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126 F A N A T I C I S M .
world, that the church of Rome was not
more intolerant than the separatists.
Soon after the Reformation, the minds
of religions men became unsettled by the
sudden change of their faith ; and the Bible
being thrown open to their examination,
various strange notions and absurd systems
were generated by the fermentation of conflicting
opinions. This Dryden has most
happily described in the following lines :
“ The thronging crowds, with rude devotion warm,
Around the sacred viands buzz and swarm ;
The fly-blown text creates a sprawling brood,
And turns to maggots what was meant for food.”
Nor did Geneva, notwithstanding the dread
o f Calvin, escape from the contagions influence
of extravagant fanaticism. Among
other instances, the wife of a citizen named
Benoite Ameaux undertook to explain
publicly the meaning and mystery of the
“ communion of saints,” which she boldly
maintained was no other than the community
of husbands and wives in a Christian
congregation ; and, such was her liberality,
she contended that the benefit of this community
should be extended to unblievers
also. A doctrine so revolting to religion
and morality entitled its author to a place
in the lunatic asylum, but attempts were
made to subject her to a more severe
punishment; she was, however, sentenced
to imprisonment for life, but was afterwards
liberated by her friends, as being
insane: her husband was found guilty of
heresy the following year.
After the Reformation was firmly established,
having conquered the Pope, it was
thought expedient to conquer the devil
also, and sorcery was then made a capital
crime, and punished with death and confiscation
of property. It is an extraordinary
but melancholy fact, that in the
course of sixty years, 150 persons were
executed, or rather murdered, in Geneva,
for witchcraft, amounting to one execution
every five months, for this supposed crime,
in a population scarcely exceeding 12,000
persons.*
The church of Geneva did not relax in
its intolerance after the death of Calvin;
for under the pretence of care for the preservation
of morals, the clergy still interfered
with the domestic concerns of the
people and magistrates, frequently abusing
the latter from the pulpit, to increase their
* See Note at tbe end of the volume.