had never so vehemently declaimed against what, in ludierous rage, one of the high-flying presbyterians called 'a cursed intolerable toleration! They advocated the rights of persecution, and Shallow Edwards,' as Milton calls the author of The Grangræna,' published a treatise against toleration. They who had so long complained of the licensers,' now sent all the books they condemned to penal fires. Prynne now vindicated the very doctrines under which he himself had so severely suffered; assuming the highest possible power of civil government, even to the infliction of death, on its opponents. Prynne lost all feeling for the ears of others!

The idea of toleration was not intelligible for too long a period in the annals of Europe: no parties probably could conceive the idea of toleration in the struggle for predominance. Treaties are not proffered when conquest is the concealed object. Men were immolated! a massacre was a sacrifice! medals were struck to commemorate these holy persecutions!* The destroying angel, holding in one hand a cross, and in other a sword, with these words-Vgonottorum Strages, 1572.-' The massacre of the Huguenots'-proves that toleration will not agree with that date. Castelneau, a statesman and a humane man, was at a loss how to decide on a point of the utmost importance to France. In 1532 they first began to burn the Lutherans or Calvinists, and to cut out the tongues of all protestants, that they might no longer protest.' According to Father Paul, fifty thousand persons had perished in the Netherlands, by different tortures, for religion. But a change in the religion of the state, Cas. telneau considered, would occasion one in the government: he wondered how it happened, that the more they punished with death, it only increased the number of the victims: martyrs produced proselytes. As a statesman, he looked round the great field of human actions in the history of the past; there he discovered that the Romans were more enlightened in their actions than ourselves; that Trajan commanded Pliny the younger not to molest the Christians for their religion; but should their conduct endanger the state, to put down illegal assemblies; that Julian the Apostate expressly forbid the execution of the Christians, who then imagined that they were securing their salvation by martyrdom; but he ordered all their goods to be confiscated-a severe punishment-by which Julian prevented more than he could have done by persecutions. All this,' he adds, we read in ecclesiastical history.' Such were the sentiments of Castelneau, in 1560. Amidst perplexities of state necessity, and of our common humanity, the notion of toleration had not entered into the views of the statesman. It was also at this time that De Sainctes, a great controversial writer, declared, that had the fires lighted for the destruction of Calvinism not been extinguished, the sect had not spread! About half a century subsequent to this period Thuanus was perhaps the first great mind who appears to have insinuated to the French monarch and his nation, that they might live at peace with heretics; by which avowal he called down on himself the haughty indignation of Rome, and a declaration, that the man who spoke in favour of heretics must necessari.y be one of the first class. Hear the afflicted historian: Have men no compassion, after forty years passed full of continual miseries? Have they no fear, after the loss of the Netherlands, occasioned by that frantic obstinacy which marked the times? I grieve that such sentiments should have occasioned my book to have been examined with a rigour that amounts to calumny.' Such was the language of Thuanus, in a letter written in 1606; which indicates an approximation to toleration, but which term was not probably yet found in any dictionary. We may consider, as so many attempts at toleration, the great national synod of Dort, whose history is amply written by Brandt; and the mitigating protestantism of Laud, to approximate to the ceremonies of

It is curious to observe that the catholics were afterwards ashamed of these indiscretions; they were unwilling to own that there were any medals which commemorate massacres. Thuanus, in his 53d book, has minutely described them. The medals, however, have become excessively scarce; but coples inferior to the originals have been sold. They had also pictures on similar subjects, accompanied by insulting inscriptions, which latter they have effaced, sometimes very imperfectly See Hollis's Memoirs, p. 312-14. This enthusiast advertised in the papers to request travellers to procure them. Memoires de Michel de Castelneau, Liv. I, c.4 Life of Thuanus, by Rev. J. Collinson, p. 115

the Roman church; but the synod, after holding about two
hundred sessions, closed, dividing men into universalists
and semi-universalists, supralapsarians and sublapsarians!
The reformed themselves produced the remonstrants; and
Land's ceremonies ended in placing the altar eastward,
and in raising the scaffold for the monarchy and the hier-
archy. Error is circuitous when it will do what it has not
yet learnt.
They were pressing for conformity to do that
which a century afterwards they found could only be done
by toleration.

