forward a few of many historical proofs showing _that they
themselves_ claim the right to exterminate heretics.

Innumerable provincial and national councils have issued the most cruel
and bloody laws for the extermination of the Waldenses and other
so-called heretics; such as the Councils of Oxford, Toledo, Avignon,
Tours, Lavaur, Albi, Narbonne, Beziers, Tolosa, etc. Since Papists will
assert that these had no authority to establish a doctrine of the church
(although they clearly reflect its spirit), I remind the reader that
some of their _General_ Councils have by their decrees pronounced the
punishment of death for heresy. At least six of these highest judicial
assemblies of the Romish church, with the Pope at their head, have
authoritatively enjoined the persecution and extermination of heretics.
Extracts from the Acts of these Councils could be given if space
permitted. 1. The second General Council of Lateran (1139), in its
twenty-third canon. 2. The third General Council of Lateran (1179),
under Pope Alexander III. 3. The fourth General Council of Lateran
(1215), under the inhuman Pope Innocent III., which exceeded in ferocity
all similar decrees that had preceded it. 4. The sixteenth General
Council, held at Constance in 1414. This Council, with Pope Martin
present in person, condemned the reformers Huss and Jerome to be burned
at the stake and then prevailed on the emperor Sigismund to violate the
safe-conduct that he had given Huss, signed by his own hand, in which he
guaranteed the reformer a safe return to Bohemia; and the inhuman
sentence was carried out, with the haughty prelates standing by to
satiate their eyes on the sight of human agony. This council also
condemned the writings of Wickliffe and _ordered his bones to be dug up
and burnt_, which savage sentence was afterwards carried into effect;
and after lying in their grave for forty years, the remains of this
first translator of the English Bible were reduced to ashes and thrown
into the brook Swift. Well has the historian Fuller said, in reference
to this subject, "The brook Swift did convey his ashes into Avon, the
Avon into Severn, the Severn into the narrow seas, and they into the
main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wickliffe are the emblem of his
doctrie, which is now dispersed all over the world." 5. The Council of
Sienna (1423), which was afterwards continued at Basil. 6. The fifth
General Council of the Lateran (1514). The laws enacted in each