Page:Toleration and other essays.djvu/39

Rh too well, confraternities were dangerous. The Fratelli and the Flagellants gave trouble enough. The League began with associations of that kind. Why should they distinguish themselves thus from other  citizens? Did they think themselves more perfect? The very claim is an insult to the rest of the nation. Did they wish all Christians to enter their confraternity? What a sight it would be to have all Europe in hoods and masks, with two little round  holes in front of the eyes! Do they seriously think that God prefers this costume to that of ordinary  folk? Further, this garment is the uniform of controversialists, warning their opponents to get to arms. It may excite a kind of civil war of minds, and would perhaps end in fatal excesses, unless the  king and his ministers were as wise as the fanatics  were demented.

We know well what the price has been ever since Christians began to dispute about dogmas. Blood has flowed, on scaffolds and in battles, from the  fourth century to our own days. We will restrict ourselves here to the wars and horrors which the  Reformation struggle caused, and see what was the  source of them in France. Possibly a short and faithful account of those calamities will open the  eyes of the uninformed and touch the hearts of the  humane.