The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

290 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHEBS.churches. I have been acquainted with Protestantsfrom my youth. They have been among my mostintimate and cherished friends, and, from my knowledge of them, I am convinced that they would discountenance any physical violence which would beinflicted on their fellow-citizens on account of theirreligious convictions. They would justly tell methat the persecutions of former years of which Ihave spoken, should be ascribed to the peculiar andunhappy state of societyin which their ancestorslived, rather than to the inherent principles of theirreligion.stillAnd for precisely the same reasons, and for reasonsmore forcible, Protestants should not reproachthe Catholic Church for the atrocities of the SpanishInquisition. For, the persecutions to which I havealluded, were for the most part perpetrated by thefounders and heads of the Protestant churches , whilethe rigors of the Spanish tribunal were inflictedbylaymen and subordinate ecclesiastics, either without the knowledge or in spite of the protests of theBishops of Rome.Let us now present the Inquisition in its truelight. In the first place, the number of its victimshas been wildly exaggerated, as even Prescott isforced to admit. The popular historian of theInquisition is Llorente, from whom our Americanauthors generally derive their information on thissubject. Now who was Llorente? He was a degraded Priest, who was dismissed from the Board