their own church by the orthodox authorities, armed with whips loaded
with lead and with clubs, were entering a house. I followed them. As
we went in, we commanded the head of the family and his wife to
appear. When they did, we asked them if it was true that in their
prayers to Mary they had refrained from the use of the words, "The
mother of God." They hesitated to give a direct answer, whereupon we
used the club, and then, the scourge. Then they said they believed in
and revered the blessed virgin, but would not, even if we killed them,
say that she was the mother of God. This obstinacy exasperated us and
we felt it to be our religious duty, for the honor of our divine
Queen, to perpetrate such cruelties upon them as would shock your
gentle ears to hear. We held them over slowly burning fires, flung
lime into their eyes, applied roasted eggs and hot irons to the
sensitive parts of their bodies, and even gagged them to force the
sacrament into their mouths.....As we went from house to house, bent
upon our mission, I remember an expression of one of the party who
said to the poor woman who was begging for mercy: "What! shall I be
guilty of defrauding the vengeance of God of its victims?" A sudden
chill ran down my back. I felt my flesh creep. Like a drop of poison
the thought embodied in those words perverted whatever of pity or
humanity was left in me, and I felt that I was only helping to secure
victims with which to feed the vengeance of God!

[Illustration: Trinity in XIII Century.]

I was willing to be a monster for the glory of God!

The Christian sect to which I belonged was one of the oldest in
Christendom. Our ancestors were called the Puritans of the fourth and
fifth centuries. We believe that no one can be saved outside of our