Note 217 — SERMON XI. PROPHETIC CHARACTERS OF ANTICHRIST. Luke xii. 56.
Reading edition
In the persecution of heretics; which M. Bossuet regards as so little dishonourable to his communion, that he thinks it a point not to be called in question—calls the use of the sword in matters of religion, an undoubted right—and concludes, that there is no illusion more dangerous than to consider TOLERATION, as a mark of the true Church—l’exercise de la puissance du glaive dans les matieres de la religion & de la conscience; chose, que ne peût être revoquée en doute—le droit est certain—il n’y a point d’illusion plus dangereuse que de donner LA SOUFFRANCE pour un caractere le vraye Eglise. Hist. des Var. l. x. p. 51. Par. 1740, 12o.
Thus, this great doctor of the Catholic church, towards the close of the last century. And just now, another eminent writer of that communion very roundly defends the murder of the Bohemian martyrs at Constance, and (what is more provoking still) the fraud and ill-faith, through which the pious and tender-hearted Fathers of that council rushed to the perpetration of it. M. Crevier, Hist. de l’Université de Paris, t. iii. l. vi. p. 435, &c. Par. 1761, 12o.—Can it be worth while to spend words in fixing this charge of intolerance on the church of Rome, when her ablest advocates, as we see, even in our days, openly triumph in it? But, then, hath she forgotten who it was that the prophet saw, drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus—Rev. xvii; 6?. Alas, no: But she wonders, by what figure of speech heretics are called Saints; and rebels to the Pope, Martyrs of Jesus.