Full of that Christian zeal, so 'apt to tarn sour,' these men
lived like the hermit Honorius, 'in hopes of gaining heaven by making
earth a hell.'
The savage bigotry of an Elizabeth or a Mary, naturally resulted from
the notion that monarchs unquestionably ruling by Divine right, were
called upon by every earthly, as well as heavenly consideration, to
prove their zeal in the cause of God, by destroying His adversaries.
Heretics have been consigned to dungeon and to name, for His glory, and
His satisfaction. All inquisitors from St. Dominic downward, have
indignantly repelled the charge that they have punished heretics just to
glut their own appetite for cruelty. Worshippers of a God who saith,
'vengeance is mine,' they have felt themselves mere instruments in His
hands; of themselves, and for themselves, they did nothing; all was for
God. To please Him, the Jew and the Heretic shrieked amid the flames.
They are not ashamed, why should they? to perform His behests. When the
late Duke of York was about to leave Lisbon, its Inquisitor-General
waited upon him, with a humble request that he would delay his departure
for a few days, in order to make one at an Auto da Fe, where it was
kindly promised, some Jews should be burnt for his diversion: so cruel
and so blind are the superstitious.
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