,;**^4 '^ *r*,v 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 Presented by Mr. Samuel Agnew of Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Division UiVl^ I / 
 
 Section ^ V LJ ^*-^ 
 Number ^ » 4s- 
 
 BR 157 .F744 1846 
 
 Lectures on foreign churche 
 
LECTURES 
 
 FOREIGN CHURCHES, 
 
 DELIVERED IX 
 
 EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW IN 1846, 
 
 IN CONNECTION WITH THE OBJECTS OF THE 
 / 
 
 COMMITTEE OF THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND 
 
 ON THE STATE OF 
 
 CHRISTIAN CHURCHES ON THE CONTINENT 
 AND IN THE EAST. 
 
 SECOND SERIES. 
 
 EDINBURGH: 
 W. p. KENNEDY, ST ANDREW STREET. 
 
 GLASGOW : D. BRYCE. BELFAST : W. M'COMB. 
 LONDON : HAMILTON, ADAMS & CO., AND JAMES NISBET & CO. 
 
 MDCCCXLVI. 
 
EDINBTTRGK : PRINTED BY JOHN GKEIG. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. The Papal Eastern Churches. By John Wilson, 
 D.D., F.R.S.,oftheFree Church of Scotland's Mission 
 at Bombay, ..... Page 1 
 
 II. On the Reformation in Germany. By John 
 Forbes, D.D., LL.D., Minister of Free St Paul's 
 Church, Glasgow, . . . . .87 
 
 III. The Present State and Prospects of Evangeli- 
 
 cal Religion in Germany ; with a Sketch of 
 its History from the time of Luther. By the 
 Rev. Patrick Fairbairn, Minister of Free Church, 
 Salton, 149 
 
 IV, The State of Religion in Italy from the Fall 
 
 of the Western Empire till the Council of 
 Trent, including an account of the Introduc- 
 tion OF the Reformed Doctrines into that 
 Country'. By the Rev. James Bryce, Minister of 
 Gilcomston Free Church, Aberdeen, . . 197 
 
 V. Italy AND its Religion. Bythe Rcv.W.K.Tweedie, 
 
 Alinister of Free Tolbooth Church, Edinburgh, . 255 
 
 VI. The Religious Condition of Spain at the period 
 OF THE Suppression of the Reformation, and, 
 in particular, the great leading features 
 and events in the History of Popery in that 
 Country at that period, whereby it was 
 enabled to crush the Reformation. By the 
 Rev. Wm. M. Hetherington, LL.D., Minister of 
 Free Church, St Andrews, .... 347 
 
 VII. The Prospects of Christendom, By Robert 
 Buchanan, D.D., Minister of Free Tron Church, 
 Glasgow, . . . . . .387 
 
■' ■^ '-i-'OS 
 
 
 *\. ■ 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 THE PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES; 
 
 Degeneracy of the Independent Eastern Churches— Pretensions of Rome 
 and her efforts for their incorporation— The Maronite Church— Greek 
 Catholic Church— The Eastern Latin Church— Greek-Catholic, or, so- 
 called, Melchite Church— Armenian-Catholic Church— Syrian-Catholic 
 Church— Chaldean-Catholic Church— Coptic-Catholic Church— Doings 
 of Rome in Abyssinia— General Remarks. 
 
 BY JOHN WILSON, D. D., F. R. S., 
 
 OF THE FEBE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND'S MISSION AT BOMBAY 
 
 It must have appeared from our lecture on the " In- 
 dependent Eastern Churches," that, though they are 
 religious communities existing in the interesting coun- 
 tries in which the gi'eat mystery of godliness was first 
 revealed, and in which the doctrines of our holy faith 
 were first promulgated ; and though there are many cir- 
 cumstances connected with both their past history and 
 present condition mightily calculated to call forth our 
 sympathy, our supplications, and our support, they have 
 in too many matters of essential importance, both in re- 
 gard to doctrine and practice, departed far indeed from 
 the simplicity of the truth as it is in Jesus, and as it wa.s 
 propounded by his own inspired messengers and apostles. 
 When they act in accordance with their avowed princi- 
 ples, as set forth in their symbolic books and liturgies, 
 
 A 
 
2 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 they, perhaps with a single exception, disparage the holy 
 scriptures, by associating with them, almost on terms of 
 parity, the doctrines and commandments of men. Their 
 worship is polytheistic and idolatrous, in as far as it is 
 extended to the angels and saints in heaven, and to 
 pictures, crosses, and relics on earth. They substitute, 
 to an alarming extent, bodily ceremony for the work of 
 the truth and Spirit of God in the soul of man. They 
 support a consecrated sacerdotalism, as the direct chan- 
 nel by which all blessings directly flow from the Saviour 
 to the sinner ; which, by the potency with which it is 
 endowed, either transmutes mere symbols into the real 
 body and blood of Christ, which they only represent, or 
 incorporates the material body and blood of Christ with 
 these symbols ; and which, in the dispensation of the 
 sacraments and ordinances appointed by God, or de- 
 vised by man, is an effective and irresistible instrumen- 
 tality for accomplishing spiritual regeneration, effecting 
 a renewed propitiation, and securing a free or condi- 
 tional justification. The salvation of Christ, they re- 
 present as procurable by the merit or service of men ; 
 and they overlook that righteousness of God which is 
 revealed from faith to faith. In all these respects, they 
 are under the influence of the spirit of Antichrist, allied 
 to the Church of Rome, which forms its most perfect 
 embodiment. With this simple alliance, however, the 
 Church of Rome is not, and never has been satisfied, 
 since in its lordly head it professed to have the vicar of 
 Christ upon earth, and the veritable successor of the al- 
 leged primate of the apostles. It assumes and asserts, 
 that as the infallible interpreter of the divine word, and 
 conservator of those traditions which are of co-ordinate 
 authority, it is the supreme expounder of the faith, and 
 
DEGENERACY OF THE EASTERN CHURCHES. 3 
 
 guardian of the orthodoxy of the universal Church. It 
 maintains that it is the soul of Christian unity and ca- 
 thoHcity, of exertion and enterprize. It declares that it 
 has unlimited powers of legislation and absolution, and 
 that it is paramount in the establishment and mainte- 
 nance of authority and order, and the exercise of disci- 
 pline. It claims the subjection, the reverence, and the 
 obedience of every portion of the Church of Christ. All 
 beyond its pale are schismatics and heretics ; and none 
 of them ought to indulge the expectation of salvation. 
 
 In this state of matters, it is easy to imagine that the 
 church of Rome never can have looked with a tolerant 
 or friendly eye on any of the religious communities of 
 the East which may have disputed its domination, or 
 sought to free themselves from its tyi*anny. From first 
 to last it has earnestly and perseveringly sought either 
 their subjection or dissolution. It has treated them in 
 every respect, according to its means and opportunities, 
 exactly as it had done the more modern Christian com- 
 munities formed in connection with the Reformation of 
 the West. It has tried to secure their allegiance by 
 publicly accredited messengers and disguised emissaries, 
 by open effort and concealed artifice, by boastful decla- 
 mation and gentle insinuation, and by the falsification 
 of history and the misrepresentation of present events 
 and occurrences. Like Judaism in the day of its cor- 
 ruption and degeneracy, it has offered hire with its own 
 harlotry. It has allm'ed by promises, and conciliated 
 by compromise, and by gifts of wealth, of title, of pa- 
 tronage, and of power. It has excited and fomented 
 quarrels and disturbances. It has terrified by threats 
 and curses, and restrained by oppression and persecu- 
 tion. By the hand of the civil and military powers, 
 
4 PAPAL EASTERN CHITRCHES. 
 
 when they have been favourable to its views, it has dis- 
 tributed arrows, firebrands, and death, thinking, or al- 
 leging perhaps at the same time, that it has been doing 
 God service. Not a single one of these charges do I 
 advance either in a spirit of levity or uncharitableness. 
 Many of them individually have been admitted and de- 
 plored by candid and intelligent Roman Catholics. By 
 facts too numerous, and too painful, they find a melan- 
 choly confirmation and illustration. 
 
 The success of the church of Rome in the subjection 
 and incorporation of the Eastern churches, has not ac- 
 corded with the measure of either her desires or endea- 
 vours. That success, however, has not been small. She 
 has had her converts among every one of them, and 
 some of them she has reduced to small dimensions. She 
 has formed out of each of them a body in communion 
 with herself; and she is now diligently plying the work 
 of further proselytism. She boasts of distinct societies 
 devoted to her interests, occupying the sublime and 
 beautiful ridges of the gigantic Lebanon ; seated on the 
 hills of holiness in the land of Israel's inheritance and 
 the Saviour's incarnation ; scattered over the fertile 
 plains of ancient Syria, Mesopotamia, and Babylon, and 
 the classic regions of the Lesser Asia ; visible on the 
 prolific banks of the mysterious Nile ; about to appear 
 on the crest of the mountains of " jealous Abyssinia" ; 
 and discernible even on the romantic heights of Malabar 
 and Travankur in distant Hind. Of these difierent 
 communities, and the past and present doings of Rome 
 connected with them, it is my duty now to give some 
 account. I regret that, as given in a public course of 
 lectures, it must necessarily be short and imperfect ; 
 but, as far as I can order it, it shall not be incorrect. I 
 
MARONITE CHURCH. 5 
 
 trust that it will not be useless in connection with our 
 general survey of the Christian world; but impress 
 upon us some important lessons, which can be learned 
 only by our looking not only on our own things, but 
 every one also on the things of others, by extending our 
 view, in fact, to the most remote parts of the world. 
 'Especially I pray, that it may deepen our compassion for 
 those who have been seduced and injured by the papal 
 power, and for those who are now in imminent peril from 
 its continued and extended influence. 
 
 I. THE MARONITE CHURCH. 
 
 Of all the churches in the East in union with Rome, 
 this is the one which it regards with most confidence, 
 and which is most thoroughly devoted to her influence, 
 and boastful of her patronage. Romanists speak and 
 write of it as do evangelical Christians of the Church of 
 the Waldenses. They declare, that, even during the 
 revolt of the other eastern churches from Rome, it un- 
 swemngly maintained its union and loyalty. They 
 speak of it as a steady and glorious beacon, dispelling 
 the darkness of ignorance, and withstanding the waves 
 and billows of heresy. They are frequently at a loss 
 for terms by which to express their sense of its excel- 
 lence. Let us take, as an example of the manner in 
 which they not unfrequently represent it, the following 
 eulogium pronounced upon it by the Jesuit father 
 Fromage before the Grand Synod of Lebanon in 1736, 
 which we shall afterwards have occasion to mention. 
 " Illustrious Maronites, how I love to contemplate the 
 glory and the beauty of your church ! I find in it nearly 
 all the traits which distinguished and which characterized 
 
n PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 the infant church of Jesus Christ, whilst it existed in the 
 bosom of Judaism and paganism by the most surprising of 
 all miracles issuing from the hands of God, its author. I 
 would willingly compare this church to the mysterious 
 fleece of Gideon, upon which the dew of heaven fell in 
 abundance. Whilst all that surrounded it was dried up, 
 devoured by the burning heat. I would wUlingly compare 
 it to that nation cherished by heaven, which the Lord was 
 pleased to conduct himself, through the deserts, the rocks, 
 the mountains. Whilst their haughty enemies marched 
 through the midst of the thickest darkness, a brilliant 
 and luminous pillar dispelled the horrors of the night, 
 and guided their footsteps. Do not disavow those com- 
 parisons ; they are neither uttered at random nor out of 
 place. It forms a chosen (separee) flock, of which the 
 sheep, always obedient to the voice of the Sovereign 
 Shepherd, never wander at any time to strange pastures^ 
 and who, on account of their obedience, shelter them- 
 selves from the rage of the wolves. We say more, and 
 speak without fear, — they form in the very midst of in- 
 fidelity, an entire people of true worshippers, who with- 
 stand the contagious blast, and the infection of schism 
 and heresy ; and it becomes me to say of you what is 
 said in the sacred text concerning the first of the faith- 
 ful, you persevere unanimously and constantly in the doc- 
 trine of the apostles, Erant perseverantes in doctrina 
 Apostolorumy* Passages of the same character, almost 
 without number, may be quoted from the writings of 
 priests, prelates, and popes, for nearly the last two hun- 
 dred years, f 
 
 * Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, torn. i. p. 422. 
 t The folloAving is the latest which I have seen. It is from a 
 piiniyhlet by Nicolas ^lurud, the Maronite archbishop of Laodicea, 
 
MARONITE CHURCH. 7 
 
 The Maronites themselves trace their name to a 
 Syrian monk named Maro, a contemporary of Chrysostom, 
 ■who lived on the banks of the Orontes about the year 
 400, but more particularly to John Marun, or Maro, 
 their " Antiochian patriarch," who flourished about the 
 year 700, and who is alleged by them to have been in 
 the communion of the Romish church.* 
 
 With regard to the origin of their designation, we 
 have no inclination to quarrel with them. Its exist- 
 ence for so many centuries, however, is calculated 
 to throw suspicion on their original connexion with the 
 Roman Catholic Church, which, it is known, denomi- 
 nates its different sections according to their respective 
 countries, and not according to the names of their most 
 distinguished partizans. 
 
 That the Maronites had a Syrian origin is evinced by 
 
 the present representative of the Maronites at the Holy See, pub- 
 lished in Paris in 1844. " S'il est, en orient, une nation qui puisse 
 se glorifier d'avoir toujours et partout professe, d'un sentiment 
 unanime et avec une fermete inebranlable, la sainte foi orthodoxe 
 et de n' avoir jamais varie dans la discipline, c'est sans contredit la 
 seule nation Maronite, ce que prouvent jusqua la derniere evidence 
 le monumens les plus authentiques, les plus sacres. Et cette foi 
 de leurs ancetres les Maronites la conservent aujourd'hui encore, 
 et en tous lieux, saine, pure, sans tache, et avec une telle unifor- 
 mite de sentimens, que, quelque nombreux qu'ils aient etc et soient 
 €n ce moment, quelque environnes qu'ils se voient de toutes parts, 
 d' infideles, d' heretiques, de schismatiques, jamais, relativement a 
 la foi, le moindre differend ne s'est eleve parmi eux, jamais aucun 
 schisme ne les adesunis, jamais enfin un seul d'entre eux n'a altere 
 la purete de la doctrine catholique, ce qui est atteste d' une maniere 
 non equivoque par le temoignage ci-apres d'un souverain pontife." 
 — Notice Historique sur VOrigine de la Nation Maronite, et sur ses 
 Rapports avec la France, pp. 6, 7. 
 
 * For the Life of John Maro, see the Bibliotheca Orientalis of 
 Assemani, torn. i. pp. 496-520. 
 
« PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 their ecclesiastical language, which is the Syriac, and by 
 the locality in which, from time immemorial, they have 
 been found. They are doubtless the descendants of 
 the Christians who remained unconquered and inde- 
 pendent, and who took refuge in the Mountains of Le- 
 banon and Anti-Lebanon on the invasion and conquest 
 of Syria by the Muhammadan Khalifs in the seventh 
 century. According to Cedrenus, the Maronites or 
 Mardaites, opposed to the Melchite Greeks, took pos- 
 session of Mount Lebanon about the year 677, and from 
 that time proved very troublesome to the Saracens or 
 Arabs by their predatory incursions into the open 
 country below. The Khalifate at Damascus was greatly 
 distressed by their incursions, and Moawiyah, in order 
 that he might suppress them, concluded a peace with 
 the Greek emperor Constantine Pogonatus, with whom 
 he had been carrjdng on war in Cilicia. About eight 
 years afterwards Justinian III, when he came to the 
 throne, engaged with the Khalif Abd el-Malek, in fur- 
 therance of the treaty of peace with him, which was con- 
 firmed, to bring the Maronites under subjection ; and with 
 this view he invaded their country and did them much 
 damage, assassinating their chief and removing from their 
 territories no fewer than about 12^000 persons. From 
 this time they were content to continue principally 
 within the boundaries of the great mountainous asylum 
 which they had sought for themselves.* The same sove- 
 reign afterwards sent troops against them under Mar- 
 cian and Maurice, who destroyed their principal mo- 
 nastery at Hamah, and killed about five hundred of them, 
 and carried war into the very interior of Lebanon. 
 They afterwards obtained their vengeance against Mau- 
 * Hist. Com. vol. i. p. 437, &c. 
 
MARONITE CHURCH. 9 
 
 rice, completely vanquishing his troops and destroying 
 himself in battle.* " From this period," says Volney, 
 *' we lose sight of them till the invasion of the Crusaders, 
 with whom they were sometimes in alliance, and some- 
 times at variance. In this interval, of more than three 
 centuries, they lost part of their possessions, and were 
 reduced to their present limits, paying tribute, no doubt, 
 as often as the Arabian and Turkman governors were 
 able to compel them. This was the case with the Khalif 
 of Egypt, Hakem Be-umar-Ellah, who, about the year 
 1014, ceded their territory to a Turkman, Prince of 
 Aleppo. Two hundred years after, Salah-ed-din (Sa- 
 ladin) having driven out the Europeans from this 
 country, they were obliged to submit to his power and 
 
 purchase peace by contributions The peace they 
 
 enjoyed under the Memluks was disturbed by Selim the 
 Second ; but this prince, occupied by more important 
 objects, did not take the trouble to subject them. This 
 negligence emboldened them, and in concert with the 
 Druses, and their Emir, the celebrated Fakr-ed-din, they 
 made daily encroachments on the Ottomans ; but these 
 commotions had an unfortunate issue, for Murad the 
 Third, sending against them Ibrahim, Pasha of Cairo, 
 that general reduced them to obedience in 1588, and 
 subjected them to the annual tribute they still pay."t 
 
 Their connection with Ptome, in the earliest periods 
 of their organization, caiinot be established from au- 
 thentic history. On the contrary, there are express 
 testimonies from that source, according to which it is 
 evident, that for long they stood altogether aloof from 
 its communion, and were probably supporters of what 
 has been called the Monothelite heresy. Some of these 
 
 * Volney's Travels, vol. ii. p. 12. f Vol. ii. p. 10. 
 
10 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 authorities it is proper to submit to your consideration. 
 They are those of ecclesiastical annalists both within 
 and without the pale of the Romish Church. 
 
 " There was at the time of Maurice the emperor of 
 the Greeks," says Eutychius, " a certain monk named 
 Marun, who asserted that there were two natures and 
 one will, and one operation and person, in our Lord 
 Christ, and corrupted the faith of men. Most of those 
 who embraced his doctrine, and, reckoning themselves 
 his disciples, professed the same, were inhabitants of the 
 city of Hamah, and Kennesrin and A'wasem, with some 
 Greeks ; and his followers who asserted the same with 
 himself were Maronites, a name taken from his own 
 name Maro. Upon his death the inhabitants of Hamah 
 erected there a monastery called Deh^ Mdrun, and pro- 
 fessed his faith."* Sayi'd Ben Batrik, or Eutychius, the 
 patriarch of Alexandria, flourished in the early part of 
 the tenth centuiy. 
 
 Similar to this is the account given in the Arabic 
 history of Makrizi, to whose work I referred in my for- 
 mer lecture. '' In the time of the emperor Maurice 
 Caesar," says this respectable Muhammadan author, 
 " a monk named Maro taught that the Messiah (upon 
 whom be peace !) had two natures, one will, and one 
 person. The inhabitants of the city of Hamah, Ken- 
 naserin, and Awasim, and many of the Greeks, adhered 
 to him ; and those who professed his doctrine were 
 called Maronites among the Nazarenes. Upon the 
 death of Maro a monastery was built in the city of 
 Hamah after his name."t 
 
 * Eutych. Annal., torn. ii. p. 190. 
 
 t Hist. Eccles. Copt. Makrizii, versic. 281-28. — Since tlie pub- 
 lication of the first Yolume of these Lectures, a German transla- 
 
MARONITE CHURCH. 11 
 
 The celebrated William of Tyre, the principal historian 
 of the Crusades, distinctly mentions both the conversion 
 of the Maronites to the Romish church in the reign of 
 Baldwin IV., and gives an account of their origin and 
 their devotion to the Monothelite heresy, as it is called, 
 substantially agreeing with that of the Egyptian eccle- 
 siastical historians. " In the mean time," he says, "when 
 the kingdom enjoyed a temporary peace [a.d. 1180], 
 a certain nation of Syrians in the province of Phenice, 
 about the ridges of Lebanon, living near to the city of 
 Biblus (Jebeil), suffered a very great change in its 
 state. For, though for about five hundred years, they 
 had followed the error of a certain heresiarch named 
 Maro, and on this account were called Maronites, and 
 separated from the church of the faithful, took their 
 sacraments apart, they repenting by a divine impulse, 
 and having laid aside their languor, became an accession 
 to Aimeric the patriarch of Antioch, who is now the 
 third of the Latins who presides over that church. And 
 having abjured their error, by which to their danger they 
 were so long detained, they returned to the unity of the 
 Catholic Church, accepting the orthodox faith, and pre- 
 pared with all veneration to embrace and preserve the 
 traditions of the Roman Church. There was no small 
 number of this people, but said to exceed the amount of 
 40,000, who, as w^e have before said, dwelt in the 
 bishoprics of Biblus, Botrys, and Tripoli, and the neigh- 
 bouring ridges of Mount Lebanon. They were a brave 
 people and active in arms, and very useful to our people 
 in most of the affairs which they were in the habit of 
 
 tion of this interesting work, accompanied by the original text, 
 from the MSS. at Gotha and Vienna, has appeared at Gottingen. 
 The title isMakrizi's Geschichte der Copten, von Ferd, Wiistenfeld. 
 
12 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 transacting with the enemy. Whence our joy at their 
 conversion to the true faith is very great. The error 
 of Maro and his followers, as is learnt from the Sixth 
 Synod, which it is known was collected against them, is 
 and was, that in our Lord Jesus Christ there was from 
 the beginning, and will be, one will and operation. This 
 article having been reprobated by the church of the 
 orthodox, they added, when separated from the congre- 
 gation of the faithful, many other pernicious things, for 
 which having separated, they returned to the Catholic 
 Church along with their patriarch and some of their 
 bishops, who, as they had preceded them in impiety, 
 took the pious lead of them in returning to the truth."* 
 This is a most important testimony ; but though it comes 
 from a Roman Catholic writer of authority and celebrity, 
 it has been assailed by Naironi, Assemani, La Roque, 
 and other apologists of the Maronites. The grand objec- 
 tion which they urge against it is, that it« author blindly 
 followed Eutychius in his impeachment of the orthodoxy 
 of the Maronites. But granting, for the sake of argument, 
 and without proof, that William of Tyre was actually 
 guided by the Egyptian patriarch in his account of the 
 opinions of Maron, it ought to be borne in mind, that 
 his testimony as to the original disagreement of the 
 Maronites with the Church of Rome and their accession 
 to it, in his oiun day^ and at his very door, remains 
 with all its force. It is the perfection of absurdity to 
 suppose, that he could fall into a mistake about a reli- 
 gious movement of the magnitude mentioned, which is 
 said to have taken place before his own eyes, and that 
 his statements, if incorrect, could have been received by 
 
 * Willermi Tyrensis Arch. Hist. lib. xxii. 8. 
 
MARONITE CHURCH. 13 
 
 his contemporaries, and those who were his immediate 
 successors. 
 
 Jacob de Vittry, another historian of the Crusades, 
 and the bishop of A'kka or Ptolemais, who wrote in 
 1220, and who consequently must have also been well 
 acquainted with the facts of the case, gives an account 
 entirely in accordance with that now quoted, and almost 
 in the same words.* 
 
 A similar account is given by Marinus Sanutus Tor- 
 sellus, in 1321. " The Maronites derive their name 
 from their founder Maro ; and they assert that there is 
 only one will and operation in Christ. The author of 
 this error was Macarius, bishop (antistes) of Antioch, 
 who was condemned in the Sixth Synod, that of Constan- 
 tinople, and rejected as a heresiarch from the commu- 
 nity of the faithful. The Maronites, dwelling among the 
 ridges of Lebanon in the province of Phenice, not far 
 from the city of Biblus, and about Bastrus (Botrys) 
 and Tripoli, well accomplished and instructed in bows 
 and arrows, about 60,000 in number, and separated 
 from the holy church and the communion of the faith- 
 ful, dispensed the sacrament at their own pleasure ; but 
 after repenting in the time of the last king Baldwin, 
 they professed the Catholic faith in the presence of the 
 venerable father Aymeric, the patriarch of Antioch, and 
 followed the traditions of the holy Roman (Church). 
 So that, while none of the Oriental prelates, except the 
 Latins, use a ring {anald) and mitre, and pastoral staff, 
 or have the people congregated by bells, but by beating 
 bells by a mallet or staff, the aforesaid Maronites use all 
 the aforesaid for a sign of obedience, and observe all the 
 
 * Jacobi de Vitriaco Histor. Hierosol. in lib. ciii tit. Gesta Dei 
 per Francos, p. 1093, 
 
14 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 rites of the Latins. Their patriarch (antistes) was pre- 
 sent at the Lateral! Council under the venerable pope 
 Innocent III. They use the Chaldaic (Syriac) charac- 
 ter, but speak in the common Saracenic idiom (the 
 Arabic language)."* 
 
 These authorities are very express as to the time of 
 the first union of the Maronites to the Church of Rome, 
 which must have been well known to the writers, though 
 they are silent on the particular circumstances which 
 brought about that event. The historian Baronius re- 
 cords his belief about the Maronites as entirely agreeing 
 ing with them.t It is no objection to them, as has been 
 urged by some of the modern Maronites, as Fauste 
 Naironi,J Assemani, and others, that the name of Maro 
 does not occur in connexion with the proceedings of the . 
 Sixth General Council. The historians of the Crusades, 
 it is obvious, refer to that council principally as con- 
 demning the opinions of the Monothelites. It is obvious 
 that it could not be directed against Maro individually, 
 for it was called by Constantino Pogonatus in the year 
 680, before Maro had appeared conspicuously on this ter- 
 restrial scene. 
 
 There can be little doubt, we are inclined to conjec- 
 ture, that Aymeric, the third Latin patriarch of Antioch, 
 backed, as he must have been, by the kings of the Cru- 
 sades, gained over the Maronites, through the influence 
 of their patriarch and some of their bishops for the time 
 being. The connexion formed between the Maronites 
 
 * Mar. Sanuti Torsell. Secreta Fid. Cruc. lib, iii. pars 8. 
 t Ad annum 1182, n. 4. 
 
 * Faust Naivoni's Dissertation -was published at Rome in 1679. 
 It is entitled, " Dissertatio de Origine, Nomine, ac Religione Ma- 
 ronitarum." The sum of the work is given tolerably correctly by 
 La Roque and Le Quien. 
 
MARONITE CHURCH. 15 
 
 and the Church of Rome was probably, in the first in- 
 stance, of a very slight character, and more nominal than 
 real. The Maronite patriarch, though he may have con- 
 sented, probably for selfish purposes, to receive the pal- 
 lium of investiture from Rome, did not surrender the 
 original authority, which he associated with his office 
 quite independently of that See. To the present day 
 each of his successors has denominated himself " Peter 
 the patriarch of Antioch," thus insinuating that he con- 
 siders himself as the genuine representative and spiritual 
 descendant of the Apostle Peter in the East. To the 
 ordinary seal of the patriarchate, an engraving of which 
 is given by La Roque, I refer in corroboration of this 
 statement, * History is not silent on the difficulties long 
 experienced by Rome in the management of its allies on 
 the ridges of the Lebanon. The papal bulls of Innocent 
 III, of Alexander IV, and of Leo X, accusing them of 
 various errors, both in doctrine and practice, have proved 
 rather troublesome documents to those who argue for 
 the integrity of their attachment to the " Holy See."t 
 It is the boast of Marc de Lisbon, in his Chronicle of 
 the Order of the Franciscans, that father Gripho had to 
 bring them back from heresy and idolatry so late as the 
 year 1450.1 Unpleasant reports of them, however, still 
 continued to be circulated, so much so that the Pope 
 Clement VIII. sent the Jesuit Dandini to Lebanon, in 
 the year 1576, to inquire into their actual condition, 
 and, if necessary, to reduce them to order and submis- 
 sion. He found matters in a much better state than had 
 been reported ; and he received the assurance from the 
 
 * Voyage de Syrie et du Mont-Liban, p. 11. 
 t La Roque, vol. ii. p. 88. 
 \ La Roquej torn. ii. p. 64. 
 
16 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 patriarch and other ecclesiastical authorities, of their de- 
 voted attachment to his master. Some erroneous books 
 which he found among them were disclaimed by them, 
 under the allegation that they had been circulated by 
 the Jacobites ; and he was able to give a favourable ac- 
 count on the whole of all that transpired amongst them. 
 That neither they, nor he, at this time, had any per- 
 suasion of their connexion with Rome having lasted from 
 the first, is, I think, evident, from the following passage 
 of his report delivered to the Pope on his return. " I 
 began, after the second day of my arrival, to discourse 
 of my affairs with the patriarch. I explained unto him 
 the design of my voyage, with which he testified himself 
 to be well satisfied. However, he could not forbear to 
 tell me of two things which much troubled him : the first 
 that his holiness had sent him only but a simple brief, 
 instead of addressing to him a large and solemn bull, 
 which might authentically set forth the antiquity of their 
 belief, and their reunion with the Holy See, as the 
 popes, his predecessors, had done. * * * He com- 
 plained also that his holiness had sent him no answer to 
 his entreaty of being confirmed in his ancient title of 
 patriarch of Antioch." It is not, it will be observed, 
 uninterrupted communion with Rome that is here sup- 
 posed to have existed. A "reunion with the Holy See," 
 on the contrary, implies a foimer separation. The old 
 patriarch is not content to lay aside his ancient title, 
 which we have already seen has not been withheld by 
 Rome from his office.* It is curious to notice the ex- 
 planation of the sanction of the title, which Roman 
 
 * Dandini's Voyage to Mount Libanus in Pinkerton's Voyages 
 and Travels, vol. x, p. 287. 
 
MARONITE CHURCH. 17 
 
 Catholics now submit. " In the middle of the thirteenth 
 century," says a cabn and not undignified writer, in a 
 late number of the Dublin Review, " Bandicar, sultan 
 of Egypt, got possession of the city of Antioch. His 
 cruelty and fanaticism drove into exile the Catholics 
 who had been living there for years, and with their 
 patriarch Elias at their head, and accompanied by the 
 clergy of the city, they took refuge among their brethren 
 of Libanus. Simon, the patriarch of the Maronites, re- 
 ceived them with kindness and hospitality The 
 
 holy father manifested his gratitude for the kind- 
 ness shown to his afflicted children, by appointing Si- 
 mon patriarch of Antioch on the death of Elias a few 
 years after. This dignity was confirmed to the suc- 
 cessors of Simon by the pontiffs of later times." "^ But 
 what would this reviewer, who honestly follows his autho- 
 rity the present agent of the Maronites at the " Holy 
 See," have said to the claims of the patriarch of the 
 Maronites to have his " ancient title " confirmed? 
 What will he say to the fact, that the great Assemani 
 himself makes even John Maro the " patriarch of 
 Antioch," so early as the year 700 ?f The matter now 
 referred to, as we shall afterwards see, is not the only 
 compromise which Rome has made with the Maronites. 
 Nothing but absolute necessity could have made her suc- 
 cumb to their ancient claim of jui-isdiction. 
 
 In order to increase the influence of the Romish 
 Church over the Maronites, Pope Gregory XIII. founded 
 a college at Rome for the education of a select num- 
 ber of their youth, to be brought from Syria for the 
 
 * Dublin Review, March 1845, p. 49. 
 t Biblioth. Orient, torn. i. p. 496. 
 B 
 
18 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 prosecution of their studies, and who should afterwards 
 return to their native land, to occupy such situations 
 in the church as might be considered proper for their 
 talents and acquirements. It was in part to lay down 
 regulations for the supply of young men for this in- 
 stitution, that Dandini, to whom we have now refer- 
 red, was sent to Lebanon. It must be admitted, that, 
 with whatever consequences the expedient was attended 
 in strengthening and extending the power of Rome 
 in the East, it was made to a great extent to subseiTe 
 the general interests of oriental literature in Europe. 
 Of its many distinguished alumni, Joseph Simonius As- 
 semanus and Joseph Aloysius Assemanus are the best 
 known. The former is the author of the Bibliotheca 
 Orientalis, in which there is a review and analysis of the 
 Syriac, Arabic, Persic, Turkish, Hebrew, Samaritan, 
 Armenian, Ethiopic, Greek, Egyptian, Iberian, and Ma- 
 lebaric manuscripts in the Clementine Collection of the 
 Vatican, which was mostly formed by his own industry 
 in the East. The latter is the collector, editor, and 
 translator of all the ancient liturgies, both oriental and 
 occidental. The former, who was a native of Tripoli, 
 and bom in 1687, was the deputy of Pope Clement XII. 
 at the great Synod of Lebanon, held in the year 1736, 
 by which the affairs of the Maronite Church were finally 
 settled, and according to whose decrees they are still 
 administered.* 
 
 * See Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, torn. i. p. 406, &c. Speak- 
 ing of the appointment of Assemani as the Pope's legate to 
 the Synod of Lebanon, the Dublin Review, following Nicholas 
 Murad, says, " Clement gave him full legatine powers, and after 
 several conferences with the Patriarch and influential clergy, 
 he succeeded in opening the Council on the 30th of September 
 
MARONITE CHURCH. 19 
 
 According to the decrees of the Synod now referred 
 to, the different orders of the Maronite Church are, 
 Cantor, Lector, Sub-deacon, Deacon, Deaconess, Exor- 
 cist, Archdeacon, Economus, Presbyter, Parochial or 
 Curate, Periodeute or Visitor, Arch-presbyter, Rural 
 
 1736. It was attended by eighteen bishops, of whom fourteen 
 were Maronites, two Syrian, and two Armenian. The Abbots of 
 several monasteries were also present, together with a multitude of 
 the priests and chief people of the country. The state of the Ma- 
 ronite Church at this time may be judged of by the subjects that 
 came under discussion. It was complained of by the more enlight- 
 ened clergy, that dispensations to marry, excommunications, and 
 even spiritual censures, were sold; that the eucharist was not ad- 
 ministered but in the monasteries ; that the clergy, in some in- 
 stances, married again after the death of their first wives ; that the 
 decoration of the churches, and the support of the poor, were ne- 
 glected ; that the Patriarch arrogated to himself the exclusive right 
 of blessing the holy oils, which he distributed to his suffragans and 
 clergy at fixed prices ; that in some congregations the liturgy was 
 performed in the Arabic — the vulgar tongue ; and finally, that the 
 prudent reserve prescribed by the canons, was not observed by the 
 clergy in their intercourse with the nuns. In the East, where fe- 
 males are wont to observe much more reserve towards the other 
 sex than in our times and country, it is possible that even a trifling 
 deviation from the ordinary etiquette may have given much scan- 
 dtil. However, it is evident from the nature of these complaints, 
 that the church of the Libanus, however it may have fallen away 
 from its first, had not swerved much from the line of essential dis- 
 cipline. The Synod held eight meetings, and applied remedies to 
 every one of these abuses. Some of the members were dissatisfied, 
 even the Patriarch thought some of the provisions bore too hardly 
 on his authority ; but the legatine character of Assemani bore doAvn 
 all opposition, and at the close of the Council he was empowered to 
 embody its proceedings in a series of decrees, which have been since 
 known as the decrees of the Council of Lebanon. The money 
 which was placed at his disposal by the Holy See for such a con- 
 tingency, enabled him to secure for these decrees the authority oftfie 
 Turkish government." — Dublin Eeview, March 1845. 
 
20 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 Bishop, Metropolitan Bishop, and Primate or Patriarch.* 
 The distribution of titles corresponding with these orders, 
 which are highly valued by the people, forms one of the 
 great sources of ecclesiastical power and influence in the 
 community. 
 
 The proper seat of the Maronite community is at pre- 
 sent, as it has been for many ages, the mountainous 
 district of Lebanon, from about Tripoli to Tyre. In 
 these parts they form the main portion of the popula- 
 tion, except in the more southern parts of this territory, 
 where they are mingled with, or to a certain extent 
 superseded, by the Druses, a sect of mongrel Muham- 
 madans and heathens, who are not only their rivals, but 
 too often their determined enemies. In the space of coun- 
 try now mentioned they may amount to 150,000 souls. 
 In the district of Rasheiya, in Anti-Lebanon, according 
 to a government census or estimate which I received in 
 Syria, they number 360, and in the adjoining district of 
 Hasbeiyah, 580 souls. In the valley of B'albek, in Celo- 
 Syria, the amount of their population is reckoned at 250 
 persons. In the agricultural district of the Hauran, 
 south of Damascus, they are estimated at 7651 souls. 
 In the pashalik of Aleppo, f and in scattered towns and 
 \'illages of Syria, in the northern part of the island of 
 Cyprus, and Cairo, and Constantinople, they have cer- 
 tainly not more than a population of 30,000. Alto- 
 gether, they are to be reckoned at 200,000 souls. The 
 American Missionaries, in an interesting document 
 lately published by them, give them at 220,000 persons. 
 
 * Cod. Liturg. Ecclcs. Univ., lib. viii. p. 120, &c. 
 
 t I have not noticed an estimate of the number of the Maronites 
 at Aleppo later than that of Dr Russell, who reckons them (in 
 1774) at 3030 souls. 
 
IVIARONITE CHURCH. 21 
 
 Nicholas Murad, the Maronite agent at the court of 
 Rome, in his pamphlet lately published at Paris, reckons 
 them altogether at 525,000, of whom, he says, 482,000 
 inhabit the valleys of Libanus. This dignitary, either 
 wittingly or unwittingly, is guilty of gross exaggeration. 
 The Dublin Reviewer seems to hint his dissent from the 
 statement, as he gives the estimate of the Abbe Gerambe, 
 which is 200,000. Colonel Campbell, the British Con- 
 sul-General of Egypt, proceeding on government docu- 
 mentary estimates, reckons the whole number of souls 
 connected with the Papal Churches in Syria at only 
 260,000.^^ 
 
 The patriarch, who is the head of the Maronite church, 
 enjoys not only all the powers, immunities, and privileges 
 conferred upon his office by the sacred canons, but ren- 
 dered according to the use and wont of his own nation. 
 He is elected from among the bishops, who must all be 
 professionally monks, by a majority of their votes, but 
 he receives the robe of investiture from Rome. His 
 summer residence is at the convent of Kannobin, in the 
 romantic defiles of the Kadishah ; and his winter resi- 
 dence is at the convent Bkerki, in the Kesrawan, or holy 
 land, of the Maronites. He also visits the convent of 
 Diman, which is likewise his property. He is almost 
 deified by the people among whom he lives ; and his 
 income is large for the demands which are made upon 
 him, being estimated at about £2000 per annum. His 
 See extends throughout the whole bounds of the ancient 
 patriarchate of Antioch, over the metropolitan Sees of 
 Tyre, Tarsus, Edessa, Apamea, Hierapolis, Bozra, Se- 
 lucia, Damascus, Cyprus, Anazarbus, and Amida ;t but 
 
 * Bowring's Report on Syria, p, 3. 
 t Ass. Cod. Lit. Eccles. Univ., p. 161, 
 
22 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 practically it is much more restricted, mucli more so in 
 fact than when the Synod of Lebanon was held. His 
 jurisdiction extends over nine metropolitan sees, which 
 are served by individuals elected by the people, and 
 whom he is required to consecrate, when they are chosen 
 in an orderly manner. These sees are those of Aleppo, 
 Damascus, Beirut, Sidon, Eopolis or B'albek, Jebeil, 
 Ehden, Tripoli, and Cyprus. The occupants of these 
 sees are styled Metmns (metropolitans). The same title 
 is given to the two vicars, or assistants of the patriarch, 
 one of whom has to do principally with the temporal, and 
 the other with the spiritual affairs of the church, to the 
 patriarch's agent at Rome, and to three presidents at 
 the principal monasteries or colleges.* 
 
 Respecting other matters connected with the church 
 establishment of the Maronites, the present agent of the 
 patriarch at the See of Rome, gives us in 1844 the follow- 
 ing information : — " The monasteries or Maronite con- 
 vents, both of monks and nuns, amount to 82. Those 
 for monks, which are 67 in number, contain 1410 re- 
 ligious. The remaining fifteen contain 330 nuns. All 
 these houses have very rigorous statutes confirmed by 
 the Holy See. There are, exclusive of convents, 856 
 churches in the country. They are served by 1205 
 priests, under the authority of their bishops and patri- 
 arch. The people also recognise and reverence the 
 ecclesiastical authority, and discharge with assiduity and 
 piety all the duties of Christianity at the holy season of 
 the Pasch. There are four public seminaries, each of 
 which contains from twenty to twenty-five pupils. They 
 are gratuitously instructed in the Arabic and Syriac 
 languages, philosophy, dogmatic and (moral) theology. 
 * Nicolas Murad, p. 17. 
 
MARONITE CHURCH. 23 
 
 Those who study theology must, however, previously 
 engage to embrace the ecclesiastical state, promise obe- 
 dience to the patriarch, and devote themselves to the 
 missions of the country. For some years past, the patri- 
 arch has been in the habit of appointing a particular 
 spot, where he collects according to his own desire, and 
 under a superior appointed by him, zealous and instructed 
 priests, who go every year to preach in the different 
 districts. This is called The National Missmi.^"^ 
 
 When the extent of tbe Maronite population is ad- 
 verted to, it must be seen that the number of monks 
 and nuns here mentioned is very large, proportionally 
 more so indeed than can perhaps be found in any 
 other portion of the world. I do not think that, in 
 the statement of this number, there is much, if any, ex- 
 aggeration. The American Missionaries, in a document 
 which has just come to hand, present actual lists, of 
 which they say : — " The number of convents contained 
 in the preceding lists, is fifty-seven : and of coenobia, 
 fourteen ; of monks, one thousand one hundred and 
 two ; and of nuns, five hundred and seven. These esti- 
 mates are but approximations, yet probably they are not 
 far from the truth. Among the monks there may be 
 six hundred in priest's orders ; the rest are lay brothers. 
 These monastic priests are not included in the estimate 
 already given of the ordinary priesthood. Among the 
 nuns there are no deaconesses. "f 
 
 Connected with the convents and nunneries, some ex- 
 tremely curious and interesting matters are to be 
 specially noted. These institutions were found to ex- 
 ist in great numbers when the Maronite church first 
 
 * Notice Historique, pp. 18, 19. 
 t Miss. Herald, Sept. 1845, p. 317. 
 
24 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 fell under the domination of Rome ; and it was some 
 time before it could interfere to any extent with the 
 settling of their affairs. Father Dandini, in the year 
 1576, writes of their habits and practices to the Pope 
 as strange and peculiar. " The religious," he says, 
 *' have none of that distinction of order and profession 
 that is used elsewhere, they are all alike : I am per- 
 suaded that these monks are the remnants of those 
 ancient hermits which lived separate from mankind, and 
 dwelt in great numbers in the deserts of Syria and Pales- 
 tine ; there are excellent authors that have treated of 
 them, and I believe I have myself good proofs for to 
 support that opinion. The first are the places of their 
 abode ; for their residence is not in delicious plains, or 
 on pleasant little hills, accommodated with agreeable 
 prospects, nor in well-peopled cities and places frequented 
 by men, but they are retired to the most abstruse parts 
 of these mountains, separated from all commerce, and 
 living under great rocks ; so that they seem to dwell in 
 grots and caverns, fit rather for wild beasts than habita- 
 tions for men. Their poor and ordinary apparel serves 
 for a second proof; they wear but a pitiful, un valuable, 
 ill-shaped coat, wherein they wrap themselves, with a 
 black cowl upon their heads; and this vestment de- 
 scends only from the shoulders to the girdle, without 
 any thing to cover their shoulders withal ; neither is 
 there any other habit cut according to the fashion of 
 these, that are used amongst all the community of their 
 religious. Their manner of living furnished us with a 
 third proof: they only live upon that which the earth itself 
 produceth, and never eat any flesh, though they be sick 
 and in danger of death. As for wine, they very rarely 
 drink any. They have no particular rules, nor written 
 
aiAEONITE CHTIRCH. 25 
 
 constitutions for to be observed by every one, as may 
 be seen in all other religious houses who are established 
 to live in community. They make no express profession 
 of the three vows of religion ; to wit, poverty, chastity, 
 and obedience ; but when they are received into the 
 monastery where they make profession, one holds a book 
 in his hand and reads only something that belongs to 
 them, advertising them, that they ought to live in con- 
 tinence, and adds many the like things. These adver- 
 tisements are sufficient to make them keep a perfect 
 chastity. You shall never hear any scandalous or ill 
 report of them, although they continually go alone up 
 and down, and stay oftentimes many days together out 
 of their monastery. They have goods and money of 
 their own, and can dispose thereof at their death. If 
 they have no longer a mind to stay in the monastery, 
 they go into another, without the leave of their superiors. 
 In the fourth place, they are never permitted to exer- 
 cise any ecclesiastical function ; they have no spiritual ex- 
 ercise in common for the good of their neighbours, and 
 have no power either to preach or to confess, so that 
 they are only for themselves. In the fifth place, they 
 give to their superiors and chiefs the name of Abbot, as 
 the hermits did of old. Finally, I shall take for the 
 sixth and last proof, the name they bear of the Monks 
 of St Anthony ; and it is this that ought to make some 
 impression upon the spirits of those who would search 
 out the cause why those religious are so called."* 
 
 The Pope, it is evident from these statements, had 
 had but little to do with those curious anchorets, an in- 
 direct proof that the Maronites had been long removed 
 
 * Father Jerome Dandini's Voyage to Mount Libanus. Pinker- 
 ton's Voyages and Travels, vol, x. p. 293, 294. 
 
26 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 from liis influence and authority, a fact which the Eo- 
 manists are so anxious to conceal. What the Pope 
 has actually now made of the monks and nuns, will ap- 
 pear from the following account by the American Mis- 
 sionaries : — 
 
 " The Maronite convents are of two kinds, regular and irregular. 
 The regular convents are of three orders, called the Country, Le- 
 banon, and Alepine orders, of which the first is the most, and the 
 
 last the least, numerous Each convent has its own superior, and 
 
 each order its superior-general. The superior-general is assisted 
 by four managers His authority is independent of the patri- 
 arch, except by appeal, and the income of the office of the superior- 
 general of the country order, consisting of some eight hundred 
 piastres weekly for masses, 130,000 piastres annually from glebes, 
 and half of the contributions to the convent of Khazeiya, is greater 
 than that of the patriarchal see. Each superior-general holds 
 over his order the rank of a bishop over his diocese. He carries 
 high masses, but has not the power of ordaining priests. This is 
 usually done by the bishop in whose diocese the candidate is living. 
 The diocesan bishops have also some other rights over the con- 
 vents, though very few. Most of the affairs of the convents are 
 under the absolute control of the superior-general, who has a 
 prison of his own in which to imprison culprits. He is chosen by 
 ballot in a convocation held every three years. The members of 
 this convocation are the superior-general, the managers, the supe- 
 riors of convents, and those who have formerly held some one of 
 these offices. The other monks, though they may be in the priesthood, 
 have no voice in the matter. No rule prevents the re-election of 
 the same superior-general, as often as the vote of the convocation 
 may fall upon him. The same triennial convocation elects also the 
 
 managers and the superiors of all the convents The monks 
 
 take the vow of chastity, poverty, and obedience ; but not until 
 they have passed a term of trial, which with the Country and 
 Alepine orders is two years, and with the Lebanon order one year. 
 Up to that time they do not put on the cowl, and can go back to 
 the world and marry. No entrance-fee is demanded, and most who 
 enter are in straitened circumstances. Poverty or indolence moves 
 them to take the step, under the cover of seeking Christian per- 
 fection. Their dress is a coarse woollen garment, coloured black, 
 with a cowl and a leathern girdle. Silk they are forbidden to put 
 
MARONITE CHURCH. Z/ 
 
 on, nor may any one carry in his purse more than ten piastres. If 
 at death any one is found to have more than that sum about him, 
 he is denied Christian burial. Meat they are never allowed to 
 taste, nor may they smoke tobacco. For the former they substi- 
 tute fish, and for the latter snuff. Their employment is agriculture 
 and the mechanic arts. Some plough and reap, some weave, some 
 make shoes, &c., and they are generally kept hard at work. With 
 the exception of the two schools, hereafter to be mentioned, hardly 
 any measures are taken to improve their education. They are ge- 
 nerally left in profound ignorance, and are the most stupid class in 
 the community. Hardly one in seven, it is supposed, can read at 
 all. The benefit of the convents to the community at large is ex- 
 tremely small. Among them all there may be a dozen schools, of 
 the most common kind, for the children of the people. They are 
 generally the centre and source of ignorance, superstition, and in- 
 trigue. One of the most obnoxious of their habits is that of shame- 
 less begging. Every year swarms of them go forth in all direc- 
 tions on this errand, and so importunate are they, that they seldom 
 enter a house without taking away something ; in this, resembling 
 the gypsies, though they are generally better off than those from 
 whom they beg. The return made to those who contribute to the 
 convents is, that on Saturday all the priests offer their masses for 
 the souls of those who have aided their convents by contribution or 
 labour. At present there is a schism in the country order. All 
 the monks north of Ibrahim river, are in rebellion against their 
 superior-general. The movement commenced a year or two ago. 
 They have driven away all the superiors and monks who belong to 
 the farther south, have armed themselves, and taken possession of 
 their convents. The patriarch's interference to support the 
 authority of the superior-general, has only turned their wrath 
 against him. The governing Emir has more than once sent soldiers 
 to reduce them to obedience, but accomplished nothing. The 
 Pope has been appealed to, and his orders have produced no efiect. 
 Their position of hostility they still maintain, and are encouraged 
 in it by their countrymen inhabiting the districts in which the 
 convents are situated. Some jVlaronites who are longing for a 
 more complete downfall of the patriarch's power, almost expect 
 that the affair will end in an extensive secession from the church. 
 The irregular convents, or as they are called the convents of de- 
 votees, are independent of the three orders above described and of 
 each other. They are founded by particular families, with special 
 
t^8 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 conditions, one of which is that the superior in each convent shall 
 be of the family of the founder. Each one has its own superior and 
 laws, independent of every other, and the superior retains his oflBce 
 during life. These convents are in all respects under the superin- 
 tendence of the bishop of the diocese in which they are situated- 
 He inspects their accounts, and presides over them. What has 
 been said of convents for men, applies in general to nunneries. They 
 are also regular and irregular. The regular are divided among the 
 same three orders, and subject to the superiors-general. They 
 must be in all cases at least forty cubits distant from any convent 
 for men. An entrance.fee is demanded of every candidate for ad- 
 mission, varying from 500 to 10,000 piastres, according to her 
 ability, and the necessities of the establishment. The nuns, like 
 the monks, take the vow of chastity, poverty, and obedieivce. They 
 are all taught to read, at least Syriac, in order to be able to assist 
 in worship at their chapels. In this they take a public part, espe- 
 cially in chanting. Schools for children, or young persons, they 
 have none. Their work is sewing and embroidery ; chiefly em- 
 broidery of a species of charm, called garments of the Virgin, which 
 they make for sale. Their costume is a dress of cotton cloth, 
 coloured black. The devotee nunneries are like the similar esta- 
 blishments for males ; except that the superiors of them are fre- 
 quently changed. The nunnery at Aintura, though occupied by 
 native females, is subject to European rules, and has its support 
 from abroad. The employment of its inmates does not diff"er from 
 that of the others. The income of all the convents and nunneries 
 of the sect, is supposed to amount to 6,000,000 or 7,000,000 piastres. 
 Of this, about 1,000,000 are from masses, contributions, and vows ; 
 the rest from lands, houses, mills, and the like. The old Emir 
 Beshir is said to have given the monks or the patriarch 600,000 
 piastres annually for masses for the whole family of the Shehabs. 
 The landed property of the convents is immense, and until the late 
 civil war was rapidly increasing. Formerly it was exempt from 
 taxation, but the present government has assessed it at the same 
 rate as all other real estates." 
 
 This particular statement, by our American brethren, 
 though principally statistical, is necessary to our right 
 understanding of the present Maronite society. In con- 
 nection with it, however, I must call your attention to 
 the following striking passage from a communication 
 
MxVUONITE CHURCH. 29 
 
 which I have just received from my respected and valued 
 friend, the Rev. William Graham of Damascus. " In 
 Lebanon the conventical system is in the most vigorous 
 operation. In most other countries these institutions 
 have been on the decline since the era of the Reformation; 
 but on the goodly mountain fanaticism and superstition, 
 like the power of its vegetation, have been increasing 
 and multiplying with startling luxuriance. The waters, 
 the trees, and the fertility of Lebanon are well known. 
 Filled with villages and teeming with population, these 
 charming valleys and sunny terraces, where the choicest 
 fruits of the earth reach their highest perfection, have 
 in every age formed a refuge for Christianity against its 
 ruthless and relentless persecutors. The Moslems have 
 never possessed it. Its deep passes, easily defended, 
 and its stout hardy mountaineers, have presented for- 
 midable barriers to the progress of the Crescent ; and, 
 at this moment, were the Druses and Christians united, 
 they might proclaim their independence, and successfully 
 bid defiance to the Moslem world. But the abundance 
 and variety of Nature's gifts are the very conditions in 
 which alienated human nature finds the fittest opportu- 
 nity for the development of its evil ! Division perverts 
 their councils, and fanaticism stains their conduct, and 
 the heathenish Druse and the superstitious Maronite 
 are hardly distinguishable from each other in the mo- 
 ralities and charities of life. In the extensive district of 
 Kasrawan a Protestant would not be allowed to settle ; 
 and, if he could be permitted to pass through it with in- 
 sult or injury, he might be very thankful. This is the 
 result of the Monastic Institutions, for the peasants are 
 a quiet, tranquil, and industrious race. The whole 
 mountain is filled with convents. Their numbers I do 
 
30 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 not know ; but it must be prodigious. Some of them, 
 like that of the Deir el Kalla are very rich, possess the 
 choicest old wines of the country, and the reputation of 
 indulging in the unnatural enormities which brought de- 
 struction on the cities of the plain. Many of the monks 
 are totally ignorant, and can neither read nor write. In 
 such circumstances, it may easily be imagined how in- 
 competent their motives, hopes and fears, must be to 
 control, not the vices of our nature only, but its very 
 principles also ! Apostolic morality is not sufficient. 
 They aim at the supposed angelic excellency of the 
 celibate, and they fall into pollutions below the level of 
 the brutes." 
 
 The number of priests among the Maronites, which 
 the patriarch's agent states at 1205, is given at between 
 700 and 1000 by the American Missionaries.* It will 
 have been observed that it is much in excess of the 
 number of churches. The Pope has been obliged to 
 make a compromise with the Maronites in the matter 
 of the marriage of the clergy. As it is no objection to 
 the priests that they take a wife, before entering into 
 sacred orders, most of them are married men. They 
 are not permitted, however, to marry at all, should they 
 happen to take priest's orders before marriage, and 
 not permitted to remarry, when they are bereaved after 
 being in the priesthood. The literary qualifications re- 
 quired of the clergy are not of the highest character. 
 They must be able to read Arabic, the vernacular 
 tongue of the people among whom they officiate, and in 
 which the gospels and epistles are partly read in the 
 churches, and Syriac, the language in which the Pope, 
 in deference to that custom with which he doubtless 
 * Miss. Herald, Sept. 1845. 
 
MARONITE CHURCH. 31 
 
 durst not interfere, has permitted their masses and 
 liturgical services, properly so called, to be performed. 
 It is worthy of notice, that they are elected to office by 
 the people of their parishes, who, notwithstanding their 
 professed subjection to ecclesiastical dignitaries of the 
 various grades which we have already mentioned, and 
 even to the great Pope himself, have, by the right of 
 call and nomination which they hold and exercise, re- 
 tained more of their inherent liberty, in these most im- 
 portant matters, than the majority of the Christian pro- 
 testant bodies of Europe. The priests are ordained by 
 the diocesan bishops or the patriarch, under whose 
 superintendence they labour. Their duties are similar 
 to those of Roman priests in general, with the addition, 
 to a great extent, of those of civil judgment and arbi- 
 tration among the people of their charge. They are not 
 allowed now to follow any secular profession, though they 
 may be occasionally seen working in the fields, gardens, 
 vineyards, and mulberry plantations, for which Lebanon 
 is so celebrated. It is no part of their business as priests 
 to preach to the people, though, as I noticed when 
 among them, they occasionally add a few remarks to the 
 lessons which they read. Most of them are quite in- 
 capable of composing a sermon. The churches in which 
 they officiate are in general little to be distinguished 
 from those of the better class of residences belonging to 
 the higher classes of the inhabitants of Lebanon. They 
 have all bells attached to them, which are tolerably 
 distinct intimations of their comparative independence of 
 the oppression of the Turks, to whose ears nothing is 
 more abhorrent than the public call to Christian worship. 
 Those into which I entered were destitute of seats. The 
 images of the Saviour and the Virgin which they con- 
 
32 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES, 
 
 tained were very rude and of small dimensions ; and in 
 some instances coarse pictures appeared to be occupying 
 tlieii' place. One churcli at Jebeil or Biblus, described 
 particularly by Maundrell, aj^peared to be very ancient. 
 The priests liave parsonage houses of their own ; but 
 the produce of their glebes is applied by the church- 
 wardens to defray the ordinary expenses of the churches. 
 Their pay, which is derived from the portions of pro- 
 duce offered to them by the people, and by fees for bap- 
 tisms, masses, marriages, and funerals, is, though small 
 according to our reckonings, quite sufficient for their 
 comfortable living.* Unmarried priests generally have 
 no parishes, owing to the unwillingness of the Maronites 
 to allow their women to approach them in the confes- 
 sional. They are superiors of convents, or employed, 
 under their superiors, in the discharge of special duty. 
 
 The patriarch's agent alludes to the preachers of the 
 Maronites who are connected with the national mission. 
 The American Missionaries mention the names of eight 
 individuals who are at present distinguished for their 
 services in this department. " These," they say, " have 
 authority to preach wherever they may be. Besides 
 
 them very few others are known as preachers 
 
 Preaching is considered by the Maronites to have been 
 one of the peculiar offices of our Saviour, and a preacher 
 is very highly respected. No one is allowed to under- 
 take this duty without a written permission from the 
 patriarch, or the bishop of the diocese. Occasionally 
 permission is given to laymen to officiate as preachers. 
 The head-quarters of the national college of preachers, it 
 
 * The American Missionaries say, " Their income altogether or- 
 dinarily amounts to not more than 2000 piastres, but is sometimes 
 as high as 9000," Miss. Herald, Sept. 1815. 
 
MARONITE CHURCH. 33 
 
 is intended should be at A'intiira, formerly belonging 
 to the Jesuit missionaries. For the institution the pa- 
 triarch has already secured certain endowments. '' Be- 
 sides the Maronite preachers," say the American Mis- 
 sionaries, " certain Latin monks of the Jesuit, Capuchin, 
 andFranciscan orders, also undertake the office of preach- 
 ing in the convents, and sometimes in the neighbouring 
 churches, as missionaries of the pope ; but in conse- 
 quence of their limited command of the language (the 
 Arabic) they are imperfectly understood. The people 
 consequently do not respect them, and sometimes treat 
 them with derision."* 
 
 When I was in Syria, I made some inquiries into the 
 state of education among the Maronites, and visited 
 some of their schools, one of which is generally to be 
 found in every considerable village of the country. 
 These humble institutions are taught sometimes by the 
 priests, and sometimes by lay-instructors. At some 
 places they meet in summer within or around the 
 churches, and at others in houses specially appropriated 
 to their use. The reading of Ai-abic and Syiiac is 
 taught in them, in the olden style, and with a very 
 small supply of books. Of those in the Syriac language, 
 I procured some specimens. They have been printed 
 at the press of the convent of Kazheiyah, the only one 
 belonging to the Maronites, and the workmanship of 
 which is very indifferent. They consist principally of 
 scripture extracts and prayers. Many books for the use 
 of the Maronites and other eastern Christians, both in 
 Arabic and Syriac, are printed at Rome. 
 
 For the information which I possess respecting the 
 higher seminaries of the Maronites, I am principally in- 
 
 * Miss. Herald, Sept. 1845, p. 318. 
 C 
 
34 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 debted to the excellent American Missionaries, who are la- 
 bouring with great zeal and ability to diffuse among them, 
 and the other Christian bodies of Syria, a knowledge of 
 the principles of evangelical religion. Of colleges, or 
 high schools, they have eight : three general ; those of 
 A'in Warkah and Rumiah in the Kasrawan, and Mar 
 A'bd Harhareiyah in the Fatuh, which receive pupils 
 from all parts of the country, and from all sects of 
 Christians : three diocesan ; those of Mar Yohanna 
 Maron of the See of Jebeil, Mishmiishah near Jazzm of 
 the See of Sidon, and of Karnet Shehwan in the Kati'a, 
 of the See of Cyprus ; and two monasfAc ; those of Bir 
 Suneih and Kenfan. The Maronites may send six 
 scholars also to the Propaganda at Rome. Attendance 
 at these colleges, on the part of candidates for the 
 priesthood, is *not compulsory ; and but few persons, 
 comparatively, avail themselves of their advantages. 
 Some of their pupils are the friends and relatives of the 
 Sheikhs, and wish to remain laymen. The branches 
 taught in the higher coUeges, according to the American 
 Missionaries, are " Syriac, Arabic grammar, logic, moral 
 theology, and preaching ; and in A'in Warkah, there 
 have been introduced, Latin, Italian, rhetoric, physics, 
 and philosophy. Doctrinal theology was once taught 
 for a time, but being found to lead the scholars into 
 reasoning that inclined them to Protestantism, it was 
 
 abandoned The number already graduated amounts 
 
 to about 105 It should be remarked, that among 
 
 these graduates, and especially among those of A'in 
 Warkah, there are some of enlightened and liberal 
 minds, who have more or less inclination for evangelical 
 truth. One of our most valued native helpers, who is 
 also an esteemed brother in our little church, spent eight 
 
MARONITE CHURCH. 85 
 
 years in A'in Warkah." This individual, I had the 
 pleasure of seeing in Syria. Asa'ad esh Shidiak was also 
 a scholar of the same academy ; and the missionaries 
 state that it was his vow of obedience to the patriarch, 
 which enabled this spiritual tyrant to seize, persecute, 
 and finally to secure his destruction. 
 
 From the incidental notices which I have just given, 
 you must have observed, that the Romish Church, in or- 
 der to get the Maronites to recognise the headship of the 
 Pope, has been obliged to make with them compromises 
 of no insignificant character. These and other conces- 
 sions it may be well now collectively to mention. To 
 use the words of Cerri, the secretary of the Propaganda, 
 in his confidential review, presented to Innocent XI, 
 of all the Roman Catholic missions throughout the 
 world, they are " governed by a Patriarch, whom they 
 caU ' Patriarch of Antioch,' \_with the concurrence of the 
 Pope,'] though the Patriarch of Antioch is a Greek, who 
 resides at Damascus."* They have been allowed to 
 maintain most of their own customs and observances, 
 however much at variance with those which Rome is 
 usually content to sanction. They are allowed to pre- 
 serve their own ecclesiastical language, the Syriac, while 
 Rome has shewn her partiality for the Latin rite, by 
 bringing it into use wherever practicable, as in the case of 
 the community to which we shaU next have occasion to 
 advert. They dispense the communion in both kinds, 
 dipping the bread in wine before its distribution among 
 the people. Though they now observe the Roman 
 
 * Cerri's State of the Rom. Cath. Rel. (Steele's trans), p. 91.— 
 The Pope has now recognised other two " Patriarchs of Antioch," 
 the head of the Greek Catholics, and the head of the Syrian Catho- 
 lics, whom we shall afterwards have occasion to notice ! 
 
36 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 calendar, as far as the time of feasts and fasts is con- 
 cerned, they recognise local saints which have no place 
 in its commemorations. They have retained the custom 
 of the marriage of their clergy previous to their ordina- 
 tion. Though they profess to be zealous partizans of 
 Rome, it dare not so count upon their attachment as to 
 force upon them all that in ordinary circumstances it 
 thinks desirable. In order to secure its present influence 
 over them, it is subjected to an expense of no small mag- 
 nitude. 
 
 I conclude these notices of the Maronites, by saying 
 that, in a civil point of view, there is much in their 
 circumstances deserving of attention. From the time 
 of their subjection to an annual tribute by Murad the 
 Third in 1584, they have contrived, under many diffi- 
 culties, and frequently with a display of great valour, to 
 preserve for themselves a large degree of independence. 
 The Druses, however, — who took their rise about the be- 
 ginning of the eleventh century, from the propagation 
 in the mountains of Syria of the monstrous doctrines 
 of the apotheosis of the fanatical Khalif El-Hakim of 
 Cairo by ed-Derazi, from whom they derive their name, 
 and Hamza, the son of Ahmad, another Persian sufi 
 and messenger, — gradually became a more powerful, 
 though not a more numerous body than themselves. 
 Fakr ed-Dm, the Emir Beshir, or chief noble, of the 
 latter, got the predominance over the Maronite Emir 
 and sheikhs and people, about the close of the sixteenth 
 and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries ; but 
 the Maronites, nevertheless, maintained their ground as 
 a people in their own districts, and, devoting them- 
 selves principally to agTiculture, they have continued 
 to multiply and increase in numbers to the extent 
 
MARONITE CHURCH. 37 
 
 wMcli they have now reached. The family of Fakr ed- 
 Dm became extinct about the beginning of last century, 
 and the Maronite family of Shehab, — in Wadi et-Teim, 
 near Mount Hermon, where the mountains of Lebanon 
 and Anti-Lebanon unite together, — which had been al- 
 lied to it in marriage, was by the election of the sheikhs 
 called to the exercise of authority in the mountains. 
 After serious disturbances with Jezzar Pasha of Acre, 
 which led to various changes, the celebrated Emir Beshir, 
 at first a Druse, got possession, in 1790, of the chief- 
 tainship, which he retained for about half a cen- 
 tury. This individual, for political reasons, made a 
 sort of profession of Christianity, and joined the Maro- 
 nites, persuading, at the same time, the Emirs of Metn, 
 and the house of Belimmah, with whom his family inter- 
 married, to follow his example. When Muhammad 
 All, the Pasha of Egypt, extended his pretensions to 
 Syi'ia, this chief declared for his interests, whilst the 
 leaders of the Druses were friendly to the cause of the 
 Sultan- When the font allied powers of Europe, how- 
 ever, in 1840, determined on the expulsion of Muham- 
 mad A'li from Syria, and the Maronites, who had been 
 ai-med anew by our country, began to co-operate, the 
 Emir Beshir succeeded to a certain extent in stirring 
 up the Druses, who had been offended by the treatment 
 which they had received from the Maronites in the few 
 preceding years, to a threatened support of the Pasha- 
 The Emir, in the course of events, was forced to withdraw 
 to Malta and Constantinople, and the Druses succumbed. 
 The Egyptian rule in the counti*y was terminated ; and 
 another Emir Beshir of the house of Shehab was ap- 
 pointed in the name of the Sultan ; the chief control of 
 the mountains, however, being reserved for the Turkish 
 
88 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 governor-general of Syria, the PasM of tlie united dis- 
 tricts of Tripoli and Sidon. The Maronite patriarch so 
 wrought upon his people, that they proceeded to such a 
 harsh treatment of the Druses as goaded them to civil 
 war in 1841. Their feuds have been renewed in the 
 present year, with a fearful destruction of life and pro- 
 perty. The Turkish government has again, as far as 
 practicable, disarmed both parties ; but it is probable 
 that matters will not long remain quiet. Communica- 
 tions which I have lately received from Syria, written 
 by gentlemen who have the best opportunity of observ- 
 ing the country, and forming an impartial judgment of 
 its weal and its woe, to some extent blame the Maronite 
 patriarch and his priests, and the emissaries of Rome, 
 for the late calamities. If they are founded in fact, as 
 I fear they are, they convey both warning and instruc- 
 tion which are not to be despised. On these matters, 
 however, it is not expected that at present I should 
 enlarge. 
 
 II. THE EASTERN LATIN CHURCH. 
 
 Christianity had its early triumphs among the Roman 
 officials and subjects in Syria, and other parts of the East 
 who used the Roman tongue ; and when prelatical am- 
 bition began to influence the Christian community, 
 Cesarea, the Roman capital of Palestine, gradually as- 
 serted its superiority over Jerusalem, where the work 
 of human redemption was accomplished. The great 
 majority of the Christian inhabitants of the country, 
 however, at this time, spoke the Syrian and Greek lan- 
 guages, the first of which, being strictly cognate with the 
 Hebrew, may be said to be almost indigenous, while the 
 
EASTERN LATIN CHURCH. 39 
 
 latter, in consequence of the conquests of Alexander the 
 Great and his successors, had obtained such a footing, 
 that it was found impossible to dismiss it altogether from 
 use, even in the public business of the Roman empire. 
 
 On the conversion of the Emperor Constantine to 
 Christianity, and the introduction of the monastic system 
 into the Holy Land from Egypt about the same time, 
 great multitudes of pilgrims began to rush to the coun- 
 try, in order personally to survey the hallowed scenes of 
 Bible history, and of the greatest events which have been 
 recorded in the annals of time. These pious, or rather 
 superstitious, devotees came from the very ends of the 
 ■earth, and many of them fi'om the countries in which the 
 language, as well as the influence, of Rome was predomi- 
 nant. In the year 372, the celebrated Jerome retired 
 to the deserts of Syi'ia, and shortly afterwards he went 
 to Jerusalem and Bethlehem to study the Hebrew lan- 
 guage. After having been secretary to the Pope at 
 Rome, he finally took up his abode in the mountains of 
 Bethlehem, where he continued engaged in literary 
 works, some of which were of the greatest importance, 
 till his death in 420. Paula, a noble lady whom he had 
 instructed at Rome, about this time proceeded to the 
 same destination, where she is said to have built four mo- 
 nasteries. These and similar institutions were available 
 to all bodies of the church-catholic, belonging both to 
 the west and the east. Toward the end of the sixth 
 century, when divisions to a considerable extent had ap- 
 peared in these bodies, particularly in connexion with 
 the monophysite and other controvei-sies concerning the 
 person of Christ, and when the bishop of the new Rome, or 
 Constantinople, began to rival the Pope in his pretensions, 
 Gregory the Eighth sent the abbot Probus to Jerusa- 
 
40 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 lem for the erection of a hospice, particularly designed 
 for the accommodation of the western pilgrims. Other 
 conventual establishments were founded and repaired by 
 Romanists, as that of Sancta Maria de Latin a by the 
 merchants of Amalpi in Italy, about the close of the 
 tenth century. The oppression of the pilgrims by the 
 Saracens soon afterwards reached its height, and the 
 hosts of Europe, scarcely less ferocious than the warriors 
 of the desert, took possession of the countiy, and esta- 
 blished their government in the land. They kept posses- 
 sion of Jerusalem for eighty-eight years, and of other 
 parts of the country for a longer period. Though, in 
 their ecclesiastical establishment, they professed to re- 
 gard the authority of the Christians of the Greek rite, 
 of whom they avowed themselves to be the liberators, 
 they acted always under the strongest Roman bias and 
 supported the interests of the Pope. They formed an 
 extensive church establishment of their own, embracing 
 the Sees of the Greeks. 
 
