rliest notice,
As the lark
Springs from the ground the morn to gratulate;
Who, rather, rose the day to antedate,
By striking out a solitary spark,
When all the world with midnight gloom was dark--
The harbingers of good whom bitter hate
In vain endeavored to exterminate."

--_Wordsworth._

Pope Innocent III gave orders concerning them as follows:

"Therefore by this present apostolical writing, we give you a
strict command that, by whatever means you can, you destroy all
these heresies and expel from your diocese all who are polluted
with them. You shall exercise the rigor of ecclesiastical power
against them and all those who have made themselves suspected
by associating with them. They may not appeal from your
judgments, and, if necessary, you may cause the princes and
people to suppress them with the sword."--_Quoted from Migne,
214, col. 71, in Thatcher and McNeal's "Source Book for
Medieval History," p. 210._

As the truth spread, so also the papal church redoubled its efforts by
sword and flame. The historian Lecky says:

"That the Church of Rome has shed more innocent blood than any
other institution that has ever existed among mankind, will be
questioned by no Protestant who has a competent knowledge of
history. The memorials, indeed, of many of her persecutions are
now so scanty that it is impossible to form a complete
conception of the multitude of her victims, and it is quite
certain that no powers of imagination can adequately realize
their sufferings."--_"History of the Rise and Influence of the
Spirit of Rationalism in Europe," Vol. II, p. 32._

Motley, in his "Rise of the Dutch Republic" (part 3, chap. 2), tells how
Philip II of Spain--who declared that he would "never consent to be the
sovereign of heretics"--sent the Duke of Alva to take over the
Netherlands:

"Early in the year the most sublime sentence of death was
promulgated which has ever been pronounced since the creation
of the world. The Roman tyrant [Nero] wished that his enemies'
heads were all upon a single neck, that he might strike them
off at a blow; the Inquisition assisted Philip to place the
heads of all his Netherlands subjects upon a single neck for
the same fell purpose. Upon February 16, 1568, a sentence of
the Holy Office condemned all the inhabitants of