der.

Sometimes he spoke to the understandings of those who heard him, of that
insane doctrine which represented the mission of the Redeemer to consist
of believing, in despite of sight, and smell, and touch, and taste, that
wafers and wine were actually the flesh and blood of a man that was
crucified, with nails driven through his feet and hands, many hundred
years ago. Then, rising into the contemplation of the divinity of the
Saviour, he trampled under the feet of his eloquence a belief so
contrary to the instincts and senses with which Infinite Wisdom has
gifted his creatures; and bursting into ecstasy at the thought of this
idolatrous invention, he called on the people to look at the images and
the effigies in the building around them, and believe, if they could,
that such things, the handy-works of carpenters and masons, were endowed
with miraculous energies far above the faculties of man. Kindling into a
still higher mood, he preached to those very images, and demanded of
them, and those they represented, to show any proof that they were
entitled to reverence. "God forgive my idolatry!" he exclaimed. "I
forget myself--these things are but stocks and stones."

Not one of all who heard him that day ever gave ear again to papistry.

When he had made an end, and retired from the church, many still
lingered, discoursing of his marvellous lecture, and among others, my
grandfather.

An imprudent priest belonging to the convent, little aware of the great
conversion which had been wrought, began to prepare for the celebration
of the mass, and a callan who was standing near, encouraged by the
contempt which some of those around expressed at this folly, jibed the
priest, and he drove him away. The boy, however, returned, and levelling
a stone at a crucifix on the altar, shattered it to pieces. In an
instant, as if caught by a whirlwind, the whole papistical trumpery was
torn down and dashed into fragments. The cry of "Down with the idols!"
became universal: hundreds on hundreds came rushing to the spot. The
magistrates and the ministers came flying to beseech order and to soothe
the multitude; but a Divine ire was upon the people, who heard no voice
but only the cry of "Down with the idols!" and their answer was, "Burn,
burn, and destroy!"

The monasteries of the Black and the Grey Friars were sacked and
rendered desolate, and the gorgeous edifice of the Carthusian monks
levelled to the ground.

So dreadful a tumult