the mover of the dreadful civil wars that desolated France. Henry III. and Louis XIII. both imbibed the prevalent spirit of persecution; and consequently left traces behind them of the horrible ravages incited by their bigotry. Louis XIV., among many severe and intolerant measures, revoked the Edict of Nantes; which, as will be hereafter shown, was nearly a death-blow to Protestantism in France. The last open enemy to the Protestants was Louis XV., who ascended the throne 1715. During this reign many Christian Ministers were murdered, and their families compelled to fly from such a scene of horror, as then clouded their native land.

It would not be an impartial abstract of the French line of Kings, to omit the names of those honourably known in the page of history, for instance:—Childebert, the Just; Charlemagne, the patron of learning and the sciences; Louis IX., a most amiable and devout prince; Charles V., surnamed the Wise; and Henry the Great, who by the Edict of Nantes, granted many important privileges to Protestants. The Papists, also, claim Clovis I. among their renowned Kings; but his religious zeal and valour were stained with brutal passions. Virtue cannot be affined to Vice.

To illustrate the spirit, object, and tendencies of Popery, it will be necessary to detail more particularly a few of the crimes associated with foreign Kings and their Governments. Mark that career of Guilt in the subjoined narratives. Once the light of Divine Truth shed a few rays of immortal hope amid the darkness of superstition. The place was France. The date Aug. 24th, St. Bartholomew, 1572. In the stillness of night, Catherine de Medicis, accompanied by Charles IX., and a Romish Councillor, repaired to the balcony at the Louvre, and there waited the pre-concerted signal for the massacre of the Protestants of France. The fatal hour of two arrived-the death knell rang-then the swords of Romish soldiers glistened in the moonlight—and throughout the Kingdom the murderous work commenced. Charles trembled with fear and savage exultation. Anon, as his fugitive subjects endeavour to escape their enemies by swimming across the Seine, the Royal Papist glows with holy zeal, and though the people are engaged in that last conflict for life, actually fires upon them. Meanwhile, the page loaded the arquebuse, sweat dripped from the brow of the pusillanimous King, as he cried "Kill them, Kill them." Well might the Republicans of France appeal to human nature, generally, as well as to

their comrades, by employing the following inscription :-" From this window the Tyrant Charles IX., of bloody memory, fired upon his faithful subjects, the unfortunate Huguenots, during the massacre of St. Bartholomew." The Duke of Guise, in person, directed the butchery, shouting to the savage soldiers "Courage, our game is in the toils." This cruel and revengeful bigot waited near Admiral Coligni's mansion to gloat his eyes with the certain death of his victim; and for the sake of identifying the body, wiped the vital fluid off the old seaman's brows. Marshal Tavannes rode on horseback through the streets of the Capital, exclaiming "Let blood! bleeding is wholesome both in August and May." In like stoical manner (if language can be so prostituted) the infamous Catherine de Medicis beheld the naked and bleeding remains of those refugees lodged within the Palace, thrown out of the windows into the street. The general massacre included many of the most illustrious men in France. Towards the close of the carnage, assassins boasted before Royalty of their sanguinary exploits: one fellow assured the King that four hundred victims had fallen by his hand. Altogether, in Paris, Lyons, Orleans, Rouen, Angers, and Thoulouse, thirty thousand Huguenots or Protestants were thus systematically murdered by their vindictive enemies the Papists. The Courts of Rome and Spain manifested the greatest delight upon the receipt of the news. The Pope was so enraptured, that he went in procession to the Church of Saint Lewis, and returned thanks to Almighty God for "that joyous event," the extirpation of the Protestants. Arrogant blasphemer, to style himself the Vicar of Christ, and yet endorse, with impious prayers, a crime so foul. To further commemorate this spiritual triumph of Popery, medals were struck, and festivals annually appointed. King Philip, also, had a theatrical representation of the massacre, entitled "The Triumph of the Church Militant."

Again observe the benign influence of Popery :-France, A.D., 1665. -The royal dragoons, sword in hand, cried “Die or be Catholics," as they entered the principal cities of that country. Unheard of barbarities followed. Men and women were hung up by the feet, or the hair of their heads, and then nearly suffocated with lighted wisps of hay. Some, after having been stripped, had pins thrust into various parts of their bodies; others were half roasted, and goaded by halberds, many had their finger and toe nails plucked off with pincers. The soldiers then indulged the most revolting obscenities; they bound fathers

Simmy, bol. The same army, under Count Tilley, practised the joducitas towards the Protestants: an aged and pious divine, tiny tal upon a tiba, fastened to him a cat, which, when goaded to its bus, tu vul ad gunwed the outeuils of its victim! In Hesse Cassel,

the troops seized all the mad women confined in the Hospital, made infamous sport with them through the public streets, and then burnt those poor lunatics! For further particulars concerning this appalling subject, vide Dr. Southwell's New Book of Martyrs.

