his life and heart be holy.' 'Then,' said the king, 'according to both
Catholics and Protestants, I may be saved by the Catholic religion;
but if I embrace your religion, I shall not be saved according to the
Catholics.' Thus Henry most unquestionably adjudged Protestants the
more tolerant of the two sects. Here, Florry, you have the clew to
my anti-Romanism. I fear the extension of papal doctrines, because
liberty of conscience was never yet allowed where sufficient power was
vested in the Roman Catholic clergy to compel submission. To preserve
the balance of power in ecclesiastical affairs is the only aim of
Protestants. We but contend for the privilege of placing the Bible in
the hands of the masses--of flashing the glorious flambeau of truth
into the dark recesses of ignorance and superstition--into the abysmal
depths of papal iniquity. Unscrupulously employing every method
conducive to the grand end of disseminating Romish dogmas, the
fagot, the wheel, and all the secret horrors of the Inquisition, were
speedily brought to bear upon all who dared to assume the privilege of
worshiping God according to the dictates of an unfettered conscience.
If the bloody tragedies of the Middle Ages are no longer enacted upon
the theater of a more enlightened world, it is because the power so
awfully abused has been wrested from the scarlet-robed tenants of the
Vatican, The same fierce, intolerable tyranny is still exercised where
their jurisdiction is unquestioned. From the administration of the
pontifical states of Italy to the regulation of convent discipline, we
trace the workings of the same iron rule. No barriers are too mighty
to be overborne, no distinctions too delicate to to be thrust rudely
aside. Even the sweet sacredness of the home circle is not exempt from
the crushing, withering influence. Ah! how many fair young members of
the household band have been decoyed from the hearthstone and immured
in gloomy cells. Ah! how many a widowed parent has mourned over the
wreck of all that was beautiful in a cherished daughter, snatched by