto judges to be punished; and though they should have no actual knowledge of a heretic in their territories, yet were they to be declared infamous on account of their too great negligence: bailiffs for the fame fault fhould lose their charges and their goods. And as herefy, like the leprofy, communicated infection to the wood and ftones, their houfes were ordered to be razed to the foundations, and the ground on which they flood to be condemned and confif cated. Lords and officers were allowed to search for and apprehend heretics on the lands of others. Those who abjured through constraint were to be confined; and fuch as did it voluntarily were not to be allowed to remain in thofe cities or villages where they had formerly refided, if they were fufpected places, but to be tranfported into neighbouring parts wholly Catholic and void of suspicion. A physician fufpected was to be discharged from visiting patients, and teftaments that did not come through the hands of the curates were to be invalid, as afford. ing a fufpicious fymptom of the teftator's herely. Farther, all men above the age of fourteen years, and women after the age of twelve, should be obliged to abjure all fort of herefy, and make a profeffion of the faith of the Romish church, and bind them elves to purfue heretics. And as a proper appendage to thefe ungodly acts, and as a fure and lafting evidence of the real fource from whence that thing called herefy, on the extirpation of which they were so in. tent, was derived, the fame council condemned the use of the Holy Scriptures, forbidding, in the 14th canon, the laity to have the books of the Old or New Teftament, permitting only to the more devout the Pfalter, the Breviary, and the Hours of the Virgin, but not to be tranflated into the vulgar language.

The council of Narbonne in 1235 established many rules for the procedure of the Inquifition against heretics, many of which are obferved by that infernal tribunal to this day; and appointed for penance to those who renounced heresy, to wear the cross on their clothes, to prefent themselves every Sabbath in the

churches,

be reviewed by any feeling mind without the extreme of pain. Human nature hudders and fickens at the recital. Since the tyrant of Rome established his throne, more grievous, deftructive, and unrelenting perfecutions have been kindled, attended with circumftances of greater atrocity, than ever had been feen before. Greater numbers of mankind have perished, on the score of religion, since that unhappy æra, than in any equal period of time fince the world began. The rage of Jewish, Pagan, and Arian perfecutions all put together, never devoured fo many Chriftians as have. been facrificed to the Roman Molech *. What nation has not been made a theatre of oppreffion, defolation, carnage, and blood? In which of them has not the grim genius of Popery appeared delighted and smiling at the work of death, furrounded with her fires and faggots, her daggers

churches, with part of their body naked, and with rods in their hand to be difciplined, between the Epiftle and Gofpel; to do the fame in folemn proceffions; to attend mass, vefpers, fermon; to fast, ́visit holy places, to defend in perfon, or by others maintained at their expence, the faith of the church against Saracens and heretics; to change their dwellings; to build places for the poor converts; and, in a word, to be left entirely to the mercy of the inquifitors. If any of thefe pulled off the croffes, they were, by the council of Beziers, to have all they had again confifcated, &c. This council alfo renewed all that the former councils had decreed on the subject of heresy, as did thofe of Alby, 1254, Arles, &c. The council of Toledo decrees in the fame ftrain, "We the holy "council promulgate this fentence pleafing to God, that whofoever hereafter "hall fucceed to the kingdom, fhall not moust the throne till he hath fworn "to permit no man to live in his kingdom who is not a Catholic. And if, "after he hath taken the reins of government, he fhall violate his promife, let "him be anathema maranatha in the fight of the eternal God, and fuel for "eternal fire." Many furious bulls of Popes of the fame tenor and tendency might be produced, were they not too long to be inferted, or even abridged, in this place. Ex pede Herculem.

* From the year 1540 to the year 1570, comprehending only the space of 30 years, no fewer than 900,000 Proteftants were put to death by Papifts in the different countries of Europe: among whom were 235 barons, 148 carls, and 39 princes. In the time of Paul IV. whofe pontificate lafted but about four years, the Inquifition alone, according to the teflimony of Vergerius, deftroyed 150,000. According to the calculations of fome, the whole number of perfons maffacred on account of religion, fince the first rise of the Papacy, including the space of 1400 years, amounts to upwards of 50,000,coo; which makes a number, for every year, of 35-714 and fome odds.

and