Historic justice demands however that another comparison should be made, and it is one which seems to relieve a little the horrors of the papal tyranny:-we speak of course of the severities under which the Christians of the first three centuries suffered, from the pagan predecessors of the Popes, on the seven hills.

-Might we not believe that the demon of blood, though dislodged for a season when the house of Cæsar fell in ruins, had lurked a century or two in the mists of the Tiber, or had slept in the swamps of Campania, until scenting its new occasion, and springing up refreshed, it entered with greetings the halls of the Vatican. It may be difficult or impossible, imperfect as is our information, equitably to decide between imperial and papal Rome, on the question of ferocity. Yet some points of difference present themselves very clearly;as 1st. 1st. The imperial persecutions of the Church are, in most instances, to be attributed to the personal temper or the fears or jealousies of the emperors, as individuals.* Whereas

The first persecution (to follow the vulgar computation) was the act of Nero-Religionum usquequaque contemtor; the second of Domitian-non solum magnæ, sed et callidæ inopinatæque sævitiæ: what shall we say of the emperors to whose jealousies or philosophic pride are attributed the third and fourth? The fifth took place under Severus-natura sævus-vere Pertinax, vere Severus. The sixth under Maximin-a genuine savage, as jealous as fierce :-the seventh, horrible as it was, should be attributed to the political fears and energetic resolves of Decius:-the eighth persecution perhaps had its origin in the envy of an obscure individual. The austerity and vigour of Aurelian, qui esset, says Lactantius, natura vesanus et

the papal cruelties sprung from the system, and never failed to be displayed, whatever might be the character of the Pontiff, as often as the specific provocation arose. 2dly. More than one or two of the ten persecutions (to follow the common computation) appear to have been, on the part of the imperial government, a desperate endeavour, prompted by serious alarms, for ridding the state of a formidable intestine foe. A reluctant use, as it seems, was made of means so severe, but which were deemed indispensable to the preservation of the vast and shaken edifice of the empire."

præceps, if not diverted, would probably have given to the ninth more than a name. The tenth and the heaviest was the fruit partly of the personal dispositions, but more of the political fears of its two imperial authors.

5 The personal character of the Pontiff has no doubt often made itself felt in the measures pursued by the Church. But in quite as many instances the handling of the keys has seemed to effect a total metamorphosis of dispositions:- the cardinal was one being-the pope another; and the college has had reason almost to doubt the identity of the person whom they had lifted to the summit of power. Thus the very man who had been singled out as more likely than any other to respect his oath, and to achieve desired reformations; has been the one most audaciously to brave the amazement of his comrades, and to defy the clamours of christendom. The average date of each pontificate, taking the entire series to the present time, has been little more than seven years and those, generally, the last years of decrepit age. But a system of government which, from century to century consigns the reins of power to trembling hands, must of course derive its temper and character much more from the body than from the head. The average reigns of the Roman Emperors was about ten years;-and those, for the most part, the mid years of life;-few of the series reached the extreme verge of mortal existence.

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Putting out of view the violent dispositions of Galerius, there is abundant reason to believe that the fatal decision which burst like a

Now if it be alleged that the papal persecutions had often similar motives, and might therefore admit of a parallel excuse, we must rest the difference on the ground, that the maintenance of a civil polity (if the means be lawful) is a duty and a virtue in public men; while we can regard the supporters of a ghostly domination in no other light than as hateful usurpers :-never can it be a virtue to uphold that which, in its essence, and under any condition, is wicked. Then 3dly. The pagan persecutions were (for the most part) enacted and executed by men schooled in the field of war and of war, often, against barbarous hordes. They were men indurated too, from youth by the spectacles of the theatre that is to say, taught ferocity as much by their pastimes and festivities, as by their campaigns. From the hands of beings so trained what could be looked for? But it is quite otherwise with the popish cruelties; for these, in every age, thunder over the Roman world from the palace of Nicomedia was the result, in the main, of purely political calculations. Nothing beyond such calculations appears (two hundred years before) to have influenced the conduct of Trajan, such as himself holds it up to view in his letter of instructions to Pliny.

'The Roman soldier had become a far more ferocious being in the age of the emperors than he was in that of the consuls. In the early era he was a member of a limited community, and had his home-his virtues—his personal sentiments; in the latter period he was ordinarily nothing better than an enlisted barbarian-how unlike to the warrior-citizen of whom, subaltern as well as chief, it might be said, in the words of Florus, . . . expeditione finita, rediit ad boves rursus triumphalis agricola.

have been devised and executed by men of the cloister ; men emasculate in habit, and whose nerves should have had the sensibility which sloth, study, and indulgence engender. An atrocity perpetrated by the hand of a delicate woman is always deemed to indicate a more malignant soul than if it be the act of a bandit or a pirate. By the same rule, should not the priest be somewhat more humane than the soldier? Yet in fact the principals and the agents in the destruction of heretics were men who had personally learned none of the bad lessons of war, and had witnessed no scenes of torment or bloodshed but those in which themselves were the actors. Should it be forgotten, while this comparison is pursued, that the emperor and the senate, the proconsul and the centurion, knew nothing more than the darkness of paganism could teach them; but popes and cardinals, legates, priests and monks, held the Gospel of peace in their hand 18

The bas-reliefs and bronzes of the age of Roman greatness have brought down for our

It is customary to speak of the middle ages as being destitute as well of scriptural as of profane learning; and this may be true of the mass of the people; but certainly not of the principal actors in Church affairs. By the ecclesiastical writers of those times Scripture is quoted as largely and familiarly as it is in modern religious books. St. Bernard (of whom we shall have occasion presently to speak more at large) in the tracts and letters by which he instigated the second crusade, scarcely moves through a paragraph without a text.-Every thing is thought of-but the morality of the enterprise !

inspection the form and visage of the Roman soldier, such as he was under Nerva, Trajan, Aurelius, Domitian. The contracted brow declares that storms of battle have beat upon it often the glare of that overshadowed eye throws contempt upon death the inflated nostril breathes a steady rage: the fixed lips deny mercy the rigid arm and the knit joints, have forced a path to victory, through bristled ramparts and triple lines of shields and swords. And withal there is a hardness of texture that seems the outward expression of an iron strength and rigour of soul-a power, as well of enduring, as of inflicting pain; and the one with almost as much indifference as the other. Shall we conceive of encountering, on the open field, a being so firmly fierce, and so long accustomed to crush and trample upon man? But who shall imagine himself to have been delivered into the hands of the Roman soldier armed, not as a warrior but as executioner? This indeed is terror. Alas then, let us commiserate the fate of our brethren and sisters in Christ-the early martyrs! - What had they to look for when the centurion's band, such as we see it now encircling the column of Trajan, was let loose upon a flock of trembling victims, with license and command to torture and to kill!?

9 The cruelties endured by the Christians were often inflicted to appease the ferocity of the rabble. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ τὸν ̓́Ατταλον τῷ