The Irish standard., 1894-04-21

4
! dered and their bodies exposed, when
their rawlings were called the revelation
OF God. This happened in England five
years ago. s...
Now he would ask was it right and
proper that public morality should be
outraged and set at defiance by such a
blasphemous travesty OF the worship OF
God. And these were fair samples of
thA. aectaries of the middle ages, the
Waldsnses, the Albigenees and name
ess brood OF others. Many of these SEQ,
taries were not only opposed to every
element of civilization in doctrine, but
also in their practlce, the primary prin-
ciples of decency and morality were set
at defiance, SO much SO that he dare not
defile their ears and soil his lips by de-
soribing the horrible prohigacies Of these
| men And it was against such heretics
as these that the Spanish Inquisition
| was first founded.
Again, for a thousand years before the
Spanish InQuisition, popularity SO called,
| there were similar institutions in every
State Of Europe. The Emperor Con-
stantine was the first to establish what
they would call an inquisition. Constan-
tines laws were added to by various EN-
perors and all drawn UP into one code by
Justinian, and they became the code OF
| laws OF avery State in Europe with the
exception of England and Ireland. In
England the Saxons blotted out almost
every trace OF the previous Roman occu'
paticn, while in Ireland the Roman
power never set it's foot. Therefore it
was not surprising that two centuries
before the Spanish Inqaisition, Freder.
iok Barbarossa, or Frederick of the Red
| .Beara, established an inquisition NOT
quits so sewers, but differing in no way
from the inquisition set up in Spain.
Why we're inquisitions established at
Iall? They must remember that in the
tdays of Constantine and for q long while
after the whole of the civilized world was
of the same faith, and wherever hereey
appeared it was. not mere matter OF
opinion, but the cause Of tumult and
disorder in the State, and many poor
people were slaughtered and their homes
plundered by the heretics, who had no
police or civil authorities such as existed
now to restrain them. The only re-
source was to stamp out the heresy.
Pcotestants often boasted Of the Wal
denses and the Albigenses and other
heretical sects as their progenitors, and
he 1.-THE reverend preacher) could not
help Wishing them joy OF their ancestry
and better knowledge OF their antece-
dents.
Another accusation of Protestants was
the supposed intolerant persecution
practiced by Catholics. He had already
spoken of the remonstrance which Pope
Sixtus Nv. sent to Ferdinand and lisa
bella. Shortly after, finding this failed,
his successor established a court of ap.
peal in Spain, and when this, too, proved
| useless, he established court of appeal
in Rome, by which many saved their
lives and property. In 1856 two hun.
dred people were thus saved; two years
later it saved two hundred and fifty poo
pie condemned to death by the Spanish
Inquisition; on another occasion fifty
| and SO on. When Spain obtained pos
! session of Naples and tried to establish
the Spanish Inquisition there Pope Paul
III. said: "No; 1t is too severe. We
shall not have the Inquisition in Italy
Later, when they we're endeavoring to
introduce it INTO Milan, Pope Plus Nv.
said: "No, The sentences are too cruel.
Yet the Papal Court had it's Inquisi'
tion as it had now. But by the Papa]
| Inquisition no man ever lost his life. In
it's whole history there were only two
! doubtful cases in which men were CON
| demned to death. The sentence of burn
ing to death was utterly abhorrent to
the Papal Court. Another point. Pro
testants' were very fond of shouting
against the Spanish Inquisition for being
unjust, for numbering women and she'd
ding innocent blood. They had short
| memories. Was there not innocent
blood shed in England? Let the blood
| of Margaret Clitheroe, shed in New York
for believing in the Catholic faith, make
answer. AS foul deed as ever disgraced
the annals of the Spanish Inquisition.
When just before her death, she ap-
preaching her confinement, asked, for
the honor of womanhood, that they
would leave her some portion of her
clothing, they placed her between two
boards and crushed and mangled her to
a pulp. Il,
Let them remember James Finch,
dragged by ropes through the streets OF
Manchester to the cathedral for refusing
to 20 there voluntarily, and afterwards
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