Many

"womb to become victims to their rage. "unhappy mothers were hung naked on the branches "of trees, and, their bodies being cut open, the "innocent offspring were taken from them and "thrown to dogs and swine" (pp. 1,007-8).

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"Nine hundred and fifty-four Protestants in the 'county of Antrim were murdered in one morning; "and afterwards about twelve hundred more in that "county. Twenty-four Protestants were forced into "a house, at a town called Lisnegary, which was "fired, and they were all burned together, their "outcries, in derision, being counterfeited by their "foes. Among other acts of cruelty they took two "children belonging to an English woman, and "dashed out their brains before her face; after which "they threw the mother into a river, and she was "drowned. They served many other children in the "like manner, to the great affliction of their parents "and the disgrace of human nature.

"All the Protestants in Kilkenny, without excep"tion, were put to death, and some of them in so "cruel a manner as, perhaps, was never before

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thought of. They beat an English female Pro'testant with such barbarity that she had scarce a "whole bone left, after which they threw her into a ditch; but, not satisfied with this, they took her "child, a girl about six years of age, and, after "stabbing it, threw it to its mother, there to languish "till it perished. One man they forced to go to mass, "after which they ripped open his body, and in that "manner left him. They sawed another asunder, "cut the throat of his wife, and, after having dashed "out the brains of their infant, threw it to the swine, "who greedily devoured it" (p. 1,009).

I am aware of the fact that some theologians,

especially Catholics, ridicule whatever is found in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. I therefore propose to show that there is plenty of reliable evidence to prove all that has been taken from this remarkable work, and I also intend to prove that the atrocities in Ireland continued long after the time of Foxe. Some writers have compared them with the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and have shown that in both cases the killing and persecuting were approved of and blessed by the Pope. No one stands higher as a truthful historian than Froude; and in his remarkable work, Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, Vol. I, pp. 107-8, we find the following:

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Savage creatures of both sexes, yelping in chorus "and brandishing their spears; boys practising their young hands in stabbing and torturing the English "children-these were the scenes that were witnessed "daily in all parts of Ulster. The fury extended even to the farm stock, and sheep and oxen were slaughtered, not for food, but in the blindness of rage.......Those who died first were never buried, "but left to be devoured by dogs, and rats, and swine. "Some were driven into rivers and drowned, some "hanged, some mutilated, some ripped with knives. "......The insurgents swore in their madness they "would not leave English man, woman, or child "alive in Ireland. They flung babies into boiling pots, or tossed them into the ditches to the pigs. "They put out grown men's eyes, turned them adrift "to wander, and starved them to death. Two cow"boys boasted of having murdered thirty women and "children, and a lad was heard swearing that his "arm was so tired with killing that he could not lift "his hand above his head."

At the time these dreadful events were taking place

in Ireland civil war was raging in England. However, as soon as this was over the Protestants of England and Scotland went to the aid of their brethren in Ireland, and these brave defenders of the Protestant faith nearly annihilated their Catholic enemies. All that were not killed were put to flight.

It is interesting to note that during these religious troubles the population of Ireland was reduced by one-third, Christians slaughtering each other. No country in the world has suffered more from priestcraft, and even to-day Ireland is suffering to such an extent as to make all real progress impossible. Protestants are still being hunted and murdered by Catholics, property destroyed, cattle maimed; and the end is not yet.

When we spread these horrors over all the countries of Europe during several centuries, we get some idea of the work of the religion which is said to have inspired Western civilisation. But we have a wider Christians took their

field than Europe to consider. barbarous feelings into the New World, and wherever their soldiers and missionaries penetrated. As Mr. J. M. Robertson says in his Short History of Christianity :

"The misery and the butchery wrought from first "to last are unimaginable. If the Spanish con"quests of Mexico and Peru, with their Church"blessed policy of suppressing heathenism, be added "to the record, the totality of evil becomes appalling; "for the Spanish priest Las Casas estimated the total "destruction of native life at twelve millions" (p. 216).

G

THE INQUISITION

THE Crowning iniquity of this barbarous procedure was the "Holy Inquisition." Here the Church was directly responsible for the infliction of horrible torture and death, while the judicial procedure it followed was of the crudest and most stupid character. I am aware that the Church left it to the State to do the actual torturing and killing, and piously recommended its victims to mercy in handing them to the civil authorities. This was merely a piece of hypocrisy which makes its conduct worse. It would have found means to make things very uncomfortable for any civil power which had taken its words seriously and treated convicted heretics with leniency. A few extracts will suffice for this abominable institution :

"Under the influence of Torquemada, a Dominican "monk, the confessor of Queen Isabella, that princess "solicited a bull from the Pope for the establishment "of the Holy Office. A bull was accordingly issued "in November, 1478, for the detection and suppres"sion of heresy. In the first year of the operation of "the Inquisition, 1481, two thousand victims were 'burnt in Andalusia; besides these, many thousands "were dug up from their graves and burnt; seventeen "thousand were fined or imprisoned for life. Who"ever of the persecuted race could flee escaped for "his life. Torquemada, now appointed Inquisitor"General for Castile and Leon, illustrated his office. "by his ferocity. Anonymous accusations were "received, the accused was not confronted by