 The Church of Rome has long ago made new arrange- 
 ments and dispositions of the Eastern Sees, extinguish- 
 ing some of them or making them merely titular. The 
 only remains of the Church establishment of the Cru- 
 saders at present in the East are the monastic insti- 
 tutions of the Terra Sancta, intrusted to the friars Mi- 
 norites of the Observance, better known among us as 
 the Franciscan monks, who are the recognised custodiers 
 and guardians of the holy places, and the pastors of the 
 small portion of the population which adheres to the 
 Latin ritual. Of these I shall allow the Romanists to 
 give their own account. " They," the monks now men- 
 tioned, " are indebted for this glorious inheritance to the 
 piety of their patriarch St Francis, who, with twelve of 
 
EASTERN LATIN CHURCH. 41 
 
 his earliest disciples, sought in Syria the labours of the 
 apostleship and the crown of martyrdom. This last he 
 failed to obtain, but he secured for his order the privilege 
 of praying and dying between the cradle and the sepul- 
 chre of Christ; and to this day these good monks, 
 whose costume even the infidels respect, and whose hos- 
 pitality calls down the benedictions of numerous pilgrims, 
 have a roof and an altar at Jerusalem, at Bethlehem, at 
 Nazareth, at Jaffa ; indeed, wherever the history of re- 
 demption has left a memorial. Their superior, whose 
 title is ' Most Reverend Warden,' and who holds his ap- 
 pointment immediately from Rome, has under his direc- 
 tion about 100 Italian or Spanish priests, divided among 
 twenty-two convents, and having under their pastoral 
 care 11,000 Latin Catholics residing in their vicinity; 
 thirty-eight secular priests and sixty lay brethren take 
 part in their labours : two colleges, raised by their in- 
 dustry, contain more than 460 students. Europe, how- 
 ever, seems to esteem lightly these good deeds, which 
 do her so much honour in the eyes of foreigners. The 
 alms of the crowns of Spain and Portugal have ceased, 
 and the guardians of the Holy Land must have left the 
 post of honour in which the church has placed them, if 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Faith had not 
 pledged their daily bread."* 
 
 The grants made to these Monastic Institutions by 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, now the 
 principal organ of the support and extension of the 
 papal cause in foreign parts, according to the report for 
 1844, was 25,267 franks 16 cents. It is entered " to 
 the Most Reverend Guardian of Jerusalem for the Mis- 
 sions of the Holy Land." 
 
 * Report of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 1840. 
 
42 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 Of the convents now referred to, I am able from my 
 personal inquiry in Syria, and the assistance which I 
 have derived from my fellow travellers, Messrs Smith 
 and Graham, to mention the stations. They are those 
 of Jerusalem, where there are two convents, Bethlehem, 
 A'in Karim, or St John's in the Desert, near Jerusalem, 
 Ramlah, Yaffa, Nazareth, Haifa (now reduced to non- 
 entity), A'kka, Sidon, Harissa, Tripoli, Latakia, Aleppo, 
 Damascus, Constantinople, Larnica, and Nicosia in 
 Cyprus, Rosetta, Alexandria, Cairo and Faiyum in 
 Egypt, and Beirut. In several of these establishments 
 I lodged during my journey in the East, and to others 
 of them I paid a visit. The monks, with a few excep- 
 tions, are quite incapable of communicating instruction 
 in the vernacular languages of the people among whom 
 they officiate ; and, at present at least, they are making 
 little or no progress in the work of proselytism. Though 
 one or two of their number dispense the papal sa,cra- 
 ments among the people of the Latin rite who dwell in 
 their neighbourhood, a gi'eat part of their time is occu- 
 pied in the entertainment of pilgiims and travellers, who 
 generally present them with an equivalent for the at- 
 tention and kindness which they receive at their hands. 
 I observed when among them nothing in their per- 
 sonal conduct which I thought particularly censui'able, 
 though I noticed abundant reasons for mourning over 
 the delusion and superstition by which they them- 
 selves are influenced, and by which they effectually 
 influence their fellow men. My friend Mr Graham, who 
 has the best opportunities of learning their actual state, 
 thus adverts to their position and practice. " In the 
 Holy Land, the fires of superstition have found for many 
 years their most appropriate fuel. Here the wonders 
 
EASTERN LATIN CHURCHES. 43 
 
 of Divine condescension, and the truths which have 
 brightened and might have illuminated the moral world, 
 have been pressed into the service of cruel fanaticism 
 and degrading superstition. Morality is separated from 
 religion, and the agency of the divine Quickener attached 
 to formalities only, so that the free Spirit, if he move at 
 all, must flow in the channels which ignorant man has 
 prepared for him ! Indeed, I may observe here, that 
 the work of the Holy Ghost in quickening and sustain- 
 ing the divine life in the soul, as understood and preached 
 in Europe and England, is altogether unknown in the 
 East. The Americans have been labouring here for 
 more than a quarter of a century, and they never found 
 a native Christian who had any notion of spiritual agency 
 apart from forms, and especially the breathing in the 
 act of baptism and the imposition of hands in ordination. 
 In the midst of these dark and hazy sentiments in which 
 the mind of the Oriental Churches is shrouded, what 
 must be the influence of the monastic institute with its 
 grinding ritual services, and under the powerful but in- 
 describable awe of holy places ! No mind could stand 
 it. The delusion is so deep, the ingredients of the fatal 
 draught so subtle and overpowering, that the most mas- 
 culine understanding must eventually sink before it. 
 Jerome was the greatest man of his age, yet he wrote 
 the life of St Anthony, recorded and believed (I suppose, 
 and even hope) all his fables, in which there is nothing 
 more ridiculous in Homer, Ovid, or even Alban Butler ! 
 This Institute, like the cup of Circe, has brutalized the 
 human nature wherever it chanced to prevail, and no 
 Ulysses has yet been found to break the spell of the 
 sorceress. 
 
44 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 ' Sirenum voces et Circes pocula nosti, 
 Quae si cum sociis stultus cupidusque bibisset, 
 Sub domina meretrice fuisset^turpis et excors, 
 Vivisset canis immundus vel arnica luto sus.' 
 
 Yet, this is the system which the Oxfordists are labour- 
 ing with all their might to introduce into free and pro- 
 testant England ! Would they indeed like the Chris- 
 tians of London to become like those of Jerusalem, 
 Cairo, or Damascus ? It may be so, and Grod in his 
 wrath may give us up to the devices of our own hearts, 
 and incline us to listen to their delusions ; but blind 
 and stubborn must be the fanaticism which can labour 
 and pray for such an awful situation !" 
 
 Besides the Terra Sancta monks, we have several other 
 European fathers in the Holy Land, and in the countries 
 adjoining. " Several monastic orders," says the report 
 for 1840 of the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Faith, " have been desirous to be represented by some of 
 their members at this rendezvous of all Christian tradi- 
 tion. They are by no means inactive there. 1. The 
 Carmelite fathers have rebuilt the useful retreat which 
 they have possessed from time immemorial on Mount 
 Carmel, the first seat of their order, and chief place of 
 their missions in Palestine. Five of them reside there. 
 2. The reverend fathers, the Capuchins, reckon four 
 missions, Beirut, Tripoli, Damascus, lately stained with 
 blood by the murder of one of them ; Aleppo, where 
 their charity supports one school ; and three other sta- 
 tions on Mount Lebanon. 3. The reverend fathers, the 
 Jesuits, having re-established their ancient residence on 
 Mount Lebanon, are labouring with an effective zeal to 
 found a college at Beyrout. 4. Messrs, the congregation 
 of St Lazarus have four missions, occupied by six priests ; 
 
EASTERN LATIN CHURCHES. 45 
 
 Antoura, witli a college ; Aleppo, Damascus, witli two 
 schools for both sexes ; Tripoli, with two stations, and 
 the schools of Eden and Sgorta." All this is exclusive 
 of what is called, " The Apostolic Delegation of Mount 
 Lebanon and Apostolic Vicariate of Aleppo," of which 
 it is said in the same document, " The Latin Catholics 
 of Aleppo, to the number of about 1000, are alone 
 under the immediate jurisdiction of the Apostolic vicar ; 
 but the prelate, who bears that title, is also the repre- 
 sentative of the holy see, to the patriarchs of the United 
 Communions which are spread through those countries." 
 The Carmelites here alluded to, have within these 
 few years, and principally by the exertions of one of 
 their number, Jean Baptiste, erected large and extensive 
 buildings on the Mount from which their name is de- 
 rived. They principally devote themselves to the rites 
 of hospitality, and every person who may have paid 
 them a visit, admits that their " hotel," for such it may 
 be called, is the best in Syria. The Jesuits com- 
 menced their labours at Aleppo in 1625, and they 
 brought high talent and learning to bear on the work of 
 bringing the Oriental Christians within the pale of Rome. 
 Judging from a manuscript Arabic and Latin Dictionary, 
 in the handwriting of one of their number, bearing the 
 date of 1638, which I procured at Bombay, I should 
 think that they applied themselves to the study of the 
 Eastern languages with a devotion seldom surpassed. 
 As soon as practicable, they established three congrega- 
 tions respectively for the Eranks, Ai-menians, and Maro- 
 nites and Syrians. They generated and encountered 
 much opposition from the pasha and the communities 
 among whom they laboured. They enjoyed the protec- 
 tion of the French authorities, and in 1679, the king 
 
46 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 of France, in order to give facility to their labours, ap- 
 pointed them chaplains to his consulate. They brought 
 a considerable number of persons within the pale of the 
 Romish Church, and to contentment with the Roman 
 ritual ; and they paved the way for the ultimate establish- 
 ment of the papal Grreek, papal Armenian, and papal 
 Sjn^ian sects. About the year 1717, if I can guess the 
 date, they professed to have brought over to their views 
 the patriarchs of Antioch, Damascus, and Alexandria.* 
 The Jesuits of Aleppo, says one of my correspondents, 
 are " subtle, insinuating men of the world, mixing 
 with the Frank society, and the upper classes of that 
 voluptuous and profligate city. Their morality is of 
 the loosest kind." He even, on the best authority, gives 
 them a worse character, adding, however, that they are 
 now all removed, with a single exception. The Jesuits 
 established themselves at Damascus about the middle 
 of the 17th century. Respecting that place. Father 
 Rousset, one of their number, when writing a century 
 later, says, that then " there were not more there than 
 three Catholic families. "f The Cordelier and Capuchin 
 fathers had preceded them ; but they durst not extend 
 their labours to any people but the Maronites, whom 
 they served as curates, when they were permitted by the 
 patriarch. The Jesuits opened a public school. | As 
 the name of Jesuit in the east, is even perhaps more 
 horrible and abominable than in the west, the Jesuits 
 at Damascus, Aleppo, and some other places, denomi- 
 nate themselves Lazarists, or brethren of the company 
 
 * See Father Nacchi's communication in the Lettres Editiantes, 
 vol. i. 
 t Lettres Edif. et Cur. vol. i. p. 118. 
 X Ibid. 
 
EASTERN LATIN CHURCH. 47 
 
 of Paul of Vincent, a fact which those who seek to trace 
 their movements in different parts of the world would 
 do well to keep in mind. At present there are at Da- 
 mascus two convents of Latins, supported entirely by 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, and striv- 
 ing to extend the influence of the Pope. They compli- 
 mented the Presbyterian missionaries to the Jews, on 
 their establishment in that important city, by denounc- 
 ing them from the altar. They have a school, into which 
 I looked, with 130 boys learning Arabic, and 36 learn- 
 ing French. Of the proceedings of the other monks and 
 missionaries in the other parts of Syria, comprehended 
 in the Delegation of Mount Lebanon, I must draw upon 
 the interesting paper of the American Missionaries, from 
 which I have already made one or two extracts : — 
 
 " In this part of Syria, there are four Capuchin convents ; namely, 
 one at Beirut, with seven or eight monks, one at Solima with two 
 or three, one at Ghazir, now empty, and one at 'Abeih, with one 
 monk. They never preach in Arabic, and indeed are ignorant of 
 the language. Nor do they hardly ever have any thing to do with 
 schools. A little school, with some twenty children at 'Abeih, 
 opened since our mission was established there, is a solitary ex. 
 ception. They are proverbial for their inactivity and quietness ; 
 and usually live a sort of hermit's life, hardly having to do with 
 anything outside of their convents. All they usually attempt for 
 the natives is to confess such as come to them, and say mass for 
 them. Their income is from their order, and from contributions 
 in the country. 
 
 A single convent at 'Aintura belongs to the Lozarists. In it are 
 three or four monks, who keep a boarding school of considerable 
 value. In this are usually some thirty or forty scholars, all 
 boarders. The Shehab and Khazin families have each the right to 
 send to it two scholars to be gratuitously educated ; their expenses 
 being paid by assistance from France. The rest pay from twelve 
 hundred to twenty-four hundred piastres a-year for board and tui- 
 tion ; furnishing themselves with clothing, and buying their books 
 of the establishment. The branches taught are Italian, French, 
 
48 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 Turkish, Arabic grammar, and a little of astronomy and mathe- 
 matics. No regard is had to the religion of those who enter, but 
 when there, they are obliged to receive the religious instruction 
 that is given, and attend the daily worship of the convent. The 
 Lazarists have nothing to do with Arabic preaching, and confine 
 their labours to their school. 
 
 " Of old the Jesuits had establishments at Solima, Bakfeiyah, 
 'Aintura, and Zgharta, which had passed into other hands, or be- 
 come deserted, until about 1836, when the order made its appear- 
 ance again in these parts. The number of members which have 
 arrived is still small, not exceeding eight or nine. But they have 
 given indications of having an abundance of means at command, 
 and large plans in prospect. At Beirut they some time ago bought 
 property for one hundred thousand piastres, built a chapel, erected 
 a bell, and were going on with extensive improvements. But the 
 attention of the Turkish government was directed to them soon 
 after its restoration to Syria, and they were ordered to stop. It 
 turned out that, as a society, they have no European protection, 
 therein differing from all the other European monastic establish- 
 ments in the land, which are by treaty under French protection. 
 And as no consul interposed in their behalf, they were obliged to 
 discontinue their building, and take down their bell. But, with the 
 exception of the bell, they retained the ground they had gained. 
 A school they had opened was continued, and worship in their cha- 
 pel was not interrupted. The latter is attended by large numbers, 
 chiefly Maronites. The school has upwards of a hundred scholars, 
 who come from all sects, even the Druses and Moslems. It is only 
 a day-school, and most of the scholars merely learn to read and 
 write. There are, however, classes in Arabic grammar, Italian, and 
 French. Three native teachers are employed, and instruction is 
 gratuitous. The Jesuits themselves conduct the daily worship of 
 the chapel, — which all the Christian pupils are required to attend, 
 — give instructions in religion and morals, and study themselves the 
 Arabic language. They have also bought an Emir's palace at 
 Ghazir for 165,000 piastres, which they are fitting up for an 
 extensive boarding-school. In the mean time, they have estab- 
 lished there an extensive day-school, which contains from thirty 
 to thirty-five scholars. In it are taught Arabic reading and 
 writing, and a little Italian. In the convent at Salima, now in the 
 hands of the Capuchins, they have another common day-school of 
 about the same size. They have also a small school at their estab- 
 
EASTERN LATIN CHURCH. 49 
 
 lishment at Bakfeiyah. At Muallat Zahleh they have also made a 
 lodgment ; and they were attempting to erect an establishment in 
 Zahleh, but some misunderstanding occurred between them and the 
 inhabitants, and the latter obliged them to retire. But at Beirut 
 and Mount Lebanon, it is not known that they have formed any 
 establishments ; and their revival in this vicinity is generally un- 
 derstood to be for the purpose of raising up an influence antagonist 
 to the encroachments of Protestantism. But for fear of these, the 
 Maronite patriarch, it is believed, would not tolerate them, as he is 
 known to dislike them. They have the reputation here, as every- 
 where, of being the best defenders and propagators of the Romish 
 faith, and of meddling in politics as well as religion. Report cha- 
 racterises them as learned, wise, well-conducted, self-denying, mild, 
 and winning. They are looked upon as having a sort of charm, by 
 which they are able to gain the good-will and confidence of all with 
 whom they have to do. In fact, however, they seem not to have 
 been so very successful in these their late attempts at education. 
 We hear many complaints among the papists themselves, that their 
 scholars do not learn ; and there is an opinion forming, that their 
 schools are not worth much. . . . The Pope is always repre- 
 sented in SjTia by a legate, of the rank of a bishop, who resides in a 
 convent at 'Aintura, appropriated to him. His duty is to make 
 annual circuits among the Roman Catholics of every sect, visiting 
 their patriarchs, bishops, convents, and leading men, and report to 
 the Pope whatever needs attention ; such as disagreement between 
 patriarchs and their bishops, mismanagement of ecclesiastical funds, 
 and the like. If he finds books in circulation opposed to the papal 
 faith, he is expected to see them burnt or otherwise destroyed. lie 
 also acts as a judge in certain causes that are carried up to him by 
 the people ; provided he do not interfere in the affairs of the patri- 
 arch and bishops, where he has no canonical right to do so. If he 
 pursues a course displeasing to the clergy and laity, they can com- 
 plain to the Pope and procure his recall. Neither he nor the Pope 
 has a claim upon the people of Syria for any income. But the le- 
 gate receives presents from the clergy of all ranks, — the convents, 
 and the leading men of the laity. Besides these, he has a stipend 
 from the Pope, amoimting to about sixty thousand piastres. Besides 
 this agency of the legate, any of the bishops have a right to ad- 
 dress the Pope himself, either through their patriarch or directly ; 
 and that on any subject. But a personal visit to Rome they can- 
 
 D 
 
50 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 not make, without having written thither first and obtained per- 
 mission.* 
 
 In addition to tlie monasteries of the Holy Land, and 
 the establishments of the Vicariate-apostolic of Aleppo, 
 sometimes called the Delegation of Lebanon, the Latins 
 have an archbishopric of Smyrna, and bishoprics of Chio, 
 Famagousta, and Babylon in Asia. 
 
 Of the state of matters at Smyrna, the Rev. Mr Cal- 
 houn, one of the American Missionaries whom I had 
 the pleasure of meeting in the East, gives the following 
 account in a paper which has been forwarded to me by 
 one of his brethren. " There are in Smyrna, one Roman 
 Catholic bishop (archbishop) and sixty-seven priests. Of 
 the latter, forty are secular or parish clergy, nine are 
 Capuchins, seven are Zoccalonti, ten are Lazarists, and 
 one is a Dominican. The Capuchins or Zoccalonti are 
 friars of the Franciscan order, and derive their names, the 
 one from their hoods, and the other from their wooden 
 shoes. There are also twelve ' Sisters of Charity.' In 
 Smyrna there are three large churches and two chapels. 
 One of the latter is in the French Seamen's hospital. 
 There is also a church at Bujah, and another at Burna- 
 bat. The churches in Smyrna are usually known by 
 the names of French, Austrian, and Lazarist. The re- 
 gularly officiating clergy in the French church are the 
 Capuchins ; in the Austrian, the Zoccalonti ; and in the 
 Lazarist, the Lazarist priests. The Capuchins and the 
 Zoccalonti have each a monastery. The Lazarite priests 
 have an elementary school of about three hundred boys. 
 The ' Sisters of Charity' have a school of about three hun- 
 dred girls. The branches taught by the latter are read- 
 
 * Missionary Herald, Oct. 1845. 
 
EASTERN LATIN CHURCH. 51 
 
 ing, writing, sewing, and embroidery. The college of 
 the Propaganda is under the direction of the bishop, and 
 contains about two hundred pupils, fifty of whom board 
 in the establishment. Most of the professors are of the 
 secular clergy. Among them are three Armeno-Catholic 
 priests. Languages are chiefly taught in the Propaganda. 
 Instruction is given in some of the higher branches of 
 science, but the means to this end are limited. Few 
 conversions to the Roman Catholic faith, as far as we 
 know, occur in Smyrna and the vicinity. The system 
 is principally aggressive, we apprehend, by means of the 
 schools. Considerable numbers of youth, even Protes- 
 tant youth, are thus brought under the influence of the 
 Roman priesthood ; and the result will probably be, either 
 that they will become papists, or be indifferent to all 
 religions. Among the Protestants there are few who 
 are decidedly anti-Roman Catholic. Of the papal popu- 
 lation in Smyrna and the adjacent villages, we cannot 
 speak with certainty. There are probably from eight 
 to ten thousand. This estimate does not include a few 
 papal Armenians and Greeks." When I was at Smyrna 
 a public examination was held of the Jesuit college there. 
 It was attended by the French admiral, then at the 
 place, and by the officers of his suite. 
 
 The Roman Catholics by whom the Latin rite is ob- 
 served at Constantinople, are under the apostolic vicar 
 of that place, and are principally the descendants of the 
 Genoese and Venetians, who have long been established 
 in Pera and Galata, the European merchants, and the 
 members and agents of the different embassies of the 
 countries which profess the faith of Rome. A good 
 many individuals, too, some of high influence and attain- 
 ments, are connected with the Russian, Prussian, and Eng- 
 
52 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 lish embassies at tlie Sublime Porte. Before the founda- 
 tion of the Greek-Catholic Church, the Jesuit and other 
 missionaries at this place were successful in bringing con- 
 siderable numbers of the members of the Greek Church 
 within the pale of the Romish Church y^ but these now 
 form a distinct community. The Latinists generally enjoy 
 the protection of the European ambassadors, and are not 
 considered as the direct subjects of the Porte. They 
 are reckoned about 9000 in number at the capital. 
 Another thousand, according to information which I have 
 received from an active and learned member of the 
 American Mission there, Mr Homes, may be thus distri- 
 buted : — At Adrianople 170 ; Rodonto 42 ; Buyukdereh 
 on the Bosphorus, 419 ; Dardanelles 30 ; Brusa 46 ; 
 Trebizond 36 ; Enos 33 ; Nicomedia 20 ; Erzerum 13 ; 
 Angora, Sinope, and Samson,29 ; Salonica 150; besides 
 a few in other places. This estimate is exclusive of 
 papal strangers. How diligent the Latinists at Constan- 
 tinople are, will appear from the following details, fur- 
 nished by Mr Homes. 
 
 " There are nine churches. Of these, two are parish churches in 
 Galata, and two are parish churches in Pera, There are also nine 
 • places of prayer ;' of these, three belong to the ambassadors of 
 France, Spain, and Naples ; two belong to the Franciscans ; and 
 four are in private houses. Houses of prayer are in fact churches, 
 for the performance of all church ordinances. They exist as a sub- 
 terfuge from the bigotry and intolerance of Mussulmans, which will 
 not readily allow any new church to be built. There are churches 
 at Adrianople, Rodosto, and Salonica. In 1843 there were forty- 
 six priests, of whom twenty-one are secular or parish clergy, and 
 twenty-five are regular or monastic clergy. There are two priests 
 at Adrianople, one at Rodosto, three at Buyukdereh, three at Sa- 
 lonica, and all the rest are at Constantinople. The other places 
 mentioned have no priests regularly. There are six religious com- 
 
 * Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, vol. i. passim. 
 
EASTERN LATIN CHURCH. 53 
 
 munities of men, who also serve in some of the churches. Among 
 the Dominicans in Galata there are five monks, with the Francis- 
 cans seven, with the Conventuals eight, with the Observantines 
 one, with the Capuchins three, with the Lazarists eight. The 
 Conventuals and Observantines are branches of the Franciscans. 
 Three of the parishes have public schools. These, and the higher 
 schools, are adapted to the spirit of the age as far as possible, and as 
 far as Romanism can make it consistent. The Lazarists in the for- 
 mer Jesuit college of Saint Benoit at G-alata, have a school, where 
 gratuitous instruction is given to three hundred and fifty boys by 
 the ' Brethren of Christian Doctrine,' a comparatively modem or- 
 der. There is also connected with the same college a school of 
 girls, containing about sixty boarding pupils, and the same number 
 of day-scholars, under the supervision of the ' Sisters of Charity, 
 who live in the same building, but apart from the males. The La- 
 zarists have also a college at Bebek, under their own immediate 
 supervision, with about fifty pupils, (all but about seven or eight of 
 whom are children of Europeans ; perhaps three of them are Arme- 
 nian-Catholics, and perhaps five are Armenians proper, supported by 
 money from France.) Here th«y pretend to give a complete aca- 
 demical education, and to fit the students to receive honorary de- 
 grees at the Paris universities, the king of France having admitted 
 the college to the same rank with the royal colleges. Young men 
 of merit are also to have the privilege of being sent to France to 
 be further educated. The course of instruction is similar to that 
 of other academical institutions, but great pains are bestowed upon 
 the religious education of the pupils. There is a school for boys 
 and girls at Salon ica. There are two or three private boarding 
 and day schools in Pera, where the teachers and principals are pa- 
 pists. There is also a private boarding and day school for females 
 of all nations, kept by an English Roman Catholic lady. In the 
 Lazarist convent there are two printing presses, hitherto chiefly 
 employed in mercantile printing, and in issuing reading books, al- 
 manacs, and catechisms ; but it is now becoming more controversial. 
 There are two plague hospitals, and two national hospitals, under 
 the joint protection of France, Austria, and Sardinia. A house of 
 refuge for the poor is under the joint protection of the Catholic 
 Ambassadors." 
 
 Of the Latins in Egypt, I can say but little. The 
 Pope has there, with a small establishment of priests 
 
54 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 and monks, a new " Delegation Apostolic of Alexan- 
 dria." The Latinists are principally found at Alexan- 
 dria and Cairo ; but the natives of the country belong- 
 ing to their communion are but few in number. The 
 following is the last papal notice which I have seen of 
 proceedings on the banks of the Nile. " A new Dele- 
 gation ApostoKc embraces Egypt, Alexandria, Sees 
 opened under the care of the congregation of St Vincent, 
 a college, and a house of Nuns of Charity. The Fathers 
 Minors [already alluded to in our notice of the Terra 
 Sancta Convents] preserve these schools and hospitals,, 
 and the presence of the Latin clergy sustains the piety 
 of the united Copts.''* To the Coptic-Catholie Church 
 here alluded to, I shall afterwards refer. 
 
 III. GREEK-CATHOLIC, OR, SO-CALLED, MELCHITE 
 CHURCH. 
 
 Of this body, the following notice is given in the Re- 
 port of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, in 
 1840. " This name [Greek Melchites] is given [surrep- 
 titiously] to the Catholics of Asia, who are attached to 
 the Greek ceremonial. Their patriarch unites to the 
 title of Antioch, the jurisdiction of Jeinisalem and Alex- 
 andria. The number of bishoprics was lately nine, — 
 Aleppo, Beirut, Acre, Bozrah, Zahleh and Ferzal, Heli- 
 opolis and Baalbek, Damascus. The last is under the 
 administration of a patriarchal vicar. Three new Sees 
 have been erected at Tripoli, and two other points. The 
 clergy is filled up in part from the ranks of the order of 
 St Basil, which has three distinct congregations in Syria. 
 Catholics 50,000." From a more recent document, the 
 
 * Report of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 1844.. 
 
GREEK-CATHOLIC CHURCH. 55 
 
 G-eneral Statement for 1844, it would appear that the 
 number of the superintending authorities of this sect 
 has been lately increased."^ The American Missionaries 
 estimate the total number of Greek Catholics at be- 
 tween 30,000 and 40,000 souls. 
 
 As far as I can ascertain, the Greek- Catholic church 
 is the fniit of the Jesuit missions to Aleppo, which, as 
 already said, had their commencement in the year 1625. 
 These crafty fathers soon saw that it was inexpedient 
 to force their converts from the Greek church to the 
 adoption of the Latin rites ; and they, and the other 
 Roman coadjutors in the east, in due time succeeded 
 in getting the Papal authorities to sanction a compro- 
 mise, on terms even more disadvantageous to Rome 
 than we have seen exemplified in the case of the 
 Maronites. The great object at which the Greek Ca- 
 tholics have sought after in their alliance with Rome, 
 seems to be that of securing its assistance in disseminat- 
 ing among their families the civilization of the west, 
 and securing greater splendour for their religious ser- 
 vices. It has succeeded in getting from them little 
 more than an acknowledgment of its supremacy, and 
 the renouncement of the Greek dogma, that the proces- 
 sion of the Holy Spirit is from the father only. They 
 retain the oriental calendar, regulating by it their feasts 
 and fasts as therein entered, and according to the com- 
 putation of what has been called the " old style." In 
 Syria they celebrate their liturgical services in their 
 vulgar tongue, the Arabic, which must be viewed as a 
 
 * " Melchite Greeks. Patriarch of Antioch. — Archbishoprics 
 of Aleppo, Tyre, Bozra, Diarbekir, Seyd (Sidon) and Beyrouth. — 
 Bishoprics of St Jean D'Acre, Furzoli, Baalbek, Tripoli and Homes. 
 —12 bishops, 180 priests." 
 
56 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 great desecration, as, according to Papal notions, no- 
 thing is sacred that is not mysterious. They receive 
 the communion in both kinds, using unleavened bread 
 and the cup, like the members of the Orthodox Grreek 
 Church from which they have separated. Their priests 
 are allowed to marry before entering into sacred orders; 
 but their bishops must observe the celibate. They 
 claim the right of the popular use of the sacred scrip- 
 tures, though alas ! they too seldom avail themselves 
 of its advantages. All that I have seen and heard of 
 them, leads me to believe that they are amongst the 
 most liberal and intelligent native Christians in the east. 
 It is at Aleppo and Damascus that the Greek Ca- 
 tholics are the most numerous and influential. In the 
 latter place their patriarch usually resides; but he 
 is at present at Constantinople seeking from the Turk 
 such a confirmation of his jurisdiction, as he had had 
 from the Egyptian government when it was in Syria. The 
 title of " patriarch of Antioch" xar igop^^rjv, which is 
 claimed by him, will not be accorded to him distinctively 
 by the Turkish government, as Antioch is one of the 
 established patriarchates of the Greek Church, which 
 it constitutionally recognises. By persevering negocia- 
 tion and bribery, however, he may be permitted to use 
 the title in a restricted sense, as appHed to his own sect, 
 as he was allowed to do by the Egyptian government. 
 The Greek Catholics have the most splendid church at 
 Damascus, and it is at present their patriarchal cathe- 
 dral ; but in its services it is difficult to recognise the 
 solemnity and simplicity of Christian worship. " The 
 building inside is elegant," says Mr Graham ; " and 
 on festival days when brilliantly lighted up, the scene 
 is grand and imposing. The floor is beautifully varie- 
 
GREEK-OATHOLIC CHURCH. 57 
 
 gated marble. The roof is ornate and lofty, is supported 
 by a row of stately marble columns on either hand as 
 you go in, and between these and the exterior walls and 
 the female galleries. Seats there are none, save a few 
 chairs around the walls and encircling the altar. 
 Hundreds, I might almost say a thousand silver lamps, 
 fill the house with insufferable brightness ; while priests 
 clothed in rich oriental costume are walking in solemn 
 procession, and filling the house with incense almost in- 
 sufi"erably pleasing, and accomplishing the service before 
 the altar and in the neighbouring recesses. The people 
 meantime are not idle. There is no order. They go 
 and come just as they please. Some are kneeling and 
 beating their brows before the picture of a favourite 
 saint ; others are gazing on the Virgin and her infant, 
 and muttering inarticulate prayers ; some are squatting 
 on the marble, crossing, and bowing, and adoring before 
 a hirsute monk of the olden time ; some are standing 
 upward making awkward genuflexions, and at intervals 
 prostrating their foreheads on the stone-floor ; some are 
 talking with one another ; all are intent, each at his own 
 business whatever it is, and all is done aloud or in a 
 mumbling muttering voice. Quiet silent prayer is not 
 known or practised in the east. The bells are ringing, 
 the priests are reading the service with aloud voice, and 
 with the rapidity of lightning the censers are waving 
 to and fro, filling the house with odours ; the people are 
 kneeling, standing, sitting, muttering prayers, talking, 
 prostrating, weeping, sighing, beating their breasts, 
 making the common prui/er (so called), a scene of sound 
 and confusion without parallel, save in the synagogues 
 of Safed and Tiberias. Attached to this church are 
 very good school-rooms, and an Episcopal house, which 
 
58 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 the patriarch occupies when in Damascus. The popish 
 patriarch is Maximus Mazlum, and has done more than 
 any other to confirm, extend, and consolidate the papal 
 interest in the east. He is clever, restless, and in- 
 triguing, a good oriental scholar, and thoroughly imbued 
 with the spirit of his mission. He published an Arabic 
 grammar at Rome, and presented it to the National 
 Greek Melchite-CoUege of Ain-Teraz in Mount Lebanon 
 in the year 1830. I sometimes use it. He was for- 
 merly Archbishop of Aleppo." 
 
 Of the Greek Catholics in Syria, the American Mis- 
 sionaries, whose estimate of the body I have already 
 mentioned, give some further statistical information, 
 which I may here bring before your attention : " The 
 sect has only about fifty-five priests, of whom a large 
 part are unmarried. The reason of there being so few 
 is, that the duties of their office in cities are generally 
 
 discharged by monks The Greek Catholic convents 
 
 and nunneries are of two orders ; viz., the Makhallisiyeh, 
 and the Shaweiriyeh. Their regulations difi"er not ma- 
 terially from the Maronites To these fourteen con- 
 vents and three nunneries should be added about ten 
 coenobia. The whole number of monks is about two 
 hundred and fifty, and of nuns ninety. The Greek 
 Catholics have one printing establishment. It belongs 
 to the convent of Shaweir, and is worked entirely by 
 the monks. Only one small font of type belongs to it ; 
 
 but for this they have the punches and matrices 
 
 It has been employed almost exclusively in printing ec- 
 clesiastical books; and for the last year or two has 
 done very little. The Greek Catholics are more 
 generally able to read than the other Christians, though 
 they less frequently have schools of their own Their 
 
GREEK-CATHOLIC CHURCH. 59 
 
 patriarch is an educated man, and, some years ago, he 
 founded a college for his sect at 'Ainteraz, in the Jurd. 
 But the progress of its organization was slow, and at 
 the time of the Druse war the building was burnt, the 
 valuable library scattered, and the establishment com- 
 pletely ruined. The Greek Catholics have now no 
 college. But the convent of Makhallis, having one or 
 two learned monks, and a library of some value, receives 
 scholars and renders valuable service to the cause of 
 education. It did much more before the Druse war 
 than since.''* 
 
 There are a few members of theGrreek-Catholic Church 
 in Egypt. I was introduced at Cairo to their bishop, who 
 acts as the representative of the Greek Catholic " patri- 
 arch of Alexandria," a See which, we have observed, 
 is combined with those of Antioch and Jerusalem. He 
 was a young man of great mildness and intelligence. 
 In passing, I must give a simple note of his conversation 
 with me. " When you hold so strenuously," he said, 
 " the interpretation of scripture, according to its appa- 
 rent meaning, why don't you take the words, ' This is 
 my body' in their literal sense ?" My reply was simply 
 this : — " When I entered your apartments, casting my 
 eyes on that object on the wall, I asked your honour 
 Who is this ? and your reply was, He is the archbishop 
 of Constantinople. Did you mean me to understand 
 that that picture is really that ecclesiastical dignitary ?'^ 
 " Oh no," he quickly observed in reply, " you were in 
 no danger of confounding the picture with him whom 
 it represents, and I did not think it necessary to study 
 greater precision of language." "Just so," I answered, 
 "the disciples of Christ, could not have confounded the 
 * Miss. Herald, Oct. 1845. 
 
60 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 body of Christ with the bread which was its sign, more 
 particularly as he used the language, ' This is my body 
 which is broken for you,' even before he was called to 
 his last sufferings." He answered me with a smile. 
 He has, according to the papal reckoning, the superin- 
 tendence of 4000 souls. 
 
 The Greek CathoKcs in other parts of the East gene- 
 rally use the Latin ritual. Of those at the capital of 
 Turkey, Mr Homes gives some curious information : — 
 
 " We have never been able to learn tbe wliole number of Greek 
 Catholics in Constantinople ; but it is very small compared with 
 the whole number of the Armenian Catholics, there not being five 
 hundred families. The attempts of the papal missionaries on the 
 Greek Church, in modern times, have here been entirely without 
 success. The Greek Catholics now to be found are not the result 
 of any modern missionary operations, but they are chiefly the re- 
 mains of the Italian conquests in the East ; and most of them are 
 emigrants from abroad, many of them having protection as subjects 
 of some foreign power. A small number of Greek Catholics, sub- 
 jects of the Porte, of whom the most are originally from Aleppo, 
 were not able to endure being under the Armenian Catholic pa- 
 triarch, who by his firman is patriarch of all the Catholics. And 
 accordingly they petitioned for leave to choose one for themselves, 
 who should be their responsible head, and through whom they 
 would communicate with the Porte and pay the poll-tax. This 
 petition being granted, they chose a Musalman to perform this 
 oflBce to them ! And this state of things has lasted the past two 
 years. This privilege they gained when that man of most liberal 
 views, Reshid Pasha, was high in ofiice, and when the new cha- 
 racter of Gul Hani, with its institutions, was yet fresh and strong. 
 Although it had the appearance of being an act of justice to them 
 to render their burdens equal, yet we have great reason to believe 
 that it was a device emanating from Rome ; and that, as the result, 
 not only shall we see that the Armenian Catholics are acknow- 
 ledged of the empire, but that Rome has contrived to get Latin 
 Catholics acknowledged as a sect, and the Pope, in fact, acting as 
 their head. The documents that issue from the dragoman of the 
 Divan, — the Musalman who is their surety and deputy, — are in 
 the name of the community called Latins ! All these Greek Catho- 
 
GREEK-CATHOLIC CHURCH. 61 
 
 lies follow the Latin or Roman rite on almost all occasions, having 
 no church of their own. And now their occurs a thing which was 
 before unheard of, that foreign (Roman) priests baptize, confess, 
 and bury, the born and actual subjects of the Turkish government. 
 While the Armenian Catholics, in addition to their civil patriarch, 
 have an ecclesiastical patriarch of their own, these Greek and 
 Latin Catholics, having a Musalman for a civil head, have an Italian 
 Bishop and Vicar Apostolic sent from Rome for their ecclesiastical 
 head. There is a mysterious connection, to the bottom of which 
 we have never yet been able to go, between the subject Latin Ca- 
 tholics and some of the embassies, especially with the French. By 
 belonging to this new sect, they obtain a sort of civil protection in 
 case of law-suits and difficulties. And it is said that the French 
 chancery takes cognizance of the names of all this sect. For seven 
 years past, perhaps for a longer time, there has been a violent con- 
 test between the Greeks and the Greek Catholics, because the 
 priests of the latter having persisted in wearing the distinguishing 
 dress of the former. This custom, — which they began first in Syria, 
 during the government of Ibrahim Pasha, — they afterwards intro- 
 duced into Constantinople. The Greek patriarch then pretended 
 that this portion of the subjects of the Porte were rebels against 
 his own power, and that he could no longer be responsible for 
 them, They, on the other hand said, " We are an old sect, and 
 have been for a hundred years what we are now ;" and they im- 
 plored the Porte to appoint some one, any one, through whom they 
 should he known at the Porte. Owing to the peculiarly favourable 
 juncture to which we have alluded above, combined with the use 
 of money and the interposition of the French Ambassador, the 
 affair was arranged. Such a head as they asked was granted them, 
 but their priests were reqiiired to wear a distinguishing mark." 
 
 The Roman Catholic missions have for many years 
 been diligently plying their vocation, and not without 
 some success, among the G-reek and Armenian churches 
 which exist in the province of Georyia. Owing to 
 the opposition which they there encounter from the 
 Russian Government, which as little respects the prin- 
 ciples of religious liberty as the most bigoted nations 
 devoted to the interests of the Pope, they have been 
 much reserved in the publication of accounts of their 
 
62 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 proceedings. The following paragraph lately appeared 
 in the Journal des Dehats. The Revue de Paris an- 
 nounces the arrival at Friedland, on the 1st ult. of the 
 nine Catholic missionaries expelled from Greorgia by the 
 Russian Government. ' They are,' it says, ' monks of 
 the order of Capuchins, placed under the direction of 
 the Roman Propaganda. The mission to Georgia has 
 been long in existence, for, during the last 200 years, 
 Rome has constantly maintained missionaries in that 
 idolatrous country, who generally resided at Teflis. The 
 number of Roman Catholics of the Latin and Armenian 
 rites in Georgia, amounts to about 10,000. Seeing the 
 influence daily acquiring by the missionaries over the 
 minds of the population, Russia had resolved to compel 
 those monks, by threatening to expel them, to serve her 
 views with regard to the Catholics of Georgia, whom 
 she was anxious to bring under the control of the schis- 
 matic Church. The poor clergymen engaged in so un- 
 equal a contest, were exposed to all sorts of annoyance, 
 and their property, convents, and churches were at last 
 confiscated, and given to the Armenian clergy, who have 
 acknowledged the Russian authorities. The Christian 
 Government of St Petersburgh, more unmerciful than 
 the Porte toward the Catholics of Armenia, ultimately 
 called on the Capuchins to recognise not only the tem- 
 poral authority, but also the spiritual authority of the 
 ' Lord-Emperor ;' and they were moreover enjoined to 
 submit to the Armenian Bishop, Schakulvoi, the chief 
 of the Georgian Catholics, by the will of the Autocrat. 
 Those injunctions were met by a refusal ; the govern- 
 ment made every exertion to conquer the courageous 
 resistance of the missionaries, but its offers, as well as 
 its menaces, were unavailable. Finally, after a last 
 
GREEK-CATHOLIC CHURCH. 63 
 
 summons, addressed to them from St Petersburg!!, the 
 monks, persisting in their refusal, were expelled the 
 country." 
 
 IV. ARMENIAN-CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 In the learned work of Galanus on the conciliation of 
 the Roman and Armenian Churches, referred to in my 
 former lecture, there are various notices of the corres- 
 pondence of some of the adherents of the Armenian 
 Church with that of Rome, from the time of the seces- 
 sion of the Armenian Church from the Catholic body, 
 and its rejection of the decrees of the Council of 
 Chalcedon. On some of these Galanus doubtless lays 
 too great stress. To those of them which are of 
 most importance, however, it may be proper to al- 
 lude. The Armenian patriarch G-regory sent an em- 
 bassy to Rome in the year 1080, professing his re- 
 gard to that See, and received a favourable response. 
 In the year 1145, the Armenian patriarch is said to 
 have actually proffered the subjection of the Armenian 
 Church. He was probably induced to do so in conse- 
 (juence of the advance of the Saracens on the then de- 
 clining kingdom of Armenia, which about the same 
 time caused the patriarchate of the Armenians to be 
 removed from the greater Armenia to Sis in Cilicia. 
 Various proposals, communings, and consultations were 
 held on the subject ; but nothing was permanently de- 
 cided about the union of the churches, till Leo the Ar- 
 menian king, wishing to have the concurrence of the 
 Pope in his own coronation, got Johannes, the Armenian 
 Catholicus, and a large body of his clergy, formally to 
 
64 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 declare for Rome. This was about the end of the twelfth 
 century. Though Leo was sometimes opposed to the 
 Latin clergy who came into his dominions, his own 
 royal family remained in the profession of attachment to 
 Kome. In the Council of Adina in 1314, the union of 
 the churches is said to have been expressly declared. It 
 was far, however, from being general or abiding. The 
 Komish missions commenced a few years later. With 
 some intermissions they have been continued to the 
 present day, and they are represented as freeing many 
 Armenians from the pestilence of heresy.* The Catho- 
 lic-Armenians, however, are not yet, and probably never 
 will be, a numerous body. 
 
 The following is the fullest papal account of their sta- 
 tistics which has been lately published. " Armenians. 
 The patriarch of Cilicia resides at Mount Lebanon, 
 Several bishops assist him as vicars. Two others only 
 have separate dioceses, Aleppo, Mardin. The number 
 of Catholics belonging to this patriarchate amounts to 
 40,000." 
 
 I am inclined to think that even here there is, as 
 usual, some exaggeration. The American Missionaries 
 in Syria, in a document just come to hand, say of the 
 Armenian Catholics, " These are extremely few, and 
 bear the same relation to the Armenian church, that 
 the Greek Catholics do to the Greeks. They have a 
 patriarch and three bishops. Their convents in Mount 
 Lebanon are three, viz. Beit Khdshboh, el-Kareim, and 
 Bzummar, all in Kesrawan. The latter convent is the 
 residence of the patriarch. The monks are about fifty 
 
 * See the first volume of Galanus, passim. Compare with tlie 
 accounts of Galanus, Smith and Dwight's Researches in Armenia, 
 p. 433. 
 
ARMENIAN-CATHOLIC CHURCH. 65 
 
 in number."* Of those at Constantinople, in Asia 
 Minor, and Armenia, whicli are included in the papal 
 estimate, Mr Homes writes as follows, interspersing his 
 statistical notes with the mention of some rather curious 
 facts : — 
 
 " The Armenian Catholics in the citv are estimated at from 10,000 
 to 13,000 souls. They are found also in Smyrna, Angora, Tokat, 
 Trebizond, and in small numbers in various parts of Armenia. 
 There are perhaps 250 families at Mardin dependent on their own 
 patriarch, who resides in a convent on Mount Lebanon ; and this 
 patriarch governs the Armenian-Catholic population of Aleppo 
 and Syria. They have no monasteries in Asia Minor, but they have 
 one at Venice and another at Vienna. Their priests are for the 
 most part educated abroad, at these two places, or at Rome or 
 Padua. Those located in this city can generally, therefore, speak 
 one or more European languages. Their ecclesiastical organiza- 
 tion is complete in itself, except that they have a political patriarch 
 appointed from among themselves to represent them at the Porte, 
 while their ecclesiastical patriarch is appointed by the Pope. 
 Many of their clergy are jealous at the interference of the French 
 and Italian missionaries. Indeed, the rival interests of their o'^erpry, 
 — according as they happen to have been educated at Rome, Venice, 
 or this country, — has produced no inconsiderable degree of strife. The 
 clergy of Venice are far more liberal than those from any other school. 
 They sympathize much more with the great mass of t e Armenian 
 community, and ai'e not regarded as so anti-national as the others. On 
 the contrary, they are so entirely national in their feelings that they 
 may be regarded as only half papists. They publish now a monthly 
 magazine, similar to what our own was, in which they have praised 
 the temperance reformation in America, The inliuence of Jesuitmis- 
 sionaries, and of papal operations generally, must be exerted on the 
 Armenian mind chiefly through this already existing sect. Since 
 they have been acknowledged by the Porte, however, as one of the 
 sects of the empire, or as a sect in Constantinople rather, they have 
 not perceptibly increased. We hear now and then of a bishop, a 
 priest, or of a layman joining them; but we hear of perhaps as 
 many who go back and join their ancient sect. The laws of the 
 land do not authorize any such changes ; yet it is not alwavs 
 
 * Miss, Herdd, Oct, 1845. 
 E 
 
66 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 difficult to effect them. The great motive of those who join the 
 papal Armenians is for the sake of the additional protection which 
 they gain as Catholics on account of the interest taken in them, 
 and the aid afforded the sect by many of the Catholic ambassadors. 
 The Armenian Catholics have one large church in Galata, and a 
 church in Orta Koi. Connected with an hospital belonging to them 
 in Pera, they have also a ' house of prayer.' The Turkish go- 
 vernment interposes so many obstacles to the building of new 
 churches, that, though they hare made many attempts, they have 
 never been able to get more than permission for a ' house of prayer,' 
 as if for the use of the hospital. But a ' house of prayer' is all 
 that evangelical Christians will ever want. They have also a plague 
 hospital. There is a parish public school connected with the church, 
 and there is now building a college, or high school, at Pera, in 
 connection with the monks of the Venice monastery. Quite a 
 number of young men also are pursuing their studies in Pera 
 preparatory to becoming priests. Many families send their daugh- 
 ters to either the boarding or the day schools of the ' Sisters of 
 Charity,' in Galata." 
 
 V. SYRIAN-CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 The origin of this church is to be attributed to the 
 different missions sent to Syria during the last two and 
 a half centuries, and especially to that of the Jesuits 
 to Aleppo, which, as already mentioned, was commenced 
 in the year 1625. 
 
 A Jesuit missionary about the middle of last century, 
 when writing of the success of the missions at Aleppo, 
 says, " The half of the Syrian nation is already Catholic ; 
 and we flatter ourselves that, in a few years, all the 
 Syrians of Aleppo will be reunited to the fold of the 
 church."* In conformity with this statement, Dr 
 Russell, in 1794, says, " The Syiians, in matters of faith, 
 are mostly reconciled to the Romish Church ; that is 
 
 * Lettres Edifiantes, vol. i. p. 392. 
 
SYRIAN-CATHOLIC CHURCH. 67 
 
 those of Aleppo. They preserve in general their ancient 
 rites, and in their church divine service is performed 
 partly in Syriac and partly in Arabic. None of them 
 speak the Syriac language, and few understand it, but 
 they often, in the same manner as the Maronites, write 
 the Arabic in the Syriac characters, [called the Kar- 
 shuni']. Some few of their youth, who are destined for 
 the ecclesiastic life, are sent to Rome for their educa- 
 tion."* 
 
 All things considered, however, the papal Syrians 
 form but a small body. The Society for the Propagation 
 of the Faithf estimates them at 30,000 souls. Their 
 ecclesiastical chief is denoted the " patriarch of Antioch," 
 and in addition to his duties as such, he administers the 
 affairs of the patriarchate of Jerusalem. Below him 
 are four bishops, those of Nabeh and Homs in Syria, and 
 Mosul and Mardin in Mesopotamia. 
 
 The Romo-Syi'ians in Malabar and Travankur in 
 India, which are served by their own bishops and priests, 
 amounted in 1 836 to 56, 1 84 souls. | The history of the con- 
 version of their forefathers to Rome, which is related at 
 length by La Croze, Geddes, and Hough, and which was 
 brought about by the desperate, cruel, and deceitful mea- 
 sures of the Portuguese ecclesiastics of Goa, is painfully 
 interesting and instructive. The attempt to effect it was 
 first vainly made by the Cordeliers or Franciscan Friars in 
 
 * Natural History of Aleppo, vol. ii. p. 33. 
 t Report for 1840. 
 
 * The Christians of Malabar and Travankur, I associate with 
 the Syrians, the representatives of the Jacobites, though I am 
 aware that throughout the greater part of their history, they have 
 been connected with the Nestorians. The Independent Syrians 
 now use the Jacobite liturgy, if the copy which I have examined 
 be genuine ; but when they commenced to do so I do not know. 
 
68 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 1545. It was afterwards, also without success, repeated by 
 the Jesuits. Mar Joseph, the Syrian bishop, was circum- 
 vented and sent to Europe. He proved an unworthy cha- 
 racter ; but after various tergiversations, on his return to 
 India in the interest of the Portuguese, he was ultimately 
 permitted to go to Rome and obtain ordination from the 
 Pope. A second time he proved unfaithful in the East, 
 and he afterwards died in Italy. Dom Alexis de Me- 
 nezes, archbishop, and afterwards governor, of Groa, 
 was by most unhallowed measures the instrument of the 
 perversion of great numbers of the native Christians of 
 India, and of the formation of the Romo-Syrian Church, 
 which, with diminished numbers, still exists. 
 
 VI. THE CHALDEAN.CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 The establishment of the Chaldean Church is said by 
 the Romanists to comprehend the "patriarchate of Baby- 
 lon, and the archbishopricksof Diarbekr, Jizeirah, Morab, 
 Aderbijan, and the bishopricks of Mardin, Sirid, Amadia, 
 Salmas, and Karkut, with ten bishops and 101 priests." 
 " The actual number of Chaldean Catholics," they also 
 state, " appears to have been reduced to 15,000." These 
 converts are principally the fruit of the Romish missions 
 to the banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris within the last 
 hundred and fifty years. They form, I am sorry to say, a 
 great portion of the Nestorians west of the mountains of 
 Kurdistan . To the title which the Pope has given to them 
 of " Chaldean Christians," they have no exclusive claim, 
 not such a strong claim, indeed, as their countrymen 
 around them, and to the further east, who have not 
 yet acknowledged the papal supremacy. The Roman 
 Catholics are at present making great efibrts in the 
 
CHALDEAN-CATHOLIC CHURCH. 69 
 
 parts of tlie world to wliicli they belong, and among the 
 Nestorians of the mountains and of Persia ; but the pre- 
 sence of several able and devoted bands of American 
 Missiona,ries at Mosul and among the uncorrupted Nes- 
 torians, bids fair, with the divine blessing, to counteract 
 their efforts and their intrigue. In their late documents, 
 the papal missionaries accuse the American " Me- 
 thodists " of stirring up persecution against themselves 
 and adherents, particularly in the Persian dominions ;* 
 but persecution directed even against religious opponents, 
 is the last thing which would be resorted to by our 
 American brethren. 
 
 VII. COPTIC-CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 The Church of Rome has more or less directed its 
 attention to Egypt since the times of the Crusades. The 
 success which it has experienced, however, on the banks 
 of the Nile, has not corresponded with the magnitude of 
 the efforts which it has there made to extend its in- 
 fluence. I have already alluded to the Terra Sancta 
 monasteries, which are of an olden date, and to the 
 *' Delegation Apostolic of Alexandria," the jurisdiction 
 of which extends over the Frank population of that city, 
 and of all lower Egypt. Besides this establishment 
 there is that entitled the " Vicariate Apostolic of the 
 Copts." Altogether the papal church establishment of 
 Egypt is estimated at two bishops and fifty priests. At 
 Alexandria a new college and a house of nuns of charity 
 have been lately occupied. " The Coptic nation, the 
 only remaining fragment of the ancient Egyptians, after 
 so many centuries and so many conquests, professes the 
 
 * See Annals of tli« Pr«ipagation of the Faith, September 1844. 
 
70 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 Eutychian heresy. Yet twelve or fifteen thousand sonis, 
 reconquered by the zeal of the Missionaries, form a 
 Catholic community, which subsists and increases under 
 the conduct of about thirty priests and a bishop at Cairo. 
 This poor, but respectable, church has preserved its 
 national liturgy."* This small progress is rather re- 
 markable, when we consider the great number of Italians 
 and Frenchmen, members of the Romish Church, resident 
 in Egypt, and the influence which a few of them exercise 
 in connexion with the public services of the country, 
 under the Pasha. It must be remembered, however, 
 that some of them have but little concern about religion 
 of any kind, while others of them, men of enlarged views 
 and liberaKty, would wish either the faith of the Copts 
 in then- own system to remain undisturbed, or exchanged 
 for a purer form of Christianity than that which the 
 messengers of Rome seek to propagate. 
 
 VIII. DOINGS OF ROME IN ABYSSINIA. 
 
 Rome commenced her intercourse with the Ethiopian 
 branch of the Coptic Church, through the Portuguese, 
 towards the close of the fifteenth century. In the be- 
 ginning of the next age the Portuguese sent several 
 embassies to Abyssinia, and formed political alliances 
 with its emperor. That chief requested their assistance 
 against the Muhammadans, and when it was rendered 
 to him by Christopher de Gama, the son of the famous 
 navigator Vasco,his subjection to Rome, the surrender of 
 the third part of his kingdom, and his acknowledgment of 
 Bermudes, a Portuguese, as patriarch of the country, were 
 
 * Reports of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 1840 
 1844. 
 
DOINGS OF ROME IN ABYSSINIA. . 71 
 
 iTQodestly asked of him as the recompence. These demands 
 were indignantly refused. Ignatius Loyola, the founder 
 of the Jesuits, when he formed his ambitious plan of con- 
 quering the world to the faith and rule of Rome, wished 
 himself to proceed to Abyssinia, as the hero of the 
 Vatican ; but he was ultimately contented to dispatch 
 thither some of the first and choicest spirits of his order, 
 to whom he thought he could commit the enterprize. 
 Thirteen in number, to represent Christ and his apostles, 
 they left the shores of Europe. Three of them, after 
 touching at Goa, entered into Abyssinia as spies in 1555. 
 They returned to the Portuguese settlements in India, 
 without effecting any thing except bringing with them 
 Bermudes, the Portuguese " patriarch of Ethiopia," who 
 had been forced for a time to suspend his pretensions. 
 Oviedo and some of the other Jesuit fathers, however, 
 set out for Abyssinia after the return of the party to 
 (xoa. They reached the country, but the emperor Clau- 
 dius strongly resisted and refuted their claims ; and his 
 successor Adam forced such of his subjects as had 
 united themselves to the Catholics, to return to their 
 ancient religion, particularly on account of the destruc- 
 tion which had befallen Claudius from the Musalman 
 arms, when he was engaged in his controversies with the 
 Jesuits. The missionaries asked troops from India, but 
 their request was not granted ; and the fathers, at the 
 suggestion of the Pope, were recalled. A second Jesuit 
 mission set out from Goa for Abyssinia in 1588 ; but it 
 never reached the country. Other emissaries of Rome, 
 principally Jesuits, however, entered within its borders. 
 Deception, treachery, mischief, murder, war, and destruc- 
 tion, to which our time will not permit me to call your at- 
 tention, were the consequence of their movements and 
 
72 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 labours. The behaviour of the parties was so indiscreet 
 and wicked, that the Abyssinians became aware of their 
 danger, and Ethiopia was lost to Rome in the middle 
 of the seventeenth century. The finale, I set before you 
 in the words of Gibbon : — 
 
 " Fremona, a place of worship, or rather of exile, was assigned to 
 the Jesuit Missionaries. Their skill in the liberal and mechanic 
 arts, their theological learning, and the decency of their manners, 
 inspired a barren esteem ; but they were not endowed with the 
 gift of miracles, and they vainly solicited a reinforcement of Euro- 
 pean troops. The patience and dexterity of forty years at length 
 obtained a more favourable audience, and two emperors of Abys- 
 sinia were persuaded that Rome coiild insure the temporal and 
 everlasting happiness of her votaries. The first of these royal con- 
 verts lost his crown and his life ; and the rebel army was sanctified 
 by the Ahma, who hurled an anathema at the apostate, and ab- 
 solved his subjects from their oath of fidelity. The fate of Zad- 
 eaghel was revenged by the courage and fortune of Susneus, who 
 ascended the throne under the name of Segued, and more vigor- 
 ously prosecuted the pious enterprise of his kinsman. After the 
 amusement of some unequal combats between the Jesuits and his 
 illiterate priests, the emperor declared himself a proselyte to the 
 Synod of Chalcedon, presuming that his clergy and people would 
 embrace without delay the religion of their prince. The liberty of 
 choice was succeeded by a law, which imposed, under pain of death, 
 the belief of the two natures of Christ. The Abyssinians were en- 
 joined to work and to play on the Sabbath ; and Segued, in the face 
 of Europe and Africa, renounced his connection with the Alexan- 
 drian Church. A Jesuit, Alphonso Mendez, the Catholic patriarch 
 of Ethiopia, accepted, in the name of Urban VIII, the homage and 
 abjuration of his penitent, [in 1626.] ' I confess,' said the emperor 
 on his knees, ' I confess that the Pope is the vicar of Christ, the 
 successor of St Peter, and the sovereign of the world. To him I 
 swear true obedience, and at his feet I off"er my person and king- 
 dom.' A similar oath was repeated by his son, his brother, the 
 clergy, the nobles, and even the ladies of the court. The Latin 
 Patriarch was invested with honours and wealth, and his mission- 
 aries erected their churches or citadels in the most convenient sta- 
 tions in the empire. The Jesuits themselves deplore the fatal in- 
 discretion of their chief, who forgot the mildness of the gospel, and 
 the policy of his order, to introduce the liturgy of Rome and the 
 
DOINGS OF ROME IN ABYSSINIA. 73 
 
 inquisition of Portugal. He condemned the ancient practice of cir- 
 cumcision, which healtli, rather than superstition, had first invented 
 in the climate of Ethiopia. (?) A new baptism, a new ordination, was 
 inflicted on the natives, and they trembled with horror, when the 
 most holy of the dead were torn from their graves, when the most 
 illustrious of the living were excommunicated by a foreign priest. 
 In the defence of their religion and liberty the Abyssinians rose in 
 arms with desperate but unmerciful zeal. Five rebellions were ex- 
 tinguished in the blood of the insurgents ; whole legions were 
 slaughtered in the field, or suff'ocated in caverns ; and neither me- 
 rit, nor rank, nor sex, could save from an ignominious death the 
 enemies of Rome. But the victorious monarch was finally subdued 
 by the constancy of the nation, of his mother, of his son, and of his 
 most faithful friends. Segued listened to the voice of pity, of rea- 
 son, perhaps of fear ; and his edict of liberty of conscience instantly 
 revealed the tyranny and weakness of the Jesuits. On the death 
 of his father, Basilides expelled the Latin patriarch, and restored 
 to the wishes of the nation the faith and the discipline of Egypt. 
 The Monophysite churches resounded with a song of triumph 
 * That the sheep of Ethiopia were now delivered from the hyaenas 
 of the west ;' and the gates of that solitary realm were for ever shut 
 against the arts, the sciences, and the fanaticism of Europe."* 
 
 Within these few years Rome has recommenced her 
 mission to Abyssinia. A late announcement of her 
 position there is brief and emphatic, " Five priests of 
 the congregation of St Vincent, two brothers, a chapel, 
 a school, some hundreds of neophytes, are the humble 
 commencement of this work. But the old resentments 
 are dissipating, the name of Rome is blessed, and the 
 Ethiopians are turning with a pious curiosity towards 
 that supreme chair which has not forgotten them." 
 
 Letters which I have just received from natives of 
 Abyssinia inform me, that the agents of Rome at pre- 
 sent in that interesting country seem much inclined to 
 
 * Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. 47. — 
 For particular information on the matters here referred to, see 
 ' The Church-History of Ethiopia," by Dr Geddes, 1696. 
 
74 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 follow the example of their predecessors in their inter- 
 course with its inhabitants. Their apparent success, to 
 a small degree, in the accomplishment of the objects of 
 their mission, is to be attributed principally to bribery and 
 deception. Let them beware of all unrighteousness and 
 hypocrisy, for the day of reckoning may come sooner than 
 they expect. There are some around them who under- 
 stand both their character and their movements. 
 
 I shall not farther extend these painful details. I 
 conclude this lecture with some general observations, 
 which the facts which have passed before our notice, and 
 others of a similar character connected with the opera- 
 tions of the papal churches in the East, have forcibly 
 suggested to my mind. 
 
 1. Rome is well aware of the great importance of 
 establishing her influence in the lands in which the 
 eastern churches exist, not only because of their great 
 intrinsic importance, butbecause of the immense influence 
 for good or evil which they are destined to exert on the 
 other regions of the earth. The extensive and expen- 
 sive efibrts which she is making to effect their conver- 
 sion, are palpable proofs of the fact. Rome herself 
 most distinctly declares the estimate which she has form- 
 ed of them, and glories in the endeavours which she is 
 making in their behalf. When alluding to Western 
 Asia, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in 
 1840, says : — " These countries are surely the most 
 venerable in the world. There was the cradle of the 
 human race. There the miraculous calling of the hu- 
 man race was accomplished. There was placed, so to 
 speak, the theatre of profane antiquity, the scene of the 
 niiad, of Cyrus, and of Alexander. But above all, it 
 
GENERAL REMARKS. 75 
 
 is the soil which has been fertilized by the Saviour's 
 blood, and consecrated by his tomb ; the territory of the 
 primitive churches ; the native land of those countless 
 generations of martyrs, of anchorets, and teachers of the 
 faith. Finally, is it not to this region that an irresistible 
 influence seems to be drawing the partialities and inte- 
 rests of modern times, as if the destinies of the human 
 race must be decided in the very places whence they 
 parted to meet again — from the tower of Babel to the 
 valley of Jehoshaphat ? So also the Catholic Church 
 maintains a filial regard for that maternal land. She 
 avoids no expense to save her from calamity. She went 
 there to die and conquer in the middle age, with the 
 millions of the Crusaders ; she has watched there for six 
 centuries over the holy sepulchre, with the intrepid 
 monks, whom no outrage has discouraged ; she shows 
 herself there still, surrounded by all the lights of learn- 
 ing and all the treasures of charity, raising up, from 
 Smyrna to Tauris, fi*om Damascus to Beirut, her schools, 
 her colleges, her benevolent institutions, her apostolic 
 stations. There she encounters all the hostile systems 
 which the spirit of evil has raised up to oppose the truth. 
 Idolatry survives in the mysteries of the Druses ; the 
 Gnostic sects show themselves at some obscure points of 
 Mesopotamia ; Nestorianism sits among the ruins of its 
 ancient greatness ; the Eutychian delusion unites half 
 the population of Armenia and Chaldea ; the Greek 
 schism still sits in many episcopal chairs ; the Muham- 
 madan scourge chases before it the wandering flocks ; 
 and, in addition to aU the rest. Protestantism has lately 
 come to spread new snares, by scattering in all parts its 
 disfigured Bibles and slanderous tracts. It may be said 
 that aU lies clothe themselves in immortality under the 
 
76 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 heavens of the East, which seem to smite men and things 
 with an incapacity of change. Yet the signs of better 
 times are too plain to be misunderstood. The three 
 Musalman powers, among whom these vast regions are 
 divided, the Porte, Egypt, and Persia, all desire and so- 
 licit the benefits of Christian civilization. Their ambas- 
 sadors have appeared at the Vatican. A tolerance be- 
 fore unknown allows the preaching of the gospel to the 
 followers of Muhammed, and the word has not fallen 
 among them in vain. (?) Heresy has seen several of its 
 bishops return to our ranks. The water of baptism has 
 flowed upon the face of the Druses, whom neither in- 
 struction nor force had formerly been able to tame. (?) 
 Vainly does a powerful patronage attempt to rally the 
 schismatics of all denominations for the promotion of its 
 designs. Asia wiU see the dangers which are concealed 
 under that haughty protectorate.* The only disinte- 
 rested proselytism which seeks her conversion, she will 
 at length perceive, is that which belongs to no political 
 interest, to no earthly ambition — that of the holy Roman 
 Church." Much more to the same effect appears in other 
 similar documents, f Would that an equal zeal in behalf of 
 the lands of the Bible, of redemption, and of the ultimate 
 triumph of truth, were manifested by the churches of a 
 purer faith and a more holy practice ! Alas, that in the 
 matter of daring and devoted enterprise in any one part 
 of the world, there should be even the appearance of the 
 children of this world proving wiser in their generation 
 than the children of light ! If the Protestant Churches 
 
 * The allusion here, I suppose, is to Russia, the guardian of the 
 Greek Church, 
 
 t See especially the Report of the Society for the Propagation of 
 the Faith in 1844. 
 
GENERAL REMARKS. 77 
 
 of Britain and the Continent would but do their duty to 
 the Eastern Churches, as those of America, which give 
 the very flower of their missionary body to their evan- 
 gelical regeneration, the efforts of Rome, I am persuad- 
 ed, would not only be surpassed, but, to a great extent, 
 rendered abortive. 
 
 2. Rome has skilfully adapted her measures to the 
 exigencies of the people, whose attachment she has 
 sought to secure. Knowing the jealousy and fear with 
 which she is regarded by the different bodies of Oriental 
 Christians, she has, generally speaking, in the first in- 
 stance at least, gone very gently to work among them, 
 and sought to secure their attachment and respect by 
 works of charity, gifts of education, and offers of poli- 
 tical protection, which her known alliance with France 
 in particular has enabled her to present. That in thus 
 directing her agency, she has commonly acted with truth 
 and uprightness, I am very far from saying, for the very 
 contrary is the case ; but, according to mere huL .n ex- 
 pediency, she has thus acted prudently, and, to a groat 
 extent, successfully. Let her example be followed, only 
 in so far as it can be done openly, sincerely, disinterest- 
 edly, righteously. Let us render the poor, afflicted, de- 
 pressed, and persecuted eastern Christians, all the relief 
 which is in our power. Let the Protestant nations, who, 
 with others, support what is called the " integrity of the 
 Turkish empire," take care that in acknowledgment of 
 their support, ample toleration be granted within its wide 
 dominions to all who bear, or may choose to bear, the 
 Christian name in connexion with any communions which 
 have been formed, or may yet be formed. Let us seek 
 to secure liberty to the peaceful preacher of the gospel 
 in those very lands in which, under even the heathen 
 
78 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 government of Rome, the temple, the synagogue, and 
 the private apartment, the narrow street and the public 
 highway, the open plain and the lofty mount, the garden 
 and the wilderness, the bank of the river and the margin 
 of the sea, were equally consecrated and hallowed by 
 the Heavenly Teacher and his devoted apostles. Let us 
 give the blessings of a Christian and general education 
 in all their amplitude to the Eastern Christians ; and let 
 us acquire from them all the information respecting the 
 early history of the Christian Church, which they have 
 in their power to bestow upon us, who are indebted for 
 almost all the knowledge which we possess on the subject 
 to the Roman and Byzantine Fathers, to the almost total 
 neglect of those of Syria, Armenia, and Egypt. Let us 
 prepare for these churches, as soon as possible, a small 
 body of evangelical literature. The need of such a help 
 to the Eastern Churches is great indeed. Mr Graham, 
 the able and learned representative of the Presbyterian 
 Church at Damascus, has lately noticed, what I myself ob- 
 served in Syria, that almost all the Christian literature 
 of the East is in the hands of the Romanists ; and directed 
 my attention to some striking facts illustrative of the re- 
 mark. " The theology of Rome," he says, " her catechisms, 
 and the lives of her saints, have been translated into the 
 Arabic language, and assiduously circulated, I have 
 never heard of, or seen, a lexicon or grammar in the 
 Arabic tongue, the work of a Christian, which does not 
 belong to them. Anshimus, or Onesimus, the Greek 
 patriarch of Jerusalem and all Palestine, did, indeed, in 
 1792, publish a good commentary on the book of Psalms, 
 and a passable work on general and philosophical sub- 
 jects ; and within the present year, Mr Joseph Haddad 
 of this city, has, under the auspices of the patriarch of 
 
GENERAL REMARKS. 79 
 
 Antiocli and the Russian Consul-Greneral at Beirut, 
 translated into Arabic a famous catechism of the Mus- 
 covites. But these are the exceptions, and generally 
 speaking, the Greeks have neither literature nor learned 
 men amongst them. View in connexion with this state- 
 ment, the fact, that the Roman priests are a far better 
 educated, more diligent, and intelligent class of men 
 than those of the Greeks. In country districts the 
 Greek priest differs in no respects, save by the imposi- 
 tion of hands, from the peasants which surround him. 
 He cultivates his little farm like the rest of them, and 
 if on Sundays and festivals he is able to read over the 
 church service, nothing more is expected from him. 
 The Romish and Maronite priests, on the contrary, are 
 intelligent and educated men. They have been at 
 ' Aintiira or 'Ainteraz, or the Arabic college of Rome, and 
 are, in consequence, much better qualified to defend or 
 enlarge the boundaries of their church." Proper atten- 
 tion to the circumstances and situation of the Eastern 
 Churches, would deprive the Romanists of the monopoly 
 of these advantages. 
 
