Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-02-23

names AS the l7tn century; and yet,
while that period was the transition pc
riod between the old and the new civili-
cations, society was chained by intoler-
ance, by bigotry, and by the grossest
superstitions. Coke, Bacon, Jeremy
Taylor, James l., Cromwell, Hale,
John Milton, Butler, Hobbs, Dryden,
Sir Isaac Newton, and others, flour
ished at that time. Bacon revolution
lied thought by the introduction of his
new system Of philosophy; Coke wrote
an admirable commentary upon the
laws of his country; James l., who was
rope, and it was said of him that he
had the Bible translated; John Milton
gave the world his immortal epics;
Lord Hale was one of England's fore
most Judges; Butler wrote his caustic
satire, Hudibras, upon the Puritans--
but these great men did not lift society
out of its degradation, but superstition
hung over it like pail. James 1. while
translating the Bible was composing q
book to prove that witchcraft was
reality. While John Milton wrote his
article on the Freedom of the
Press and his Philiipics against Prelacy
and the Established Church, Cromwell
was waging war that he and his adhe-
rents might worship Gcd according to-
the di,tates of their own conscience.
and not let anybody else do it. And it
is well-authenticated historical fact
that during the Long Parliament six
thousand persons were executed in En-
gland for witchcraft. Think of it moe
ment, my friends. Sic thousand per-
sons, mostly aOOnen, executed in siI
years for an imaginary crime, right in
the shadow OF Cambridge and Oxf,rd
and Eaton and the cathedrals of Lon
don, and can You not see the deep deg
radiation of the masses that tolerated
such atrocities? I ask you that if it ie
necessary for me to go further for proof
that the standard of civilization must
be advanced by the many and not the
few, than this one fact. The WITCH
craft mania took possession of all class
es of society. Every event i'm the COM
muuity that could not be otherwise
explained was referred, by the ignorant
and the learned alike, to the evil infiu-
ences of the Devil operating through
the medium of witches. Nor was this
abominable belief confined to England.
II pervaded all Europe, and one emf
nent writer has given it as his opinion
that at one time there could not be
found in all Europe one single indlvid-
ual who did not believe In this super
stition; and DR.. Springer estimates the
numb Der of persons who were burnt in
Europe for this supposed erimss u
900 900. Nor was this belief confifeaI
to~ tsse Old World. It was transplant
ed from there to the New World, and:
took deep root in the soil of New En-
gland. About the year 1892 Cotton
Mather, a celebra Ted divine of Massa-
ch husetts, the most learned man of his
time, wrote book justifying the Salem
butcheries, and the then President OF
Harvdrd University endorsed the
book! You all recolleet the story ofl
Lord Hale Disgusting himself as a
miller, getting Oh jury, and exposing
bribery. 1t is told in one of our school
readers. Hale, in the reader, is termed
the "Just Judge" and he indeed was a
Just Judge. and oneof the best England
over produced; aud yet he sentenced
and had executed two old women for
practicng witchcraft. 1t was proven
in Hale's court that Amy Duny had
turned herself into toad and bewitch-
ed a child; and when she was thrown
into the fire while in toad form, she
made a terrible noise, like the report
Of pistol, snd then vanished-and
Hale hung her for doing this remarka-
BILE thing. While Milton was compos-
ing his greatest poem, Paradise Lost.
Hale was hanging women for an inag- |
mary offence. But this is not all. |
w lille this abominable superstition-
which found lodgment in the high
and low, rich and poor, the learned and
hamlet, in the family and i'm the uni |
versities-unmistakab fixes the STAN
iard of the civilization of the 18th GEN.
tury low, other matters point also to
the degradation of that time. In re- /
ligious worship there was no freedom.
Before any one could be elected to or
hold any office in the State. or
even in corporation, or before he
could teach school, he was required to
take test oaths. These eaths required |
him to answer that he did not believe |
in tr0nsubstantiatiOn, and that he
would be loyal to the king. and that
he believed the King was supreme in |
religious matters; and before he could |
the functions of Town Trus-
tee, he was required to tax the Sacra
ment OF the Lords Supper, in public,
to the rites of the established |
Church. At one time no Protestant
could live in England-at another Pc
riOu no CnlCaTla0 or CaGhOllC lad any
rights the Government regarded az sa-
cred. Indeed, during the 18th century
It was prescribed by law what "a man
should believe and what he should not
believe and how and where he should
We in this age do not appre-
,iate the full meaning of religious free
1om. We utter what seems to US a
truth when we say every
,ne should worship God according to
he dictates of his own conscience, and
none should dare hinder, modest or
make him afraid; but when we look at
;he past and see how conscience was
Knocked, this great truth becomes preg-
lant with meaning. The crowning
glory of American institutions Is our
freedom, and this has been re-
Ilized here to its fullest ex tsnt. Hence
say that the shacklss that fettered
,uman thought and the conscience Of
men in the 18th century, stamp that |
'eriod as one low in the grade of civili-
'ation. AS in religion go in the admin
stration of the law we find abundant
proofs of the barbarous condition of So
'i>ty during that period. AS already
tataH Witnh0raft wo, than pikol