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ONE inftance on this head, which happened in the beginning of the prefent cen-, tury, may fuffice, Some of the clergy be-, longing to certain Swiss cantons having drawn up a creed which they called in French, Formulaire du Confenfus, or in Latin, Formula Confenfus, there arofe great contentions and disturbances about it, as there generally have about the establishment of all, creeds. "Il eft conftant, &c." "It is cer"tain," fays my author, "that the greatest part of the enemies, and even the friends "of this Formulary had never feen or read and if they had read it, they could not "have understood it. Nevertheless they "were alarmed to fuch a degree through "all the country of Vaud, that they could "not have been more fo, if an enemy had "been on their frontiers. The people fup

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pofed that this Confenfus was a man be

longing to a part of Germanic Switzerland, "who came to depofe the minifters of the "country of Vaud, and to introduce a new "doctrine. During this uproar, fome depu"ties of Bern being fent to Lausanne to re"eftablish peace, and having taken with "them a fecretary extremely tall and thin; "this man was, through all the country, "taken for the Confenfus, and was feveral "times in danger of being knocked on the

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"head by the people in the villages, who " continually hooted after him, See there goes "the Confenfus; that tall fellow is the Con"fenfus. The women wept in the middle " of the streets, as if they had been going to "lose their goods and their liberty. In the "city of Lausanne the confternation was as "great as if all the inhabitants had been condemned to death "."

BUT how trifling foever many of the subjects of these disputes may appear to the fenfible reader, or how obfcure and little understood others of them may be; yet those, and fome of a like importance and clearness, have been the causes of the many cruelties which christians have exercised upon one anotheṛ from the early times of christianity to this day, And it is well known to all, who are acquainted with ecclefiaftical history, that the chief difputants in fuch of these fenfeless and violent controverfies, and the principal actors in the bloody tragedies which happened among the primitive christians, on account of their different fentiments in religion, and different forms of worship, have generally been fuch as were dignified by the titles of faints or fathers. Indeed, if we freely and without partiality examine the behaviour and actions of many of thefe, and divers

others

L'Etat et les Delices de la Suiffe, T. IV. p. 355, et feq,

others who have been esteemed the bright and shining lights of the church, but might much more properly have been denominated the flaming firebrands of it, we fhall be obliged to acknowledge they were very immoral, and, to fpeak plainly, very wicked men in many respects, and particularly most outrageous perfecutors. Their pretended zeal for religion has been fo far from mortifying in them the paffions of pride, ambition, covetoufnefs, envy, malice, and cruelty, that it seemed greatly to encourage thefe vices, and cause them to flame out in an uncommon and moft violent manner.-It is apparent, that religion has been by these men, and by many others alfo fince their time, too generally regarded as a fubject of science rather than practice, and of gain much more than of godlinefs.

WE may here be told, that feveral of these faints suffered martyrdom. Very true: but it evidently appears, they wanted charity and many other chriftian virtues. What did then avail the giving their bodies to be burnt? This alone is no proof that they were good men: probably pride, and the eager defire of being fainted, and leaving a great name behind them, were motives to their coveting this honour: or they hoped by means of fuffering here to commute for their crimes,

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crimes, and be highly rewarded hereafter: their warm tempers might alfo have no fmall; fhare in this matter. Many bad men, and in bad caufes too, have become martyrs, and fome perfons even for mere trifles. Men have fuffered martyrdom for atheism; and it is recorded of Philoxenes, that no threatnings of the most severe punishments could prevail upon him to commend the poetry of a tyrant against his judgment We are likewife informed by M. de la Loubire, that when the Tartarian prince, who in the year 1687 reigned in China, would have forced the Chinefe to fhave their heads after the Tartarian fafhion, feveral of them chofe rather to fuffer death than comply with this order. The Bonzes of this country fhut themselves up in fedans ftuck full of nails with the points turned inwards, and endure many other fevere penances, to excite the admiration and charity of the people. Indian philofophers burn themselves to death for the fake of fame; and Indian women go with the greatest alacrity to be burned alive with the bodies of their deceafed hufbands, because it is the fashion.

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BESIDES, we are not to suppose that all the faints who were put to death by the Roman emperors were, properly speaking, martyrs to chriftianity: it is well known that

fome

fome of them fuffered for practices against the government, and others because they excited the chriftians to pull down the heathen temples, and to commit other diforders.

SECTION VII.

HAV

AVING thus mentioned a few of the many points about which christians have difputed fo vehemently, and fhewed how well they were understood by the dif putants and others who imagined that they were interested in them, and also just hinted what manner of men the principal zealots in thefe quarrels were, we fhall proceed in giving fome inftances of the outrageous treatment and shocking cruelties, which too many of thofe called chriftians have been guilty of towards one another, on account of their religious differences.

To give a full relation of thefe, it would be neceffary to transcribe, not only vaft volumes of martyrology, but a great part also of our ecclefiaftical hiftories, and lives of faints and fathers, which latter, as well as the former, are amply ftored with details of religious cruelties; fuch cruelties as will melt the reader's heart, if he has not a heart of stone.

BUT

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