The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-04
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE.
The Prosecutions of Romanism.

The Prosecutions of ROmanism.
To the Editor of the indianapolis Journal:
In your issue of the Sth ult Bishop ChataTd
tries to parry the charge that Romanists have
prosecuted Professionals by saying that the latter
have been guilty of the same sin. Granted; but
how does that help his side of the case9 The
magnitude of the crime is not lessened nor is its
guilt removed by charging, and even proving.
that another has snned? The prisoner at the
bar of justice cannot escape sentence because
there stands by his side a companion as un-
worthy as himself. Especially is this so when
the one has taught the other to do evil. The
prosecuting Protestants, almost without excep-
ton. were converts from Romanism, whore they
learned the lesson of persecution. The Romish
Church gave the world the doctrine that heretlcs
ought to be punished and put to death. In per-
scouting Romanists the Protestants were simply
doing what their Romsh teachers had often en-
joined on them. Religious persecution is one of
Rome's peculiar dogmas, and she ought not to
complain if some of her children use on her the
dangerous weapon which she put into their
hands and instructed them how to use most skill
fully.
There is also world wide difference between
the attitude of ProtestantS and Romanists in re-
gard to persecution. The one now hold and
have so held for some time, that all persecu-
ton is of the devil utterly foreign to the Scrip
lures and antagonistc to the spirit Of Christian
ity. They condemn and repudiate every
prosecuting act whenever, wherever
and by whomsoever performed as violation of
the fundamental principles of Professionalism
Will Romanists do as much! Will they as heart
lily denounce the awful work of their church in
the middle ages? Their general custom is to de-
fend cOndOne palliata the SufferinOS
Rome has caused and the blood she has shed.
Bishop Chatard says that the massacre of St
Bartholomew was polltical-the result of an at
tempt to defeat conspiracy against the King of
France That'is an old, but utterly unsub
stantiated assertion. Most desperate efforts
were made, by searching the private papers of
Coligny and other Huguenot leaders, and by the
examination of persons, to find evidence of
political plot to seize the government, but
there could not be found the smallest
proof of anything of the kind Catherine de
Medici and her allies exhausted every device to
prove that the Huguenots were traitors but
they failed completely. They ransacked every
nook and corner of France, but were unable to
lay single fact before the world to support the
theory that the Huguenots were about to precip-
itate a political revolution. The Huguenots
were not conspirators, nor were they rebels, but
loyal citizens and devoted subjects of the King.
Cardinals Mazarin and Rchelieu more than
once bore testimony to their loyalty.
The Bishop also says that the ceremonies
which were held in Rome, with the sanction of
the Pope when the news of the massacre of st.
Bartholomew reached there, were not
but because of the safety OF
the King. Lord Acton an eminent Roman
Catholic in the London Times of Nov 26, 1877,
sixth page has furnished the best of testimony
that the Pope ordered special religious services
because many heretics had been slain. This
testimony is the original correspondence, in
French and Italian, of the Cardinal Orsini, at
Rome, and the Papal nuncio. Salviati. at Paris,
and of the Cardinal Larraine, at Rome. These
letters dispel at once and forever the doubts
which have been raised in regard to the Popes
approval and encouragement of the massacre of
the Huguenots. When the Pope learned of the
massacre from Saviati, on the I'd of Sept, 1872
SO far from expressing any horror attempting
topreventits extension, he sent word through his
nuncio to the King, of his desire "for the great
glory of God and the greatest
welfare of France to see all the
heritics OF the kingdom extirpated, n-''taus les
heretlques extlrpees du royaume." This advice
was reported on the 22d of September, and was
followed by Salviati writing on the 18th of Oc-
tober that the Pope had experienced IAN inf
mite joy and great consolation in learning that
his Majesty (the King of France) had commanded
me to write that he hoped that in little while
France would have Huguencts"-" Quil es
perait quiz avant pen la France naurait plus de
Huguenots." On the 10th of December Cardinal
Orsini. at the instruction of the Pope, congratu-
massacre-its real character by this time was
fully known for it began on the Oath of August
and pressed him to renew his promise that not
a single Huguenot should be left on the soil of
France"
This is the kind of history which so eminent
Catholic as Lord Acton has furnished the world.
But there is other proof equally as good. In the
church of San Luigi de Francesi, at Rome
service arranged by Cardinal Lorraine
which the Pope attended with his cardinals and
DlShODS Over tho Of tho ohurob
affixed congratulatory notice fro m Charles the
Ninth, King of France, to Pope Gregory, wherein
t he King renders thanks to heaven that, lin
1amed by zeal for the Lord God of Hosts like a
smiling angel divinely sent, he had suddenly
destroyed by single slaughter almost all the
heretics and emies of his kingdom" This of
itself is suff, ut to show that the exercises in
Rome were caused by the destruction of 80
many Huguenots. Yet further, medal was
struck by order of the Pope in honor of the
event hearing on one side the head of the Pope
and the words "Gregorious XIII. Pont Max
An. L." and on the other an angel with cross
and sword pursuing the heretics and the super
scription: ..Uegonottorum Strages, 1872"
slaughter of the Huguenots). The genuineness
of this medal has been established beyound all
possible doubt. In 1923 and 1929 the late Alex
ander Thomson, OF Scotland, had six of them
struck off from the original dies at the
The Jesuit Bonanni in his 'Numismata Ponti6-
cum" z vols. fol-, Rome $780, has figured and
described it as No q of the medals of Gregory
Kill translation Of his account and fac
slmlle OF the medal may be seen IN the Bulletin de
la Societe de PHist. du Pratt Francois. l. (1852)
240-242. 1t is also admirably represented in the
Tresar de Numsmatique (Delaroche. ETC., Paris,
1889 Medailles des Papes, Plate Is, No. s. (See
Prof. Baird's Rise Of the Huguenots, Vol 2,
p. 533. But this is not all the evidence of the
Pope's Endorsement of the massacre because it
was a slaughter of Huguenots By or
der of the Pope the famous Vasari
painted in the sala regia Of the Vatican Palace,
several pictures representing different scenes in
the Partisan massacre. Upon one an inscription
was placed which tersely expressed the true state
of the case: 'Pontifex Colini ucem probat
The paintings may still be seen in the magnifi-
cent room which serves as ante chamber to the
Slstlne Chapel. Bard, idem, p. 533). To the
French ambassador at Rome, NJ de Ferralz.
Gregory expressed the most extravaganza salts