France, 1488.-Albert de Capitaneis, the Commissioner specially appointed by Pope Innocent III., proceeded to execute his bloody mission in the peaceful valley of Loyse. The inhabitants, apprized of the approach of the Popish troops, fled to the caves in the mountains. The Lieutenant soon discovered the place of their retreat, and ordered the soldiers to suffocate them, by placing wood at the entrances to their hiding places, and then setting the piles on fire. Thus perished four hundred babes, some in cradles, others clasped to the bosoms of dying mothers. Multitudes, to avoid a similar end, threw themselves upon the rocks beneath; but, if any escaped mutilation in that form, they were instantly butchered by the soldiers. Perrin affirms, on the authority of the Waldenses, "that three thousand persons perished on this occasion.', Jones also says, "they were wholly exterminated, for the valley was afterwards peopled with new inhabitants."

As a prelude to these barbarous proceedings, in the December of 1400, a horde of Roman Catholic troops suddenly pounced upon the unfortunate peasants of Pragela and put vast numbers of them to the sword. The terror-stricken survivors took refuge among the Alps. Their implacable foes having pillaged all the houses in the valley, then left the wanderers to slowly perish by cold. During that dread night there was a bitter frost and the snow fell fast; Merciful heaven, what a spectacle! mothers frantically bore their offsprings along the rugged passes of those snowclad heights, until benumbed by the elements of nature, they sat down in a dying torpor. The next dawning day revealed the wives of the sturdy mountaineers with fourscore infants in the last embrace of death. Like spectres their frozen bodies were dotted about the bleak upper region of the Alps.

Subsequently, another massacre took place in Dauphiny, 1655. One of the sufferers described the scene as follows:-"They mercilessly tortured one hundred and fifty women and their children, chopping off the heads of some, and dashing the brains of others out against the rocks. Unto those whom they took prisoners, from fifteen years old and upwards, who refused to go to mass, many they hanged, and the rest nailed to trees by the feet, with their heads downward. There are whole districts

specially S. Giovanni andre, where he usiness - etting ire e 11* Louses na nurenes vase exterousky 'mamgrd by a Daniseant. friar, and a certain rest. hat be at not utilis

inburnt. In such lesolations, he mother as een ereit hær · mulusthe usband of his wife. Those vio were once

tre "educed to the necessity tegging read, write ouers stil remain veitering a their own lood, nu ieprived a di ne comores of "ire, *

iragged from places feuge into a meadow, wu tere >RULIK Ce President ordered the women to be surface pailing scenes f Impurity ook place it La Coste. 3ctributive stive suddenly wertools. this nunman agent of Popery. Te lied a dreadfui orments, un, is though Nature marked her ietestation of suena nouster, us wody, iku Terod's, shortly after icath, turned to loathsome · urrupuva.

Italy, 11—June, 1560.—A number uterus ving 'wer con demned to leath at Calabria by the Marus Juttare and the Toly Inquisitors, the executioner went into the prison, and among the condemned nut one it a time, led sach to joining kid, covered us face with a napkin, and cut each victim's 'hroat weep asan. Ute exeentioner holding the bloody knife between his teeth, the reeking nankin thrown across his shoulder, and his arms esmeared with gore, wonid then repair to the den of the loomed, ing ut uthter mortui, und Inflict on him the same cruel mode of death. Assistant un ŠTOMARTES were in attendance with waggons, to receive the butchered literally tre bodies, which had to be quartered, and nung alongside the roads of Calabria. In this manner, during me day, eighty-eight men were put to death, and their mutilated remains duly exhibited. On the following morning, a hundred women were burnt alive, because they refused to look on a crucifix, or confess to a priest.

In the 14th century, likewise, at St. Xist, a province under the Calabrian lords, the refugee Widenses were fearfully maitreated by their old enemies, the Papists. Cardinal Alexandrino, the Inquisitor appointed over that district, acted more like a wild beast than a civilized. man. By his order, several persons (including sixty women) were racked to death; one Charlin in particular was so dreadfully used that his abdomen burst. Many were stripped and beaten to death some had their flesh hacked off; others were burnt alive. The following incidicat