Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/141

 1572.] THE MASSACRE OF ST BARTHOLOMEW. 121 and the schismatic. In secular convulsions the natural distress at the sight of human suffering is seldom en- tirely extinguished. In the great spiritual struggle of the sixteenth century, religion made humanity a crime, and the most horrible atrocities were sanctified by the belief that they were approved and commanded by Heaven. The fathers of the Church at Trent had en- joined the extirpation of heresy, and the evil army of priests thundered the accursed message from every pulpit which they were allowed to enter, or breathed it with yet more fatal potency in the confessional. Nor were the other side slow in learning the lesson of hatred. The Lutheran and the Anglican, hovering between the two extremes, might attempt forbearance, but as the persecuting spirit grew among the Catholics European Protestantism assumed a stronger and a sterner type. The Catholic on the authority of the Church made war upon spiritual rebellion. The Pro- testant believed himself commissioned like the Israelites to extinguish the worshippers of images. ' No' mercy to the heretics ' was the watchword of the Inquisition ; ' the idolaters shall die ' was the answering thunder of the disciples of Calvin ; and as the death- wrestle spread from land to land, each party strove to outbid the other for Heaven's favour by the ruthlessness with which they carried out its imagined behests. Kings and states- men in some degree retained the balance of their reason. Coligny, Orange, Philip, even Alva himself, endeavoured at times to check the frenzy of their followers ; but the multitude was held back by no responsibilities ; their