204 HINTS ON ANGLING. 



in abeyance all the functions of their order; functions so 

 intimately interwoven with all the concerns of every day, 

 of every hour, of every family, of every individual. The 

 churches, which, according to the laudable practice of 

 Rome, are always open thus affording perpetual oppor- 

 tunity for calm, unostentatious, private devotion, amidst 

 the sacredness and solemnity of the temple of the 

 Lord were now rigidly closed; the sacraments were 

 inexorably refused; the daily sacrifice was unoffered, the 

 infant unbaptized ; the young were not married, the sick 

 were unvisited, the dead remained unburied; the collec- 

 tions for the poor, so constant in the Romish church, were 

 unsolicited, the daily doles undistributed, the wretched 

 and unhappy unconsoled and uncared for; the signs and 

 symbols of the faith, so prolific in Roman Catholic coun- 

 tries, were carefully removed; the bells were all silent? 

 the crucifixes torn down, all signs and sounds of religious 

 worship and influence ruthlessly withdrawn; and the land, 

 thus denuded at one stroke of all its Christian observances, 

 assumed an aspect of desolation and suffering which, in 

 a short time, terminated in a general revolt, compelling 

 the licentious king to submit to the authority of Rome. 



Whatever opinion we may entertain on the subject of 

 the tremendous powers then possessed by the church, we 

 are bound to admit that, in this instance, at least, they 

 were exercised for a laudable purpose. The age was an age 

 of fearful license, especially among princes and nobles; 

 and the resolution with which the church attacked the 

 vices of the rich and powerful, obtained for her the suf- 

 frage and support of the other classes of the community, 

 who beheld with admiring respect the exercise of a power, 

 which administered the Christian law, without fear or 

 favour, alike to the emperor and the serf. 



