"of the common law; and a writ (stiled de heretico comburendo) was "issued under king Henry IV. for burning them upon their conviction; " and it was enacted, that all who presumed to preach without the li"cence of the bishops, should be imprisoned, and be brought to trial "within three months. If, upon conviction, they offer to abjure, and "were not relapses, they were to be imprisoned and fined at pleasure'; "but if they refused to abjure, or were relapses, they were to be de"livered up to the secular arm; and the magistrates were to burn "them in some public place. About this time William Sautre, parish "priest of St. Osith, in London, being condemned as a relapse, and de graded by Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, a writ was issued, "wherein burning is called the common punishment, and referring to "the customs of other nations. This was the first example of that sort "sort in England. The clergy, alarmed lest the doctrines of Wickliffe "should ultimately become established, used every exertion in their power to check them. In the reign of Richard II. the bishops had "obtained a general licence to imprison heretics, without being obliged "to procure a special order from court, which, however; the house of commons caused to be revoked. But as the fear of imprisonment "could not check the pretended evil dreaded by the bishops, Henry IV, "whose particular object was to secure the affection of the clergy, earnestly recommended to the parliament the concerns of the church. "How reluctant soever the house of commons might be to prosecute "the Lollards, the credit of the court, and the cabals of the clergy, at "last obtained a most detestable act, for the burning of obstinate heretics; which bloody statute was not repealed till the year 1677. It "was immediately after the passing of this statute that the eeclesiasti"cal court condemned William Sautre above-mentioned."

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We always have contended, and still contend, that PERSECUTION is not a part and parcel of the system of Catholicism. The precepts and maxims of the Catholic church are founded on the purest principles of Charity; nay, it is Charity itself, which is an emanation from the Deity, and by the Deity was the Catholic church founded. We have here the acknowledgment of Fox, that the execution of the priest Sautre," was "the FIRST example of the sort in England." Now the Catholic church had been established in this island, reckoning from the landing of St. Austin, in 596, to the execution of Sautre, in 1399, eight hundred and three years, without one single instance of corporal coercion for matter of opinion, though difference of opinion had occasionally arisen, and in the case of Wickliffe we find to some height. That this man was treated with the utmost lenity is confessed by Fox, and we find him remaining unmolested in his rectory till the day of his death. From what cause then could spring this writ, stiled de heretico comburendo, of which so much as been said to bring odium on the Catholic religion, and so little understood by the Protestants of England? Fox alludes to the council of Lateran, a decree of which, he says, required all magistrates to extirpate heretics upon pain of forfeiture and deposition. This decree, admitting that there was such a one passed, was not of faith, and therefore binding on none without the consent of the temporal power, and at this council, which may be consistently called the parliament of Christendom, there were present, either in person or by their ambassa

dors all the sovereigns of Europe, to give their consent to such decrees of discipline as might be deemed conducive to the morals of society and the tranquillity of their states. The real version of the decree, according to Dr. Lingard, was this, that persons convicted of heresy "should be left to the secular power to be dealt with according to the "due form of law." Now what could be more correct than this?Every state has an undoubted right to provide for its own internal as well as external security, and should an individual imbibe a notion that he is commissioned by God to preach novelties tending to disturb the peace, and raise tumults and rebellions, why, in the name of common sense, are not laws to be passed to prevent such lawless doings, no matter whether committed under the garb of a religious or political reformer? Who will have the hardihood to answer us in the negative? The same was the conduct of the Wickliffites; they sought, under the cloak of religion, to revolutionize all ranks and property; and when they had thus declared their intentions, and made them manifest by

their actions, then, and not till then, and with a view of self-preservation, not of personal cruelty and ambition, did the authorities take upon them to protect themselves and the people, by this statute de heretico comburendo. So long as the heresy of Wickliffe was confined to mere matter of opinion, the spiritual weapons only of the church were exerted to counteract the poison, and convince the ignorant of their error; but when the infected proceeded to lawless outrages and murders, surely it was time to use the arm of the civil sword to restrain them within due bounds. Nor can the measures thought necessary at that time to be adopted be justly termed persecution, seeing they were enforced on none but the most obdurate miscreants of the day.

