Foxs Book of Martyrs | Page 2

blood of Cobham, and the ashes of the Smithfield martyrs can
testify. Ireland and Scotland, likewise, have each been made the theatre
of her atrocities. But no where has the system been exhibited in its
native unalleviated deformity, as in Spain, Portugal and their South
American dependencies. For centuries, such a system of police was
established by the Holy Inquisitors, that these countries resembled a
vast whispering gallery, where the slightest murmur of discontent could
be heard and punished. Such has been the effect of superstition and the
terror of the Holy Office, upon the mind, as completely to break the
pride of the Castillian noble, and make him the unresisting victim of
every mendicant friar and "hemp-sandaled monk."
Moreover, the papal system has opposed the march of civilization and
liberty throughout the world, by denouncing the circulation of the Bible,
and the general diffusion of knowledge. Turn to every land where
popery predominates, and you will find an ignorant and debased
peasantry, a profligate nobility, and a priesthood, licentious, avaricious,
domineering and cruel.

But it may be asked, is popery the same system now as in the days of
Cardinal Bonner and the "Bloody Mary." We answer yes. It is the boast
of all catholics that their church never varies, either in spirit or in
practice. For evidence of this, look at the demonstrations of her spirit in
the persecutions in the south of France, for several years after the
restoration of the Bourbons, in 1814. All have witnessed with feelings
of detestation, the recent efforts of the apostolicals in Spain and
Portugal, to crush the friends of civil and religious liberty in those
ill-fated countries. The narrative of Asaad Shidiak, clearly indicates
that the spirit of popery, has lost none of its ferocity and
bloodthirstiness since the Piedmontese war, and the Bartholomew
massacre. Where it has power, its victims are still crushed by the same
means which filled the dungeons of the inquisition, and fed the fires of
the auto de fe.
This is the religion, to diffuse which, strenuous efforts are now making
in this country. Already the papal church numbers more than half a
million of communicants. This number is rapidly augmenting by
emigration from catholic countries, and by the conversion of protestant
children who are placed in their schools for instruction. The recent
events in Europe, will, no doubt, send to our shores hundreds of jesuit
priests, with a portion of that immense revenue which the papal church
has hitherto enjoyed. Another thing, which will, no doubt, favour their
views, is the disposition manifested among some who style themselves
liberalists, to aid catholics in the erection of mass houses, colleges,
convents and theological seminaries. This has been done in numerous
instances; and when a note of warning is raised by the true friends of
civil and religious liberty, they are treated as bigots by those very men
who are contributing of their substance to diffuse and foster the most
intolerant system of bigotry, and cruel, unrelenting despotism, the
world has ever seen. Other sects have persecuted during some periods
of their history; but all now deny the right, and reprobate the practice
except catholics. The right to destroy heretics, is a fundamental article
in the creed of the papal church. And wherever her power is not
cramped, she still exercises that power to the destruction of all who
oppose her unrighteous usurpation. All the blood shed by all other
christian sects, is no more in comparison to that shed by the papacy,

than the short lived flow of a feeble rill, raised by the passing tempest,
to the deep overwhelming tide of a mighty river, which receives as
tributaries, the waters of a thousand streams.
We trust the present work, therefore, will prove a salutary check to the
progress of that system whose practical effects have ever been, and
ever must be, licentiousness, cruelty, and blood.
The narratives of Asaad Shidiak, Mrs. Judson, the persecutions in the
West Indies, and in Switzerland, have never before been incorporated
in any book of Martyrs. They serve to show the hideous nature of
persecution, and the benefit of christian missions.
At the close of this volume will be found a sketch of the French
revolution of 1789, as connected with persecution. It has long been the
practice of infidels to sneer at christianity, because some of its nominal
followers have exhibited a persecuting spirit. And although they knew
that christianity condemns persecution in the most pointed manner, yet
they have never had the generosity to discriminate between the system,
and the abuse of the system by wicked men. Infidelity on the other
hand, has nothing to redeem it. It imposes no restraint on the violent
and lifelong passions of men. Coming to men with the Circean torch of
licentiousness in