Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/139

 T CHAPTER LVIII. THE MASSACRE OF ST BARTHOLOMEW. 1HE Founder of Christianity, when He August, sent the Apostles into the world to preach the Gospel, gave them a singular warning. They were to be the bearers of good news to mankind, and yet He said He was not come to send peace on earth, but a sword He was come to set house against house and kindred against kindred the son would deliver up his father to death, the brother his sister, the mother the child. ; the strongest ties of natural affection would wither in the fire of hate which His words were about to kindle. The prophecy, which referred in the first instance to the struggle between the new religion and Judaic bigotry, has fulfilled itself continuously in the history of the Church. Whenever the doctrinal aspect of Christianity has been prominent above the practical, whenever the first duty of the believer has been held to consist in holding particular opinions on the functions and nature of his Master, and only the second in obeying his Master's commands, then always, with a uniformity more remark-