correct estimate of the individual character
of one who lived in those times, and was born, and cradled, and
educated in that atmosphere. It is easy to charge Henry V. with "the
ignorance and folly of the bigot, and the barbarities of the
persecutor;" but it were more worthy of a historian (his eye bent
singly on the truth) to substitute inquiry for assumption, and (p. 327)
careful weighing of the evidence for indiscriminate condemnation.
There is such a thing as persecution, though the dungeon and the stake
be not employed for its instruments; and true charity will be tender
of the character of a fellow-mortal, though he is removed from this
scene of trouble and trial, and has no longer the power of answering
the accusations with which his good name is assailed. We may be as
honest as those who write most bitterly, in our abhorrence of
persecution; and yet think the individual who put its most rigid laws
into effect, deserving of compassion and pity that his lot had fallen
in such days of bigotry and ignorance, rather than of reprobation for
not having discovered for himself a more enlightened path of duty.

It is not because we are obliged to confess that even the outward acts
of Henry V. have been those of a persecutor, that these preliminary
remarks are offered; it is rather to prepare our minds for a fair
examination of his conduct, with reference to the only just and equal
standard; for a candid and searching analysis of the evidence drawn
from original sources, before it has become turbid and coloured by the
channel through which it is often forced to flow; and for an
unprejudiced judgment on his character,--a judgment perverted neither,
on the one hand, by the dazzling splendour of his victories, nor, on
the other, by that very common but most iniquitous principle of (p. 328)
adjudication condemns the accused from hatred of the crime laid to
his charge. The Author's sentiments on the character of religious
persecution in general, and of the persecuting spirit of the church of
Rome in particular, need not be disguised. He would never be disposed
to acquit Henry V, or any other person, from a feeling of sympathy
with the spirit of persecution.

The religion of the Gospel abhors all persecution. The faith of Christ
must be maintained and propagated by more holy and heavenly weapons
than those which can be forged by human authority and power.
Persecution prevails in a Christian community only so far as the