 3. Rome has used very dishonourable means, when 
 it has had the opportunity, of arraying the civil and 
 military powers on its side, in the different countries of 
 its proselyting enterprise. Connected with this subject, 
 had your time permitted, I might have submitted to 
 you the most harrowing details, particularly in reference 
 to the procedure of the Romanists on the mountains of 
 Malabar and Ethiopia, to which I have been contented to 
 make a mere allusion. It is alleged by those who watch 
 her movements in Syria, that she is not scrupulous about 
 stirring up opjDOsition to her rivals, and securing for herself 
 the desired privileges, by the basest measures. " Rome," 
 
80 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 says my friend Mr Graham, " has money. Not only has 
 she the states of the church, but "she has also a great 
 and untold revenue from the papal nations and churches 
 throughout the world. If a privilege is to be obtained 
 from the Porte the only means is money ; if a patriarch 
 is to be recognised and protected, the only means is 
 money ; if the unjust aggressions of the priests, as in 
 the case of the Nestorians, are to pass unpunished, the 
 07ily means is money. But the Porte has no predilec- 
 tion for Popery ? Be it so : the Nestorian, Armenian, 
 G-reek, Papist, and Protestant are all the same to the 
 Divan. But 
 
 " XguCo; avoiyzi Tavra xa/ aihou 'jrv'kagJ' 
 
 Or, let us use a less bold but equally classic illustration, 
 
 " Aurum per medios ire satellites 
 Et perrumpere amat saxa potentius, 
 Ictu fulmineo." 
 
 ' Nothing for nothing' is the motto, or at least the 
 practice, of the Ottoman Empire ; and in no quarter in 
 these lands can poor justice enter the lists with affluent 
 crime. The decision was given in favour of the Protest- 
 ants of Hasbeiya. They were ordered to return to their 
 habitations, and the authorities, civil and religious, 
 commanded to respect the principle of religious tolera- 
 tion. I read the order. Next day a hundred thousand 
 piastres reversed all this. In the times of peace, the 
 paths to preferment, in Moslem governments, are gold 
 and sodomy. No officer is expected to do simple justice, 
 much less to confer a favour, without a bribe. You 
 remember when we went to the governor of Nablus or 
 Shechem, in behalf of the persecuted Jews ; they pre- 
 sented him before our face with a bribe of tobacco 
 
GENERAL REMARKS. 81 
 
 This is expressed by the Arabs under the idea of eating. 
 They say of a corrupt public functionary, ' He eats a 
 great deal,' using the word in the sense of devour. 
 Rome hath a sop for Cerberus, and the canine Janitor 
 of the East is never so effectually quieted as by a savoury 
 joint. Rome also has high-sounding names and flatter- 
 ing titles at her command. It is said the Maronites 
 were first brought under fatal influence, by sending a 
 'pallium to their chief. A school and printing-press in 
 Mount Lebanon is dignified with the title of ' The 
 National Greek-Melchite College of A'interaz.' Vicars 
 and apostolic vicars, primates and patriarchs, and other 
 vain dignities of the present evil world, are not the least 
 effectual means by which the mother of abominations 
 has succeeded in corrupting the judgment and soothing 
 the vanity of mankind." The readiness of Rome, by re- 
 sorting to bribery, to encourage the Turkish authorities 
 in their unjust exactions, here alluded to by Mr Graham, 
 is well illustrated by the following extract of a letter from 
 one of her own emissaries to the east, M. Eugene Bore. 
 " In Turkey, the Christian can offer to God the prayers 
 and homage appointed by his liturgy, without ever fearing 
 that the governor or the iman, interfering with the interior 
 of the sanctuary, will disturb its rights and ceremonies. 
 But, through a capricious contradiction, this church in 
 which he is so free, he is not free to build. He must, 
 in the first instance, show an anterior title, acknowledged 
 by the Musalman authority, and proving that this place 
 was, before the conquest, dedicated to divine worship ; 
 otherwise, the erection of a monument would not be 
 permitted whose destination is opposed to the faith of 
 the Coran. It is true that we easily elude this legal in- 
 terdiction, and then, i^articularlij, we have recourse to 
 F 
 
82 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 the decisive argument of the richoet, a special wordy 
 which is happily unknown to our language and our 
 usages, as it expresses the present offered to the great 
 and to the judges to purchase their approbation. This 
 defect has invaded all classes of society, the palace, the 
 ministry, the divan or the tribunal of justice, the mosque, 
 the market, and the artizans' stall."* 
 
 4. Rome, in order to gain the admission of her su- 
 premacy in the Christian Church, as may be observed 
 u the case of every one of the Eastern Churches, is 
 ready, for the time being at least, to make no inconsider- 
 able compromise of her principles. Of this compromise 
 and accommodation, she actually boasts, having, in com- 
 munion with her in the Eastern Churches, to use her 
 own language, "people of six different rites," with "all 
 their ancient liturgies respected as so many monuments 
 of the unity of belief in the midst of the variety of rites 
 and discipline." There has been scarcely any limit, in 
 fact, to her concessions to the churches of which we 
 have been speaking ; and there is no saying to what 
 extent they may yet be developed. Mr Perkins in his 
 interesting work, entitled " A Residence of Eight Years 
 in Persia among the Nestorian Christians," says, " one 
 of the new^est measures that has been reported to us, 
 is an order purporting to be fresh from the Pope to his 
 agents in this region, to cmundze JVcstorius, whose 
 name and memory every papist has been required so 
 many centuries to curse, and to anathematize the 
 Lutherans, i. e. the Protestant Missionaries."! In the 
 view of what has been done in the East, we may clearly 
 
 * Annals of the Propagation of the Faith, March 1845, p. 71. 
 Rome has yet to learn the meaning of the divine maxim, that of 
 those who do evil that good may come, the damnation is just. 
 
 t P. 23. 
 
GENERAL REMARKS. S3 
 
 see, that to secure the assent of our own country to the 
 supremacy of the Pope, she would gladly permit the 
 formation of an Anglo-Catholic Church, not differing 
 in a single principle from the tenets and observances of 
 the Tractarians of Oxford, or of those who, perhaps 
 earlier settled in their own belief, fraternize with them 
 in Scotland. Even their ecclesiastical orders, she could 
 contrive to admit, overlooking, as in the East, the schisms 
 and heresies with which hitherto they have been asso- 
 ciated in her maternal eyes. 
 
 6. Great though the missionary efforts of Rome be 
 among the Eastern Churches and the heathen nations, 
 — to which the subject of my lectui-e does not call me 
 particularly to advert, — it is worthy of notice, that tak- 
 ing them as a whole, those of the Protestant Churches 
 already surpass them in magnitude and importance, as 
 far as the free and open dealing of mind with mind is 
 concerned. Such a statement as this may be entirely 
 novel to some of my auditors ; but it is one which I do 
 not rashly hazard. The contributions of the whole 
 papal world to the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Faith, which is now the universal nurse and support of 
 all its missions, when reduced to English money, at the 
 most favourable rate of exchange, amounted, in 1 843, to 
 no more than £165,131 : 7 : 3, which is not equal to 
 the income of two of our largest missionary societies. 
 I am aware that, in aid of this sum, old endowments 
 are to a large extent applied ; but making every al- 
 lowance for these, the whole sums expended by Pr(t- 
 testants in missionary efforts in partibiis in/idelium, are 
 annually double of those expended by Rome. In the dis- 
 semination of education, in the wielding of the press, and 
 in the work of public preaching, Protestanism is actually 
 
84 PAPAL EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 doing throughout the world an incalculably greater extent 
 of work than Romanism. It is instructing and training 
 the minds of nations in some quarters, while Rome is 
 content merely to allure individuals and bodies of men 
 to change by the promise of secular advantages, and 
 the fictitious S23lendour of her idolatrous and theatrical 
 services. It is in the number of her foreign adherents 
 in all parts of the world, principally that Rome has the 
 advantage of us ; but these adherents are the fruit of 
 her missions when the Protestant Churches were doing 
 nothing abroad, and not, generally speaking, of the mis- 
 sionary effort of the present day, extended though it be in 
 the different regions of the world. In the distribution of 
 her missionary force, which, as in the case of the Eastern 
 Churches, is regulated by consummate wisdom, she ex- 
 cels us too ; but Christian union and consultation, I 
 trust, will not long permit her exclusively to possess 
 this advantage. I say nothing of the fact here, that so 
 many of the kings of the earth are still giving their 
 power and authority to the beast, except to direct our 
 attention to that grand cardinal truth, which must ever 
 support the faith and animate the endeavours of the 
 friends of the truth, that their exalted Saviour has on 
 his vesture and on his thigh a name written " King of 
 kings and Lord of lords." Though the last struggle be- 
 tween truth and error may probably not be far distant, 
 and though it may be unexampled in its terrors and its 
 consequences, Christ, and not Antichrist, is finally to 
 triumph in this guilty and depraved world. 
 
 6. If Protestantism, the religion of the Bible, become 
 soon aggressive to the extent that it might, defections 
 may be expected from the Papal Eastern Churches, as 
 well as from other communities attached to Rome. The 
 
GENERAL REMARKS. 85 
 
 cry " Come out of her my people," is not being made in 
 these Western parts of the world at present, without 
 meeting with a response from multitudes ; and it will 
 probably not be made in the East altogether in vain. 
 Notwithstanding the fearful corruption and obscuration 
 of divine truth by the Romish Church, there may be 
 many individuals, especially in those countries where her 
 domination has not been challenged for ages, who may 
 be seeking for the truth as it is in Jesus, and who, by 
 the grace of the Spirit of God, may be ready to receive 
 it when it is offered to their attention. That truth, 
 let us convey to them in the spirit of humble be- 
 nevolence. Let us proclaim liberty to the captive, and 
 the opening of the prison to them that are bound ; and 
 the acceptable year of the Lord may speedily arrive. 
 In all our dealings with Romanism, let us proceed ac- 
 cording to the dictates of principle, and not the injuri- 
 ous impulses of prejudice. Let us show to those who 
 have been subjected to its influence, that we really de- 
 sire and seek their welfare, their true exaltation and not 
 their humiliation, God's glory and not our own honour. 
 Let us seek the divine blessing ; and his own work will 
 prosper in our hands. 
 
87 
 
 LECTURE IL 
 
 ON THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 
 BY JOHN FORBES, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 MINISTER OF FHEE ST PACL'.S. GLASGOW. 
 
 It has been universally admitted by writers upon 
 both sides, that, at the beginning of the 16th century, the 
 Papal Church had reached the extreme of corruption 
 and dissoluteness : ignorance, indolence, avarice, and 
 voluptuousness, prevailed throughout all grades of the 
 hierarchy, from the highest to the lowest ; whilst the 
 overwhelming influence at its disposal, exercised so un- 
 sparingly in persecuting those who opposed its errors or 
 condemned its views, reduced the enlightened and the 
 virtuous to the inaction of despair, sighing for all the 
 abominations which were done in the midst thereof. 
 The Waldenses were too feeble and secluded to operate 
 with effect upon the general state of sentiments and 
 manners throughout Europe ; whilst the Bohemian refor- 
 mers, the disciples of Huss, were not only divided among 
 themselves ; but worn out by a long series of contentions, 
 no longer continued to lift up an effective testimony. 
 The individuals who filled the Papal chair at this period, 
 were, to a remarkable degree, at once an evidence of the 
 
88 THE REFORMATION 
 
 depravity of the system which could permit their eleva- 
 tion to such distinction, and gave a decided impulse 
 to the degeneracy to which they owed their aggrandize- 
 ment, by patronizing and encouraging all the abuses of 
 the age. That neither the scandalous crimes of Alexan- 
 der VI., nor the mihtary ferocity of Julius II., dissipated 
 the blind homage which superstition paid to their office ; 
 nor even weakened their authority as the pretended 
 Vicars of Christ, and the Heads of the church on earth, 
 may well authenticate the deep and hopeless prostration 
 of mind to which a lengthened spiritual despotism had 
 reduced the nations of Europe. It may accordingly be 
 described to have been " a day of darkness and of gloomi- 
 ness ; a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morn- 
 ing spread upon the mountains," which ushered in the 
 era of the Reformation. Suddenly and unexpectedly 
 a light appeared in the universal gloom : but small and 
 seemingly unequal at its first gleam to effect any great 
 or permanent alteration on the degeneracy, by collision 
 with which it had been ignited ; but waxing brighter and 
 brighter, it cast a broader and a stronger ray over the 
 nations, till one great mind after another caught the 
 sacred fire ; and all Europe at length felt the unwonted 
 illumination — sending error and vice to their refuges 
 and hiding place, whilst Truth lifted her head, and 
 Piety came forth unfettered to worship the God of 
 heaven. 
 
 In leading your consideration to the great work of 
 the Reformation, we cannot pretend, within the limits 
 to which we are necessarily restricted, even to give a 
 summary of the various eminent individuals who were 
 connected with the cause — the events which successively 
 marked its progress, and influenced its history — nor the 
 
IN GERMANY. 89 
 
 stupendous and eminently blessed consequences in whicli 
 it issued, whether as regards the religion, liberty, civil 
 and spiritual, or the sciences and civilization of modern 
 times. But referring you for the filling up of the out- 
 line which we mean to give to Seckendorf, Luther's 
 works, Maimbourg, Mosheim, and Milner, and we need 
 scarcely add the name of an author, at once so recent 
 and decidedly popular as D'Aubigne ; we shall, with- 
 out further preface, proceed to submit such views con- 
 cerning this mighty conflict of principle, as may contri- 
 bute to deepen our convictions of the importance of the 
 truths contended for, — the value of the victories achieved 
 by the Reformers, and the responsibility under which 
 we lie of maintaining the gi'ound they so nobly gained, 
 and of proceeding in their spirit to revive and spread 
 the work of reformation with renewed energy both at 
 home and throughout the continental nations. 
 
 Many secondary causes, which it is instructive and 
 conducive to the future development of the subject now 
 to notice, contributed their influence in preparing the 
 way, with various efi&cacy, for the great revival and ex- 
 tension of pure Christianity, which Luther and his brother 
 reformers were instrumental in originating and carrying 
 forward to such a triumphant extent. One of these, to 
 which we shall afterwards have occasion to allude more 
 particularly, was the invention of the art of printing in 
 1440, forty-three years prior to the birth of Luther, and 
 the revival of learning, to which it gave a powerful in- 
 fluence. Averse to allow the benefits of instruction to be 
 difiused, the Papacy, with the exception of some of its 
 higher orders, arrayed itself against the revival of learning ; 
 whilst it formed a bond of union between the Reformers 
 and the learned, and afibrded the means of circulating 
 
90 THE REFORMATION 
 
 their writings, and in particular the translation of the 
 Bible into German by Luther, with unexampled rapidity 
 and extent. The family of the Medici, of whom Leo X., 
 who succeeded Julius in the Papal chair, was de- 
 scended, zealously encouraged the revival of learning, 
 and perhaps on this account the pontiff gave that favour- 
 able consideration to the career of Luther, which he is 
 known to have expressed at an early period of the Re- 
 formation, by saying to one who shewed him some of 
 Luther's writings, " Brother Martin is a man of very fine 
 genius, and these squabbles are the mere efiusions of mo- 
 nastic envy." At that stage, Luther, to use the ironi- 
 cal expression of Erasmus, had but touched the bellies 
 of the monks, and not the crown of the Pope ; and a 
 pontiff who plumed himself on his patronage of letters, 
 could excuse the efforts of a genius which was under- 
 stood to make war only with the ignorance of the mo- 
 nastic orders. 
 
 Another circumstance which proved auspicious to the 
 budding of the Reformation, was the intense and almost 
 universal desire which began to prevail, that a General 
 Council might be called, to check the evils of the 
 church, and io regulate many important matters con- 
 nected with its government. Princes and statesmen felt 
 solicitous to see some restrictions laid upon the exorbi- 
 tant sums drawn from their people, to support the pride 
 and luxury of the papal court and its various dependants. 
 All who were not dead to the interests of morality and 
 religion were concerned to see the unnatural laws of 
 Rome concerning the priesthood reformed, and a per- 
 mission to marry allowed, to put an end to the heinous 
 crimes which were occasioned by the existing laws. The 
 power of the Pope was more threatened in France than 
 
IN GERMANY. 91 
 
 in Grermany, whicli led to a greater jealousy about the 
 state of the former than that of the latter country, in 
 consequence of the abrogation of the Pragmatic Sanc- 
 tion, the great charter of the liberties of the Galilean 
 Church, and the substitute of the Concordat between 
 Leo and France. Every church chose its bishop, and 
 very monastery its abbey, under the Pragmatic Sanc- 
 tion, agreeably to the principles of election to ecclesias- 
 tical offices in the earliest times of the church. The 
 Pope gave the entire patronage to the king, and as a 
 return received the annates or first-fruits of all the 
 benefices which became vacant. " The raging thirst of 
 domination that consumed those pontifis, and their arro- 
 gant endeavours to crush and oppress all that came 
 within their reach, was accompanied with the most insa- 
 tiable avarice. All the provinces of Europe were in a 
 manner drained to enrich these ghostly tyrants, who 
 were perpetually gaping after new accessions of wealth, 
 in order to augment the number of their fi'iends and the 
 stability of their dominions."* 
 
 Another cause which the intelligent student of this 
 eventful period cannot but often have occasion to no- 
 tice, was connected with the remarkable political move- 
 ments of the age, and their bearing on the protection or 
 advancement of the Reformation. Thus in the diet of 
 the German Empire, just as the condition of Luther be- 
 came critical and perilous in the extreme, the Emperor 
 Maximilian died, and Frederic Elector of Saxony, the 
 reformer's friend, patron, and disciple, became during 
 the interregnum the head of the empire, and the chief 
 source of power. Though solicited to become a candi- 
 date for the high office, he declined the distinction, and 
 * Mosheim's Church History, p. 12. 
 
92 THE REFORMATION 
 
 gave his casting vote, in a competition between Charles 
 V. of Spain and Francis I. of France, in favour of the for- 
 mer, who thus became emperor. Gratitude, combined with 
 that respect in which the character and talents of Frederic 
 were universally held, gave him the greatest influence 
 with the young emperor, who, on many occasions, was 
 led to disappoint the desires, and refuse the sanguinary 
 requests of Eome, urging Luther to be surrendered to 
 the power of his enemies. Besides, the wars between 
 Francis and Charles so occupied the attention of the 
 latter, that he had little leisure to give to civil or reli- 
 gious affairs, so that the work of the Reformation had 
 attained a maturity and vigour before these causes 
 ceased to operate, that it was impossible thereafter for 
 the power of Charles to do it any injury. 
 
 But in enumerating the favourable circumstances 
 which contributed to protect and secure the Reforma- 
 tion, it would be injustice not to dwell in a more parti- 
 cular manner on the services rendered to it by the piety, 
 prudence, protection, and countenance of the Prince 
 already referred to. It is impossible not to acknowledge 
 the wisdom and goodness of Divine Providence in rais- 
 ing up in this prince, one who had so many admirable 
 qualities for the important relation in which he stood to 
 the men and the work, which have given an imperishable 
 name to his electorate and reign. With the deepest 
 conscientiousness, and a remarkable firmness, he was 
 characterised by a caution in forming his opinions and 
 taking his courses amounting almost to an excess ; and 
 felt the utmost dread to proceed either too fast or too 
 far, even in what he felt to be, in the general strain, the 
 cause of Divine truth. Thus he calmed the apprehen- 
 sions of the other princes of the empire, who might have 
 
IN GERMANY. 98 
 
 been alarmed for the consequences had a less prudent 
 patron been politically at the head of the Reformation, 
 — whilst his private counsels, and respect for his wishes, 
 exercised a happy effect in tempering the spirit and ac- 
 tions of the reformers themselves. The very qualities 
 in Frederic which looked like a defect of zeal and de- 
 cision were overruled for good, — and like the inertness, 
 not without its own range of activity nevertheless, of 
 that part of an engine which imparts equability to its mo- 
 tions, and restrains a violence which might effect a dis- 
 location of its parts, and the total destruction of its 
 action ; his calmness, moderation, and slowness, com- 
 bined, as thej were, with a full appreciation of the jus- 
 tice of the reformers' cause, and the excellence of their 
 spirit, exercised a most happy influence upon the pro- 
 gress of that great movement, which doubtless shall con- 
 tinue to go on until the whole earth shall be filled with 
 the knowledge of the Lord, and only cease when the 
 voice of the angel shall put an arrest upon all sublunary 
 agencies, and terminate the whole movements of pro- 
 vidence, by proclaiming that time shall be no longer. 
 
 But the gnmd immediate and direct cause of this un- 
 paralleled awakening of the general mind of modem 
 Christendom, to the truths, motives, and privileges of 
 evangelical religion, with its duties and ends — must 
 be ascribed solely to the grace of God bestowed upon 
 the men who were raised up, and so remarkably en- 
 dowed with natural gifts and talents, eminent learn- 
 ing, and above all, with love to God, zeal for the 
 honour of the Saviour, and desii'e to save souls from 
 the wiles of Satan, and the snares of an anti-christian 
 apostasy in the centre of Germany and Europe. Of 
 the man of all others whose name is most closely asso- 
 
94 THE REFORMATION 
 
 ciated with the movement both by friends and foes — 
 the solitary monk who moved the world, — it is diffi- 
 cult to speak in a manner w^orthy of his admirable en- 
 dowments, without appearing to substitute eulogy for 
 narration, and the idolatry of the creature, which above 
 all things he abhorred, for the just acknowledgment of the 
 grace and talents which God bestowed upon him, and 
 enabled him to exercise with admirable power and effect. 
 Brought into contact and comparison with the great 
 men of a period of surpassing intellectual and moral 
 superiority, and surrounded by contemporaries and co- 
 adjutors, each worthy of holding a high place in the es- 
 timation of posterity, as has been fully conceded to 
 them, Luther possessed a combination of great and 
 splendid qualities, which at once engage our attention 
 to him as the principal personage in the group, and place 
 him above any of the princes and great men in Israel, 
 who had appeared since the days of the apostles. 
 
 Amongst the natural peculiarities of Luther's mind, 
 some exercised so remarkable an influence upon his 
 character and proceedings, that it is impossible not to 
 be struck with the circumstance, and to admire the hap- 
 py effect with which they purified, without impairing the 
 reformer's zeal, and regulated his conduct. He had what 
 may be termed a decidedly conservative temperament or 
 disposition ; in other words, an aversion to change merely 
 for the sake of change ; and a slowness in arriving at his 
 conviction of the necessity of the various steps in the work 
 of reformation, in which he successively proceeded to cut 
 off the many heads of the Hydra of papal corruption. 
 His was a judgment too solid, a sincerity too deep, 
 and a charity too benignant, to permit him to strain 
 after distinction by propounding mere novelties, or even 
 
IN ger:many. 95 
 
 to assume the existence of evils which demanded eradi- 
 cation before his conscience was fully enlightened with 
 regard to the necessity of the case. But in Luther, as 
 is generally the case with men of the same character, 
 this disposition was united with an admirable firmness 
 of resolution ; so that whatever position he undertook to 
 defend, it was with the indomitable determination not 
 to retract a single hairbreadth. Doubtless, grace ex- 
 ercised in this department of his character a decided in- 
 fluence, — by increasing his conviction of the sacredness 
 of the cause in which he was engaged ; but it is impos- 
 sible to conceive of Luther as acting in any other spirit 
 but that of a grave, sincere, staunch, incorruptible man. 
 His mind was decidedly German, and in his rich par- 
 ticipation of the elements of the national character, he 
 with instinctive readiness appreciated the feelings and 
 views of his countrymen, and was himself understood 
 better than any other of the leading men of the time. 
 And in short, he may bo regarded as in some measure 
 the type and representative of the serious and intelligent 
 classes in all ranks of society throughout the German 
 confederation. The grave and serious spirit of Luther 
 strongly recommended him as a safe leader in a mighty 
 conflict of principle, and at the same time lessened that 
 apprehension of violence and disorder which the enemies 
 of the truth might have been able to excite, had a more 
 Phgetonic spirit been seen to have taken into his hands 
 the reins of innovation. At the outset of his career, 
 Luther had no conception of the magnitude and import- 
 ance of the impending Reformation. He came forth as 
 a conscientious and enlightened Romanist, merely to 
 wage war with one of the rampant abuses of a corrupt 
 church, which in his charity he conceived that the higher 
 
96 THE REFORjVIATION 
 
 authorities, on its being exposed, would repudiate and 
 condemn. You are doubtless all fully aAvare of the par- 
 ticular circumstances which first called him forth into 
 the arena of polemical discussion, and of the remarkable 
 dealings of God with his own soul preparatory to the 
 distinguished course which he was destined to pursue. 
 He was born in 1483, at Eisleben ; his father being a su- 
 perintendent, and ultimately a proprietor, in the mines 
 of that place, who discharged public offices there, and 
 was esteemed by all men for his integrity. In 1505 his 
 son resolved, in opposition to the wishes of his father, to 
 enter a monasteiy, with a view to lead a monastic life ; 
 from a sudden resolution, alleged to have been formed 
 under the deep concern produced on his mind by the 
 death of a young friend who was killed by his side dur- 
 ing a storm of thunder and lightning. The awakened 
 conscience of Luther found no relief from its convictions 
 of sin, in the habit and monastic rules of his new condi- 
 tion; and in the depth of his dejection and melancholy, 
 he disclosed his mind to Staupitz, the vicar-general of 
 the order of the Augustine Monks in Clermany. This 
 individual has the credit of having been a kind and ju- 
 dicious friend and adviser of Luther, both in regard to 
 the concerns of his soul and in some of his subsequent 
 public proceedings; but at length drew away as the 
 battle of the Reformation thickened, and contented 
 himself with sinking into the condition of the holder of 
 the wealthy abbacy of Saltzbui-g, leaving it to others to 
 bear their part in the contendings of the age for Christian 
 truth. 
 
 "You do not know," said Staupitz to Luther, as if 
 with a supernatural foresight into the remarkable future 
 which was then about to open; "you do not know how 
 
IN GERIMANY. 97 
 
 useful and necessary this trial may be to you. God 
 does not thus exercise you for nothing. You will one 
 day see that he will employ you as his servant for great 
 purposes.'' In the second year after entering the mo- 
 nastery, when twenty-four years of age, he appears to 
 have experienced the work of conversion in his soul, and 
 to have been born again by the Holy Spirit. Accident- 
 ally finding, in the library of the monastery, a Latin Bible, 
 he began to read it with surprise and interest, and in a 
 prayerful spirit, when his understanding became gradu- 
 ally enlightened to know and receive the divine remedy 
 provided for us in the righteousness of Christ, so that 
 his soul became enriched with evangelical comfort and 
 peace. None can sufficiently understand the deep strug- 
 gle through which he had to pass, without reading in 
 D'Aubigne the exercises of his mind under the work 
 of the law, and the fruitless nature of all the painful and 
 zealous efforts which he made to provide a righteous- 
 ness and peace for himself by his own merits. In 1507, 
 he was called to the Professorship of Theology in the 
 university of Wittemberg, where he also officiated as pastor 
 latterly, and where the Reformation had its commence- 
 ment. During this part of his life, he was sent to Rome 
 in 1510. Suffice it only to add, that Luther was called 
 by Staupitius to exercise the office of Subaltern Vicar, 
 and had forty monasteries under his charge, which he 
 was requested to visit. These facts are important, as 
 shewing the estimation in which his worth and talents 
 were held, and have not only restrained the papal his- 
 torians from injuring his reputation, but forced them to 
 acknowledge, as Maimbourg has done, his eminent quali- 
 ties. The delineation of him by the Jesuit historian, 
 though evidently drawn up with a view to detract as much 
 
98 THE REFORMATION 
 
 as possible from his worth, may be perused with interest. 
 " He possessed a great and penetrating genius : he was 
 indefatigable in his studies, and frequently so absorbed 
 in them, as to abstain from meat whole days together. 
 He acquired a great knowledge of languages and the 
 fathers. He was remarkably strong and healthy, and 
 of a sanguine choleric temperament. His eyes were 
 piercing and full of fire. His voice sweet ; and vehement 
 when once fairly raised. He had a stern countenance, 
 and though most intrepid and high-spirited, he could 
 assume the appearance of modesty and humility when- 
 ever he pleased, which however was not often the case. 
 In his breast was lodged plenty of food for pride and 
 presumption : hence his indiscriminate contempt of what- 
 ever opposed his heresies : hence his brutal treatment 
 of kings, emperors, the pope, and of every thing in the 
 world that is deemed most sacred and inviolable. Pas- 
 sionate, resentful, and domineering, he was continually 
 aiming to distinguish himself by venting novel doctrines, 
 and on no occasion would he retract what he had once 
 advanced. He maintained that Aristotle, Thomas 
 Aquinas, Scotus, Bonaventura, and others, had under- 
 mined the foundations of true philosophy and of Chris- 
 tian theology ; and he endeavoured to raise up a system 
 of his own upon the ruin of those very great geniuses. 
 This is an exact portrait of Martin Luther, of whom it 
 may be truly said, there was in the man a great mixture 
 both of good and of bad quahties. The bad predomi- 
 nated; but he was abundantly more corrupt in his 
 thoughts and sentiments than in his life and manners. 
 He was always reckoned to live sufficiently blameless 
 while he remained in the monastery, and till he absolutely 
 ruined all his good qualities by his heresies." 
 
IN GERMANY. 99 
 
 - From 1507 to 1517, a period of ten years, Luther 
 was employed in the duties of his professorship and as 
 vicar. At this period Tetzel, a Dominican monk, had 
 received a commission from Albert, Archbishop of 
 Mentz and Magdeburgh, to preach and proclaim the 
 indulgences of Leo X, which administered the remis- 
 sion of all sins, past, present, and to come, to those 
 who were rich enough to purchase them. This person 
 had previously signalized himself by the success which 
 he had in the same unholy traffic, and by his shame- 
 less effrontery and impieties was w^ell fitted to force 
 his wares upon the acceptance of a deluded and super- 
 stitious people. Riding upon a mule, having a large red 
 cross carried before him, the sign of his official authority, 
 he was received by crowds in the different towns, who 
 thronged to hear the merits of his indulgences, and to 
 purchase the inestimable advantages which they offered. 
 Not to pollute our pages with all the gross ribaldry and 
 outrageous profaneness which he is reported to have 
 used on these occasions, he is alleged among other things 
 to have said, " that he had saved more souls from hell 
 by these indulgences, than St Peter had converted to 
 Chi-istianity ; the soul of your father and mother may go 
 to heaven in the very moment in which the money is 
 cast into the chest." The reason assigned for thi?^ 
 crusade upon the purses of the Germans, was to meet 
 the drain made upon the treasury of the Pope, by the 
 building of St Peter's ; and there can be no doubt that it 
 was a method of levying supplies, which was deemed very 
 unworthy by many of the more enlightened in the Catholic- 
 communion. Hume pretends that the offence done to 
 the Augustines, in taking the work from them and giving it 
 to the Domincans, was the reason why the zealous Sub- 
 
100 THE REFORMATION 
 
 altern-vicar of tlie Augustine monks began the con- 
 troversy with Tetzel. But the Augustine monks were 
 never employed by the pontiffs in this matter, and so 
 scandalous was it, that they had no reason to desire it, 
 as even the Dominicans and Franciscans opposed it pub- 
 licly, both in their discourses and in their wiitings. 
 
 A very remarkable feature in this controversy, which 
 we cannot too highly appreciate, from its being the 
 opening question of the Reformation, consisted in the 
 circumstance, that it led more directly and immediately 
 than almost any other to a discussion of the grand vital 
 truth of Christianity — the divinely appointed method 
 of a sinner's acceptance with God. As a matter of ho- 
 nesty and good faith, in which the interests of public 
 morality were deeply involved, it was material to check 
 the fraudulent practices which Tetzel, and others similarly 
 engaged, were pursuing ; as it could not fail, sooner or 
 later, to bring discredit, not only upon those immediately 
 concerned, but upon religion itself. And as an economic 
 matter, affecting the wealth of Germany, it was not with- 
 out its importance. Like the discussion concerning the 
 Holy Coat of Treves, it was highly right and necessary to 
 expose fraud and avarice, and that the more when prac- 
 tised under the sanction of the sacred name of religion, 
 and by the professed ministers of the cause of truth and 
 righteousness. But all these considerations are of very 
 inferior importance, compared with the spiritual light in 
 which Luther was j^repared to view the matter, — as 
 trampling on the knowledge of the glory of God in con- 
 nexion with the only way of salvation, and as shutting 
 up the kingdom of heaven ; whilst it drove men to the 
 use of the most false and ruinous means in a subject 
 vrhere, of all others, they most needed and required to be 
 
IN GERMANY. 101 
 
 directed by the sure guidance of Scripture. His own mind 
 long previous to this, had been taught to feel the import- 
 ance and efficacy of the doctrine of justification through 
 the infinite merits of the Saviour ; and he was grieved 
 to perceive how little this was known during his age, 
 and other means resorted to for purchasing reconciliation 
 and peace with God. 
 
 Thus, in 1516, in a letter to a friend, you find him 
 saying, " I desire to know what your soul is doing ; 
 whether, wearied at length of its own righteousness, 
 it learns to refresh itself and to rest in the righteous- 
 ness of Christ. The temptation to presumption in our 
 age is strong in many, and especially in those who la- 
 bour to be great and good with all their might, and at 
 the same time are ignorant of the righteousness of God, 
 which in Christ is conferred upon us with a rich exube- 
 rance of gratuitous liberality. They seek in themselves 
 to work that which is good, in order that they may have 
 a confidence of standing before God adorned with virtues 
 and merits, which is an impossible attempt. You, my 
 Mend, used to be of this same opinion, or rather, this 
 same mistake ; so was I, but now I am fighting against 
 the error, but have not prevailed." One who saw so 
 olearly, and felt so deeply, the danger of those who seek 
 in themselves to work that which is good, to have a 
 ground of confidence in their merits before God, could not 
 but be utterly grieved and horrified to think on the arts 
 by which Tetzel trifled with the interests of souls, by in- 
 ducing them to depend upon the fictitious virtue of un- 
 scriptural and delusive indulgences. There are some 
 who, in later times, have termed Protestantism a cold 
 and lifeless system of negation ; but certainly such was 
 not the Protestantism of Luther or of the Reformers : 
 
102 
 
 THE REFORMATION 
 
 and they but discover their ignorance of the spirit and 
 principles of those eminent men, who can for a moment 
 regard their cause in such a light. They loved the truth, 
 in its divine fulness and spirituality, which reveals to us 
 that salvation is wholly of grace, through the merits of 
 Jesus ; and it was to present and commend this that they 
 regarded as the grand end for which they braved so 
 many dangers, and incurred such an amount of toil 
 and exertion. Luther's controversial writings all prove, 
 that it was in this solemn light that he habitually view- 
 ed the question. "A Christian," he says, "may be- 
 come a partaker of the grace of Christ without ponti- 
 fical indulgences. A Christian may glory that in Christ 
 he has all things ; that all the righteousness and merits 
 of Christ are his own, by virtue of that spiritual union 
 with him which he has by faith ; and on the other hand, 
 that all his sins are no longer his, but that Christ, through 
 the same union, bears the burden of them. And this 
 is the confidence of Christians — this is the refreshment 
 of their consciences, that by faith our sins cease to be ours 
 judicially, because they are laid on him, the Lamb of 
 Grod that taketh away the sins of the world." 
 
 That he was not insensible to the other evils con- 
 nected with this traffic, is indeed true : but he intimates 
 that these had become the subject of public discontent 
 and hatred against the hierarchy, and needed little to 
 excite them to greater strength. " I was compelled in 
 my conscience," he continues, " to expose the scandalous 
 sale of indulgences. I saw some seduced by them into 
 mischievous errors, others tempted into an audacious 
 profaneness. In a word, the proclaiming and selling of 
 pardons proceeded to such unbounded licentiousness, 
 that the holy church and its authorities became subjects 
 
IN GERMANY. 103 
 
 of open derision in the public taverns. There was no 
 occasion to excite the hatred of mankind against priests 
 to a greater degree. The avarice and 23rofligacy of the 
 clergy had for many years past kindled the indignation 
 of the laity. Alas ! they have not a particle of respect 
 and honour for the priesthood, except what solely arises 
 from fear of punishment ; and I speak plainly, unless 
 their dislike and their objections be attended to and 
 moderated, not by mere power, but by substantial rea- 
 sons and reformations, all these evils will grow worse." 
 
 Strong in the importance and goodness of his cause, 
 and in the integrity and uprightness of his views and in- 
 tentions, Luther stood fast amidst all the various cur- 
 rents which were stirred into commotion with a view to in- 
 duce him to fall from his stedfastness. It is not our pro- 
 vince to go into minute details on the progress of the great 
 controversy : but it may not be without its use, to bring 
 into view the policy which Rome pursued against the 
 reformers from this period, and the influence produced 
 by it in sifting the genuine friends of the gospel from the 
 mere nominal adherents of the cause ; whilst it tended 
 to awaken the mind of Luther to a more full xiew of the 
 anti-christian apostasy against which he was engaged. 
 
 On the 31st October 1517, he published his 95th 
 theses, or propositions on the doctrines of penance, chari- 
 ty, indulgences, and purgatory, which he affixed to the 
 church adjacent to the castle of Wittemberg, and to which 
 a challenge to a public disputation were subjoined, accord- 
 ing to the practice of the age in regard to theological 
 and philosophical controversies, with a request to all who 
 might not be able to attend to transmit their observa- 
 tions in writing. Referring to this period in the preface 
 to his works, he says, " You will find in my earlier 
 
104 THE REFORMATION 
 
 writings, with how much humility, on many occasions, 
 I gave up very considerable points to the Pope, which 
 I now detest as blasphemous and abominable in the high- 
 est degree. This error my slanderei"S call inconsistency ; 
 but you, pious reader, will have the kindness to make 
 some allowance on account of the times, and my inexpe- 
 rience. I stood absolutely alone at first, and certainly 
 I was very unlearned, and very unfit to undertake mat- 
 ters of such vast importance. It was by an accident, 
 and not willingly or by design, that I fell into these vio- 
 lent disputes, I call God to witness. In the year 1517, 
 when I was a young preacher, I dissuaded the people 
 from purchasing indulgences, telling them that they 
 might employ their time much better than in listening 
 to the greedy proclaimers of that scandalous article of 
 sale. I felt assured that I should have the Pope on my 
 side, for he himself, in his public decrees, had condemned 
 the excesses of his agents in that business. My next 
 step was to complain to my ordinary, and also to the 
 Archbishop of Mentz ; but I knew not at that time that 
 half of the money went to the last-mentioned prelate, 
 and the other half to the Pope. The remonstrances, of a 
 low, mean, poor brother in Christ had no weight. Thus 
 despised, I published a brief account of the dispute, 
 along with a sermon in the German language on the 
 subject of indulgences, and very soon after I published 
 also explanations of my sentiments, in which, for the 
 honour of the Pope, I contended that indulgences were 
 not entirel}^ to be condemned, but that real works of 
 charity were of far more consequence. This was to 
 set the world on fire, and to disturb the whole order of 
 the universe. At once against me single, the whole 
 popedom arose." 
 
IN GERMANY. 105 
 
 Tetzel, relying on the powerful protection of the 
 patrons by whom he was put forward, persisted, with 
 resolute effrontery, in his impious traffic ; and even pro- 
 ceeded to defend himself, by opposing to Luther's Theses 
 106 propositions justificatory of his proceedings, and in- 
 tended to overthrow the principles laid down by the 
 Reformer. But such conduct only excited the indig- 
 nation of men beyond all bounds ; and so zealous were 
 the people of Wittemberg in testifying their detestation 
 both of his cause and his defence, that they burned his 
 writings with every mark of disapprobation and igno- 
 miny, a circumstance which Luther not only did not 
 authorize, but which he regarded with much grief. 
 
 The enemies of the truth at fii'st endeavoured to re- 
 present this controversy as a mere political measure, 
 which the Elector of Saxony had instigated Luther to 
 commence, with a view to disgrace and injure the Arch- 
 bishop of Mentz, — a rumour which, perhaps, they propa- 
 gated with a view to draw forth some strong disclaimer 
 from the elector, and by detaching him from the cause 
 of the Reformer, to get him to deliver him more readily 
 into their power. 
 
 At the same time two celebrated Romanists, Eckius 
 of Ingolstadt, and Prierias, a Dominican master, of the 
 sacred palace at Rome, not willing to leave the defence 
 of their cause in the hands of Tetzel, opened a contro- 
 versy with Luther, which the Reformer conducted on 
 his part with an ability and moderation, which even his 
 enemies have acknowledged. The representations of 
 the Emperor Maximilian to Pope Leo, respecting the 
 rapid extension of the principles of the Reformer in 
 Germany, and the necessity of checking their progress, 
 induced the pontiff to summon Luther to Rome, to 
 
106 THE REFORMATION 
 
 vindicate his conduct before the tribunal of the Head 
 of the Church. Frederic, honourably distinguished by 
 historians as the iVisf, protested that the cause of Luther 
 belonged to the jurisdiction of a German tribunal, and 
 that it ought to be decided by the ecclesiastical laws of 
 the empire. The pontiff yielded to this remonstrance, 
 and ordered Luther to appear before Cardinal Cajetan, 
 then legate at the diet of Augsburg, to justify his prin- 
 ciples and proceedings ; a step which in its issue widened 
 the division which it was intended to heal. The haughty 
 and imperious disposition of the cardinal would not 
 permit him to enter into any discussion with Luther on 
 the merits of the cause, and demanded a distinct and 
 absolute recantation as the only condition of his recon- 
 ciliation with Rome. At one of the interviews the Re- 
 former, on being charged with having transgressed the 
 bull of Clement VI., defining the nature and extent of 
 indulgences, pleaded the authority of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures in his defence, as having more weight than a pon- 
 tifical decision. Cajetan in reply exalted the authority 
 of the Pope above all councils, above the church, and 
 even above the scriptures themselves. To this Luther 
 opposed the appeal of the University of Paris, whose 
 reputation always stood high, as the parent of science 
 and the defender of the purest Christianity. Cajetan 
 in a rage declared that the Parisians would meet with 
 due punishment, and that Gerson, whose writings Luther 
 had quoted, was damned, together with all his followers. 
 This proud son of the church maintained to the most 
 extreme extent the efficacy of indulgences, contending 
 for the tenet contained in Pope Clement's Bull, that 
 " a single drop of the blood of Christ having been suffi- 
 cient to redeem the whole human race, the remaining 
 
IN GERMANY. 107 
 
 quantity that was shed in the garden and upon the 
 cross was left as a legacy to the church, to be a treasure 
 from whence indulgences were to be drawn and admi- 
 nistered by the Roman pontiffs." This he insisted on 
 Luther's acknowledging, a concession which was alto- 
 gether impossible on the principles of the Reformer, 
 who was not averse to admit indulgences in the sense 
 of the mere remission of ecclesiastical penalties, but 
 who held it to be un scriptural and impious to assign 
 to them an efficacy of the nature belonging to the blood 
 of Christ, in cleansing from guilt and delivering from 
 eternal punishment. 
 
 Luther, who required the protection of a safe con- 
 duct before he could entrust himself to appear before 
 Cajetan, on perceiving that any further communications 
 with that dignitary would be useless, was induced, 
 by his own judgment and the advice of his friends, 
 to quit Augsburg very early on the morning of the 
 19th October 1518, to avoid being seized and impri- 
 soned ; but not before he had formally appealed from 
 the Pope's legate, nay from the Pope himself, "ill 
 informed, to the same most holy Leo X., on his be- 
 ing better informed." Cajetan, on his part, wrote the 
 Elector of Saxony, complaining of Luther's insolent and 
 insincere behaviour, and urging him either to send the 
 Reformer to Rome, or to banish him from his dominions. 
 " As to himself," he said, " he washed his hands of so 
 pestilential a business ; but his highness might be assured, 
 that the cause would go to Rome : it was too important 
 to be passed over in silence, and he entreated him not 
 to sully the glory of himself and his illustrious house 
 for the sake of a paltry mendicant monk." 
 
108 THE REFORMATION 
 
 On this occasion it was that Staupitius, the early friend 
 of Luther, and his adviser in regard to his spiritual state, 
 and hitherto his supporter in the controversy of indul- 
 gences, was drawn away from his stedfastness, either by 
 an apprehension of danger or by the solicitations of 
 Cajetan. He ceased from all farther share in the trials 
 and labours of the Reformer, and withdrew to Saltzburg, 
 where he was rewarded by being advanced to the dignity 
 of abbot. Nothing can be more instructive than the 
 study of the personal character and conduct of the men 
 of that period, as seen beneath the strong light which 
 the events of the time caused to bear upon them. 
 
 But the loss sustained by the withdrawal of Staupitius, 
 was more than compensated to Luther by the marked 
 and decided expressions of approbation and support, 
 which, in the increasing peril with which he was threat- 
 ened, the Elector of Saxony was induced to communi- 
 cate to him. On his return to Wittemberg, the sa- 
 gacity of Luther did not fail to appreciate the full extent 
 of his immediate and prospective difficulties. Every 
 day the contest grew more and more perilous. The 
 cause had now become not merely national but European 
 in fame and magnitude. But what it gained in this 
 respect made it more peculiarly a test of the opinions 
 and characters of men. As the lofty mountain chain be- 
 comes the water line which separates and divides the fall- 
 ing rain, which, after pursuing its downward parallelism, 
 branches off on opposite sides, forming rivers which 
 flow to widely distant oceans, and each with a momen- 
 tum and acceleration proportioned to the elevation of 
 their disconnecting source ; in like manner, the exalted 
 principles which rose with the Reformation divided so- 
 ciety in a most extraordinary manner, and if on one side 
 
IN GERMANY. 109 
 
 there was the bringing together into cealescence of the 
 pious and the good, there was, on the other, a combin- 
 ing of the elements of ungodliness, persecution, and su- 
 perstition, into a torrent of unparalleled strength and 
 fury. 
 
 There was, however, still one attempt made by the 
 court of Kome, to gain over, if possible, the Reformer 
 to a modification of his principles, with a view to a 
 pacification. This negotiation was entrusted to Miltitz, 
 a Saxon knight, a man of politeness and accomplish- 
 ment, who bore the golden consecrated rose to the 
 Elector Frederic, which the Popes were accustomed 
 to send to royal personages as a special mark of their 
 favour and regard. He was allowed by his master to 
 disclaim the proceedings of Tetzel, and indeed expressed 
 so strongly the indignation of the Pope against him, 
 that the unhappy victim, thus sacrificed, soon afterwards 
 died of grief and vexation. Certain terms of agreement 
 were arranged between Miltitz and the Reformer, in 
 which it was conceded by Luther that he assailed indul- 
 gences only under the character given of them by Tetzel, 
 that is, as conferring the remission of sins and spiritual 
 punishment ; whilst it was conceded by the legate, that 
 the odious conduct of Tetzel and the avarice of Albert, 
 archbishop of Mentz, were condemned by the Roman See. 
 Even Mosheim, who views this part of Luther's conduct 
 so unfavourably as to speak of his weak submission,^', 
 admits that there were, properly speaking, no retracta- 
 tion of his former tenets, nor the smallest degree of re- 
 spect shewn to the impious trafiic of indulgences. But 
 the truce thus attempted to be established was too 
 feeble to exist in the state to which the minds of men 
 were brought in the course of this great controversy. 
 
110 THE REFORMATION 
 
 The discussions on indulgences had led to a deep in- 
 quiry into the very foundations of the papal authority, 
 and of many other papal institutions, and Luther in 
 particular had dropt some words in the course of con- 
 troversy unfavourable to the power of the Popes as of 
 divine right. The zeal of Eckius, a man burning with 
 a desire for distinction, and eager to obtain preferment 
 by his ostentatious support of the Roman See, chal- 
 lenged Luther and Carolstadt to discuss several of 
 these new questions, which had come up incidentally 
 in the progress of the Reformation. With Carolstadt, 
 the matter in dispute was the freedom of the will, 
 or the limits of nature and grace ; and in the con- 
 troversy on this subject, according to Luther's own 
 admission, the difference between the disputants ap- 
 peared to be more in words than in any real opposi- 
 tion of views. But very different was the case in the 
 controversy with Luther himself, which related to the 
 supremacy of the Pope as of divine appointment. Up 
 to this period, and in the course of this discussion, all 
 that Luther denied was the divine right of the pon- 
 tifical jurisdiction ; for he still admitted the necessity 
 of a supreme visible head of the church, and justified 
 the popedom as a useful and requisite ordinance. But 
 the effect of this controversy, which extended over the 
 period of ten days, was to induce him to inquire more 
 deeply into the subject ; and the result of his reading 
 and meditation was, that he came to recognise in the 
 Pope the very antichrist of whom mention is made in 
 scripture. His observations on the progress of his views 
 at this period are very characteristic of his candour and 
 sincerity, and deeply interesting. " My own case," he 
 says, " is a notable example of the difficulty with which 
 
IN GERMANY. Ill 
 
 a man emerges from erroneous opinions of a long 
 standing. How true is the proverb, Custom is a second 
 nature. How true is the saying of Augustine, Habit, 
 if not resisted, becomes necessity. I who, both publicly 
 and privately, had taught divinity with the greatest 
 diligence for seven years, insomuch that I retained in 
 my memory almost every word of my lectures, was, in 
 fact, at that time only just introduced into the know- 
 ledge and faith of Christ. I had only just learned, that 
 a man must be justified and saved, not by works, but 
 by the faith of Christ ; and lastly, in regard to pontifi- 
 cal authority, though I pubhcly maintained that the 
 Pope was not the Head of the Church by a divine 
 right, yet I stumbled at the very next step, namely, 
 That the whole papal system was a Satanic invention. 
 This I did not see, but contended obstinately for the 
 Pope's right, founded on human reasons ; so thoroughly 
 deluded was I, by the example of others, by the title of 
 Holy Church, and by my own habits. Hence, I have 
 learned to have more candour for bigoted papists, espe- 
 cially if they are not much acquainted with sacred, or 
 perhaps even with profane history." 
 
 Now no terms were to be kept with him on the 
 part of Home. He had touched the Pope's crown — 
 the most unpardonable of all impieties, and the greatest 
 of heresies. At the discussion between Luther and 
 Eckius, Philip Melancthon, Professor of Grreek at 
 Wittemberg, then a young man of twenty- three years, 
 and one of the most eminent scholars of the age, was 
 present, and became so fully convinced of the truth and 
 excellence of the Reformer's cause, that he forthwith 
 declared himself for the reformation, and he became a 
 distinguished instrument, in advancing the great work. 
 
112 THE REFORMATION 
 
 by liis counsels and writings. The magnanimity and 
 principle implied in this step, will be better estimated 
 from considering the dreadful peril to which Luther was 
 committed, in having hurled at Eome the gauntlet of 
 stern and indomitable defiance. 
 
 Eckius, after the controversy with Luther at Leipsic, 
 instantly repaired to Rome, and instigated the papal 
 court to direct the thunder of their anathemas against 
 the Reformer, and expel him from the communion of 
 the church. Accordingly, the pontiff issued a bull, dated 
 15th June 1520, in which forty-one pretended heresies, 
 extracted from his writings, were solemnly condemned, 
 his writings ordered to be publicly burned ; and in which 
 he was again summoned, on pain of excommunication, 
 10 confess and retract his pretended errors within the 
 space of sixty days, and to cast himself upon the cle- 
 mency and mercy of the pontiff. The reformation be- 
 came from this period a great contest in behalf of spi- 
 ritual religion, as contradistinguished to the political, 
 superstitious, and antichristian system of Rome ; and 
 left, therefore, many behind, who were willing to follow 
 it as long as they regarded it as merely opposing the 
 vices and abuses which lowered the credit and defeated 
 the ends of that system. Amongst this class, it is 
 with unfeigned regret that we are called to rank Eras- 
 mus, the most eminent scholar of his age, but a man 
 who valued his own ease more than the high claims of 
 spiritual religion. How painfully does he contrast in this 
 respect with the far more timid and modest, yet, where 
 conscience was concerned, decided and resolute Me- 
 lancthon. Nothing seems more remarkably to shew the 
 wretched expedients which men can resort to with a view 
 to justify themselves for not bearing the cross of Christ, 
 
IN GERMANY. 113 
 
 when they are without love to his truth, than the defence 
 put forth by this eminent scholar but flexible man. 
 Although the age of time-serving is by no means gone, 
 nor its arts obsolete, few even of its most practised pro- 
 ficients would imitate the candour of Erasmus, or choose 
 to adopt the same wide category of non-essentials in re- 
 ligion, which they would be ready to discard rather than 
 sacrifice their interests or endanger their peace. " If," 
 said he, " I were called upon to suffer for the truth of 
 the gospel, I should not refuse to die ; but yet I have no 
 disposition to suffer for Luther's paradoxes. The pre- 
 sent disputes are not concerning articles of faith, but 
 whether the pope's supremacy is of Christ's appointment ; 
 whether the order of cardinals is a necessaiy part of the 
 Church ; whether there is authority for the practice of 
 confession ; whether free-will contributes to salvation ; 
 whether /a i^A confers salvation; whether the mass can 
 in any sense be called a sacrifice. On account of these 
 points, which are the usual subjects of the scholastic 
 contentions, I would neither endanger my own Kfe, nor 
 venture to take away the life of another." 
 
 In the zeal of self-sacrifice he difl'ered from Luther ; 
 in the zeal of persecution he was opposed to the pope 
 and his myrmidons. His was the neutrality of multi- 
 tudes, who have a strong desire to follow truth until it 
 commits them to a course of difficulty and self-denial. 
 
 The following is Mosheim's account of the reception 
 of the papal bull at Wittemberg. 
 
 " As soon as the account of this rash sentence pro- 
 nounced from the papal chair was brought to Luther, 
 he thought it was high time to consult both for his pre- 
 sent defence, and for his future security ; and the first 
 step he took for this purpose was the renewal of his ap- 
 
 H 
 
114 THE REFORMATION 
 
 peal from the sentence of the Roman pontiff, to the 
 more respectable decision of a general council. But as 
 he foresaw that these appeals would be treated with 
 contempt at the court of Rome, and that when the time 
 prescribed for his recantation had elapsed, the thunder 
 of excommunication would be levelled at his devoted 
 head, he judged it prudent to withdraw himself volun- 
 tarily from the communion of the church of Rome, be- 
 fore he was obliged to leave it by force ; and thus to 
 render the new bull of ejection an exercise of authority 
 without any object to act upon. At the same time, he 
 was resolved to exercise this wise resolution in a public 
 manner, that his voluntary retreat from the communion 
 of a corrupt and superstitious church might be univer- 
 sally known before the lordly pontiff had prepared his 
 ghostly thunder. With this view, on the 10th Decem- 
 ber 1520, he had a pile of wood erected without the 
 walls of the city, and there, in presence of a prodigious 
 multitude of people of all ranks and orders, he com- 
 mitted to the flames both the bull that had been pub- 
 lished against him, and the decretals and canons re- 
 lating to the Pope's supreme jurisdiction. By this he 
 declared to the world, that he was no longer a subject 
 of the Roman pontiff, and that, of consequence, the 
 sentence of excommunication against him was entirely 
 supei-fluous and insignificant." 
 
 Now it was that the firmness and influence of Frederic 
 of Saxony stood in admirable stead to the Reformer, 
 the avowed enemy of Rome, and the object of her deep- 
 est and most immitigable hate. Maximilian had died 
 during the preceding year, and his grandson Charles, by 
 the casting vote of Frederic, was raised to the imperial 
 throne. Immediately after the burning of the pontiff^s 
 
IN GER]VL\NY. 115 
 
 laws, another bull was issued against Luther, pro- 
 nouncing upon him and his followers the eternal ana- 
 themas of Leo, in which the Pope designated himself, 
 most impiously, " The divinely appointed dispenser of 
 spiritual and temporal punishments." As to the former, 
 Luther believed that he had no claim, — and as to the 
 latter, he found that a gracious Providence was able 
 to preserve him from being reached by the sanguinary 
 laws of Rome. Aleander was instructed by Leo in- 
 stantly to repair to the elector and the emperor, and to 
 crave of them liberty to burn Luther's books, and to 
 obtain that they would either put the author of them to 
 death, or imprison him till he should be sent to Rome. 
 The person thus selected to be the popish executioner, 
 was a man of ability but of profligate morals, whose 
 hatred of Luther was the eflFect, not of superstition ex- 
 clusively, but of the aversion which he felt for his holy 
 and unblameable character. As to the emperor, he re- 
 plied, that he must first hear what the Elector of Saxony 
 had to say on the subject ; but at length, to conciliate both 
 parties, he permitted Luther's writings to be burned, 
 but resolved that he himself should not be interfered 
 with, till called before a diet of the empire, appointed to 
 be held at Worms in 1521. 
 
 During the interval which elapsed previous to the 
 assembling of the diet, the magnanimity, zeal, and un- 
 tiring energy of Luther were peculiarly exhibited. 
 " While his friends trembled," says Milner, " for the is- 
 sue, he himself seems to have rejoiced that even so 
 short a season was afforded him for pursuing his studies 
 and Jabours. He pubhshed an incredible number of 
 sermons, paraphrases, and polemical tracts. And he 
 evidently valued life only as it gave him the opportunitv 
 
116 THE REFORMATION 
 
 of carrying forward and accelerating the great revolution 
 whicli had taken place in the views of his country upon 
 the truths of religion." Then it was that, amongst his 
 multifarious duties, he published his Exposition of the 
 Epistle to the Galatians, and gave the world a proof of 
 the accordance of his views concerning the freeness of 
 divine grace, and the method of justification, with the 
 inspired writings of Paul. 
 
 At length the period arrived when Luther was called 
 to bear the most remarkable testimony in behalf of 
 evangelical religion, which has been lifted up in the 
 history of modern times. The attention, not of Ger- 
 many only, but of all Europe, was fixed upon the au- 
 gust assembly which was convened at Worms, of the 
 princes, and nobles, and citizens of the empire, presided 
 over by the young emperor in person, before whom 
 Luther was summoned to appear. The diet was com- 
 posed of three colleges : the Electoral College, in which 
 the eight electors sat, who had the exclusive privilege of 
 a vote in choosing an emperor ; the College of Princes, 
 in which all the lay and ecclesiastical princes sat, not 
 electors, each of them for the territory of which he was 
 the immediate sovereign ; and the College of the Cities, 
 where the representatives sat of the free cities of the 
 empire. 
 
 " The Elector of Saxony," says Milner, " foreseeing 
 the important questions, of a political as well as of a 
 religious nature, which would be agitated at the next 
 diet, took care to be at Worms some weeks before the 
 meeting of the general assembly. Then this wise and 
 good prince, in conversations with the emperor and 
 others, soon discovered that mischief was meditated 
 against Luther." Plis enemies in general were con- 
 
IN GER5IANY. 117 
 
 triving to liave him brought before the diet, with the 
 design no doubt of securing the person of the heretic ; 
 and we find that the emperor had once so far acceded 
 to their wishes as to issue express orders for his ap- 
 pearance. The summons for this pui-pose was sent 
 to the elector, but the prince refused to concur in 
 that method of conducting the business, and Charles 
 recalled the summons. All this took place before the 
 middle of January 1521. In fact, at that moment the 
 cautious Frederic scarcely knew what course to steer. 
 Perfectly upright and conscientious, he wished for nothing 
 so much as an impartial hearing of the whole cause, and 
 an equitable sentence in consequence ; but he had great 
 fears lest, by calling Luther to Worms, he should en- 
 tangle him in the dangerous snares of his adversaries ; 
 and moreover, he did not then know what Luther him- 
 self might think of such a proposal. In this obscurity 
 of circumstances, the good sense and good principles of 
 the elector determined him to adhere steadily to two 
 points ; first, by no means to compel Luther to appear 
 among his adversaries against his own will ; and second, 
 in every event not to permit him to stir a step towards 
 Worms without a complete and unequivocal safe con- 
 duct, nor to write any letters of passport in his behalf 
 without the express directions of the emperor. In the 
 mean time, he caused Luther to be made acquainted 
 with the intention of his malig-nant adversaries, and the 
 question to be proposed to him, what he would do if he 
 should be cited to appear at the diet ? 
 
 The answer of Luther was communicated in a letter 
 addressed to Spalatinus, the elector's secretary and 
 chaplain, and a distinguished friend of the Reformer's, 
 and discovers, in an eminent manner, the exalted faith 
 
118 THE REFORMATION 
 
 and self-devotion of this extraordinary man. " Though 
 kings and princes," he wrote, " conspired together against 
 the Lord and his Christ, yet, as it is written in the same 
 Psalm, ' Blessed are they who put their trust in him/ 
 It is not our business to determine whether more or less 
 benefit will accrue to the church from my life or death ; 
 but it is our bounden duty to beseech God, that the 
 reign of Charles may not commence with bloodshed in 
 an impious cause. And for my part, as I have often 
 said, I would much rather die by the Romanists alone, 
 than that he should be involved in this business. But 
 if I must die, not only by pontifical but by civil injus- 
 tice, God's will be done. You have here my resolution. 
 Expect from me any thing rather than flight or retracta- 
 tion. I mean not to flee, much less to retract. So may 
 the Lord Jesus strengthen me. I can do neither with- 
 out scandalizing godliness and hurting the souls of 
 many." 
 
 The policy of the Romish agents at this celebrated 
 diet, Aleander and Eckius, was either to get the diet 
 to summon Luther to appear before them as a con- 
 demned heretic, who, on refusing to recant, should be 
 instantly delivered up to the See of Rome, or else to 
 use every effort to prevent him from appearing at all 
 In the foiTner case, the business before the diet would 
 consist in simply receiving from him an answer to the 
 question, whether he would recant or not ; but in the 
 event of his being allowed to come forward without any 
 recognition of the bull of the pope against him by that 
 diet, they were afraid that, as Luther would have an 
 opportunity of entering upon the merits of the whole 
 case, the privilege which he would receive of discussing 
 the questions involved, would materially conduce to 
 
IN GERMANY. 119 
 
 promote and extend his cause. Accordingly, when 
 Charles, at the request of Frederic, gave the Reformer 
 a safe conduct, Aleander complained bitterly that a 
 downright heretic, already condemned by the Koman 
 pontiff, should be treated with so much lenity and con- 
 cession. He ought to have been heard no farther ; or 
 if it were thought proper to condemn him again with 
 new formalities, most certainly the public faith ought 
 not to be granted to him, which would have been denied 
 to any man who was only accused of the crimes for 
 which Luther stood already condemned. He was, more- 
 over, a factious man, of great volubility of language and 
 great presence of mind, who spoke with such tones of 
 voice and ardent looks as to be capable of raising a sedi- 
 tion. 
 
 Luther, accompanied by Justus Jonas, principal of 
 the Collegiate Church at Wittemberg, and several other 
 friends, set out for Worms, where he arrived on the 16th 
 April 1520 ; and was received in a most gratifying man- 
 ner. He entered the city in an open carriage, preceded 
 by the Emperor's herald on horseback in his official 
 dress ; and as he stepped on the ground in the presence 
 of a prodigious concourse of people, he expressed these 
 words, " God will be on my side," It is characteristic 
 of the Reformer, and worthy to be noticed, from its con- 
 nexion with the history of recent events in our own 
 country, that though expressly forbidden to preach at 
 any of the towns through which he had to pass, Luther 
 declared that he had never promised to obey that in- 
 junction, and that the word of God ought not to be fetter- 
 ed ; and accordingly he preached at Erfurt as he went, 
 and at Eisenach as he returned, and in various other 
 places. Remembering the fate of John Huss, though 
 
120 THE REFORMATION 
 
 enjoying the protection of a safe conduct, many of the 
 friends of Luther endeavoured to turn him aside from 
 his purpose of proceeding while upon his journey ; and 
 it was at one of the solicitations which were made to 
 him. to that effect, he rendered the memorable reply : — 
 " Though he should be obliged to encounter at Worms 
 as many devils as there were tiles on the houses of that 
 city, this would not deter him from his fixed purpose of 
 appearing there ; and that these fears of his friends could 
 only proceed from the suggestions of Satan, who appre- 
 hended the approaching ruin of his kingdom, by the 
 confession of the truth before such an august assembly 
 as the diet at Worms." " So fearless," said Luther after- 
 wards, when near his death, " can God render a man, I 
 do not know whether at this day I should be so bold." 
 It would be impossible even to give an outline of the 
 various important details connected with the Reformer's 
 presence at Worms on his occasion, consistent with a 
 regard to the space to which we are limited. Suffice it 
 to say, that on the first day of his appearance before 
 the diet, he was required to give in a reply to two ques- 
 tions ; the first, whether he acknowledged those books 
 which went by his name to be his own ? and the second, 
 whether he intended to defend or to retract what was 
 contained in them ? On the following day, Luther, first 
 in Grerman and afterwards in Latin, addressed the diet 
 in a speech remarkable for its firmness and moderation, 
 to the very great satisfaction of all his friends, and 
 in particular of the Elector of Saxony " Permit me," 
 said Luther among other things, " to suggest for the con- 
 sideration of us all, that as Almighty Grod is wonderful 
 and terrible in counsel, surely it behoves this august as- 
 sembly to examine with special care, whether the object 
 
IN GERMANY. 121 
 
 which my enemies so ardently long to compass, does not 
 in fact amount to a condemnation of the flivine word, 
 and whether such a measure adopted by the first German 
 diet of the new Emperor might not lead to a great deluge 
 of evils." 
 
 The grand foundation of which Luther never for a 
 moment allowed himself to loss sight — on which he 
 placed the merits of his cause, was described by these 
 words. Whether in the presence of the diet, or having 
 to meet the insidious private solicitations of those who 
 would draw some concessions from him, his constant ap- 
 peal was to the word of God. At one of his subsequent 
 appearances before the diet, the Elector of Brandenburg 
 said, " Are we to understand, then, that you will not give 
 way unless convinced from the Holy Scriptures ?" " Yes, 
 most kind and gentle sir," said Luther ; " or by very 
 clear and evident reasons." 
 
 At last finding the Refonner immovable, and that 
 nothing farther could be done to serve the ends of con- 
 ciliation, Luther received from the Emperor a message 
 which directed him to leave Worms, and allowed him 
 twenty-one days to return home, during which the 
 public faith was pledged for his safety ; but he was 
 strictly enjoined not to preach to the people in the course 
 of his journey. 
 
 The situation of the Reformer was now dark and 
 perilous in the extreme. His only friend among the 
 potentates assembled in the diet was Frederic, the 
 Elector of Saxony ; whilst all the others, including the 
 Emperor, were zealous adherents of the Roman See, 
 and some of them eager to destroy Luther. Among the 
 latter was George of Saxony, uncle of Frederic, who, 
 from the proximity of his territory, was peculiarly zeal- 
 
122 THE REFORMATION 
 
 ous in opposing the progress of the Reformation among 
 his own subjects, and solicitous to suppress them in the 
 electorate of his nephew. Soon after, as all foresaw, 
 on the 8th May 1521, the diet, after acknowledging, in 
 an edict, that the Pope was the only true judge of the 
 controversy, declared Luther " a member cut off from 
 the church, a schismatic, a notorious and obstinate 
 heretic ; and denounced the severest punishment against 
 all who should receive, entertain, maintain, or counte- 
 nance him, either by acts of hospitality, by conversation 
 or writing ; and all his disciples, adherents, and followers, 
 are involved in the same condemnation." 
 
 From the subsequent conduct of George of Saxony, 
 it is evident that he was prepared to pursue the execu- 
 tion of this edict, even to the extent of depriving Fre- 
 deric of his dominions as a protector of Luther — not 
 only from bigotry, but from the ambitious desire to ac- 
 quire his relative's territories. Aware of the disposition 
 of his uncle and the Romanist party, Frederic had 
 recourse to an expedient for saving Luther, and pre- 
 serving his own interests unendangered — which forms 
 one of the most singular incidents in the history of the 
 Reformation. He sent three or four persons in whom he 
 could confide, disguised by masks, to meet Luther on his 
 way from the diet, and to conduct him with the utmost 
 expedition and secrecy to the castle of Wartburg. 
 
 In this seclusion, Luther remained concealed from the 
 whole world ; an object of concern to his friends, who en- 
 tertained the suspicion, that his enemies had cast him into 
 confinement, or taken away his life ; whilst they, on the 
 other hand, conscious that he was not in their posses- 
 sion, felt extreme surprise at the nature of his sudden 
 and inexplicable disappearance. It may sufiice to state, 
 
IN GERALINY. 123 
 
 concerning this period of the Reformer's history, that it 
 was in the castle of Wartburg, which he called his Patmos, 
 that he found leisure for composing many of his works, 
 and in particular, that he apjDlied himself to the greatest 
 of all his undertakings, the translation of the Bible into 
 the GJ-erman language. From this period, the Refor- 
 mation, which hitherto had stood in a defensive attitude, 
 began to assume an offensive or aggressive character, 
 and to extend its progress with marvellous rapidity, ac- 
 quiring both an increased purity, and a wider diffusion 
 of principle and zeal. But as it will be necessary to 
 employ the utmost succinctness in our observations on 
 this part of our subject, we would preface what we have 
 to state by some general remarks, which may serve to 
 give a more connected andluminous viewof the progress 
 which distinguished this great work. 
 
 There may be recognised three distinct principles in 
 the development of the energies of the Reformation, 
 which exercised a correspondingly various influence upon 
 the destinies of this mighty movement. In the first place, 
 there was the principle of intellectual and spiritual enlight- 
 enment, which claimed for men the exercise of the right 
 of private judgment in the concerns of religion, maintained 
 the word of Grod to be the exclusive standard of authority 
 in matters of faith or duty, and which deemed it to be 
 essential to bring the soul under the operation of divine 
 truth, with a view to gain the grand end of the Refor- 
 mation, — the glory of God in connection with the salva- 
 tion of men. Of this principle, the genuine and appro- 
 priate principle of the movement, Luther was at once 
 the most zealous and enlightened advocate and repre- 
 sentative. But, unhappily, there came into operation 
 two other principles, which exercised, though in different 
 
124 
 
 THE REFORMATION 
 
 ways, the most unfavourable influence over the progress of 
 the great cause. Oneofthesewasthe enthusiastic principle 
 adopted by a mass of ignorant and rash innovators, of a 
 divine right to employ physical force in removing idola- 
 try, and in advancing the interests of religion, and main- 
 taining its authority, contrary to the express testimony 
 of Christ and his apostles — that the weapons of the 
 Christian soldier are not carnal. The Reformation, 
 which consists in purifying the princijDles of men, and 
 in silently leading them to embrace the truth, and sub- 
 mit themselves to its operation, was too slow and calm 
 a process for these impatient zealots to esteem; but 
 their rugged efforts only awakened the disgust and dread 
 of society at their progress, and combined into opposi- 
 tion against them all the lovers of order and peace, as 
 well as the interested supporters of superstition, and its 
 various abuses. They verified the prophecy of our 
 Lord, That whoso taketh the sword shall perish by the 
 sword. The other principle was one which, though it 
 bore the sanction of civil authority on its side, was 
 equally pernicious, in a religious point of view, on the 
 due development of the grand leavening process which 
 the reformers desired to extend throughout the nations. 
 Certain princes, actuated in part by an enlightened de- 
 testation of the pretended authority and claims of the 
 Church of Rome, as injurious to their own power and 
 the interests of their kingdoms, and in part by an ear- 
 nest zeal to glorify Grod in promoting true religion among 
 their subjects, anticipating the silent progress of the 
 truth, introduced an enforced and compulsory reforma- 
 tion into their kingdoms. The consequence was, that a 
 formal amelioration of the state of religion was establish- 
 ed, without any corresponding awakening or improve- 
 
IN GERMANY. 125 
 
 ment in the religious state of the people. And the 
 cause of an unduly precocious reformation, instead of 
 coming to maturity, was suffered to lag at the stage, 
 however imperfect, to which it was brought by the hand 
 of civil authority. The first principle desired to advance 
 the reformation through conviction, the second from 
 force, and the third by the word of command ; and the 
 effects accordingly soon became manifest of this diver- 
 sity : — and serve to afford an instructive lesson to all who 
 are willing to accept the services of history, not only as 
 a remembrancer of the past, but as a counsellor in re- 
 spect to the future. 
 
