Show I 1 I 1 k f A comparison c id hie first and ho eighth binl proclamations t HERALD allow uio to call the intention of your numerous readers to the actions of two great men of history proclamations I 1 ell IL murray I 1 henry the eighth governor ol 01 king of Eng landby virtue author virtue ol 01 the autty in ane vested do lu me vested hereby appoint ardo hereby proclaim thur pratt ac ac taftt no women shall meet together to babble and talland tal kand that all men shall keep their wives in their houses see humes history 0 england vol M of henrys proclamation had tho authority of law and eli claims he ia as hig a man as henry and consequently his proclamation should be of equal validity but it seems that president cleveland apprehended some danger from too many proclamations for eli was liable to go on proclaiming and proclaim the president out and proclaim himself in as president of these united states of america if not checked in his ambitious career for myself I 1 am inclined to think that providence made a slight mistake in sending eli down on this mundane sphere in this tho century especially in free america his proper place in history was the century then he could have exercised his proclaiming power to a better advantage besides mingling with his brothers who are gone before him henry and the stuarts the great of england I 1 also see a tendency on tho part of the judiciary of utah to go back to those dark days for precedents his honor the judge of the first district has informed some of his victims that polygamy in those days was punished with death I 1 wish to inform your readers of other things that were then called crimes that were punishable with the same penalty death which now are not crimes in the days of the reformation a man by the name of lambert was brought before henry and his bishops to answer the question whether the real corporal body of christ was in the sacrament of the lords supper his answer was in the negative for this he was burned at the take as a heretic ibid vol 3 the next victim was anne ascue a young woman of merit and beauty her crime also was refusing to acknowledge thai the real flesh and blood of christ was in the bread and wine of the sacrament for not accepting this dogma that noble lady was also burned at the stake as a heretic ibid vol 3 page 67 there were many others of the best blood of england who suffered like penalties for the same of fence during this period and there seems to be a strange fatality exhibited in all this transaction for tho very bishops who sat in judgment and condemned these brave people accepted the same doctrines and were in time accused of the same crimes and punished with the bamo penalty death public opinion changed and a of tho english people accepted these heretical doctrines and were in turn persecuted and slain by the catho lies two hundred and seventy sevan persons were burned as heretics in the short space of three years among those were civo bia hopa twenty one clergymen eight lay men eighty four tradesmen one hundred husbandmen servants and laborer fifty five women and four children in addition to these judicial murders thousands of the people had their property ted and they themselves were imprisoned and many went into voluntary exile rather than to alfter themselves to be robbed of their live liberty and religion ibid vol the historian commenting on these religious persecutions says human nature appears not on any occasion so detestable and at the same time so absurd ns in these religious persecutions which sink men below infernal spirits in wickedness and below the beasts in folly A few instances may be worth preserving in order if be to warn zealous bigots forever to avoid such actions and such fruitless barbarity p then the historian gives the names of some of the sufferers for conscience mr editor these noble martyrs for their religion were not condemned on general principle but on specific charges of refusing to ac the real presence of the flesh and blood of christ in tho sac this was the law of the land or the hobbyhorse hobby horse on which those noble people were condemned to the death tho edmunds law is now the hobby on which the cormons mormons are now sent to the penitentiary tent iary for the prosecuting attorney informed the california reporter that polygamy was but a small factor in tho mormon problem nothing short of breaking up the whole hornun hierarchy would satisfy him and his 8 hume informs us that brute force as an argument was a total failure 0 o convincing those people it bad a contrary effect it only confirmed them moro in the truth we are told that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church thia was fully demonstrated in the burning of latimer and Ri rilley llcy the boblo latimer encouraged his fellow martyr in these memorable words bo of good cheer brother ridley we t kf shall this day kindla such ft torch in england trust in god shall never be extinguish edl never was a prophecy more true than this that light did fill all of england and its effulgent rays crossed the atlantic ocean and gave to our fathers the ground work on which to construct the great charter of liberty the constitution of the united states which gevea to all a full and complete civil and religious liberty I 1 remain dear sir A FW END TO THE OPPRESSED |