The secret history of toleration among certain parties has been disclosed to us by a curious document, from that religious Machiavel, the fierce ascetic republican John Knox, a calvinistical Pope. While the posterity of Abraham,' says that mighty and artful reformer,' were few in number, and while they sojourned in different countries, they were merely required to avoid all participation in the idolatrous rites of the heathen; but as soon as they prospered into a kingdom, and had obtained possession of Canaan, they were strictly charged to suppress idolatry, and to destroy all the monuments and incentives. The same duty was now incumbent on the professors of the true religion in Scotland: formerly, when not more than ten persons in a county were enlightened, it would have been foolishness to have demanded of the nobility the suppression of idolatry. But now, when knowledge had been increased,' &c. Such are the men who cry out for toleration during their state of political weakness, but who cancel the bond by which they hold their tenure whenever they obtain possession of Canaan.' The only commentary on this piece of the secret history of toleration is the acute remark of Swift: We are fully convinced that we shall always tolerate them, but not that they will tolerate us.'

The truth is, that toleration was allowed by none of the parties! and I will now show the dilemmas into which each party thrust itself.

When the kings of England would forcibly have established episcopacy in Scotland, the presbyters passed an act against the toleration of dissenters from presbyterian doctrines and discipline! and thus, as Guthrie observes, they were committing the same violence on the conscience of their brethren, which they opposed in the king. The presbyrians contrived their famous covenant to dispossess the royalists of their livings; and the independents, who assumed the principle of toleration in their very name, shortly af ter enforced what they called the engagement, to eject the presbyterians! In England, where the dissenters were ejected, their great advocate Calamy complains that the dissenters were only making use of the same arguments which the most eminent reformers had done in their noble defence of the reformation against the papists, while the arguments of the established church against the dissenters were the same which were urged by the papists against the protestant reformation!† When the presbyterians

Dr M'Crie's Life of John Knox, ii, 122.

I quote from an unpublished letter, written so late as in 1749, addressed to the author of The Free and Candid Disquisition,' by the Reverend Thomas Allen, Rector of Kettering, Northamptonshire. However extravagant his doctrine appears to us. I suspect that it exhibits the concealed sentiments of even some protestant churchmen! This rector of Kettering attributes the growth of schisms to the negligence of the clergy, and seems to have persecuted both the archbishops, 'to his detriment,' as he tells us, with singular plans of reform borrowed from monastic institutions. He wished to revive the practice inculcated by a canon of the council of Laodicea, of having prayers ad horam nonam et ad vesperamprayers twice a day in the churches. But his grand project take in his own words:

'I let the archbishop know that I had composed an irenicon, wherein I prove the necessity of an ecclesiastical power over consciences in matters of religion, which utterly silences their arguments who plead so hard for toleration. I took my scheme from a Discourse of Ecclesiastical Polity,' wherein the authority of the civil magistrate over the consciences of subjects in manners of external religion is asserted; the mis chiefs and inconveniences of toleration are represented, and all pretences pleaded in behalf of liberty of conscience are fully answered. If this book were reprinted and considered, the king would know his power and the people their duty.'

The rector of Kettering seems not to have known that the author of this 'Discourse on Ecclesiastical Polity,' was the notorious Parker, immortalized by the satire of Marvell. This political apostate, from a republican and presbyterian, became a furious advocate for arbitrary government in church and state! He easily won the favour of James the Second, who made him Bishop of Oxford! His principles were so violent, that Father Petre, the confessor of James the Second!

were our masters, and preached up the doctrine of passive obedience in spiritual matters to the civil power, it was unquestionably passing a self-condemnation on their own recent opposition and detraction of the former episcopacy. Whenever men act from a secret motive entirely contrary to their ostensible one, such monstrous results will happen; and as extremes will join, however opposite they appear in their beginnings, John Knox and Father Petre, in office, would have equally served James the Second, as confessor and prime minister!

