CONTENTS. Page Chapter III., MIRACULOUS CONTESTS WITH THE DEVIL AND HOLY 51 THE REV HUGH MY NEILE, MA. Incumbent of S. Judi's Church; Liverpool. Hugh Me hicles Eng by RICHARD SMITH, from a Painting by T C THOMPSON. RHA. Published by Hayward & Moore, 53, Paternoster Row, London SKETCH OF POPERY IN THE DARK AGES, INTRODUCTORY TO THE TALES ABOUT POPERY. T was at the beginning of the thirteenth century, when the power of the bishops of Rome, and the corruption of Christianity, were both carried to the highest excess, that the terrible tribunal of the Inquisition was established, and Saint Dominic was the first Inquisitor-general. He received his authority from Innocent III. and Honorius III. It was some time before this period, that the sects of Albigenses and Waldenses had arisen, and it was their conduct in the horrid persecution carried on against these unhappy people, in which St. Dominic acted a conspicuous part, both as a preacher and a warrior, that procured for the order of Dominicans, which he had instituted, the distinction of being chosen by Pope Gregory IX. to be special members of the tribunal of the Inquisition. As it was in the war of extermination carried on against the Albigenses, that the sanguinary spirit of Papal persecution first displayed itself in all its terrors, it will be proper, before proceeding with our Tales, to give some account of its remote origin, and of its tragical termination. Ever since the tenth century, the era of the greatest darkness in Europe, the manners of the Popish clergy had become extremely corrupt; religious discipline had entirely relaxed. The immense riches possessed by the monksand which they had acquired by the necessity in which the greater part of the feudal lords had been placed of mortgaging their domains, in order to march to the Crusades-riches which they aug |