24 AUGUST 1844, Page 15

fsSITUATOR'S 11.13.11,05.

HINTORY.

Persecutions orPopery : iee Nar r i ee tit ihermaskyemarkable Persecutions occasioned:lay the Intolerance of the Olson& of Rome. Vsedecielilloberl. two volumes • 'Titevars, Ecithen, er Traces of Turrel.bronght Hoznalrorn the'Ead... .. POETRY,

Poems. By Elizabeth Barrett Barrett. Author of •"1"he Seraphim." Ste. Is tmo

volumes Mum,. Potrrzasz. Boorrour.

Essays on some Unsettled Questions ot.Bolitioal Economy. ,DyJohn Stuart Mill.

Parker.

*MOSUL'S POPPSH PEESECUTTOM

A 'PHILOSOPHICAL history of religious persecutions would be a curious and useful work, though not very easy of accomplishment, and perhaps not very popularly attractive. 'The difficulty wotild be to settle how much was really owing to religious bigotry or fanaticism in the numerous persecutions that have disgraced the name of Christianity, how much to worldly motives, and how far the two may have been combined. The probable deficiency of popular interest would arise from the work being rather an .argu- ment than a narrative. The horrors of martyrdom and sweeping devastation, the sufferings of the vanquished, the atrocities of the victors, and worst of all the frauds and perjuries of churchmen- militant, must be in a measure put aside for a disquisition on latent motives, and a selection of instances to support the writer's con- clusions.

It is, however, very probable that only one Popish persecution

ever took place which originated solely in conscientious bigotry on the part of the author—in an idea that was a Romanist's duty to punish obstinate heretics even unto death ; and this was Queen 31/lay's in England. If the other persecutions be closely examined, it will be found that very often the motives were not only temporal but political, and religion no more than a badge or war-cry. Such were all the religious contests in France, even 'including-the mac sacre of Saint Bartholomew,—unless the persecutions ofiotris the Fourteenth in his dotage should be placed in the same category as our "Bloody MARY'S." Such were the religious wars of Germany between the Emperors and their Protestant vassals, and such the Spanish contests in the Low Countries. Political motives—the temporal advantage of some ambitious prince, or some arbitrary objects of a ruler towards his own subjeets—operated in what are called the crusades against the Albigensee and the Waldenses ; though religious intolerance was a greater moving...power in these cases than in the others. The persecutions of the Lollards, of the followers of Huss and of JEROME of Prague, with many persecu- tions of individuals in Italy, were crimes in which,churohmen 'were the leading persons-; and some, no doubt, were prompted only bra ferocious hatred of all who differed with them, aggravated hy the detestable doctrines of the Popish Church touching heresy : but the true motive of those persecutions was a dread.of temporal loss—loss of power, loss of influence, loss of income; it was the jealousy of alarmed "interests," rather than the speculative-doc- trine of religionists that excited the priesthood, or at least the leading priests. "Sirs, you know that by this craft we have our wealth." And we need only cast our.eyes upon the Penal Statutes in Ireland, and the restrictive acts against Dissenters in this country, to know that an alarmed "interest," whether Catholic or Protestant, will take advantage of all the means to secure its ascendancy which the customs of the country and the spirit of the age permit.

No doubt, in all these cases ferocity and cruelty were sharpened

by the religious element ; a difference in creed having the same effect as a difference in caste or colour, and justifying to conscience and opinion the perpetration of crimes that men might otherwise shrink from committing. Yet even with this allowance, some regard must be had to the spirit of the times, and a good deal more, we think, to national character—to the blood. As mut& general devastation was committed in the secular as in the religious wars of the middle ages ; nor did the Popish warriors discrimi- nate very nicely respecting the belief of those they plundered and maletreated. Whether it be climate, or ignorance, or con- stitution, or a reaction of all three upon .each other, there is no doubt that Southern peoples always show themselves more ferocious than those of a Northern or Germanic race. Witness the atrocities of the French Revolution, especially in the Southern provinces ; look even in our day at the bloody spirit that animated the con- tentions of the Carlists and Christinos in Spain, and of the rival brothers in Portugal. Southern Italy has not had the same oppor- tunity of political display that has been afforded to France and -the Peninsula ; but from descriptions of local outbreaks, it is proba- ble that the Southern Italians only want an opportunity to rival the French mobs of the Reign of Terror or of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew.