A fact relating to the famous Justus Lipsius proves the difficulty of forming a clear notion of Toleration. This learned man, after having been ruined by the religious wars of the Netherlands, found an honourable retreat in a professor's chair at Leyden, and without difficulty abjured papacy. He published some political works; and adopted as his great principle, that only one religion should be allowed to a people, and that no clemency should be granted to non-conformists, who, he declares, should be pursued by sword and fire; in this manner a single member would be cut off to preserve the body sound. Ure, seca-are his words. Strange notions these in a protestant republic; and, in fact, in Holland it was approving of all the horrors of their oppressors, the Duke D'Alva and Philip II, from which they had hardly recovered. It was a principle by which we must inevitably infer, sars Bayle, that in Holland no other mode of religious belief but one sect should be permitted; and that those Pagans who had hanged the missionaries of the Gospel had done what they ought. Lipsius found himself sadly embarrassed when refuted by Theodore Cornhert,* the firm advocate of political and religious freedom, and at length Lipsius, that protestant with a catholic heart, was forced to eat his words, like Pistol his onion, declaring that the two objectionable words, ure, seca, were borrowed from medicine, meaning not literally fire and sword, but a strong efficacious remedy, one of those powerful medicines to expel poison. Jean de Serres, a warm Huguenot, carried the principle of Toleration so far in his Inventaire generale de l'Histoire de France,' as to blame Charles Martel for compelling the Frisans, whom he had conquered, to adopt Christianity! A pardonable zeal,' he observes, in a warrior; but in fact the minds of men cannot be gained over by arms, nor that religion forced upon them, which must be introduced into the hearts of men by reason.' It is curious to see a protestant, in his zeal for toleration, blaming a king for forcing idolators to become Christians; and to have found an opportunity to express his opinions in the dark history of the eighth century, is an instance how historians incorporate their passions in their works, and view ancient facts with modern eves.

three persons of the Trinity were to be considered as three different acceptions of the same being, Saint Ambrose and Saint Martin asserted the cause of offended humanity, and refused to communicate with the bishops who had

called out for the blood of the Priscillianists; but Cardinal Baronius, the annalist of the church, was greatly embarrassed to explain how men of real purity could abstain from applauding the ardent zeal of the persecution: he preferred to give up the saints rather than to allow of toleration-for he acknowledges that the toleration which these saints would have allowed was not exempt from sin.*

In the preceding article, Political Religionism,' we have shown how to provide against the possible evil of the tolerated becoming the toleraturs! Toleration has, indeed, been suspected of indifferenee to Religion itself; but with sound minds, it is only an indifference to the logomachies of theology-things not of God, but of man,' that have perished, and that are perishing around us!

APOLOGY FOR THE PARISIAN MASSACRE.

graph letter of Charles the Ninth, will prove, that that un-
An original document now lying before me, the auto-
paralleled massacre, called by the world religious, was, in
the French cabinet, considered merely as political; one
of those revolting state expedients which a pretended in-
stant necessity has too often inflicted on that part of a na-
tion which, like the under-current, subterraneously works
its way,
and runs counter to the great stream, till the criti-
cal moment arrives when one, or the other, must cease.
The massacre began on St Bartholomew day, in Au-
gust, 1572, lasted in France during seven days: that
awful event interrupted the correspondence of our court
with that of France. A long silence ensued; the one did
not dare to tell the tale which the other could not listen
to. But sovereigns know how to convert a mere domes
tic event into a political expedient. Charles the Ninth,
on the birth of a daughter, sent over an ambassador ex-
traordinary to request Elizabeth to stand as sponsor: by
this the French monarch obtained a double purpose; it
served to renew his interrupted intercourse with the silent
Queen, and alarmed the French protestants by abating
their hopes, which long rested on the aid of the English
queen.

The following letter, dated 8th February, 1573, is addressed by the king to La Motte Fenelon, his resident ambassador at London. The king in this letter minutely details a confidential intercourse with his mother, Catharine of Medicis, who perhaps, may have dictated this letter to the secretary, although signed by the king with his own hand. Such minute particulars could only have been known to herself. The Earl of Wolchester (Wor

ris on the baptism of the princess; and accompanied by Walsingham, our resident ambassador, after taking leave of Charles, had the following interview with Catharine de Medicis. An interview with the young monarch was usually concluded by a separate audience with his mother, who probably was still the directress of his couneds.

The protestant cannot grant toleration to the catholic, unless the catholic ceases to be a papist; and the Armi-cester) was now taking his departure, having come to Panian church, which opened its wide bosom to receive every denomination of Christians, nevertheless were forced to exclude the papists, for their passive obedience to the supremacy of the Roman Pontiff. The catholic has enriously told us, on this word Toleration, that, Ce mot devient fort en usage a mesure que le nombre des tolerans augmente. It was a word which seemed of recent introduction, though the book is modern! The protestants have disputed much how far they might tolerate, or whether they shou'd tolerate at all; a difficulty,' triumphantly exclaims the catholic, which they are not likely ever to settle, while they maintain their principles of pretended reformation: the consequences which naturally follow, excite horror to the Christian. It is the weak who raise such outcries for toleration; the strong find authority legitimate.'

A religion which admits not of toleration cannot be safely tolerated, if there is any chance of their obtaining a political ascendency.

