consent of parliament, had just enacted the law of the six articles, commonly called the Bloody Statute, she was cruelly betrayed by her own husband, taken into custody upon his information, and examined concerning her faith. The act above mentioned denounced death against all those who should deny the doctrine of transubstantiation, or that bread and wine made use of in the sacrament were not converted, after consecration, into the real body and blood of Christ; or maintain the necessity of receiving the sacrament in both kinds; or affirm that it was lawful for priests to marry; that the vows of celibacy might be broken; that private masses were of no avail; and that auricular confession to a priest was not necessary to salvation. Upon these articles she was examined by the inquisitor, a priest, the lord mayor of London, and the bishop's chancellor, and to all their queries gave proper and pertinent answers; but not being such as they approved, she was sent back to prison, where she remained eleven days, to ruminate alone on her alarming situation, being even denied the small consolation of a friendly visit. The king's counsel being at Greenwich, she was once more examined by chancellor Wriothesley, Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, Dr. Cox and Dr. Robinson, but not being able to convince her of her supposed errors, she was sent to the tower. It was strongly suspected that Mrs. Askew was favoured by some ladies of high rank, and that she carried on a religious correspondence with the queen; so that chancellor Wriothesley, hoping that he might discover something that would afford matter of impeachment against that princess, the earl of Hertford, or his countess, who all favoured the reformation, ordered her to be put to the rack; but her fortitude in suffering, and her resolution not to betray her friends, were proof against that diabolical invention. Not a groan nor a word could be extorted from her. The chancellor, provoked with what he called her obstinacy, augmented her tortures with his own hands, and with unheard-of violence; but her courage and constancy were invincible, and these barbarians gained nothing by their cruelties but everlasting

disgrace and infamy. As soon as she was taken from the rack, she fainted away; but, being recovered, she was condemned to the flames. Her bones were dislo cated in such a manner that they were forced to carry her in a chair to the place of execution. While she was at the stake, letters were brought her from the lord chancellor, offering her the king's pardon if she would recant; but she refused to look at them, telling the messenger "that she came not thither to deny her lord and master." The same letters were also tendered to three other persons condemned to the same fate, and who, animated by her example, refused to accept them; whereupon the lord mayor commanded the fire to be kindled, and with savage ignorance, cried out, “Fiat justitia"-Let justice take its course. The fagots being lighted, she commended her soul, with the utmost composure, into the hands of her Maker, and, like the great founder of the religion she professed, expired praying for her murderers, July 16th, 1549, about the twenty-fifth year of her age.

"I do not know," observes a good English writer, "if all circumstances be considered, whether the history of this or any other nation can furnish a more illustrious example than this now related. To her father's will she sacrificed her own inclinations; to a husband unworthy her affections she behaved with prudence, respect and obedience; the secrets of her friends she preserved inviolable, even amidst the tortures of the rack. Her constancy in suffering, considering her age and sex, was equal, at least, if not superior, to any thing on record, and her piety was genuine and unaffected, of which she gave the most exalted proof in dying a martyr for the cause of her religion and liberty of conscience. But who can read this example, and not lament and detest that spirit of cruelty and inhumanity which are imbibed and cherished in the church of Rome? a spirit repugnant to the feelings of nature, and directly opposite to the conduct and disposition of the great Author of our religion, who came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them."

60. MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S.

In the month of August, 1572, in the reign of Charles IX. of France, 30,000, or, as some affirm, 100,000 protestants were massacred in France by the Catholics. This bloody massacre commenced in Paris on the 24th of August, on St. Bartholomew's day.

In order the sooner to effect their purposes by cutting off the leaders of the protestants, many of the principal ones in the kingdom were invited to Paris under a solemn oath of safety, upon occasion of the marriage of the king of Navarre with the French king's sister. The queen-dowager of Navarre, a zealous protestant, however was poisoned by a pair of gloves before the marriage was solemnized. Upon a given signal the work of death began. Charles, the savage monarch, from the windows of his palace, encouraged the furious populace to massacre his protestant subjects, by crying out "Kill! kill!"

