all reading of the scriptures, all discussions within one's own doors concerning faith, the sacraments, the papal authority, or other religious matters.

This edict was no dead letter. The fires were kept constantly supplied with human fuel by the monks, who knew the art of burning reformers better than that of arguing with them.1

In 1535 an edict was issued at Brussels, condemning all heretics to death; repentant males to be executed with the sword, repentant females to be buried alive; the obstinate of both sexes to be burned. Death, in any event, for heresy, and this was enforced for twenty years. An edict against Martin Luther, whose noble life and principles we so much admire, issued at Worms, 1521, and was immediately put into execution through the inquisition, which says: "As it appears that the aforesaid Martin is not a man, but a devil under the form of a man, and clothed in the dress of a priest, the better to bring the human race to hell and damnation. Therefore all his disciples and converts are to be put to death and forfeiture of all goods."

An anathema of the twelfth century reads: "In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, the Blessed Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, Peter and Paul, and all other saints in Heaven, do we curse and cut off from our communion him who has thus rebelled against us; may the curse strike him in his home, barn, field, path, city, castle; may he be cursed in battle; accursed in praying, in speaking, in silence, in eating, in drinking, in sleeping; may he be cursed in his taste, hearing, smell and all his senses; may the curse blast his eyes, head and his body, from his crown to the sole of his feet. I conjure you, devil and all your imps, that you take no rest till you have brought him to eternal shame, till he is destroyed by drowning or hanging, till he is torn in pieces by wild beasts or consumed by fire. Let his children. become orphans, his wife a widow. I command you, devil, and all your imps, that 'even as I now blow out these torches, you immediately extinguish the light of his eyes. So be it. So be it. Amen. Amen.2

The distinctions in favor of the papal clergy were beyond belief at this day, were they that fully authenticated. To

establish an accusation against a bishop required seventy-two witnesses; against a deacon, twenty-seven; against one of inferior dignity, seven, while two were sufficient against a layman. Besides, they were exempt from taxation and allowed to hold any amount of property.1

In the Netherlands the priests became merchants, and as they had no taxes to pay, and could sell absolutions, they became immensely rich at the expense of the merchants and the people. Their wares and prices of absolutions were published in every town and village. For poisoning, the price of absolution was eleven ducats; perjury, seven livres and three cerlines. Pardon for murder, without poisoning, was cheaper; parricide, one ducat, four livres, eight cerlines; and these could be purchased before or after the act was done.

In the fifty-three articles elaborated by Vigleus for the Netherlands were these: That all forms of religion except the Roman Catholic were forbidden. That no public or secret conventicles were to be allowed. That all heretical writings were to be suppressed. That all curious inquiries into the Scriptures were to be prohibited. All persons who discussed religious matters were to be put to death. All persons not having studied theology at a "renowned university," who searched and expounded the Scriptures, were to be put to death. All persons in whose homes any act of the perverse religion should be committed should be put to death. All persons who harbored or protected ministers and teachers of any sect were put to death.2

Popery, says John Milton, is a double thing to deal with, and claims a two-fold power, ecclesiastical and political, both usurped, and the one supporting the other.

Without the Catholic church, and without the papacy, there is and can be no Catholic church. The state is only an inferior court, and is bound to receive the law from the supreme court (the Vatican), and is liable to have its decrees reversed.3

Enough has been cited, though volumes without end could be read to show the spirit of this greatest opponent to freedom of intellect and conscience and republics. It believes it

'Motley's Dutch Republics, p. 69.

Motley's Dutch Republics, p. 528.

Fate of Republics, Dr. O. Browning, p. 184.

can better control the people by keeping them ignorant. It has, and does now, wherever it can, enforce domination of intellect and morals, by the inquisition and the confessional. It believes in the celibacy of its priests, and in limiting all education to its own schools, and recognizes the pope as superior to all civil rulers. Rome never changes, and when beaten at one point commences again where she left off, and bides her time. Her spirit is ever the same, and affects every nation or people she touches, about like Caesar's gout, of which Philebut says: "Tis a turbulent executioner; it invades the whole body, from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet, leaving nothing untouched. It contracts the nerves with the intolerable anguish, it enters the bones, it freezes the marrow, it chills the lubricating fluids of the joints into chalk; it stops not until, having exhausted and debilitated the whole body, it has rendered all its necessary instruments useless, and conquered the mind with intense torture."

'Motley's Dutch Republics, p. 105.

991

XVII.

THE THEATER.

The theater is usually considered a place where dramatic plays are acted, or performed, for the amusement and culture of the spectators. The production to the audiences of the dramatic authors, embodying sufficient of all that is powerful, moving, inspiring and thoroughly interesting in the life and experience of the race. It has no limitations as to time, climate, or nationality, or environment, or of character, standing, occupation or sympathetic feeling of its heroes or subjects. All time has been its own, and all principles and motives of action that underlie this aspiring, hoping, striving, rejoicing and suffering race of mankind are, and ever have been, and ever will be, its field of action and the theme of its efforts.

The theater is at times, and generally, practically synonymous with the drama, and would be of little possible utility without it; and in their best effects they are one and imperishable. It is true, we can read the dramatic plays with pleasure and profit, but the greatest possible effect is produced only when the principles involved and the lessons of life intended are conveyed to our consciousness by the eye, the ear, the voice and the magnetic, subtle presence of the living, moving, carefully chosen and controlled embodiment of them, and accompanied with the natural surroundings of time, place and scenic effect. A few of these choicest plays of the age may, and do, deeply move those sufficiently cultured and experienced to bring before the mind all the attendant surroundings necessary to their full conception and understanding; but the average mass of mankind must see and hear them, by and through the personality of the actors, to be greatly moved or affected by them. The voice, or speech, is prior to all written language, and far more potent in expressing feeling and emotion, ideas and principles, and the personality of men and women is unsurpassed by any

force or power of which we have any knowledge, as a method of their expression.

Unquestionably, the theater and drama are one of the greatest educational forces employed by the people, and are worthy of the most careful consideration with reference to their social, moral and aesthetic effect upon the conditions of the people.

The fact that they deal with primary principles that animate all human action; that they have always existed and are coeval with the race itself; that their origin is lost in the dim mist of the morning of time; that they are the most readily adapted and convenient method of amusement and instruction; that they are entirely free from all limitations of religious, and usually legal or political restrictions; that their flexibility and powers of ready adaptation are such that they can be changed, as to the lesson taught and the method used, from day to day, constantly eliminating that which is unacceptable, and adding to that which is desirable and satisfactory in accordance with the ever-present conditions of the artistic, social or moral demands of the spectators. This renders them at all times one of the most powerful educational forces that exists, or ever has existed.

They ever, day by day, touch the pulse of the people, and they are paid and patronized, extolled or ridiculed, just in proportion to their power to interest, please, gratify and instruct. And therefore they are the most accurate measure of the ever-varying conditions of the people, of their pressing demands, and of the most acceptable methods of supplying the same.

Playing thus upon the very heart of the race, they are and ever have been, and ever will be, just what the people make them in their character and influence.

The dramatic writers and mimic personificators of the principles and characters upon the stage, however much flattered and actually worshiped by many, are but very mortals, and painfully subject to all aspirations, ambitions, egotisms, conceits, infirmities and hopes of ordinary men and women, and servants in every respect to the people before whom they appear. Our sympathies are at once enlisted when we think of the hard conditions under which they must ever labor, of the average low standard of the intellectual, the moral and the artistic attainments of the people they must