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When such a disposition reigned among the ignorant and illiterate people, it is no wonder that the clergy should become alarmed and use every means in their power to check the progress of the, pernicious doctrines; nor were the laity less anxious to subdue the spirit of depredation that influenced the Lollards. Fox would fain have us believe that the house of commons reluctantly passed the act; Dr. Lingard, however, tells us a different sort of story. This able and accurate writer states, that the commons were more zealous at that time in opposing the Lollards, than the nobility and the clergy. On this interesting point we shall give the learned historian's own words. "Encou"raged by the royal invitation, and the disposition of the commons, "the clergy presented a petition to the king in parliament; and an act was passed for the protection of the church, and the suppression of "the new sect. The preamble sets forth, that divers unauthorized preachers go about teaching new doctrines and heretical opinions, making conventicles and confederacies, holding schools, writing "books, misinforming the people, and daily committing enormities too "horrible to be heard: and that the bishops are unable to repress these "offences, because the offenders despise ecclesiastical censures, and ` "when they are cited before their ordinaries, depart into another diocese: the statute therefore provides, as a remedy for these evils, that "the bishop shall have power to arrest and confine persons defamed or "vehemently suspected of such offences, till they make their canonical "purgation; and, if they be convicted, to punish them with imprisonment, and a fine to the king. It then enacts that if any person so con"victed shall refuse to abjure such preachings, doctrines, opinions, "schools, and informations, or after abjuration shall be proved to have relapsed, then the sheriff of the county, or the mayor and bailiffs of "the nearest borough shall, on requisition, be present at the pronuncia-” "tion of the sentence, shall receive the person so condemned into custody, and shall cause him to be burnt on a high place before the peo"ple, that such punishment may strike terror into the minds of others. (Rot. Parl. iii. 466. Wilk. Conc. iii. 252.)

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During this very parliament (whether before or after the passing "of the act is uncertain) a petition was presented to the lords and commons by William Sawtre, begging that he might be permitted to dispute before them on the subject of religion. Such a request excited "considerable surprise: but the enthusiast aspired to the crown of martyrdom; and had the satisfaction to fall a victim to his own folly. "He had been rector of Lynn in Norfolk; but about two years before,

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"had been convicted of heresy, and deprived of his living. On his recantation he had been lately admitted a chaplain in St. Osith's, in Lon"don. The character of Sawtre, and the nature of his request, induced "the convocation to summon him before them and six days were al"lowed him to prepare his answer. The articles objected to him were "those of which he had been accused before the bishop of Norwich. "With unparalleled effrontery he denied his former conviction and recantation; explained the other articles in an orthodox sense; but "refused to give any satisfaction on the subject of the eucharist. The "trial was adjourned from day to day and the archbishop, notwithstanding the contempt and insolence of his answers, made a last effort "to save him, by asking if he were content to stand on that question by the determination of the church. He answered that he was, pro"vided the determination were agreeable to the will of God: an eva"sion which of course was rejected. The record of his former convic"tion and recantation were now produced from the registry of the bishop of Norwich; and on the eleventh day from his arraignment " he was pronounced by the primate a relapsed heretic, was degraded "from his orders, and delivered into the custody of the constable and mareschal of England. (Con. iii. 255-260.) About a week after"wards, Henry consulted the temporal lords sitting in parliament; " and by their advice issued a precept to the mayor and sheriffs to exe"cute the sentence of the law upon Sawtre. The unhappy man, instead "of being shut up in an asylum for lunatics, was burnt to death as a "malefactor, in the presence of an immense multitude: and the com"mons by their speaker returned thanks to the king that, whereas 'by "bad doctrine the faith of holy church was on the point of being over,

turned, to the destruction of the king and kingdom, he had made and "ordained a just remedy to the destruction of such doctrine and the pursuers thereof.'