 As might be expected, the zealous and enlightened 
 labours of Luther continued during his absence to give 
 an impulse to the cause of reformation at Wittemberg 
 of the most gratifying nature. The Augustinians left 
 off in that city the celebration of private masses, new 
 preachers of the gospel daily lifted up their voice 
 throughout the electorate of Saxony, and though some of 
 the higher ranks, both among the magistrates and clergy, 
 were intimidated by the imperial edict of Worms, the 
 common people gladly attended to the pure doctrines 
 of salvation. The enlightened views of the reformer 
 were admirably supported by the policy of Frederic, who 
 while he stood as a wall of brass between the reforma- 
 tion and its enemies, left his subjects to follow im- 
 plicitly their own judgment, and granted the utmost tole- 
 ration to the adherents of Rome. Thus divine truth 
 was left to pervade society, and to regulate men's views 
 and principles by its native power, and, separating the 
 impurities of superstition like scum from its hold on the 
 general mass, the process of defecation ultimately came 
 to be as easy as it was effectual of accomplishment, 
 
126 THE REFORMATION 
 
 At Zwickau, Nicholas Hausman accepted the pastoral 
 office this year, concemiug whose piety Luther bore this 
 distinguished testimony, " what we preach he lives." 
 And there also Frederick Myconius, who afterwards 
 came to England under the auspices of Henry YIII., to 
 superintend the interests of the reformation, having fled 
 from the rage of Greorge of Saxony, fixed his residence 
 and j>ursued his labours as a minister of the gospel. 
 
 At Friberg, the capital of a very small territory pre- 
 sided over by Henry of Saxony, a brother of George, 
 the truth was generally embraced at this early period ; 
 and though that prince himself, subsequent to the diet 
 of Worms, separated himself, in some degree, from the 
 cause of the reformers, his Duchess, Catherine of 
 Mecklenburg, exhibited a laudable pattern of Christian 
 fidelity in the profession of divine truth. Whilst Luther 
 was gratified in his retirement by the rapid spread of the 
 truth in Germany, of which he received intelligence, two 
 circumstances occurred at ,this period which he felt to 
 be disagreeable ; the first was the condemnation of his 
 writings by the Univ^ersity of Paris : and the second, 
 the appearing of Henry VIIL in opposition to the Re- 
 formation, by publishing a refutation of the principles of 
 the Reformer contained in his treatise on the Babylonish 
 Captivity, — a royal contribution to the cause of Rome 
 which earned for its author the title, since borne by the 
 possessors of the British throne, of Defenders of the 
 Faith. In the month of December this year Leo X. 
 died, and was succeeded in the papal chair by Adrian 
 of Utrecht, formerly tutor to Charles V., and now by 
 his influence exalted to be the head of the Popish 
 Church. In the month of March following, Luther left 
 his Patmos to return to Wittemberg, without waiting 
 
IN GERINIANY. 127 
 
 the permission of Frederic, in order to' check the vio- 
 lent zeal of some who excited tumults in Saxony, and 
 were acting in a manner equally prejudicial to the true 
 interests of the Reformation, and the tranquillity of the 
 state. Carolstadt, a professor in the University of Wit- 
 temberg, a man of eminent talents and zeal, hut injudi- 
 cious in many respects, was, if not an encourager of 
 these violent proceedings, at least less unfavourable to 
 them than he ought to have shewed himself. But in- 
 stead of entering at present into the question how far 
 he was implicated in them, or to what extent the aliena- 
 tion which at this time ensued between him and Luther, 
 had an influence in imbittering the controversy which 
 afterwards too place between them, concerning the na- 
 ture of the Lord's Supper ; we shall proceed to give, in a 
 connected view, such information as we possess concern- 
 ing the progress of the Reformation in the surrounding 
 nations of Europe. He who placed Israel in the midst 
 of the earth — like a candle in a candlestick, to enlighten 
 the whole house — manifested his divine wisdom in a 
 similar manner in selecting the most central part of 
 Europe to be the birthplace of the Reformation. The 
 blow there struck and the flame kindled, reverberated 
 and spread rapidly and widely in every direction ; and 
 the cause of Luther and the Reformation became an 
 object of interest from the farthest eastern limits of 
 Christendom to the Atlantic, and from the shores of the 
 Northern Ocean to the islands of the Mediterranean. 
 
 The following extract from Milner, to whom we have 
 been indebted for many particulars, will give a very 
 distinct idea of the extent to which the Reformation 
 had spread so early as 1523 : — 
 
 " During this vehement exercise of the voice and pen 
 
1 28 THE REFORMATION 
 
 of Luther on the one hand, and the suffering of the Pro- 
 testants from the sharp sword of persecution on the 
 other, the word of God was preached with much suc- 
 cess in several parts of Germany, particularly at Nurem- 
 burg, at Frankfort on the Main, at Ulm, and at Halle 
 in Swabia. At Milberg the gospel was taught by the 
 learned Protestant reformer John Draco ; also at Bre- 
 men and Magdeburg by two fugitive Augustine monks, 
 one of whom had stolen out of his prison at Antwerp, 
 and the other had been forced to leave Halberstadt. 
 At Zerbst, the first city in the principality of Anhalt, 
 Luther himself preached to a crowded audience in the 
 Augustine monastery, with great effect on the minds of 
 the people. The reformation was begun likewise at 
 Stettin and Lunda, two very flourishing towns in the an- 
 terior of Pomerania. The inhabitants of the former 
 requested two pastors to be sent to them from Wittem- 
 berg ; at the latter, unfortunately, the gospel was dis- 
 graced by the riotous proceedings of the tumultuous 
 populace, who broke to pieces the images of the saints, 
 and drove the monks from their monasteries in one day. 
 A Danish domestic of Luther's appears to have sown 
 the first seeds of evangelical truth at Stolpen, in the 
 higher Pomerania. Cnophius and Bugenhagius were 
 schoolmasters of such great reputation at Triptow, that 
 numerous pupils, not only from the neighbouring towns, 
 but even from Livonia and Westphalia, came in quest 
 of their instructions. Both these learned men, however, 
 were so persecuted on occasion of their principles, that 
 Bugenhagius repaired to Wittemberg ; and Cnophius, 
 with his Livonian scholars, also left Triptow, applied 
 himself to the ministry, travelled to Biga, Bevil, and 
 Dolphat ; and in aU those great cities, particularly 
 
IN GERMANY. 129 
 
 Riga, inveighed against the popish abuses, and preached 
 the leading doctrines of Christianity with much anima- 
 tion and fidelity. About this period, as appears from 
 Luther's letters, the important city of Hamburgh pub- 
 licly renounced the papal jurisdiction, and even the 
 Frieslanders desired pastors to be sent to them from 
 Wittemberg. 
 
 The light of the reformation, says Mosheim, was re- 
 ceived in Denmark so early as the year 15'21, in conse- 
 quence of the ardent desire discovered by Christian II, 
 of having his subjects instructed in the principles and 
 doctrines of Luther. It is, however, proper to observe, 
 adds that historian, that in all his proceedings Christian 
 II. was animated by no other motive than that of am- 
 bition. It was the prospect of extending his authority, 
 and not a zeal for the advancement of pure religion, 
 which gave life and vigour to his reforming projects. 
 His very actions, independently of what may be con- 
 cluded from his known character, evidently shew that 
 he protected the religion of Luther with no other view 
 than to rise by it to supremacy, both in church and 
 state ; and that it might afibrd him a pretext for de- 
 priving the bishops of that overgrown authority and 
 those ample possessions which they had gradually 
 usurped, and of appropriating them to himself. A 
 revolution, occasioned by his avarice, tyranny, and 
 cruelty, prevented the execution of this bold enterprise. 
 The states of the kingdom, exasperated, some by the 
 schemes he had laid for destroying the liberties of Den- 
 mark, others by his attemjDts to abolish the superstition.s 
 of his ancestors, and all by his savage and barbarous 
 treatment of those who dared to oppose his avarice or 
 ambition, formed a conspiracy against him in the year 
 
 I 
 
130 THE refor:sl\tion 
 
 1523, by which he was deposed and banished ; and his 
 uncle, Frederick Duke of Holstein and Sliswic, placed 
 on the throne. 
 
 The queen of the deposed monarch was the sister of 
 Charles V., and an eminent ornament of the cause of 
 the Reformation ; and Luther justly observes, that if 
 she could but have been persuaded to deny the gospel of 
 Christ, she might perhaps have been restored to her 
 kingdom, through the active interference of her power- 
 ful brother the Emperor, and of her other brother Fer- 
 dinand, the Arch-duke of Austria. This extraordinary 
 personage, after a severe discipline of humiliating afflic- 
 tions, died in peace, and, there is every reason to hope, 
 found rest in the application of that gospel, to the relief 
 of her spiritual necessities, which the brothers denomi- 
 nated and treated as heresy, schism, and sedition. 
 
 The cold dignity of general history disdains to include 
 such events in its descriptions of public personages ; 
 and few of those who are familiar with the military glory 
 and exploits of the Emperor Charles, have ever heard of 
 the piety of his sister Elizabeth. We may here remark, 
 as not a little singular, that the sister of the great rival 
 of Charles, Francis I., Margaret, queen of Navarre, was 
 extremely favourable to the new doctrine, which deliver- 
 ed pure Christianity from a great part of the supersti- 
 tions under which it had been long disguised. " The 
 auspicious patronage of this illustrious princess," says 
 Mosheim, " encouraged several pious and learned men, 
 whose religious sentiments were the same as her own, to 
 propagate the principles of the reformation in France, 
 and even to erect several Protestant churches in that 
 kingdom. It is manifest," he continues, " from the most 
 authentic records, that so early as the year 1523, there 
 
IN GERMANY. 131 
 
 were io several of the pro^dnces of that country, multi- 
 tudes of persons who had conceived the utmost aversion 
 both against the doctrine and tyranny of Rome, and 
 among them many persons of rank and dignity, and 
 (even some of the Episcopal order, 
 
 " As their numbers increased from day to day, and 
 troubles and commotions were excited in several places 
 on account of religious differences, the authority of the 
 monarch, and the cruelty of his officers, intervened to 
 support the doctrines of Rome by the edge of the sword 
 and the terrors of the gibbet ; and on this occasion, 
 many persons eminent for their piety and virtue were 
 put to death. This cruelty, instead of retarding, rather 
 accelerated the progress of the Reformation. It is 
 nevertheless true, that under the reign of Francis I., the 
 restorers of genuine Christianity were not always suc- 
 cessful and happy. Their situation was extremely un- 
 certain, and it was perpetually changing. Sometimes 
 they seemed to enjoy the auspicious shade of royal pro- 
 tection ; at others, they groaned under the weight of 
 persecution, and at certain seasons they were forgotten. 
 Francis, who had either no religion at all, or at least no 
 fixed and consistent system of religious principles, con- 
 ducted himself in such a manner towards the Protest- 
 ants as answered his private and personal views, or as 
 reasons of policy and public interest seemed to require. 
 When it became necessary to engage in his cause the 
 German Protestants, in order to foment sedition and 
 rebellion against his mortal enemy Charles, then did he 
 treat the Protestants with the utmost equity, humanity, 
 and gentleness ; but so soon as he had gained his point, 
 and had no more occasion for their services, then he 
 
132 THE REFORMATION 
 
 threw off the mask, and appeared to them in the aspect 
 of an implacable, persecuting tyrant. 
 
 " About this time the famous Calvin began to draw 
 the attention of the public. He was born at Noyon in 
 Picardy, on 10th July 1509, and was bred up to the 
 law, in which, as well as in all the branches of literature 
 then known, he greatly excelled. Having acquired 
 the knowledge of religion by diligent perusal of the 
 Holy Scriptures, he began early to perceive the neces- 
 sity of reforming the established system of doctrine and 
 worship. His zeal exposed him to various perils, and 
 the connections he had formed with the friends of the 
 reformation, whom Francis was daily committing to the 
 flames, placed him more than once in imminent danger, 
 from which he was delivered by the good offices of the 
 Queen of Navarre. To escape the impending stomi, he 
 retired to Basil, where he published his Christian Insti- 
 tutions, and prefixed to them that famous dedication to 
 Francis I., which has attracted universally the admi- 
 ration of succeeding ages, and which was designed to 
 soften the unrelenting fury of that prince against en 
 Protestants." 
 
 In Sweden, the cause of the lieformation was power- 
 fully fostered and developed under the patronage of 
 Gustavus Vasa Ericson. This generous prince had, 
 in the previous part of his life, before ascending the 
 throne, been an exile ; and having taken refuge at Lubec, 
 he there imbibed the principles of the reformation. He 
 employed Olaus Petri and Laurentius, two of the dis- 
 ciples of Luther, to diffuse the truth among his subjects ; 
 and appointed Andreas, his chancellor, to translate the 
 Scriptures into the Swedish language. No means, in 
 short, were omitted for enlightening the minds of the 
 
IN GERMANY 133 
 
 people ; and Sweden, from that day, has maintained a 
 national testimony in behalf of the doctrines of the Re- 
 formation. The greatest opposition was made by the 
 interested supporters of a powerful hierarchy to the en- 
 lightened zeal of Gustavus ; and " induced him to demit 
 the crown, from the impossibility of carrying out his 
 principles. The great body of the Swedish representa- 
 tives, namely, the Commons, in the national convoca- 
 tion, were now so much enraged at the conduct of the 
 refractory bishops and their adherents, as to signify to 
 them in no obscure terms, that if they did not instantly 
 comply with the pleasure of their beloved sovereign, 
 they would soon feel the vengeance of the people, as a 
 return for their obstinacy and disobedience. At length 
 the crisis became so great, that, with the exception of a 
 small minority of the more violent partisans of popery, 
 the Assembly concluded its proceedings by beseeching 
 Gustavus to resume the government, and by limiting 
 and reducing the ecclesiastical privileges and revenues 
 of the hierarchy." 
 
 It may now be necessary, previous to bringing to a 
 close our remaining observations on the progress of 
 the Refoi-mation throughout the principal kingdoms of 
 Europe, to look back to the progress of events in Ger- 
 many from the period to which we brought down the 
 narrative of Luther's proceedings. 
 
 Informed in his retirement of the turbulent proceed- 
 ings which were going on in Saxony, the Reformer 
 hastened to resume his place at the helm, and to re-es- 
 tablish order and a regard for the public peace among 
 those who had been led into those irregularities. We 
 have hitherto seen him setting at defiance the unscriptu- 
 ral authority of the Roman antichrist and his officials ; we 
 
134 THE REFORMATION 
 
 now find him resisting tlie tumults of the people, and at 
 the risk of forfeiting his hitherto unexampled popularity, 
 boldly opposing himself to the course of lawless outrage 
 and violence. 
 
 " Non civium ardor prava jubentium, 
 Non vultus instantis tyranni, 
 Menti quatit solida." 
 
 He immediately proceeded to deliver a series of dis- 
 courses from the pulpit, in which he communicated his 
 views of the duties which were required in the circum- 
 stances in which they were placed. Theological con- 
 troversy unhappily mingled with the questions in depend- 
 ence between the reformer and the violent party, who 
 naturally adopted the sentiments of Carolstadt concern- 
 ing the nature of the Eucharist, who was understood 
 to favour them ; whilst Luther held that tenet which 
 regarded the elements as more than mere signs and seals 
 of the covenant of grace, and as becoming by consecration 
 consubstantial with the body and blood of Christ. No- 
 thing tended more to divide the reformers, to maintain 
 controvert, and to produce an inauspicious efi"ect upon 
 the great cause, than the obstinacy with which Luther 
 adhered to the view which he had taken upon the sub- 
 ject ; and in which he was opposed not only by Carolstadt, 
 but by Zwingle and the whole body of the Swiss re- 
 formers. Under the popedom of Adrian, an attempt 
 was made through Francis Cherigato, the pope's legate, 
 at the diet of Nuremberg, to obtain the speedy and vi- 
 gorous execution of the sentence pronounced at the 
 diet of Worms, and at the same a promise was given 
 that the pontiff was ready to remove all the abuses and 
 o-rievances which existed in the state of ecclesiastical 
 
 o 
 
 affairs. "We have all," said the Pope, " every one of 
 
IN GERJIANY. 
 
 135 
 
 US turned to our own way, and for a long time none 
 hath done good, no not one. Let us give glory to God 
 and humble ourselves before him, and let every indivi- 
 dual among us judge himself that Grod may not judge 
 him in his wrath. Nothing shall be awanting on my 
 part to refoiTu the court of Rome, whence perhaps all 
 the mischief hath originated, that as this court hath been 
 the source of the corruptions which have thence spread 
 among the lower orders, so from the same a sound re- 
 formation may proceed." In regard to the schism which 
 Luther had made in the church, Adrian requested the 
 diet to infoi-m him what method they judged most ex- 
 pedient for suppressing it. Thus invited, the diet, after ap- 
 plauding the Pope's intention to reform the court of Rome, 
 exhibited an hundred articles, technically called centum 
 gravavaina^ containing a list of their complaints against 
 the abuses of the Church of Rome ; and in fine, they 
 declared that they prohibited all innovation in religious 
 matters, until a general council should decide what was to 
 be done in an affair of such high moment and importance. 
 Luther, immediately upon this, published an address, in 
 which he gratefully acknowledged the satisfaction which 
 the edict of the diet gave him, and drew among other 
 conclusions from it, the following important inference. 
 " By this decree, I do maintain that Martin Luther 
 Stan is absolved from all the consequences of the former 
 sentence of the Pope and Emperor, until a future 
 council shall have tried his cause, and pronounced de- 
 finitive sentence. For if this be not the meaning of the 
 decree, I am at a loss to find any other ; neither can I 
 understand what else can be the design of this suspension 
 of judgment, and this appeal to a general council." From 
 the friendship between Adrian and the Emperor, it is 
 
136 THE REFORMATION 
 
 impossible not to conclude, that in a little time thej 
 would, by their combined influences, have brought Lu- 
 ther to a violent end, had not Providence interposed, 
 and by the death of Adrian, terminated this powerful and 
 ominous combination between the heads of the ecclesi- 
 astical and civil powers. He died in the year 1523, and 
 was succeeded in the popedom by Clement VII, the 
 official designation of Julius de Medici, who was placed 
 in the j)apal chair by very uncanonical means, and had 
 in this a personal reason for dreading a general council, 
 and the scrutiny which it might institute into the vali- 
 dity of his election. This pope sent Campegius as his 
 legate to another diet, held at Nuremberg in 1524 ; 
 but although he got the emperor to second his demands, 
 by the orders which he sent to his minister at the diet, 
 to insist upon the execution of the sentence pronounced 
 at Worms, nothing final was done. The members of 
 the diet promised to observe the edict of Worms as far 
 as they couhl, a plain admission that the increased 
 strength of the reformation rendered it impossible to 
 attempt to proceed against Luther and his followers by 
 penal measures ; whilst they, at the same time, renewed 
 their demands of a general council, and appointed the 
 11th of November next for a new diet, to meet at Spires, 
 to make temporary regulations of all matters in dispute, 
 until a general council should be summoned. The de- 
 cision of this diet was equally reprobated by the Pope, 
 the Emperor, and Luther ; and in writing to the Elector 
 of Saxony on the subject, Charles could not refrain from 
 intemperate and acrimonious language. It belonged to 
 himself and the Pope, he said, to call councils, and to 
 fix on the place where they should meet. He abso- 
 lutely forbade the princes to assemble at Spires, and 
 
IN GERMANY. 137 
 
 enjoined the strictest observance of the edict of Worms. 
 He called Luther a profane savage, who, like Mahomet, 
 was aiming at great power, by poisoning men's minds 
 by the contagion of his agreeable doctrines. During the 
 following year, the Rustic war, or the War of the Pea- 
 sants, broke out in Grermany, which originated in causes 
 purely secular, such as oppressive taxes, and the cruelty 
 of the local governments. Munzer, indeed, at the head 
 of a party of fanatics, took advantage of the com- 
 motion pretending that he was divinely inspired, — to in- 
 troduce a new form of religious doctrine, discipline, and 
 worship, — to suppress every kind of civil government, — 
 and to establish a pure and unspotted church. Luther 
 distinguished himself as a patriot and Christian minister 
 on the occasion, by using all his influence to reclaim 
 the people from these anarchical demagogues, and to 
 re-establish order and tranquillity in the empire. During 
 these commotions, the Elector Frederic departed this 
 life, continuing to the last the prudent, firm j)atron of 
 the refonnation, and was succeeded in the electorate by 
 his brother John, who took a more decided course, by 
 assuming a supremacy in ecclesiastical as well as in civil 
 matters, and who estabhshed in his dominions a church 
 upon the model since called Lutheran, in doctrine, dis- 
 cipline and government. 
 
 We can now, in conclusion, only devote a short notice 
 to the remaining events which occurred until the meet- 
 of the Diet of Augsburg, when the celebrated articles 
 were presented by the friends of the reformation to the 
 diet, which are known by the name of the Confession of 
 Augsburg. And this we shall proceed to do in the 
 words of Mosheim : — 
 
 " Things being reduced to this violent and troubled 
 
138 THE REFORMATION 
 
 state, the patrons of popery gave intimations that were 
 far from ambiguous, of their intention to wage war upon 
 the Lutheran party, and to suppress hy force a doctrine 
 which they were incapable of overturning by argument. 
 And this design would certainly have been put in execu- 
 tion, had not the troubles of Eui'ope disconcerted their 
 measures. The Lutherans, on the other hand, informed 
 of their hostile intentions, began also to deliberate upon 
 the most effectual methods of defending themselves 
 against superstition armed with violence, and formed the 
 plan of a confederacy which might answer this prudent 
 purpose. In the mean time, the diet assembled at Spires 
 in the year 1526, at which Ferdinand the Emperor's 
 brother presided, ended in a manner more favourable to 
 the friends of the reformation than they could naturally 
 expect. The emperor's ambassadors at this diet were 
 ordered to use their most earnest endeavours for the 
 suppression of all farther disputes concerning religion, 
 and to insist upon the rigorous execution of the sentence 
 which had been pronounced at Worms against Luther 
 and his followers. The greatest part of the German 
 princes opposed this motion with the greatest resolution, 
 declaring that they could not execute that sentence, nor 
 come to any determination with respect to the doctrines 
 by which it had been occasioned, before the whole mat- 
 ter was submitted to the cognizance of a general coun- 
 cil, lawfully assembled ; alleging farther, that the decision 
 of controversies of this nature belonged properly to such 
 a council, and to it alone. This opinion, after long 
 and warm debates, was adopted by the great majority, 
 and at length consented to by the whole assembly ; for 
 it was unanimously agreed to present a solemn address 
 to the emperor, beseeching him to assemble without de- 
 
IN GERMANY. 139 
 
 lay a free general council ; and it was also agreed in 
 the mean time, that the princes and states of the empire 
 should, in their respective dominions, be at liberty to 
 manage ecclesiastical matters in the manner they should 
 think most expedient ; yet so as to be able to give to 
 God and to the emperor an account of their adminis- 
 tration when it should be demanded of them. 
 
 " Nothing could be more favourable to those who had 
 the cause of pure and genuine Christianity at heart, 
 than a resolution of this nature. For the emperor was 
 at this time so intensely taken up in regulating the 
 troubled state of his dominions in France, Spain, and 
 Italy, which exhibited from day to day new scenes of 
 perplexity, that, for some years, it was not in his power 
 to turn his attention to the affairs of Germany in gene- 
 ral, and still less to the state of religion in particular, 
 which was beset with difficulties, that, to a political 
 prince like Charles, must have appeared peculiarly cri- 
 tical and dangerous. Besides, had the emperor really 
 been possessed of leisure to form, or power to execute, 
 a plan that might terminate the religious disputes which 
 reigned in Germany in favour of the Roman pontiff, it 
 is evident that the inclination was wanting, and that 
 Clement VII, who now sat in the papal chair, had no- 
 thing to expect from the good offices of Charles V. For 
 this pontiff, after the defeat of Francis I. at Pa via, filled 
 with uneasy apprehensions of the growing power of the 
 emperor in Italy, entered into a confederacy with the 
 French and Venetians against that prince : and this 
 measure inflamed the resentment and indignation of 
 Charles to such a degree, that he abolished the papal 
 authority in his Spanish dominions, made war upon the 
 pope in Italy, laid siege to and sacked Rome in the year 
 
140 THE REFOa^IATION 
 
 1527, blocked up Clement in the castle of St Angelo, 
 and exposed him to the most severe and contumelious 
 treatment. These critical events, together with the li- 
 berty granted by the diet of Spires, were prudently and 
 industriously improved by the friends of the Reforma- 
 tion, to the advantage of their cause, and to the aug- 
 mentation of their number. Several princes, whom the 
 fear of persecution and punishment had hitherto prevented 
 from lending a hand to the good work, being now deli- 
 vered from their restraint, renounced publicly the super- 
 stition of Rome, and introduced among their subjects 
 the same forms of religious worship, and the same sys- 
 tem of doctrine, that had been received in Saxony. 
 Others, though placed in such circumstances as discou- 
 raged them from acting in an open manner against the 
 interests of the Roman pontiff, were, however, far from dis- 
 covering the smallest opposition to those who withdrew the 
 people from his despotic yoke ; nor did they molest the pri- 
 vate assemblies of those who hadseparated themselves from 
 the Church of Rome. And in general, all the Germans, 
 who, before these resolutions of the diet of Spires, had 
 rejected the papal discipline and doctrine, were now, in 
 consequence of the liberty they enjoyed by these resolu- 
 tions, wholly employed in bringing their plans to a cer- 
 tain degree of consistency, and in adding vigour and 
 firmness to the glorious cause in which they were en- 
 gaged. In the mean time, Luther and his fellow la- 
 bourers, particularly those who were with him at Wit- 
 teraberg, by their writings, their instructions, their ad- 
 monitions, and counsels, inspired the timorous with for- 
 titude, dispelled the doubts of the ignorant, fixed the 
 principles and resolution of the floating and inconstant, 
 
IN GERMANY. 141 
 
 and animated all the friends of genuine Christianity with 
 a spirit suitable to the grandeur of their undertaking. 
 
 " But the tranquillity and liberty they enjoyed in 
 consequence of the resolutions taken in the first diet of 
 Spires was not of long duration. They were interrupted 
 by a new diet, assembled in 1529, in the same place, by 
 the emperor, after he had appeased the commotions and 
 troubles which had employed his attention in several 
 parts of Europe, and concluded a treaty of peace with 
 Clement VII. This prince, having now got rid of the 
 burthen that for some tmie overwhelmed him, had leisure 
 to direct to the affairs of the church, and this the re- 
 formers soon felt to their disagreeable experience. For 
 the power which had been granted by the former diet 
 to every prince, to manage ecclesiastical matters as they 
 thought proper until the meeting of a general council, 
 was now revoked by a majority of votes : and not only 
 so, but every change was declared unlawful that should 
 be introduced into the doctrine, discipline, or worship of 
 the established religion, before the detenniuation of the 
 general council was known. This decree was justly 
 considered as iniquitous and intolerable by the Elector 
 of Saxony, the Langdrave of Hesse, and the other mem- 
 bers of the diet, who were persuaded of the necessity of 
 a reformation of the church. Nor was any of them so 
 simple or so little acquainted with tlie politics of Rome, 
 as to look upon the promises of assembling speedily a 
 general council, in any other light than as an artifice to 
 quiet the minds of the people ; since it was easy to perceive 
 that a lawful council, free from the despotic influence of 
 Kome, was the very last thing that a pope would grant 
 i n such a critical situation of affairs. Therefore, when 
 the princes and members now mentioned found that all 
 
142 THE RERORMATION 
 
 their arguments and remonstrances against this unjust 
 decree made no impression upon the abettors of the 
 ancient superstitions, they entered a solemn protest 
 against the decree on the 19th April, and appealed to 
 the emperor and a future council. Hence arose the 
 denomination Protestants, which from this time has 
 been given to those who renounce the superstitious com- 
 munion of the Church of Rome." 
 
 It may now be expected, before concluding, that we 
 should resume our view of the progress of the Reforma- 
 tion, at least so far as to trace it to the introduction of 
 the great principles of the Protestant faith into our own 
 land. Nothing can be more dissimilar than the manner 
 in which the work took place in the southern part of 
 the island, compared with its rise and advancement in 
 the kingdom of Scotland. Henry VIII, who, as a 
 younger son, received in his youth the education of one 
 who was destined to be an ecclesiastic, entered the lists 
 with the German reformer as a controversialist, and 
 impugned the principles contained in his treatise on the 
 Babylonish Captivity. Luther shewed little deference 
 to the monarch in his reply to the author, and had even 
 used an acrimony of language of which his friends com- 
 plained, and for which he himself afterwards expressed 
 his regret to Henry. It is. unnecessary to refer to the 
 well-known events in the history of this dissolute and ob- 
 stinate monarch, which, notwithstanding his intolerant 
 bigotry, at length induced him to renounce the supre- 
 macy of the pope, and to sanction the cause of the re- 
 formation in his dominions. It is, however, to be care- 
 fully noticed, that Henry did little more than transfer 
 to himself the authority and patronage which hitherto 
 had belonged to the Pope, a circumstance which, from 
 
IN GERMANY. 143 
 
 his well-known character and principles, was productive 
 of little benefit to the interests of genuine religion. He 
 still adhered to several of the most indefensible doctrines 
 of Rome ; frequently threatened with death such as op- 
 posed his religious opinions ; and conceived that, as De- 
 fender of the Faith he was the master of the religious 
 sentiments of his subjects, and authorized to prescribe 
 modes of faith according to his own fancy. He was an 
 instance, in short, of a reformer after the fashion of 
 Christiern of Denmark, though capable, by his greater 
 energy and power, of giving effect to his determinations, 
 notwithstanding the opposition of many of his subjects. 
 But like all reformations which stand upon authority 
 rather than flow from conviction, the effects produced 
 by Henry's protestantism were more apparent than real, 
 and had no tendency to exceed the standard presented 
 by the arbitrary will of the sovereign. Accordingly, 
 nothing can be more painful than the fluctuations which 
 occurred in the state of the national religion in England 
 during this and the following reigns, and which painfully 
 adapted themselves to the various principles and cha- 
 racters of the successive possessors of the throne. And 
 even to this day, it is not difiicult to discover in the mot- 
 ley ecclesiastical condition of the Church of England, 
 and in the vague equivocal testimony of her standards 
 on certain important doctrines, the consequence of the 
 precipitate steps by which she v/as conducted from her 
 condition as a Popish institution to that of a Protestant 
 Church. The following reproof from the pen of Me- 
 lancthon, addressed to Henry, will shew how little satis- 
 factory his conduct was to the reformers of Germany: — 
 " Deeply do I regret these proceedings, illustrious king, 
 both for your sake and the sake of the church of Christ. 
 
144 THE REFORMATION 
 
 You have openly rejected the tyranny of the Church of 
 Rome, and with truth have denominated him Antichrist ; 
 yet you defend those laws of the Romish antichrist 
 which are the sinews of his power, such as private 
 masses, celibacy, and other superstitious. You threaten 
 to inflict the most cruel tonnents upon excellent men, 
 the members of Christ's body : you quench the enlight- 
 ening truths of the gospel in your church. This is not 
 taking away antichrist, but confirming his power. 
 I implore you, therefore, for the sake of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, pollute not your conscience by defending the 
 articles which your bishops have set forth. It is no 
 light sin, to estabHsh the idolatry, the errors, cruelties, 
 and lusts of antichrist. If the bishop of Rome had a 
 synod assembled at this moment, w4iat articles would it 
 concoct and impose upon the world, but such as those 
 your bishops have devised ? Beware, I beseech you, 
 of the snares of Satan, who is accustomed especially to 
 assault and tempt those in authority ; and since he 
 has been the enemy of Christ from the beginning of the 
 world, so he has especially, by using crafty devices, en- 
 deavoured to depreciate Christ, by disseminating impious 
 tenets, and exciting men to idolatry. And he has la- 
 boured to pollute the human race with unrighteous cru- 
 elties and sinful lusts. To attain this object, he has 
 made use of the abilities of hypocrites, and the power of 
 rulers. The histories of every age have shewn how 
 mighty monarchies have raged against the church. But 
 God has been pleased to bring some princes from the 
 armies of his enemies, to join his church, and to acknow- 
 ledge the doctrines and worship of truth. Much rather 
 would I desire that you were one of that number, than 
 to behold you amongst the enemies of Christ, contami- 
 
IN GERMANY. 145 
 
 nated with idolatry, and sprinkled with the blood of 
 saints, for whom God will take vengeance, as many ex- 
 amples testify." 
 
 With regard to the reformation in Scotland, it is un- 
 necessary to enter into any particular observations, as 
 the events connected with its rise and progress are, 
 through the distinguished labours of Dr M'Crie and 
 others, familiar to all. Suffice it to say, that it presents, 
 perhaps, the best instance on record, of a reformation 
 neither enforced by authority, nor precipitated by vio- 
 lence and anarchy, but matured and developed by the 
 growing intelligence and convictions of a religious peo- 
 ple. There existed an under current of evangelical 
 principles among the humbler ranks of society from the 
 days of the Culdees, particularly in the western districts ; 
 and while ecclesiastical and civil tyranny gave our public 
 institutions a form decidedly hostile to freedom, it either 
 overlooked or found itself incapable to destroy the prin- 
 ciples of piety which were cherished among the peasantry 
 of the land. This indigenous protestantism was power- 
 fully affected by every instance of the re\T.val of pure 
 religion in other countries. Most joyfully did it receive 
 tidings of the labours of Wickliffe in the 14th century, 
 and accept, as a very precious boon, the translation 
 of the Bible, for which the cause of truth was indebted 
 to the labours of the Rector of Lutterworth. The more 
 general and commanding movements of Luther were 
 hailed with even a deeper interest ; and when Wishart 
 and Hamilton began to preach the doctrines of the re- 
 formation publicly, they found a people already deeply 
 imbued and powerfully attached to these principles. 
 The rigorous despotism, both civil and ecclesiastical, 
 maintained at that period, repressed with its utmost 
 
 K 
 
146 THE REFORMATION 
 
 energies the cause of truth ; and would have overborne 
 and crushed the work, had it not been characterised by 
 a vitality and endurance altogether divine. And to this 
 fact we have to ascribe much of that purity, solidity, 
 and power which characterised it on its subsequent de- 
 velopment, and which, after the disintegrating agency of 
 centuries, still renders the Protestantism of Scotland 
 eminently resolute, enlightened, and uncompromising. 
 Like the mountains of our land, which, in their rugged 
 and stern aspects, indicate the superincumbent pressure 
 which afforded the subterranean flames scope for the 
 intense action which penetrated and moulded these in- 
 durated masses into their present fonn — the religion of 
 Scotland bears the decided impress of the circum- 
 stances in which it was originated and developed. The 
 silent invisible operation of the truth, quickened by the 
 divine influence of the Holy Spirit, exerted through the 
 masses of society a power all the more penetrating and 
 impressive from the opposition and persecution to which 
 the reformation was subjected. Scotland to this day 
 is a land of ruined cathedrals and dismantled castles ; 
 and at the same time a land of Bibles, Sabbaths, and 
 Churches, beyond almost any other in Christendom. 
 
 In the former we see the relics of that depressing 
 dynasty which bore down the purity, intelligence, and 
 liberty of an awakened nation ; and in the latter the 
 effect of that rising spirit which, formed in the deep 
 convictions and emotions of society, at length burst 
 forth into an irrepressible and ovei-flowing torrent, bless- 
 ing and enriching the age in which it appeared, and 
 destined to be the source of lasting blessings to future 
 generations. Let us never forget that the great lesson 
 which the Keformation teaches, is to place the most 
 
IN GERMANY. 147 
 
 perfect reliance on the ultimate ascendancy of divine 
 truth, when quickened in the hearts of men by the 
 operation of the Holy Spirit. No force, no tumult, is 
 necessary to accelerate the agency ; and aU the boasted 
 combinations of human policy and strength will not re- 
 strain it. Like a fountain of living water springing up 
 to eternal life, there is a salient vigour in divine grace, 
 which must triumph in the end over all opposition. The 
 great men of the reformation were fully confident of 
 this, and occupied themselves exclusively in sowing the 
 seed of the divine word through society, and in watering 
 it with their prayers. Far from them was the barren 
 ambition of raising themselves to distinction and power, 
 by an eloquence and policy adapted to stir up the 
 energies of men to restless discontent and a resolution 
 for change. They were men of God ; whom an ardent 
 zeal for the divine glory, and a deep concern for the 
 immortal well-being of their fellow men, constrained to 
 count all things but dross for the excellence of the know- 
 ledge of Jesus Clirist theii* Lord. 
 
149 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 THE PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS OF EVxiNGE- 
 LICAL RELIGION IN GERMANY; WITH A SKETCH 
 OF ITS HISTORY FROM THE TIME OF LUTHER. 
 
 BY THE REV. PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, 
 
 MINISTER OP FREE CHURCH, SALTON. 
 
 The first great object of Satan's policy toward the 
 church of God, is to destroy its existence ; and when 
 failing in that, his next is, to corrupt it from the simpli- 
 city that is in Christ, and thereby undermine its vitality 
 and usefulness. This policy, in both its departments, 
 was directed against the great Head of the Church him- 
 self, the incarnate Redeemer. To make sure, if possi- 
 ble, of his destruction in infancy, the cruel edict was is- 
 sued for a general slaughter of the babes in Bethlehem. 
 But that wicked purpose having been defeated by the 
 timely interference of Divine Providence, the child that 
 was born having at last sprung to manhood, and appear- 
 ing on the stage of the world's history as the anointed 
 Jesus of Nazareth, then every nerve was plied to com- 
 pass his overthrow, by betraying him to abandon the 
 principles of a child-like obedience, and especially, by 
 spreading before him for his covetous embrace the riches 
 and glory of the world. No sooner had he finished the 
 
150 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 work given him to do, than a course of procedure pre- 
 cisely similar began to be adopted toward the church 
 which he left behind him as his witness on earth, but, 
 unhappily, with different success. For though we see 
 the prince of darkness striving in vain, through the com- 
 bined hostility of the powers of this world, to crush her 
 existence in infancy, we see him by degrees insinuating 
 the foul leaven of the world into her bosom, — corrupt- 
 ing with false mixtures the soundness of her doctrine, 
 perverting her principles of action, and at last, through 
 the fulness of her earthly portion, depraving her spirit 
 and character, till they became essentially one with 
 those of the world. 
 
 The revived Christianity, which, after the lapse of 
 many ages of darkness and corruption, sprang up in Ger- 
 many, through the instrumentality of Luther, and his 
 fellow-labourers in the work of the ministry, in its future 
 history but too closely resembles that of the primitive 
 church. By the wonderful providence of God, thwart- 
 ing the designs and checking the fury of the adversaries, 
 this Chiu'ch of the Reformation succeeded well in 
 weathering the fearful storm with which it was at first 
 assailed ; the gates of hell could not prevail to quench 
 the flame that was then kindled, or to arrest the progress 
 of the truth, till judgment was brought forth into vic- 
 tory ; and after passing through many formidable dan- 
 gers and death-like struggles, the Church, in one at least 
 of its two grand divisions, the Lutheran, was, by the Con- 
 vention of Augsburg in the year 1555, publicly recog- 
 nised, and secured in the free enjoyment of its rights 
 and liberties. By that memorable Convention all Ger- 
 mans were permitted with equal freedom, either to ad- 
 here to the Church of Rome, or to believe in the Augs- 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 151 
 
 burg Confession, the creed of the Lutherans : the mem- 
 bers of both churches were placed on the same footing 
 as citizens and members of the empire ; and those were 
 declared to be public enemies of Germany, who should 
 presume to make war upon others, or to molest them on 
 the ground of their religion. 
 
 It is true that the benefits of this important paci- 
 fication were expressly limited to the adherents of 
 the Augsburg Confession, and that those who belonged 
 to the Reformed or Calvinistic churches, had no legal 
 claim to its provisions. It would seem, however, that 
 though not legally entitled to the toleration established, 
 they actually enjoyed it ; and that in so far as their re- 
 lations to the empire were concerned, both churches 
 met substantially with the same treatment. But the 
 Catholics were never satisfied with the peace agreed to 
 at Augsburg ; and continued to try various artifices, by 
 which they hoped to obtain a retractation of the conceded 
 liberties, and even to extirpate the reformed opinions 
 from Germany. These views came to be more openly 
 avowed and acted upon from the time the Jesuits began 
 to acquire the ascendant in the courts of Catholic Eu- 
 rope ; and chiefly at their instigation, the house of Aus- 
 tria proceeded, shortly after the commencement of the 
 seventeenth century, to make the most violent and un- 
 constitutional encroachments on the rights and proper- 
 ties of the Protestants.* This led to the long and ha- 
 rassing war between the Catholics and Protestants, 
 which is known by the name of the Thirty Years' War, 
 carried on, with various success, from about 1618 to 
 
 * Mosheim, b. iv. art. xvii. sect. 2. Richter (Lehrbuch des Kir- 
 chenrects, p. 75), ascribes the breach of peace partly to the Jesuits, 
 and partly to the inclinations of the Catholic princes themselves. 
 
1 62 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 1648, during a considerable part of which, the Protestants 
 were assisted and headed by the famous Gustavus Adol- 
 phus of Sweden, whose fall on the plain of Lutzen, in 
 16o3, revived the hopes of the adversaries, as his pre- 
 vious successes had filled them with terror. But at length, 
 both parties being tired of the protracted warfare, and 
 their resources exhausted, the peace of Westphalia was 
 concluded in 1648, which finally adjusted the contend- 
 ing claims of the Romish and Protestant churches, and 
 fixed their relative position on the basis which, with no 
 essential variation, has been maintained to the present 
 day. By that treaty, which included the Reformed, as 
 well as the Lutheran churches, perfect equality of rights 
 was secured to the existing religious parties ; so that all 
 religious matters were henceforth to be disposed of, not 
 by the will of the majority, but by mutual consent, and 
 fi'iendly arrangement between the Catholic and Evange- 
 lical states. In regard to the adherents of any other 
 confession than those thus recognised, the power was 
 granted to the princes within their respective territories, 
 and by virtue of their civil supremacy, either to give or 
 to withhold permission to form themselves into a church. 
 But even when this liberty was refused, the right of 
 household devotion, of civil traffic, and an honourable 
 burial, was confirmed to them. And in regard to the 
 three recognised churches themselves, the Catholic, Lu- 
 theran, and Reformed, any one was left free to choose 
 to which he would attach himself, after coming to the 
 years of discretion, or, if he should see cause, to change 
 from one communion to another.* 
 
 Thus by the peace of Westphalia, the terms of which 
 may justly be regarded as the Magna Charta of the 
 * Richter, as above, § 36, seq. 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 153 
 
 civil rights and liberties of the Protestant Churches of 
 Germany, the first grand object of the adversary was 
 finally defeated ; they attained to a recognised place 
 among the public institutions of the empire, and all hope 
 perished of strangling their political existence. But 
 the more he was foiled in this first object of his endea- 
 vours, he seems only to have applied himself the more 
 industriously to carry his second, viz. to corrupt these 
 churches from the simplicity that is in Christ, and by 
 internal disorder and decay to unfit them for prosecut- 
 ing the great ends for which they were planted. After 
 the peace of Westphalia we hear little of the cause of 
 Protestantism in Germany, as a spirit of life contending 
 with the powers of darkness, and diffusing far and wide 
 the blessings of the gospel. It had been so long strug- 
 gling for a political existence and a position of safety, 
 that when it finally attained to this, instead of starting 
 from it anew as from a better vantage-ground, it settled 
 down into a state of security and repose, as if aU had 
 been won which it was necessary to strive for. The 
 wish, so naturally cherished in such circumstances by 
 the flesh, of doing nothing to provoke an adversary that 
 had involved them in such harassing conflicts, and 
 brought their very existence into peril, easily induced 
 the churches to be content with what they had already 
 obtained, and to cease from all vigorous attempts to 
 encroach on the domain of popery. The jealousy, be- 
 sides, which from the first had subsisted between the 
 Lutheran and the Reformed sections of the Protestant 
 Church — cari'ied often even into the pulpit, and dis- 
 covering itself sometimes in the most intemperate lan- 
 guage — had the efiect of distracting the minds and 
 weakening the evangelistic efforts of both parties, as it 
 
154 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 must also have proved unfavourable to the life of god- 
 liness within their respective communions. The se- 
 verity, and we might almost say ferociousness, which 
 was displayed in these party contests, especially, on 
 the Lutheran side, seems now almost incredible. Lu- 
 ther himself, unhappily, had set the example, by repul- 
 sing, with the most unbending resolution, the advances 
 made by the Reformed, with Zwingle at their head, 
 though the latter pleaded for the union even to tears. 
 So thoroughly was Luther's spirit, in this respect, 
 caught by his followers, that in 1553, when the Cal- 
 vinistic Protestants of England fled to the Conti- 
 nent during the reign of the bloody Mary, they were, 
 by the advice of the Lutheran theologians, denied shelter, 
 even in the depths of winter, at Copenhagen, Bostock, 
 Lubeck, and Hamburg ; the cry raised was, " Better 
 Papists than Calvinists, better Mahometans than Re- 
 formed." Books were published with such titles as 
 these : " Proofs that the Calvinists have 666 errors in 
 common with the Turks ;" " Brief evidence that the 
 present attempt at union (1721) with the self-styled 
 Reformed, is in direct opposition to the Ten Command- 
 ments, to all the articles of the Apostle's Creed, to all 
 the petitions of the Lord's Prayer, to the doctrine of 
 Baptism, the power of the Keys, the holy Communion, 
 as well as the whole Catechism." In a volume of ser- 
 mons, still in existence, published in 1590, the Calvinists 
 are classed with Papists, " as two furious armies of in- 
 carnate devils, who dispute about the holy supper," and 
 the heathen Ovid is declared to be " a better theologian 
 than the Cahdnists." And even in a catechism for the 
 young, the question is put to the Lutheran child, " Dost 
 thou believe, that instead of honouring and worshipping 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 155 
 
 the true and living Grod, the Calvinists honour and wor- 
 ship the devil ?" and answered, " I do from the bottom 
 of my heart."* It is true that nothing like the same bit- 
 terness of spirit is to be found among the Reformed 
 toward the Lutheran, who were influenced, no doubt, in 
 some measure by the noble example of Calvin, who de- 
 clared that if " Luther should even call him Satan, he 
 would not cease to acknowledge and honour him as an 
 illustrious servant of Grod." But still they must have 
 partaken, to some extent, of the feeling of antipathy 
 that was engendered, and suffered from its blighting 
 influence. 
 
 Further, the Lutheran churches, which were by far 
 the most numerous in G-ermany, were, from a very early 
 period, agitated with keen and fruitless controversies 
 among themselves, which took off their regard from the 
 great things of salvation, and wasted the strength which 
 should have been reserved for better purposes. The 
 first of these controversies was the Adiaphoristic, re- 
 specting things indifferent, which arose from the Interim 
 of 1548 being assented to on the part of Melancthon 
 and others, in so far as it contained things indifferent. 
 It was found that not a few of the things which were 
 reckoned indifferent, were among the number of those 
 which Luther had justly denounced as contrary to the 
 word of Grod ; and hence the more zealous Lutherans, 
 at the head of whom was Flacius, vehemently protested 
 against such a halting course, and such latitudinarian 
 views, and raised so determined an opposition, that for 
 some time a split in the body seemed inevitable. A 
 tendency also, which discovered itself at a very early 
 
 * Taken from D'Aubigne's Lutheranism and Reform, and Amand 
 Saintes, p. §2. 
 
156 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 period, in different quarters of the Lutheran body, to 
 espouse the distinctive tenets of Calvinism, further in- 
 creased this controversial spirit ; and when, after many 
 vexing discussions and anxious negociations, the For- 
 mula of Concord was agreed to in 1576, with the view 
 of healing the divisions and cementing the Lutheran 
 bod}^ the violent attacks which were made on this do- 
 cument, both by the Reformed churches and by some 
 of the Lutheran party themselves, only kindled anew 
 the flame of controversy, and perpetuated the elements 
 of discord. Finally, the authoritative standards of the 
 Lutheran church, or Symbolical Books as they are 
 called, were so numerous, and from the circumstances 
 of the times, the clergy were called so often to defend 
 them against misgivings from within and attacks from 
 without, that even this had an unfavourable effect upon 
 the spirit and character of their ministrations. They 
 were constantly plying the people with dry, metaphysi- 
 cal, elaborate discussions on such points as liberty and 
 necessity, predestination and God's decrees, the ubiquity 
 or universal presence of the Lord's human nature. So 
 incessantly were these and such like points debated dur- 
 ing the latter part of the sixteenth and the earlier 
 part of the seventeenth century, that the discourses, 
 even of the more eminent and distinguished men in the 
 church, seem to have left almost entirely out of view 
 what was fitted to beget a living faith, or to nourish a 
 spiritual and godly life ; as may be understood from one 
 of these, Andreas, the principal author of the famous 
 Formula of Concord, distributing the matter of his dis- 
 courses into the four following parts : The first treat- 
 ing of the difference between Lutheranism and Popery ; 
 the second, of that between the Church of Christ and 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERINIANY. 157 
 
 the Zwinglians ; the third holding an argument with 
 Schwenckfeldians ; and the last directed against the Ana- 
 baptists."^ 
 
 It is also to be taken into account in forming our esti- 
 mate of the state of the churches of the Reformation in Ger- 
 many, from the middle of the sixteenth to the middle of 
 the seventeenth century, that there were serious practical 
 evils in the constitution of these churches, which could not 
 fail to exercise in the course of time a pernicious influ- 
 ence on their general character and prosperity. For 
 the Lutheran churches, while they held it to be essen- 
 tial to a true church to possess the preaching of the 
 gospel, the administration of sacraments, the exercise of 
 the power of the keys, and the maintenance of discipline 
 according to the word of God — while they demanded 
 that nothing in doctrine or worship should be imposed 
 on the church without her own consent, at the same 
 time yielded to the supreme power in the state the jus 
 episcopale, the prime and ultimate authority in the 
 church ; and hence admitted the respective sovereigns, 
 who espoused the Protestant cause, to interfere both 
 personally and by their representatives in the govern- 
 ment of the church. It was therefore in perfect accord- 
 
 * Amand Saintes Hist, du RationaJisme, also Tholuck's Lectures 
 in the American Bib. Repository, vol. iv. " To designate any one 
 as a noted theologian of that age, is the same as to say he was an 
 ardent and energetic polemic. For the misfortunes of the times, 
 and the multiplicity of contests, both internal and external, re- 
 quired all to take up arms." — 3Iosheira's History, vol. iii. p. 341, 
 (Murdoch's Translation). The symbolical books of the Lutheran 
 Church were the Augsburg Confession, the Articles of Smalcald, 
 the Larger and Shorter Catechisms of Luther, and the Formula of 
 Concord — first, too numerous; secondly, too minute and philosoi)hi- 
 cal in some of their statements ; and thirdly, scripturally unsound in 
 otliers, especially on the decrees of God and the Lord's Supper. 
 
158 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 ance with the constitution of the Lutheran Church, that 
 wherever it formed the established religion, the rights 
 of civil patrons should remain in full force, and that 
 civil should sit along with properly ecclesiastical officers 
 in the consistories, whose part it was to direct the 
 government and discipline of the church in the several 
 localities.^ That a loss of spirituality, and a relaxation 
 of the purity and order becoming a church of Christ, 
 would not be long in discovering itself as the result of 
 this worldly intermixture, might be inferred with the 
 utmost certainty. And we are by no means surprised to 
 hear Mosheim testifying, that though at the first the 
 Lutheran Church was distinguished by the wise and 
 temperate use of discipline, " in process of time it fell 
 into disuse, and in his own day (the eighteenth century), 
 scarcely a vestige of it in most places remained." He justly 
 adds, " This restraint upon wickedness being removed, 
 it is not strange that the morals of the Lutherans should 
 become corrupted, and that a multitude of persons liv- 
 ing in open transgression should everywhere lift up their 
 head."! 
 
 * Richter, as above, | 29, 30. Mosheim, iii. p. 327. " It is true 
 (says D'Aubigne) that Luther at last made a proper distinction 
 between the two swords of the church and the state ; but after 
 him, and even in his day, the Lutheran princes invested with the 
 territorial episcopacy, absorbed all liberties, and all ecclesiastical 
 independence." 
 
 I Hist. vol. iii. p. 329. One may be disposed to question how 
 far Mosheim was right in saying that the Lutheran church was 
 at first distinguished by the wise and temperate use of discipline. 
 Indeed, Luther's own history seems to speak another language, for 
 the close of his days was clouded by the moral disorders which 
 broke out around him in Wittemberg, the very field of his minis- 
 terial labours, and the place of his greatest influence ; and it was 
 with the greatest difficulty that he was prevented from leaving it 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 159 
 
 In those districts where the Lutheran was not the 
 established religion, the process of degeneracy might be 
 somewhat slower, but it did not fail to proceed. And 
 in the Reformed churches, matters in this respect seem 
 to have been no better. For very few of these adopted 
 in its full extent the platform of Geneva, which, as is 
 well known, was based on the principle of entirely ex- 
 cluding the civil magistrate from interfering with the 
 government, any more than the doctrines of the church, 
 and of having every thing regulated by means of her 
 own officers in the respective judicatories of the church, 
 and in strict accordance with the word of God. Most 
 of the evangelical churches even in Switzerland rejected 
 this apostolical constitution, and prefeiTed following the 
 views of Zwingle, who held, indeed, that the government 
 of the church is in the hands of the church ; but with 
 such an entire confounding of the temporal and spiritual, 
 
 in disgust. How different the close of Calvin's life, not only dying 
 in outward peace and honour, but able also to appeal to those 
 whom he left behind him, that " matters are not ill constituted," 
 and only needing to charge them, that they would, after his de- 
 cease, " preserve the established order, and not suffer them through 
 negligence to fall into decay !" So well did they for a long time 
 acquit themselves of this charge, and so admirably did the system 
 with its sound theology and effective discipline work, that fifty 
 years fifterwards, one of the most zealous Lutherans of his day, 
 Andreae, could not help, as D'Aubigne informs us, with all his pre- 
 judices, writing thus : " What I have seen there (in Geneva, which 
 he had just visited) I shall never forget. The most beautiful orna- 
 ment of that republic is its tribunal of morals, which every week 
 inquires into the disorders of its citizens. Games of cards and 
 chance, swearing and blasphemy, impurity, quarrelling, hatred, 
 deceitfulness, infidelity, drunkenness, and other vices, are repressed. 
 Oh ! how beautiful an ornament to Christianity is this purity 
 We Lutherans cannot too deeply deplore its absence from us. If 
 the difference of doctrine did not separate me from Geneva, the 
 harmony of its morals could have induced me to remain for ever." 
 
160 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 jurisdictions, that according to liim it belonged to tLe 
 Christian magistrate to settle and arrange every thing 
 that concerns the external order of the church, so that 
 the ministers of religion had no right to exclude trans- 
 gressors from the church, or deprive them of the com- 
 munion.^ These views of Zwingle were generally 
 adopted by the Reformed churches in Germany ; and the 
 chief difference between them and the Lutheran in point 
 of government, consisted in the somewhat larger share 
 which the members of particular churches had in the 
 administration of their affairs, and in the right of the 
 presbyteries and sj^nods to enact laws for the whole. 
 But from the nature of their constitution, the reins of 
 discipline must from the first have been held with a 
 slack hand, and, as an inevitable result, the pure and 
 blessed character which they should have maintained 
 and exhibited, must have been sadly marred, and an 
 open door left for the entrance of corruption and every 
 evil work. 
 
 If we put all the influences together, which have now 
 been shortly recounted — the frequent, long-continued, 
 and harassing wars through which the churches of the 
 Keformation in Germany had to maintain their cause 
 during the first century and more of their existence — 
 the fierce war of opinion and controversy, which was 
 waged between the two grand divisions of the churches 
 themselves, and in the largest division between the 
 members of their own communion — the substitution to 
 which these controversies to a great extent led, of me- 
 
 ♦ Richter i 31. Mosheim, iii. p. 416, who quotes the statement 
 of Gualther, that " neither Zwingle nor BuUinger ever approved of 
 excommunication, and opposed those who sought to introduce it, 
 and that when fficohimpadius set it up in Basle, it was against 
 Zwingle's advice, and was of short duration." 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 161 
 
 taphysical subtleties and logical argumentation for the 
 quickening and wholesome truths of the gospel, and of 
 reputed orthodoxy of belief for the possession and ex- 
 ercise of a living faith — the defective and unsound con- 
 stitution of the churches as to the administration of dis- 
 cipline and the preservation of order and puritj^ in the 
 communion ; — if we put all these things together, and 
 think what must have been the amount of their com- 
 bined influence operating through a succession of gene- 
 rations, we may well be prepared to expect, that, by the 
 middle or close of the seventeenth century, there wanted 
 little to be realized of the second great object of Satan's 
 ambition — the loss, in the evangelical churches of 
 Germany, of the simplicity that is in Christ, and the de- 
 cay in them of the life and power of godliness. No 
 doubt, there would be many noble exceptions both among 
 the ministers and the people ; by means of the Bible, the 
 h^Tnn-books, which were deeply impregnated with the 
 spirit of the gospel, and other pious productions, the di- 
 vine light would be kept burning, and the souls of men 
 nourished into healthfuluess of life, in places and families 
 of which no record exists on earth. And it is a proof 
 at once of the low state of the Protestant churches 
 generally, and of the great number of scattered indi- 
 viduals, who still breathed a better spiiit and sighed 
 after a revived Christianity, that John Arndt, who dur- 
 ing a long life had given himself with most exemplary 
 zeal and assiduity to the proper work of a Christian 
 pastor, was reviled and denounced as a heretic by his 
 brethren in the ministry, his writings represented as 
 " poison," " containing the residue of all heresies ;" while 
 these same writings, and especially his True Christianity, 
 which is characterized by vigorous thought and a health- 
 
 L 
 
162 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 fill piety, passed through numberless editions, and to this 
 day is found in almost every house where religion itself 
 has found a home.* 
 
 We may regard it as partly in consideration of the 
 sighs and prayers of this pious remnant, that the Lord 
 was pleased to send a time of revival to his church, ^^hich 
 began shortly after the ratification of the peace of West- 
 phalia. The chief instrument in effecting this revival, 
 was Spener (born in 1635, and died 1705), a man of 
 respectable, though not commanding talents and attain- 
 ments, of deep humility, winning address, and high- 
 toned, heaven-breathing piety. The kind of reforma- 
 tion he aimed at producing, as well as the special means 
 he employed to produce it, took their character from the 
 times in which he lived, when a dead and barren ortho- 
 doxy reigned paramount. His great themes, therefore, 
 were the new birth, and in connexion with that, the di- 
 vine life, and the word of the li\^ng God — in comparison 
 of which creeds, the most correct and orthodox, were of 
 no value, and without which, men could neither know 
 nor believe any thing aright of the things of God. And 
 to diffuse that better state of thought and feeling, which 
 was so much needed, he not only pressed his views in 
 his sermons, and a few printed productions, but endea- 
 voured, by his conversations, to enlist men of all ranks 
 and classes on his side, and by the institution of " col- 
 leges of piety," as they were called, meetings for spiritual 
 instruction and devotional exercise, to get hold of the 
 minds of the intelligent youth, and especially of such as 
 were preparing for the ministry. These meetings were 
 estabhshed in Strasburg, Frankfort on the Maine, Dres- 
 
 * Arndt was born in 1555, and died in 1631, having exercised the 
 pastoral office in three or four different places. 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERJIANY. IGo 
 
 den, Berlin, and many other places ; and at Halle, he 
 had the zealous co-operation of Anthon and Francke, 
 who were incessant in their labours among the students 
 at the university, and the latter of whom, Francke, was 
 instrumental in rearing the famous Orphan Hospital 
 there, (the history of which is one of the most singular 
 accounts on record, of the power of faith and the efficacy 
 of prayer,) in which hundreds of destitute children con- 
 tinually received the soundest instruction and the most 
 scriptural training. Spener and his associates were de- 
 cried on all hands by the more zealous Lutherans, and 
 stigmatized with the name of Pietists. But the blessing 
 of God manifestly attended their labours ; they had the 
 happiness of seeing pure and undefiled religion spread- 
 ing through the community ; the preachers, who came 
 out, imbued with their spirit, were acceptably received, 
 and eagerly listened to ; then- party could, by and by, 
 number in its ranks men of distinguished talents and 
 learning, as well as piety ; even those, who still ranked 
 themselves as opponents, appeared to have felt the better 
 influence, and gave indications of a more softened and 
 hallowed disposition ; and it seemed as if the sun of a 
 second reformation was rising with its healing and be- 
 nignant beams on the land of Luther, when, in the mys- 
 terious providence of God, a star of portentous magni- 
 tude and malignant influence made its appearance on 
 the horizon, and that followed by another and another 
 in rapid succession, till the very foundations came to 
 be out of course, and it might almost be said of that 
 land, that there " all death lived and life died."- 
 
 * A pretty full account of this interesting period in the ecclesias- 
 tical history of Germany, so far as the labours of Spener and Francke 
 are concerned, may be found in Gillies' Historical Collections, a 
 new edition of which, under the care of the Rev, Horace Bonar, is a 
 
164 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 The unhappy turn of affairs to which I allude, was 
 the rise of the Wolfian philosophy, which in the earlier 
 part of last century began to attract the more ardent 
 minds of Glennany, and acquired such an extraordinary 
 degree of popularity, that it filled the country with a 
 sort of philosophical fury. It was no farther hostile to 
 religion, than that by its principles it exalted reason to 
 the supreme place, thus incidentally depressing revela- 
 tion, and by the engrossing interest it excited, took off 
 men's minds from spiritual things. After this system, 
 came those successively of Kant, Fichte, Schelling, 
 Hegel, each advancing farther than its predecessors into 
 the domain of what was called pure reason, and treating, 
 not only scripture, but all ideas concerning things human 
 and divine, as under its entire supremacy and control. 
 They were, therefore, first infidel, and latterly panthe- 
 
 present issuing from the press. The plain histories of strong faith, 
 and answers to believing prayer there given, especially as connected 
 with the building of the Orphan Hospital at Halle, are so very re- 
 markable, that they seem almost to raise the transactions recorded 
 above the rank of ordinary events in providence. If viewed, how- 
 ever, in connection with the circumstances of the period, they will 
 be found to have been precisely such as were designed, and thus 
 ntted to convey, the special lesson which Germany at that time 
 needed. Faith, living, realizing, active faith, was what the church 
 then peculiarly required, what had almost perished from the midst 
 of her, and what, if it had existed in sufficient force, would have 
 eflPectually enabled her to make head against the stream of adverse 
 influences, which were ready to burst in upon her. The Lord did 
 not permit these influences to arise, till he had given full matter- 
 of-fact proof, such as might have convinced and satisfied every in- 
 quiring mind, where the real strength of the church lay, and how, 
 if full of the confiding and prayerful spirit of a genuine faith, she 
 <.'ould draw upon the infinite resources of Heaven, and overcome the 
 mightiest obstacles. Alas ! she did not know the day of her mer- 
 ciful visitation, and the storm fell upon her in a great measure un- 
 prepared. 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 165 
 
 istic, or atheistic, in their tendency ; and as they suc- 
 ceeded in leavening all seats of learning with their in- 
 fluence, the teachers of theology, and through them the 
 ministers of religion, imbibing the spirit of the times, 
 became rationalists in religion ; that is, they exalted 
 the rational above the revealed, reason above revelation, 
 and rejected every fact and doctrine in scripture which 
 did not seem to accord with enlightened views of things. 
 Hence rationalism soon became but another name for 
 deism, for it discarded all that is miraculous or super- 
 natural in revelation, and resolved the peculiar doctrines 
 there taught into Jewish ignorance or prejudice, leaving 
 nothing more of a strictly religious nature to be believed 
 or done, than what may be said to belong to natural re- 
 ligion. Besides, this undue exaltation of reason was ac- 
 companied by a perfect inundation throughout Germany 
 of the infidel writings of this country and France, and 
 some of the most noted infidels were treated as the bosom- 
 friends of the greatest, in a worldly point of view, of all 
 the kings of Prussia, Frederic the Great. The result of 
 the whole was, that, toward the end of last century and 
 the beginning of this, Protestant Gennany formed one 
 vast field of apostasy and corruption ; her ministers, 
 with few exceptions, were priests of nature, rather than 
 expounders of revelation, teaching for doctrines the com- 
 mandments of men ; and her people were poisoned with 
 error, or left to perish for lack of knowledge, except 
 where, as in former times, the bible, the hymn-book, and 
 works of piety, kept up the life and savour of godliness. 
 But what became, during this process of backsliding 
 and apostasy, of the confessions of the Protestant 
 churches, so full of sound doctrine? When the pro- 
 fessors of theology and the ministers of religion substan- 
 
166 PRESENT STATE AND mCSPECTS 
 
 tially renounced the doctrines of the Bible, did they also 
 lay aside their creeds and standards ? That they could 
 not formally do ; for the laws and constitutions of the 
 churches bound them to abide by these, and to have 
 abandoned them, would have been to forfeit their civil 
 standing and emoluments. Therefore all professors of 
 theology and ministers of religion were still taken bound, 
 sometimes by subscription, sometimes by solemn vow, 
 to believe and teach according to the articles of the con- 
 fessions ; — ^but by mutual consent the obligation thus im- 
 posed was not enforced, and the professed belief in the 
 Lutheran or Reformed confessions was understood to 
 imply nothing more than the expression of adherence to 
 the Lutheran or Reformed churches. Unhappily, the 
 school of Spener tended to prepare the way for this 
 shameful profligacy of principle ; for seeing the abuse 
 which was made in their day of the symbolical books, 
 they treated them with indifference and neglect, and so 
 contributed not a little to that still worse abuse, that 
 utter contempt which subse(.]uently befell them. 
 
 It is also important to notice, as it reads an instruc- 
 tive and solemn warning to good men in all ages, that 
 this was not the only way in which the school of Spener 
 helped to lay the foundation for the destructive opera- 
 tions of Rationalism. Strange as it may seem, yet it is 
 a melancholy fact, that the religious spirit which so 
 eminently characterized the Pietists, in its practical re- 
 suits tended to depreciate the written word of God, and 
 thus served Rationalism with a ready excuse and a fit- 
 ting opportunity for setting its plainest declarations 
 aside. This disastrous effect was produced by too con- 
 stantly turning men's eyes inward upon the feelings of 
 a renewed nature, and aiming too exclusively at the ex- 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 167 
 
 citation and nourishment of sucli feelings ; hence treat- 
 ing as of little moment, as comparatively worthless, an 
 acquaintance with the literal statements and simple 
 truths of Scripture. So strongly did such a tendency 
 develop itself, that in 1742, when Bengel, a man at once 
 of profound learning and solid piety, first published his 
 Gnomon, we find him writing thus in the preface : 
 " The manifold abuse, or rather the impious contempt 
 of sacred scripture has now risen to its height ; and that, 
 not merely with profane men, but even with those who 
 seem to themselves wise, nay spiritual. The It is 
 written, with which the Son of Grod in his conflict with 
 Satan overcame all assaults, is treated with such utter 
 contempt, that they who are fed by scripture, all and 
 alone, are thought to want the Spirit, or to be but babes. 
 Thus will the false prophet find the gates open." A true 
 prediction, most lamentably verified ! The false prophet 
 was even then almost at the gates, which he found so 
 completely open, that he went freely in, and laid waste 
 all around him. And so difficult is it, when once the 
 foundations are fairly out of course, to have them pro- 
 perly re-established, that from that day to this, no one 
 has ever yet been able to get the gates shut again — to 
 bring back the German mind to a simple, childlike con- 
 fidence in the " It is written" of God's word. 
 
 It could serve no good purpose here, to trace more 
 minutely the history and progress of Rationalism in 
 Germany ; and to mark the particular influences under 
 which its successive leaders were formed to play the 
 parts they did, and the influences which they again 
 exerted on those who came after them. There is cer- 
 tainly a wide distinction between Ernesti, Michaelis, and 
 Semler, who may be regarded as the first actors in the 
 
1 68 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 drama, and such men as Strauss, who deny altogether 
 the reality of the facts of gospel history, and convert 
 the whole into a philosophical myth, or " cunningly de- 
 vised fable," — just as there was also a vast difference 
 between Wolff, and Schelling, or Hegel, in their respec- 
 tive systems of philosophy. The earlier rationalists did 
 not differ in their avowed belief very materially from 
 the standards of their respective churches. But they 
 took the lead in bringing the merely human and rational 
 element into the domain of revelation, and giving it the 
 ascendancy ; the inspiration of scripture was thrown 
 completely into the background, and its historical and 
 doctrinal statements put precisely on a level with those 
 of this world. It consequently seemed but a small step 
 in advance, from regarding the scriptures as simply 
 human, to hold them to be imperfect or erring, the more 
 especially as the human, the rational, was unquestionably 
 at the time when, and in the places where the scriptures 
 were written, in a very inferior state of development to 
 what it had since attained by the aid of learning and 
 philosophy. And thus the ark of man's faith and testi- 
 mony being fairly loosed from its moorings by the sure 
 word of the living God, — this word itself being taken as 
 a loose, restless, uncertain ocean, through which the 
 pilot Reason might steer her course as she pleased, here 
 discovering a deep to be dreaded, there a shallow to be 
 avoided, and there again a solid rock to anchor on, — 
 things having reached this state of supposed freedom 
 and enlargement, it was impossible to say to what 
 lengths future inquirers might run ; and the differences 
 between the earlier and the later, the moderate and the 
 ultra rationalists, is a difference only in degree. Indeed, 
 Rationalism, as a system, can have no fixed resting-place 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. lf)9 
 
 — no settled or permanent ideas or doctrines of faith ; 
 its creed must always advance towards, or recede from, 
 the truth of scripture, according to the school of philo- 
 sophy in which it has been educated, or the greater or 
 less maturity of science in the age to which it belongs ; 
 it is itself a sea of uncertainty, fluctuation, and dis- 
 order. 
 