Cologni, admiral of France, was basely murdered in his own house, and then thrown out of the window, to gratify the malice of the duke of Guise; his head was afterwards cut off, and sent to the king and queen-mother; and his body, after many indignities offered to it, hung on a gibbet. After this, the murderers ravaged the whole city of Paris, and butchered in three days above ten thousand lords, gentlemen, presidents, and people of all ranks. "A horrible scene of things!" says a historian of the time; "the very streets and passages resounded with the noise of those who met together for murder and plunder; the groans of those who were dying, the shrieks of those who were just going to be butchered, were every where heard; the bodies of the slain were thrown out of the windows, the dead bodies of others were dragged through the streets; their blood running through the channels, in such plenty, that torrents seemed to empty themselves into the neighbouring river, in a word, an innumerable number of men, women, and children, were all involved in one common destruction, and the gates and entrances of the king's palace all besmeared with their blood."

From the city of Paris the massacre spread throughout the whole kingdom. In the city of Meaux they threw above two hundred into jail; and after they had ravished and killed a great number of women, and plundered the houses of the protestants, they exercised their fury on those they had imprisoned, and, calling them one by one, they were killed like sheep in a market. In Orleans they murdered above five hundred men, women, and children, and enriched themselves with the spoil. The same cruelties were practised at Angus, Troyes, Bouges, La Charite, and especially at Lyons, where they inhumanly destroyed above eight hundred protestants; children hanging on their parents' necks; parents embracing their children; putting ropes about the necks of some, dragging them through the streets, and throwing them, mangled, torn, and half-dead, into the river.

But what aggravates still more these scenes of wantonness and cruelty, was the manner in which the news was received at Rome. When the letters of the pope's legate were read in the assembly of the cardinals, by which he assured the pope that all was transacted by the express will and command of the king, it was immediately decreed that the pope should march with his cardinals to the church of St. Mark, and in the most solemn manner give thanks to God for so great a blessing conferred on the see of Rome and the Christian world; and on the Monday after, solemn mass should be celebrated in the church of Minerva, at which pope Gregory XIII. and his cardinals were present; and that a jubilee should be published throughout the whole Christian world, and the cause of it declared to be, to return thanks to God for the extirpation of the enemies of the truth and church in France.

In the evening the canon of St. Angelo were fired to testify the public joy; the whole city illuminated with bonfires; and no one sign of rejoicing omitted that was usually made for the greatest victories obtained in favour of the Roman church!!!

61. AUTO DE FE, OR ACT OF FAITH.

"ACT of faith" (Auto de Fe) in the Romish church is a solemn day held by the inquisition for the punishment of heretics and the absolution of the innocent accused. They usually contrive the auto to fall on some great festival, that the execution may pass with the more awe, and it is always on a Sunday. The auto de fe may be called the last act of the inquisitorial tragedy; it is a kind of jail-delivery, appointed as often as a competent number of prisoners in the inquisition are convicted of heresy, either by their own voluntary or extorted confession, or on the evidence of certain witnesses. The process is this:-In the morning they are brought into the great hall, where they have a peculiar habit put on, which they are to wear in the procession, and by which they know their doom. The procession is led up by the Dominican friars, after which come the penitents, being all in black coats without sleeves, and barefooted, with a wax candle in their hands. These are followed by the penitents who have narrowly escaped being burnt, who over their black coats have flames painted, with their points turned downwards. Next come the negative or relapsed, who are to be burnt, having flames painted on their habits, pointing upwards. After these come such as profess doctrines contrary to the faith of Rome, who, besides having flames painted upwards, have their picture painted on their breasts, with dogs, serpents, and devils, all open-mouthed, about it. Each prisoner is attended with a familiar of the inquisition, and those to be burnt have also a Jesuit on each hand, who is continually exhorting them to abjure. After the prisoners comes a troop of familiars on horseback; and after them the inquisitors, and other officers of the court, on mules: last of all, the inquisitor-general, on a white horse, led by two men.

A scaffold is erected, large enough for two or three thousand people; at one end of which are the prisoners, at the other the inquisitors. After a sermon, made up of encomiums of the inquisition, and invectives against heretics, a priest ascends a desk near the scaf