59° HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



John Le Clerc was the first martyr of the gospel in France. He was 

 the pastor of the Church at Meaux. For writing against Antichrist of 

 Rome, he was seized by the enraged priest, whipped three successive 

 days, and then branded as a heretic with a heated iron on his forehead. 

 But the martyr uttered not a groan, and he was again set at liberty. He 

 then withdrew to Metz, where more awful sufferings awaited him ; and 

 again in the power of his enemies, they cut off his right hand ; and, tor- 

 menting him with red-hot irons, he was at last consumed by a slow fire. 

 During all these horrid tortures his mind was kept in perfect fidelity 

 and peace, and he ejaculated solerr.nly: ' Israel trust in the Lord; He 

 is their help and their shield.' Such was the , first confessor of Jesus 

 Christ who suffered and died in France ; and, therefore, demands our 

 especial notice. A system of terror soon began over the whole of 

 France. 



"But in vain, did its enemies oppose; the glorious march of the Ref- 

 ormation was onward and sure. France had now been baptized with 

 the blood of the martyrs ! 



" In the midst of perils, opposition and persecution, the first national 

 synod was called at the metropolis of the kingdom. This council pub- 

 lished to the world their confession, which is entitled, ' The Confession 

 of Faith held and Professed by the Reformed Churches of France, Re- 

 ceived and Enacted by their First National Synod, Celebrated in the 

 City of Paris, and year of our Lord, 1559.' 



" In their contests at this period the Huguenot forces were led by the 

 celebrated and brave Coligny and the Prince of Cond£, two illustrious 

 names in their annals. The Duke of Guise headed the papal armies. 

 Towns were taken and retaken ; when the Huguenots triumphed, they 

 destroyed altars and images ; and the Romanists in their turn burned all 

 the Bibles they could seize. Such were the effects of fanaticism on 

 both sides. To assert that the excesses were only commited by one 

 party would be untrue, and that some of our race were allied to angels ; 

 but we hazard nothing in saying that the reformed, in almost every in- 

 stance, resorted to arms from motives of self-preservation." 



" Upon Sunday, August the 24th, 1572, was perpetrated the massacre 

 of St. Bartholomew. De Thou, a popish historian, relates that thirty 

 thousand perished on this terrible occasion. Another estimates one 

 hundred thousand. In Paris alone, they amounted to ten thousand; 

 and, among the number, five hundred Huguenot lords, knights, and 

 military officers, with several thousand gentlemen. 



" This massacre, which was perpetrated on St. Bartholomew's day, in 

 the year of our Lord 1572 — a year jnost aptly designated as infamous by 



