hey
held divine service, coarse laughter and clamour interrupted them.
Strict watch was kept upon them, too, lest they should speak or write
to any one of their injuries. We need not deplore the passing of such
'good old days'.

It is necessary to realize the certainty which in the sixteenth
century men allowed themselves to feel on subjects of the highest
importance; for nothing short of this intense conviction is adequate
to explain the ferocity with which they treated those over whom they
had triumphed in matters of religion. Burning at the stake was the
common method of expiation. The fires of Smithfield consumed brave,
humble victims, while Erasmus jested over the rising price of wood, In
France the Inquisition entrapped many men of literary distinction,
Louis de Berquin 1529, John de Caturce 1532, Stephen Dolet 1546; on
the charge of heresy or atheism which could only with great difficulty
be refuted. To kill a fellow-creature or to watch him put to death
would be physically impossible to most of us, in our unruffled lives;
where from year's-end to year's-end we hardly even hear a word spoken
in anger. In consequence it is difficult for us to understand the
indifference with which in the sixteenth century men of the most
advanced refinement regarded the sufferings of others. Between rival
combatants and claimants for thrones fierce measures are more
intelligible; especially in days when stone walls did not a prison
make--such a prison, at least, as the prisoner might not some day hope
to break. Things had improved somewhat since the Middle Ages. We hear
less of the varieties of mutilation, the blinding, loss of nose,
hands, breasts, which were the portion of either sex indiscriminately,
when the death-penalty had not been fully earned. But it was still
fashionable to suspend your adversary in a cage and torture him, or
to confine him for years in a dungeon which light and air could never
reach. The executions of heretics became public shows, carefully
arranged beforehand, and attended by rank and fashion; to whom to show
any sign of sensibility would have been disgrace. Impossible it seems
to believe. We must remember that the perpetrators of such noble acts
had persuaded themselves that they were serving God. They were as
confident as Joshua or as Jehu that they knew His will; and they had
no hesitation in carrying it out.

If you may take a man's life in God's name, there can be no objection
to telling him a