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judges expreffed a forrow for this unhappy accident, Vargas faid to them, Qu'il n'en devoient pas être fâchez, parce que l'innocence de cet homme feroit avantageuse à fon ame. That is, "They needed not to be forry, because "the innocence of that man would be pro "fitable to his foul "."

ANOTHER member of this council, James Heffels, was generally afleep during the tryal of the accused heretics, and when he was awaked to give his vote on a fubject of no lefs concern than a man's life, he used to rub eyes, and cry out, ad patibulum, ad patibulum: that is, "To the gallows, to the gallows."

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SUCH were the judiciary proceedings of fome of Alva's fubftitutes: as to himself, he generally proceeded againft heretics, and all

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fentence of the parliament, tho' he was not found guilty. Here follows the fentence pronounced against him: "Mr. "Teronde, the court.DOES NOT FIND YOU GUILTY IN "THE LEAST: however, being very well informed of your "inward thoughts, (de l'interieur de vostre confcience) "and that you would have been very well pleafed if "those of your wretched and reprobate religion had ob"tained the victory, (and indeed you have always fa"voured them) they have condemned you to be be"headed, and have confifcated your eftate without any "exception." Hiftoire ecclefiaftique des Eglifes reformées au Royaume de France, &c. Tom. III. I. 10. p. 33, 34. Hiftoire, ut fupra, par M. Le Clerc, Tom. I. lib. z.

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who oppofed him, in a very summary, arbitrary, and cruel way. He caufed many to be hanged, beheaded, and burnt alive: fome were fastened to the tails of horses, their hands tied behind their backs, and drawn thus to the place of execution : others were fastened by the hands and feet to four horfes, and torn asunder. In fhort, this barbarous wretch himself bragged, that, besides those killed in the field, he had put to death eigh teen thousand by the hand of the common executioner among thefe were the counts Egmont and Horn, the barons of Batenburg, and many other, of the principal nobility; particularly a lady of eighty-four years of age, who being very rich, faid upon the fcaffold, The calf is fat, it must therefore be killed.

THUS dutifully hath the holy father, the pope, been obeyed and ferved by fome of his fons and daughters! And fuch have been the cruelties exercised by chriftians on one another! Had not a noble author reafon to say?

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Hiftoire des Provinces unies, par M. Le Clerc, p. 15. navībid.ap. 17.000"...Ibid. p. 38. JD Jon S • These two noblemen were Roman Catholics; and their only crime was that of being for a toleration of the reformed religion, and not oppofing it with fufficient violence.

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Though the chriftians gospell with them be Efteem'd the joyful embassie of peace; Yet he that doth pretend supremacy Upon their church, lets not contention ceafe; But with opinions ftirres up kings to warre, And names them martyrs, that his furies are*.

BUT neither the making of fanguinary laws to punish men for their religious opinions, nor perfecuting numbers by those laws even to death, nor the flaughter made of still greater numbers by outrageous and bloody wars, could fatiate the cruelty of some religious miscreants. They must proceed to maffacres, and facrifice at once many hecatombs of their fellow-creatures and fellowchristians to their religious fury.

AMONG others, the maffacres of Ireland and France will remain lafting monuments of religious rage and cruelty. In that of Ireland there were, according to a computation made by the priests themselves, who were present at, and principal actors in that dreadful tragedy, one hundred and fifty-four thoufand proteftants, men, women, and children, murdered; and many of them with the most shocking circumftances of inhuman barbarity".

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IF the maffacre in France, commonly called of Paris, because it began there, fell somewhat short of that in Ireland refpecting numbers, it seems in several respects to have gone beyond that and most others. This did not take its rife from a fudden tumultuous infurrection of the mob, as fuch violent outrages have often done, but was deliberately concerted long before it was executed; and the principal contrivers were no less perfons than the king of France, Charles IX, the queen mother, Catharine of Medicis, the duke of Anjou, (afterwards Henry III) the cardinal of Lorraine, the duke of Guife, and the count of Retz. King Charles at the time of this maffacre was but 22 years of age, and the duke of Anjou his younger brother: may it not be justly faid, that they were mature in religious cruelty in their tender years? The utmost artifice, and the deepest diffimulation, were put in practice to draw the prince of Navarre, (afterwards Henry IV) the prince of Condé, the admiral Coligny, and all the other principal protestants in France to Paris. For this purpose, a match between the prince of Navarre and the king's fifter was propofed by the king, and an expedition against the Spanish Netherlands pretended,

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The queen of Navarre foon after her arrival at Paris was poifoned.

in which the admiral was to command in chief, and all the proteftant officers were to be employed under him. The expedition was a mere pretence, and never took effect; but the match did. And the fixth day after the marriage, being St. Bartholomew's day, in the midft of the nuptial feftivity and rejoic→ ings, this most horrid maffacre began. There were, fays D'Avila, killed in the city (of Paris) that day and the next above ten thou→ fand perfons, whereof more than five hun dred were barons, knights, and gentlemen, who had held the chief employments in the war, and were now purposely met together from all parts to honour the king of Navarre's marriage. Perefixe, archbishop of Paris, fays in his hiftory of Henry the great, that throughout all the towns of the kingdom, after the example of Paris, near one hundred thousand were murdered: and tho a Roman Catholic bishop, he thus expreffes himself on the fubject: Action execrable ! qui n'avoit jamais eu, & qui n'aura, s'il plaist a Dieu, ja+ mais de pareille. i. e. "Execrable action! " which never was, and we may hope in "God, never will be equalled." But though one Roman Catholic thus condemns and laments this horrid action, and no doubt but fome

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Hiftory of the civil wars of France, pe 184. y Page 30.

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