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"This severity did not, however, subdue the boldness of the preachers. They declaimed with redoubled animosity against the tempo"ralties of the clergy, till the lay proprietors became alarmed for the security of their own possessions, In 1407 the subject attracted the "notice of the house of lords: a petition was sent by them to the com66 mons for their concurrence; and it was afterwards presented by the "speaker to the king. It stated that the preachers excited the people "to take away the possessions of the church, of which the clergy were as assuredly endowed as the temporal lords were of their inheritances; "and that unless these evil purposes were speedily resisted, it was pro"bable that in process of time they would also move the people to take away the possessions and inheritances of the temporal lords, and "make them common, to the open commotion of the people, and the "utter subversion of the realm. In consequence it was enacted that "such persons, together with those who maintained that king Richard was still alive, and others who published false prophecies to delude "the people, should be arrested and brought before the next parliament "to receive such judgment as the king and peers in their judicial au"thority should pronounce."

From this authentic relation, nothing can be plainer that persecution is no part or parcel of the Catholic church. No act of violence was

offered nor could be offered by the clergy as clergymen; they petitioned the king in parliament, as members of the state, not as ministers of the church, in consequence of their temporalties being endangered by lawless and erroneous pretensions. The power was granted to them by the civil supreme authorities of the land, and it will not, we apprehend, be disputed, that the representatives of the people, that is, the real representatives of the people, for such was then the case, had the right to grant and delegate the power of preserving the peace of the kingdom to whomsoever they pleased. How far it was consistent with sound policy and a due regard of religion is mere matter of opinion; the, then parliament thought it wise, and in this they were probably right, for as some part of the crime was an error in judgment, and as the clergy were then the most learned class of men in the country, and the most able to decide on the case, none could be so proper to act as they in matters requiring discriminate nicety. That they acted with every degree of forbearance, charity and mildness, is conspicuous in their conduct towards the unfortunate Sawtre. This unhappy ecclesiastic was a bold impudent enthusiast; a recanter, a prevaricator, and frontless liar. When rector of Lynn, he was convicted of heresy, and retracted. The infection of heresy necessarily deprived him of his living; for it would have been inconsistency itself to have continued a man as the instructor of others, who was himself under the influence of error. On renouncing that error, we find him appointed to another situation, which does not display a vindictive or persecuting spirit on the part of the clergy; nor do their conduct in putting off his condemnation from time to time evince a sanguinary feeling towards him. Finding him obstinate, they had nothing left to do but to pronounce what he evidently was, a relapsed heretic, that is, a man wilfully attached to erroneous opinions-opinions which he must know, and which he had acknowledged, to be heretical. Having done this, they delivered him over to the officers of the civil power to do with him as the laws of the state, not of the church, authorized them. We agree with Dr. Lingard that it would perhaps have been better had Sawtre been confined in a madhouse instead of being burnt; but the king and the commons thought otherwise; they thought it best that the wretched man should be made a sacrifice to deter others from the like offence, and he suffered accordingly. Why such an outcry should be raised by the admirers of Fox's lies against this single statute by Henry IV. while so many bloody laws were passed against Catholics by Elizabeth and her successors, for no other cause than their adherence to truth and rejection of error, is somewhat incomprehensible. It must arise from the most stupid ignorance or the basest impudence, and when they have made their choice, there is plenty of cause to make them blush. During the whole space when Catholicism was in power, from the time of passing the act to the assumption of the spiritual supremacy by Henry 8th, embracing a period of more than 130 years, fewer persons suffered under the writ de heretico comburendo than in the last fifteen years of the first spiritual temporal head of the church of England. But it is time to see what kind of martyrs Fox has selected to grace his martyrologist and stamp credit on Wickliffe's doctrines.