Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

ounded up out of the gulf of contempt and
weakness into which the reigns of the two Stuarts
had sunk her.
Rapidly mounted upward the prestige of
England's arms, and brightly blazed forth the
splendor of her intellect. She again became a power
in Christendom, and was feared by all who had evil
designs on hand. The Duke of Savoy at the bidding
of the Lord Protector stayed his massacres in the
Waldensian Valleys, Cardinal Mazarin is said to
have changed countenance when he heard his name
mentioned, and even the Pope trembled in the
Vatican when Oliver threatened to make his fleet
visit the Eternal City. He said he should make "the
name of an Englishman as great as ever that of a
Roman had been." At home his severe countenance
scared the persecutor back into his cell, and the
streets of the capital were cleansed from the
horrible sights, but too common in the days of
Charles and Laud, of men standing in the pillory to
have their noses slit, their ears cropped off, and
their cheeks branded with red-hot irons, for no
offense save that of being unable to practice the
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