36o THE TREND OF THE RACE 



port to the realization of national ambition for power and pres- 

 tige, as it has so frequently done in the history of the world, it 

 creates a stimulus to strife and a menace to the peaceful relations 

 of mankind. 



One of the ways in which religion may affect the inherited 

 qualities of mankind is through the persecution of those who do 

 not subscribe to prevailing beliefs. While religious persecution 

 has been more or less in vogue for long ages, it is only occasionally 

 that is has been practiced on a scale sufficiently extensive to make 

 it an important influence on racial inheritance. Both Catholic 

 and Protestant Christianity show an unenviable record for perse- 

 cution which has scarcely been equalled in the known history of 

 any pagan religion. The men of superior intellect and force of 

 character who during the inquisition have fallen victims to the 

 zeal of intolerant devotees of the current creed number many 

 thousands. Llorent {Hist, de Vinquisition, tom. iv, pp. 371-372) 

 states that the Spanish Inquisition alone burnt more than 3 1 ,000 

 persons and condemned 290,000 to other forms of punishment. 

 According to Lecky {Hist, of Rationalism in Europe, vol. 2, 

 pp. 40-41) "the numbers of those who were put to death in the 

 Netherlands alone, in the reign of Charles V, has been estimated 

 by a very high authority at 50,000 and at least half as many 

 perished under his son." In the 17th century over three hundred 

 thousand Protestants were said to have been put to death in 

 various ways, and an equal number emigrated. The loss of large 

 numbers of the Huguenot stock as a result of persecution has 

 generally been adjudged a great damage to the French people, 

 although other nations may have been benefited by receiving the 

 refugees which escaped imprisonment or death. Without dwell- 

 ing further on the gruesome history of persecutions during the 

 Christian era, or upon the persecutions which have occurred from 

 time to time under various non-Christian religions, it may be said 

 that the racial effects of this pernicious practice have probably 

 been on the whole dysgenic. Galton, in speaking of the persecu- 

 tions in Spain, says that "It is impossible that any nation could 

 stand a policy like this without paying a heavy penalty in the 



