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of Provence condemned nineteen of them to be burnt for herefy, their trees to be rooted up, and their houfes to be raz'd to the ground. The Waldenfes, terrified at this fentence, applied in a body to Cardinal Sadolet, bishop of Carpentras; who received them kindly, and obtained from Francis I. of France, a pardon for the perfons under fentence of death, on condition of abjuring herefy. The matter lay over five years; when the parliament irritated at their perfeverance, prevailed on the King to withdraw his pardon. The fentence was executed with great rigour; and the parliament, laying hold of that opportunity, broke through every restraint of law, and commenced a violent perfecution against the whole tribe. The foldiers began with maffacring old men, women, and children, all having fled who were able to fly; and proceeded to burn their houfes, barns, and corn. There remained in the town of Cabriere fixty men and thirty women; who having furrendered upon promife of life, were butchered all of them without mercy. Some women who had taken refuge in a church, were dragged out, and burnt alive. Twenty-twa

villages

villages were reduced to afhes; and that populous and flourishing district, became once more a defart.

To conceive this horrid fcene in all its deformity, the people perfecuted ought to be compared with the clergy their perfecutors; for the civil magiftrate was the hand only that executed their vengeance : on the one fide, an industrious honest people, pure in their morals, and no less pure in their religion: on the other, proud pampered priests, abandoned without shame to every wickednefs, impure in their morals, and ftill more impure in their religion—the world never furnished fuch another contraft. Had the scene been reverfed, to make thefe wretches fuffer perfecution from the Waldenfes - but that people were too upright and too religious for being perfecutors. The manners of the Christian clergy in general, before the Reformation, enlivens the contraft. The doctrine promulgated during the dark times of Christianity, That God is a mercenary being, and that every perfon however wicked may obtain pardon of his fins by money, made riches flow into the hands of the clergy in a plentiful stream.

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And riches had the fame effect upon the. Christian clergy that they have upon all men, which is, to produce pride, sensuality, and profligacy: thefe again produced diffipation of money, which prompted' avarice, and every invention for recruiting exhausted treasures*. Even as early as the eighth century, the Chriftian clergy, tempted by opulence, abandoned themfelves to pleasure, without moderation; and far exceeded the laity in luxury, gluttony, and luft. When fuch were the paftors, what must have been the flock! Rejoice, O Scotland, over the poverty and temperance of thy paftors. During that period, the clergy could read, and like parrots, they could mumble prayers in Latin in every other refpect, they rivalled the laity in ignorance. They were indeed more cunning than the laity; and understood their intereft better, if to covet riches at the expence of probity, deferve

*In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, many of the clergy became merchants; and, being free of taxes, engroffed all. In the Netherlands particu- } larly, there was a great cry, that monafteries were converted into fhops and warehoufes, and the manfions of fecular priefts into tap-houfes and inns.

that

that name. Three articles were established that made religion an easy fervice. First, That faith is the effence of religion, without regard to good works; and hence the neceffity of being strictly orthodox, which the church only could determine. Second, Religious worship was reduced to a number of external ceremonies and forms, which, being declared fufficient for falvation, abfolved Chriftians from every moral duty. Remark, that a priest is always the chief perfon in ceremonial worship. The third article, That God is a mercenary being, is mentioned above, with its neceffary confequences. These articles brought about a total neglect, both in clergy and laity, not only of morality, but of every effential religious duty. In fine, there never was a religion that deviated more from juft principles, than that profeffed by Chriftians during the dark ages. Perfecution reached none but the fincerely pious and virtuous. What a glorious tolerating fentiment doth Arnobius (a) throw out, and what profusion of blood would have been prevented, had it been adopted by all Chriftians!

(a) Lib. 1. Adverfus Gentes.

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were held facred; and it came to be ftrenuously difputed, under which of the grants the Molucca iflands were comprehended. Both grants proceed upon a narrative, of the power beftowed by Almighty God on the Pope as fucceffor to St Peter and vicar of Chrift. To imagine that the Almighty would bestow fuch powers on the Bishop of Rome, or on any human being, fhews grofs ignorance of the common rights of mankind, and of the government of Providence.

The groffeft of all deviations, not only from found morality but from pure religion, and the most extensive in its baneful effects, is a doctrine embraced by established churches, not many excepted, That because heretics are odious in the fight of God, it is the duty of the orthodox to extirpate them root and branch. Obferve the confequence: people who differ from the established church, are held to be obftinate finners, deferving punishment here as well as hereafter. The religion of every country is changeable; and the religion at prefent dominant may foon be under depreffion; which of course fubjects all mankind to the rigour of per

fecution

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