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

o90FAITH NOT TO BE KEPT WITH HERETICS.A chain of causes, extending from 1685 to 1785, and whichit requires but a slight study of the history of that gloomyperiod clearly to trace, links together the Huguenot proscriptionsand massacres of the one periodwith the revolutionaryhorrors of the other. Rome's favourite maxim, faithfullyacted out by theat last the Reign of Terror.bigoted court of France, introducedHow could it possibly be otherwise1 Great part of the trade of the kingdom was in thehands of the Protestants ; and when they were driven away,industry was paralyzed. The numerous and expensive warswaged against the Huguenots had exhausted the national exchequer,and new taxes had tobe imposed, which pressedheavily on a crippled trade and a languishing agriculture.With religion had been extinguished the elements of moralityand order. A new and powerful element, engenderedby the Romish idolatry, was next introduced,—infidelity,which passed, in numerous instances, into atheism. Theseterrible elements, which had their rise in the Huguenot persecutions,gathered apace ;and at last, in little more than acentury from the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, they burstover France in unexampled and desolating fury.All thingswere now changed, but so changed as to bear stamped uponthem the awful mark of retributive vengeance. The Jesuitcabal was exchanged for the democrats' club. Rome's sanctifieddagger was set aside for the guillotine of the Revolution.The Bourbon was gone, and Robespierre reigned inhis room ; bloodthirsty and revengeful, doubtless, but notmore so than the tyrant he had succeeded, and certainly notso perfidious and hypocritical. Crowds of wretched fugitiveswere again seen on the frontier ; but this time it was thepriesthood and the noblesse of France. By and by foreignwar drew off into a new channel the energies of the Revolution; but soon they returned to their former sphere, descendedon France, as eagles on the carcase, or as the fireson the sacrifice ;and now again are they seen preying withconsuming fierceness upon that devoted country. Nor willthey ever be quenched till the land of violated oaths and