ed nothing less than war and destruction. In their progress they murdered great numbers of the Catholics, demolished their churches and monasteries, and carried devastation through the land. But the Almighty, in his eternal wisdom, had resolved to restrain their power, that they should not proceed beyond the limits which he had fixed. Their expectations were consequently frustrated, and they were obliged to sit down with less extent of conquest than they had grasped in their thoughts. In fine, experience shows, that notwithstanding the Protestant princes have taken such pains to extirpate the Catholic religion in their respective states, they have not been able to compass it. The Catholics have been grievously oppressed, and many even put to death; nevertheless, though much reduced in some of those countries, by the divine protection, they still there subsist, whilst, at the same time, many other countries received the true Catholic faith; and what the Church lost in one nation she gained in another. In those countries where the sovereigns embraced the Reformation, they generally seized upon the revenues of the Church, and thus reduced the clergy to the pinching anguishes of want. The bulk of the Catholics were forced to adopt the religion of their princes, or fly their native country, or, in fine, be doomed to lie under the most heavy oppression. Besides, who is ignorant of the cruel persecuting laws, that were in those times enacted, in most of the Protestant states, against the Catholic re ligion? Among the rest, who is not acquainted with the severe laws of England and Ireland? They are such, as to be owned by those of their own people, who have a sense of humanity, to be barbarous, to be a scandal to the Christian religion, and a disgrace to civilized nations. In consequence of these statutes, how many persons have been stript of their estates? How many individuals have been imprisoned, banished, even put to death? How many families have been reduced to beggary, and ruined? How miserable was the condition of a multitude of religious people, of both sexes, who were ejected from their houses, and robbed of all their possessions? They had abandoned the world, and consecrated themselves to God in solitary retreats. Unacquainted with manual labour, and unaccustomed to every art of providing subsistence, they solely attended to the service of God, and to the preparing of themselves for another world, depending entirely for the support of the present life on the pious benefactions of those persons, who, to promote the divine worship and all the heroic virtues of the Christian religion, had endowed those houses with suitable revenues. But now a storm, like a hurricane, rose and burst upon them. One would have thought that an army of Goths or Danes had invaded the land. The recluses saw themselves assaulted by brutish ruffians, and forcibly drawn out of their sanctuaries. They saw their churches violated, and, together with their houses, plundered and pulled down to the ground. Thus were those ancient nurseries of piety and learning reduced to a heap of ruins; a lasting monument of the spirit that guided the Reformation. Such were the extravagancies of fanaticism and violence at that period, that not a few were scandalized, even of those who favoured the change of religion. See Stowe's Annals, Fuller's and Collier's Church Histories. Sir John Denham, speaking of the demolition of monasteries in England, cries out: "Who sees these dismal walls but will demand, Let us hear another Protestant writer: "England sat weeping," says Camden, "to see her wealth exhausted, her coin debased, and her abbeys demolished, which were the monuments of her ancient piety." Introd. to the Annals of Queen Elizabeth. By such inhuman proceedings, a great number of religious men and women saw themselves. stript of every commodity of life. They saw themselves exposed to the inclemency of the weather, to the distresses of want, to the insults of an insolent populace worked up to enthusiasm; in fine, they found themselves turned out into a wide world, without knowing which way to direct their steps. Had the executioner been sent, instead of a commission er, and required the lives of all those who re fused to sacrifice their conscience to the new religion, they would have esteemed themselves happy in acquiring the crown of martyrdom. But to be exposed to all sorts of temptations, to lasting wretchedness, and to see the Church of God trampled under foot, were more cruel afflictions to them than death. These, however they were condemned to bear, and to be deprived of the blessing of giving up their lives. Luther declared himself the leader in all matters, as well as in articles of the new discipline, and he levelled his first attacks against the Church. He set out with inveighing against all Church government, he declaimed against the clergy, and especially against the superiority of the Pope, though but a little before he had professed all obedience to him. Having gained for disciple and protector, John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, he kept no further measures, but declared open war against the bishops, and the whole ecclesiastic order. In his rage he composed a book on the subject, in which he said: "All those who will venture their lives, their estates, their honours and their blood, in so Christian a work, as to root out all bishoprics and bishops, who are the ministers of satan, and to pluck up by the roots all their authority and jurisdiction in the world; these persons are the true children of God, and obey his commandments." Contra statum Eccessiae et falso nominatum ordinem Episcoporum. Again, in his book against Sylvester Prieras: "I," says he, "we despatch thieves * by the gallows, highwaymen by the sword, heretics by fire; why do we not rather attack with all kinds of arms these masters of perdition, these Cardinals, these Popes; and all this sink of the Romish Sodom, which corrupts without ceasing the Church of God, and wash our hands in their blood.” Thus preached the new religionist, nor did he cease till he got the bishops expelled from Saxony and Hesse, and their authority extinguished. Not content with having thrown off contemptuously the spiritual authority of the Pope, the bishops, and of the whole Church, Luther next attempted to subvert the temporal power of princes. The new teachers totally differed from the primitive preachers of the gospel. These, during their whole ministry, had before their eyes the charge which Christ gave to his apostles. "Behold, I send you, " said he, "as sheep in the midst of wolves," Matt. x. 16. Which they all understood as an order to preserve the meekness and gentleness of sheep, whatever wolves or persecutors they might meet with. And this rule they invariably followed. But Luther, though at first he professed an aversion to violence, finding the way of patience did not succeed, soon altered his maxims. "The gospel," he then said, and the rest of the reformers after him said the same thing, "the gospel has always caused disturbances, and blood is requisite for its establishment." De serv. arb. When, therefore, he had done as much as |