dentally shows how numerous and influential the adherents of the Reformed Faith had been. One man boasted, that he had killed a hundred with his own hand. The river Seine was literally dyed with blood. The bodies of Protestants were opened, and rifled of whatever could be converted into money.* By a dreadful retribution, those of the Reformed Church who had become apostates, were required to show the sincerity of their new faith, by being foremost in the slaughter of their brethren. The example of Paris was a signal for all the leading towns. They followed in her bloody steps. In a few days, 6000 were slain at Rouen. In five or six towns, such as Sancerre, Privas, Rochelle, Montauban, and Nismes, the Protestants were strong enough to defend themselves, but the attempt brought no real advantage. It added to their sorrows: they were besieged, and involved in famine, which cut off even more than the sword. Such was the fierceness of the siege, that, in the case of Rochelle, in a single month, 13,000 cannon-shot were directed against the town. Amid all these terrible proceedings, there was no relenting on the part of the Church of Rome. At Lyons, the Pope's Legate, meeting the murderers fresh from their deeds of blood, absolved, by making over them the sign of the cross.

The celebrated Jonathan Edwards, who is not accustomed to speak without good authority, says, in his History of Redemption-" It is reckoned that about this time, within thirty years, there were martyred in this kingdom, (France,) for the Protestant religion, 39 princes, 148 counts, 234 barons, 147,518 gentlemen, and 760,000 of the common people;" and yet, as I have said, the massacre of St. Bartholomew called forth no relenting-on the contrary, it filled Rome with joy. It was stated in the beginning of last century, that there were in the great hall of the palace of the Vatican, where the Pope gives audience to ambassadors, several pieces of painting representing the Parisian massacre; and one in which the news of Admiral Coligny's death is represented as being brought to the French king, with these words, "Rex

*The persecutors in their work of slaughter, frequently and blasphemously mimicked the Psalm-singing of the Protestants, which must have made the scene more horrible. They seem to have borne a peculiar hatred to the singing of the praises of God, whether in public or in private. The practice we believe, was pecular to the Protestant Church. The Popish Church executes this, and many other parts of worship, by the proxy of the priest.

Colignii necem probat." The Pope ordered triumphant medals to be struck, having on one side the Pope's head, with this inscription, "Gregorius XIII., Pont. Max., An. 1." on the other side a destroying angel, with a cross held up in one hand, and a sword in the other, killing the Protestants, with these words, "Hugonotorum strages, 1582,"-the slaughter of the Hugonots.* But in spite of all these things, there is verily a Judge-a moral government-even in this fallen world. It is a remarkable fact, that all the chief persons who were engaged in the Parisian massacre, at least very many of them, fell at Rochelle, in the course of two brief years afterwards; so quickly does punishment succeed sin. Clarke, in his history of the early Protestant persecutions in France, which extends to thirty folio pages, states, that the Duke d' Aumale and Cosseins, who first entered the chamber of Coligny on the errand of assassination, three masters of the camp, not a few great lords and gentlemen, above sixty captains, and as many lieutenants and ensigns, and not less than twenty thousand common soldiers were all slain at Rochelle, or died of their wounds. And to crown the whole, Charles IX., the wretched king-the instrument of the crime-died at twenty-four years of age, of a strange disease, which may be said ever to have wrapt him in blood; and all in the short space of three years after the massacre. The form of his own suffering was surely intended to remind him of the sin with which he was chargeable, in inflicting sufferings, even unto death, upon others.

Many Christian men imagine that persecution must always render good service to the Church of Christ; that the blood of the martyrs must always prove the seed of the Church. But various sad cases, and this among others, show

*Mission. Voyage d' Italie, p. 32.-When our great. Reformer, John Knox, drew near his end, the tidings of St. Bartholomew were brought to him. It is said that they sunk him much. In a spirit not uncommon among the good men of his day, he uttered a declaration which was afterwards remarkably fulfilled. "Sentence," says he, "is pronounced, in Scotland, against that murderer, the King of France, and God's vengeance shall never depart from his house; but his name shall remain an execration to posterity; and none that shall come of his loins shall enjoy that kingdom in peace and quietness, unless repentance prevent God's judgment." This was spoken in a part of the Tolbooth Church, fitted up in Knox's old age, for a hundred peo. ple, to whom he preached. All the ministers of Edinburgh spoke largely on the subject, so that the French Ambassador complained, but ineffectually.

