The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

S84< FAITH NOT TO BE KEPT WITH HERETICS.pointing to the blood of the martyr, it cries aloud to heavenfor vengeance on the pei-fidy that shed it.In the Albigensianwar, Louis of Franco having besieged the town ofAvignon for a long time, and lost twenty-three thousandmen before it, was on the point of raising the siege, when,the following stratagem was successfully resorted to. TheRoman legate swore before the city gates, that if admissionwere granted, he would enter alone with the prelates, simplyfor the purpose of examining the faith of the citizens. Thegates were opened, the legateat his back,entered, the army rushed inhundreds of the houses were razed, multitudesof the inhabitants were slaughtered, and of the rest, a greatpart were carried away as hostages.In the long and bloody war against the Waldenses in thethirteenth century, Rome never scrupled to employ treacherywhen the sword was unsuccessful ; and it may be affirmedthat that noble people were crushed rather by perfidy thanby arms. They had much more to dread from the oathsthan from the soldiers of Rome. Again and again did thehouse of Savoy pledge its faith to these confessors; butevery new treaty was followed by new dishonour to the oneparty and new calamities to the other. The power ofFrance itself would never have subdued these hardy mountaineers,but for the arts with which the arms of their powerfulfoe were seconded. Pacifications were framed with them,purposely to throw them off their guard, and pave the wayfor another crusade and another massacre.In this way didthey perish from those vales which their piety had sanctified,and from those mountains which their struggles had madeholy. They fell unlamented and unavenged. The throneof the crafty Bourbon still stood, and the sway of the tripletyrant was still prolonged ; but in the silent vales wherethese martyrs had lived no trace of them now remained,save the ashes that blackened the site of their dwelling, andthe bones that whitened the rocks by which it was overhung.Their names were unhonourcd, and theirdeeds were unpraised,by a world which knew not how to estimate the