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THE MARIAN PERSECUTION.
of Dr. Lingarcl, but no provocation can be allowed
to extenuate the cruelties which were perpetrated,
and which have left a deeply-rooted prejudice in the
English mind against a religion which it associates
with them. The best of our English Roman
Catholic writers have not been slow to express their
abhorrence of that relendess persecution. " As to
the number and character of the sufferers," says Mr.
Tierney, " certain it is that no allowances can relieve
the horror, no palliatives can remove the infamy that
must ever attach to these proceedings. The amount
of real victims is too great to be affected by any
partial deductions. Were the catalogue limited to a
few persons, we might pause to examine the merits of
each individual case, but when, after the removal
of every doubtful or objectionable name, a frightful
list of not fewer than two hundred still remains,
we can only turn with horror from the bloodstained
page, and be thankful that such things
have passed away." ^ Dr. Lingard speaks almost as
strongly.
But at that period, and long afterwards, toleration
for diversity in religious views was a thing unknown.
As Lingard truly says, " the extirpation of erroneous
doctrine was inculcated as a duty by the leaders of
every religious party." ^ The reforming party, when
they had the upper hand, were quite as ready to burn
those who held heretical opinions as were the Roman
Catholics. Two persons suffered that cruel death in
Edward VI. 's reign on account of their religious
'
Tierney 's Ed. of " Dodil's Church Hist.,'' vol. ii. p. 107.
' "Hist. Engl." V. p. 259.