The Papal Drama; A Historical Essay (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1866 Excerpt: ...like the 'immortal waves that saw Lepanto's fight.' The defeat of the Turks before Vienna (1683), less sanguinary and more fruitful than their discomfiture at Lepanto, alone holds equal rank with it. The glory of John of Poland alone comes up to the glory of John of Austria. 8 Lib. v. c. 10-12. of 30,000 Protestants by fellow countrymen with whom they had recently contracted amity, of subjects by a government that had lately and solemnly pledged them its protection, and of guests by hosts who had given a special invitation and afforded an ostentatious hospitality.9 In this great work of aggressive and 8 Thuanus, lib. lii. passim; lib. liii. c. 1-4. This transcendent crime, the joint work of a perjured government, a corrupt court, infuriated party-chiefs, a frantic mob, and a ruthless priesthood, the foulest and most perfidious of plots, the most deliberate and terrible of coups d'etat, the most ferocious of popular outrages, the uttermost achievement of political faction and religious hatred, stands forth ' facillime princeps' among the many horrors of history. The sedition of Corcyra was the work of political animosity alone and in comparison was a mild piece of bloodshedding. The slaughter of 50,000 Italians throughout Asia Minor at the bidding of Mithridates, savage and perfidious as it was, was still the performance of a foreign enemy and a subject population against a dominant race and therefore, as de Thou points out (lib. liii. c. 1), inferior to St. Bartholomew; its victims, harmless and unsuspicious inhabitants, were not guests specially invited to be destroyed. Sylla smote and slew multitudes of political enemies, captives taken in war; but he never wooed guests to the slaughter; the terrible Roman could not have feasted at St. Bartholomew's. The ...