 It is from this essential diversity in the very nature 
 of rationalism, that opinions and blasphemies, which 
 astonish Christendom, both claim and find a place in the 
 bosom of the church, beside sentiments, which are nearly 
 akin to those of evangehcal Christians in this country. 
 For reason being once admitted to be the proper arbiter 
 of what is to be believed, what bounds can justly be set 
 to its discoveries and conclusions ? What point can be 
 fixed beyond which it is not to go, in its antagonism to 
 the recorded statements of scripture ? Hence, however 
 strange and monstrous it seems to us, it is perfectly con- 
 sistent with the views which distinguish a rationalistic 
 church, that such a fraternity as that of those, who call 
 themselves " the Protestant friends," or " the 
 FRIENDS OF LIGHT," should arise and obtain free scope 
 to their operations within the evangelical church of 
 Germany. The origination of this fi-aternity, as a se- 
 parate and organized party, took place in 1841, and was 
 headed by Pastor Uhlich of Pommelte, in Prussian 
 Saxony, a man of kind manners, of extensive influence, 
 and of fine address. The principles agreed to at their 
 first meeting, which was confined to a few individuals, 
 were simply those of Rationalism. Loose and indetermi- 
 nate, but essentially infidel, they acknowledged, that the 
 Bible should form the foundation of their belief, not ac- 
 cording to any creed, but as " explained by reason and 
 
170 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 science." They have since held many meetings, which 
 have been attended by vast crowds, and have excited a 
 great stir, not in Saxony alone, but also in various parts 
 of Germany — it being one of their grand objects to enlist 
 the multitude on their side, and acquire strength by 
 their numbers. The utmost freedom of opinion is allow- 
 ed in the society, so that men are at liberty to " think 
 what they please of Jesus, even as far as to hold the 
 doctrine of the Trinity." At the same time, the leaders 
 of the movement, Uhlich, Koenig, Wislicenus, in the 
 boldest manner attack the authority of the Bible, and 
 every essential doctrine contained in it ; the miraculous 
 conception of Christ, his divine nature, atonement and 
 redemption, justification by faith, the resurrection from 
 the dead, and the future punishment of the wicked, are 
 discarded by them as antiquated notions, not in accord- 
 ance with the present state of light and science ; it was 
 only Paul's Jewish, and Luther's monkish education, 
 which led them to speak of themselves as " poor wretched 
 sinners," needing salvation; but we, says Koenig, speak- 
 ing the real sentiments of the party, " are not afraid of 
 God's wrath, and seek no means of extinguishing it." 
 These appalling declarations sound harshly now, and it 
 is a melancholy thought that they should be proclaimed 
 at any time to assembled multitudes, and circulated, as 
 they are, with great industry, thi'ough the lowest classes 
 of society ; but every one acquainted with the state of 
 matters, during the reign of rationalism in Germany, 
 knows, that these are precisely the views which were 
 taught till lately by the most distinguished professors 
 in nearly all the universities, and secretly held, if not so 
 openly proclaimed, by a large proportion of the ministers. 
 Indeed Uhlich, who declares that " he does not know 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERJL4.NY. 171 
 
 who Jesus properly was, but only that he never could 
 be the second person in the godhead ;" that " he is no 
 believer in original sin, and in himself finds no pride," 
 professes to be merely " the representative of rational- 
 ism, as he was taught it in Halle in 1817."* And the 
 only advance which the friends of light can be said to 
 have made in this wretched cause, is in their endeavours, 
 especially by means of public conferences and affiliated 
 societies, to leaven the multitude with the spirit of ra- 
 tionalism, and rally its sinking interests by the force of 
 mutual counsel, and friendly combination. 
 
 The immense crowds, which have attended the meet- 
 ings of these friends of light, might perhaps be partly 
 accounted for from the novel character of the proceed- 
 ings, and from the court which the leaders of the move- 
 ment avowedly pay to the popular mind and will. But 
 it gives one a sad impression of the religious state of 
 Protestant Germany, when we are told, that declarations 
 in favour of the society have been sent from many of 
 the principal towns, and numerously signed, the one from 
 Breslaw alone having 4922 names attached to it — that 
 from three to four hundred pastors are said to have given 
 in their adherence to it, — in the single province of Silesia, 
 no fewer than 124 pastors, with thi-ee professors of the- 
 ology, and thousands of others belonging to the learned 
 professions, schoolmasters (of these oOO), persons hold- 
 ing office in the state and army, merchants, and common 
 people. It is deplorable to think, and is a bad symptom 
 even of the prevailing tone of morality, that such numbers 
 of persons, in all ranks of society, should be found ready 
 to give their sanction to the movements of a party, the 
 
 * Evangelische-Kirchen-Zeitung for 1845, p. 231, 232, coicp. witk 
 33 and 34. 
 
172 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 very soul of which is composed of ministers of a pro- 
 fessedly evangelical church, who, in acting thus, should 
 be regarded as proclaiming their own shame — since they 
 are betraying the faith they are bound by their office to 
 teach, and denouncing as lies the doctrines which every 
 Sabbath, in reading the liturgy, they appear to own as 
 divine truths. And what shall be thought or said of 
 the government and discipline of the church itself, which 
 can tolerate such members and ministers within its pale ? 
 WeU might Hengstenberg, or a writer in his paper, after 
 noticing the heretical opinions of Wislicenus of Halle, 
 his incessant efforts to destroy the faith of his hearers, 
 and flagrant corruption of the sacraments — ask, " If in 
 the times of deepest apostasy in the church, a more 
 shameless want of discipline had been found ?" And 
 after reproaching that portion of the pastors in the pro- 
 vince, who are sound in the faith, for not at least lifting 
 up their voice and protesting against such soul-destroy- 
 ing errors, he justly adds, " this timidity, this spirit of 
 accommodation in such ministers, who perhaps would 
 take it much amiss if one even doubted their orthodoxy, 
 is the curse of the times."* 
 
 It is right to add, however, that the improper silence 
 here complained of, has in many instances been broken 
 through ; solemn and faithfal protestations against the 
 principles and tenets of the party, signed by numbers 
 of ministers, have issued from various districts of Ger- 
 many ; books, pamphlets, and papers in periodicals, by 
 men of talent and piety, have been put forth in refuta- 
 tion of their views ; the large assemblages have been sup- 
 pressed as endangering the public peace ; Wislicenus, in 
 the month of May last, was cited before the consistory 
 * Ev. Kir. Zeit. for 1845, p. 312. 
 
OF RELIGION IN GP]Ri\IANT. 173 
 
 of Magdeburg to answer for a book, in which his opin- 
 ions are most oflPensively proclaimed, (entitled, Ob 
 Schrift, Ob Gheist,) and was allowed some months to 
 consider whether he would voluntarily resign his office 
 in the Lutheran church ; and in many places lively de- 
 monstrations in behalf of the word of God, and the 
 ancient faith of the church, have been called forth by 
 the exhibitions intended to bring them into contempt. 
 Indeed, distressing as this rationalist movement is, and 
 indicative of many elements of evil and disorder in the 
 present state of German society, its very existence be- 
 speaks a certain revival of living faith and spiritual re- 
 ligion. It is the convulsive struggles of darkness to 
 resist the manifest progress of light ; its language is, 
 " The principles of rationalism are fast losing ground ; 
 the tide is turned against them, and setting in strong in 
 the opposite direction ; we must bestir ourselves to ob- 
 tain a lodgment for them in the hearts of the populace 
 — it will soon be too late." We shall now, therefore, 
 cast our eye over the state of the Protestant Church 
 generally in the German States, with an especial view 
 to the detection of the better symptoms which have of 
 late been discovering themselves. 
 
 In this point of view, that part of Germany naturally 
 occurs first which is included in the Prussian dominions, 
 as these form by much the most important part of Pro- 
 testant Germany. Of the entire population of Prussia, 
 which was 14,000,000 ten or twelve years ago, upwards 
 of 8,000,000 were said to belong to the Protestant 
 Church, and a little more than 5,000,000 to the Catho- 
 lic. The Protestant Church has, as elsewhere, originally 
 existed under the two divisions of the Lutheran and the 
 Reformed, the first being for the most part the esta- 
 
174 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 ])lished, the second the simply tolerated religion ; but a 
 union was effected between them by the late king, and 
 the united body became the Evangelical Church of 
 Prussia. This union was conducted in a very arbitrary 
 manner, with little respect either to the inherent liberties 
 of the church, or to the rights of conscience. The vio- 
 lence was felt chiefly by some members of the Lutheran 
 party, who still, perhaps, cherished something of the 
 old antipathy to the Reformed, and were conscientiously 
 opposed to the principle of union, which proceeded on 
 the plan of requiring from neither party a surrender of 
 their distinctive principles, but of forming a union on 
 the great and fundamental principles on which both 
 were agreed. This, of course, implied that there were 
 fundamental and non-fundamental doctrines in the 
 creeds of the respective churches ; and that the points 
 on which they differed were not fundamental. Some of 
 the Lutheran clergy were not prepared to admit this 
 regarding the peculiar views of their church on the sa- 
 <3rament, election, and confession, and to consent to 
 those changes in the liturgy which were necessary to 
 adapt it to the opinions of the Reformed. Of these a 
 part were gained over by the influence of the court ; 
 and as the king was determined to carry his point, those 
 whom neither persuasion could win, nor temptation 
 bribe, had no resource left but to seek the freedom 
 which was denied them at home in a foreign land. 
 Various pastors prefeiTed this alternative, and were ac- 
 companied by a portion of their people. 
 
 This arbitrary course of proceeding must, undoubt- 
 edly, have produced an unhappy effect for the time, and 
 operated injuriously upon true religion — especially as 
 tending to crush the spirit of religious freedom, tarn- 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 175 
 
 pering with religious convictions, and exhibiting the 
 church in an attitude of servile dependence upon the 
 temporal power. But as the greater proportion in both 
 churches had degenerated far from the leading princii^ies 
 of their respective confessions, and held by their creeds 
 very loosely, the union could scarcely be supposed to 
 have had any decided effect, of a general kind, upon the 
 state of religion, and was chiefly political and external. 
 The constitution and government of the church in 
 Prussia is of what may be called a mixed nature — some- 
 thing between the properly Episcopal and Presbyterian. 
 Essentially, however, it is Presbyterian ; for though 
 there are different ranks of ministers — pastors, superin- 
 tendents, or bishops, deacons, and sub-deacons, there is 
 no distinction of orders, and the government of the 
 church is conducted by means of presbyteries and synods, 
 or, as they are called in the provinces of Westphalia and 
 the Rhine, local-presbyteries, district-synods, and pro- 
 vincial synods. A special constitution has been granted 
 to the Evangelical Church in these provinces, by royal 
 edict of 5th March 1835, which has given them the ad- 
 vantage of a more complete, and also, in some respects, 
 a more liberal system of government, than the other 
 provinces as yet possess. Every minister must, accord- 
 ing to it, reside in the parish of which he has the charge. 
 The members of the church, who attend upon the means 
 of grace and lead respectable lives, have the choice of 
 their own officers, in most cases also of their pastor. 
 These officers, besides the pastor, consist of eiders, who 
 have to assist the pastor in the maintenance of order 
 and disciphne, — of deacons, who are charged with the 
 oversight of the poor, — and church-masters or wardens, 
 whose part it is to look after the property of the church. 
 
176 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 These, along with the pastor, form the local presbytery, 
 of which he is ex-officio preses, having power also to 
 call its meetings. Then the pastors, and a like number 
 of deputed elders from the parishes within the district, 
 constitute the district-synod, which meets once a-year, 
 is presided over by a superintendent, and in its powers 
 corresponds nearly to our presbyteries. A single minis- 
 ter and elder chosen from each of those synods, together 
 with the clerk and assessor of each, and the superinten- 
 dents of the whole province, make up the provincial 
 synod, which had the oversight of all matters of faith 
 and discipline within its bounds, as well as what gene- 
 rally affects the well-being of the church — but is ex- 
 pressly interdicted, as are also the inferior courts, from 
 discussing any thing of a political nature. Its ordinary 
 times of meeting are limited to once in the three years. 
 To the superintendent, who is also a pastor, it belongs 
 to hold visitations throughout the district in each parish, 
 to inquire of the elders if they have any thing against 
 the pastor, and at the pastor if he has any thing against 
 them or the other officers, — to look, not only into the 
 state of the church property and externals, but also into 
 its order and discipline, its administration of word and 
 sacraments, and to give judgment upon any causes or 
 disorders, which the local presbytery may have sought 
 in vain to terminate. It were well if we might go no 
 farther, if this well-arranged and orderly constitution 
 was allowed freely to operate and develop itself. But 
 state interference and control must every where make 
 itself felt in Prussia ; and hence, over ail this fine ma- 
 chinery there is suspended a three-fold government 
 agency, which must ever hang as a deadweight on aU 
 its movements, and cripple all its energies — the minis- 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 177 
 
 ter of ecclesiastical affairs, the provincial consistory 
 and a general superintendent, who acts as the kind of 
 government-deputy, and receives and communicates the 
 instructions of the minister of ecclesiastical affairs ; — so 
 that the whole presents the appearance, and really pos- 
 sesses the character, of a particular department of the 
 concerns of the state.* 
 
 What we have now given is the best specimen which 
 Prussia affords of an ecclesiastical constitution. In the 
 other provinces there are the same general features, but 
 not so well defined an order, and more intermino-lino: of 
 the temporal with the spiritual. Theoretically, the bond- 
 age to the civil power is the grand evil in the system — 
 although practically, and as matters now exist in that 
 kingdom, it is doubtful how far it might be attended 
 with immediate good, if the state were altogether to 
 withdraw its control — seeing, on the one hand, that 
 there are so many elements of evil in the church itself, 
 and on the other, that the interference of the state, so 
 far as it is at present exercised, is put forth in behalf of 
 evangelical, as opposed to the so-called rational, religion. 
 There can be no doubt, that it is this twofold consider- 
 ation which somewhat reconciles good men to their 
 chains, — as may be gathered from the following contrast 
 between Germany and Scotland, drawn by Hengsten- 
 berg, or a writer in his journal, and mentioned among 
 several things, which seem to justify or excuse the 
 friends of Bible principles in Germany, in being content 
 with a less perfect model of government than has been 
 realized here. " In Scotland," says he, " the supreme 
 civil power, from the Reformation downwards through a 
 
 * We give the above nntline from the royal edict itself, a,s con- 
 tained in Richter's Appendix 
 
 SI 
 
178 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 long period, took a hostile and pernicious direction to- 
 wards the church. On the other hand, the princes with 
 us were found the faithful and affectionate guardians of 
 the rising church, and have also shewn themselves to 
 be so in later times ; indeed, down even to the present 
 day, have rarely been behind the community in spiritual 
 advancement, and have often anticipated it."* But 
 still, there is a spirit now abroad in Germany, which 
 renders these chains galling and obnoxious, and which 
 is awakening from many quarters the cry for a larger 
 measure of religious freedom. The " Friends of Light," 
 have known to take advantage of this feeling, by putting 
 it forth as one of the objects of their association to ob- 
 tain " freedom from state-control in matters of reli- 
 gion." But many also of the best and most discerning 
 men see, that the spirit of the times, as well as the 
 genuine nature of Christianity, demands this. " The 
 history of the church," says one of them, " presents va- 
 rious phases : external oppression with internal freedom 
 during the first centuries ; then, a victorious transfusion 
 of the church into the state life ; further on still, a com- 
 plete ascendancy of the church over the state ; since 
 the Reformation, church freedom in the form of confes- 
 sions, with thorough subordination to the state. The 
 era now beginning to dawn must be one, in which there 
 shall be realized church freedom with an unrestrained 
 appeal to the word of God, and a recognition of the 
 state as a co-ordinate, but not a super-ordinate region 
 of life. Only in freedom can each confession properly 
 unfold itself, and fulfil the part committed to it by the 
 Lord. Only in freedom will the glory of the Lord mani- 
 fest itself in his true church. Such a church will always 
 
 * Ev. K. Zeitung, 22d January 1845. 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 179 
 
 attain the more to the right understanding of the word 
 of God, through the power of the Holy Spu'it coming 
 down upon it ; it will in free love to the Lord always 
 exemplify the more the worship of Grod in spirit and in 
 truth ; and purging itself by the application of a willing 
 and cheerful discipline to the life, will exhibit itself as 
 the church which has neither spot, nor wrinkle, nor any 
 such thing."* 
 
 This is not by any means a solitary passage, but one 
 of a kind which is of very frequent occurrence in the 
 present ecclesiastical literature of Germany. The de- 
 mand for a church constitution really and scripturally 
 free is rising on every hand, and an earnest desire ex- 
 pressing itself of having all regTilated according to the 
 principles of the word of God. " The church must rule 
 spiritually," says Henry, when speaking of the scriptural 
 constitution of a church, which the age is now again 
 striving to realize ; " the church must rule spiritually, re- 
 signing all earthly power without reserve into the hands 
 of the civil magistrate, who again must secure for her 
 free and uncontrolled spiritual power upon the reli- 
 gious territory. All worldly dominion in the church is 
 devilish, but her spiritual authority, no external power 
 has any right to restrain, "f " The choice of a pastor," 
 says another, " by the church which he is to serve, has 
 so clear a Biblical ground, and appears so natural, that 
 where the right of exercising it exists, it must in no re- 
 spect be interfered with, where it can by possibility be 
 established, it ought to be granted to the church. Each 
 church has unquestionably the deepest interest in the 
 settlement of its pastor, and knows best its own wants," 
 
 * Wiesmann, Superintendent in Lennep, in the Monatschrift of 
 Nitzsch and Sack, for October 1845. 
 
 f Paul Henry, Leben., Jo. Calvin, vol. ii. p. 53. 
 
180 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 &c.* And, at a meeting of the provincial synod of 
 Brandenburg, held in Berlin a little more than a year 
 ago, we find such propositions as the following tabled, 
 and giving rise to an animated discussion : " Christ is 
 the only Head and Lord of his church, and he will have 
 the latter guided according to his Holy Spirit and his 
 word, and obediently towards every human ordinance ; 
 hence the idea of Christ's supremacy ought to be real- 
 ized in the church, and neither a pope, nor a temporal 
 prince can stand at the head of the church ; and con- 
 sequently, no individual, no corporation, no dignity or 
 office can usurp the authority of Christ in his church, 
 but every thing proceeds from the Holy Spirit, which 
 Christ has promised to send to those that believe upon 
 him. Since the church as to its internal nature is neither 
 a political nor a hierarchical institute, in all spiritual 
 matters, the head of the state is not the head of the 
 church, and no positive or direct interference from 
 the state should be exercised on the church," &c. It 
 is stated, that at the conclusion of the debate, nothing 
 seemed to be more in unison with the feeling of the as- 
 sembly, " than the hope that there would soon be the 
 carrying out of a radical reform of the church according 
 to presbyterian principles."! In these sighs and wrest- 
 
 * Nees in the Monat. of Nitzsch and Sack, for July 1844. 
 
 t Et. K. Zeitung, for 2d April 1845. It would seem, that the 
 King of Prussia himself participates in these views and feelings, and 
 is seriously meditating a change to the better in the constitution 
 of the Protestant church. For amongst other things that could be 
 mentioned indicative of this, we find D'Aubigne stating in his let- 
 ter to the BisJiop of Chester, dated 28tli July last, though very re- 
 cently presented to the public, " This truly Christian prince (the 
 King of Prussia) has just caused all the ministers of the different 
 circles of his monarchy to be assembled in synods — each circle 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 181 
 
 lings after a sounder constitution — one that will admit 
 of a freer and fuller development of the spirit of the 
 gospel, — we cannot but recognise a token for good, a 
 symptom of returning life and vigour, which we trust 
 will increase more and more till judgment has been 
 brought forth to victory. 
 
 Another pleasing and hopeful symptom is to be found 
 in the growing number of ministers in the Protestant 
 churches of Grermany, who preach what may be called 
 evangelical doctrine. That the substance of the gospel 
 is now proclaimed from many pulpits, from which not 
 long since there was heard only a cold morality, or, still 
 worse, doctrines utterly subversive of the gospel, is 
 confirmed by undoubted testimony. And it is cheering 
 to be told by those who have themselves sojourned in 
 the countiy, as it is also a proof that God is honouring 
 his faithful witnesses, that the people hear such minis- 
 ters gladly ; that the churches of the evangelical minis- 
 ters are commonly filled with attentive audiences, while 
 those of the Rationalists are as commonly deserted. This 
 sowing of the gospel seed will doubtless in due time bear 
 its accustomed fruit, and the reports have already reached 
 us of not a few instances of a manifest reviving of the 
 work of God. Indeed, one of the individuals quoted 
 above (Weismann), does not hesitate to speak of his 
 time, as one " distinguished by an important revival of 
 faith, an earnest contest for the truth, and a remark- 
 separately — and has put before them these three questions : Should 
 these synods meet regularly ? Should lay members be added ? 
 Should there be a general synod for the whole Prussian church ? 
 Unanimously, if I am not mistaken, have they replied in the affir- 
 inative to these three questions. These replies are now before the 
 king, and the organization of the Prussian church will, doubtless, 
 not long be waited for." 
 
182 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 able outpouring of the Holy Spirit, insomuch that it has 
 in a sense the character of a reforming period." 
 
 In a still larger proportion, however, than the ministers, 
 have the professors of theology been taking of late an 
 evangelical direction. The Rationalists have been rapidly 
 losing ground in the Universities, excepting those of 
 G-iessen and Groettingen, where, it seems, they still main- 
 tain their ground. Most of the highest names in theology 
 are now identified with the great truths and principles 
 of the gospel. The shallowness of Rationalism, and its 
 unsatisfactory results, have been so thoroughly exposed 
 on the very soil which produced it, that some of its chief 
 apostles have retracted in theii- old age several of the ob- 
 noxious tenets which they formerly propagated. And 
 the young men who are now preparing for the ministry, 
 are gradually drawing more and more to the professors 
 who are most distinguished for evangelical sentiments, 
 and more generally feeliiig and expressing the conviction, 
 that they must get out of the region of philosophical 
 theology, and, according to the school of Hengstenberg, 
 take the simple record of God's word for their guide 
 and standard in matters of religion.* 
 
 * This last fact, which I give on the authority more particularly 
 of the Rev. J. Nelson, who testifies of what he himself saw and 
 heard, implies that Hengstenberg is a believer in the inspiration of 
 Scripture, and takes his stand on what is there written being in 
 reality the word of God. I have often of late heard doubts ex- 
 pressed as to this being the case, but have not met with any thing 
 in his writings that can fiiirly be regarded as warranting them, 
 while in his Journal he distinctly avows himself a believer in in- 
 spiration. For example, in the Ev. K. Zeitung for 4tli June 1845, 
 he points to it as the great defect of Schlcierraacher's opposition 
 to the looser sort of Rationalism, that " he denied the inspiration of 
 the Scriptures, on which their specific dignity rests, and gave to 
 tliem only the place of an older sister, whom it is proper to listen 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERJLAJvY. 183 
 
 The formation a few years ago, and now vigorous and 
 extensive operations of the Gustavns-Adolphus Society, 
 is a still farther sign of returning life and zeal to the 
 Protestantism of Germany, and is aifording good hopes 
 for the future. Its object is to befriend and assist poor 
 or persecuted communities of Protestants in Roman Ca- 
 tholic countries, where they are exposed to many adverse 
 influences, and stand greatly in need both of friendly 
 counsel and pecuniary aid. It is meeting with every 
 countenance and success, — is becoming a sort of rallying 
 point for the real friends of truth on the Continent, and 
 at its last general meeting was attended by deputies, not 
 only from all parts of Germany-proper, but also from 
 France, Switzerland, and Hungary. The King of Prussia 
 places himself at its head ; the King of Wurtemberg has 
 also sent in his adherence ; the Report of last year could 
 tell of 60,000 Thalers being contributed to its general 
 fund, besides of much that had been raised and expended 
 by local associations, and while detailing its success in 
 pecuniary matters, it gave, at the same time, a clear and 
 
 to, though one is not boimd to abide by her decisions." And he 
 declares, that so long as the inspiration of Scripture is denied, as 
 " no right confidence can be placed in it,'' so " the rock is removed 
 on which the evangelical church is grounded, the heart vaccilates 
 to and fro in times of temptation, and there is only needed such a 
 season of trial, as that of which the Lord spake when he said, ' Si- 
 mon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift 
 you as wheat,' to find the saying of Luther verified, ' Without this 
 word we are undone, and from that moment shall be devoured by 
 the devil.'" I have thought it of importance to make this state- 
 ment regarding the eminent individual to whom it refers, not only 
 for the purpose of shewing what his own views really are, but also 
 because I should conceive it vain to hope for the overthrow of Ra- 
 tionalism, iinles-s the advocates of evangelical truth come to take 
 their stand on the inspired testimony of God's word. 
 
184 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 distinct utterance to the great truths of the gospel. 
 Both as forming a bond of union among the scattered 
 adherents of the truth, and as a means of extending help 
 and encouragement to the needy, we look for much good 
 from its operations ; the more so, as in looking into the 
 accounts of the third day's proceedings at the last an- 
 nual meeting, it was resolved, after a long and animated 
 discussion, that an aggressive movement should be made 
 upon the domains of Rationalism and Popery, and that 
 it is the duty of every Christian, in these eventful times, 
 •to hold forth the light of salvation through Christ, when- 
 soever and wheresoever he has the opportunity. 
 
 Such are some of the more encouraging and hopeful 
 symptoms discovering themselves in connection with the 
 Protestantism of Germany. We are, of course, not to 
 forget, that with these there are coupled many things of 
 an opposite nature, — ^instruments and tendencies of evil, 
 which the revival of Protestant zeal and activity is serv- 
 ing to arouse and stimulate. Besides the movement of 
 the Friends of Light formerly mentioned, it is not to be 
 denied, that a great part of the servants of the church, 
 even of those who have not joined that movement, " are 
 still in the chains of unbelief; and if these for the most 
 part belong to the older part of the present generation, 
 it is not to be forgotten, that very many of the younger 
 generation continue to stick at a sort of miserable and in- 
 effective half-belief, and that the men who can really be 
 depended on for aiding the church are comparatively few."*" 
 This is the case in Prussia, and still more is it the case 
 in most of the other German States, where the tide has 
 not so decidedly turned against Rationalism, or where, 
 in addition to the benumbing influence of this, Pro- 
 
 * Ev. K. Zeitun^ for 1st January 1845. 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 185 
 
 testantism has to struggle against the jealousy and mani- 
 fold restrictions of Popish princes, — as in the Austrian 
 dominions, which contain upwards of 3,000,000 of Lu- 
 therans and Reformed Christians, and in Bavaria, where 
 there are upwards of a million, nearly all of the Lutheran 
 persuasion. In Bavaria, though the edict by which 
 ecclesiastical afiairs are there governed (of date, 26th 
 May 1818), asserts for all perfect freedom of conscience 
 in matters of religion, and claims for the temporal power 
 only a kind of general oversight and protection ; yet the 
 Protestant churches have been interdicted from receiv- 
 ing any aid from the Gustavus-Adolphus Society, and 
 the Allgemeine Zeitung, the first journal of Gemiany, is 
 not permitted so much as to name the Grerman-Catholic 
 Church, while various other more direct interferences with 
 Protestant interests are constantly occurring. In Austria, 
 the Ptomish influences, if not quite so palpably exercised, 
 are yet seriously felt ; and the Protestant churches 
 within its bounds seem generally to be in a cold and 
 languishing state, although now again beginning to shew 
 signs of returning life, especially in Hungary, where the 
 energetic and unremitting labours of Wimm^er of Ober- 
 schiitzen, a man of apostolic zeal and devotedness, are 
 producing manifest fruit. 
 
 There can be no doubt, that in the kingdoms just re- 
 ferred to, and indeed throughout Germany at large, the 
 efforts of the Catholic party are now goaded on, and 
 rendered much more vigorous and active than they once 
 were, by the Jesuits, who are again every where direct- 
 ing the artillery of Rome. Hence, on the one hand, 
 the German Protestant press is teeming with produc- 
 tions upon the history and principles, the arts and 
 machinations, of the Jesuits ; while, on the other, it is 
 
186 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 felt, that a bitterness of spirit is manifested by the Catho- 
 lics toward the Protestants, to which there has been 
 nothing similar since the like exhibitions immediately be- 
 fore the Thirty Years' War.^ From this quarter unques- 
 tionably evangelical Protestantism has to expect much 
 and strenuous opposition. But still the worst and most 
 dangerous enemies are within — the grand evil lies in its 
 loose, disorganized, undisciplined state, the joint fi'uit 
 of a licentious Rationalism, and a servile bondage to the 
 elements of the world. These have hitherto caused, and 
 probably for a considerable time still will cause, the con- 
 fessions and constitutions of the Protestant churches 
 to remain, even when sound and wholesome, compara- 
 tively a dead letter. If we except the churches in some 
 of the Upper Rhine provinces, where matters are said 
 to be in a somewhat better state as to outward order 
 and discipline, f there is scarcely any degree of heresy, 
 or any form of ungodliness of Kfe, which does not»claim 
 and find for itself a home within the pale of the church. 
 And then, the light and frivolous way in which the Sab- 
 bath is usually spent by even the more respectable por- 
 tions of the community, both ministers and people, it 
 being generally reckoned enough to attend only one 
 service in church, while the rest of the day is devoted 
 to pleasure-trips, to visiting, or to public entertainments, 
 places serious religion, which can never exist or thrive 
 without well-spent Sabbaths, at a disadvantage such as 
 we can scarcely estimate in this country. Still, though 
 the hindrances and enemies of the truth are as Legion, 
 
 * See, for example, the quotations given in the Ev. K. Zeitung, 
 for 4th January 1845. 
 
 I Some account is given of these in Nitzsch's Monatschrift, for 
 May 1844. 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 187 
 
 the word of the Lord can bring them to nought, if only 
 wielded by the hand of faith, and seconded by the fer- 
 vent prayers of a humble piety. And it is, to use the 
 words of a German writer, " one of the favourable symp- 
 toms of the present day, that the Protestant church has 
 now begun to shake itself free from its rationalistic and 
 pantheistic elements, and to seize the only arms which 
 can gain for it the victory — the testimony of a strong 
 faith in the word of God."* 
 
 THE mo\t:ment of ronge. 
 
 One of the most striking events of recent times, and 
 the most singular phenomenon now appearing in connec- 
 tion with Germany, still remains to be noticed. But 
 there can be no need to dwell on it, or to enter into 
 many particulars, as almost every thing of importance 
 concerning it has already found its way into the public 
 papers. The first occasion of it was, you are aware, the 
 scandalous notice issued by Arnoldi, Roman Catholic 
 bishop of Treves, to all the faithful, intimating that the 
 holy relic, the very coat without seam worn by the 
 blessed Saviour, preserved in the cathedral of Treves, 
 would be exhibited for the space of six weeks, beginning 
 on the 18th of August 1844, and promising, according 
 to the terms of the bull of Pope Leo X., " a full remis- 
 sion of sins in all future time to all believers who go in 
 pilgrimage to see it, sincerely confess and repent of their 
 sins, or at least have a firm intention to do so ; and more- 
 over contribute with a liberal hand to the suitable de- 
 coration of the cathedal of Treves." From the first, im- 
 mense crowds of pilgrims obeyed this invitation ; and at 
 
 * Monatschrift, as above, for March 184:4. 
 
188 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 the close of the exhibition, a Treves newspaper reckons 
 the total number of visiters to have been 1,100,000, 
 while others give a considerably higher estimate. It 
 was while this humiliating spectacle was proceeding 
 under the highest patronage of the Catholic church, that 
 a letter appeared in a Saxon paper, dated Laurahiitte, 
 1st October 1844, and signed Johannes Ronge, Catholic 
 Priest, breathing the most intense indignation against 
 this religious farce, and calling upon his fellow-country- 
 men of all classes to rise and vindicate themselves from 
 the degradation and infamy it was bringing on their 
 land. His judgment, as he called it, on the holy coat 
 of Treves,' fell like a peal of thunder on the ears of his 
 countrymen, and flew with the rapidity of lightning from 
 one end of the land to the other. Since the days of 
 Luther, no voice had been heard in Grermany, which 
 awoke such a deep response in the hearts of men, and 
 communicated such a mighty impulse to their minds. 
 Ronge, the obscure priest of Laurahiitte, already si- 
 lenced and suspended for former resistances to Romisli 
 thraldom and tyranny, became all at once the most cele- 
 brated man of his time ; and while anathematized and 
 excommunicated by Rome, he was enthusiastically hailed 
 as a leader by thousands of his Catholic brethren in Ger- 
 many. Seeing the effect produced by his first letter, he 
 sought to continue and deepen the impression by various 
 addresses ; the main purport of which was to persuade 
 the priests and members of the Catholic church to re- 
 nounce the impositions, idolatry, mummeries, and ignoble 
 bondage of Rome, and form themseWes into a new Grer- 
 man-Catholic church, such as might combine the cha- 
 racter of true Catholicism with the idea of Nationality. 
 Meanwhile, through the operation of similar, yet quite 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 189 
 
 separate influences, John Czersky, the Eoman Catholic 
 pastor of Schneidemlihl, a small town in the circle of 
 Posen in Prussian Poland, was led, along with a consi- 
 derable part of his congregation, to withdraw their con- 
 nection with Rome, and to form themselves into a dis- 
 tinct community. Their declaration to this effect, for- 
 warded to the Prussian government, bears date the 27th 
 October 1844, and their existence as a church is prior 
 to any of those churches which arose out of the move- 
 ment of Ronge. In all probability, however, they would 
 have stood nearly, if not altogether alone, but for the 
 impulse, which was simultaneously given by Ronge in 
 the same direction ; for Czersky is a man of retiring 
 character, not fitted by nature to be the leader of a 
 great movement; and his grounds of separation from 
 the Church of Rome wepe rather the offspring of his own 
 private convictions and growing acquaintance with the 
 word of God, than occasioned by public events. But 
 as matters turned out in the providence of God, the step 
 taken by him and his people was rapidly followed by so 
 many others, that the news of every day brought tidings 
 of additional separations from Rome ; and though it is 
 still little more than a twelvemonth since the first church 
 was formed, there are now somewhere about three hun- 
 dred of reported congregations.* 
 
 The movement was so simultaneous, and the forma- 
 tion of churches was conducted at first with so little 
 concert, that not a few of them drew up and published 
 each their own confession of faith. It was soon found 
 
 * The total number of priests who have attached theinse]\^es to 
 the party, is said to be about twenty, of whom Dr Thenier of 
 Hundsfeld in Silesia appears to occupy the highest standing for 
 theological lore and general attainments. 
 
190 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 desirable, however, to merge, if possible, these separate 
 confessions into a common one, as this afforded the 
 only prospect of their obtaining, as a distinct body, the 
 recognition of the state, with a licence to marry, to ad- 
 minister the sacraments, and perform the rites of burial. 
 Accordingly, on the 21st of March last, a general coun- 
 cil was held at Leipsic, where certain articles were 
 agreed on, but these so meagre, so negative, so destitute, 
 especially of any distinct statement regarding the person 
 or work of Christ, that Czersky felt constrained to protest 
 against them in the meeting, and afterwards to publish a 
 letter, disowning them as the confession of his faith. The 
 orthodox party also in the city of Berlin, unable to re- 
 concile themselves to so very defective a standard of 
 faith, have withdrawn from their more Rationalistic 
 brethren, and placed themselves under a pastor of evan- 
 gelical sentiments. A considerable number of congre- 
 gations, in the neighbourhood of Schneidemiihl, have 
 expressed their dissent from the Leipsic articles, and 
 their determination to adhere to a more positive form of 
 Christianity. On the other hand, it is proper to state 
 that Dr Thenier, who is not behind Czersky in point of 
 evangelical sentiment, has agreed to take charge of the 
 very large congregation at Breslau, whose creed was 
 nearly of as defective a character as that of the Leipsic 
 conference. Kongo meanwhile maintains a profound 
 silence as to the distinctive features of his own belief ; 
 he has never uttered a single word, as far as is known, 
 against evangelical Christianity, or even expressed any 
 dissatisfaction, at least in public, with Czersky for mar- 
 ring the external unity of the body; while still, his 
 writings and sermons universally convey the impression, 
 that his own views partake more of the Rationalistic 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 191 
 
 than the Evangelical character, and that the mainspring 
 of his energetic movements is rather his honest love of 
 free and manly thought, and inextinguishable hatred of 
 the spiritual oppression and base hypocrisy of Rome, 
 than the simple and constraining love of the truth as it 
 is in Jesus. 
 
 Hence it is, no doubt, that we are partly to account 
 for the unusually rapid growth of the adherents of Eonge, 
 and the countless honours which have been heaped upon 
 him. Had there been much of the humbling truths and 
 searching spirit of the gospel in his discourses, his tours 
 through Germany would certainly have partaken less of 
 the character of triumphal processions ; he would have 
 known more of the reproach and sufferings of Jesus. 
 " Addresses, cups, gold, have been poured upon Ronge, 
 while hitherto the way of reformers has been the way of 
 the cross. He receives the homage of the movement- 
 party, the daily press, the Friends of Light, the youth of 
 the cigar and the ball-room, the lowest part of the popu- 
 lace ; the world loves its own. Had he stood forth in the 
 name of the Crucified, the world would have put into his 
 hands a cup of a different kind."* The picture may be 
 somewhat overdrawn, but we cannot doubt its substan- 
 tial correctness. 
 
 If we refer to the confession of Schneidemiihl for the 
 views of Czersky, and those who prefer rather to belong 
 to the Christian Apostolic-Catholic, than to the German- 
 Catholic church, J we find it express enough on the doc- 
 trine of the Trinity, but it is silent regarding the doc- 
 
 * Ev. K. Zeitung, for 2d April 1845. 
 
 \ Of tliese two designations, the Christian Apostolic-Catholic 
 ■was the first, having been adopted by Czersky and his congregation 
 when they agreed to their creed on the 19th October 1844. 
 
192 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS 
 
 trines of grace and the ground of a sinner's justification ; 
 while it holds the papal doctrines, though in a somewhat 
 modified sense, of the seven sacraments and purgatory, 
 and in the strongest manner, the doctrine of transubstan- 
 tiation. 
 
 In the preface to their confession, they repudiate the 
 pretended power of the Roman Catholic priests to change 
 the hrecid into the real body and blood of Christ, and 
 hence their right to administer the sacrament only in 
 one kind ; whence it has sometimes been inferred, that 
 the party have renounced the doctrine of transubstan- 
 tiation. But ail they have really renounced on this 
 head, is the power to transubstantiate the bread alone, 
 and by itself, into both the body and the blood of Christ 
 — declaring still their belief, that " the commemoration 
 of Christ's bloody sacrifice upon the cross, which is cele- 
 brated in the holy supper, is profitable for the living and 
 the dead ; and that in the most holy sacrament of the 
 altar, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ with 
 his soul and godhead is truly and essentially present, 
 and that the whole essence of the bread is changed into 
 the body, and the whole essence of the wine into the 
 blood through faith."* We need not be surprised, that 
 these remnants of Popery still adhere to Czersky and 
 the Schneidemiihl party, especially when we reflect how 
 gradually the mind even of Luther was opened to the 
 truth, and how a portion of the papal darkness regard- 
 ing the sacraments stuck to him to the last. In Czersky 
 there is every appearance of a sincere and earnest mind, 
 which we trust will be guided into all the truth. But 
 
 * Offenes Glaubensbekenntniss, &c. For many of the facts 
 mentioned in the preceding account, we are indebted chiefly to 
 the intelligent and able correspondent of the " Continental Echo." 
 
OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 193 
 
 as a very small portion of the new separatists from Rome 
 seem to have any sympathy with these popish leanings, 
 there is no probability of his confession being generally 
 adopted. And as the sound part of its positive dogmas 
 consists almost exclusively of an adoption of the Nicene 
 Creed regarding the Trinity, while it affirms and denies 
 nothing concerning the grand fundamental doctrine of 
 justification by faith in the merits of Christ, it is not 
 fitted to form, for the present times, a general basis of 
 union, or banner of truth, around which men might 
 gather to fight together the battles of the Lord. 
 
 In regard to Ronge, and the great proportion of those 
 who compose the German-Catholic Church, there can be 
 no doubt that they are deeply impregnated with the 
 spirit of Rationalism. This is clear from the Leipsic 
 Confession, which gives to reason a place along with the 
 Holy Scriptures as the foundation of the Christian faith, 
 and declares it to be the province both of the church 
 and of the individual believer to bring their respective 
 creeds into a correspondence with the principles of the 
 age. It is also clear, from the absolute refusal of the ma- 
 jority at the Leipsic conference to insert, according to 
 the proposal of Czerski and others, an acknowledgment 
 of the divinity of Christ, the work of the Spirit, and the 
 resurrection of the body. We are not, however, to con- 
 clude from this, that the party at large, or even the 
 whole of those who rejected the proposal, actually re- 
 pudiate these doctrines. Doubtless, many of them do, 
 otherwise there would have been no temptation to reject 
 the proposal ; all would readily have concurred in the 
 declaration of a fuller scriptural faith. But much must 
 also be ascribed to the loose, unsettled, shifting spirit of 
 Rationalism, which claims an unrestricted licence for 
 
 N 
 
194 PRESENT STATE AND FROSPECTS 
 
 the church and all her members to believe what seems 
 according to enlightened reason, and which, in the 
 Lutheran and Reformed churches, so commonly presents 
 the spectacle of the devout believer in the Trinity and 
 all the peculiar doctrines of the gospel, worshipping side 
 by side with him, whose real creed is all comprised in 
 the three words, God, morality, immortality. It ill be- 
 comes the members of these Protestant churches to 
 point the finger of scorn at the new German-Catholic 
 church for its want of a living bond of union, when it is 
 well known that their own union is but external. It 
 ill becomes them to denounce the meagreness of its con- 
 fession, when it is equally well known that, meagre as 
 that confession is, it yet expresses to the full as much 
 as the great majority of their own communities believe. 
 And this new community has not at least the shame and 
 the guilt resting on its head of publicly professing to 
 embrace a confession, the most essential parts of which 
 it actually repudiates. 
 
 This, however, is far from presenting the Gennan- 
 Catholic Chui-ch in a satisfactory light. It is not a 
 church such as the apostle would recognise and own, 
 " the house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth." 
 Its union is only that of the world — not divine and 
 living, but human and external — not based upon a dis- 
 tinct and harmonious perception of the truth, but com- 
 prehending within its bosom the most heterogeneous ele- 
 ments and irreconcileable principles. Such an union is 
 not that which the gospel seeks to accomplish, and which 
 Heaven has promised to water with its blessing ; and so 
 long as they remain in such a state, their councils must 
 of necessity be divided, and their efforts paralyzed. 
 Only, if they shall come to see — the Lord grant they 
 
OP RELIGION IN GERMANY. 195 
 
 may come to see — that the word of God is paramount 
 in the church, and Christ, the crucified Redeemer, para- 
 mount in that word, nay, its all in all — only then will 
 they have the reality, as well as present the appearance of 
 a house united in itself, and be in a condition to do 
 battle properly and successfully with the powers of 
 darkness. 
 
 " The community," says an intelligent and impartial 
 eye-witness, " is still in the process of formation. In sad 
 confusion the negative and positive elements are as yet 
 mixed up together ; and one knows not, whether the one 
 will absorb the other, or both will maintain beside each 
 other a separate and substantial existence. But it is 
 matter of fact, that the separation from the old church 
 has been effected ; the new party is labouring with all 
 its might after a new confession, a corresponding worship, 
 and a Christian life. It presents to our age the instruc- 
 tive spectacle of the formation of a new church, unex- 
 pectedly and vigorously struggling into life through the 
 mightiest obstacles — either as a warning to all uncalled, 
 conceited, self-seeking innovators, or as an admonition 
 to all men of earnest minds and heaven-impelled con- 
 sciences. To repress the movement, would be impos- 
 sible, and could only produce a greater reaction. The 
 principle of freedom of conscience is to be sacredly 
 respected ; the freedom of worship, which they seek, is 
 already almost attained ; the recognition of the State is 
 in sight. The first stage is past, and the rest will ine- 
 vitably follow."* 
 
 Note. 
 
 * :Monatschrift. for October 1845. 
 
196 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 Since the foregoing Lecture ^as written and delivered, the posi- 
 tion of matters has somewhat altered as regards Ronge, and the 
 connection between him and certain, at least, of the more orthodox 
 separatists. He has, it seems, at length declared himself a Ra- 
 tionalist, and consequently, a disbeliever in the divinity of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and the more peculiar doctrines of the gospel. 
 A letter has been received from Czerski by the Convener of the 
 Free Church Committee on Foreign Churches (Mr Lorimer), ex- 
 pressing, in the strongest terms, his opposition to the sentiments of 
 Ronge, and his separation from him. We trust he will be joined 
 by several of the leaders in the movement, and by not a few of the 
 congregations. From the facts of the case one thing is obvious, — 
 that with all the pretended uniformity of belief in the Church of 
 Rome, there is as much real diversity and heresy there as in the 
 ranks of Protestantism ; and that Avhen men get courage to shake 
 themselves free from the external bondage and restraint under 
 which she holds them, and to declare their genuine sentiments, 
 their creed is found to range from the strictest Trinitarianism to 
 the loosest Rationalism. But while this is in itself a melancholy 
 circumstance, and tends sadly to diminish the prospect of good that 
 might otherwise have been expected to arise from the movement, it 
 furnishes at the same time aloud call to evangelical Christians in this 
 country, to give it, if possible, before it settles down into a perma- 
 nent form, a more wholesome direction, by taking steps to promote 
 among the members of the yoimg community, the circulation of the 
 Scriptures, and such tracts as are fitted to bring them to soimder 
 views of divine truth. Nor, surely, should the churches forget to 
 pray in their behalf, that spiritual discernment may be given them 
 to know the things of God, and that they may even yet be led in- 
 to all the truth. 
 
197 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 THE STATE OF RELIGION IN ITALY FROM THE FALL 
 OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE TILL THE COUNCIL 
 OF TRENT, INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF THE IN- 
 TRODUCTION OF THE REFORMED DOCTRINES IN- 
 TO THAT COUNTRY. 
 
 BY THE REV. JAMES BRYCE, 
 
 MI^aSTER OF GILCOMSTON FREE CHURCH, .\BERDEEN. 
 
 Italy presents unquestionable claims to the first rank 
 among the nations of the earth, and to the first place 
 among the kingdoms of Europe. Her history comes 
 down to us almost without interruption from the Etrus- 
 cans, who flourished long before the foundation of Rome, 
 and whose antiquities have been investigated by modern 
 archaeologists ; and throughout the whole of that period she 
 has been singularly illustrious. Before the Lord Je?ns 
 Christ appeared among men, the Romans had extended 
 their conquests over the greatest part of the world, and the 
 other countries of Europe become known to us in the 
 writings of those who have recorded the warlike atchieve- 
 ments and splendid victories of their conquerors. The 
 history of Italy at that time included the history of the 
 world, and the greatest of earthly sovereigns were com- 
 pelled to bend the knee, and to do homage to the 
 
198 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 haughty republicans. When the empire which Provi- 
 dence appointed to be reared by the courage of the le- 
 gions, and by the skill and ability of their generals, fell 
 by its own weight, and when the Italians, now a dege- 
 nerate race, were conquered almost without a struggle 
 by the northern invaders, it might have been expected 
 that Italy, like the former great empires, would have 
 passed away from the page of history, and would have 
 been swalloAved up by some superior dynasty. But the 
 manner in which God was to deal with imperial Rome 
 had been predicted by the prophets, and not one word 
 that they have said can possibly fall to the ground. The 
 em})ire of which Italy was the centre, was divided into ten 
 kingdoms, and another of a totally different character 
 immediately took its place. During ten centuries, from 
 the fall of the Western Empire to the year 1500, a new 
 species of sovereignty was matured and established ; and 
 the Bishop of Rome, having become a temporal prince 
 as well as a spiritual ruler, exercised authority over the 
 kings, the clergy, and the people of Europe, and aimed 
 at wielding the sceptre of universal dominion. The 
 power which he claimed was nearly co-extensive with 
 that of consular and imperial Rome, and his commands 
 were obeyed, and his threatenings dreaded, from Sicily 
 to the coasts of the Baltic Sea. Nor was he contented 
 with the influence v.'hich he possessed over the Euro- 
 pian nations ; by an assumption of power which has no 
 ! arallel in the annals of mankind, he bestowed on the 
 kings of Spain and Portugal the lands which had been 
 discovered by navigators in the unexplored countries, 
 whose shores are washed by the waters of the Atlantic 
 and Pacific. The papal dominion shed a lustre over 
 Italy, when learning and science were little cultivated. 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 199 
 
 and when men had sunk into an intellectual lethargy, 
 from which they were only efifectually roused by the 
 shock of the Reformation. 
 
 The civil and ecclesiastical history of Italy will be 
 read and studied from generation to generation ; and it 
 is worthy of remark, that no other nation has been 
 equally distinguished in both departments, and yet the 
 religious character of the Italians is not entitled to very 
 high consideration. Christianity was introduced into that 
 country a few years after the resurrection of Jesus, and 
 the apostle Paul has borne testimony to the exalted faith 
 of the Roman converts, " a faith which was spoken of 
 throughout the whole world."* We have the same high 
 authority for believing that the gospel was received in 
 the praetorian camp and in the imperial palace, and that 
 some of Cassar's household acknowledged its truth and 
 experienced its power ;t but the doctrines of the New 
 Testament had evidently made no very extensive im- 
 pression on the minds of the people at large. Italy has 
 its catalogue of martyrs, and from time to time, both in 
 the cities and rural districts, fines and imprisonments, 
 tortures and death, were prepared for those who believed 
 on the name of Jesus ; but this fact proves the number 
 of Christians to have been comparatively small, and 
 as a body they seem to have had no political weight. 
 The religion of Italy was essentially pagan till the time 
 of Constantino, when he effected a change, which has 
 rendered his reign one of the lasting eras in the history 
 of mankind. It will serve to illustrate some of the views 
 hereafter to be unfolded, if we briefly advert to the state 
 of religion in Italy previous to the establishment of 
 Christianity throughout the empire. 
 
 * Rom. i. 8. t Philip- i- 13; iv. 22. 
 
200 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 The writings of Plautus may be considered as a mir- 
 ror from which are distinctly reflected the manners and 
 customs, and the mode of speaking and acting, of the 
 period to which they belong. No doubt, some allowance 
 must be made for exaggeration and occasional caricature, 
 which might be necessary to keep his audience or his 
 readers in good humour ; yet his grouping of Roman life 
 must be admitted to be in general correct. In the piece en- 
 titled Am phi truo, the god Mercury is introduced as a cheat, 
 a liar, and a buffoon, for the accomplishment of the most 
 shameful purposes ; and at the same time the supreme 
 god Jupiter is represented as the grossest sensualist, and 
 as perpetrating the most abominable crimes by means of 
 the vilest deception. What are we to think of the reli- 
 gious feelings of men, who could take delight in a spec- 
 tacle, in which the character of their highest divinities 
 is treated as greatly inferior to the most worthless of 
 men ! Every student of classical antiquity must remem- 
 ber the disgusting familiarity with which the most ar- 
 dent of the pagan worshippers coaxed their gods to grant 
 their prayers ; and when they were unsuccessful in any 
 of their schemes, or disappointed in any of their expec- 
 tations, they scolded, threatened, and heaped upon them 
 the most contemptuous epithets. In the opinion of the 
 heathens, the gods at whose altars they offered sacri- 
 fices were thus laid under a deep obligation, and owed 
 them a large debt of gratitude. In the first book of the 
 jEneid, Juno is represented as taking a great interest in 
 the new colony planted by Dido, and setting herself 
 against unchangeable fate, because the Carthaginians 
 acknowledged her divinity, and brought victims to her 
 altars. On the other hand, the worshippers took occa- 
 
BEFORE THE RErOR:\IATION. 201 
 
 sion to remind the gods of the frequency and largeness 
 of their offerings, and of the smallness of the return. 
 
 The religion of Italy was not enhanced by assuming 
 a political aspect, and by the people offering divine 
 honours to the emperors. Ceesar Augustus allowed his 
 name to be enrolled among the tutelary gods of the city ; 
 and the shepherd in Virgil, who owed to him the pre- 
 servation of his lands, declares that lie would always 
 reckon him as a god, and would offer from his folds a 
 lamb to him, whose altars smoked with victims for twelve 
 days in the year. No doubt, the personal character of 
 some of the Roman emperors was superior to many of 
 the ancient divinities ; but an act of worship offered to 
 the ruler, apart from its gross idolatry, was to reduce 
 the people to the most degrading slavery. The funeral 
 of the emperor was always accompanied with the apo- 
 theosis, and the term (iivu.f^ applied to him after his 
 death, was a proof that his subjects were at once flat- 
 terers and hypocrites. The letter of Pliny to Trajan 
 states, as a crime imputed to Christians, their refusal to 
 worship the statue of the emperor, and those who will- 
 ingly made the usual offerings were dismissed. The re- 
 sult of this servile worship might have been easily fore- 
 seen, — ^men of rank and education treated the worship 
 established by law with outward reverence and secret 
 contempt, and even before the last days of the republic 
 belief in the national creed was exceedingly rare in the 
 upper classes of society. The omens and lying wonders, on 
 which the pagan religion rested, had become familiar to the 
 people, and they were not without very strong suspicions 
 of deceit and imposture with regard to the miracles, 
 which the priests professed to perfonn. Either the pub- 
 lic mind had become more enlightened, or the priests 
 
•202 RELIGION IN ITALY. 
 
 were less cautious in concealment ; at all events, the oc- 
 casional detection of mere jugglery produced not only 
 indifference, but a scepticism strangely mixed up Tvith 
 superstition. The phenomena exhibited in some of the 
 temples, in proof of the special favour of the gods, are 
 ridiculed by all the popular writers. Horace, in the 
 pleasant account which he has given us of his journey 
 from Rome to Brundusium, makes himself merry with 
 the wonderful stone at the threshold of the temple of 
 Gnatia, which was said to melt the frankincense without 
 fire. Many of the places, which had been consecrated 
 by tradition, and which it would have been at one time 
 considered an insult to religion to profane, had fallen 
 into utter neglect, and were applied to the most ordinary 
 purposes. Juvenal, in his third Satire, laments over the 
 Fountain of Egeria, at which Numa met that goddess, 
 and which for ages had been held peculiarly sacred; but 
 now it was let for hire to the Jews, who made up the 
 rent by begging. Virgil, in the eleventh book of the 
 ^Eneid, mentions a pile of wood set on fire in honour of 
 Apollo, and tells ns of his worshippers walking barefoot 
 over the red-hot embers ; but later writers intimate their 
 belief, that this dangerous feat was performed either by 
 anointing the feet or by rendering them callous. While 
 unbelief in the religion of the state pervaded all classes 
 of the community, it is almost incredible to what extent 
 superstitions were multi23lied. Omens and prodigies 
 were increased, and foreign rites were introduced into 
 Italy. Temples were erected to Cybele, Bellona, and 
 Egyptian Tsis, and their worship was generally accom- 
 panied with the most infamous debaucheries. Astrology 
 and magic were in great repute for obtaining a know- 
 ledge of future events, and for raising the dead ; and it 
 
BKFORE THE REFORMATION. 203 
 
 is said that some of the emperors did not disdain to 
 study these sciences. The horrid atrocities of witch- 
 craft are somewhat coarsely, but very graphically, de- 
 scribed by Horace."^ 
 
 From this sketch of the pagan religion in Italy, it will 
 not be difficult to form a just estimate of the state of 
 morality previous to the age of Constantine. Its stand- 
 ard could not be high, when that of the gods which 
 they worshipped was so extremely low ; and the liar, the 
 thief, and the adulterer, might plead in extenuation of 
 their guilt the examples of the gods themselves. It is 
 not intended to collect from ancient writers the views that 
 were entertained respecting moral conduct ; we can con- 
 fidently refer to the 1st chapter of the Epistle to the 
 Romans as furnishing the most authentic account of the 
 state of morality in heathen Italy ; and the supplemen- 
 tary information derived from Juvenal's Satires proves, 
 even to unbelievers, that the picture, which Paul has 
 given, is not overdrawn. In those days we look in vain 
 for purity in private life, and for the practice of the do- 
 mestic vii'tues. Dissolute conduct was the rule, and pu- 
 rity was the exception ; and as licentiousness increased, 
 selfishness and cruelty were found in its train. The 
 public morals were supposed to be greatly aflfected by 
 the gross corruption of the imperial court, and by the 
 acknowledged cruelty and butchery of the public shows ; 
 but perhaps nothing so much tended to demoralize the 
 people as the system of domestic slavery. Whatever 
 may have been the cause of this universal depravity, the 
 melancholy efi'ect is undeniably true. 
 
 While heathen Italy was thus equally irreligious and 
 immoral, Christianity was extending its influence, and 
 
 * See Epode V, book i. sat. viii. 
 
204 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 the members of the church were gradually increasing. 
 This prosperity was not without frequent interruptions. 
 In addition to the persecutions which were carried on 
 by the authority of the government, the Christians of 
 Italy were made responsible for all the public calamities. 
 If pestilence spread its ravages among the population ; if 
 harvests failed, and famine was the consequence ; if con- 
 tinued rains brought down the mountain torrents, which 
 swept away in their fury men and cattle ; if thunder- 
 storms terrified the people, and hail injured the ripening 
 corn ; these, and similar evils, were ascribed by the hea- 
 thens to the anger of the gods for tolerating Christianity. 
 Nevertheless, idolatry, as established by law in Italy, 
 was hastening to its fall, and that too, notwithstanding 
 the rage of princes and the tumults of the people. The 
 courage and constancy of the faithful martyrs of Jesus 
 were the means of extending the gospel, and their trials 
 and sufferings rendered its doctrines still dearer to those 
 who escaped the storms of persecution. In the first 
 ages, the church of Rome deservedly held a high place 
 among the Christian churches both of the East and West ; 
 and if we credit the early writers, it was long before it 
 was tainted by any heresy. Various disputes, indeed, 
 had taken place about matters of inferior importance, 
 such as about the jDrecise day on which Easter was to 
 be celebrated, and about the admission of the lapsed 
 into communion even at the hour of death ; but Italy is 
 stated to have fostered no heresy till the end of the 
 fourth century. Now, all this may be true, if we under- 
 stand by heresy some glaring deviation from the doc- 
 trines of Scripture ; but it is equally true, that long be- 
 fore this period several corruptions had been introduced 
 into the celebration of Christian worship, and into the 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 205 
 
 administration of religious discipline. Festivals had been 
 instituted for which there is no scriptural authority, and 
 the veneration for the Virgin Mary and the saints had 
 assumed the appearance of actual worship. 
 
 Some are disposed to connect the abuses and corrup- 
 tions, which were afterwards found in the church, with its 
 establishment under Constantine ; but this mistake will 
 be easily corrected by a careful perusal of the early 
 fathers, and the age of Constantine is at least guiltless 
 of introducing rites and ceremonies, which are entirely 
 uu scriptural, and of devising pious frauds and gross im- 
 postures, w^hich the credulity of Christians unhappily en- 
 couraged. The truth seems to be this, the people are 
 naturally led away by external pomp and splendour, and 
 the ministers of religion, instead of restraining the taste 
 of the people mthin the bounds which the Bible pre- 
 scribes, joined with them in seeking means for its gra- 
 tification. The Jews and heathen, who were accus- 
 tomed to the greatest magnificence in the celebration of 
 their worship, spoke with contempt of the naked simpli- 
 city of the religious services in the Christian assemblies, 
 and of the want of every thing calculated to attract the 
 senses. It was on this account that the rulers of the 
 church were induced to multiply rites and ceremonies, 
 and as the Bona Dea had her mysteries in Italy, to 
 which the initiated alone were admitted, so in process 
 of time, the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Sup- 
 per were termed mysteries, and none but the members 
 of the church were permitted to be present at their ce- 
 lebration. When an entire change was to be made in 
 the established religion, it might have been expected 
 that idolatry would be destroyed, root and branch, and 
 that some of the existing abuses in the church would 
 
206 RELIGION IN IT.VLY 
 
 be swept away ; but it unforturiatei}' happeoed, that the 
 desire to allure the heathens to Chris tianity was so great, 
 as to induce them to incorporate the Pagan rites with the 
 Christian services. Popes and bishops thought, that as 
 little violence as possible should be done to the existing 
 prejudices ; and hence it appeared, that there was less 
 diiference between the religion which the people were 
 required to abandon, and that which they were called 
 to adopt, than might have been at first supposed. From 
 the fifth century of the Christian era, the rites and cere- 
 monies of the church were nothing better than chris- 
 tianized paganism ; for whenever a heathen festival or 
 other observance could be adopted, it was done without 
 scruple. The man who brought to the altar of his idol 
 the appropriate sacrifice, and who believed in its efficacy 
 to procure the favour of the god, was taught, when he 
 assumed the profession of Christianity, that the bread and 
 wine in the eucharist, changed into the body and blood 
 of ^Christ by the officiating priest, was a propitiatory ob- 
 lation, which would procure the pardon of sin, and was 
 truly styled the sacrifice of the mass; and hence the 
 new religion was substantially the same as the old — only 
 less burdensome and expensive. The Christmas festival 
 took the place of the heathen Saturnalia. Easter, the fes- 
 tival of the Teutonic goddess Ostera, superseded the 
 Minervalia, Megalesia, or Cerealia ; and the Easter fires 
 and Easter eggs belong exclusively to the heathen feast. 
 Lady-day, the feast of the Annunciation, was celebrated 
 on the 25th of March, instead of the feast of Cybele. 
 Christians were accustomed, in the first ages, to reproach 
 the heathens for worshipping dead men ; but from the 
 catacombs arose the worship of the martyrs, and the 
 reproach might have been retorted with great force and 
 
BEFORE THE R11.FURMATION. ZD < 
 
 justice ; and what shall we say of the veneration for bones 
 and relics, which became the disgrace of the Catholic 
 Church ? In the temples of the gods, in which the Chris- 
 tians now assembled, shrines were erected to men, who 
 had borne the most open testimony against every species 
 of idolatry, and who had ever spoken of it as in the 
 highest degree sinful. That religion, whose votaries as- 
 sembled with fear and trembling in the darkness of the 
 night, was openly acknowledged throughout Italy ; and 
 instead of tombs and caves, where their meetings were 
 formerly' held, the Basilicee were converted into Chris- 
 tian churches. The apsis of the Basilica was furnished 
 with statues of the Caesars, but they were removed to 
 make room for those of Christ and his apostles. The 
 local deities became soon unknown to the people, and 
 their temples no longer met the eye of the traveller ; but 
 instead of these, on the cliffs of the mountains, on the 
 public roads, and on the house-tops, might be seen the 
 cross, the emblem of salvation, the crucifix, or the figure 
 of some favourite saint. The temples of the gods un- 
 derwent a very slight change in their adaptation to 
 Christian worship, and the altars of the old divinities 
 merely received the names of the new saints ; their fur- 
 niture continued much the same as before, and the vo- 
 tive tablet was suspended, and the incense was burnt as 
 in former times. The same sort of garlands were placed 
 over the doors of the churches, the aquaminarium still 
 contained the water for purification, or, as it was now 
 termed, the holy water, and the bell was rung, as in the 
 time of Plautus, for the excitement of the worshipper, 
 or for the expelling of evil influence.* Not only was the 
 propitiatory sacrifice of bread and wine offered at the 
 
 * Plaut. Pseud., Act. i. Sc. 3-93, &c. 
 
208 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 altar of the Christian church, but the ancient term /tost - 
 was still retained. In great calamities, when the public 
 mind was deejDly alarmed, the intercession of the saints 
 was sought, much in the same way as it had been done 
 in seeking the favour of the ancient gods. Processions 
 were made to their shrines, and tapers, music, and a box 
 of relics were employed to induce them to ward oflf the 
 threatened danger. Hills and fountains were now peopled 
 with saints, as they formerly were with nymphs and naiads, 
 and multitudes offered their prayers at the former, or 
 crawled upon their knees to the latter, till the blood flow- 
 ed from their excoriated limbs, in the hope that these 
 saints would relieve their distress. Instead of a statue of 
 Mercury at the gates of private dwellings, the statue of 
 St Peter acted as protector, because in Italy he was not 
 only the prince of the apostles, but in their opinion, 
 the first bishop of Home. In the interior of their houses 
 were no longer to be seen the Phrygian Penates, but 
 there was a niche in the parlour or bed-room for St Se- 
 bastian or St Roch. ^isculapius or Apollo no longer 
 protected the person, but a small image of St Yitale 
 was worn for that purpose next the skin ; and pollution 
 was no longer kept from the walls of houses by Jupiter 
 and the twelve gods, but by St Benedict. The crew of 
 a vessel did not now look for a prosperous voyage to the 
 sign of Castor and Pollux, but to St Nicholas ; and the 
 modern sailor was as ignorant as the ancient of Him 
 whom the winds and the sea obey. From these facts, 
 well authenticated, we must draw the conclusion, that 
 the religion of modern Italy was essentially pagan ; and 
 it cannot fail to strike our minds, that the Virgin was 
 
 * Hostia, supposed to be derived from an obsolete verb, Hostio, 
 to strike. 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION, 209 
 
 called the queen of heaven — a title which was given in 
 the time of Jeremiah to the moon, and to whose deity 
 tha women of Judah baked cakes, and offered drink offer- 
 ings/' In Christian worship, she occupied the place of 
 Cybele in the anc ient mythology, and even the beggars 
 solicited alms, not as formerly in the name of the mother 
 of the gods, but for the sake of our Lady.t Between 
 the ancient and modem forms of worship, the difference 
 was small ; and it might be said of the Italians, as the 
 prophet said of the Jews, according to the number of 
 their cities were their gods,; Strange was the state of 
 religious feeling in a country, where Paul might again 
 be worshipped as Mercury, and Barnabas as Jupiter. 
 
 With these things before us, it cannot be matter of 
 surprise, if, in the course of time, the peculiar doctrines 
 of Christianity became entirely unknown to the great 
 mass of the population. The gospel was engrafted 
 into heathenism, and " bodily exercise, which profiteth 
 little, was substituted for that godliness which is pro- 
 fitable unto all things." From the age of Constantine 
 to the Reformation, there is nothing which effectually 
 dispelled the prevailing ignorance, and which opened 
 the eyes of the people to their spiritual condition. Oc- 
 casionally, indeed, a gleam of light broke through the 
 gloom ; but it resembled the passing meteor, which only 
 rendered the darkness more sensibly felt. We shall 
 have occasion afterwards, to shew that there were a few, 
 who, like the children of Israel in Egypt, had light in 
 their dwellings ; but of the Italians generally, it may be 
 said, " that they did not like to retain God in their know- 
 ledge." Any attempt to describe the moral condition of 
 
 * Jer. xliv. 17-25. f Per la Madonna. 
 
 + Jer. xi. 13, 
 
 
 
210 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 Italy during the same period would certainly fail, for who 
 can attempt to describe chaos ? There was no motive 
 for performing the relative duties arising out of the reli- 
 gion which they professed, because they fancied themselves 
 under the protection of the saints, and therefore their 
 religion had no influence on their affections and conduct. 
 The history of modern Italy presents a strange mixture 
 of heroism and crimes, of knightly splendour and hor- 
 rible vice. The people must have been lost to all sense 
 of moral principle, who could patiently endure the atro- 
 cities of Theodora and her daughter Marozia, who, by 
 the most open profligacy, obtained such influence as to 
 be able to place men, wicked as themselves, in the papal 
 chair. Mosheim describes the popes of the tenth cen- 
 tury as monsters of iniquity, and the result was, that 
 anarchy universally prevailed. There was no security 
 for property, which was seized by the strongest party — 
 human life was little valued, and he who came between 
 another and the attainment of his object was recklessly 
 murdered. Among the clergy, immorality greatly in- 
 creased from the reign of Gregory YIL, and consequently 
 their example became most pernicious. The monasteries 
 and nunneries were richly endowed by the weak and 
 superstitious ; and when the ardour displayed in behalf 
 of an ascetic life cooled, their wealth furnished the 
 means of luxurious ease and of sensual indulgence- 
 They began to lose their influence with the people, for 
 even the profligate turn with disgust from an immoral 
 clergy, and therefore they devised new miracles for the 
 purpose of attracting the multitude; but when the 
 novelty passed away, the character of the clergy, un- 
 supported by a holy life, was lightly treated by all 
 classes of the community. History presents to us no 
 
BEFORE TPIE REFORMATION. 211 
 
 picture less attractive than the religious and moral con- 
 dition of Italy during the middle ages. 
 
 It may be necessary now to shew, that these views of 
 the christianized paganism of modern Italy, are held by 
 writers of deserved reputation, who distinctly trace the 
 irreligion which overspread the land to the pagan rites, 
 that remained unchanged from ancient times. Most of 
 the ecclesiastical historians mention their introduction 
 into Italy soon after the Council of Nice, and such of 
 them as approve of the practice, and admire devotional 
 splendour, defend them on the ground, that they were 
 calculated to win over the heathen to Christianity, and 
 to promote the piety of the faithful. To these writers 
 it is not necessary more particularly to refer, as they all 
 agree in the statement of the fact ; but it is of importance 
 to observe the opinions of men, whose works do not pro- 
 fessedly treat of ecclesiastical affairs. The following 
 passage from Hallam's Constitutional History of England 
 is valuable for the reason now assigned, and especially 
 as he is no very decided friend of the Reformation : — 
 " Those who have visited Catholic temples and attended 
 to the current language of devotion, must have perceived, 
 what the writings of apologists and decrees of councils 
 will never enable them to discover, that the saints, 
 but more especially the Virgin, are almost exclusively 
 the popular deities of that religion." The same writer 
 afterwards admits, that the object of the Reformation 
 was to sweep away the fraud and imposture which was 
 an essential element of the Popish church, and the poly- 
 theism, which arose from the worship offered to the 
 saints. We do not say that the bestowing of divine 
 honours on the martyrs was peculiar to Italy, but it was 
 here, that unknown martyrs discovered themselves to 
 
212 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 holy men in visions and dreams ; and we refer to the life 
 and writings of Ambrose, bishop of Milan, for an illus- 
 tration of this remark — especially to his letter addressed 
 to St Marcellina, respecting the discovery of the tomb 
 and relics of St Gervasius and St Protasius, and to his 
 book De Viduis, for hints respecting the worshipping of 
 angels. In Taylor's Ancient Christianity, the idolatries 
 which were practised by Christians, are ascribed to the 
 prevalence of the Gnostic doctrines; but in Italy, we 
 are disposed to connect them with the ancient paganism. 
 The Italian writers of the middle ages amply confirm 
 the account which has now been given of the state of 
 religion and morality in that country, and of the- disas- 
 trous effects that were produced by the introduction of 
 idolatry into the Christian church. The poets have 
 made the character of the clergy the subject of their 
 satire and the butt of their ridicule. Dante, who 
 flourished about the beginning of the fourteenth century, 
 was strongly attached to all the doctrines which were 
 then approved by the church, and yet he often modifies 
 them in a manner that excites our surprise. He admits 
 the existence of purgatory, and allows the propriety of 
 praying for the souls that are there ; but he condemns 
 the traffic to which it gives rise, and tells us in plain 
 terms, that it receives very few souls, as mankind gene- 
 rally rush to the bottomless pit. He has no quarrel 
 with priestly absolution, but distinctly holds it to be 
 inefficacious without repentance; and, in illustration, 
 speaks of the case of a priest or friar, who had sinned, 
 by the suggestion of the Pope, under a promise that his 
 holiness would open to him the gates of heaven, but 
 who, to his utter astonishment, found himself in hell. 
 He denounces, in the most unmeasured terms, the union 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 218 
 
 of spiritual authority and secular dominion, and predicts 
 that it will be the ruin of the church. He speaks of the 
 church as a harlot and a beast — terms which, we may 
 suppose, he borrowed from the Apocalypse ; and he re- 
 presents those priests, who were active in promoting the 
 existing abominations, as consigned to hell, where they 
 engage in the most unseemly contests, and where they 
 suflfer the most terrific punishments. In his book, en- 
 titled " Monarchia," which was written in defence of the 
 Emperor, he inveighs against the Church of Rome, and 
 holds up the popes and their defenders as notorious for 
 ambition, avarice, and imprudence, and as persons who 
 ■Viewed themselves to be the children of iniquity and the 
 devil, while it was their boast that they were the sons of 
 the church. Dante was evidently little acquainted with 
 the doctrinal parts of scripture, and he often speaks 
 with childish ignorance about religion ; but he was also 
 deeply convinced that there was something radically 
 wrong in the Italian church, and that religion and 
 morality were at the lowest ebb. 
 
