I. 13. de dessous terre, se out of the Catacombs

pour la tnettre à côté du trône, by his edict of 313.

1. 26. contre un évéque. Arius began to preach his doctrines in 312; he was condemned by several councils, chiefly by the one held at Nicœa in 325.

Page 146.

1. 1. au siècle de Charlemagne. "In the controversy concerning iinages, the Frank church gave évident proof, not only of its independence of the Romish see, but of its higher theoloi^ical culture...

Charlemagne caused a réfutation of the decrees of tlie second Nicene council {Libri CaroUni) to be drawn up (790), and, without beingsatisfied with Pope Hadrian's reply, the worship of pictures was rejected at the synod of Frankfort (794) ; according to later accounts, with the approbation of the EngHsh church. An embassy which king Michael Balbus sent to Louis le Débonnaire, and to Rome, led to another déclaration of the synod of Paris (825) against image-worship, at this time accompanied with an express rebuke of the Pope. The Franks, indeed, were not successfui in reconciling the Pope and the Greeks by means of their views; but, on the other hand, neither did the Popes venture to treat the Franks as their predecessors treated the Greeks. Throughout the ninth century, the worship of images continued to be rejected in the empire of the Franks, without the Pope excommunicating any one on that account." (Gieseler, Co7npendiinn of Ecclcs. History, vol. il. of the English transi, pp. -267—271.)

1. 9. guerre des Albigeois. The crusade (as it was called) against the Albigenses, who lived about Toulouse, was preached by Innocent III in 1207, carried on by Simon de Montfort, and ended in 1229 with the submission of the Albigenses and most of Languedoc. It shows Voltaire's extrême contempt for and ignorance of theology, that he mixes up the worship of images with the doctrines of the Albigenses, who were Manicheans, and those of the Hussites, who demanded the cup in the sacrament of the Lord's supper. The Hussites were the direct spiritual descendants of Wyclif. The confusion is made still worse below (1. 13), w.hcre the doctrines of Luther and Zwingli are added to the medley.

1. 13. Jîi renaître. The war of the Hussites ended in 1434 with the battle of Bohmischbrod, and the beginningof the troubles about the sale of indulgences took place in 15 17.

1. 14. les Vaiidois, the people of Savoy, persecuted by their Duke in 1655: see below, p. 147, 1. 8, note.

1. 17. conifue lin prétexte i^c. It is undoubtedly true that thèse motives were influential with such princes as those of wSaxony and Hesse, who led the movement, but they had nothing to do with the feelings of the masses, without whose aid the princes would hâve been helpless.

1. 20. aîi pouvoir despotique. But for the Reformation, the French, and the Turks, Charles V, with his cnormous possessions, might hâve established absolute power in Germany.

1. 26. les te/Jips malheureux, the disturbances connccted with Mary Queen of Scots and the minority of James VI.

I. 28. que la tyrajinie des évêques, qui avait excité tant de plaintes. "The episcopal church courts, or commission courts, as they were termed, took upon them to fmd a remedy for the défection occasioned by the scruples of the people. Nine prelates, and thirty-five commissioners froni the laity, of whom a bishop, with four assistants, made a quorum, were intrusted with the power of enforcing the acts for the préservation of the newly re-established Episcopal church. Thèse oppressive Ecclesiaslical courts were held wherever there was a com]:)laint of non-conformityj and they employed ali the rip;ours of long imprisou-

ment, heavy fines and oorporal punishment, upon those who either abandoned the worship of their own parish church, or went to hear the doctrine of the Presbyterian clergy, whose private meetings for worship vvere callcd Conventiclcs.'" (Sir Walter Scott.)

1. ^T.. les seules villes ou âr^c, the towns, where alone &c. The population in Poland, outside the towns, consisted solely of nobles and serfs.

1. 40. J)7-édieants. This word is generally used as a term of contempt.

Page 147.

1. 8. lettr berceau. We cannot resist the pleasure of quoting hère Milton's justly celebrated sonnet, *''0n the late massacre m Piedmont."

"Avenge, O Lord, Thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones

Lie scatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold ;

Even them who kept Thy truth so pure of old, When ail our fathers worshipp'd stocks and stones, Forget not; in Thy book record their groans

Who were Thy sheep, and in their ancient fold

Slain by the b'ioody Piedmontese, that roll'd Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans

The vales redoubled to the hills, and they To heaven. Their martyr'd blood and ashes sow

O'er ail the Italian fields, where still doth sway The triple tyrant ; that from thèse may grow

A hundred fold, who, having learn'd Thy way Early may fly the Babylonian woe."

1. 19. parce que les Gîiises étaient catholiques. This assertion is so ridiculous that it is not worth refuting.

bouleversèrent V Elat à Venvi, vied with each other in disturbing the state. If the rights of conscience had been respected by Francis II, Charles IX and Flenry III, Coligny and Condé would never hâve attempted to bouleverser their native country.

1. 22. quarante ans, from the conspiracy of Amboise in 1560 to the Treaty of Vervins and the Edict of Nantes in 1598.

1, 24. sans être entêté d'aucune, without being vehemently prepossessed in favour of any.

1. 26. devenu catholique^ in 1593. "Paris," he said, "was well worth a mass."

1. 28. si longtemps enne?}ti des rois. This is another spécimen of Voltaire's préjudice or ignorance. The best answer to such an accusation is in the following extract from Calvin's éloquent préface to his Institution de la religion Chrétieniie : "Mais je retourne à vous, Sire. Vous ne vous devez esmouvoir de ces faux rapports, par lesquels nos adversaires s'efforcent de vous jetter en quelque crainte et terreur : c'est asçavoir que ce nouvel Evangile (ainsi l'appellent-ils) ne cherche autre chose qu'occasion de sédition et toute impunité de mal faire. Car Dieu n'est point Dieu de division, mais de paix, et le fils de Dieu n'est point ministre de péché, qui est venu pour rompre et destruire les oeuvres du

diable. Et quant à nous, nous sommes injustement accusez de telles entreprinses, desquelles nous ne donnasmes jamais la moindre souspeçon du monde. Et il est bien vray-semblable que nous, desquels jamais n'a esté ouïe une seule parole séditieuse, et desquels la vie a toujours esté cogneue simple et paisible, quand nous vivions sous vous, Sire, machinions de renverser les royaumes ! Qui plus est, maintenant estant chassés de nos maisons, nous ne laissons point de prier Dieu pour vostre prospérité, et celle de vostre règne."

Page 148.

1. 7. toîit seigneur de fief haitt-jiisticier. Thèse enjoyed the right known by the name oi jus gladii, that is to say, they judged ail civil and criminal cases, and pronounced sentences of capital punishment, except in cases reserved for the king.

1. 9. sajîs haute justice, i.e. who had either of the lower grades of judicial rights, " moyenne" or "basse justice."

1. 1-2. qui l'cssoj'tissaient &^c., which had immédiate recourse to a (provincial) parliament ; i.e. whose inhabitants had the right of going at once before one of the provincial parliaments, such as that of Toulouse, without having first to appear before some inferior court.