The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 17Dryden, John
General
The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 17
Dryden, John
English literature
For, of all heretics, none have been more cruel, or more foul-mouthed,
than the Calvinists; none have revenged themselves of their pretended
enemies more barbarously, either by open arms, or private mischiefs, when
the power was in their hands; or more impudently with their pens, and by
their libels, when they had no other way to shew their malice; murdering
their reputations with all sorts of injuries and impostures, who have
once declared themselves against their party.
In effect, what have they not said to defame the memory of Monsieur de
Sponde, lieutenant-general in Rochelle; of Salette, counsellor to the
king of Navarre; of Morlas, counsellor of state and superintendant of
the magazines of France; as also of Du Fay, Clairville, Rohan, and a
hundred others of their most celebrated ministers, who, after having
been esteemed amongst them for good men, and looked on as the leaders of
their consistory, are, by a strange sort of metamorphosis, become, on
the sudden, profligate wretches, and the most infamous of mankind, only
for renouncing Calvinism? By how many forgeries and calumnies have they
endeavoured to ruin the repute of all such Catholics as have the most
vigorously opposed their heresy, history will furnish us with abundant
proofs: and we have but too many in the fragments which Monsieur le
Laboreur has given us of their insolent satires, where they spare not
the most inviolable and sacred things on earth, not even their anointed
sovereigns.
For which reason, that writer, in a certain chapter of his book, wherein
he mentions but a small parcel of those libels, after he has said, “that
the most venomous satirists, and the greatest libertines, were those of
the Huguenot party,” adds these memorable words: “I should have been
ashamed to have read all those libels, for the blasphemies and impieties
with which they are filled, if that very consideration had not been
aiding to confirm me in the belief, that there was more wickedness, than
either error or blindness, in their doctrine; and that their morals were
even more corrupt than their opinions.”
He assures us in another place, that these new evangelists have made
entire volumes of railing, of which he has seen above forty manuscripts;
and that there needed no other arguments to decide the difference betwixt
the two religions, and to elude the fair pretences of these reforming
innovators.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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