 Petrarch, who followed Dante, was not behind him in 
 strong attachment to the doctrines of the church, and 
 in pointed invective against its abuses and corruptions. 
 The following is from his Sonnets, and one of the names 
 is evidently from the Revelation : 
 
 Thou fruitful spring of ^yoe, thou hapless home, 
 Where Heaven's displeasure finds its place of rest I 
 Temple of heresy I foul error's nest ! 
 Thou impious Babylon, once hallowed Rome ! 
 Forge of all fraud ! dread prison-house and tomb 
 Of virtue thou, while vice thou f(.)sterest I 
 'Tis strange, O hell, by living fiends possessed. 
 If Christ, at length, decree thee not thy doom ; 
 
214 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 For at thy l>irth thou lowly Tvast and chaste, 
 Now at thy parents dost thoii lift the horn, 
 A shaniless harlot ! where then hast thou placed 
 Thy hope ? In chamberings and in wealth ill born. 
 Take, Constantine, take back thy gift, or haste 
 And purge thy world, O God, o'er which we mourn* 
 
 In others of his Sonnets the strength of his language 
 does not fail in expressing the highest indignation at 
 the corruptions, which had polluted the sanctuary. In 
 one place, he calls down fire from heaven upon the 
 church as the mother of all the wickedness which was 
 abroad in the world. He says that Bacchus and Venus 
 are its gods, and that Beelzebub sits among its bishops, 
 blowing up with his bellows the flames of their evil pas- 
 sions. These strong expressions could only proceed 
 from the pen of a man, who felt strongly the degradation 
 to which the church had been reduced ; for he himself 
 was a churchman, held several benefices, and built a 
 chapel to the Virgin at Arqua — a circumstance which 
 gives a force to the censures of Petrarch, and comes to 
 us with greater weight than those of his illustrious pre- 
 decessor. Those who read the Sonnets of Petrarch at 
 their first publication, could not fail to become acquainted 
 with the abuses of the ecclesiastical state, and must 
 have been taught to inquire into the best method of 
 sweeping them away. 
 
 What had roused the indignation, and called forth the 
 bitterest censures of Dante and Petrarch, was looked 
 upon as mere matter of sport by Ariosto. The solemn 
 earnestness of the former age had pissed away, and 
 jesting and ridicule were now freely directed against sa- 
 cred things. It became the fashion to amuse the people, 
 
 * Petrarch's Sonnets, 193. 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 215 
 
 not only by exposing the vices of the clergy, but also at 
 the expense of the Christian faith : and there was thus 
 a foundation laid for that scepticism which pervaded 
 Italy at the Reformation, and of which we have a type 
 in the state of society in the time of the empire. Ari- 
 osto sings of Astolfo's visit to the moon, and of what he 
 saw there ; and nothing can be more ridiculous than 
 the appearance of the alms which the sinner leaves be- 
 hind him for his soul's salvation, and of the gift which 
 Constantine was said to have bestowed on Pope Silvester. 
 In another part of the same poem, he represents the 
 Archangel Michael on a mission to discover the abode 
 of Silence ; and he seeks him in the abbey or the monas- 
 tery, where the inhabitants of these humble cells spend 
 a life of heavenly contemplation ; but though Silence did 
 once dwell there, he had long ago fled from the cloisters. 
 There was also the expectation that Pity, Charity, and 
 Peace, might perhaps be found there ; but, alas ! they 
 too had fled, and their places were occupied by Pride, 
 Hatred, Sloth, Lust, Rage, and Avarice. It was part 
 of the archangel's mission to search for Discord, and of 
 course her abode must be in hell ; but who could sup- 
 pose that she dwelt in a hell at hand, even among mass 
 and matins ? On the occasion of the election of an ec- 
 clesiastical officer by some neighbouring chapter, Discord 
 had taken her place among the electors in the chapter, 
 and the proceedings were conducted much to her satis- 
 faction. Diiference of opinion soon began to appear ; 
 the fierce passions of the electors were gradually ex- 
 cited ; and breviaries flew in all directions, while Dis- 
 cord made herself merry with the unseemly fray. Such 
 is the style in which Ariosto describes the character of 
 
216 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 tlie Italian clergy, both secular and regular, in his 
 writings ; and if the priesthood were given up to every 
 evil passion and every foul practice, we may easily con- 
 clude that the people had either become indifferent to 
 religion, or must have been the slaves of the grossest su- 
 perstition. Other writers go even farther than Ariosto, 
 and not only censure the profligacy of the clergy, but 
 cast contempt on religion itself. Berni seems to have 
 had a correct view of what Christianity required, but he 
 treats the priests with very little ceremony. They are 
 charged with the vilest hypocrisy, and the weapon which 
 he wields with great force is banter. He says that the 
 clergy are glowing without and frozen within ; and com- 
 pares them to whitened sepulchres which are filled with 
 corruption. He offers them his friendly advice, not to 
 trim the outward part, or to adorn the body with purple 
 and other costly garments, but to look within, for the 
 purpose of purif3dng their affections and cleansing their 
 hearts. 
 
 We have thus attempted to authenticate our state- 
 ments regarding the religious condition of the Italians till 
 the time of the great Western schism, and for this rea- 
 son, that many are disposed to look upon the misconduct 
 of the clergy, and the irreligion of the people, as themes 
 for declamatory eloquence, and some are inclined to con- 
 sider them as mere Protestant calumnies. We now hold 
 the Christian paganism of Italy, and all the results to 
 which it led, as facts in history, of which we have the 
 most eminent writers in that, or perhaps in any other 
 country, as the unquestionable witnesses. There is now 
 before us the period preceding the Heformation, the ex- 
 traordinary events that occurred during its progress, and 
 the final triumph of Popery, by which the Italians were 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 217 
 
 bound hand and foot after the Council of Trent. From 
 the precedmg observations, it might be supposed impos- 
 sible for the clergy and the people to become worse ; 
 and yet there is a point in irreligion and immorality 
 which they had not yet reached. It will be necessary 
 now to look into every department of the hierarchy, and 
 it will be seen how its members, from the highest to the 
 lowest, were filling up the cup of their iniquity. If we 
 examine the general character of the bishops of Rome, 
 — of those men who proudly styled themselves the suc- 
 cessors of St Peter, and vicars of God upon the earth, 
 v/e shall find none of those qualities by which Jesus was 
 distinguished when he dwelt among men. Volumes 
 have been written to prove their ambition, avarice, cru- 
 elty, and licentiousness. It would be great injustice, 
 were we to say that all of them are involved in this 
 charge ; but perhaps the best of them would shrink from 
 any very searching inquiry into their conduct, while 
 some of them would be honoured by a comparison with 
 the worst of the Roman emperors. The Council of Con- 
 stance prudently avoided any investigation of the life of 
 John XXIII, and declined to put him upon his trial, 
 because they would thus be compelled to divulge atro- 
 cities which were calculated, even in that age, to bring 
 indelible disgrace upon that church of which he was the 
 head. The life of Alexander VI. was uniformly flagi- 
 tious, and certainly for unadulterated wickedness he has 
 seldom been surpassed. His son Ctesar Borgia has been 
 called by a late eminent historian a virtuoso in crime, 
 and it will be no easy matter to find language sufficiently 
 powerful to describe his horrible wickedness and profii- 
 gacy. The )English literature of the present century 
 has given us a most elaborate Life of Leo X, in four 
 
218 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 quarto volumes ; but the reader looks in vain for a parti- 
 cular account of the religious opinions of this illustrious 
 pontiff. He is praised, and apparently with great justice, 
 for his encouragement of literature and the arts ; he is 
 set forth as a man of taste, and an accomplished gentle- 
 man ; we see in him the man of the world and the poli- 
 tician ; but we learn nothing of his exertions in behalf of 
 religion, or of the influence which it exercised over his 
 own mind. His biographer could not describe what had 
 no existence, but we could scarcely discover from this 
 piece of biography whether its subject was a Christian, 
 a Mahometan, or a Pagan, — and unless we had pre- 
 viously known, we could scarcely have guessed that he 
 was the head of the Christian church. His political 
 morality is said to have arisen out of the difficulty of his 
 position, but it was such as to bring upon him the hatred 
 and contempt of the most unscrupulous diplomatists. 
 To extricate himself from his difficulties, he had occa- 
 sionally recourse to perjury ; he relied on a dexterity 
 which upright men would call cunning ; and when he 
 entered into a treaty with one of two contending parties, 
 he never failed to negociate with the other. In the early 
 history of Rome we read of Punic faith, and of the 
 double-tongued race : but in the days of Leo X, there 
 will be found not only a double tongue and deceitful con- 
 duct, but also a double policy and revolting perjury, 
 which no Carthaginian could have possibly exceeded. 
 His wasteful extravagance and love of amusement be- 
 long to his personal character, which, with these draw- 
 backs, was greatly superior to some of his immediate 
 predecessors. His death took place amid the rejoicings 
 for a victory which he had earnestly desired. So sud- 
 denly was he cut off, that there was no time for the ad- 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 210 
 
 ministration of the sacraments, and as he left a load of 
 debt behind him, the Roman people followed his funeral 
 with scorn and contempt. " You sneaked in," they said, 
 " like a fox, ruled like a lion, and have gone off like a 
 dog." A writer, who relates these facts, in a letter 
 written at Rome in December 1521, uses this strong 
 language, " I conclude that no pope ever died with a 
 worse reputation since the existence of the church of 
 God." During the time that Leo X. occupied the papal 
 chair, it had become fashionable in good society, and 
 even in the Roman curia, to express doubts regarding 
 some parts of religion, or utterly to deny the truth of 
 Christianity. Even the pope himself is alleged, though 
 his biographer denies it, to have treated the religion of 
 Jesus as nothing better than a fable. Literature and 
 science had visited Italy, but they brought in their train 
 profanity and infidelity. At Florence, Lorenzo the Mag- 
 nificent had been very diligent in restoring the philo- 
 sophy of Plato ; and when his son John became pontiff, 
 he carried along with him to the chair of St Peter the 
 impressions made on his mind by early education. The 
 Christian religion was only considered as the ladder by 
 which he was to rise to worldly greatness, not as the only 
 instrument for the regeneration of mankind. Hence the 
 century in which the Reformation was commenced, was 
 not merely remarkable for the flagitious conduct of the 
 popes, but also for the total want of religion which the 
 best of them displayed. 
 
 The ungodliness, which appeared in the character of 
 the pontiffs, was reflected fi-om the higher ranks of the 
 elergy. They were generally ignorant of theology, 
 especially of the theology of the Bible, and most of 
 them, according to the fashion of the times, were infidels. 
 
'220 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 There was a grand mistake about the position which 
 they held ; they never supposed that they had received 
 the property of the church as an equivalent for the 
 Christian instruction of the people ; it was looked upon 
 as a temporal possession, which was commonly purchased 
 in that age either by money or by services. A worldly 
 spirit led them to secure as much money as they possibly 
 could ; and this desire of accumulation brought on dis- 
 putes about rights and boundaries, which were often 
 settled by an appeal to arms. From this mode of as- 
 serting their rights, the transition to civil politics was 
 extremely short, in which the dignified clergy took a 
 leading part ; and in petty strifes, it would have often 
 been extremely difficult to distinguish the spiritual lord 
 from the temporal baron. There was, indeed, this dif- 
 ference, — the churchmen were by far the least scrupulous 
 in the use of those means by which their ends were to 
 be accomplished. This observation will be best illus- 
 trated by facts, and we select for this purpose the well- 
 known conspiracy of the Pazzi, which was planned for 
 the assassination of Lorenzo de Medici, and of his bro- 
 ther Giuliano. Of six conspirators three were church- 
 men, and the leader of the band was Francesco Salviati, 
 Archbishop of Pisa. In carrying out the plan which 
 had been formed, it was proposed to attack the brothers 
 when they were engaged in divine worship in the church 
 of the Reparata. The individual, who was selected to 
 make the assault, was a layman, and he had no difficulty 
 whatever in putting any man to death in a private 
 house, but he shrunk from the commission of murder in 
 a church. Two of the ecclesiastics had no scruples on- 
 that point, and they therefore undertook to assassinate 
 the two Medici in the chui'ch, while the archbishop was 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 221 
 
 to seize the palace. The conspirators only partly suc- 
 ceeded, and met the fate which they so well deserved ; 
 but it is impossible not to reflect on the state of religion 
 and morality in that country, in which the bishops and 
 the clergy neglected their proper oj0&ce, imbrued their 
 hands in blood, and set the example of the most atro- 
 cious crimes. 
 
 Besides the dissolute lives of the clergy, and their 
 utter ignorance, they were still farther unqualified for 
 the instruction of the people, because religion was to the 
 greater part of the priesthood little better than an idle 
 jest. The duties, which they must perform, were hurried 
 over with indecent haste, and their first wish seemed 
 to be to turn all their emoluments into the means 
 of rendering life a perpetual holiday. A proof of the 
 truth of these statements may be found in the account 
 of Luther's journey to Rome. The poor German monk, 
 charged with an important commission from several mo- 
 nasteries of his own order, crossed the Alps, and with 
 the highest delight cast his eyes over the fertile and 
 populous plains of Lombardy. There was, indeed, a 
 striking contrast between the wealth of Italy and the 
 poverty of his iiative Thuriugia. The new objects that 
 were constantly rising up before him occasioned the 
 greatest astonishment, but there were also some things 
 that roused his indignation. As he proceeded on his 
 journey, he entered a Benedictine monastery on the 
 banks of the Po. This religious house had been most 
 liberally endowed, and their revenues were expended in 
 magniflce::t buildings, sjilendid furniture, and luxurious 
 living. Luther was confounded, when he was conducted 
 into rooms which might have vied with the hails of 
 princes, and when he sat at a table which was covered with 
 
222 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 the most delicate and costly dishes. Friday came, when 
 all good Catholics fast, or at least abstain from flesh ; but 
 neither fasting nor change of diet was practised by these 
 voluptuous Benedictines. The table was spread, and flesh 
 and other luxuries appeared as on the other days of the 
 week. Luther had been greatly scandalised by what he 
 had formerly seen, but was prudently silent ; now, how- 
 ever, he considered it to be an imperative duty to speak 
 out, and accordingly he ventured to remark, that the 
 Church and the Pope forbade such a mode of living. 
 No small surprise was felt by the monks at the boldness 
 of an unpolished Grerman presuming to make remarks 
 on their conduct, and to rebuke them for the liberal 
 economy of their table, and it was proposed to get rid 
 of him by putting him to death. A timely warning 
 enabled the future champion of the Reformation to 
 escape, and believing that the monastery which he had left 
 was singular in defying the Chui'ch, and in violating the 
 rules of the ascetic life, he proceeded forthwith to Rome. 
 Nothing could exceed the deep feelings of reverence 
 which Luther experienced, when he saw the bright 
 beams of an Italian sun reflected from the churches and 
 palaces of that city, which had been the queen of the 
 nations, and which was now the capitol of the Christian 
 world. He is said to have cast himself on the ground, 
 and to have exclaimed, " Holy Rome, I salute thee !" 
 If he afterwards found that her glory had departed, — 
 that her once animated form was an unsightly carcase, 
 and that he was walking over the dust of buried genera- 
 tions of heroes, he might be excused for dropping a tear 
 over fallen greatness ; but who can attempt to describe 
 his feelings of horror, when he discovered, that the cor- 
 ruptions which had excited his indignation on the banks 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 228 
 
 of the Po were trifling, when compared with the atheism, 
 the profanity, the luxury, and licentiousness for which 
 the Roman clergy were pre-eminently distinguished? 
 Julius II. at that time filled the papal chair, and this 
 warlike priest set the example of all ungodliness. Holy 
 things were used as the readiest means of procuring 
 earthly enjoyment, and therefore the sacred offices and 
 all religious services were regularly sold to the highest 
 bidder. The masses, for which money had been paid, 
 were read in the most irreverent manner, for the purpose 
 of saving time ; and when Luther said mass with that 
 calmness and dignity, which shewed his deep feeling of 
 the importance of the duty, one of the priests cried to 
 him, " Get on, get on, let our Lady have her Soil again ;" 
 an impious allusion to their own doctrine of transubstan- 
 tiation. We have already mentioned the fact, that in 
 the time of Leo X. it was fashionable to call in question 
 the truth of Christianity, but long before his reign infi- 
 delity pervaded the priesthood. The younger clergy 
 who frequented the curia in the reign of Julius II. when 
 Luther was at Rome, and who were anxiously looking 
 for the patronage of the Pope, spoke of orthodoxy as the 
 device of certain saints, whose well-meant inventions 
 had served the purpose of deluding mankind ; and an 
 attempt had been made by some wits of the time, to 
 prove from the writings of Pliny, that there is no difiier- 
 ence between the souls of men and beasts. Still Luther 
 was unwilling to believe his own eyes ; till, on one occa- 
 sion, he was sitting at dinner with certain prelates, who, 
 without scruple, turned into a jest the most sacred duties 
 of the ministerial office. Among other things, they 
 boasted that, instead of using the prescribed form for 
 changing the bread and wine into the body and blood 
 
224 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 of Christ, they merely said, Bread thou art, and bread 
 thou shah i^emain ; wine thou art, avid wine t!:ov. .^iialt 
 remain. By this conversation the veil was withdrawn 
 from Luther's mind, and he now saw clearly the mass 
 of corruption which rendered the religion of Italy loath- 
 some in the eyes of all right-thinking men. " If there 
 be a hell," says Luther, " Kome is built over it ; it is 
 an abyss, from which ail sins proceed." 
 
 It will readily be believed from this description of the 
 Italian clergy by Luther, that from the Gulf of Tarento 
 to the Alps, the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ 
 was as much unknown to the inhabitants of Itdlj as to 
 their pagan ancestors. No doubt the remark admits of 
 some important exceptions, of which we shall have occasion 
 immediately to speak ; but dealing with this question in 
 its general aspect, it will not be very far from the truth 
 if we say, that ignorance of this leading Christian 
 doctrine extended over the vast mass of the population. 
 The clergy, as we have been taught by Luther, doubted 
 the truth of Christianity, and treated its most sacred 
 ordinances as the subjects of trickery and jest ; and 
 there could not be in the minds of these men any ardent 
 love for the souls of the people, and any burning zeal 
 for their salvation. But mankind cannot live long with- 
 out religion, and hence a superstition, founded on the 
 rites of paganism, and handed dov/n from father to son, 
 was the only religion of the Italian people. We can 
 discover no diiFerence in the mode of worship, as we 
 descend the stream of time toward the sixteenth century, 
 with this exception, that the fev/ grains of Christian 
 truth, which appear even amid the pagan ceremonies, 
 are entirely lost, and what remains is only chaff. The 
 doctrine of justification was always in the Church, but 
 
BEFORE TKE REFORMATION. 225 
 
 it was to be obtained by penances, and more easily by 
 those who were able to pay for diplomas of indulgence. 
 Besides, heaven was peopled with intercessors, and the 
 earth was filled with good works, which remained be- 
 yond what was necessary for the salvation of the saints, 
 and which might become the property of such persons 
 as were able and willing to become their purchasers. 
 It was thus that men were deluded with the hope of 
 salvation, — they were taught to put their trust in every 
 thing but in Christ, and a place in heaven might be pro- 
 cured for money. 
 
 The question will perhaps occur to those who con- 
 template the wretched condition of the Italian populace, 
 what was the state of religious knowledge among the 
 educated part of the community — the middle and higher 
 classes of society ? To answer this question would re- 
 quire a very profound acquaintance with the writers of 
 Italy, and a very long course of investigation, to which 
 the writer of these pages has no pretension ; and, there- 
 fore, what he has now to present, is only a few meagre 
 observations. One soui-ce of information is found in 
 the sermons of that age which are still extant, and from 
 which it would be almost impossible to derive instruc- 
 tion or improvement. The subjects of which they treat 
 are the deeds of the saints, the value of relics, and the 
 jejune learning of the schools. A new mode of preach- 
 ing was introduced into Italy by Barletta, whose ob- 
 ject was to render vice not only disgusting but ridicu- 
 lous. There was occasionally a comic humour mixed 
 with more sober discussion, and so popular did Barletta 
 become as a preacher, that he was held up as a model," 
 
 * It became a common saying, Qui nescit barlettare nescit prii- 
 dicare. 
 
 P 
 
226 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 which all were required to follow. The hearers of such 
 sermons might be amused, but we may be permitted to 
 doubt whether they were the instruments best fitted for 
 informing the understanding and purifying the heart. 
 
 Another ground for believing that the educated classes 
 in Italy were kept in ignorance of true religion, was the 
 steady opposition made by the hierarchy against every 
 attempt to put into the hands of the people, a transla- 
 tion of the scriptures into the spoken language of the 
 country. No doubt, men of education might have read 
 the Latin Vulgate ; but it was the practice, if not the 
 law, to reckon every person a heretic, who kept in his 
 possesion a copy of the scriptures in any language what- 
 ever, without giving due notice to the priest. This is 
 no new fact in the history of the Italian church. Pope 
 Gregory VII. considered it to be a serious evil to mul- 
 tiply copies of the scriptures even in the Latin language ; 
 and Gerson, the Chancellor of the University of Paris, 
 gave it as his deliberate opinion at the Council of Con- 
 stance, that for the common people to read the scrip- 
 tures was merely gratifying an idle curiosity ; and in this 
 opinion, the Italian bishops, who were present, cordially 
 concurred. All classes of society were thus made de- 
 pendent on the priests for the attainment of spiritual 
 knowledge, and it would have been too much to have 
 expected them to communicate that of which they them- 
 selves were entirely ignorant. Hence the vineyard 
 which the Lord planted in Italy by the hands of his 
 apostles, instead of bringing forth grapes, brought forth 
 wild grapes. We dare not assert that the church of 
 Rome ever held the maxim, that ignorance is the mother 
 of devotion ; but the state of Italy, for several genera- 
 tions before the Reformation, would naturally give rise 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. '227 
 
 to the remark, tliat it had at least been practically 
 adopted. 
 
 A third ground for concluding, that total ignorance 
 of religion pervaded the educated part of the Italian 
 population, was the childish superstition which had 
 equally enslaved the minds of the high and the low. 
 The ancient Romans had their omens and prodigies, 
 to which they paid the most devoted attention. The 
 shepherd in Virgil gravely informs us, that he might 
 have read his misfortune in the oak struck with light- 
 ning, and in the croaking of the raven on his left hand. 
 An animal crossing the road at the commencement of 
 a journey was a bad omen, and sneezing or spilling salt 
 on the table foreboded evil, and it was necessary to use 
 means for preventing the impending calamities. The 
 modern Italians seem to have inherited the superstitions 
 of their ancestors, and we are tempted to suspect the 
 gi'avity of those writers in whose pages we find their 
 detail. It was their belief, for example, that if they 
 could only get a look in the morning at the image of St 
 Christopher, they would be safe for that day at least from 
 a violent death. They worshipped St Roch ; but this 
 worship was neither generous nor disinterested, for they 
 expected him in return to protect them from the plague. 
 They whispered prayers to St Barbara and St George, 
 to preserve them from falling into the hands of their 
 enemies ; they obseiTed fasts in honour of St ApoUonia, 
 that they might be cured of toothach ; and visited the 
 shrines of St Job, that he might ward off loathsome dis- 
 eases of the skin. Erasmus, one of the most elegant of 
 modern Latin writers, has entered into these details with 
 amusing minuteness, and we rise from the perusal of 
 them with the impression, that the modern Italians 
 
228 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 neither knew nor acknowledged tlie true God as the 
 G-od of providence, and as the only director of human 
 affairs. We speak not of the horrid impiety of giving 
 sensible representations of that glorious Being of whom 
 there is no similitude, and of the delusion which those 
 fondly cherished that looked for eternal life as the cer- 
 tain reward of repeating daily seven verses from the 
 Psalms. So rank was superstition in Italy, that there 
 was no room for the growth of true religion. 
 
 In estimating the moral condition of the Italians in 
 the age of Leo X, we are warned by writers of high au- 
 thority to distinguish between the city and rural popu- 
 lation, and they are careftd to inform us, that revenge 
 by the stiletto was not common till after the republics 
 were enslaved. Complaints are made respecting the 
 injustice of historians and travellers, who fill their 
 volumes with accounts of the crimes of the peasantry, 
 while they pass by their numerous virtues. These 
 complaints are probably well founded, because writers 
 will always select such facts as are best calculated to 
 make an impression on the minds of their readers ; but 
 if it be true, that sound morality can only flow from 
 the religion of the Bible, then the difference of the moral 
 character of the Italians, in various circumstances and 
 at various times, may differ less in the reality than in the 
 name. The lives of the Borgias, father and son, have 
 been referred to ; and they present an historical monu- 
 ment of the utter infamy to which the inmates of the 
 Vatican can reach. The stiletto might not then be in- 
 troduced as an instrument of revenge; but secret murders 
 were perpetrated to an extent, of which it is difficult 
 in these days and in our land to form any conception 
 In the year 1492, Innocent VIII. died, and almost as 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 229 
 
 soon as this event was known, three hundred persons 
 were assassinated in the streets of Rome. Poison was 
 a method of taking away life to which the wicked and 
 the cowardly had frequent recourse, and the phrase an 
 Italian potion obtained a significancy throughout Europe, 
 which the words in themselves would scarcely suggest. 
 Leo X. was the victim of poison, although an attempt 
 was made to ascribe his death to a different cause ; and 
 Alexander VI. fell into the snare which he had pre- 
 pared for another. Robberies, accompanied by murders, 
 were common in those days, and though an Itahan 
 \vould have scorned to be seen in the same place with 
 a thief, yet he would have done what he could to help 
 a robber or a murderer to escape the hands of justice. 
 There is another cu'cumstance connected with Italian 
 morality, which shews its small connection with scrip- 
 tural truth — and that is, the little respect which was 
 paid to the man-iage relation, and the facility with 
 which divorces might be obtained in some of the states. 
 It is not intended to dwell on this topic, with which 
 every one acquainted with the frame-work of Italian so- 
 ciety must be perfectly familiar. We may be permitted, 
 however, to remark, that this state of things struck at 
 the very foundation of social life, and was the fruitful 
 source of public disorders and of private misery. It 
 has been said, that the rural population was exposed to 
 fewer temptations, and therefore their moral character 
 was greatly superior to that of the inhabitants of the 
 towns ; and perhaps this observation may be correct ; 
 but there is just cause for subjecting it to very serious 
 modification. It is very pleasant, in the compositions 
 of the poets, to read of the innocence and happiness of 
 a country life ; and yet let any one go in quest of them, 
 
230 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 and he will find that they owe their existence to a lively 
 fancy. Even the poets are witnesses against themselves, 
 and while \fe read of the fortunate old man enjoying 
 the cool shade amid the well-known streams and sacred 
 fountains, and invited to sleep by the humming of the 
 bees, we must not forget the unhallowed passions 
 which raged in the breast of Corydon, or the harsh re- 
 proaches which Menalcas and Damcetas cast upon each 
 other. The Italian peasantry were like that of any 
 other country w^here religious instruction was neglect- 
 ed, and while they were not free from many vices, 
 they are especially charged with a disregard for honesty 
 and truth, where their interest was concerned. For 
 such practices, they might have pleaded the example of 
 the head of the church, who was said not to pay much 
 regard to truth and honesty, where they stood in the 
 way of an obvious advantage. The inhabitants of Italy 
 are entitled to the praise of bravery and patriotism, and 
 their struggles for liberty were frequently maintained 
 amid great difficulty and discouragement, and we re- 
 gret their inability to secure the continuance of their 
 independence. In the occurrences which took place at the 
 Reformation, we discover a fmitful source of specula- 
 tion in regard to the veiy different aspect, which the 
 religious and moral condition of Italy might have pre- 
 sented from that which we now contemplate. The 
 history of the north of Europe is before us, and we can- 
 not fail to remark, that the Protestant faith flourished 
 wherever rational liberty had struck its roots ; but specu- 
 lation or analogy will not guide us in our attempt to 
 discover what Italy might have been had she been free ; 
 for her case is peculiar, and she is subjected to a domi- 
 nion which she is unwilling to renounce. The influence 
 
BEFORE THE REFOR]\IATION. 231 
 
 of the Roman curia could not be resisted, and for many- 
 ages it has spread over this smiling land ignorance and 
 spiritual death. 
 
 While the inhabitants of Italy were generally igno- 
 rant, immoral, and superstitious, there were also in'some 
 parts of the country not a few witnesses of the truth. 
 And among these, the first place, whether we regard 
 dates or numbers, is due to the Waldenses, who, about 
 the end of the twelfth century, were established in Lom- 
 bardy, and early in the thirteenth, they were to be found 
 in Rome, at the very gates of St Peter's. These men 
 condemned the con*uptions and abuses of the Italian 
 Church, and substantially held the same doctrines that 
 were afterwards maintained by the Reformers. A con- 
 fession of their faith, bearing date 1120, long before their 
 tenets reached the south side of the Alps, contains, in 
 fourteen articles, a clear view of scriptural doctrine, and 
 a pointed renunciation of all the superstitious obser- 
 vances and doctrinal errors of the Church of Rome. 
 Congregations of the Waldenses were established in 
 Geneva, Florence, and Aquila, and many were brought 
 by their teaching to the knowledge of Christ, who were 
 themselves unknown. As the followers of this class of 
 Christians became numerous, they began to attract the 
 attention of the rulers of the Italian churches, and Gre- 
 gory IX. published a bull, in which all the faithful were 
 called upon to search out these heretics, and deliver them 
 to the secular power to be punished. This bull was 
 obeyed, and the Waldenses were exposed to a furious 
 persecution ; and yet, in the fourteenth century, they still 
 continued to flourish in Italy, they corresponded with 
 men who held the same sentiments in other countries, 
 and Dr M'Crie states, on the authority of Wolfius and 
 
232 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 Beza, tliat they had schools in Lombardy, at which 
 young men received a thorough Christian education, and 
 which were supported by contributions from Bohemia 
 and Poland. 
 
 About the year 1370, a colony of the Waldenses was 
 planted in Calabria, from the valleys of Pragela, and 
 they took with them into that district their Bibles and 
 their principles, and also their honest industry, which 
 their religion had taught them. They built villages, fed 
 their flocks, and cultivated theu' fields ; and the proprie- 
 tors of the lands were delighted, for they now obtained 
 a liberal rent for that which had formerly brought them 
 nothing. The priests alone were dissatisfied, because, 
 while their demands for tithes were readily complied 
 with, they received no money for masses, and the other 
 fooleries of popery. They were determined to bring the 
 case under the consideration of the pope, but the lords 
 of the soil interfered, and entreated them not to molest 
 the people, on the ground that the religion could not be 
 bad which produced such good fruits. For two cen- 
 turies, the Waldenses of Calabria continued to maintain 
 their religious principles in the south of Italy, and even 
 the priests themselves, finding their tithes yearly to in- 
 crease, prudently overlooked then* heresies; but at the 
 Reformation, monks were appointed to convert them, and 
 when they refused to receive instructions, troops were 
 sent, who hunted the people as if they had been wild 
 beasts — multitudes of them were taken prisoners, num- 
 bers were tortured, and many put to death. The colony 
 of the AValdenses was entirely dispersed, and their bar- 
 barous extirpation, the deep disgrace of the Church of 
 Rome and the Italian princes, is the last page of the 
 history of pure Christianity in Lower Italy. The Wal- 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 233 
 
 denses in the valleys of Piedmont, were also exposed to 
 great persecutions ; the Inquisition was set up, to put an 
 end to this species of heresy ; and the annals of this sect 
 of Christians are wi-itten in the blood of many martyrs. 
 Their sufferings almost exceed belief, and one of the 
 writers, who gives a detail of these persecutions declares, 
 that he cannot refrain from tears, while he is relating 
 the atrocious cruelties to which they were subjected. 
 They were saved from utter destruction by the inter- 
 ference of the Swiss and the Protector of England, Oliver 
 Oomwell. The Waldenses still inhabit the valleys of 
 the Italian Alps, and the gospel still cheers their poor 
 and humble dwellings. They have their fifteen parishes, 
 their scantily-paid ministers, and their schools, at which 
 4500 children receive a Christian education. At La 
 Torre, a seminary is established for the Latin language, 
 at which twenty-four scholars attend ; and a college, with 
 one professor and ten students, was opened in the year 
 1881. The Waldenses occupy an important place in 
 the ecclesiastical history of Italy, and from them we 
 learn the lesson, that the light which the Lord kindles 
 in any land, it is not in the power of man to extinguish. 
 Of individuals who boldly testified for Jesus Christ, 
 the first, in order of time, was Arnaldo da Brescia, who 
 was born in the twelfth century, and who took a pro- 
 minent part in the events of that turbulent ag e. He 
 preached against the wealth of the clergy, and the abuses 
 to which it gave rise. Arnaldo's zeal for religion was 
 mixed with the dross of secular politics; but the subject 
 of his public discourses attracted the notice of his eccle- 
 siastical superiors, and he was obliged to flee into France. 
 He afterwards returned to Rome, and again appeared 
 in public, censuring the abuses which in his absence 
 
284 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 had not diminished. He went so far as to advise the 
 people to cast off the papal authority, and to assert the 
 freedom which their ancestors enjoyed. In this part of 
 his conduct, he was probably under the influence of po- 
 litical feeling ; and we cannot but approve of his desire 
 to establish liberty on a basis similar to that of the an- 
 cient Roman commonwealth. It is also true, that the 
 papal authority was demonstrably injurious to the in- 
 terests of men, both religious and political ; but still he 
 who comes forward in the character of a Reformer, and 
 descends into the arena of political strife, must be con- 
 tented to have his motives misrepresented, and must 
 bear the reproach of mixing an earthly feeling with the 
 fervour of his zeal in the cause of religion. If Arnaldo 
 of Brescia thus erred, severe was his punishment. A 
 government so uniformly jealous as that of the Bishop 
 of Rome, was not likely to remain long ignorant of 
 Arnaldo's efforts for its subversion, and he was con- 
 demned to be burnt alive. It is even said by some 
 writers, that without a trial he was put to death, his 
 body burnt, and his ashes scattered on the waters of 
 the Tiber. He has been held up as the type of the 
 Italian patriot, and he is supposed to have conferred 
 lasting benefits on religion, though a careful examina- 
 tion of his life will lead to a more moderate estimate of 
 his achievements ; yet it must be said, if he effected no 
 reformation in his own age, his testimony was a guide to 
 others, who, in after times, were pursuing the same 
 path, and his martyrdom inspired noble minds to emu- 
 late his example. 
 
 The next step towards a reformation of the Church 
 in Italy, was the famous dispute between John XXII. 
 and Lewis of Bavaria, regarding the necessity of the 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 235 
 
 Pope confimiing the election of the emperor. This dis- 
 pute called forth men of ability on both sides of the 
 question, and elicited opinions which gave the first blow 
 to the papal authority. In happened in this case, that 
 the discussions were more of a political than a religious 
 character, and the question was substantially this, 
 Whether the Bishop of Rome was entitled to maintain 
 a superiority over the sovereigns of Europe ? Marsilius 
 of Padua, and John of Jandun (Genoa) took part in 
 this controversy on the side of the emperor, and were 
 joint authors of a work, in which the authority of any 
 individual in the church, either with regard to doctrine 
 or practice, is rejected as absurd ; and they maintain 
 the only ground of obedience to be the holy scriptures 
 as interpreted by a general council. The book is in- 
 titled, " Defensor Pacis," and consists of three parts or 
 dictions : the first treats of the origin and aim of the 
 State; the second of the relation between civil and 
 ecclesiastical power ; and the third part consists of forty- 
 one conclusions, deduced from the principles previously 
 laid down. In these conclusions there are many points 
 brought out, for which Luther afterwards most stre- 
 nuously contended, and which are still considered un- 
 questionably sound ; but we must also take the liberty 
 of remarking, that there are many conclusions drawn 
 which are without a proper foundation, and from which 
 the reformers dissented. It is only justice, however, to 
 state, that this work, a curiosity in the ecclesiastical his- 
 tory of Italy, from the unwonted boldness of its reason- 
 ings, made the people of that age inquire into matters 
 which had formerly been taken for granted, and fur- 
 nished future theologians with ample materials for dis- 
 cussion and investigation. 
 
236 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 We pass over Valla and Bracciolini, who are men- 
 tioned by Dv M'Crie in his History of the Reformation 
 in Italy, and take up the character of Jerome Francis 
 Savonarola, who lent his aid to the important work of 
 refonnation. He was born of an illustrious family in 
 Ferrara, about the year 1452, and was early distin- 
 guished for the progress which he made in his studies. 
 At an early age he entered a monastery of Dominicans 
 at Bologna, and carefully practised all the rules of the 
 ascetic life. His first attempt at preaching signally 
 failed, for he had a weak and harsh voice and an un- 
 graceful delivery, and his bodily strength was exhausted 
 by too great abstinence. All these difficulties he finally 
 overcame, and in seven years those who turned away 
 from his public appearance with disgust, were surprised 
 to hear a strong and pleasant voice, accompanied with a 
 noble and graceful eloquence. It was one of Savona- 
 rola's misfortunes, that he believed the removal of all 
 these difficulties, which prevented him from being an 
 acceptable preacher, to have been miraculous, and he 
 adduced it as a proof that he had been sent by God to 
 accomplish a great reformation in the church. To the 
 divine authority of his mission, there was added, in his 
 own opinion, the gift of prophecy, which he did not hesi- 
 tate to exercise. He finally fixed his residence at Flo- 
 rence, where he publicly urged the necessity of a reform 
 in the church, till he was delivered into the hands of his 
 enemies. The reformation, which he was eager to ac- 
 complish, went no farther than the amendment of the 
 modes of administering discipline, which was abundantly 
 corrupt, and excluding from the sacred offices of the 
 ministry men of unholy lives. He seems to have enter- 
 tained no doubt of the doctrines which were received by 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 237 
 
 the church, and never dreamed of subjecting them to 
 the test of scripture. Probably he was prevented from 
 this most important part of the work of a reformer by 
 his enthusiasm or fanaticism ; his attacks upon the esta- 
 blished order of things were those of a man whose powers 
 of reason were not under the ordinary direction of the 
 Holy Ghost, but were guided by supernatural influence ; 
 in short, he considered himself inspired, and his object 
 was to be attained, not by logical discussion, but by 
 prophecies and miracles. He could not avoid taking 
 part in temporal politics, and considered civil as scarcely 
 less sacred than religious liberty. He contemplated 
 with undisguised abhorrence the usurpation of princes, 
 and held it impossible to retain power so acquired with- 
 out renouncing their salvation. Of these opinions, which 
 he openly avowed, the following anecdote will serve as 
 an illustration : When Lorenzo the Magnificent lay on 
 his deathbed, he sent for the monk Savonarola to grant 
 him absolution, and his first question to the dying man 
 was, whether he had entire faith in the mercy of God ? 
 The answer was satisfactory, and he proceeded to in- 
 quire, whether he was willing to restore to its rightful 
 owners all the property which he had unlawfully accu- 
 mulated ? To this question there was also a satisfactory 
 answer ; and his third inquiry was, whether he was will- 
 ing to restore the liberty of Florence and the popular 
 government of the republic ? This was too great a sacri- 
 fice of family influence, and too large a demand on Lo- 
 renzo's public virtue, and in the agonies of death he 
 distinctly refused to make any alteration in the mode of 
 administering the affairs of the state. Savonarola with- 
 drew, and by far the greatest of the Florentine magis- 
 trates died without absolution. This reformer perished 
 
288 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 ill the flames in 1498, and his death did not extinguish 
 the desire for a reformation of religion, which the glaring 
 corruptions in the church evidently required. 
 
 Naturalists inform us of certain compensations, that 
 are intended to preserve a balance among existing 
 species of beings, so that no one, by undue multiplica- 
 tion, may destroy another. A similar arrangement is 
 sometimes discoverable in the moral world, in which 
 certain tendencies destructive of the social relations and 
 religious feelings, are compensated or counterbalanced 
 by other tendencies of a directly opposite character. 
 A striking illustration of this remark will be found in 
 the history of Italy during the reign of Leo X. We 
 have observed several indications in former periods of a 
 desire to obtain a reformation of the church ; but either 
 the men who undertook to carry on this work failed, or 
 the means which they used were inadequate ; certain it 
 is, Leo ascended the papal throne without any appre- 
 hension of reform, and infidelity, as we have had occa- 
 sion to remark, was fast gaining ground both among 
 the clergy and people. There might now be some fear 
 in the minds of the few friends of religion, "that the ten- 
 dencies seemed all to be towards the utter overthrow of 
 Christianity ; but a compensation was found in ten- 
 dencies of an entirely different kind. A society of able 
 men was formed under the eye of the Roman curia, and 
 it is somewhat remarkable that they were not opposed 
 to the Protestant views, but so far coincided with them, 
 as to propose to stay the corruptions of the church by 
 a revival of religion. This society was called the Ora- 
 tory of Divine Love, and its members met together for 
 the performance of spiritual exercises. The number of 
 those who thus associated together was about sixty, and 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 239 
 
 some of tliem rose to the highest offices in the church. 
 The minds of these men had been imbued with the doc- 
 trines of the German reformers, for their books, under 
 assumed names, had been introduced into Italy, and 
 were read by many who were ignorant of their authors, 
 but who highly approved of the doctrines which they 
 contained. About this time too, Italy had been dis- 
 tinguished by the publication of a complete Hebrew 
 Bible at Soncino, by a family of Jews ; and Erasmus pub- 
 lished at Bale the Greek Testament, which was received 
 with approbation by the learned in Italy on account of 
 the fame of its editor. Translations of the scriptures 
 into the spoken language of Italy appeared at the end 
 of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries. 
 From these and other sources the members of the Oratory 
 of Divine Love were taught the doctrines of the gospel, 
 and one of them wrote a small treatise on justification 
 by faith alone, which was very highly recommended by 
 Cardinal Pole. " Thou hast brought to light," says he, 
 " that jewel which the church had kept half-buried." 
 Pole fairly acknowledges by this language the precious 
 doctrine of justification by faith alone, and congratulates 
 Contarini, the author of this treatise, on his bringing it 
 under the notice of the people. The same views were 
 entertained by Flaminio, who in one of his letters makes 
 the following statement : " The gospel is nothing else 
 than the glad tidings that the only begotten Son of God, 
 clothed in our flesh, has satisfied the justice of the eter- 
 nal Father for us. He who believes this enters the 
 kingdom of heaven; he enjoys the universal forgiveness; 
 from being a carnal, he becomes a spiritual creature ; 
 from being a child of wrath, he becomes a child of grace ; 
 he lives in a sweet peace of conscience." These senti- 
 
240 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 ments, which possess the savour of gospel truth, began 
 to spread over Italy. 
 
 The Italians, at the beginning of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, were taught to turn their attention to true religion 
 from various quarters. We have attempted to shew 
 that the learned and educated class were induced to 
 examine scriptural doctrine from the Bible, which was 
 now more commonly read, and from the writings of the 
 reformers, which had made their way into , Rome itself. 
 Another cause operated in regard to the common people. 
 The army of Charles V, which that warlike monarch led 
 into Italy, consisted chiefly of Germans, and as many 
 of them had learned the doctrines of Luther, they stur- 
 dily maintained them in their intercourse with the 
 Italians, whose minds were thus imperceptibly imbued 
 with the truth. This will account for the readiness with 
 which, in many parts of the country, the doctrine of 
 justification by faith alone was received by the people. 
 Even Naples, which may be considered the Sybaris of 
 modern Italy, was agitated throughout its whole popu- 
 lation by this fundamental doctrine of Christianity, 
 which was taught by means of Juan Valdez, a native of 
 Spain, and secretary to Don Pedro de Toledo. By his 
 conversations and writings he obtained the favour of the 
 nobility as well as of the people, and it is a matter of 
 regret that all his works have perished. One of them 
 was entitled " The Benefits bestowed by Christ," and 
 here is the significant note appended to it by the In- 
 quisition : "It treats in an insinuating manner on jus- 
 tification, undervalues works, and ascribes every thing 
 to faith alone." Flaminio is said to have revised this 
 work, but it seems to be generally understood that 
 Valdez was its author. Several ladies of high rank em- 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 241 
 
 braced these doctrines, and the records of the Inquisi- 
 tion state that three thousand schoohnasters had im- 
 bibed the opinions of the reformers. This last asser- 
 tion appears to be incredible ; but we can easily estimate 
 the influence which a much smaller number of that class 
 must have exercised in the training of the youthful mind. 
 There was evidently a great change in the opinions and 
 sentiments of the Italians in regard to religion, and the 
 practical atheism of the Roman curia, and the infidelity 
 of the clergy, were counteracted by the introduction of 
 the doctrines of the Reformation. 
 
 It is necessary, however, to peruse this part of the 
 ecclesiastical history of Italy with great caution, lest we 
 rush to conclusions which a calm investigation of facts 
 will shew us to be unsound. Those great truths which 
 the apostle Paul had impressed upon the minds of the 
 Roman converts in his well-known letter to that church, 
 had long been forgotten in the slumber of ages, and now 
 they were brought before the minds of the people, who 
 contemplated them with the most intense interest : but 
 the purity of the Christian church was mixed with the 
 alloy of human institutions. The authority of the Pope, 
 and the unity of the church, were considered as equally 
 important with the doctrine of the atonement, and no 
 Italian of that age had thought of calling these points 
 in question. The most eminent preachers of the truth 
 were deeply impressed with the supremacy, perhaps with 
 the infallibility, of the Pope, and they seem never to 
 have thought of a thorough reformation of the church. 
 Separation from the church was considered by them as 
 the greatest of evils, and the sentiments of the whole 
 may be found in the preface of Clario to an edition of 
 the Vulgate : " No corruption could be so great as to 
 
 Q 
 
242 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 warrant a revolt from the hallowed communion of the 
 church. Were it not better to repair what we have, 
 than to commit ourselves to dubious attempts at pro- 
 ducing something else. Our sole thought should be, 
 how the old institution may be ameliorated and freed 
 from its defects." 
 
 Through this medium must we look at the ItaKan 
 worthies, of whose labours and exertions we read during 
 the period of the reformation. They seem to have 
 known the doctrines of the gospel, but were trammelled 
 by the claims of the successor of St Peter to the head- 
 ship of the church. Many of these, such as Carnesecchi, 
 Ochino, Martyr, Falengo, and Flaminio, along with 
 others of equal renown, laboured faithfully in the in- 
 struction of the people ; but they believed it to be unlaw- 
 ful to renounce the authority of the Pope. In the mean 
 time, an attempt was made by the emperor to reconcile 
 the Protestants to the Church of Rome, by conceding 
 something to their prejudices, and by requiring them to 
 adopt a modified popery. The bishop of Eome was re- 
 presented by Contarini, whose honesty of intention is 
 universally acknowledged, and whose doctrinal opinions 
 approached much nearer to those of the Protestants 
 than to those of the Papists. On points of doctrine it 
 might have been possible to bring about an agreement, 
 but they could not come together at all on the authority 
 of the Pope, and on the discipline of the church. The 
 Pope insisted, as a preliminary point, that his supremacy 
 should be recognised ; but Contarini was aware that, 
 when the conference assembled at Ratisbon to discuss 
 all points connected with a reconciliation, this one would 
 at once be refused. He contrived so to arrange the 
 business, that the question regarding the Pope's supre- 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 248 
 
 macy should be taken up last ; and if there was an ac- 
 commodation on the other questions, this one, he consi- 
 dered, was not likely to be resisted. The discussion of 
 the other questions commenced, and on several of them 
 there was no great difference of opinion ; but as they 
 proceeded difficulties arose, and even the politics of the 
 time conspired to render abortive the attempt to recon- 
 cile the Catholics and Protestants. Much to the regret of 
 Contarini, the conference of Ratisbon was broken up, and 
 both parties were satisfied to let things remain as they 
 were. It is very doubtful whether any great advantage 
 would have accrued to Italy by the proposed reconcilia- 
 tion. There was no reformation in the Roman curia, and 
 from the irresponsibility of the Pope, the tendency of am- 
 bition, and the proneness of the human mind to abuse 
 the power with which it is entrusted, there was little 
 hope of the Popes adopting measures to promote protec- 
 tant principles ; and as the discipline of the church con- 
 tinued unchanged, the condition of Italy would have be- 
 ■come what it was in former ages, so soon as the faithful 
 preachers had gone to their rest, and the excitement 
 which their teaching produced had passed away. Ranke 
 considers it a great misfortune that the union of Catho- 
 lics and Protestants did not take place ; but with the 
 greatest deference for an authority so deservedly high, 
 we would remark, that union may be purchased at too 
 dear a price, and that peace in the church may be pro- 
 cured at the sacrifice of vital religion. 
 
 From what has now been stated, it appears that at 
 the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Head of the 
 church, the Lord Jesus Christ, had bestowed u.'pon Italy, 
 in common with the other countries of E^irope the 
 vilege of becoming acquainted with the doct^;' ^^ ,^ 
 
244 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 grace at tlie fouiitain-liead. Men were raised up by 
 Him at that period, who zealously devoted themselves to 
 the spiritual instruction of the people ; and there is good 
 reason to believe that many experienced the teaching of 
 the Spirit, and found Jesus to be the only way of salva- 
 tion. It is not intended to give any specific account of 
 the persons or places that became famous by a profession 
 of the pure gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, as this 
 would lead us beyond all reasonable bounds ; but it may 
 not be unimportant to observe, that the truth of God was 
 more extensively adopted and more warmly embraced 
 in the north of Italy, in the neighbourhood of the godly 
 Waldenses. The influence of their example had long 
 been felt by the peasantry of Lombardy, and they were 
 thus better prepared than those in other parts of the 
 country to listen to the preaching of Christ's faithful ser- 
 vants. The reformation in Italy was a tender plant, 
 which required to be carefully nurtured, and duly sheltered 
 from the burning sun and from the nipping frosts ; but 
 that careful nurture was not bestowed, and it speedily 
 drooped, withered, and died. Some of the causes of this 
 unfortunate result it will be necessary very briefly to 
 consider. 
 
 Those who have carefully studied the history of reli- 
 gion in Italy, can scarcely fail to have observed, that 
 there was wanting in that land some man of bold and 
 undaunted spirit, like Luther in Germany, or John Knox 
 in Scotland, to go forth in the strength of the Lord, and 
 lay the axe to the root of all the corruptions which had 
 sprung up in the church ; and there was required some 
 prince of extensive influence, who, like Frederic of Sax- 
 ony, was ready to stimulate and protect this bold re- 
 former in carrying on his great work. There were, no 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 245 
 
 doubt, many who declared the truth of Grod, but they 
 needed a master-mind to lead them to a higher walk in 
 reformation than in Italy they ever attained ; for the 
 preachers there shrank from all interference with the 
 authority of the Pope, and with the wicked practices 
 which prevailed. They could not bear the thought of 
 reducing the Roman See to the level of an ordinary 
 bishopric, and of placing the government of the church on 
 the " foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
 Christ himself being the chief corner-stone." Their con- 
 duct resembled that of the man who builds a house with- 
 out a foundation, and at the same time expects it to re- 
 sist the fury of the tempest. So it happened with the 
 preaching of the gospel in Italy ; they were without a 
 leader and without a protector ; there was nothing to 
 bind them together ; and when the storm of persecution 
 began to rage, they were widely scattered, and their la- 
 bours were entirely lost. 
 
 The second cause of the overthrow of the gospel in 
 Italy was the revival of the Inquisition, — an engine of 
 tjTannical cruelty, which has no equal in the history of 
 the world. Paul III. had recourse to this method of ex- 
 tirpating what he called heresy, at the suggestion of Ca- 
 raffa, who had been a member of the Oratory of Divine 
 Love, and of Burgos, archbishop of Toledo. Caraffa 
 wa;S a man of harsh and gloomy temper, and believed 
 that, as St Peter at Eome had vanquished the first here- 
 tics, so his successor would vanquish all the heretics in 
 the world. Paul III. had been raised to the papal chair, 
 not for his religious zeal and moral worth, but for his 
 prudence, magnificence, and liberality. He was a mere 
 worldling, who considered it as sound policy to maintain 
 the religion of Italy unchanged, and who looked upon 
 
'246 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 the church as bestowing upon its head a place among 
 the princes of Europe. He was not likely to be over- 
 scrupulous as to the means by which his dignity was to 
 be maintained, and his rights and privileges were to be 
 preserved unimpaired ; and accordingly a bull was issued, 
 by which it was ordained that the Inquisition should be 
 set up at Rome, on the same principle as that which was 
 in operation in Spain. Six commissioners were appointed 
 inquisitors, who were all chm^chmen occupying high sta- 
 tions, and among them we are not surprised to read the 
 names of Caraffa and Burgos. We cannot enter into any 
 detail of the machinery which was devised to render thi» 
 tyrannical engine efl&cacious. It is sufficient to say, that 
 every person south of the Alps, whatever might be hi& 
 rank in life, was placed under its jurisdiction ; suspected 
 persons were to be imprisoned, and those found guilty 
 were to be put to death, and their goods confiscated. 
 To the inquisitors, or their commissioners through the 
 country, belonged the power of punishment ; to the Pope 
 the privilege of pardoning any who might be convicted. 
 The machinery of this diabolical engine was gradually 
 perfected ; the rules were abundantly stringent ; no de- 
 lay was to take place in proceeding against those to 
 whom was attached even a shadow of suspicion ; no re- 
 spect was to be paid to prince or prelate ; the utmost 
 severity was to be used against any who should have re- 
 course to the protection of their sovereigns ; and na 
 quarter was to be given to heretics, especially Calvinists. 
 Now, more than ever, was there need for a man to resist 
 the persecuting fury of the papists, and to induce the 
 princes of Italy to overthrow an institution which bound 
 the chains of spiritual slavery on them and on their sub- 
 jects. This was the time to go forward to fight the 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 247 
 
 battle of the truth, and to come to the help of the Lord 
 against the mighty. No one appeared to beard the lion 
 in his den ; to unlock the dungeons of the Inquisition, 
 and lay them open to the public gaze. Those who had 
 been devoting themselves to the preaching of the gospel 
 were completely paralyzed, and they consulted their 
 safety by fleeing into foreign lands. Our sympathies 
 are roused in regard to Ochino, who had been zealous 
 and devoted as a preacher of the truth ; and now in his 
 old age he must have recourse to the kindness of 
 strangers, and must seek a home beyond the Alps. 
 When he reached the place at which Italy was to be lost 
 to his view, he looked back on the smiling fields and 
 well-watered plains, which he was to see no more, and 
 thought with bitterness of the crowds of attentive 
 hearers who had followed his steps, and of the honours 
 which his countrymen had heaped upon him; but he was 
 too feeble for resistance, and, without a murmur, he bent 
 his tottering steps to Geneva, at that time the capital of 
 the Protestant world. 
 
 The flight of the preachers was followed by the most 
 disastrous results to the people, who, without any one to 
 guide or support them, were left to the superintendence 
 of the most furious bigots. These men were not only 
 determined to erase every vestige of Protestant doc- 
 trine, but they were on the watch for the slightest symp- 
 toms of heresy to lodge information with the Inquisition, 
 so that the saying became common, " It is hardly pos- 
 sible to be a Christian and die in one's bed." Every 
 book and every literary production was subjected to the 
 strictest scrutiny ; and Caraffa forbade any book, old or 
 new, to be printed without the authority of the Inquisi- 
 tion. MSS. were to be submitted to their inspection ; 
 
248 RELIGION IN ITALY 
 
 booksellers were ordered to furnish catalogues of their 
 stock ; and private individuals were enjoined to do their 
 utmost to put down prohibited works, of which the lists 
 were published. All these arrangements were carried 
 out with the greatest diligence and accuracy, so that 
 most of the writings of those who held sound doctrines 
 in Italy at the time of the Reformation are entirely lost. 
 It was thus that the Inquisition suppressed religious 
 freedom, and all differences of opinion among the people ; 
 and that century, whose commencement saw the intro- 
 duction of pure Christianity into many parts of Italy, 
 was not far on its decline when these doctrines were al- 
 most entirely rooted out ; and the sun of Protestantism 
 set upon that land while it was yet day. All the Fran- 
 ciscans who had embraced the truth were forced to re- 
 cant, and all the disciples of Valdez in the south were 
 compelled to take the same course. At Venice the natives 
 were under the necessity of abjuring their opinions, but 
 there was some toleration for foreigners, whose com- 
 mercial pursuits led them to take up their abode in that 
 city. There were some honourable examples of adherence 
 to the truth, even in the midst of persecution ; and those 
 who had been under the teaching of the Spirit of God, 
 preferred death to a denial of their principles. The 
 mode of putting the heretics to death at Venice is worthy 
 of notice. They were taken in two vessels through the 
 lagunes to the Adriatic ; at a certain point, a plank was 
 placed between them, on which the martjnrs were made 
 to stand ; the two vessels moved away, and the unhappy 
 Protestants were swallowed up by the waves, calling on 
 the name of Jesus. Many acts of faith, as they have 
 been termed, were celebrated at Rome, before the church 
 of Santa Maria aUa Minerva. Many fled from place 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 249 
 
 to place with their wives and children ; and we trace 
 their wanderings for a time, till they entirely disappear 
 from the page of history. The highest rank was no pro- 
 tection against the familiars of the Inquisition ; and no 
 relation was so sacred as to neutralize their influence. 
 The Duchess of Ferrara was accused by her own hus- 
 band, and though there ran in her veins the royal blood 
 of France, she was condemned to solitude in the midst 
 of her own family, on account of her attachment to the 
 Protestant faith, 
 
 A third cause of the overthrow of the gospel in Italy 
 was the establishment of the Society of Jesuits, who 
 had been formed into a religious order, under the sanc- 
 tion of Paul III. in 1540. Their founder, the younger 
 son of the house of Loyola, in the north of Spain, was 
 at once an ascetic and a visionary, and his military ser- 
 vice and his religious zeal were in his mind equally a 
 romance. Those who have studied the early life of this 
 extraordinary man would not be surprised when he and 
 his companions entered the church of Montmartre, took 
 the vows of chastity, and engaged to place themselves 
 at the disposal of the bishop of Rome ; but certainly 
 no one could have pcrdicted that this engagement was 
 the germ of a society which was to exercise such an ex- 
 traordinary influence over the Christian world. From 
 that time Loyola and his companions proceeded step by 
 step, till they obtained the authority of the Pope ; and 
 it is not diflicult to perceive the important acquisition 
 of these men of enthusiastic minds to the Holy See. 
 Paul III. was delighted to find, amid all his annoyances, 
 unexpected support in a society of men, who were not 
 troubled with minor scruples, and whose perseverance 
 was calculated to overcome the greatest difiiculties. It 
 
250 RELIGION IN ITALY. 
 
 is the boast of the Jesuits, that their founder presented 
 a memorial to the Pope for the restoration of the Inqui- 
 sition — a fact which, if true, confers upon him a very 
 questionable renown. The rapid progress of this society 
 in Italy must fill the student of history with astonish- 
 ment, and this feeling will not be diminished by their 
 decisive influence with all classes of the community. 
 Within two years from receiving the papal sanction, 
 Lippomano laid the foundation of the Jesuit College at 
 Venice, and at Faenza men of the highest rank accom- 
 panied them through the streets begging. Wherever 
 they found anything like'heresy, there they planted their 
 standard and carried on their operations with the utmost 
 diligence. They planted schools, carefully trained the 
 young in the doctrines of popery, procured adherents 
 among those more advanced in life, and established them- 
 selves so firmly that they could not be shaken. It can- 
 not be denied that the efforts of the Jesuits in extend- 
 ing and riveting the papal authority were most success- 
 ful, and certainly the Pope had no better agents in ex- 
 tirpating Bible truth out of Italy. 
 
 The last cause of the suppression of the gospel in 
 Italy was the Council of Trent, which may be considered 
 as having given the finishing blow to Protestantism in 
 that land. In former times it was possible for men to 
 hold sound doctrines, as we have already seen, along 
 with strong attachment to the church of Rome, and with 
 the deepest reverence for the official character of the 
 Pope : but the Council of Trent put an end to this 
 religious freedom, and popery properly so called, is 
 stereotyped by its decrees. The [few crumbs of truth 
 which had been left by the Inquisition and the Jesuits, 
 were devoured by this Council, and the Italians had to 
 
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 251 
 
 choose between the creed of Pope Pius IV. and the dun- 
 geons of the Inquisition, or by way of variety an act offnith 
 for the edification of the Romans. We cannot wonder, 
 how much soever we may lament it, that the inhabitants 
 of Italy received the decrees of the Council of Trent, 
 and gave to them implicit obedience. From the year 
 1564, when this Council was broken up, the Protestant 
 religion may be considered as entirely suppressed in 
 Italy, except in the valleys of Piedmont ; and whenever 
 any thing like the gospel was found, it was only here and 
 there, among a few individuals, who secretly cherished its 
 doctrines, and who, for the most part, escaped the keen 
 eye of the Inquisition and the Jesuits. The cruelties of 
 the Inquisition sometimes roused the indignation of the 
 populace, but religion was not the motive under which 
 they acted. At the death of Paul IV., the notorious per- 
 secutor Caraflfa, they raised a tumult, burned the buildings 
 of the Inquisition, and set the prisoners free, among 
 whom was John Craig, one of the Scottish Reformers ; 
 but no permanent advantage was derived from these 
 bursts of popular fury. There was little difference in 
 the state of religion in Italy in the reign of Clement 
 VIII. at the end, and of Alexander VI. at the beginning, 
 of the sixteenth century ; and the influence of the Pro- 
 testant doctrines may be compared to the bright sunshine 
 of the wintry day in these northern regions, whose con- 
 tinuance is too short to overcome the severity of the 
 cold, and which terminates in a night of darkness as 
 profound as that of the morning through which it had 
 broken. 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 BY THE REV. WILLIAM K. TAVEEDIE. 
 
 MINISTER OF FRKE TOLBOOTH CHURCH, EDINBUEGH. 
 
NOTE. 
 
 Ill the following remarks, we have purposely al>stained from say« 
 ing much on the political condition of Italy, for that did not fail 
 within our province. But the system of politictil rigorism which at 
 present prevails in that unhappy country, is equally oppressive to 
 man as an inhabitant of this world, as its religious system is ruinous 
 to him as a candidate for glory in the next. And it is vain to strug- 
 gle for civil liberty while the spiritual is neglected. That were to 
 put the first last. The emancipation of Italy must be a religious 
 one. Though it were politically free at this hour, its liberty would 
 soon be overlaid or exterminated again by the despotism involved 
 in its creed. 
 
 By its aggressions upon Protestantism, Popery has created a re- 
 action against itself. America and Britain are at length combin- 
 ing their energies against these encroachments. In New York 
 and London Societies have been formed to promote the spiritual 
 Avell-being of Italy, by whatever Christian means they can demise. 
 The Evangelical Alliance promises, by the hostility which it is 
 provoking among Romanists, to do good service to the cause of 
 truth. The banner given to be displayed seems likely at last to be 
 so ; and no wiser course could have been adopted than to fi^- the 
 attention of Protestants on the state of Poperv in Italy. What it 
 has done for men there, it will do for the world when it has the 
 power ; and some will perhaps awake to their danger when a picture 
 of Italian religion is presented to their notice. 
 
255 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 We approach this subject with feelings akin to those 
 with which one approaches Italy itself. Descending 
 into that country by any of the Alpine passes, the Cenis, 
 the Grreat St Bernard, the St Gothard, the Semplon, or 
 the Splugen, scenes of utmost beauty and luxuriant pro- 
 ductiveness stretch out before us, and around us. It 
 seems as if, in crossing the Alps from north to south, we 
 had not merely passed over a few leagues of mountain, 
 but several degrees of latitude, so great and perceptible 
 is the change. The rich earth beneath and the bright 
 sky above us combine to explain why Italy should so 
 early have become, and so long have continued, the land 
 of so many attractions. 
 
 But strong as are the charms, and manifold the beau- 
 ties, which immediately greet the visiter of Italy on his 
 arrival even at its northern frontier, the illusion is 
 dissipated when he begins to study the moral condi- 
 tion of its people. External nature is serenely lovely, 
 but human nature is unspeakably degraded ; and the 
 contrast is painful to all who look on men in the light 
 of eternity and the Scriptures. 
 
 And so with the religion of Italy. Looked at from 
 afar, or through the pomp and circumstance with which 
 it is often studiously surrounded, it appears gorgeous 
 
256 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 and imposing. But when we begin to inquire what 
 there is in it to meet man's desires as an immortal be- 
 ing — what to fit him for his meeting with his God ; when 
 we ask, What does the religion of Italy supply to satisfy 
 conscience when convinced of sin, or restore peace to 
 the soul on which God's hand lies heavy — then, as be- 
 fore, the illusion is dispelled. It contains gaudy spec- 
 tacles for one class ; pompous ceremonies for another ; 
 laborious efforts, and exhausting drudgery, for a third ; — 
 but in the religion of Italy, we look in vain for aught to 
 purify conscience, or renew man's nature, to give him 
 solid hope in the prospect of meeting God, or fiirnish 
 him with a plea to which the God of righteousness and 
 truth will listen. The spiritual is merged in the carnal — 
 the heavenly in the human ; and there is nothing to be- 
 nefit man's soul, or to fit it for glory, unless charms and 
 incantations could achieve these results. 
 
 In drawing attention, then, to Italy and its religion, 
 I design to submit my remarks under the three natural 
 divisions of its Past, its Present, and its Future. In 
 glancing at the Past, we endeavour to shew what progress 
 the truth of God had made in Italy in former times, 
 that we may have a firmer hope regarding it for the time 
 to come. In fixing attention on the Present, we try to 
 sketch the existent state of Romanism in that country, 
 and especially in Rome. And in asking attention to the 
 Future, an attempt will be made to shew what grounds 
 there are for hoping that Italy will yet be regenerated ; 
 that the overlaid truth will be there disinten-ed ; and 
 the one Mediator between God and man, there as here, 
 honoured and adored. 
 
 But before entering on our subject thus announced, we 
 offer a single precautionary remark. Deeply would we 
 
THE PAST. 257 
 
 deplore it, did aught that may be here advanced tend 
 either to generate spiritual pride, or render us indifferent 
 to our own shortcomings and sins as a people. It should 
 not for a moment be forgotten, that one offence against the 
 truth of Grod — one unscriptural tenet in oui* own souls, is 
 worse and more fatal /or us, than an hundred in another. 
 We may have light, but what if that light be darkness? 
 We may hold the word of God in our hands, but what if 
 it be a stranger to our hearts ? We may abjure the spi- 
 ritual tyranny involved in Popery, but what if we be 
 the world's slaves ? We may know the truth, but what 
 if we hold it in unrighteousness ? At the very outset, 
 therefore, we equally deprecate spiritual pride, and turn- 
 ing our attention away from ourselves, whUe we seek to 
 be warned against the errors of others, and by the bless- 
 ing of God, to repel them from our borders. 
 
 With this premised, we proceed to our first topic, 
 
 THE PAST. 
 
 The progress which the truth of God made in Italy at 
 the time of the Reformation is too little known to British 
 Christians. Most of us have learned that it spread to 
 a large extent over the northern kingdoms of Europe ; 
 but the exceptions are so few that we may overlook them, 
 and say that men are wholly unacquainted with the fact, 
 that when Luther struggled, and Calvin taught, and 
 Knox contended, against bigotry and ignorance three 
 hundred years ago, Italy had also, to a great extent, 
 hailed and rejoiced in the revival of God's pure and 
 simple gospel. So much was this the case, that all that 
 seemed necessary to add Italy to the other reformed na- 
 tions was a Luther or a Calvin, bold enough to brave 
 
 R 
 
258 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 persecution, and gifted enough to concentrate, and turn 
 to account, the scattered forces of the truth. The light 
 burned dimly in various parts of that fair land ; or rather 
 the persecutor's rage compelled the friends of truth to 
 keep their light concealed. But had some master-mind 
 been given to Italy, as the instrument in God's hand for 
 gathering the scattered rays, and causing them to con- 
 verge, the Sun of Righteousness might then have risen 
 on Italy, as he rose on Scotland, and England, and G-er- 
 many, and Switzerland, with healing in his beams. This 
 remark will be confirmed by the following summary of 
 facts.* 
 
 1. The Works of Reformers read. 
 
 The works of the leading reformers were then widely 
 spread, and held in high repute in Italy. It is known 
 that some of Luther's productions were studied at Pa- 
 via, and his sentiments embraced. Even in Rome, the 
 works of the German reformer were read, and his tenets 
 adopted by some. At Venice the writings of the refor- 
 mers were held in high esteem, and greedily sought ; 
 the works of Melancthon, and Bucer, and of one who was 
 in many respects a sounder reformer than either, I mean 
 Uh-ic Zwingle, were studied with avidity and delight. 
 Some of them were even translated into Italian ; and as 
 long as the author's name was unknown, such works had 
 free course, and were admired. So far did this proceed, 
 that papal bulls and persecution were needed at last to 
 check the diffusion of the light ; but even in spite of per- 
 secution it spread. Many held fast their integrity, and 
 
 * For these facts, and much other information, we are indebted 
 to Dr M'Crie's work, History of the Progress and Suppression of 
 the Reformation in Italy. Its republication, in a cheap form, would 
 now be most seasonable. 
 
THE PAST. 259 
 
 having once enjoyed the blessmg, or breathed the air of 
 God's free truth, they refused to be reconducted to a 
 spiritual prison, and subjected to spiritual bondage. 
 Venice, in particular, zealously struggled in this cause. 
 The reformed there besought the princes of Germany to 
 shield them from the violence, which the ministers of the 
 pope were anxious to see employed against the " poor 
 flock of Christ." If God grant, they say, that we obtain 
 such protection, " what accessions will be made to the 
 kingdom of Christ ! How many preachers will appear to 
 announce Christ faithfully to the people ! How many 
 prophets, who now lurk in corners, exanimated with un- 
 due fears, will come forth to expound the Scriptures I 
 The harvest is truly great, but there are no labourers. 
 Exert yourselves to procure a truce for us; che- 
 rish the common cause: do your endeavour that, by 
 this means, the consolation which is by Christ may be 
 imparted to us, who daily suffer for Him. For it is 
 our fervent desire, that the word of God may be spread 
 abroad ; but we have none to feed us, unless our want 
 be supplied out of your abundance."'^ It is cheering to 
 notice, amid the spiritual midnight of Italy, even one 
 such gleam shooting across the darkness. 
 