It may perhaps be held that we should in fairness add to these

explanations of Popish persecutions the fact of Protestant imitations. But they were for the most part retaliations, perpetrated under exasperation, or in heat of blood, or adopted in supposed self- defence. They are -wholly and solely chargeable upon the times and the individuals, not upon -the principles of Protestantism. Principles, indeed, are apt to give way under passion and pressure; but there is this great advantage in Protestantism, that a Protest- ant persecutes in defiance of his principles, a Papist in compliance with them. The exception to this theory, perhaps, is the Presby- terian Church. Mr. SHOBERL has not attempted to compose a work upon the theory we have indicated. He brings to his task an Exeter Hall or Orange feeling against Popery, and without, we suspect, much of original research or reflection upon the subject of its persecutions. He properly enough opens his book with a brief survey of the usur- pations of the Popedom and the clergy, from the time of CHARLE- MAGNE to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ; but without seeing that the superiority of the spiritual to the temporal power was in those days of ignorance and ferocity a real blessing to society, as the terror of superstition was the only means of restraining, and -that not very effectually, the atrocities of power : nor does he at- tempt to estimate the weakness or violence against which the great churchmen often had to contend, and the calm courage with which they opposed it. He then enters upon his immediate subject, though by no means completely. His book only narrates the per- secution of the Albigenses and Waldenses ; traces the origin of the Inquisition, and its establishment in Spain in despite of the Pope, but gives no particular examples of its cruelty ; notices the long pursuit of the Lollards in England ; but, strange to say, omits all account of the persecutions under MARY, or of the martyrdoms of Huss, JEROME of Prague, and the Italian and Ger- man Reformers. The long persecutions in France form the greater part of the remainder of the book, from the first differences, which took the form of a civil war, as indeed the object was political power, through the atrocious massacre of Saint Bartholomew and the dragoonings under Louts the Fourteenth. The work closes with some individual persecutions in Poland, Germany, and France, during the last and present centuries, and the expatriation of the 2illerthalers from Tyrol. No account is given of the great German and Flemish religious wars.

Mr. SHOBERL'S Persecutions of Popery is not so much a history as a compilation, even in its narrative parts, and a compilation from ready and sometimes from questionable authorities. Some of it, in- deed, is not composition but quotation, either avowed or taken from the authorities with little or no alteration. As a mere superficial account of the facts of certain historico-religious events, the book will be found clear and readable, with the species of interest which attaches to such kind of subjects ; but it has no further quality. The following may be taken as fair or perhaps favourable specimens of the style. We say of the style, because in the second and third extracts, we think the character of the original author predomi- nates over that of Mr. StIOBERL.

INVENTION OF PURGATORY.

As a new source of revenue, Purgatory was invented, in order to make the dead as well as the living tributary to the rapacity of Rome. The Papist was taught that the redemption obtained by Christ exempted from eternal punish- ment only ; and that even the repentant who had confessed and received abso- lution would still have to suffer for their sins. Purgatory was therefore in- vented,—a place so near the region of everlasting torment that the same fire pervades both. No bodily pain can convey an idea of the agony inflicted by a single spark of this fire. Here the candidate for happiness is purified by suf- ferings inflicted more particularly on the member by which he has sinned: but their intensity may be mitigated and their duration abridged by means of masses said for his soul, and of indulgences granted by the Pope ; for his power extends over this dreadful place. If the Vicegerent of God wished to promote a new practice of devotion, or to encourage a particular shrine, or to excite men to slaughter their unoffending fellow-creatures, he granted to those who should promote these objects a dispensation for so many years of purgatory— sometimes for centuries or thousands of years ; and the indulgence was often plenary,—" a toll-ticket," says Southey, "enabling the soul to pass scot-free." The Church, in its infinite benevolence, sold these indulgences ; making the act of purchasing them, and thus contributing to its wants, a merit of itself to deserve so inestimable a reward.

COURT OF FRANCE UNDER CATHERINE OF MEDICIS.

To this Queen all ways were good for gratifying her vengeance and attaining tier ends. History is full of scandalous details of the snares which she laid for the leaders of the Protestants, by means of the females whom she kept in her train. " Wherever she went," says Mezerai, " she took with her the appara- tus for the most voluptuous diversions, and two or three hundred [Brantome tells us that there were at least three hundred dames ou demoiselles in her re- tinue] of the handsomest females of her court, who led in leash twice as many courtiers. Let war or public affairs create what embarrassments they would, balls must be kept up; the tones of violins were never drowned by the clang of trumpets; the same carriage bore the machinery of ballets and the machines of war; and in the same lists were to be seen Frenchmen butchering each other and carousels at which ladies were taking their pleasure."

