but many illustrations of the intolerant spirit of Popery are adduc in this work. In answer to these, Romanists and a certain class professed liberal writers will quote the instances of Protestant int lerance of the same period, in proof that Protestants were then better in this respect than Romanists-intolerance, as they alleg being a characteristic of the age, not peculiar to one ecclesiastic party or religious system. But this is to draw a conclusion f which the facts of the case, when fully and impartially stated, affo no warrant. For, first, all the instances of Protestant intoleranc when put together, dwindle into insignificance when compared wi the dreadful details of the cruelties of the Papacy, and the va multitudes whose lives it has sacrificed, amounting, as has bee estimated, since its first rise, to upwards of 50,000,000 of persons Secondly, while persecution in no party is to be screened from merited censure and opprobrium, it is to be remembered that Pr testants had come out of a persecuting church, and that the intole rance of which they were in some instances guilty, being traceabl to the lessons they had received from Rome, she is fairly respo sible for it. And, thirdly, what the reader should specially notice intolerance is at variance with one of the fundamental principles o Protestantism-the principle that every man has a right to judg for himself in matters of religion; whereas intolerance is in entir harmony with Romanism, which, in its standard books-the decree of its councils, and the bulls of its popes-denies the right of privat judgment, and unequivocally sanctions the principles of persecution so that the persecutions which it has carried on have not arise 1 Bruce's Free Thoughts on the Toleration of Popery, p. 127. mpy from the depraved impulses of man's nature, from temporary fitful outbursts of popular fury, or from the violence of certain atrons individuals, but from the teachings of the Popish religious tem. The principles of Protestantism, when acted upon, inevitably ed to toleration; those of Popery, when acted upon, as inevitably ad to persecution. The characters whose lives are here narrated, the author presents to the public rather as the representatives of the great leading praciples of the Reformation against Popery, than as the supporters of any particular denomination of Protestantism, for they ged to Protestants of different shades of opinions. In the gramme of the ecclesiastical condition of Christendom during the reign of Antichrist, given in the Apocalypse, the Spirit of God takes no note of the differences and divisions among the Reformers, deerlay only two parties-Antichrist, and those ranked on the Lamb's de in opposition to Antichrist--by which he seems to teach us that earnest, intelligent, and faithful witnesses against this the great enemy frist, would be found among the various parties of the Reformed arch, though these parties should not all be reformed to the same rant By this principle the author has been guided in selecting narrating the lives of these ladies. Differing as they necessarily in intellectual powers, in opportunities of religious improvement, agent inquiry, and in the circumstances in which they were pied, they were not equally enlightened in their views of divine trath, and they held different sentiments on some religious points. But they were united on many great important truths revealed in Word, which are denied or corrupted by Popery; and they all sympathized with, or promoted, by suffering or action, the gi religious movement of the 16th century. In these respects t occupy the same position, and are entitled to the grateful rem brance of Protestants of every name. The author has only to add, that he intends to continue th biographical sketches in another volume, embracing Lives of Lac of the Reformation in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, a Spain. EDINBURGH, November 14, 1854. HAAN STAKK, wife of James Ranoldson, 528 BALL SCRINGER, wife of Richard Melville, 535 ELZABETH ASKE, wife of Richard Bowes, and MARJORY BOWES, wife of LADIES OF THE E INTRODUCTION, WENDELMUTA KLAAS, a w LYSKEN DIRKS, wife of Je MRS. ROBERT OGUIER, of t BETKEN, maid-servant to H ELIZABETH VANDER KERK CHARLOTTE DE BOURBON, LOUISE DE COLLIGNY, Lad APPENDIX, Anne Boleyn's Letter to Popish Plots against Ann Lady Jane Grey's Letter execution, Lady Jane Grey's Letter evening before her exe ment which she sent to Notice of Lady Katharine Notice of Ladies Anne, Ma ward Seymour, Duke o Maria van Reigersberg, w liberated Grotius from |