 2. The Bible Translated, 1530. 
 
 But not merely were the books of holy men thus 
 prized, — the Book of God himself was for a little season 
 unclasped, that the Italians might read it. Antonio 
 Brucioli, a native of Florence, embraced many of the 
 reformed doctrines, and in 1530, published an Italian 
 translation of the New Testament. In the two follow- 
 ing years the Old Testament was also translated, and 
 * See M'Crie, pp. 99, 100. 
 
260 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 Brucioli, in the true spirit of a Protestant, faithfully vin- 
 dicated the rights of men to read the word of God in their 
 native tongue. The reading of these translations was 
 prohibited — the author was persecuted ; but all did not 
 prevent the truth from spreading. Other translations 
 were made, the fountain of life was for a little unsealed, 
 and we doubt not that the judgment-day will shew, that 
 many whose names were in the book of life were then 
 gathered into the fold."^ 
 
 3. Protestant Churches formed— The Reformation 
 Spread in Italy and Sicily. 
 
 As the natural result of such proceedings, we next 
 observe, that where God's word became known, he 
 honoured and blessed it as the instrument of good. We 
 have accordingly to state, that in nearly every city of 
 Italy, Protestants existed, in some of them churches were 
 formed, and the sacraments administered, at the period 
 of the Reformation. The bold measures which eman- 
 cipated so large a portion of Europe from spiritual 
 despotism, influenced even Italy ; and the following sum- 
 mary, superficial as it is, will shew the extent to which 
 the Reformation spread. 
 
 Beginning, then, with Milan in the north, we find that, 
 as early as the year 1524, there were adherents of the 
 Reformation there. The pope then issued an order to 
 put down conventicles and punish heretics, — the usual 
 war-cry against the friends of the pure truth of God. 
 
 Brescia and Verona also contained friends of the same 
 cause, who ultimately encountered the same exterminat- 
 ing treatment from the ministers of the Man of Sin. 
 
 Vicenza was for a considerable time a stronghold of 
 * Consult M'Crie, pp. 54-56. 
 
THE PAST. 261 
 
 the Reformation, and neither craft nor violence could 
 suppress it. At last, heresy and internal faction appeared ; 
 they were fomented from without, and the church in that 
 city at last became an easy prey. 
 
 Padua had also its converts to the truth. Many of 
 the students, and some of the professors in the Univer- 
 sity, became disciples of Christ. There were some youths 
 educated there who ultimately aided in spreading the 
 truth in our own and other lands. 
 
 At Venice, as we have already seen, the cause of the 
 Reformation was strong, and numerously befriended. 
 In the year 1530, Melancthon, one of the peace-lovers 
 of that day,* appeared disposed to compromise the truth, 
 by concessions to popery at Augsburg. The Christians 
 of Venice, more bold and single-eyed than he, wrote to 
 remonstrate with that reformer. To Jobn of Saxony 
 they said — " Italy is in expectation — if for Christ's glory 
 you must die, fear nothing ;" so that we find Italy up to a 
 certain point, not merely reformed, but guarding the spi- 
 rit of the Reformation in others. When Lucio Paulo 
 Rosselli, an Italian, thus remonstrated with a leading 
 reformer in Germany, he evinced at once the thorough- 
 ness with which the truth was received, and the resolu- 
 tion with which it was defended. So far, indeed, did 
 the reformation in Venice advance, that it was proposed 
 
 * Among the incidents that characterise our age, not the least 
 remarkable is the elucidation of character to which it has led. All- 
 testing principles are now evolved, and man's glory is eclipsed, or 
 made brighter, by the trial. Oliver Cromwell, long the sport of 
 the shallow and the profane, now stands out before the world a 
 noble and religious man. Nelson, long one of the world's idols, is 
 discovered to have been one who could commit judicial murder ; 
 while Melancthon is proved to have been one whom his friends re- 
 proached for his weakness, and his enemies for his hypocrisy. 
 
262 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 to organize reformed churches there, and assemble in 
 public for the worship of God according to the scriptures. 
 Even some of its senators had embraced the truth. 
 Noblemen and noblewomen befriended the cause. The 
 pope was declared to be Antichrist, and had it been the 
 will of God to have raised up one great and commanding 
 mind, the Eepublic of Venice might have adhered to 
 the Protestant faith, and thereby have infused so much 
 new vigour into its shattered constitution, as to have pre- 
 vented or retarded its degradation and decay. 
 
 x\gain, Ferrara was a focus of gospel truth for many 
 years during the Reformation. Its duchess, the perse- 
 cuted Renee, was favourable to the cause. She appears 
 to have been perhaps a converted person, and her court 
 became the asylum of God's exiled servants from many 
 lands. Calvin resided for some time there, and we are 
 strongly of opinion, that accurate historical research 
 would shew that the court of Ferrara was, to a very large 
 extent, thoroughly and soundly Protestant. In 1528, 
 there were several preachers of the Reformation in that 
 city, and there, for a time, the truth appeared to be 
 triumphant.* 
 
 Bologna was another stronghold of the gospel in Italy. 
 The reformers' works were studied there as in Rome^ 
 while the truth was generally preached. Some of the in- 
 habitants implored their rulers to grant a reformation of 
 the church. In the year 1541, the numbers of the re- 
 formed had greatly increased, and nothing but the bigot's 
 argument — persecution, remorselessly employed, could 
 repress the progress of the truth. In the year 1545, Bal- 
 dassare Altieri writes that " a nobleman in Bologna was 
 
 * See Olympia MoratvT., her Times, Life, and Writings, by the 
 author of Selwyn, &c. 
 
THE PAST. 263 
 
 ready to raise six thousand soldiers in favour of the evan- 
 gelical party, if it was found necessary to make war 
 against the Pope."* 
 
 Modena was another city where the word of God 
 had very free course, and his name was glorified. The 
 gospel was preached there by a native of Sicily. In- 
 deed, preachers boldly mounted the pulpits to proclaim 
 the truth, and crowds flocked to hear them. Bucer wrote 
 to congratulate the reformed in Modena regarding their 
 SQCcess, and even a cardinal was forced to confess that 
 ** the whole city had turned Lutheran." 
 
 Farther, at Como and Lugano, at Chiavenna and 
 Locarno, there were devout friends of the Reformation ; 
 and at the two last especially, vigorous and flourishing 
 churches were formed. We cannot tarry to narrate the 
 means employed to crush and extirpate them. Enough 
 to say, that though Rome had never lifted her hand 
 against the saints of God except in the case of the church 
 of Locarno, she would thereby have earned the title of 
 *'the mother of abominations," who is actuated by ''ail 
 the deceiveableness of unrighteousness."! 
 
 And Lucca was another stronghold of the truth. 
 Some of the boldest and most persevering of the Italian 
 reformers were in providence stationed there. The 
 congregation was strong and flourishing, and it required 
 the most crafty, as well as the most relentless measures 
 on the part of the pope and his ministers, to suppress 
 the truth. Pisa felt the influence of Lucca, and had 
 also a church ; the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was 
 dispensed according to the scriptures. Mantua was in 
 a similar condition, and a special buU from " the Man 
 
 * M'Crie, p. 83. 
 
 t Read with care M'Crie, pp. 131-133, and 239-252. 
 
264 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 of Sin" was needed to repress the cause of men's salva- 
 tion. 
 
 In the Bishopric of Capo d' Istria, a great proportion 
 of the people were Protestants ; indeed, wherever any- 
 local cause favoured the truth, it spread in Italy to an 
 extent utterly unknown to many in our day. Nor was 
 it only in the places bordering on Germany and the 
 Alps that this took place. Throughout the whole extent 
 of the Italian peninsula the effects of the truth were felt. 
 In Naples, the doctrines of grace were preached by some 
 and received by many. Valdez, Ochino, and others, 
 promoted the cause. A refonned church was planted 
 in that capital ; for a season it grew in numbers and in 
 strength, and an imperial edict, issued by Charles V., 
 was at length employed to terrify and crush the friends 
 of spiritual freedom. Even the remote territory of Ca- 
 labria knew the truth, and many were made free by it. 
 Persecution the most unrelenting was employed against 
 the Protestants there, and when the Papacy had suc- 
 ceeded in extinguishing the light in the blood of its 
 friends, it contemplated the spiritual desolation with 
 complacency, and called it peace. Read the history of 
 the popish persecution in the province of Calabria, and 
 you wiU see into the very heart of Popery.* 
 
 But so prevalent were the hated doctrines, that they 
 spread even into the island of Sicily. Under the sanc- 
 tion of the viceroy, the truth was preached to crowded 
 audiences in Palermo, and other parts of that island. 
 The Inquisition soon assailed them, like the vulture fas- 
 tening on its prey. The favourite Auto-da-fe was re- 
 sorted to, and Home had again to exult over the Bible 
 exiled and souls enslaved. " Protestant tears and Popish 
 * See Appendix A. 
 
THE PAST. 265 
 
 triumplis," combine to tell the fate of the Reformation 
 in Sicily. 
 
 Now, these historical facts sufl&ce to shew, that the prin- 
 ciples of the Reformation were widely spread, if not deeply 
 rooted, in Italy. Even cardinals felt their power, and 
 were borne along on the popular tide. Pole, Contarini, 
 Morone, and Fregoso, all members of the sacred college, 
 had felt the truth in its power— conscience was quickened 
 if the heart was not changed. Cardinal Caraflfa plainly 
 told the pope, that " the whole of Italy was infected with 
 the Lutheran heresy, which had been embraced not only 
 by statesmen, but also by many ecclesiastics." Some of 
 its more sanguine friends expected that it was about to 
 " burst forth like the sun from behind a cloud in spite 
 of all opposition ;" and though that hope was doomed to 
 utter disappointment, it required the work of twenty 
 years, from the Inquisition and its murderous myrmidons, 
 before the truth as it is in Jesus was utterly exiled, and 
 its adherents utterly destroyed.* On these things, 
 therefore, the friends of modern Italy should fasten, to 
 encourage hope, and nerve them to exertion. The heart 
 of Italy has already been stirred in ages long gone by ; 
 why should it not be again touched and quickened in ours ? 
 
 4. The Reformation reaches Rome. — A noble Martyr 
 
 THERE. 
 
 But farther still ; it was not merely in the provinces 
 that the work of reformation thus advanced. In the 
 very States of the Church — nay, in Rome itself, Luthe- 
 rans were numerous, and sermons preached in private 
 against the pope and his pretensions. Pope Clement 
 YII. mourns over this as a calamity ; but it only gave 
 intensity to the zeal of the Italians, whose ardent tern- 
 * See M'Crie, pp. 186, 178, 179. 
 
266 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 perament more eagerly seized whatever was presented 
 to the mind, though it held the truth less tenaciously 
 than the G-ermans.* 
 
 One example may be given of the firm hold which 
 the truth had thus taken of the Italian mind. Pietro 
 Carnesecchi, a Florentine of high rank, had imbibed the 
 reformed doctrines, and held them without flinching 
 amid exile and persecution. Being at last betrayed by 
 a duke, Cosmo de' Medici, into the hands of a Pope, Pius 
 v., he was carried prisoner to Rome, and, without delay, 
 arraigned as an heretic before the Inquisition. The charge 
 against him included thirty-four articles, "which compre- 
 hended all the peculiar doctrines held by Protestants in 
 opposition to the Church of Rome." He was detained 
 in prison for fifteen months, and at last condemned, be- 
 headed, and burnt as an heretic. All this took place in 
 what is called the capital of Christendom, regarding one 
 who had formerly held such influence there as to suggest 
 the remark, that " the Church was governed by Carnesec- 
 chi rather than the Pope ;" and we are thus irresistibly 
 forced to the conclusion, on the one hand, that men in 
 
 * " That these sermons were not entirely confined to private 
 houses, and that the reformed doctrine was publicly preached in 
 Italy before the year 1530, we learn from the highest authority. 
 ' From the report made to us, (says Pope Clement VII.) we have 
 learned with great grief of heart, that in different parts of Italy, 
 the pestiferous heresy of Luther prevails to a high degree, not only 
 among secular persons, but also among ecclesiastics and the regular 
 clergy, both mendicant and non-mendicant ; so that some by their 
 discourses and conversation, and w^hat is worse, by their public 
 preaching, infect numbers with this disease, and greatly scandalize 
 faithful Christians, living under the obedience of the Roman church, 
 and observing its laws, to the increase of heresies, the stumbling 
 of the weak, and the no small injury of the catholic faith.' " — 
 M'Crie's Reformation in Italy, p. 65. 
 
THE PAST. 267 
 
 every rank had hailed the Reformation as a spiritual 
 emancipation ; and on the other, that the wrath of Kome 
 was roused to madness against the friends of truth. The 
 fate of Carnesecchi, the friend of princes and of kings, 
 the idol of the literary, and the unflinching patron of 
 truth, proves, if proof were needed, that every thing di- 
 vine and every thing human will be trampled under foot, 
 in order to perpetuate man's spiritual vassalage, and 
 suppress the truth which maketh free. Carnesecchi was 
 condemned because he held the Protestant doctrines ; 
 and it stands at this hour as the irreversible dogmas of 
 Rome, that every man who holds by the persecuted truth 
 deserves Carnesecchi's doom, with this only contingent — 
 if it be safe or expedient for Rome to inflict it.* 
 
 In spite, however, of all such persecutions, the truth 
 at last must triumph. That is as certain as that Christ 
 must reign till he hath put all his enemies under his feet. 
 The aspirations of the friends of the Refonnation in Italy 
 three hundred years ago, will sooner or later be accom- 
 plished. " You shall live," exclaims Celio Secundo 
 Curio, in one of his dialogues, " you shall live to see 
 
 * The fourth Lateran Council, acknowledged by Romanists to be 
 infallible, decreed, " That the secular power should be admonished, 
 and, if necessary, compelled by ecclesiastical censures, to swear that 
 they will, to the utmost of their power, strive to exterminate from 
 their territory all heretics declared to be vile by the Church." In 
 1805, the pope declared that " heretics should be punished with the 
 loss of all their goods." In 1806, when Bonaparte introduced a 
 measure of toleration for aD religious sects, " This article," says 
 the pope, " was rejected by us as contrary to the canons of the 
 Councils, and to the Catholic religion." In 1815, the new constitu-, 
 tion of Belgium was objected to on the same grounds. And, finally, 
 when the Church of Rome does not put forth that claim, it is con- 
 fessed by one of her cardinals, that it is " either because the Church 
 has not sufficient strength, or does not think it expedient." — See 
 Stillingfleet on Popery, Dr Cunningham's edition, pp. 250, 251. 
 
268 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 this object realized. The joyful sound of the gospel has 
 within our own day reached the Scythians, Thracians, 
 Indians, and Africans. Christ, the King of kings, has 
 taken possession of Rhaetia and Helvetia. Germany is 
 under his protection : He has reigned, and will again 
 reign in England : He sways his sceptre over Denmark 
 and the Cymbrian nations : Prussia is his : Poland, 
 and the whole of Sarmatia, are on the point of yielding 
 to him : He is pressing forward to Panonia : Muscovy 
 is in his eye : He beckons France to him : Italy, our 
 native country, is travailing in birth ; and Spain will 
 speedily follow. Even the Jews, as you perceive, have 
 abated their former aversion to Christianity." These 
 bright hopes of the sanguine Italian were doomed to a 
 dismal disappointment. The truth was quenched in the 
 blood, or scattered with the ashes of its friends ; but it 
 will not be always so. He that is to come will work, 
 and who can hinder ? Even he that exalteth himself 
 above all that is called God, will then be taken out of 
 the way.^' With this consummation in view, what is 
 the present aspect of Popery in Italy ? 
 
 * For the facts and quotations in this section, we are indebted, 
 for the most part, to the work of Dr M'Crie, already so often re- 
 ferred to. The following extract will shew at a glance, the esti- 
 mate formed by that sagacious man of the position we have tried 
 to make plain : — 
 
 " On more occasions than one has that interesting country (Italy) 
 exhibited symptoms of regeneration, and panted for that liberty 
 which other countries in Europe were so happy as to acquire. The 
 efforts, however, made for this purpose, premature but noble, gene- 
 rous, but too feeble for the resistance opposed to them, proved 
 abortive, and the flattering symptoms disappeared. It may be 
 enough at present simply to state, for the information of many of 
 our readers, that, at the era of the Reformation, the lights kindled 
 in Germany and Switzerland diffused no faint rays over the most 
 of the Italian States ; that many persons, eminent for literature 
 
ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 269 
 
 THE PRESENT. 
 1. A General View of Italy. 
 
 Few impressions are more prevalent in our day than 
 that Popery is rising into the ascendant again. Facts 
 appear to combine with prophecy, in assuring us that 
 that system, hitherto so oppressive, is to be permitted 
 to tyrannize over the churches yet again. Wherever we 
 look, symptoms of Rome's reviving power are seen. From 
 north to south, from east to west, the wound inflicted 
 on the beast appears to be healed, or at least bandaged 
 up, and some are in consequence predicting that a dark 
 night is at hand. 
 
 Now, it is true that popery is reviving. Without tar- 
 rying to explain the reasons, we notice the fact — it is 
 preparing, in its secret heart, to wear out the saints of 
 Grod as of old, and the nations are again wondering after 
 the apocalyptic " beast." But true as that is, it is not 
 true that popery is reviving in Italy. On the contrary, 
 neither there nor in Spain, the two most bigoted king- 
 doms in the world, is the Man of Sin so securely en- 
 throned as in some other kingdoms. In the States of 
 the Church, men are kept in subjection to the pope, 
 their king, mainly by the troops of Austria, and the 
 mercenaries of popish Switzerland. Religion is there de- 
 
 and rank in that country, corresponded with the reformers, ap- 
 proved of their doctrine, and expressed the most anxious wishes 
 for its success ; and that Protestant churches were actually formed, 
 in several of the principal cities of Italy, These were, however, 
 soon dispersed by the arm of violence, and the greater part of those 
 who had declared themselves friendly to the Protestant Reforma- 
 tion, or who were suspected of cherishing a secret attachment to 
 it, were forced to forsake their native country, and took refuge in 
 Geneva." — M" One's Miscellaneous Writings, p. 239. 
 
^70 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 fended against changes only by the bayonol: of the police ; 
 and from time to time, we hear of fresh troops being 
 poured into the country, to drive back the rising tide, 
 or quell the love of freedom, as it becomes louder and 
 more urgent in its demands. " No part of the Conti- 
 nent seems more ripe for revolt against the supreme 
 pontiff than Italy and his own principality ; and so 
 little assured is the court of Rome of the submission 
 of its immediate subjects, that 10,000 Swiss have been 
 engaged to garrison the States of the church."* The 
 popish Swiss have thus become, in our day, what Crom- 
 well called the Spaniards, in his, " The great under- 
 proppers of the Roman Babylon." 
 
 And while such is the political condition of Italy at 
 present, while her sons, within and without, in exile and 
 at home, are aiming at some degree of emancipation, and 
 profusely shedding their blood to obtain it, what is the 
 actual state of Popery properly so called ? What as- 
 pect does it present to an intelligent observer accustomed 
 to notice, and able to reflect ? 
 
 2. The Corruptions. Popery subverts the Doctrine of 
 ONE Mediator. 
 
 In answering these questions, I am to take a some- 
 what comprehensive, though necessarily imperfect glance 
 at the religion which is at this moment held by the pope, 
 and submitted to by some millions of Italians. And in 
 doing so, I need not go over in detail, all the doctrines 
 of God's word, and shew how popery in every age, and 
 now as much as ever, corrupts, mutilates, or abolishes, 
 well-nigh the whole. I need not speak of the prepos- 
 terous and ridiculous claim of the pope to infallibility. 
 * Lowe's Edinburgli Magazine, No. I. p. 121. 
 
THE PRESENT. 271 
 
 I need not dwell on the outrage committed against 
 common sense, by their doctrine of transubstantiation, 
 or the mass, or turning a portion of flour, and certain 
 other ingredients, into the very body and the very blood 
 of Christ — or in their own words— into Grod. Neither 
 need I expose the idolatry involved in their image wor- 
 ship — or the ruin to souls, implied in their perversions 
 of the cardinal doctrine of justification by faith alone. 
 I need not occupy your time, in shewing how the Ko- 
 manists, in their very best estate, substitute the Spirit's 
 work in the soul, in the place of Christ's work for it, 
 making " works performed by grace meritorious," and 
 thus in effect tearing up the foundation of the hopes 
 of sinners. Neither need I expatiate on their much- 
 prized doctrine of purgatory — their confessional, pe- 
 nances, extreme unction, and other devices for enslaving 
 and ruining men's souls. On these and similar subjects, 
 information is not rare. We bless God that in our day, 
 it is becoming more and more rife,* and we content our- 
 selves at present Avith submitting the following illustra- 
 tions of popery in the present day, especially in Home. 
 
 Now, after having studied this matter with all the 
 care we could command, in circumstances the most fa- 
 vourable for forming a right conclusion, namely, where 
 the infallible head was the officiating priest, we mention 
 that the plague spot, the heart's disease of popery, is 
 its corruption of GocVs peculiar plan of saving sinners 
 by one Mediator. The Eternal God, in carrying out 
 
 * See a work of great acuteness by John Welsh, the Reformer, 
 entitled Popery Anatomised ; Stillingfleet's Doctrines and Prac- 
 tices of the Church of Rome, edited by Dr Cunningham ; and a 
 Treatise by C. Malan, entitled " Pourrai-je entrer jamais dans 
 I'Eglise de Rome aussi longtemps que je croirai toute la Bible ?" 
 
272 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 his purposes of love and mercy, appointed a peculiar and 
 a narrow path by which sinners might return to Him ; 
 and in language as distinct as if it were wi'itten in light 
 upon the blue sky, we are told that there is "one Me- 
 diator between God and man, the man Chi'ist Jesus." 
 We are assured that " no man cometh to the Father but 
 by the Son," and that by " one sacrifice — himself — he 
 hath /or ever perfected them that are sanctified." Such 
 is undeniably the mind of Grod. Just as surely as there 
 is but one God, there is but one Mediator ; and of no 
 truth is it more indisputably certain that " thus saith 
 the Lord." 
 
 But what saith popery ? Not one, but multitudes of 
 Mediators ! I do not speak of the dogmata of Rome, 
 but of its practices as they salute the eye, and say, let 
 any Christian take the Bible in his hand, or if that be a 
 proscribed book, let him carry some of its clauses in his 
 heart. Let him enter certain churches in Rome — for 
 example, on the day of All Saints, and what is it that 
 he beholds ? If his soul can endure the idolatry, what 
 is it that he hears ? He sees men dressed in the attire, 
 and bearing the names of ministers of religion, kneeling 
 in groups on the church floor. They have turned from 
 the one Mediator, for they reckon him inexorable till a 
 host of others be appealed to, to procure his favour. 
 They have turned, I say, from the one Mediator of God, 
 to the numberless mediators of popery. St Anthony, 
 St Francis, St Dominic, St Peter, St Paul, are prayed 
 to, to pray for their worshippers. When they have enu- 
 merated in their chant their chief mediators, and the 
 catalogue is a long one, then, to make sure that none 
 shall be neglected, the worshippers, led by the priests, 
 conclude with the cry, " et Cseteri Sancti, orate pro nobis" 
 
THE PRESENT. 273 
 
 — All the rest of the Saints, pray for us. It was once 
 proposed in Parliament, to introduce the words " et cce- 
 tera'^ into an oath, to be taken in certain departments 
 of business. The proposal was denounced, as preparing 
 the way for " a bottomless abyss of perjury ;" and one 
 feels that the day of All Saints — that is the day when 
 all the saints together, in a mass, are prayed to — pre- 
 pares the way for as bottomless an abyss of idolatry, 
 and corresponding wretchedness to man. 
 
 3. The Virgin Mary— Her Worship. 
 
 We have said that popery, as we see it even now 
 at Rome, corrupts the truth of God, by supplanting 
 the one Mediator, by the introduction of a multitude 
 which it is difficult to number. While this is true, it 
 should be observed, that among these Creature-mediators, 
 one stands pre-eminent — we mean the Virgin Mary. 
 So prominent is the place which she occupies in the 
 popish calendar, or rather the popish creed, that the 
 religion of Rome has been more appropriately termed 
 Mariolatry, — the worship of JMary, than Christianity, — 
 the worship of God in Christ. Her names are wellnigh as 
 numerous as her images, though these be found affixed to 
 the corners of the chief streets. She has a chapel, or 
 shrine, in all the leading churches of Rome. She has 
 several churches for her own peculiar worship. The 
 habits of the Romans are regulated with reference to 
 her. The hour of Ave-Maria is that which rules the 
 other twenty-three, according to the Roman computa- 
 tion. The entire month of May is reckoned sacred to 
 her worship, and her devotees superstitiously employ 
 it for that end. In a word, what Diana was to Ephesus, 
 
274 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 the Virgin is to Rome — its great goddess, its hope, its 
 glory. 
 
 But lest we should be supposed to overstate this mat- 
 ter, listen to the following catalogue of only some of her 
 titles. She is daily prayed to by thousands, as " The most 
 blessed comforter of the afflicted." She is addressed as 
 the " Helper of Christians," because Christ is accessible 
 only through her. She is hailed as " The Refuge of 
 Sinners" and " of the troubled" — " The Mother of 
 God"—" The Princess of Heaven"—" The Queen of 
 Men"—" The Empress of Angels"—" The Sole and 
 Sovereign Mistress of the Universe" — " The Gate of 
 Heaven"—" The Mother of Mercies"—" The Light of 
 the World"—" The Lamp of Grace"—" The Hope of 
 Life;" — but I pause. Is it needful to add more, to con- 
 vince you that the religion of Rome is the very coun- 
 terfeit and caricature of the religion of God ? A crea- 
 ture is made " The refuge of sinners" — A creature is 
 made " The sole and sovereign mistress of the uni- 
 verse" — A creature is adored as " The light of the 
 world." All this is done, not among the ignorant or in 
 remote provinces, where ignorance might be pled in pal- 
 liation, for example, among the deluded pilgrims to 
 Einsiedlin — but in Rome — in Rome, the capital of 
 Christendom — the " holy home," according to Puseyism, 
 of Jesus Christ our Lord ! Need I say more to con- 
 vince you, that either popery is not Christianity, or 
 Christianity is not found in the Bible ? 
 
 4. A Prayer to the Virgin, expressly as a Creature, 
 
 Yet I must say more. Let it be borne in mind that 
 I am describing religion as it appears at Rome, where 
 an infallible man presides over the church, and where 
 
THE PRESENT. 275 
 
 it is said every sixth or seventh man is, directly or in- 
 directly, connected with the office of the priesthood. 
 And with this in view, listen to the following prayer 
 translated from the original, which is printed, framed, 
 and chained to a bench in the church of Sta Maria degli 
 Angeli at Rome, for the benefit of the faithful. It is 
 entitled, " An Act of Reparation to the sacred heart 
 of Mary, to procure her maternal benediction, in life 
 and at death." 
 
 " How much I lament, most holy Virgin, when I 
 consider the injuries which you have received, and are 
 receiving every day, from the malice and ingratitude of 
 men ! What outrages have the enemies of your august 
 and most sacred name not committed against you ! But 
 I may say, that even among the faithful themselves, who 
 profess to recognise all the prerogatives with which the 
 Lord has adorned you, there must be, among so great a 
 number, some who are cold towards you. And with 
 what shortcomings towards you must I charge myself, 
 
 most holy mother ! How often, with my sins, have 
 
 1 fixed the sword of grief in your maternal heart ! What 
 return for your goodness have you yet seen in me! 
 What care have I taken to render homage to you ! What 
 attention to imitate your virtue ! Humbly prostrate at 
 your feet, mother of mercy, I ask pardon for my past 
 unbelief; I desire, with all my heart, to make what re- 
 paration I can, and at the same time, to ofier an honour- 
 able amends for all the ingratitude you have sufi"ered 
 at the hands of men. With this in view, I this day as- 
 sume for ever all the sentiments of respect towards you, 
 of love and of gratitude, which are due. I ofi"er you my 
 homage, my praises, and my service. I solemnly profess 
 to believe your divine maternity, your sanctity, and your 
 
276 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 glory, above all the other creatures. I revere, along 
 with the holy church, your unmaculate conception — 
 your glorious assumption. I believe that your power, 
 your goodness, your mercy, are proportioned to your 
 ineflfable dignity of mother of God, and to your eminent 
 sanctity. I hail you with joy as the mother of mercy 
 and of grace, as the refuge of sinners, and their advocate 
 with Jesus Christ ; and I regard your protection and 
 your favour, as an infallible means to obtain from the 
 goodness of your divine son, all the graces which are 
 necessary for this life and the other. In the presence 
 of your merciful heart, I protest that I wish to be always 
 in the number of youi* servants — to defend your dignity, 
 and procure, by all the means in my power, the honour, 
 love, and service which are due to you, in a manner 
 proportioned to your majesty and goodness. Great 
 Mother ! deign to accept of these sincere desires which I 
 form at your feet. Bring it to pass, that while I imitate 
 here below the virtues of your most sweet heart, I may 
 be able to merit being eternally glorified with you in 
 the holy paradise, and with your most Holy Son Jesus, 
 who has wrought such great wonders in your favour. 
 — So be it." 
 
 Here, then, is a creature prayed to,^- worshipped, 
 vowed to, so that the soul is literally thirled to idolatry. 
 Here is the Son of God superseded as " the Refuge of 
 Sinners" — and a creature resorted to in his stead — Is 
 it not a refuge of lies ? 
 
 Below this " Act," in the same frame, we find the 
 following : 
 
 ♦ Some Romanists defend themselves against the charge of idol- 
 atry, in such a case, by alleging that the Omniscient reveals to 
 the saints the prayers of their worshippers ! 
 
THE PRESENT. 277 
 
 "SACRED INDULGENCE. 
 
 " All the faithful who shall recite the Litanies of the 
 blessed Virgin, shall acquire 200 days of indulgence ; 
 and all who shall reverently invoke the most holy name 
 of Jesus, or Mary,* shall gain 50 days, in terms of a 
 Constitution by Sixtus V., confirmed by Clement X." 
 
 Such is a specimen of the religion of Rome at this 
 very passing moment, and it were difficult to say whether 
 it is most revolting in its idolatry, or most oppressive 
 to man's soul, or most dishonouring to God our Saviour, 
 God over all, blessed for evermore. It may be true that 
 the Reformation has pruned away the grosser extrava- 
 gancies of popery in some countries, and its plastic 
 power, or its " deceivableness," may have enabled it to 
 adapt its aspect to circumstances ; but in Italy, popery 
 survives unimproved, unmitigated, antichristian, as when 
 Luther thundered his defiances against the pope. 
 
 5. Illustrations of Popish Worship at Rome. 
 
 But its worship, in general, is as humbling as such 
 prayers, when studied in the light of God's word, are 
 idolatrous. We submit the following extracts, taken al- 
 most at random, from the Roman Ahnanac, or Directory 
 for worship throughout the year. We turn away from 
 their processions, and plenary indulgencies, their relics, 
 of which the crypts and recesses of the churches are full 
 — their pompous ceremonials, and lying legends, and draw 
 attention to the following facts, as illustrative of the 
 Romanist's faith and daily practice. + 
 
 * It is or — not even and. The two are put on a level, 
 t We translate from the Diario Romano, printed in Rome, 
 " with approbation, and privilege." 
 
278 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 Jan. 14. Exhibit an image of the sacred name of Jesus. 
 Feb. 24. Festival of St Matthew in the Sta Maria Maggiore, where 
 his body reposes. 
 
 March 1. Exhibit the sacred images of the blessed Virgin 
 
 and carry in procession the relics of her Sacred Veil. 
 13. Liberation of a soul from" Purgatory, and exhibit the 
 
 sacred relics in the church of Sta Croce. 
 16. Celebrate a miracle, by which St Philip Keri restored 
 
 Paolo Massimi to life. 
 26. Shew the image of the most Holy Saviour at the stairs, 
 (said by Romanists to be those which he ascended 
 when going to judgment). 
 
 30. Exhibit the illustrious relics of the spear, cross, and 
 
 holy countenance, (on St Veronica's handkerchief). 
 
 31. The Pope washes the feet of twelve poor priests, and 
 
 gives them dinner, serving them with his own hands. 
 April 2. Baptize Jews, and Turks, at St John in Laterano, and 
 exhibit the heads of St Peter and Paul. 
 
 26. Festival to exhibit the sacred image of the Virgin 
 
 Mary. 
 
 May 2. Uncover the most holy Crucifix. 
 
 22. The beginning of the feast-days in honour of St Ignatius 
 
 Loyola, at the church of Jesus {%. e. the Saviour has 
 
 his church, St Peter has his, the Virgin has hers). 
 
 24. Festival of devotion in Rome, and all the States of the 
 
 Church, in honour of the Great Virgin, Mother of God, 
 
 Mary, under the title of " Aid of the Christians.' 
 
 June 2. Festival of S. Erasmo, guardian against spasmodic pains. 
 
 10. Plenary indulge ice in all the churches where there is 
 
 an image of the sacred heart of Jesus. 
 19 Festival of the most blessed Virgin, whose miracu- 
 lous image is revered, (si venera). 
 July 3. The Brotherhoods proceed to the Church of St Peter In 
 Vinculis, where they preserve and venerate his chains. 
 10. Commemorate the prodigies of the most blessed Virgin, 
 of whom numerous images rolled their eyes on the bye- 
 standers in a miraculous manner in the year 1796. 
 22. Festival of St Julian. Venerate one of his feet. 
 Sept. 13, Carry in procession the wood of the holy cross. 
 
 14. Exaltation of the most holy cross. 
 Oct. 18. Uncover the images of Mary the Virgin, painted, as is 
 said, bv St Luke. 
 
THE PRESENT. 279 
 
 Dec. 10. Translationof the Holy Cottage of Loretto, — a festival. 
 24. Carry in procession the cradle of our Saviour, and ex- 
 hibit it on the following day. 
 
 Such, I repeat, is a portion of the stated worship, the 
 religion of Rome, called by Pusejism " the holy." It is 
 with employments like these that immortal beings are 
 there engrossed. It is behind such fooleries that the simple 
 truth as it is in Jesus is concealed, and lying legends, 
 like that of Loretto, perpetuated. Venerating the foot 
 of one saint, — revering the image of another, — gazing 
 on a wooden cross, and listening to legends regarding 
 images which " roUed their eyes in a prodigious way" — 
 these are Rome's substitutes for the gospel ; these the 
 heaps beneath which she buries the truth which came 
 from heaven, which points us to it, and which fits us for 
 it. It is amid spectacles like these that one can best es- 
 timate the importance of the Reformation ; and it is amid 
 scenes like these that one can best discover the ineffable 
 privilege, and proportionate responsibility, of being a 
 Protestant, with God's pure truth in our hand, and his 
 Holy Spirit to teach it. 
 
 But farther, we do not present a correct portraiture 
 of the Romish religion, unless we advert to what Dr 
 Whately has called " endeavouring to serve God by 
 proxy." The whole system proceeds on the idea, 
 that as a lawyer is skilled in legal transactions, and can 
 defend us against illegal aggression ; or as a physician 
 is skilled in our bodily diseases, and able to relieve us 
 from them, so the priest is skilled in taking care of the 
 soul, and can provide for its well-being. It is accord- 
 ingly left in his hands. His devotion is substituted for 
 that of the worshippers. They submit impHcitly to his 
 directions ; they comply with his injunctions, and con- 
 
280 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 form to his ritual ; and he makes himself responsible for 
 their salvation. The sinner is thus saved all inquiry. 
 All anxiety is superseded ; and salvation becomes as much 
 a matter of professional arrangement on the one hand, 
 and personal compliance on the other, as in any of the 
 other professions. Here again, popery, " with all de- 
 ceivableness," adapts itself to human nature, instead of 
 adapting human nature to God's truth. Here again, it 
 shews with what subtlety it is planned, how perfectly 
 devised first to lull, and then to ruin the soul. Popery is 
 throughout a system of sacerdotalism rather than of 
 Christianity. " A quiet conscience, at the least possible 
 expense of personal piety and personal exertion," is the 
 desideratum of the people, and the datum of the priest.* 
 
 6. The Scriptures withheld from the People. 
 
 There are, however, various other ways in which we 
 may illustrate the spirit and tendency of the religion of 
 Rome. Romanists, in this and other Protestant lands, 
 perpetually declare that the Bible is not denied to the 
 laity; and, judging from the assertions of some, we 
 might even conclude that the word of God has free course 
 in popish lands. No fact, however, is better established 
 than that the scriptures are all but suppressed. We 
 have searched for it in Italy, in the language of the 
 country, for days, without success ; and even when a book 
 was brought to us entitled " The Bible," it proved to be a 
 miserable compilation of legendary comments upon it. At 
 this moment it is unquestionably a law in Italy, that the 
 Bible shall not be read. One of its authoritative doctors, 
 a Cardinal, has said, " It is not necessary that the holy 
 scripture be translated into the vulgar tongue ; it is not 
 * Whately's Errors of Romanism, &c. pp. 92, 93, 124. 
 
THE PRESENT. 281 
 
 expedient that it should be read by any but the clergy."* 
 No man dare possess the word of God without a written 
 licence from his bishop ; and the punishment of disobe- 
 dience is the withholding of absolution till the proscribed 
 volume be delivered up. Leo XII, who died about 
 fourteen years ago, in 1824 called the Protestant Bible 
 " the gospel of the devil," and " deadly pastures," and 
 sanctioned the impious sentiment, that " if the sacred 
 scriptures be indiscriminately read, more evil than good 
 will result from it." Clement XI, in the Bull Unigenitus, 
 condemned the opinion, " that the reading of the scrip- 
 tures is for all ;" and to suppress such tenets, his holi- 
 ness authorized " the calling in of the secular arm" to 
 punish the readers of the word of God.f Against that 
 word itself, against some of the ancient Councils, against 
 reason, and against common sense, popery denies the use 
 of the scriptures to those to whom the God of mercy 
 gave it. For bread that church gives a stone, — for a 
 fish, a serpent. Pius VIII, in the year 1829, re-echoed 
 all the censures or anathemas of his predecessors. 
 
 7. The Pope's Encyclical Letter against Bible 
 Societies. 
 
 But perhaps these views are now modified. The in- 
 fluence of public opinion, and outraged humanity, may 
 have led to some mitigation of this injustice ! Listen, 
 then, to the words of the reigning pope, Gregory XVI. 
 In his Encyclical Letter, published in 1832, he con- 
 demned all Bibles and religious tracts to be consumed in 
 the flames, as the men at Ephesus burned their perni- 
 cious books ; and the order was in many places obeyed.^ 
 
 * Bellarmine, q^loted by Malan, p. 39. 
 
 I See Stillingfleet, chap, x., and Dr Cunningham's Notes. 
 
 X Malan, p. 143. 
 
282 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 He who has been called a " Vice-God,'''' thus literally 
 exalted hunself above God, and ordered that to be de- 
 stroyed which Grod has magnified above all his name. 
 Or farther; in his Letter published in May 1844, the 
 pope still more explicitly denounces the word of God, 
 and those who seek to spread it. The Bible Societies 
 there encounter the loudest fulminations of his holiness. 
 They are reprobated as " biblical sectaries," while all the 
 finesse of Rome is at the same time put forth to delude 
 men into the opinion that the Bible is a patent book to 
 Romanists. After all, however, the Bible is a sealed 
 book to the millions of Italy. Multitudes of them do 
 not know of its existence; if they did, the pope would 
 be hurled from his usurped supremacy over men's souls, 
 by an indignant and undeceived people.^' 
 
 8. The Miracles of Rome, and of Popery in general. 
 
 We proceed next to advert to the pretended miracles of 
 Romanism, — for among papists the age of miracles is by 
 no means past ; on the contrary, they occur from time 
 to time. Nay, it is possible for her priesthood, by what 
 arts we do not stop to explain, to render some miracles 
 intermittent, or recurring at stated intervals. We refer 
 at present, for an example, to the liquefaction of the 
 blood of St Januarius at Naples, which lies clotted and 
 congealed throughout the year, but melts on the anniver- 
 sary of the saint's martyrdom, when his head is brought 
 near the vessel in which the object of superstitious im- 
 posture is preserved. A popish zealot exclaims concern- 
 ing this miracle, " Let heretics approach, examine, watch ; 
 be astonished, and, the wretches ! let them embrace the 
 
 * See the Encyclical Letter of Gregory XVI, republished by Sir 
 C. E. Smith, 1845. 2d edit. 
 
THE PRESENT. 283 
 
 Catholic faith. Januarius alone is sufficient to prove that 
 
 faith If his blood melt, hearts must surely melt." Now, 
 
 this miracle, on which the proof of the Catholic faith is 
 so boldly, but unwisely periled, takes place periodically 
 in the cathedral of Naples. After various ceremonies 
 and preparations, the vessel containing the precious relic, 
 gathered up, it is said, when the saint was martyred about 
 the year 300, is brought forth from its place of safe keep- 
 ing. The king is Custodier of one key, and the archbishop 
 of another, so that we have all the guarantee which royal- 
 ty and the hierarchy can yield, for the genuineness of the 
 blood. When the periodic miracle is about to take 
 place, all assembled are in breathless expectation. If 
 the process of liquefaction requires more than seven or 
 eight minutes, the excitable Neapolitans betray their 
 impatience by extravagant fear. Long delay excites 
 them to fury. The saint is rebuked for his hard-hearted- 
 ness ; women beat their breasts and tear their hair ; and 
 strangers are said to have fallen victims to their disap- 
 pointment. On one occasion, the English Consul assisted 
 at the ceremony, when the blood continued frozen and 
 the saint inexorable. The heretic was desired to with- 
 draw ; he complied, and the liquefaction proceeded. 
 
 And such is another specimen of what is called the 
 religion of Italy — an imposture occurring in a capital 
 city, under the double sanction of a king and an arch- 
 bishop, or Church and State. It is thus that men's souls 
 are duped ; and thus that lying wonders are palmed upon 
 them for the very truth of God. First the Bible is with- 
 drawn, and then impostures, whose grossness can be 
 equalled only by their puerility, take its place. We have 
 lately heard much of the holy coat of Treves. Men, im- 
 mortal men, have actually prayed to it to pray for them ; 
 
284 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 and the disclosure of that monstrous imposture has stirred 
 a large portion of Christendom. But those who are 
 acquainted with the state of religion in Italy are well 
 aware, that that imposture, with all its grossness, was but 
 a specimen of what is done on a smaller scale, and with 
 less commotion, from month to month in every diocese or 
 district of Italy. The whole system, as it appears to the 
 people, is one of gross delusion, at which every reflective 
 man would smile, were he not prompted rather to weep 
 at the havoc thus wrought upon the souls of men. Is it 
 thought that we speak too strongly here ? Then listen 
 to the words of Dr Whately, who reckons the Church of 
 Home not heretical, and approves of the sentiment, that 
 she is nearer the truth than some of our sects. " Their 
 sacraments," he says, " became superstitious charms ; 
 theu* public worship a kind of magic incantation muttered 
 in a dead language ; and Christian holiness of life was 
 commuted for holy water, for fantastic penances, pilgrim- 
 ages, amulets, pecuniary devotions, and a whole train of 
 superstitious observances, worthy of paganism in it worst 
 forms."* 
 
 9. Ancient Miracles. 
 
 We might farther" advert to the Roman Breviary, or the 
 Directory for the daily services of the Romanist, and quote 
 from it the legends of the Saints, as read on their respec- 
 tive days, and thus find enough to overthrow the pre- 
 tensions of popery before any competent tribunal. For 
 example, Grregory Thaumaturgus once dried up a lake 
 which had become the subject of dispute between two 
 parties, and so terminated the feud. He drove back 
 the inundation of a river, by fixing his staff on the 
 
 * Errors of Romanism, &c. p. 339, Edit, of 1845, 
 
THE PRESENT. 285 
 
 margin ; and for a hundred years the stream never 
 passed that spot. He threw his cloak over a Jew 
 who pretended to be dead, and the man died indeed. 
 He drove away demons from a temple by his presence : 
 and by a short epistle, of four words, " Gregory to 
 Satan, enter !" restored them to their former dwelling- 
 place. Now these, and similar legends, might be passed 
 over as old mves' fables, or nursery tales. But, " on 
 turning to the Romish Breviary, it will be found that 
 these miracles of Gregory Thaumaturgus form the sub- 
 ject of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and eighth lessons for 
 the 17th day of November : the drying up of the lake, 
 the staff on the bank of the river, the removal of a 
 rock, the driving of demons from the temple, being all 
 particularly mentioned,"* and set down for edification. 
 
 The Life of Paul the Hermit, by St Jerome, contains 
 many similar stories. After his death, two lions visited 
 his remains ; wept over him ; dug his grave ; and asked and 
 received the blessing of St Anthony, who had been on a 
 visit to Paul. All this might pass for an idle fable to 
 amuse, although unwisely, the inmates of a nursery. 
 But it is received as truth at Home ; it enters into the 
 daily worship of her priests : for the miracles of Paul, in- 
 cluding the digging of his grave by the lions, are attested 
 by the Breviary on January the 15th.f 
 
 Regarding another miracle-worker, Rome has faii-ly 
 committed herself, and were reason consulted in regard to 
 religion at all, the following fact might dispel the thick 
 darkness that prevails in many minds regarding the reli- 
 gion of Rome. Concerning certain wonders, of the kind 
 now referred to, wrought by Datius of Milan, one of her 
 
 * North British Review, vol. iv. p. 463. 
 t Ibid. pp. 465, 466. 
 
286 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 saints, the Breviary, the directory of her priests, and 
 through them of her people, in the sixth lesson for the 
 12th of March, says, " He wrote many books ; and while 
 he was dictating them, Peter the Deacon testifies, that 
 he saw the Holy Spirit, in the shape of a dove, often 
 seated on his head."'^ 
 
 Once again ; St Raynard of Pennafort was a saint of 
 the thirteenth century. In the sixth lesson for January 
 23d, the Romish Breviary relates that " he performed 
 many miracles; amongst which this is the most illus- 
 trious. Being about to return from Majorca to Barce- 
 lona, he laid his cloak on the sea, and having passed 
 over one hundred and sixty miles in six hours, he en- 
 tered his monastery, though the doors were shut. This 
 ' skimmer of the seas' seems to have anticipated to a 
 nicety the speed of modern railways ; but Alban Butler 
 gravely clenches the story by assuring us, that ' a chapel 
 and a tower, built on the place where he landed, have 
 transmitted the memory of this miracle to posterity.' 
 This is the faith of the Church of Rome at this hour : 
 for the Breviary, lying on our table, was published at 
 Mechlin in 1843."t 
 
 Farther ; St Francis of Assisiura was the great won- 
 der-worker of the thirteenth century. " He was often 
 seen lifted up from the ground, sometimes higher than a 
 man's head ; and at last, after an extraordinary vision 
 of a crucified seraph, which he witnessed from the top 
 of a mountain, his body was found, when he came down, 
 to have received the impression of the five wounds of 
 Christ. ' The heads of the nails,' says Butler, ' were 
 round and black. The points were long, and appeared 
 beyond the skin on the other side, and were turned back, 
 * North British Review, vol. iv. p. 480. t Ibid. p. 483. 
 
THE PRESENT. 287 
 
 as if they had been clenched with a hammer. There was 
 also in his right side a red wound, as if made by the 
 piercing of a lance ; and this often threw out blood, 
 which stained the tunic and drawers of the saint.' This 
 last imposture is favoured with a day for itself, the ITth 
 of September ; under which date it will be found related 
 at great length in the Breviary."^ 
 
 But these are ancient wonders. Read of a saint who 
 " lived, died, and was canonized in the seventeenth cen- 
 tury. ' The first flower of South American sanctity,' 
 says the Breviary, August 30, ' was the Virgin Rose of 
 Lima. She obtained this name, because, when an in- 
 fant, her face was miraculously changed into the appear- 
 ance of a rose ; but to this the Virgin Mother of God 
 afterwards added a surname, ordering her thenceforward 
 to be called Rose of St Mary.' After many mortifica- 
 tions, and struggles with wicked spirits, she was most highly 
 favoured ; for, ' familiar,' says the Breviary, ' with the 
 guardian angel, with St Catherine of Sienna, and the 
 Virgin Mother of God, in consequence of their continual 
 appearances, she merited to hear these words from Christ 
 himself, ' Rose of my heart, be thou my bride !'"t 
 
 Need we say more ? Let it be borne in mind that 
 these pernicious impostures are all sanctioned by the 
 authority of the Romish Breviary. They form part of 
 the daily study of her priests from year to year. They 
 are designed to feed their piety, and fit them for guiding 
 men to God's favour ; and let the most dispassionate say, 
 could Satan have devised aught more deleterious, — more 
 dishonouring to God, — more ruinous to man ? This has 
 been called " a system of shameless imposture and gro- 
 velling superstition ; the bane and curse of Christendom, 
 
 * North British Review, p. 483. f Ibid. p. 483. 
 
*2HS ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 from Ambrose of Milan down to Arnold! of Treves. A 
 spike from the crown of thorns, a drop of the Virgin's 
 milk, the paring of a nail, a nameless rag, an unknown 
 bone, things vile, contemptible, and rotten, have been 
 venerated in civilized Europe for nearly two thousand 
 years. Ambrose, Gregory, and Bernard, Fenelon and 
 Bossuet, Bellarmine and Borromeo, have seen, with ac- 
 quiescence, the Saviour practically dethroned for things 
 like these ; and the millions of Rome, age after age, 
 kneeling at the shrines of men and women, with names 
 often the offspring of accident or invention." This sen- 
 tence is as true as it is severe. The radical corruption 
 which supports the monstrous system of popery is, that 
 it practically supersedes the Saviour. 
 
 But lest it should still be supposed that we overstate this 
 matter, let us appeal to the friends of Romanism in our 
 own passing day. In France there has lately been pub- 
 lished,^ a series of the Lives of Saints. In some of them we 
 find illustrations of the "prodigies almost daily" wrought 
 by the relics of those holy persons. These prodigies " are 
 cried in public, attached in Notices to the walls, and be- 
 come the subject of conversation to all." Let us, then, 
 trace the history of a St Filomene, whom Pope Leo XII. 
 called "the Great ;" keeping in view that we are about to de- 
 scribe some modern miracles recorded by Romanists them- 
 selves, and therefore stamped with their own authority. 
 
 10. Modern Miracles— In Rome and Naples. 
 
 This Saint Filomeme, then, lay long unknown among 
 the corpses that are concealed in the catacombs near 
 Rome — the quarry of its relics — the exhaustless feeder 
 of its ravenous superstition. Dragged from her resting 
 
 * By Audin of Paris. 
 
THE PRESENT. 289 
 
 place, Filomene became one of the most noted wonder- 
 workers in Italy. " Her image decorates all the 
 churches," says her Life published by Audin ; " it orn;i- 
 ments all the private oratories — it is found in all the 
 houses — nay, what do I say ? Every one carries the 
 image about with him, and as if it were not enough to 
 reproduce it on vellum, it is printed on linen and cotton 
 stuffs for garments ; while the works written regarding 
 this glorious martyr are all sanctioned by ecclesiastical 
 authority." A pope dignified her, as we have seen, with 
 the title of " The Great," and a king, by an autograph 
 letter, begged the relics from his holiness. We take her 
 case, therefore, as a favourable specimen of the religion 
 of Southern Italy in our day, — such an example as even 
 a Romanist would select. 
 
 The bones of St Filomene, then, were discovered in 
 the catacombs by the relic hunters, in a way which we 
 cannot tarry to describe, but which is itself a sample 
 of the disgraceful juggling of Rome ; and starting with 
 the assertion, that " the Lord in his omnipotence has 
 many times deigned to sanction this pious worship by 
 no equivocal signs,"* the following are some of the 
 incidents in her history since her alleged bones were 
 drawn from their apocryphal resting place. 
 
 On the 25th of May 1802, when Pius VII. was 
 pope, these bones were discovered. Near them in the 
 catacomb was a small glass vase partially broken, and 
 covered with blood. Whilst the fragments of crusted 
 gore were detached from the vase, the witnesses were 
 astonished to see the crystal urn into which they were put, 
 
 * "Combiende fois le Seigneur dans satoute.puissance,n.a-t-il pas 
 daigne legitimer ce culte pieux par les signes les moins equivoques." 
 Ste, Filomene, sa Vie, et ses Miracles, (1834) p. 8. 
 
 T 
 
290 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 becoming brilliant and resplendent. Some pieces were 
 rich like gold and silver, others had the brightness of a 
 diamond. The ruby, the emerald, the sapphire, and the 
 most brilliant colours of the rainbow, all sparkled in 
 the vase where the blood of the saint was deposited !* 
 
 But the saint did not leave her votaries in any doubt 
 as to her claims to be ranked among the Dei minores of 
 Rome. An unknown woman appeared to a priest while 
 he was walking in the fields, and told him that Filomene 
 had been put to death because she refused the hand 
 of the Emperor Diocletian, and narrated in a most dra- 
 matic way, the fruitless efforts of the tyrant to secure 
 her affections, (pp. 21-23). 
 
 Another vision, conveying intelligence yet more mi- 
 nute, was vouchsafed to a poor citizen, and on this occa- 
 sion the paroxysm of Diocletian's slighted love is very 
 affecting. He had ordered Filomene to be beheaded 
 for declining his proposals, and then relenting when the 
 deed was done, " He tore his beard, rolled about like one 
 mad, threw himself from his throne to the earth and bit 
 the dust, exclaiming that he would be no longer Em- 
 peror !" (p. 25). 
 
 K third " Revelation" took place in the year 1832, 
 to a religious person at Naples, and it was so circumstan- 
 tial as to leave nothing farther to be desired. With 
 the accuracy of a diary, the life of Filomene is described. 
 " The Queen of Angels with her son in her arms," ap- 
 peared to encourage her, and all ended in her glorious 
 martyrdom. Why, then, should she not be worshipped 
 at Rome ? 
 
 She was eventually translated to Mugnano in the 
 diocese of Nola, and the prodigies which she wrought 
 * Ste Filomene, &c. p. 16. 
 
THE PRESENT. 291 
 
 soon became numerous. "Angela Rosa Terres was 
 suddenly healed of an inveterate disease, which had de- 
 voured her for twelve years." Michael Ulpicella, after 
 being tormented for six months by sciatica, went to the 
 temple of St Filomene leaning on the arm of a friend, and 
 returned a perfectly healed man ! A distinguished lady, 
 whose hand was gangrened, had resolved to have it am- 
 putated to escape from death ; but the relics of the saint 
 were applied to the ulcer, and the gangrene disappeared I 
 When these decayed bones were translated from Naples 
 to Mugnano, one of the peasants who were to carry her 
 fell sick. He was encouraged to put his shoulder to 
 the work ; he did it, and was instantly healed ! " 0, 
 how light the saint is !" was the cry of the relieved 
 and ecstatic devotee. At a certain part of the road, 
 the saint became so heavy that the shoulders of the 
 bearers could endure no more. All was consterna- 
 tion, for they thought it was the saint's wish to tarry 
 there, where, it appeared, many martyrs had formerly 
 been slain. Their interpretation was not sound, for as 
 soon as they had passed that place of bad repute, the 
 bearers announced that Filomene " had become as light 
 as a feather !" The founding of a chapel to her honour 
 gave rise to " divine miracles." " Her worship," we are 
 told, " had no sooner begun than God glorified his ser- 
 vant by numerous prodigies." Ange Bianco had long 
 been confined by gout ; he heard the rejoicing at the 
 procession of the relics — prayed with all his might 
 to the saint — and vowed to follow the procession if he 
 were cured. His prayer was heard — the saint made him 
 whole ! 
 
 Again, Angela Gruemero carried her crii3ple son to 
 mass — at the elevation of the host, he went without aid 
 
292 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 to the place where Filomene's relics reposed, and in an- 
 swer to his mother's prayers to the martyr, he was made 
 whole. " A miracle, a miracle !" exclaimed the mother, 
 and all who knew the boy ; and the bells immediately 
 spread the intelligence of " the wonders which God had 
 wrought," by the old bones brought from the catacomb ! 
 This took place in the morning. After noon, a cele- 
 brated missionary preached in the church. A woman 
 was present with a child hopelessly blind ; the holy relics 
 were at work again, and the child received his sight. 
 " A miracle so manifest immediately produced through 
 the assembly a movement which obliged the preacher to 
 desist ;" and the biographer adds, " this occasion was 
 not the only one where the same miracle was wrought." 
 A child pricked her eyes with a pair of scissors — she 
 dipped her finger in the oil of the lamp that burned be- 
 fore the shrine of the saint, and sight was restored. 
 " That eye," adds the devout biographer, " was even in 
 some degree more beautiful and brilliant than the other, 
 to remind men that the hand of God had touched it," 
 (p. 64). Her cousin had his countenance lacerated by 
 an explosion of gunpowder during the rejoicing at the 
 saint's arrival. The little girl explained how she was 
 healed. The boy applied to the same source, and was 
 forthwith cured ! Don Francis Paulo Fiore had become 
 blind by a disease in the eyes at the age of twenty-four. 
 He had recourse to Filomene — prayed devoutly, and was 
 healed ! We give but another example. The saint had 
 now become so illustrious that she was deposited in the 
 chief chui-ch of the Commune. But her ornaments were 
 rude compared with her renown, and this occasioned regret 
 to her poorer worshippers. To their astonishment, how- 
 ever, one morning when they entered her chapel, she had 
 
THE PRESENT. 293 
 
 changed her position, adorned her person, and assumed 
 a dignified attitude, — " a position," says her historian, 
 " as graceful as it was natural." " Her chin had become 
 round — her upper lip, which grinned before (like that of 
 any other corpse just from the catacombs), had become 
 handsome ; her features, in short, had changed, and her 
 countenance, animated by the freshest and most resplend- 
 ent colours of celestial beauty, presented the appearance 
 of a person in the sweetest sleep." Some sceptics ex- 
 pressed doubts on the occasion, but they were soon 
 silenced and confounded. Another miracle on a child 
 rendered blind by the smallpox, bore down all opposi- 
 tion, and Filomene was finally enthroned as the goddess 
 of the district ; the bishop of Carinola officiating, and 
 all the inhabitants joining in the pomp which added 
 another creature to the roll of their divinities ! Her 
 chapel was besieged by adoring crowds, and miracles in 
 return were profusely showered down upon them. 
 
 But we need not foUow farther the superstitious nar- 
 rative. Miracles were wrought when a chapel was 
 founded in honour of this saint — miracles abounded 
 when an altar was built — miracles in lavish profusion 
 accompanied the preparing of a new shrine for Filo- 
 mene. On one occasion she smiled with " a celestial 
 beauty, like one pronouncing ' Amen.' " Moreover, she 
 began to move her eyes, to the astonishment of all her 
 worshippers ; nay, even images of Filomene carried to 
 other churches did the same, and wherever she was 
 worshipped, " A miracle ! A miracle !" was often heard 
 resounding through the church. Her right eye was the 
 favourite one, and again and again, and again did she 
 open it in benignity on her worshippers. Her statue 
 on one occasion, "miraculously sweated." A second 
 
'294 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 edition of a book was printed designed to circulate her 
 praises, but a third was not needed — the second, like the 
 widow's cruse of oil, was inexhaustible. Distribute as the 
 priests and bishop might, the supply was still abundant, 
 while the books could balance themselves on the back 
 and arms of a chair in a marvellous manner. She mul- 
 tiplied the " bones of her holy body to satisfy the piety of 
 the faithful." In 1830 and 1832 these miracles were 
 frequent ; but we cannot now do more than quote the 
 titles of some of the chapters of her biography. The 
 
 XIII. is entitled, " Apparitions of St Filomene." The 
 
 XIV. is headed, " Divers Miracles." The XV., " Pro- 
 digies wrought at Lyons by means of St Filomene ;" and 
 were all this true — were not the whole a farrago of in- 
 contestible falsehood and imposture called religion, we 
 might join in the ejaculation of the biographer, " Be- 
 hold a Star !" " Let no one say that our Grod sleeps," 
 is the papist's fervid declaration on a review of his nar- 
 rative ; and while he implores us to come in prayer to 
 the feet of St Filomene, he is careful to set us an ex- 
 ample. " Virgin most pure" — " Virgin full of boldness" 
 — " Virgin full of strength" — " Virgin courageous" — 
 " Virgin constant !" " unconquerable, invincible, heroic, 
 glorious" — these are the terms in which she is invoked 
 in the prayers of her devotees — these are the employ- 
 ments of bishops, priests, and people in a populous dis- 
 trict of Italy, not far from Naples ; and it is to the wor- 
 ship of such bones under various pretexts, that popery 
 would reconduct our island. Hymns are sung to this 
 dubious divinity, prayers are oflfered, and all that con- 
 stitutes worship freely lavished. Will men awake ? 
 WiU Protestants think? Will they but look at this 
 " sad helotism" of the soul ? Will facts convince them 
 
THE PRESENT. 295 
 
 that the native tendency of popery, wherever it has free 
 scope for development, is to degrade the mind of man, 
 and in effect, to put a creature in Jehovah's place ? In 
 examining the objects exhibited in some museums, we 
 often notice anatomical preparations of the human 
 frame, which are infinitely instructive, but far from be- 
 ing pleasant, — the veins, and arteries, and muscles, are 
 all exhibited in such painful detail as to shew that we are 
 wonderfully, but at the same time, fearfully made. A 
 close inspection brings the same to light regarding the 
 religion of modem Italy. Men will have a creature rather 
 than the Creator for their God, and they are left to what 
 they chuse. All this we say again, takes place not dur- 
 ing the dark ages, not among pagans, not among men 
 emerging from barbarism ; but in Italy, where an infal- 
 lible man, a " Vice- GocV dictates and presides over reli- 
 gion. Do we say this in vain triumph over the Roman- 
 ists ? On the contrary, we know there are superstitions 
 mixed with the religion of every land ; they are a na- 
 tive product of man's sinful heart. But into Protestant- 
 ism superstition enters against the nature of the system ; 
 into Popery it enters as an essential part. It is there 
 encouraged, fostered, and systematized. 
 
 11. The Morals or Italy. 
 
 But when religion has departed so far from the sim- 
 plicity of the gospel, what is the state of morals at Rome? 
 
 We can offer but a very limited answer to this ques- 
 tion, ample as are the materials at hand ; but though 
 brief, facts make the answer emphatic. 
 
 It is a weU-known maxim of the Jesuits, that the inferior 
 must implicitly obey the superior of the order ; and one 
 of the former has accordingly said, " Were God to order 
 
296 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 me, through the voice of my superior, to put to death 
 father, mother, children, brothers and sisters, I would 
 do it with an eye as tearless, and a heart as calm, as if 
 I were seated at the banquet of the Paschal Lamb."* 
 " It is lawful," says Father Fagundez, " for a son to 
 rejoice at the murder of his parent, committed 6?/ him- 
 self, in a state of drunkenness, on account of the great 
 riches thence acquired by inheritance," Again, " Chris- 
 tian and Catholic sons may accuse their father of the 
 crime of heresy, if they wish to remove him from the 
 earth, although they know that their parents may be 
 burned with fire, and put to death for it." " Servants," 
 says Valerius Reginald," are excused, both from sin and 
 restitution, if they only take (from their master's pro- 
 perty) in equitable compensation." Again, " If a man 
 cannot sell his wine at a fair price either on account of 
 injustice in the judge, or through fraud in the purchasers, 
 who have agreed among themselves to be few in nmn- 
 ber, to lower the price ; then he may diminish his mea- 
 sure, or mix a little water with the wine, and sell it for 
 pure wine of full measure, demanding the full price, 
 provided only that he does not tell a lie : which if he 
 do, it will neither be a dangerous nor a mortal sin." 
 Filliucius writes, " The man who has externally pro- 
 mised any thing, but ivithoiit an intention of promisint/y 
 that same person being asked whether he made a pro- 
 mise, may deny it — meaning to himself, that he did not 
 make a promise that was binding. Nay, he may go 
 much farther, for he may even swear to it."t Such are 
 some of the sentiments taught by the Society of Jesuits 
 — the heart's core of Popery — the embodiment of all its 
 
 * The Jesuits, their Origin, Order, &c. by Dr DufF, p. 10. 
 t See DufF, pp. 2i, 25, 26. 
 
THE PRESENT. 297 
 
 evil. That society was once suppressed by a pope, 
 Clement XIV., urged on by the voice of indignant 
 Europe — and its damnation was just ; but another pope, 
 Pius Vn, restored it ; and now the Jesuits, whose 
 fathers taught such morality as we have mentioned, are 
 battening again on the Christianity of every land, cor- 
 rupting, overlaying, suppressing it. Their whole system 
 has been strongly called " the perfection of devilism^' — 
 and surely, if Satan have emissaries on earth, they may 
 be found in what is called, in blasphemous mockery — 
 
 " the Society of Jesus." " Jesus I know, and Paul 
 
 I know ; but who are ye ?" 
 
 But what are the morals of modern Italy ? How 
 does the reHgion of the pope influence the life and con- 
 duct of his subjects in social life, or by their household 
 hearths ? We have already seen how the servants of 
 the papacy " lengthen the creed," by their impostures 
 and lying wonders — how far is it true that in our day 
 they " shorten the decalogue ?" 
 
 On this subject, we appeal to a witness who enjoyed 
 most ample opportunities of testing the real state of 
 Italian society among the upper ranks. " You ask 
 me," says Lord Byron (in a letter dated 21st February 
 1820), " for a volume of manners upon Italy. Perhaps 
 I am in the case to know more of them than most 
 Englishmen, because I have lived among the natives, 
 and in parts of the country where Englishmen never 
 resided before ; I speak of Bomagna, and especially 
 Bavenna ; but there are many reasons why I do not 
 choose to treat in print on such a subject. I have 
 lived in their houses, and the heart of their ftxmilies 
 sometimes, as " a friend of the house," and sometimes 
 as " a friend of the heart" of the Dama ; and in neither 
 
298 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 case do I feel myself authorized in making a book on 
 them. Their moral is not your moral." (But is it God's?) 
 " Their life is not your life — you would not understand 
 it. It is not English, it is not French nor German, 
 which you would all understand." His lordship then 
 proceeds to describe the private life of Italians, of the 
 upper classes; but he does it in language, or with allu- 
 sions, which I dare not quote. It is enough to say that 
 adultery is systematized — " it is reduced to a kind of dis- 
 cipline." Society is corrupted at the heart's core, 
 namely, in the domestic circle ; and if one wished to 
 exhibit the melancholy effects of a false religion, or of 
 the infidelity into which false religion drives the bolder 
 class of minds, we know not where to find more fit ma- 
 terials than in Lord Byron's sketch — a sketch, remem- 
 ber, written not by a morose ascetic, not by a Protes- 
 tant minister, but by one who " knew more of the 
 Italians than most Englishmen can know" — who ad- 
 mired their jDractices, and proved his high admiration 
 by copying their example to the letter. 
 
 Or turning to their own authors for information on this 
 subject, the materials are ample. The younger Segneri 
 has shewn that the same revolting relaxation of the 
 marriage law has descended to the very artizans of 
 Italy, and bitterly complains of the degeneracy that 
 prevails.* It is the reformation, says D'Aubighe, which 
 
 * Segneri says — Siamo arrivati a segno che ultimamente una po- 
 vera artigiana tradando di accasarsi con uno staffiero,pretendeva con 
 volto franco che nella scritta del matrimonio, se obligasse lo sposo 
 in forma autentica, di lasciarla tenere il suo servitor di onore, e di 
 amore in quel modo appunto che lo han le donne." — It means a 
 working girl, at lier marriage, took lier betrothed husband, a groom, 
 bound in writing, to allow her to keep a paramour, an adulterous 
 attendant— exactly like the ladies. "Louis XIV. of France lived 
 
THE PRESENT. 299 
 
 through faith, has re-established the moral law in Chris- 
 tendom — a law that popery had trodden under foot. 
 
 12. The Persecuting Spirit of Popery. Its Indices 
 expurgatorii. 
 
 Though we have but touched on the subject just ad- 
 verted to, we must hasten away from it, and speak next 
 of the persecuting spirit of Rome. It is a remarkable 
 fact that St Peter's church, in that city, now occupies 
 the spot which was occupied by Nero's gardens in an- 
 cient Rome. In those gardens, that tyrant was wont 
 to immolate the first Christians, with circumstances of 
 ineffable atrocity. They were covered with the skins of 
 wild beasts, and worried to death by dogs — or they were 
 besmeared and encrusted with combustible matter, and 
 then burnt — for sport to the tyrant and his minions. 
 
 It is a mere coincidence, yet it is worth noticing, that 
 Christians have often experienced at the hands of him 
 who occupies St Peter's, what the first believers experi- 
 enced in the gardens of Nero — wanton cruelties, perse- 
 cution, and death. Let Cabrieres, and Merindoles, let 
 the horrors of the Inquisition, let the blood of the saints 
 shed in every land, and every age, attest the fact. We 
 advert, however, only to what has been done in modern 
 times, to prove that the modern Rome is the lineal descend- 
 ant of the ancient. In the massacre of St Bartholomew's 
 day, in the year 1572, 100,000 Protestants werebutcher- 
 
 for many years in adultery. He burned, gibbeted, racked, or drove 
 into exile, hundreds of thousands of his Protestant subjects ; and 
 that persecuting adulterer, a Popish bishop, Bossuet, thus eulo- 
 gizes : Epanchons nos coeurs sur la piete de Louis : poussons jusque 
 
 au ciel nos acclamations vous avez extermine les heretiques ; 
 
 c'est le digne ouvrage de votre signe ; e'en est le propre caractere," 
 See Whately on Romanism, p. 288, edit, of 1845. 
 
300 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 ed in France. The Pope and Italy — a papist, Bonanni, 
 tells us — were filled with joy by the news of that havoc, 
 as they were thereby delivered from the fear that the Hu- 
 gonot heresy would inundate Italy. The pontiff proceeded 
 to St Peter's to offer thanks for the wholesale butchery. 
 He ordered one of his painters to prepare a represen- 
 tation of the slaughter, and had a medal struck to 
 commemorate the extinction of " the rebel Calvin- 
 ists." On that medal, the destroying angel carrying a 
 cross in the one hand, and a sword in the other, is 
 represented as slaughtering the Hugonots ; and what 
 Gregory XIII. thus commemorated, Grregory XVI. has 
 sanctioned by restampin<y the Medal. We do not forget 
 that some have tried to evade the force of this damag- 
 ing fact — but their evasion avails them nothing. The 
 man that utters base coin is condemned as well as the 
 fabricator of it ; and Gregory XVI. has both fabricated 
 and uttered. 
 
