XXX. The bias of religion is not less forcible, but has rather more
power than the national to warp truth from the line of right in
history. The impositions which some protestant historians have palmed
on the world, in order to calumniate the characters of many popes, are
shocking; their fictions of adulteries, simonies, and homicides, have
been insufficient to satisfy their envy, or satiate their resentment
against the supreme head of the church; for they have extended their
rage to charging popes, who were extremely venerable for their virtue,
with committing crimes of the blackest die. What wickedness did they not
impute to that most venerable pope, Gregory the seventh? They not only
accused him of intruding himself into the papal chair, of simony, and
of a criminal correspondence with the virtuous Countess Matilda, but
also of heresy and magic; inventing many ridiculous tales, to prove him
guilty of this last crime. It was not against the popes alone, that
they forged these monstrous extravagancies, but extended them to many of
those, who by their learning and ardent zeal had signalized themselves
in defence of the catholic religion. Father Theophilus Rainauld tells
us, there appeared a libel against the most pious and learned Cardinal
Belarmino, accusing him of having murdered many new-born infants, in
order to conceal his lewd practices from the world; adding, that, touched
afterwards with remorse, and a disposition to repent of his sins, he made
a pilgrimage to Loretto, in order to expiate them; where the priest, to
whom he confessed, struck with horror at so much wickedness, refused
to give him absolution, which occasioned him in a little while after
to die with despair. The best is, that Belarmino was alive when the
libel was published, which he read and despised. What infamous things
did Buchanan write, which even the protestants of this day believe,
against the admirable Mary Queen of Scots? I am not surprized, that the
unanimous testimony of all the catholic authors in her favour does not
convince them, because they look upon them as partial; but I am amazed
that the relation of Camden, an excellent English historian, and whom
nothing but his love of the truth could induce to vindicate her, does
not persuade them; and one would suppose, the great difference of
character and manners between Buchanan and Camden would have weight in
deciding the question. The first, a drunken, spiteful, debauched, man;
the second, continent, modest, and a lover of historical truth; and one
in whose morals you could not find the least fault; but when we see party
prejudice prevail over all the persuasions of reason, it is a strong
proof of its force.
XXXI. But, as the true religion does not exempt the professors of it from
manifesting an indiscreet zeal against its enemies, there are not a few
catholic historians who have fallen into this very vice. From hence arose
the suppositions, that Luther was born of a devil incubate; that the
false prophet Mahomed was of mean extraction; that Anna Bolene was the
daughter of Harry the eighth; that this unhappy woman, hurried away by an
unbridled lust in her tender years, and long before she became the object
of that prince’s love, committed a thousand turpitudes; with other fables
of the same kind. The worst is, that as every infamous libel against
those of an opposite religion is easily believed; it soon, from the most
improbable and scandalous satyr, comes to be translated into history. In
consequence of this, five hundred authors are afterwards cited in support
of a fable, the whole of whose authority, when the thing comes to be
examined, originates in the libel from whence the tale was derived.