The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 173

The European Union in Prophecy
house, great or small, not even the colleges of the University of Paris. . . . Morin made
all the city quake. . . . It was a reign of terror." -- Ibid., b. 4, ch. 10.
The victims were put to death with cruel torture, it being specially ordered that
the fire should be lowered in order to prolong their agony. But they died as conquerors.
Their constancy were unshaken, their peace unclouded. Their persecutors, powerless
to move their inflexible firmness, felt themselves defeated. "The scaffolds were
distributed over all the quarters of Paris, and the burnings followed on successive
days, the design being to spread the terror of heresy by spreading the executions. The
advantage, however, in the end, remained with the gospel. All Paris was enabled to
see what kind of men the new opinions could produce. There was no pulpit like the
martyr's pile. The serene joy that lighted up the faces of these men as they passed
along . . . to the place of execution, their heroism as they stood amid the bitter flames,
their meek forgiveness of injuries, transformed, in instances not a few, anger into pity,
and hate into love, and pleaded with resistless eloquence in behalf of the gospel."--
Wylie, b. 13, ch. 20.
The priests, bent upon keeping the popular fury at its height, circulated the most
terrible accusations against the Protestants. They were charged with plotting to
massacre the Catholics, to overthrow the government, and to murder the king. Not a
shadow of evidence could be produced in support of the allegations. Yet these
prophecies of evil were to have a fulfillment; under far different circumstances,
however, and from causes of an opposite character. The cruelties that were inflicted
upon the innocent Protestants by the Catholics accumulated in a weight of retribution,
and in after centuries wrought the very doom they had predicted to be impending,
upon the king, his government, and his subjects; but it was brought about by infidels
and by the papists themselves. It was not the establishment, but the suppression, of
Protestantism, that, three hundred years later, was to bring upon France these dire
calamities.
Suspicion, distrust, and terror now pervaded all classes of society. Amid the
general alarm it was seen how deep a hold the Lutheran teaching had gained upon
the minds of men who stood highest for education, influence, and excellence of
character. Positions of trust and honour were suddenly found vacant. Artisans,
printers, scholars, professors in the universities, authors, and even courtiers,
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