that the experience is not universal. The Protestantism of France was deeply and permanently injured by the exterminating persecution to which it was subjected; and so did it fare with the early Protestantism of Italy and of Spain; with Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary. "Multitudes," says Quick, "were frighted out of their native land, and others were frighted out of their religion. In such a dreadful hurricane as that was, no wonder if some leaves, unripe fruit, and rotten, withered branches, fell to the earth and were lost irrevocably." The leading Protestants, in point of rank and political influence, were destroyed, and so the body of the people were left the more exposed to the violence of their enemies. Unlike the Protestants of Scotland, those of France never, even in their greatest strength, rose to such numbers as to divide the population of the country into any thing like equal parts, nor to acquire such power as seriously to affect the movements of the ruling party. Government was always in the hands of Popery, and almost always hostile; and so the suffering was great, and apparently without end. For six years after the massacre, the annual meeting of the General Assembly of the Protestant Church was discontinued. It was not safe to meet; and when, in 1578, the Synod did assemble at St. Foy, no special notice was taken of the recent persecution. The only allusion is to be found in the appointment of a general fast, in the course of which it is said, "Forasmuch as the times are very calamitous, and that our poor churches are daily menaced with many and sore tribulations, and that sins and vices are rising up and growing in upon us in a most fearful manner, a general day of prayer and fasting shall be published, that our people may humble themselves before the Lord." While the brave and heroic manner in which the Protestant Church stood out the savage persecution to which we have referred, proves how enlight ened and sincere was the profession of faith which her members generally maintained, the fearful increase of wickedness, of which the fast appointment speaks, was doubtless the fruit of the persecution. When the Protestants were reduced in number and discouraged in spirit-when apostasy deteriorated the character of many of their friends, and enemies were emboldened to act as they pleased, and to triumph in cruelty, it is not wonderful that crime broke out in fresh virulence, and that the country was marked with the presence of an angry God. Nothing very remarkable occurred in the history of the Protestant Church till 1598, or twenty-six

years after the fearful massacre of St. Bartholomew. During all that protracted period, the Protestants might be said to be an oppressed people-any liberties which they enjoyed were by mere sufferance, and were ever liable to be, nay, were frequently invaded. The most arbitrary and unreasonable restrictions were imposed upon their meetings for divine worship: still they maintained their ground. For several years after the massacre, the diminution of their numbers was not very serious, though their spirit may have declined. By a singular providence of God, the ministers were spared from the destruction of the persecution, as if reserved for another harvest, and this tended to keep the people together. A new and greatly improved edition of the Protestant version of the Scriptures, revised by the College of Pastors and Professors of the Reformed Church at Geneva, of whom Beza was one, was published at this time, and, under the divine blessing, exerted a favourable influence in maintaining and diffusing a knowledge of the truth. But other influences were in operation, which were destined to affect the Protestant Church most perniciously. Before considering these, we shall quote a few facts and circumstances from the proceedings of the National Synods, or General Assemblies of the Church, which were held from the period of the massacre, in 1572, till the year 1598. These assemblies were only six in number in a course of twenty-six years; but they serve to illustrate the character of the Church, and frequently present her in an interesting light. I need scarcely say that the Protestant Church of France was a thoroughly Presbyterian Church.

Well aware that, under God, a chief share of the prosperity of the Church is ever dependent upon the character of her ministers, the Protestants of France, with great wisdom, continued to devote much of their attention to the qualifications and faithfulness of their religious teachers. There is no subject which is more frequently or earnestly pressed upon individuals and churches, than the necessity of educating young men for the ministry: the poverty and danger which were associated with the profession, the decline of the Church, and the temptation of other pursuits, seem to have rendered such calls peculiarly urgent.

"Whereas divers persons do solicit this National Synod to supply the congregations, who have sent them hither, with pastors, they are all answered, that at present we are utterly unable to gratify them, and that, therefore, they be advised

to set up propositions of the word of God (i. e. religious services,) and to take special care of educating hopeful young men in learning, in the arts, languages, and divinity, who may hereafter be employed in the sacred ministry; and they are most humbly to petition the Lord of the harvest to send labourers who may get it in."

"Because there is every where a visible decay, and a great want of ministers, and that some provision may be made for a succession, the churches shall be admonished by our brethren, the provincial deputies, that such as are rich, would maintain some hopeful scholars at the universities, who, being educated in the liberal arts and sciences, and other good learning, may be fitted for, and employed in, the sacred ministry."

"The deputies of every province are charged to advise and press their respective provinces to look carefully to the education of their youth, and to see to it, that schools of learning be erected, and scholastic exercises, as propositions and declamations, be perforined, that so their youth may be trained up and prepared for the service of God and of his Church in the holy ministry.

"The colloquies shall be exceedingly careful, that that article of our discipline, concerning the maintenance of poor scholars designed for the ministry, be diligently observed, and that they make report of it unto their Provincial Synods, and the Provincial Synods shall give account thereof unto the National, that so it may be manifested how they have performed their duty in this particular. But forasmuch as the expedients contained in that article are not sufficient for this end, and the Church's stock is very mean and low, the further consideration hereof is referred unto the General Assembly at St. Foy."

Indeed, so zealous was the Church in this matter, that she resolved to apply to the King of Navarre, and the Prince of Conde, and other lords professing the reformed religion, and to beseech them to contribute liberally "towards the maintenance of poor scholars and candidates for the ministry;" "and all churches are exhorted to press this duty vigorously upon their richer and more substantial members.' Nay, to such an extent did the zeal of the Church reach, that where a Protestant had acquired a right to tithes, he was entreated to consecrate them, not to private profit, but to pious uses, such as the "education of scholars, who be the seminary of the Church;" and he was censured if he refused. And