The same writer mentions " an entertainment given by Catherine, at which females, habited as men and dressed in green, waited at table"; and another, which she gave to Monsieur at Chenonceaux, and on which, to show that it was of her he had learned prodigality, she expended more than 100,000 livres; and 'the most beautiful women of the court were employed to wait at table, with bosoms bare, and hair floating loose like that of brides." These females Catherine took into her service at the age of fourteen ; per- 'tonal charms were a title to preference, and she trained them according to her 'views: hence almost all of them became celebrated for their gallantries ; and though the Queen appeared at times to affect severity when they carried matters too far, this was only a trick of her policy, and privately she always manifested extreme indulgence for their indiscretions, as she had done towards her hus- band's mistresses, when they were serviceable to her designs. This harem, kept under the name of Ladies of Honour, proved fatal to more than one warrior. They gained the chiefs by their blandishments, wormed from them their secrets, and instantly revealed them to their mistress. In this way, the young Berau- tliere drew Antoine de Bourbon from the Protestant interest, and it was in the arms of this Lady of Honour that he became a good Catholic. Bayle relates with what art the beautiful Limeuil, by command of the Queen, to whom she was related, contrived to entangle the Prince of Conde; how Catherine fa- voured their amours, and their scandalous result. The proud Chateauneuf was at the same time the declared mistress of the Duke of Anjou and his mother's Ladyof Honour. In spite of her adventures, she afterwards married Antinotti,

an ; whom she murdered with her own band. It was with Catherine's consent that half-a-dozen of these ladies disputed, not unsuccessfully, for the heart of her younger son, the Duke of Anjou, the King of Navarre, and the first men of the court. It is even alleged that she received into her retinue Marie Touchet, the public mistress of Charles the Ninth, in order that she might be better able to chain that furious lion. But the person who served most to promote her designs WAD the beautiful Sauvee, so celebrated in the annals of those times. She was dame d'arours to Catherine. Her wit, her beauty, her graces, her experience in the arts of seduction, rendered her parti- cularly dangerous to young hearts. She was justly called the Circe of the court. This enchantress bound Henry the Fourth and many others by her spells.

RETRIBUTION: CATHERINE AND CHARLES AFTER ST. BARTHOLOMEW.

The bloody saturnalia of the 24th of August were over. Catherine's rest was broken ; her hair had turned gray, her face become wrinkled ; the people who had once thronged to see her pass, to admire her beauty, ceased to feel either emotion or pleasure on beholding her. They seemed to survey her with a sort of stupor and horror. They imagined that the massacre of the Pro- testants would give them bread and employment, reduce the taxes, and restore peace to France. Disappointed in their expectations, they began to clamour for the assembling of the States, their usual cry when they found their con- dition hopeless. • •

The departure was fixed for the first fine days: to hasten it, the crowned spectre [Charles the Ninth] resolved to proceed in a litter to Vitry. The people collected to see the Monarch pass. What a spectacle! His head, suddenly swollen, drooped upon his bosom ; his sunken eye had no animation ; his mental faculties appeared to be extinguished. If a peasant approached too near, guards on foot, armed with whips, brutally drove him back. It was only when some child, afflicted with king's evil, cried "Charles, Charles!" that the train halted. The prince then extended his sallow hand, laid it upon the head of the sufferer, and said, " May God heal thee!" For himself, it was in vain that he solicited of God and the professors of the healing art remedies for pains the seat of which he could not even assign : the prayers of his young consort were themselves of no avail. Elizabeth made vows, heard masses, lighted tapers, visited the shrines of saints, distributed abundant alms ; but the illness of her wretched husband, instead of abating, became hourly worse. He ate but seldom, and never till some trusty servant had first tasted of the viands prepared for him. At night he was restless, and had frightful dreams : he be- held the heavens on fire, and fantastic shapes hovering in the air. He rose, knelt, prayed, or read in a primer, which he carried with him : but no sooner had he dosed off again than more ghastly visions than before suddenly roused him, and again he resorted to the prayer-book. Thus passed the melancholy nights of the unhappy prince : his days were not less melancholy. At ten in the morning he usually heard mass, supported by two attendants, who bent his knees and inclined his head at the moment of the elevation of the host ; and then conveyed him to his apartment, seated him in an arm-chair, and made a sign to such courtiers as hastily passed before the Royal shadow ; who bad lost even his memory, and frequently asked the name of the person whom he had just saluted.