Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Plain Talk about the Protestantism of Today [1868]

[Stone]

V. Protestant Toleration.


— Among the many prejudices which sway the world, and reign even among demi-Catholics, one is, "although the Reformation may have been the cause of evil, may have caused man's blood to flow, and may have demoralized whole nations, it has, at least, done this much good: it has given religious toleration."

Nothing farther from truth, or less sustained by history. Wherever Protestantism has a sway, it is intolerant and persecuting. Of course not everywhere, in the same degree; but why not? Because it does not possess everywhere the same degree of power. To persecute, one must have both will and power. Fortunately Protestantism cannot always act as it has a mind to. But let it be said boldly, in fact, of intolerance, Protestantism will always go as far as it will dare.

The Reformation has always introduced itself by violence, and its first fruits, in Germany, Geneva, England, and Sweden, have been civil war, proscription, and murder. How else? The Reformation is a revolution, and whatever is revolutionary, is, of its own nature, tyrannical.

Once established, Protestantism has held its own by the same dint of violence. Everybody knows in what relation English Protestantism stands to the Catholics, — how bloody the laws, and with what ferocious despotism it crushes, this very day, faithful and unhappy Ireland.

William Cobbett, a Protestant writer, in the face of such facts could not give the lie to his conscience, and he thus testifies against the national Church: "A Church," he writes, "the most intolerant that ever existed, rampant before the world, with knife, and axe, and the instruments of cruel torture; its first steps marked with the blood of numberless victims, whilst its arm gave way under the burden of its robberies." Then he quotes the acts of Parliament, by which it is proven that in consequence of this wholesale butchery of Catholics, the population of England was diminished one-tenth its number. Death was proclaimed against any priest who should dare to enter the kingdom, or who should be convicted of having celebrated mass. Death for him who gave shelter to a priest. Death to every one who refused to acknowledge Queen Elizabeth at the Head of the Church of Jesus Christ. A heavy fine imposed on all who refused to assist at the Protestant service, and "the list of all those who were put to death, for the only crime of being Catholics, during the reign of Elizabeth, would be by far more numerous than the roll of our armies and of our navy," adds the same historian.

"Nor is the English Church changed; it has proven true to itself from the very first beginning of its existence; its cruelties in Ireland would degrade, in atrocity, those of Mohammed himself, and a whole volume should be required to chronicle all its acts of intolerance." (Lettre to Tenterden, Lord Justice, who, in Parliament, had boasted of the tolerance of the British government.)

By the same means did Calvinism introduce itself into France. For more than one century we hear nothing in that country but rebellions, and riots, and devastation, wherever the Huguenot doctrine gained admittance. That period is only a tissue of disorders, treachery, and cruelty. Nor is there cause for wonder, when Calvin publicly proclaimed that kings and princes must be broken, when they refuse the profession of Protestantism; better to spit in their faces than to obey them. Under the guidance of Coligny, the Calvinistic revolutionists planned the project of abducting the King of France, yet an infant. Having failed, they took possession of Orleans, laid waste the borders of the Loire, Normandy, and the Island of France. Languedoc fared the worst of all, as it became the theatre of cruelties and profanations unparalleled in history. At Montauban, Castres, Beziers, Nimes, and Montpellier, those vaunted pioneers of tolerance, and liberty of conscience forbade, under terrible penalties, all practice of Catholic worship. The world has heard of that notorious Baron des Adrets, a Calvinian leader, who, after the surrender of Montbrison, indulged in the innocent pleasure of hurling from the highest tower the surviving defenders of the post. Thus did generally fare all cities that fell into Calvinistic hands: churches desecrated, sacred vessels stolen, priests and monks driven away or killed, most barbarous atrocities committed and sacrileges most abominable. These are historical facts; they challenge contradiction, and are not denied even by Protestants, who, however, from time to time allow themselves to be caught wishing the return of the good old Protestantism of France.

It makes one's hair stand on end to read the atrocities whereof the Hollanders became guilty when striving to extend Protestantism over the Netherlands; above all, the tortures and torments with which Lamark and Sonoi, agents of the Prince of Orange, gave vent to their religious zeal. We have a faithful picture of Sonoi drawn by a Protestant pen: "The ordinary processes of cruel torture were only the lowest degree of punishment inflicted on the innocent. Their limbs were disjointed; the flesh, hanging in shreds, after a pitiless scourging, was swathed in rags dipped in alcohol, then set on fire, until, the flesh burnt and the nerves crisped, the bones were bared to view. Sometimes so much as half a pound of sulphur was employed in burning the armpits and the soles of their feet. Thus martyred, they were abandoned on the fields for days and nights without any relief, only that repeated blows drove sleep away from their eyes. No food given but herrings, or such as would create a burning thirst, whilst no kind of drink, no, not even water, was allowed. Hornets were inserted to sting their navels. Sonoi went so far as to cause rabid rats to be placed on the breasts and bellies of those martyrs, enclosed in a box made for the purpose, and covered with combustibles. Fire being applied, these vermin became furious, and would cleave a way for themselves, tearing the bowels and the hearts of the victims. The wounds were seared with burning coals, or molten lard was poured into them. . . . He had invented even more horrible torments, and he inflicted them in cold blood; cannibals would be disgraced by his cruelty; decency forbids us to say more." (Abrégé de l'Hist. de la Hollande. Kerroux, t. II., p. 310.)

Protestant tolerance of England, France, and Netherlands, finds its counterpart in Sweden. There, also, the Reformation was introduced by violence and bloodshed; the religious laws of that country have preserved as much of their cruel enactments as the spirit of the times will allow. Not long ago (in 1861) six whole families were banished the country, their goods confiscated, only because they had entered the Catholic Church. In Norway, Denmark, Prussia, and Geneva, wherever it reigns, Protestantism had ever proved itself the sworn enemy and blind hater of Catholics. Free and unchecked, it spurns all outward regards, which have often given it an appearance of moderation; openly and haughtily it claims what it wills.

At the Protestant Synod of Breme, Parson Sander, of Ebberfeld, alluding to the Jesuits and to the Pope, exclaims, "Where Protestants have the power, they should not be allowed to exist, much less to be free."

At Geneva, jealous of Catholic growth, the Protestants have formed a covenant, not to buy anything of Catholics, never to employ them, to reduce them to want, to see that Protestants alone are raised to offices and places.

And all this by men who, in terms of indignation, demand liberty and equality of worship, even where they are a small minority; by men who perpetually boast of liberty of conscience, Christian charity, and of a religion of peace and love; by men who profess to believe in Jesus Christ, and with whom one is perfectly free to be an infidel, a Pantheist, an Atheist, but not a Catholic!