When Priscillian and six of his followers were condemned to torture and execution for asserting that the made sure of him! This letter of the rector of Kettering, in adopting the system of such a catholic bishop, confirms my suspicion, that toleration is condemned as an evil among some protestants!

* Cornhert was one of the fathers of Dutch literature, and even of their arts. He was the composer of the great national air of William of Orange; he was too a famous engraver, the master of Golzius. On his death-bed, he was still writing against the persecution of heretics.

Dictionnaire de Trevoux, ad vocem Tolerance. Printed in 1771.

The French court now renewed their favourite project of marrying the Duke D'Alençon with Elizabeth. They had long wished to settle this turbulent spirit, and the ne gotiation with Elizabeth had been broken off in conse quence of the massacre at Paris. They were somewhat uneasy lest he should share the fate of his brother, the Duke of Anjou, who had not long before been expedited on the same fruitless errand; and Elizabeth had already objected to the disparity of their ages, the Duke of Alencon being only seventeen, and the maiden queen six and thirty; but Catharine observed, that D'Alençon was only one year

*Sismondi, Hist des Français, I, 41. The character of the first person who introduced civil persecution into the Christian church has been described by Sulpicius Severus. See Dr Maclaine's note in his translation of Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 1.-128.

All the numerous letters which I have seen of Charles the Ninth, now in the possession of Mr Murray, are carefully signed by himself, and I have also observed postscripts writ ten with his own hand: they are always countersigned by his secretary. I mention this circumstance, because in the Dictionnaire Historique, it is said that Charles, who died young was so given up to the amusements of his age. that he would not even sign his despatches, and introduced the custom of secretaries subscribing for the king. This voluminous correspondence shows the falsity of this statement. History is 109 often composed of popular tales of this stamp.

LITERATURE.

younger than his brother, against whom this objection had not occurred to Elizabeth, for he had been sent back upon another pretext-sotne difficulty which the queen had contrived about his performing mass in his own house.

After Catharine de Medicis had assured the Earl of Worcester of her great affection for the Queen of England, and her and the king's strict intention to preserve it, and that they were therefore desirous of this proposed marriage taking place, she took this opportunity of inqueen quiring of the Earl of Worcester the cause of the his mistress's marked coolness towards them. The narrative becomes now dramatic.

On this Walshingham, who kept always close by the side of the count, here took on himself to answer, acknowledging that the said count had indeed been charged to speak on this head; and he then addressed some words in English to Worcester. And afterwards the count gave to my lady and mother to understand, that the queen his mistress had been waiting for an answer on two articles; the one concerning religion, and the other for an interview. My lady and mother instantly replied, that she had never heard any articles mentioned, on which she would not have immediately satisfied the Sieur Walsingham, who then took up the word; first observing that the count was not accustomed to business of this nature, but that he himself knew for certain that the cause of this negotiation for marriage not being more advanced, was really these two unsettled points: that his mistress still wished that the point of religion should be cleared up; for that they concluded in England that this business was designed only to amuse and never to be completed, (as happened in that of my brother the Duke of Anjou ;) and the other point concerned the interview between my brother the Duke of Alençon; because some letters, which may have been written between the parties* in such sort of matters, could not have the same force which the sight and presence of both the persons would undoubtedly have. But he added, another thing, which had also greatly retarded this business, was what had happened lately in this kingdom; and during such troubles, proceeding from religion, it could not have been well timed to have spoken with them concerning the Saul marriage; and that himself and those of his nation had been in great fear in this kingdom, thinking that we intended to extirpate all those of the said religion. On this, my lady and mother answered him instantly, and in order; That she was certain that the queen his mistress could never like nor value a prince who had not his religion at heart; and whoever would desire to have this otherwise, would be depriving him of what we hold dearest in this world; That he might recollect that my brother had always insisted on the freedom of religion, and that it was from the difficulty of its public exercise, which he always insisted on, which had broken off this negotiation: the Duke d'Alençon will be satisfied when this point is agreed on, and will hasten over to the queen, persuaded that she will not occasion him the pain and the shame of passing over the seas without happily terminating this affair. In regard to what has occurred these latter days, that he must have seen how it happened by the fault of the chiefs of those who remained here; for when the late admiral was treacherously wounded at Notre Dame, he knew the affiction it threw us unto, (fearful that it might have occasioned great troubles in this kingdom,) and the diligence we used to verify judicially whence it proceeded; and the verification was nearly finished, when they were so forgetful as to raise a conspiracy, to attempt the lives of myself, my lady and mother, and my brothers, and endanger the whole state; which was the cause, that to avoid this, I was compelled, to my very great regret, to permit what had happened in this city; but as he had witnessed, I gave orders to stop, as soon as possible, this fury of the people, and place every one in repose. On this, the Sieur Walsingham replied to my lady and mother, that the exercise of the said religion had been interdicted in this kingdom. To which she also answered, that this had not been done but for a good and holy purpose; namely, that the fury of the catholic people might the sooner be allayed, who else had been reminded of the past calamities, and would again have been let loose against those of the said religion, had

