attachment to the constitution, as indivisibly consisting of church and state, act nevertheless upon this question, as if they disregarded all the lessons of history. They believe that the spirit of the Roman-Catholic religion is changed, because the Roman-Catholics tell them so. SIR THOMAS MORE. Which you do not believe. MONTESINOS. No, by St. Bartholomew, and Dr. Lingard! No, by St. Dominic, and Dr. Doyle! No, by the Holy Office! By the Irish Massacre, and the Dragonades of Louis XIV! By their Saints, and by our Martyrs! Persecution is so plainly a duty upon the Roman-Catholic system, that the live bonfires of the Inquisition were called Acts of Faith.* SIR THOMAS MORE. You then are not one of those persons who think that the age of persecution is gone by? MONTESINOS. Sir Thomas, you well know there are certain * Autos-da-fe. The populace may very probably have understood the word Auto in this combination as meaning a spectacle or show,.. for such it was made to them. I have conversed with persons who remembered when an Auto-da-fe was the greatest holyday in Lisbon, and they who lived where the execution could be seen made entertainments, and invited their friends to the sight! principles which render persecution a religious duty; and so long as those principles exist, persecution is only suspended for want of the power to persecute. I know not any excess that is not at this day possible in Ireland. In Spain, nothing would make Ferdinand more popular with one part of his people than an auto-da-fe, and willing enough he would be to indulge them with such a holyday, if he were not in too much fear of the other. And in France, see what the temper of the clergy is, though so many causes have operated there to mitigate it! Look at the barbarous inhumanity which is displayed there upon the death of a heretic; . . and the scandalous scenes which more than once have occurred in Paris concerning the interment of an actor. SIR THOMAS MORE. Surely you do not suppose that this temper is confined to the Catholics? MONTESINOS. Certainly not. When I see a Calvinist apologizing for the death of Servetus, I think it well for the Unitarians that the disciples of Calvin have not succeeded to his authority as well as to his disposition. These are men to whom Orinda's verses may be well applied: Ye narrow souls, take heed, Lest you restrain the mercy you will need! And when I find them eulogizing as models of wisdom and piety, the saints of the great rebellion, who were the most pestilent firebrands that ever set a kingdom in flames, I cannot help inferring, that if opportunity were afforded, they would not be backward in imitating what they admire and applaud. "Misbelief," says the excellent* Jackson, "always includes a strong belief; but the stronger our belief, he proceeds to say, the more dangerous it is, if it be wrested or misplaced." But the principle of intolerance is not so essentially connected with any other form of belief as it is with the Romish system, nor is it where it exists so practical. The supremacy of the state is acknowledged by all reformed churches: on the contrary the Romish clergy exalt themselves above the state, and make the civil magistrate their executioner. They must persecute, if they believe their own creed, for conscience sake; and if they do not believe it, they must persecute for policy, because it is only by intolerance that so corrupt and injurious a system can be upheld. "Smite them for the love of charity!" was the hearty war-cry of the Bishop, Don Hieronymo, when, in company with my Cid, he hewed among the Moors to the right and left, wielding his sword with both hands, till, as he lifted his arm, the blood ran from the sleeve of his mail to the elbow. "Burn them for the love of charity!" has been the substance of every sermon that ever was preached at a Roman-Catholic Act of Faith, where a sermon has always been part of the ceremony: . . so dreadful are the effects of a strong faith malignified. SIR THOMAS MORE. It was said of old that the Devil divides the world between atheism and superstition. MONTESINOS. France is at this time divided between them. The men, throughout the higher and half-educated classes, believe in Voltaire; the women, the whole of the lower class, and the court are as obedient to the priestly power, as Pope Hildebrand could have desired to see them, were he to be raised from the dead, and reassume his papal authority. There the two partitioning principles are opposed to each other, and the reign of sacerdotal intolerance cannot be reestablished without a struggle of which the issue would be doubtful. SIR THOMAS MORE. Do you apprehend then that a renewal of religious persecution is likely, or possible, in any other part of Christendom? MONTESINOS. I know not what evils are impossible when I consider the credulity and the mutability, and the ignorance of mankind. There is, however, no immediate prospect of it. In Italy atheism and superstition compromise matters, and in Spain also they have come to the same sort of tacit understanding; persecution has done its work in both countries, and the fires have gone out, not for want of will to keep them up, but because the fuel has been all consumed: no antagonizing spirit of belief is left. They who are of Leo the Tenth's religion, and they who are of Ignatius Loyola's, share the temporal things of the church between them in brotherly concord, and the only heresy to be found is that which exists in political opinions. The unbelieving clergy are better than the ultrabelieving in this respect, that if a religious heretic were to present himself, they would be very unwilling to gratify him in his desire for martyrdom. SIR THOMAS MORE. To what do you ascribe this reluctance? MONTESINOS. Mainly to natural humanity, manifesting |