ty of the law for conscience-sake.
The Author cannot but infer that Henry's dislike of persecution placed
a considerable check on the fierceness with which it raged, both
before and after his reign; that the sanguinary intentions of the
priesthood were, to a very considerable degree, frustrated by his
known love of gentler means; and that in England a greater portion of
religious liberty was enjoyed during the years through which he sat on
the throne, than had been tolerated under the government of his
father, or was afterwards allowed through the minority of his son.

[Footnote 305: It will be remembered, that those
who were put to death in 1414, after the affair of
St. Giles' Field, were sentenced by the civil
courts on a charge of treason.]

[Footnote 306: Pat. p. 5, 1 Henry V.]

The Author entered upon the subject of the three last chapters (p. 414)
with the view of ascertaining, on the best original evidence, the
validity or the unsoundness of the charge of persecution for religion
brought against Henry of Monmouth. Independently of the result of that
investigation, he confesses himself to have risen from the inquiry
impressed with mingled feelings of apprehension and of
gratitude:--gratitude for the blessings of the Reformation; and
apprehension lest, in our use of those blessings, and in the return
made to their Almighty Donor, we may be found wanting. For no maxim
can be more firmly established by the sound deductions of human
wisdom, or more unequivocally sanctioned by the express words of
revelation, than the principle that to whom much is given, of them
will much be required. And on this principle how awfully has our
increase of privileges enhanced our responsibility! By the
Reformation, Providence has rescued us from those dangers which once
attended an honest avowal of a Christian's faith; has freed us from
those gross superstitions which once darkened the whole of
Christendom; and has released us from that galling yoke under which
the disciples of the Cross were long held in bondage. The bestowal of
these blessings exacts at our hands many duties of indispensable
obligation. The Author hopes he may be pardoned, if, in closing this
subject, he refers to some of those points which press upon his (p. 415)
own mind most seriously.

Those who are intrusted with a brighter and a more pure light of
spiritual