These love-letters of Alençon to our Elizabeth are noticed by Camden, who observes that the queen became wearied by receiving so many, and to put an end to this trouble, she conBented that the young duke should come over, conditionally, that he should not be offended if her suitor should return home uitless.

they continued to preach in this kingdom. Also should
these once more fix on any chiefs, which I will prevent as
soon as possible, giving him clearly and pointedly to under-
stand, that what is done here is much the same as what
has been done, and is now practised by the queen his mis-
tress in her kingdom. For she permits the exercise but of
one religion, although there are many of her people who
are of another; and having also, during her reign, pun-
ished those of her subjects whom she found seditious and
rebellious. It is true this has been done by the laws, but
I indeed could not act in the same manner; for finding
myself in such imminent peril, and the conspiracy raised
against me and mine, and my kingdom, ready to be ex-
cuted; I had no time to arraign and try in open justice as
much as I wished, but was constrained, to my very great
regret, to strike the blow (lascher la main) in what has
been done in this city.'

This letter of Charles the Ninth, however, does not
here conclude. My lady and mother' plainly acquaints
the Earl of Worcester and Sir Francis Walsingham that
'her son had never interfered between their mistress and
her subjects, and in return expects the same favour; al-
though, by accounts they had received from England,
many ships were arming to assist their rebels at Rochelle."
'My lady and mother' advances another step, and declares
that Elizabeth by treaty is bound to assist her son against
his rebellious subjects; and they expect, at least, that
Elizabeth will not only stop these armaments in all her
ports, but exemplarily punish the offenders. I resume
the letter.

'And on hearing this, the said Walsingham changed colour, and appeared somewhat astonished, as my lady and mother well perceived by his face; and on this, he requested the Count of Worcester to mention the order which he knew the queen his mistress had issued to prevent these people from assisting those of La Rochelle; but that in England, so numerous were the seamen and others who gained their livelihood by maritime affairs, and who would starve without the entire freedom of the seas, that it was impossible to interdict them.'

Charles the Ninth encloses the copy of a letter he had received from London, in part agreeing with an account the ambassador had sent to the king, of an English expedition nearly ready to sail for La Rochelle, to assist his rebellious subjects. He is still further alarmed, that Elizabeth foments the wartegeux, and assists underhand the discontented. He urges the ambassador to hasten to the queen, to impart these complaints in the most friendly way, as he knows the ambassador can well do, and as, no doubt, Walsingham will have already prepared her to receive. Charles entreats Elizabeth to prove her good faith by deeds and not by words; to act openly on a point which admits of no dissimulation. The best proof of her friendship will be the marriage; and the ambassador, after opening this business to her chief ministers, who the king thinks are desirous of this projected marriage, is then 'to acquaint the queen with what has passed between her ambassadors and myself.'

Such is the first letter on English affairs which Charles the Ninth despatched to his ambassador, after an awful silence of six months, during which time La Motte Fenelon was not admitted into the presence of Elizabeth. The apology for the massacre of St Bartholomew comes from the king himself, and contains several remarkable expressions, which are at least divested of that style of bigotry and exultation we might have expected: on the contrary, this sanguinary and inconsiderate young monarch, as he is represented, writes in a subdued and sorrowing tone, lamenting his hard necessity, regretting he could not have recourse to the laws, and appealing to others for his efforts to check the fury of the people, which he himself had let loose. Catharine de Medicis, who had governed him from the tender age of eleven years, when he ascended the throne, might unquestionably have persuaded him that a conspiracy was on the point of explosion, Charles the Ninth died young, and his character is unfavourably viewed by the historians. In the voluminous correspondence which I have examined, could we judge by state letters of the character of him who subscribes them, we must form a very different notion; they are so prolix and so earnest, that one might conceive they were dictated by the young monarch himself!

PREDICTION.

In a curious treatise on 'Divination,' or the knowledge