 We do not advert to the persecuting laws still in force 
 against the Jews — nor need we enter into any detail of 
 the fiery spirit of popery — its determination to extin- 
 guish by the Inquisition, by the civil arm, by force, or 
 craft, all that opposes itself to him whose idolators call 
 him " Vice-God.''^ But to shew that popery hates and 
 fears the light as much as ever, it may be mentioned, 
 that not two years have elapsed since a meeting of 
 British and other Christians, assembled for prayer in a 
 private house in Rome, was craftily suppressed by the po- 
 pish authorities. The prayers were, of course, in English 
 — the English scriptures were read ; but so offensive was 
 even this to the religion of the Man of Sin, that it could 
 not be endured. The meeting was suppressed, and the 
 
THE PRESENT. 301 
 
 spiritual midnight reigns again without a single star 
 visible in the darkness.* 
 
 * See Sir C. E. Smith's Romanism of Italy. Consult with care 
 Dr Kalley's harrowing pamphlet, An Account of the Recent Persecu- 
 tions in Madeira. The following is an extract : — 
 
 " Some of the young women who fled from the soldiers were 
 for three days in the brushwood, living on wild berries, and exposed 
 to the heavy rain by night. One woman, whose husband was taken 
 prisoner, left her house and bed to the soldiers, and slept with her 
 three children in the open air, exposed to the rain ; for she was 
 told by the young woman mentioned above as having been violated, 
 that the man who committed that crime was then billeted in her 
 house. Though the eldest of her children was only four years old, 
 and all were scantily clothed — for both their bed and body clothes 
 were stolen — she chose to be with them, exposed to the elements, 
 rather than in the power of the soldiers. A niece of Maria Joa- 
 quina's sister, who had been married about a year, and was far 
 advanced in pregnancy, after her house had been completely racked, 
 was obliged to seek safety by rushing through the furze, where even 
 the soldiers did not dare to follow. During Tuesday and Wednes- 
 day, and Thursday, the soldiers were masters of the houses and 
 goods of these guiltless people. They ordered fowls, sheep, pigs, 
 and goats to be killed ; sent wheat to the mill to be ground ; com- 
 pelled those who remained to supply them with wine, and to bake 
 and cook for them ; took away the title-deeds of property ; destroyed 
 much of what they could not eat ; took whatever pleased them 
 and could be conveyed away, and allowed the thieves fi*om the 
 adjoining country to carry off what they (the soldiers) could not 
 appropriate to themselves. "When any dared to remonstrate, they 
 were answered with curses and blow^s, and those who were sup- 
 posed to have valuables were threatened with the murder of their 
 children, the burning of their houses, or violence to themselves, if 
 they would not give them up. Three soldiers who were billeted 
 in the house of Maria Joaquin a's daughter on the Thursday, had a 
 woman of the town with them, as was the case in almost every 
 house where they were billeted. They demanded wine continually 
 killed all the fowls they could get hold of, and served themselves 
 to every thing in and about the house. When I visited her on the 
 ensuing Monday, along with the Hon. F. Scott, M.P., and another 
 English gentleman, she shewed us a sack with a cut in it of aboiit 
 
302 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 And to render that darkness perennial, if that were 
 possible, Rome adopts another device, characteristic of 
 her cruel cunning. I refer to her system of emitting, 
 from time to time, an Index Expurgatorius — a list of 
 books which she prohibits all from reading, thus perpe- 
 tuating ignorance, and hermetically sealing mind. In 
 the native works of Italy, not a sentence can be pub- 
 lished until it has undergone the most rigid censorship 
 and supervision ; but as foreign literature might disturb 
 the slumbers of its spiritual death, the pontifical govern- 
 ment watches with a lynx's eye against its introduction. 
 The system was begun by the Council of Trent, and has 
 been maintained and improved on from that day to this. 
 
 three inches in length, and told us that, after having threatened to 
 kill her child if she would not bring them more wine, one of the 
 soldiers ran his knife into the sack, which was full of potatoes, and 
 threatened, that unless she would get them wine immediately he 
 would run his knife in the same way into her bowels. They also 
 threatened, that unless she would bring them girls, they would lie 
 with her. Although a very strong-minded woman, and anxious to 
 remain for the protection of her property, she was at length com- 
 pelled to flee, and leave her all in the hands of the soldiers, I may 
 add, that when the officers and soldiers surrounded her house on 
 the morning of the 24th, the first question put to her was, whether 
 or not she was the daughter of the woman under sentence of death 
 as a heretic ? As the children were crying when they saw their 
 father bound by the soldiers, she bade them not to cry, for their 
 father would not go bound to heaven. ' Not to the heaven of 
 Kalley,' said the officer, with a sneer. ' Heaven is not Kalley's,' 
 she replied, ' but God's, and there will be no binding there.' Her 
 husband was not near the school on the night when the officers 
 came for Nicolau, and therefore cannot be retained on that charge ; 
 but an accusation has been brought against him since his imprison- 
 ment for having said that it might be tried whether the images can 
 do anything by cutting ofi" a finger, and that in the event of their ' 
 either bleeding or crying out, there would be some reason for sup- 
 posing they could help. This crime is of course blasphemy." 
 
TILE PRESENT. 303 
 
 Not a book can now issue from the press without incur- 
 ring the risk of a stigma, single, double, or treble, ac- 
 cording to its character. Booksellers are anathematized 
 if they sell them. Men are anathematized if they read 
 — and nothing remains for the Roman, but mutely to 
 acquiesce in the sentence that dooms him to the In- 
 quisition on the one hand, or premature mental unbecil- 
 lity on the other. " If any one shall read the prohi- 
 bited books, let him be punished by his bishop, in ad- 
 dition to the guilt of mortal sin which he contracts." It 
 is interesting to find that Merle D'Aubigne, and our la- 
 mented townsman Dr M'Crie, have been thought worthy 
 of a place in these Indices, as advocating principles, 
 or just announcing facts, dangerous to the stability or 
 disturbing to the repose of the Mother of abominations. 
 
 14. The Sectarianism of Rome. The Contradictions of 
 HER Infallibilities. 
 
 Farther : the Church of Rome boasts in the name of 
 Catholic ; and many Protestants, not adverting to the 
 power of names over unthinking thousands, concede the 
 claim. It is necessary therefore, in forming an estimate 
 of the papal heresy, to point out its intense sectarianism, 
 its perfectly anti-catholic character. In the apostle's 
 creed, we are taught to say, " I believe in the holy 
 Catholic Church" — the church that comprehends all in 
 every age, and every land, who love the Lord Jesus in 
 sincerity and truth — who are taught by his Spirit, and 
 subject to his laws. But what are the views held by Rome 
 on this point ? She remorselessly condemns to destruction 
 all who do not own the pope as their head, and popery as 
 their creed. Beyond her pale there is no salvation. In 
 so many words — Boniface VIII. " declared, asserted. 
 
304 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 defined, and pronounced, that it is necessary to salva- 
 tion, for every human being to be subject to the pope 
 of Rome." His priests take an oath to that effect — and 
 in Rome at least, whatever may be said in Ireland, or 
 England, or here — in Rome at least, the ministers of 
 the pope assure you, without any ambiguity — that as a 
 protestant, and most of all a presbyterian, you infallibly 
 perish. Popery regards us, at this moment, as schisma- 
 tics who are in rebellion against the pope and his claims 
 — and in that condition excludes us from hope. Pusey- 
 ism and it are, in this respect, truly " The mother and 
 the daughter." 
 
 And yet, in this very church, whose dogmas we must 
 receive or die, we find pope pitched against pope — the 
 sentence of one overthrowing the sentence of another. 
 For example, Leo X, three hundred years ago, pro- 
 nounced the famous coat of Treves to be the genuine 
 relic, the very vesture which the Saviour wore. About 
 twenty places competed for the honour of possessing it, 
 and Leo X. assigned it, I say, to one ; but G-regory 
 XVI, the present pontiff, has altered that award, and 
 assigned it to another.* In the same way, G-anganelli 
 abolished the order of the Jesuits in 1773 ; and that in 
 fallible pope decreed that " it should be for ever an- 
 nulled and extinguished ;" " the Company shaU be, and 
 is for ever extinguished and suppressed." " Our will and 
 pleasure is," the words, remember, are those of an in- 
 fallible man ; " our will and pleasure is, that these, our 
 letters, should be for ever, and to all eternity, valid, per- 
 manent, and efficacious, and be inviolably observed 
 
 by all and every man." Such was the infallibility of 
 1773 ; but a change came over the papacy, and why 
 
 * See Edinburgh Review for Jan. 1846, p. 107. 
 
THE PRESENT 305 
 
 should not infallibility be also changed when it served 
 the interests of Rome? In 1814, Pius VII, as infallible 
 a pope as Clement XIV, restored the Jesuits, quashed 
 the words " for ever" and " all eternity" employed by his 
 predecessor, and summoned into existence again " the 
 Society of Jesus," which had been abolished as a nuisance, 
 a hissing, and a loathing, at the demand of outraged and 
 indignant Christendom.^ 
 
 Now, this is the Catholic Church to which popery would 
 compel us if it could to belong, and beyond the pale of 
 which there is no hope, no salvation for sinners ! Over- 
 look, for a little, all the blood that she has shed, the 
 wives whom she has made widows, the children whom 
 she has rendered orphans, the fields which she has made 
 white with the bleaching bones of her slain. Forget, if 
 you can, the palpable spiritual midnight which Rome has 
 spread over so large a portion of Europe and the world. 
 Look just at the single fact, that -we have infallibility 
 against infallibility, pope against pope, and bull against 
 bull ; then say, is it not plain as if the archangel's trump 
 proclaimed it, that such a church is no safe resting-place 
 for the soul ; that all who know the truth should pray 
 for the downfall of Rome, and the delivery of her vic- 
 tims ? In short, the words of the martyred Argyle de- 
 serve to be quoted again, as they have lately been, and 
 not merely repeated, but printed on the heart and the 
 conscience ; we should live and " die with a heart-hatred 
 of popery." It would be wrong to repeat what some 
 of the reformers are said to have done, — take the con- 
 secrated wafer, affix it to a wall, and shoot at it ; but 
 the system which sanctions and perpetuates such im- 
 postures should be utterly put away. 
 
 * See Di' Duff's pamphlet on the Jesuits. 
 U 
 
306 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 15. Rome's Hostility to True Science. 
 
 We are forced to the same conclusion when we advert 
 to the science of Italy, and especially of Rome, al- 
 though at so extensive a subject we can only glance. It 
 is the remark of one of her own most gifted sons, that her 
 science is "papaverica e bestiale," — soporific and beastly ; 
 and it is an instructive fact to know, that the system of 
 Gralileo, or his discoveries which led to the true system 
 of our world, are still condemned by the Jesuits as they 
 were three centuries ago.* One of them has tried to 
 prove, in spite of observation, experience, facts, and de- 
 monstrations, that the earth is stationary, and the sun 
 revolving round it. It is thus that mind stagnates 
 where religion is false. While all the world has been 
 in progress, Italy has been benumbed, inert, and torpid. 
 Her universities are deserted ; Padua, for instance, does 
 not now count so many hundred students as it once 
 counted thousands ; and the whole land is visibly oppressed 
 by the incubus of its creed, and civil institutions based 
 upon it. Travellers tell of the depressing effects on 
 the whole human frame, when the simoom approaches. 
 Lassitude, lethargy, and a suspension of all animal ac- 
 tivity are the result ; and similar are the effects pro- 
 duced on the soul and mind of Italy by the religious 
 system that prevails in that unhappy country. 
 
 16. Sermons in Italy and Rome. 
 
 Nor do we arrive at a different result when we advert 
 to the style of preaching that prevails in Italy, and es- 
 pecially in Rome, for at certain seasons, the people are 
 freely addressed by priests and monks from the pulpit. 
 
 * North British Review, No. IV. p. 632. 
 
THE PRESENT. 307 
 
 We have listened to Franciscans, Dominicans, Augus- 
 tinians, and other popish sects ; and from the Oration in 
 the pope's chapel, with his holiness for a hearer, down 
 to the extravagant fanaticism of the Franciscans, the 
 whole is wisely adapted to promote the ends of their 
 system. The Augustinians, I know not why, proclaim 
 more of the truth than the other orders ; and in a course 
 of lectures on the Epistle to the Philippians, we have 
 heard statements made, far from being soundly scriptural, 
 yet as evangelical as some of the sentiments which Me- 
 lancthon avowed, in his nervous timidity, at the diet of 
 Augsburg. In general, however, their preaching is pe- 
 culiarly Romish. Their texts, read in Latin, are very 
 fi-equently from the Apocrypha ; and, whether it be the 
 regular clergy or some of the monks that officiate, God's 
 simple plan of salvation is never announced, at least, we 
 never heard it. 
 
 The following is a faithful translation of an " Invito 
 Sagro," to induce the people to attend such services. It 
 was issued by the Fraternity of Flagellants, under 
 sanction of the pope, and shews how popery pervades 
 even the hand-bills of Rome. The invitation, after an- 
 nouncing* the place, the preacher, and the subject, says, 
 " All the faithful of either sex are invited to avail them- 
 selves of so favourable an opportunity to lay up for 
 themselves a treasure of merit in this Hfe, by which each 
 one will be afterwards accompanied to a happy, imperish- 
 able eternity in the next."* 
 
 Allured by this manifesto, we resorted to the church of 
 
 * This may seem a Protestant translation. The following is the 
 original Italian. " Sono invitati tutti i fideli dell' uno, e dell' altro 
 sesso a prevalersi di si favorevole incontro per prepararsi un tesoro 
 di merita in questa vita, dai quali ciascuno sara dipoi accompagnato 
 alia beata, immarcescibile eternita nell' altra." 
 
308 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 Santa Maria in Campo Carleo, and heard the Canon 
 Prinzevalli preach. He prefaced his sermon by an ora- 
 torical introduction, designed to excite the curiosity of 
 his hearers ; and judging from the preparations for listen- 
 ing made at the close of the exordium, the audience 
 were determined not to lose a sand-grain of the promised 
 " merits." Calm and sedate at first, the canon soon be- 
 came bold and impassioned, as he rushed into his sub- 
 ject, which consisted mainly of an appeal to the audience 
 to free their friends and the faithful from purgatory, by 
 their largesses and their prayers. His description of 
 that abode was as graphical as if the canon had visited 
 it. There was no genius, and little thought, in the ad- 
 dress ; yet on a people like the Italians, swayed by emotion 
 rather than by principle, the effect was stirring. " Be- 
 hind the faithful," the preacher said, " in that prison- 
 house of fire, is fire ; before them is fire ; on their right 
 hand is fire ; on their left is fire ; their canopy is fire ; 
 the pavement which they tread is fire" — and all this 
 was to be prolonged by the remissness of his hearers in 
 giving, or in doing, for the emancipation of the departed 
 souls. 
 
 All this, accompanied with much dramatic gesticula- 
 tion, with appeals to the crucifix attached to the pulpit 
 or gallery from which the preacher spoke, and in which 
 he walked from side to side, addressing portion after por- 
 tion of his hearers, produced considerable effect. A 
 moment's glance at the truth of Grod was, indeed, like 
 the touch of Ithuriel's spear to these appeals ; but on 
 the warm-blooded and unreflecting Italians the effect was 
 perceptible ; and in the hands of a man possessed of 
 mental power, such doctrines must exercise a thoroughly 
 enthraliinp; influence. Let it be observed that Italian 
 
THE PRESENT. 309 
 
 preachers do not turn men's thoughts to spiritual things, 
 which to the carnal mind are ever shadowy and unreal. 
 It is to material objects ; to human feelings, whether of 
 joy or endurance. To a virgin mother carrying and ca- 
 ressing her child ; to material fire agonizing the souls of 
 much-loved kindred ; to men and women called saints, 
 and as easily comprehended even by the natural mind 
 as the objects seen around us ; in short, to the affairs 
 and affections of earth men's attention is turned, and, 
 with even a moderate degree of power, the preacher thus 
 wields an influence over the mind which spiritual things 
 never can possess upon the unconverted. Nothing but 
 the grace of God could prevent an Italian mother from 
 being earned away by the impassioned appeals, on prin- 
 ciples exclusively earthly, which are often made on such 
 occasions to the Vii-gin and her Child ; and the loud out- 
 cry, " Viva Maria, viva Jesii," which sometimes breaks 
 from a whole congregation when the preacher has con- 
 cluded his address, tells distinctly the power which he 
 has exercised over the audience around him. In a 
 word, could human sympathies and earthly affections, 
 so largely mixed up with popery, change men's hearts, 
 the religion of Rome, displayed in its sermons, might lift 
 them to heaven ; as it is, the influence is earthly in its 
 origin, and like water, it cannot rise higher than its foun- 
 tain-head. 
 
 17. Romish Perversions or the Sacrament of Baptism, 
 
 Though averse to prolong these illustrations, yet, as 
 touching on a very vital point, I cannot but advert to 
 the popish views regarding Regeneration. The Council 
 of Trent has decreed, that " The law of baptism ex- 
 tends to aU, insomuch that, unless they are regenerated 
 
310 
 
 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 through the grace of baptism, be their parents Christians 
 or infidels, they are born to eternal misery and ever- 
 lasting destruction." Following up this revolting dogma, 
 the ministers of Rome compass sea and land to per- 
 form the saving sacrament. It is a passport to heaven ; 
 the .s^ine qua non of admission there ; and the following 
 is the account given of baptisms performed by some 
 missionaries of Rome among the heathen : — " For a 
 long time," they report, " it was not possible to regene- 
 rate in the water of baptism, the children of infidels, ex- 
 cept in some isolated places But of later years, this 
 
 benefit has been extended in a most consolatory degree. 
 
 Our missionaries have succeeded in rendering it 
 
 general among the principal Christian congregations' in 
 Asia. We shall soon have much to do to reckon the 
 young elect with which they will people heaven ; even 
 now the sum of those whom they have sent thither is sufii- 
 ciently large to draw forth the gi-atitude and the admira- 
 tion of our faith Figures are very affecting when 
 
 they express a multitude of souls gained for the happi- 
 ness of heaven." " The mission of Su-Tchuen," reports 
 another, " continues its work of baptizing children in 
 danger of death, and the Lord continues to bless it. 
 Each year the number of those whom they regenerate 
 goes on increasing. 
 
 It was in 1839, . . . . 
 
 12,483 
 
 1840 
 
 15,766 
 
 1841, . . . . 
 
 . 17,825 
 
 1842, . . . . 
 
 20,068 
 
 184-3, . . . . 
 
 . 22,292 
 
 This year it amounts to 
 
 24,381 
 
 Such are the numbers regenerated and prepared for 
 heaven by an external rite, in one sphere, by the mission- 
 
THE PRESENT. 311 
 
 aries of Rome ! They gravely calculate, that in the 
 course of the year 1844, sixteen thousand seven hun- 
 dred and sixty-three " winged their flight " to glory, 
 after the charm or the incantation had been wrought 1 
 And how was it wrought ? The report continues, " Our 
 baptizing men and baptizing women accost the wretched 
 
 parents in the gentle accents of compassion, giving 
 
 often to the parents a few farthings, and they will- 
 ingly allow our people to spill on the child's forehead 
 some drops of water, which they declare to be good for 
 it, while, at the same time, they pronounce the sacra- 
 mental words." 
 
 Behold, then, the popish mode of regenerating sinners. 
 It is " principally the business of the women." " While 
 they caress the child, they succeed in dropping on 
 its forehead a little water out of a bottle concealed 
 in their long wide sleeve," and thus heaven is peopled 
 by these " little angels," not merely by a charm, but by 
 stealth and fraud !* And this we repeat, is another of 
 the delusions which Rome practises on the nations. It 
 is thus that she turns the work of the Spirit into a sense- 
 less ceremony, and evacuates the truth of God by her 
 baseless traditions. No doubt, she believes them to be 
 true, at least the more simple-minded of her members 
 do ; but we know who hath said, and said of this very 
 Popery, " They received not the love of the truth that 
 they might be saved, and for this cause, God shall send 
 them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." 
 (2 Thess. ii. 10, 11). Before we can believe such a sys- 
 tem, we must " betray the truth, renounce our senses and 
 reason, wound our consciences, dishonour God in his 
 holy word and sacraments, pervert the doctrine of the gos- 
 * See Christian Treasury, vol. i. pp. 568, 596. 
 
312 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 pel as to Christ's satisfaction, intercession and remission 
 of sins, depriving the people of the means of salvation 
 
 which God himself hath appointed and damning 
 
 those for whom Christ died."* There is just this differ- 
 ence between Rome and us. She says, " The Church 
 or the Sacraments save." We say, " Christ saves," — 
 and who that has access to the Bible can doubt which 
 of the two is from God ? 
 
 But it is needless to expatiate longer on such corrup- 
 tions, to catalogue the relics, or advert to the ever-re- 
 curring miracles of Rome. They shew in that city, the 
 table on which the Last Supper was spread. They pre- 
 tend to possess the pillar which served as a perch to the 
 cock which crew when Peter was convinced of his sin. 
 They shew a handkerchief with which the Saviour wiped 
 his brow on his way to the cross, and left his image in- 
 delibly stamped on it. Delicacy forbids us to enumerate 
 the various relics of the vii'gin spread over Italy. Priests 
 and people are alike bent on upholding this system, and 
 when beholding the homage paid to such things, one un- 
 derstands the meaning of the priest who said, " Populus 
 vult decipi et decipiatur." But as if these were not 
 enough, new prodigies are from time to time occuri'ing. 
 At Ancona, for example, an image of the virgin was lately 
 seen to move its eyes. The Cardinal issues a pastoral 
 in praise of the Madonna, and the deluded people pros- 
 trate themselves in multitudes before the idol. Some 
 of the sons of Italy deplore their deep degradation, yet 
 when they try to hope for deliverance, their heart, they 
 tell us, sinks within them. Enter one of their churches, 
 say St Peter's, on a high festival, for example, or Christ- 
 mas day ! See there the pompous and imposing cere- 
 * Stillingfleet. 
 
THE PRESENT. 313 
 
 monial, when the pope is high priest, and princes and 
 princesses among the worshippers. While he prepares 
 the "breaden god," the wafer, thehost, there is breathless 
 silence among the thousands that are there; you think you 
 hear the heart beat, all around you are so still, and were 
 principle not staunch, the superstition would infect you.* 
 When the bugle peels the note which tells the worshippers 
 in that majestic edifice that the idolatry is complete, and 
 that the god to be worshipped has been created by the 
 worshipper, then the prostration and abject abasement 
 that follow from prince and cardinal down to pauper, pro- 
 claim how deeply the superstition is rooted, how com- 
 plete is the triumph of error over truth. Or pass to the 
 Coliseum, that stupendous monument of the passion of 
 ancient Rome for blood — see there the ceremony of the 
 Via Crucis, an imitation of the different stages and inci- 
 dents of Christ's walk from judgment to Calvary. Look at 
 the prostration, the fanaticism, the tears ; listen to the sobs 
 of the worshippers in that mimic tragedy ; and then 
 understand again, how popery has twined itself round 
 the fibres of the Italian heart, so that only Omnipotence 
 can untwine it. Or enter any of the churches on the 
 day of its patron saint — let it be a church of the Virgin. 
 Her image is carried in procession, the infant Saviour in 
 her arms. The streets are strewed with garlands. The 
 windows along the line of the procession, are hung with 
 damask crimson cloths and richest silks. The pillars 
 
 * Any one that has been in these circumstances can enter into 
 the following account : — " All the assembly knelt with the Em- 
 peror Charles V., in the Cathedral of Augsburg ; the Elector, and 
 
 the Landgrave (as Protestants) alone remained standing The 
 
 Margrave of Brandenburgh, carried away by the crowd, had fallen 
 on his knees, but having seen his two allies standing, he hastily 
 rose up again," — D'Aubign^. 
 
314 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 of the church are decorated with festoons and gorgeous 
 drapery. Music — Italian music — lends all its charms. 
 Clouds of incense float upward and around you. Veiled 
 nuns and cowled monks, cardinals, patriarchs, and priests 
 swell the crowd ; and all that can impose on man's senses 
 is grouped beneath that roof. Every thing in short, but 
 food for the soul and light for the spiritual eye is there ; 
 and how deeply does all that fasten on the sensuous 
 mind of the Italian — how irresistible indeed, must be 
 the grace which makes a papist a Christian, a man of God, 
 — a converted, holy man. 
 
 18. An Excommunication. 
 
 Only one instance more do we give of the tremen- 
 dous power of popery over a superstitious and emotive 
 people. It sometimes happens, that monks abandon 
 their convents and priests break their vows, and the treat- 
 ment of these " apostates" is another of the proofs that 
 Popery owes its origin to something more subtle than 
 man. On Palm Sunday every year, in certain of the 
 convents, " apostates" are anathematized, and the cere- 
 mony is as follows : — A black cross, with a white one 
 represented in the centre, is extended on the floor of the 
 church, where all the seats are hung with black. The 
 candles on the altar are extinguished. The superior 
 puts on a purple cap, and recites certain Psalms 
 (civ. xc. xL), in a deep sepulchral tone, to which the 
 monks slowly respond, as though their hearts were frozen 
 with horror. The superior has hitherto held in his 
 hand a torch, the only light in the church, and at the 
 
 * In this hasty sketch we have not been able to advert to the 
 ceremony of carrying the host to the dying, and others of a similar 
 kind. 
 
THE PRESENT. 315 
 
 conclusion of the last psalm, he suddenly dashes it to 
 the ground, accompanying the action with the words, 
 " Fiat, Fiat," " So let it be," — an emblem of the apostate's 
 doom. The horror of those present, excited by the priestly 
 pantommie, has now reached its acme, and he must be 
 a bold spirit whose hopes of escape from the thraldom 
 of such a system, would not be extinguished with the 
 extinguished torch. The excommunicated is for ever 
 an execrable thing, — bell, book, and candle have done 
 their worst against him. The pope at one period was 
 wont to subscribe his anathemas with a pen dipped in 
 the " cup in which he adored the blood of Christ." The 
 stoutest hearts often quailed before such a dread ana- 
 thema, and nothing but the grace and Spirit of God 
 could nerve any one, especially an excitable Italian, to 
 brave the excommunication thus launched against him 
 by the superior of his order.* 
 
 The Conclusion. 
 
 When we glance, then, at these and similar features 
 of the Romish system, and regard them in the light of 
 scripture, the very heart cries out, " How long, 
 Lord, how long." Under this Satanic sway, Italy, the 
 fairest portion of Europe, contains the most abject and 
 dispirited people. Its very nobles are often content to live 
 as paupers, and one of them, more daring and independent 
 than the rest, in the view of all this, describes Italy 
 as fetid and dead — ^foetida e morta. The Italians, are 
 " divided, weak, degraded slaves" — divisi, deboli, aviliti 
 e servi;t and why this deep degadration? Let Popery 
 
 * See Ciocci's Narrative of Iniquities and Barbarities, practised 
 at Rome, pp. 176-179. 
 t Alfieri. 
 
316 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 reply. As in Spain, as in unhappy Ireland, tlie boun- 
 ties of a teeming soil are more than counteracted by 
 their spiritual ^jrivations. The truth is coiTupted, and 
 all else is corrupted with it. Society is either priest- 
 ridden or infidel, the latter perhaps an increasing 
 class — the natural result of spiritual despotism among 
 thinking men.^ There is an under current of reac- 
 tion going on, for though men tremble to speak out so 
 watchful are the spies, they yet clamour for a change. 
 " Only give us a change — we cannot be worse," is the 
 sentiment we have heard in Rome — ^followed up by an- 
 other, " People begin to think like men, and not like 
 beasts ;" and though these were the utterances of rest- 
 less, not religious spirits, they indicate to some extent 
 the bent of the popular mind. Were it possible for the 
 discontent which prevails in some of the convents to com- 
 bine with that of the populace, the results would end in 
 change, a change that might prove revolutionary and 
 bloody, f 
 
 And now, finally — what would be the eff'ects were the 
 gospel to be freely preached in Rome, say only for a 
 year? Were its 150,000 inhabitants invited to hear of 
 Christ crucified as the only mediator between God and 
 man ; and just told, that in Christ they might be in- 
 stantly complete, — that his blood cleanseth from all sin — 
 that he, and not a priest, nor the church, is the Saviour, — 
 
 * " Force, together with fraud, the two great engines for the sup- 
 port of the papal dominion, have almost annihilated sincere belief in 
 Christianity, among the educated classes throughout a great por- 
 tion of Europe." — Br Whately. 
 
 f I am a Protestant said an intelligent Roman, a doctor in the 
 civil law, when conversing on this subject — because I protest against 
 all the abuses and all the superstition found in Rome. Yet Dr 
 was a Romanist. 
 
THE FUTURE. 317 
 
 that the Holy Spirit, and not baptism, regenerates — 
 what a revulsion — what a new revelation ! In truth, 
 Rome needs to be converted to Christianity at this hour, 
 as much as when Paul lived there in his own hu-ed house 
 — and the preaching of the gospel is the only instru- 
 ment that can sweep away its idolatry. There would 
 be a struggle, now as of old, when Luther rose to dare 
 the pope, and burned his bull ; but in the end, the truth 
 of God, charged with God's omnipotence, and blessed by 
 God's Spirit, would prevail. 
 
 THE FUTURE PROSPECTS OF ITALY. 
 
 It is to be confessed that these prospects are at pre- 
 sent dark and discouraging. The friends of the spirit- 
 ual freedom of Italy may well be cast down, if they are 
 not in despair. Its disease is organic — no superficial 
 treatment will effect a cure. The whole head is sick, 
 and the whole heart faint ; and unless the evil be ex- 
 tirpated, the whole system will perish. We look on 
 Rome as we look on man utterly sunk in sin— no- 
 thing but conversion will save him ; and Italy, we 
 repeat, needs to be converted as much as in the days of 
 Paul. The national frivolity, or want of fixedness of 
 character, renders the prospect yet more gloomy, because 
 the materials are unpromising. At the same time, we 
 have to confess that no efforts have yet been made for 
 the Christian regeneration of Italy. Examine the re- 
 ports of the British and Foreign Bible Society, of the 
 London Missionary, or any other Christian institute, and 
 not one sentence tells, or even hints, of efi'orts made for 
 Italy. No doubt, the lynx-eyed ministers of the pope are 
 sleepless in guarding it against what they reckon aggres- 
 
318 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 sion, and that lovely land is hermetically sealed against 
 those who wish it best. But can we not blazon our in- 
 terest in Italy, in Britain, in America, in Switzerland, in 
 France? The sound of our sympathy will be wafted 
 across the Alps. The thought of our co-operation may 
 chear some drooping spirit — may prompt inquiry — and 
 inquiry would be a mine driven under the papal system. 
 There are Christians in America, thus employed — and 
 the pope has warned his subjects against these efforts. 
 A Christian Alliance has been formed in New York, 
 whose object is to do good to Italy. Its members have 
 published an Address, and measures are in train, which 
 we pray the Lord to bless. The pope has taken the 
 alarm, and denounced the "alliance ;" but we cherish the 
 hope that it betokens the dawning of a brighter day for 
 Italy.* 
 
 But in addition to this, we would mention other 
 grounds of encouragement regarding Italy. We see the 
 distant cloud that is to bring it refreshing only like the 
 hand of a man ; but Jehovah does not despise the day of 
 small things, and neither should we. 
 
 1. Ground of Hope for Italy. 
 
 First, then, as a ground of hope for Italy, we men- 
 tion what has already happened there. We have 
 glanced at the influence which the Reformation exerted. 
 We have seen, that in all its chief cities, from the base 
 of the Alps to that of Vesuvius and Etna, the truth had 
 many adherents — even Rome supplied confessors and 
 martyrs to the cause. At this very hour, the pope pro- 
 hibits the publishing or reading of every book that bears 
 on that subject — aware that it would open men's eyes, 
 
 * See Appendix B. 
 
THE FUTURE. 319 
 
 and feed their passion for freedom. Now, from the 
 past history of Italy, and from the pope's present watch- 
 fulness, we may derive hope for the future, for what has 
 been already may, in providence, be again. Sooner than 
 we suppose, some opening may occur — some chink be 
 found, at which light may break in — and before the 
 light of God's truth, the tiara would tremble on the brow 
 of his holiness. The versatile natui'e of the Italians — 
 the want of any master-mind to unite and guide them 
 — the presence of Swiss and Austrian troops, together 
 with the existent political alliances of Europe, may ren- 
 der the prospect of Italy's spiritual emancipation remote. 
 But mighty changes are in progress. The Continent is 
 not now what it was twenty — nay, it is not what it was 
 ten years ago : whether for good or for ill, all are in 
 progress. The volcano is slumbering ; but the ferment- 
 ing pyrites give premonitions of coming throes, and who 
 shall tell the result ? Be it ours to use means, and wait 
 in faith the working of Him who " sees the end from the 
 beginning," and " doeth all things well." " He that shall 
 come, will come, and will not tarry.""^ 
 
 * The subjoined extract will give force to tlie remarks in the text. 
 
 " The influence of Geneva extends still farther in Italy. That 
 city has the honour of numbering among its citizens the descend- 
 ants of illustrious families of Lucca, Pisa, and Bologna, who, pre- 
 ferring the worship of the God of truth to honours and riches, left 
 all to follow the Reformation. In our days, the active commerce 
 of the Genevese has formed Protestant colonies in all the indus- 
 trious cities of Italy, and into all of these they have endeavoured 
 to introduce their Avorship. Some Genevese ministers conveyed 
 joy to these small congregations, when, in their voyages, they per- 
 formed divine service in the bosom of pious families. At Leghorn, 
 the Genevese were united to the English flock ; and when the 
 hatred of the French government expelled all the English from 
 Italy, the English preacher has continued to be paid by the Gene- 
 vese colony alone. At Genoa and at Naples, a subscription was 
 
320 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 2. Another Ground of Hope. 
 
 Another ground of hope for unhappy Italy is, that amid 
 countless corruptions of the truth of God, she still holds 
 seme portions, though but fragments, of what inspired 
 men have recorded. Paul rejoiced that Christ was 
 preached at Rome, even of contention. The proclama- 
 tion of his name was like rearing a tower of strength for 
 all that would run into it. Now, Christ's name is known 
 in Italy. Though his doctrines be obscured — though 
 his saints have been martyred and massacred in thou- 
 sands by the abettors of the dominant system, who can 
 
 opened in the colony to establish a Genevese minister. At Naples, 
 the minister was just about to be installed, when the war put an 
 end to the whole business. There is likewise a proposal to esta- 
 blish at Corfu a Protestant church, with a Genevese minister. If 
 the governments of the south do not forget that they owe their 
 re-establishment to England— if they do not make a duty of into- 
 lerance — the time will perhaps come, when a chain of Protestant 
 churches will extend through all the cities of Italy, as far as 
 Greece ; and those who serve in these churches will necessarily 
 be taken from Geneva. We are assured, that in England it has 
 been proposed, by some religious men, who are zealous for the 
 propagation of Protestantism, to begin a subscription, and form a 
 fund in favour of a certain number of Itixlians, Vaudois, and French, 
 who should come to study at Geneva, and fit themselves there for 
 the holy ministry, that they might afterwards diffuse and maintain 
 the light of the Gospel in Catholic countries. If that project is 
 carried into execution, it will only be the revival of an ancient in- 
 stitution, which the Revolution alone destroyed. The republic of 
 Geneva had instituted a certain number of burses in favour of the 
 Hungarians, and an equal number in favour of the Vaudois. Some 
 students chosen by these foreign Churches have been supported 
 during the four or six years which they devoted to theology and 
 to preparatory studies. At the end of that time they returned 
 to their native country, and carried into the hereditary states of 
 Austria and Sardinia the lights of religion, which their monarchs 
 would not permit them to acquire at home." — Considerations on 
 Geneva, by J. C. L. Sismonde de Sismondi ; quoted by Dr M'Crie. 
 
TIIE FUTURE. 321 
 
 doubt that the church of Pascal and a Kempis may con- 
 tain Christians in it ? They build wood, hay, stubble, 
 on the great foundation ; but as that foundation is known 
 to some, let it be farther discovered — let its stability and 
 divine origin be made known ; in other words, let the 
 gospel — the religion of God, as distinct from the religion 
 of popery, be preached, and a nation may be born in a 
 brief period. We repeat, and again repeat, our convic- 
 tion, that, so unsatisfying is all that popery can present 
 to the earnest soul or the awakened conscience, that if 
 the real source of satisfaction were opened, sinners, 
 now in the spirit of bondage, would hail the gospel and 
 its freedom with an avidity seldom witnessed among us. 
 The blank — the utter destitution of all that can either 
 cleanse or satisfy conscience, which characterizes Roman- 
 ism, would urge many of its victims to welcome with joy 
 the dawningof a happier system based on a heavenly faith. 
 Devotion to the papacy generates a false conscience in 
 the papist. Let men be disabused, and the true con- 
 science wiU speak out for him who is its only Lord. 
 
 And as we have already mentioned, we find in the 
 pretensions of the pope to infallibility, some additional 
 reasons for hope regarding Italy. We have seen pope 
 pitched against pope — edict against edict, and one infal- 
 lible decree hurled against another ; and the history of 
 such doings in the Church of Rome form an instructive, 
 though a humbling lesson. Now, in consequence of this 
 arrogant claim, Rome will at last be caught in her own 
 net. All that her head does is infallible. As pope he 
 cannot err. But pope opposes pope ; the one or the other, 
 therefore, must be wrong, and when the claim to infal- 
 libility is withdrawn, or even modified, the system of popery 
 will be rent in twain. Ignorance, political alliances, in- 
 
 X 
 
322 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 difFerentism, may support that claim for a little longer ; 
 but outraged reason will at length reclaim, and the first 
 concession wrung from Rome will be the edge of the 
 wedge that will destroy her spiritual despotism — alter one 
 clause in her creed, and the talisman is broken.* It has 
 been reckoned providential, that the gigantic system of 
 Hinduism is all religious ; its very science is a part of 
 its creed. Disprove the one, and you overthrow the 
 other. We take the same view of the boasted infalli- 
 bility of the popes. 
 
 3. A Third Encouragement. 
 
 And farther, we find another ground of hope in the 
 present rise and aggressive attitude of the papacy. If 
 we may judge by its "great swelling words of vanity," 
 the world is soon to be all its own, for sovereign and 
 subject, heretic and heathen, are fast submitting to its 
 sway. But who does not see that all this is fastening the 
 eye of Christendom with a keener gaze on Rome her- 
 self? The question is stirred, Who is she that would 
 thus become the spiritual empress of Christendom? 
 What is her past history ? What has she done, what is 
 she doing for the souls and the bodies of men ? Has not 
 a reaction against her machinations thus already com- 
 menced ? Are not alliances formed in America, England, 
 Scotland, and elsewhere, for checking her progress and 
 refuting her pretensions ? Too long have the Protestant 
 nations been passive. They must now be aggressive ; and 
 they are becoming so. Were it only in self-defence, we 
 should invade with spiritual weapons the dominions of him 
 
 * Sefi Whately's Errors of Romanism, &c. p. 207. 
 
THE FUTURE. 328 
 
 who has ah'eady invaded us.* Persecution may arise : and 
 when was the truth ever planted in our world without 
 struggles — struggles even unto death ? But the result is 
 sure ; of popery it is expressly predicted, that " the 
 Lord shall consume it with the spirit of his mouth, and 
 destroy it with the brightness of his coming," (2 Thess. 
 ii. 8). We ought to give heed to that sure word of pro- 
 phecy, and, cheered by the hope which it fosters, we 
 should labour and pray for the ruin of Rome. Romanists 
 we are to love — their spiritual slavery we are to pity — 
 their spiritual wants relieve. Their souls should be pre- 
 cious to us, just in proportion to the dismal vassalage 
 in which they live ; but while we pity, pray for, and love 
 the men, we are to disown the system, and labour for 
 its overthrow. 
 
 As long as it was inoffensive, or at least non-aggressive, 
 popery might be endured ; but since it has assumed the 
 attitude of an assailant, or even of a victor, it must be 
 bravely met. And what should be our weapons ? The 
 prophecy I have quoted contains the answer, — the Spirit 
 of God's mouth — His Word. The movements now 
 prevalent in Germany may tend to weaken popery there ; 
 but in as far as I understand the principles of John Ronge 
 
 * In the " Annates de la Propagation de la Foi," for May 1845, 
 we find the following under the head — Scotland — 
 
 " Contributed from Northern district, . £46 
 
 " Eastern do. . 59 9 5 
 
 Western do. . 18 11 1 
 
 £114 6" 
 Under the head " Distribution of the Alms among the different 
 Missions," we find the following : — 
 
 " To Bishop Carruthers, Vicar-Apostolic of Edin. 39,000 francs. 
 To Bishop Scott, Vicar- Apostolic of the West, 54,000 francs. 
 To Bishop Kile, Vicar-Apostolic of the North, 31,000 francs. " 
 
324 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 and his friends, they have not yet even drawn the wea- 
 pon which is to secure the victory. It is not human 
 reason, — it is not German rationalism that can conquer 
 Rome. The Apocalyptic beast laughs at these, like be- 
 hemoth at a straw. It is the sword of the Spirit, the 
 word of God that alone can overthrow it. John Czerski 
 is nearer the truth than Ronge ; nay, judging from his 
 words, he knows the truth ; and were one like Czerski to 
 arise in Italy, hope might be cherished. " Hear it, 
 Pope ! and ye Romish clergy, ye blind leaders of the blind, 
 I declare myself free from the banner of your unchristian 
 hieYB,Ychj, that I mai/ henceforth live and teach the pure 
 gospel, such as Christ Inmself proclaimed it to the world. 
 You will hurl your excommunicating thunderbolt at my 
 head ; you may even prepare for me youi' burning piles, 
 and forge your chains as of old ; but here I take my 
 stand, and must abide whatever may befall me. May 
 God be my helper ! Amen."* Such are the sentiments 
 which God will own ; but all that has yet been done, is 
 only " the blow of a child, without force, without energy 
 of purpose, or right direction."! There must be some- 
 thing more scriptural — more heavenly in its origin, ere 
 even the hope of victory be cherished ; and I say again, 
 that for the coming of this we should pray, use means, 
 and faint not. If, however, Czerski, or any other, fall 
 away from the simple gospel, Rome will eventually sup- 
 press him. 
 
 4. Other Motives to labour for Italy. 
 Men are now so accustomed to look on popery with 
 a benignant eye, that they regard the perils connected 
 with its growth and progress as the creations of a per- 
 
 * Czerski's "Justification," issued by himself in 1844. 
 I Edinburgh Review, uhi supra, p. 125. 
 
THE FUTURE. 3'^5 
 
 secuting spirit on the one hand, or of bigoted ignorance 
 on the other. They know not what they do ; but one 
 thing is plain : we have in this country a large antipo- 
 pish party yet to construct. The materials exist — the 
 mind and will exist, we need only a channel in which 
 to combine, and along which to co-operate. Whether 
 that shall be by an " Evangelical Alliance," or some other 
 means, God knoweth ; but this is certain — the means 
 must be devised — the measures must be adopted. We 
 do not argue thus because we have any fear that the 
 truth will be put down. It is God's, and will prevail; 
 but it will triumph by the blessing of his own Spirit on 
 the endeavours of his people. A modern statesman, 
 some years ago, gave himself, heart, and soul, and hand, to 
 the construction of a party strong enough to resist what 
 he reckoned danger to the State — he constructed it, and 
 triumphed. Now, the children of this generation are 
 wise, and the children of light must learn from them. 
 Tf they do not, they themselves will suffer, though the 
 truth of God should triumph. The antipopish cause 
 still wants a leader — a man of power gi'eat enough, and 
 grasp wide enough, to concentrate, under God, the ener- 
 gies which are at present sparse and enfeebled. But the 
 times will make the man-a Httle more popish persecution, 
 and the heat will develop energy. No doubt, in raising 
 up and consolidating a strong antipopish party, we have 
 many dijB&culties to encounter.* Like Cassandra, we 
 prophesy, but men will not regard, for even the Protes- 
 tant nations are wondering after the beast, because they 
 blindly think that the lion has become a lamb — the tiger 
 
 * One sees ground for hope in the fact, that near 200,000 copies 
 of such a work as D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation, are in 
 circulation in the English language. 
 
326 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 lost its appetite for human blood. But looking at Rome 
 in the light of history — contemplating her character, not 
 as described by her own mincing and ambiguous utter- 
 ances, at a time when " it is not expedient to persecute,^' 
 but as it is recorded in her standard books, sanctioned 
 by infallibility, we must regard it as unchanged and un- 
 changeable in its purpose to make war against the saints. 
 Convinced of this, we must boldly face the antagonist of 
 really Catholic Christendom, and try, like Oliver Crom- 
 well, to " unite the Protestant world of struggling light 
 against the Popish world of potent darkness." Protes- 
 tants, in short, must he Protestants ; and if men still be- 
 lieve a lie in spite of inspired scripture and universal 
 history, experience will convince them of their fatal delu- 
 sion, when the papacy has again become what it hopes 
 speedily to be — the dictatress of Britain, and therefore 
 of the world.* 
 
 Were men really rational in religion, we could cherish 
 more hope for Italy ; but men are not rational till the 
 Spirit of God render them so. They will believe as their 
 fathers believed, or reject as their fathers rejected, with- 
 out inquiry and without meditation. But the present 
 aggressions of Rome will compel men to think ; and 
 hence our hope. Not in science, not in philosophy, the 
 
 * The following announcement would at one period have pro- 
 voked a smile; — it is now symptomatic of growing boldness in the 
 frien'ls of the rising superstition. 
 
 " The Archbishops of Rouen, Toulouse, and Bordeaux, and the 
 Bishops of Troyes, La Rochelle, Chalons, Bayeux, Mans, and Metz. 
 have responded ti> the appeal of Dr Wiseman, and ordered public 
 prayers and Novenas (superstitious ceremonies of nine days' dura- 
 tion) for the reconversion of England to Catholicism." We are safe 
 from their prayers ; but the truth may yet have to close in a deadly 
 struggle with the superstition which dictates Novenas, and similar 
 pomps, to influence the councils of the Eternal. 
 
THE FUTURE. 327 
 
 arts, or literature ; but in Grod's simple truth, earnestly 
 believed as his Spirit teaches, do we see the bolt that is 
 to shiver the system of which Rome is the heart. The 
 gospel, and nothing but the gospel, can do good to Italy. 
 Men may struggle for political freedom apart from spi- 
 ritual, but they will he down in sorrow at the last — they 
 hold the sword by the point, and fight only with the 
 hilt, while they neglect Jehovah's panacea for the healing 
 of the nations. It is perhaps not too much to say, that 
 had the men whose blood was lately shed in Italy for 
 political movements, been shed as the blood of martyrs 
 to Christ's truth, and Italy's spiritual freedom, that "land 
 of the sun," and of a thousand associations, might have 
 been at this hour on the eve of a religious Reformation. 
 
 5. The Prospects of a Struggle. Conclusion. 
 
 Before that be accomplished, however, there is most 
 probably some strong struggle before us. No great truth 
 ever was rooted in the minds of men, or rendered in- 
 fluential in the world, without a controversy attending 
 it. Man's soul is under the dominion of the father of 
 lies, and the strong man armed keeps his house both by 
 craftiness and power. Accordingly, when the God of 
 truth seeks to lodge it in the heart and the soul, there 
 is an instant conflict and recoil produced. The law in 
 human nature which occasions this state of things, is just 
 as constant in its operation as the laws which regulate 
 the material world. Men who are not acquainted either 
 with the sinful heart of man, or the holy truth of God, 
 think that the two can coalesce, harmonize, or even co- 
 operate without any jarring or recoil. But as well 
 expect the thunder to roll without producing reverbera- 
 tion) or the lightning to strike with its resistless power 
 
328 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 without causing devastation and death, as expect the 
 truth of God to take possession of our world without an 
 eager controversy, or even convulsion. Hence such 
 phrases in scripture as the following : " Marvel not though 
 the world hate you." " If any man will live godly, he shall 
 suffer persecution." " I came not to send peace on earth, 
 but a sword." "A man's enemies shall be they of his own 
 house." In conformity with this, it is a maxim to which 
 I know not a single exception, — there never was a great 
 truth established in this world, or revived after it had 
 been neglected and cast out, without producing con- 
 troversy, dispeace, persecution. 
 
 But appeal to examples. When the Lord Jesus was 
 here, he came as the " Prince of peace." The announce- 
 ment of his birth was accompanied with this proclama- 
 tion, " Peace on earth, and good will to the children of 
 men," and how was he received? Did men hail him 
 as the beneficent One, who had omnipotence in his arm, 
 infinite love in his heart, heaven ready to gift away ? 
 Read his prophetic history in ''he 53d chapter of Isaiah, 
 and it will tell. Hear his countrymen shouting, " Away 
 with him, away with him ! crucify him, crucify him !" 
 and that will work farther conviction. See him dying amid 
 agonies which will never be told, as an object of execra- 
 tion to the Jews, and that will complete the proof. 
 Men's hearts were literally on fire against him and his 
 truth ; and as we read his wondrous stoiy, we can liken 
 it to nothing but heaven and hell in visible conflict. 
 
 Or pass over fifteen centuries, and come down to the 
 time of the Reformation. One bold man is raised up to 
 disinter God's truth, and hold it up again for the rege- 
 neration of the nations. As Jesus came forth from the 
 grave when the appointed morning arrived, his truth is 
 
THE FUTURE. 329 
 
 brought forth from the tomb where it had been buried for 
 ages. The gospel, the good news, the story of peace, was 
 proclaimed again to dying, yet immortal men ; and what 
 was the result ? Did men act now differently from Pon- 
 tius Pilate the Roman governor, or Nero and Trajan, 
 the Roman emperors, or Pliny the Roman philosopher ? 
 On the contrary, popery and its powers did now, what 
 paganism and its abettors had done before. The truth 
 was hated, persecuted, and had it been possible, it would 
 have been drowned in the blood, or buried below the ashes 
 of its friends. The carnal heart cannot love the truth ; it 
 must be changed first ; and to expect that the unrenewed 
 heart can love or welcome it, is just to contradict the 
 word of the Eternal. It will be the same in our day ; 
 and the whole armour of God must therefore be put on 
 if we would triumph over Popery. 
 
 But the set time ivill come. When commissioned by 
 the king of kings, feeble agents may accomplish mighty 
 results, (1 Cor. i. 27, 28). The hosts of Midian fled 
 before a handful of men. The walls of Jericho fell 
 at the blast of rude trumpets, because they were, in 
 fact, the blasts of the terrible One. That lovely land, 
 whose condition we have been studying, is like one vast 
 battlefield — from north to south, and east to west, 
 scarce a plain in Italy that has not been wet with the 
 blood of thousands. From Romulus to Bonaparte, it 
 has been the highest prize of mad ambition, the keenest 
 aspiration of the lust of power to be master of Italy. The 
 soldiers of Christ should shew a similar heroism, from a 
 nobler principle, for a nobler end ; for let Italy become 
 Christian, and the world's conversion draweth nigh. 
 Popery stands at this hour the antagonist of the Catholic 
 religion, and could the men of Italy be made the allies. 
 
330 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 not the enemies, of scriptural catholicity, hope might be 
 cherished for the world * We know that Luther and 
 John Craig, and other Reformers, were helped to em- 
 brace the truth, by the errors and corruptions which 
 they beheld at Rome ; and could we, in a bold, yet Chris- 
 tian spirit, call attention to Popery as it is — unchanged 
 and unchangeable, essentially similar results might be 
 realized far and wide among men. 
 
 And be incited at least to pray for Italy's spiritual 
 emancipation, by forming a right estimate of its religion. 
 When we first went to sojourn in popish lands, we went 
 under the impression that protestantism might have 
 exaggerated the ills of popery. We hoped against hope, 
 and tried to find, that the way to Grod's favour through 
 Christ was more open to Romanists than Protestants 
 suppose. But that hope soon vanished away ; and the 
 result of much study, we would thus announce : — mid- 
 night, and mid-day, are not more opposed than the 
 doctrines of popery to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Study 
 these doctrines among the cool, temperate, and saga- 
 cious Dutch. See them developed in many-minded Ger- 
 many. Examine them as they appear in the old popish 
 Cantons of Switzerland, Lucerne, Uri and Unterwald — 
 rude, bigoted, and exclusive. Contemplate them among 
 the volatile French and the passionate Italians. Final- 
 ly, look at them as they appear in some of the islands 
 in the Mediterranean, for example, in Sicily ; and every- 
 where popery appears as a grand corruption of the 
 simple gospel, everywhere the conclusion is forced upon 
 you, that " the spirit of Romanism is substantially the 
 
 * See Address, by the American " Alliance," reprinted in Sir C. 
 E, Smith's Romanism of Italy, 2d edit. An extract is given in Ap- 
 pendix B. 
 
THE FUTURE. 331 
 
 spirit of human nature."* The sad and melancholy 
 conviction that is fastened in the mind, is this — the Ro- 
 manists who are followers of Jesus Christ in spirit and 
 in truth, follow him in spite of their religion, not by its 
 guidance. Tliey will be saved yet, so as by fire. The 
 wood, and hay, and stubble, which they build on the 
 only foundation, will all be consumed. 
 
 But to deepen if possible the impression of all this, 
 we remark that, to a Christian acquainted with the re- 
 ligion which the Holy Spirit plants in the soul, accord- 
 ing to the scriptures, no aspect of popery occasions 
 greater pain than its baneful influence on a soul con- 
 vinced of sin. That is the Spirit's first work in bring- 
 ing the sinner to the only Mediator between Grod and 
 man ; and no doubt, such conviction is produced in many 
 cases even where popery keeps the soul in darkness. 
 Now, let the Christian think of the woe and tribulation 
 which must agitate a soul convinced of sin, where popery 
 reigns unchallenged and supreme. That soul feels itself 
 in the grasp of a law which it can neither satisfy nor 
 evade. Each remembered sin is a new witness against 
 the sinner. Conscience and the law of God demand 
 his condemnation. The lulling influence of popery is 
 at an end. Its spell is broken — it is God, and not man, 
 that is now dealing with the soul. Even in lands of 
 gospel light it is often a sore struggle, and days, or weeks, 
 
 * Archbishop Whately. He has developed this idea with great 
 force and clearness in his work, Essays on the Errors of Roman- 
 ism. The same view of popery is elucidated in a sermon by Dr 
 Chalmers, on Matt. vii. 3-5, Works, vol. xi. One explanation of 
 the continued power and prevalence of popery is, that it is just 
 Christianity lowered, to meet the corrupt state of man. It is not 
 religion exalting human nature, but human nature debasing reli- 
 gion. 
 
332 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 or months of mental anguish roll away ere the self- 
 righteous sinner will consent to become a tranquil be- 
 liever ; and how much more must this be the case where 
 all is spiritual darkness and death ? There is no light there 
 on the soul but that which gleams from the burning eye 
 of Jehovah, from whose intolerable glance nothing can 
 hide it. Luther's struggles in his cell give us a glimpse 
 of the agony of such souls in popish lands, and there if 
 ever the words are charged with deepest meaning, " The 
 arrows of the Almighty are within me ; the poison 
 whereof driuketh up my spirit, the terrors of Grod do 
 set themselves in array against me," (Job vi. 14). 
 
 Now, in such a case, " to which of the saints will a 
 man turn ?" Is there aught in the gorgeous rites or 
 the pantomimic ceremonies of Rome to minister to such 
 a mind ? Aught to answer the question, how shall man 
 be just before his Grod ? Aught to set the sinner free 
 from the haunting dread of condemnation ? Will the 
 exhibition of an image of the Virgin, or of a fragment 
 of her veil, or of a thorn of Christ's crown, or the foot 
 of one saint, the head of another, the tooth of a third, 
 the pairing of the nails of a fourth — soothe that troubled 
 soul ? There is much to blind and to lull it, plenty of 
 untempered mortar — enough, and more, if charms could 
 either atone for the guilt, or wash away the pollution of 
 sin. But to meet the demands of God's law, to purify 
 man's conscience, and bring him nigh to God, popery 
 as it exists at Rome, uncorrected by the proximity of 
 Protestantism, has nothing, absolutely nothing. Like 
 its own catacombs, it is a dark, dreary, Hfeless maze ; 
 it is a spiritual Zahara where all is death ; and 
 we know not where to find a stronger argument than 
 this, to induce the intelligent Christian to labour and 
 
THE FUTURE. 333 
 
 to pray for the downfall of popery. In its ruin, we be- 
 lieve, is involved the well-being of the world. 
 
 But if popery as a system be so deceptive, or unrea- 
 sonable, how do you explain the fact that so many in 
 our enlightened age are returning to its pale ? How 
 does it happen that doctors in Oxford, and dukes in 
 Brunswick, and Protestants in every land, are hastening 
 to adopt the faith which you reckon so false ? 
 
 We reply, in general, that our surprise is not that so 
 many, but that so few return to the faith of Rome. It 
 and Puseyism its twin, are just the Christianity of the 
 unconverted human heart, or the religion of Jesus so com- 
 pounded with other elements as to adapt it to fallen hu- 
 man nature, and render it acceptable without the power 
 of the Spirit of Grod, without any effort, and almost with- 
 out responsibility on the part of the recipient. Popery 
 has been called the religion of the senses, as opposed to 
 the religion of the spirit, and all who comprehend the 
 distinction will have no difl&culty in explaining why so 
 many should return to Rome. Sensuous men must 
 have a sensuous rehgion, and popeiy supplies all that 
 such men desu'e. 
 
 But we reply next, that few men exercise their reason 
 in religion. They do not think. They do not inquire. 
 They just adopt what was handed down from their fa- 
 thers, as they inherit their property or names — their 
 faith is hereditary or ancestral, not spiritual and divine. 
 Now, strong as is the principle of devotion to ancestors, 
 there are stronger principles in the heart of man, and 
 when the latter are brought to bear on him, the former 
 gives way. Popery supersedes the necessity of all in- 
 quiry ; nay, according to it, inquiry in religion is akin 
 to heresy. Implicit faith, not in Christ, but in the 
 
334 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 church — the church which claims to be apostolic, catho- 
 lic, one — takes the place of every other principle, and 
 thus man's spiritual indolence or indifference is gratified, 
 while at the same time his conscience is lulled. He finds 
 a place of rest which supersedes all inquiry and saves all 
 trouble, and though his haven be in the Dead Sea, 
 enough to the unawakened conscience if it be a haven 
 at all. 
 
 Or another explanation of the present popish con- 
 versions, is found in the captivating pretensions of the 
 papacy regarding the soul. On this head, it is enough 
 to quote the following sentences from the " Reasons 
 which induced the Duke of Brunswick to embrace the 
 Roman Catholic Religion." That work is recommended 
 by popish authority in this country, and the concluding 
 " Reason" of the royal convert is thus announced : " The 
 Catholics, to whom I spoke concerning my conversion, 
 assured me, that if I were to be damned for embracing 
 the Catholic faith, they were ready to answer for me at 
 the day of judgment, and to take my damnation upon 
 themselves —an assurance I could never extort from the 
 ministers of any sect, in case I should live and die in 
 their religion." Now, monstrous as this tenet is, it is 
 thus that the priests of Rome, like the crucifiers of Christ, 
 take on themselves the responsibility of saving or destroy- 
 ing souls ; and who will marvel though sensuous, uncon- 
 verted men, be found rushing in crowds towards a sys- 
 tem so safe, compliant, and alluring? 
 
 And let it not be forgotten, that we ourselves dwell 
 in the near neighbourhood of popery. I do not advert 
 to its present rise and progress, but speak rather of that 
 popery which is native to the human heart, and which, 
 unless guarded and prayed against, must lead to results 
 
.IPPENDIX. 335 
 
 as ruinous to us individually, as the errors of Rome to 
 the men that imbibe them. Instead of indulging self- 
 gratulation, let us rather urge forward the work of self- 
 scrutiny. We are Protestants. Do our lives legibly pro- 
 test against all that is opposed to the word and mind of 
 Grod ? We profess to seek the downfal of the spiritual 
 tyranny of Rome — have we no favourite — no friend 
 from whom we take our religious opinions, as the papist 
 from his priest ? We belong to the Christian Church, 
 and wear the Christian name — are we not in danger 
 of confiding in that — not in Christ — the church's head ? 
 We enjoy many privileges — many means of grace ? — Is 
 there no risk of our substituting these for the end, 
 Christ ? Be not high-minded, but fear. There are Pro- 
 testants among the Papists of Italy — may there not be 
 Papists among the Protestants of Britain ? 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 {Page 264.) 
 
 The following extract exhibits the true spirit of popery, as it 
 was, as it is, and must ever be, until it be utterly destroyed. 
 
 " The Waldensian colony in Calabria Citeriore had increased 
 in the sixteenth century to four thousand persons, who possessed 
 two towns, Santo Xisto, belonging to the Duke of Montalto, and 
 La Guardia, situate on the sea-coast. Cut off from intercourse 
 with their brethren of the same faith, and destitute of the means 
 of education for their pastors, this simple people, at the same time 
 that they observed their own forms of worship, had gradually be- 
 come habituated to attend on mass, without which they found it 
 difficult to maintain a friendly intercourse with the original inha- 
 bitants of the place. Their curiosity was awakened by hearing 
 that a doctrine bearing a strong affinity to that of their fathers was 
 propagated in Italy ; they eagerly sought to become acquainted 
 
336 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 with it, and being convinced that they had erred hitherto in 
 countenancing the popish worship, they applied to their brethren 
 in the valleys of Pragela, and to the ministers of G-eneva, to obtain 
 teachers who should instruct them more perfectly, and organize 
 their churches after the scripture pattern.* 
 
 " No sooner was this known at Rome, than the sacred college 
 sent two monks, Valerio Malvicino and Alfonso Urbino, into Cala- 
 bria, to suppress the churches of the AValdenses, and reduce them 
 to the obedience of the Holy See. On their first arrival, the 
 monks assumed an air of great gentleness. Having assembled the 
 inhabitants of Santo Xisto, they told them, that they had not come 
 with the view of hurting any person, but merely to warn them in 
 a friendly manner to desist from hearing any teachers but those 
 appointed by their ordinary ; that if they would dismiss those who 
 had led them astray, and live for the future according to the rules 
 of the Roman Church, they had nothing to fear ; but that, if they 
 acted otherwise, they would expose themselves to the danger of 
 losing their lives and property, by incurring the punishment of 
 heretics. They then appointed a time for celebration of mass, 
 which they required all present to attend. But instead of com- 
 plying Avith this injunction, the inhabitants, in a body, quitted the 
 town, and retired to the woods, leaving behind them only a few 
 aged persons and children. Concealing their chagrin, the monks 
 immediately went to La Guardia, and having caused the gates to 
 be shut, and assembled the inhabitants, told them that their 
 brethren of Santo Xisto had renounced their erroneous opinions, 
 and gone to mass, exhorting them to imitate so dutiful and wise 
 an example. The poor simple people, crediting the report of the 
 monks, and alarmed at the danger which they held out, complied ; 
 but no sooner did they ascertain the truth, than overwhelmed with 
 shame and vexation, they resolved instantly to leave the place 
 with their wives and children, and to join their brethren who had 
 taken refuge in the woods ; a resolution from which they were 
 with difficulty diverted by the representations and promises of 
 Salvatore Spinello, the feudatory superior of the town. Tn the 
 mean time the monks procured two companies of foot soldiers to 
 be sent into the woods, who hunted the inhabitants of Santo Xisto 
 like beasts of prey, and having discovered their lurking place, fell 
 on them with cries of Ammazzi, ammazzi, " ]\Iurder them, murder 
 them." A part of the fugitives took refuge on a mountain, and 
 
 '■^' Zanchii Epistolse, lib. 11. p. 360. 
 
APPENDIX. 337 
 
 having secured themselves on the rocks, demanded a parley with 
 the captain. After entreating him to take pity on them, their 
 wives and children, they said, that they and their lathers had in- 
 habited that country for several ages, without having given any 
 person cause to complain of their conduct ; that if they could not 
 be allowed to remain in it any longer, without renouncing their 
 faith, they hoped they would be permitted to retire to some other 
 country ; that they would go, by sea or land, to any place which 
 their superiors were pleased to appoint ; that they would engage 
 not to return ; and that they would take no more along with them 
 than what was necessary for their support on the journey, for they 
 were ready to part with their property rather than do violence to 
 their consciences by practising idolatry. They implored him to 
 withdraw his men, and not oblige them reluctantly to defend 
 themselves, as they could not answer for the consequences, if re- 
 ducedHo despair. Instead of listening to this reasonable offer, and 
 reporting it to his superiors, the captain ordered his men to ad- 
 vance by a defile, upon which those on the hill attacked them, 
 killed the greater part, and put the rest to flight.* 
 
 " It was immediately resolved to avenge on the whole body this 
 unpremeditated act of resistance on the part of a few. The monks 
 wrote to Naples that the country was in a state of rebellion, upon 
 which the viceroy dispatched several companies of soldiers to Ca- 
 labria, and, to gratify the pope, followed them in person. On his 
 arrival, listening to the advice of the inquisitors, he caused a pro- 
 clamation to be made delivering up Santo Xisto to fire and sword, 
 which obliged the inhabitants to remain in their concealments. 
 By another proclamation, he offered a pardon to the bannitti, or 
 persons proscribed for crimes, (who are a numerous class in Naples,) 
 on the condition of their assisting in the war against the heretics. 
 This brought a number of desperate characters to his standard, 
 who, being acquainted with the recesses of the woods, tracked out 
 the fugitives, the greater part of whom were slaughtered by the 
 soldiers, while the remainder took refuge in the caverns of the 
 high rocks, where many of them died of hunger. Pretending to 
 
 * Perrin, Hist, des Vaudois, part i. pp. 199-202. Perrin relates this 
 under tlie year 1560, and speaks of it as having taken place after Loiiis 
 Paschal came to Calabria. But I suspect he has placed it too late. At 
 least the author of Busdragi Epistola, which is dated 15th December 1558, 
 speaking of the xjrogress of the reformed doctrine in Italy, says, " Nam 
 quotidie aliquid novi sentitur, nunc in hac civitate, nunc in ilia. Calabria 
 nuper fere tota tumultuata est." (Serin. Antiq. torn. i. p. 322.) 
 
 Y 
 
338 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 be displeased with the severity of military execution, the inquisi- 
 tors retired to some distance from the place, and cited the inhabi- 
 tants of La Guardia to appear before them. Encouraged by the 
 reports which they had heard, the people complied ; but they had 
 no sooner made their appearance, than seventy of them were seized 
 and conducted in chains to Montalto. They were put to the 
 question by the orders of the inquisitor Panza, to induce them not 
 only to renounce their faith, but also to accuse themselves and 
 their brethren of having committed odious crimes in their religious 
 assemblies. To wring a confession of this from him, Stefano Car- 
 lino was tortured until his bowels gushed out. Another prisoner, 
 named Verminel, having, in the extremity of pain, promised to go 
 to mass, the inquisitor flattered himself that, by increasing the 
 violence of the torture, he could extort a confession of the charge 
 which he was so anxious to fasten on the Protestants. But though 
 the exhausted sufferer was kept during eight hours on the instru- 
 ment called the hell, he persisted in denying the atrocious calumny. 
 A person of the name of Marzone was stripped naked, beaten with 
 iron rods, dragged through the streets, and then felled with the 
 blows of torches. One of his sons, a boy, having resisted the at- 
 tempts made for his conversion, was conveyed to the top of a tower 
 from which they threatened to precipitate him, if he would not 
 embrace a crucifix which was presented to him. He refused ; and 
 the inquisitor, in a rage, ordered him instantly to be thrown down. 
 Bernardino Conte, on his way to the stake, threw away a crucifix 
 which the executioner had forced into his hands; upon which 
 Panza remanded him to prison, until a more dreadful mode of 
 punishment should be devised. He was conveyed to Cosenza, where 
 his body was covered with pitch, in which he was burnt to death 
 l)efore the people.'* The manner in which those of the tender sex, 
 were treated by this brutal inquisitor, is too disgusting to be re- 
 lated here. SuflSce it to say, that he pxit sixty females to the 
 torture, the greater part of whom died in prison in consequence of 
 their wounds remaining undressed. On his return to Naples, he 
 delivered a great number of Protestants to the secular arm of St 
 Agata, where he inspired the inhabitants with the greatest terror ; 
 for, if any individual came forward to intercede for the prisoners 
 he was immediately put to the torture as a favourer of lieresy.| 
 
 " Horrid as these facts are, they fall short of the barbarity per- 
 petrated on the same people at Montalto in the year 1560, under 
 
 - Perrin, ut supra, pp. 202-204. t Ibid. p. 205, 206. 
 
APPENDIX. 339 
 
 the government of the Marquis di Buccianici, to whose brother, it 
 is said, the pope had promised a cardinal's hat, provided the pro- 
 vince of Calabria was cleared of heresy. I shall give the account 
 in the words of a Roman Catholic, servant to Ascanio Caraccioli, 
 who witnessed the scene. The letter in which he describes it was 
 published in Italy, along with other narratives of the bloody 
 transaction. ' Most illustrious Sir, — Having written you from 
 time to time what has been done here in the affair of heresy, I 
 have now to inform you of the dreadful justice which began to be 
 executed on these Lutherans early this morning, being the 11th of 
 June. And, to tell you the truth, I can compare it to nothing but 
 the slaughter of so many sheep. They were all shut up in one 
 house as in a sheep-fold. The executioner went, and bringing out 
 one of them, covered his face with a napkin, or benda, as we call 
 it, led him out to a field near the house, and causing him to kneel 
 down, cut his throat with a knife. Then taking off the bloody 
 napkin, he went and brought out another, whom he put to death 
 after the same manner. In this way, the whole number, amount- 
 to eighty-eight men, were butchered. I leave you to figure to 
 yourself the lamentable spectacle ; for I can scarcely refrain from 
 tears while I write ; nor was there any person who, after wit- 
 nessing the execution of one, could stand to look on a second. 
 The meekness and patience with which they went to martyrdom 
 and death was incredible. Some of them at their death professed 
 themselves of the same faith with us, but the greater part died in 
 their cursed obstinacy. All the old men met their death with 
 cheerfulness, but the young exhibited symptoms of fear. I shudder 
 while I think of the executioner with the bloody knife in his teeth, 
 the dripping napkin in his hand, and his arms besmeared witli 
 gore, going to the house and taking out one after another, just as 
 a butcher does the sheep which he means to kill. According to 
 orders, waggons are already come to carry away the dead bodies, 
 which are appointed to be quartered, and hung up on the public 
 roads from one end of Calabria to the other. Unless his holiness 
 and the Viceroy of Naples command the Marquis de Buccianici, 
 the governor of this province, to stay his hand and leave off, he 
 will go on to put others to the torture, and multiply the executions 
 until he has destroyed the whole. Even to-day a decree has passed 
 that a hundred grown-up women shall be put to the question, and 
 afterwards executed ; so that there may be a complete mixture, 
 and we may be able to say, in weU-sounding language, that so 
 
340 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 many persons were punished, partly men and partly women. This 
 is all that I -have to say of this act of justice. It is now eight 
 o'clock, and I shall presently hear accounts of what was said by 
 these obstinate people as they were led to execution. Some have 
 testified such obstinacy and stubbornness as to refuse to look on a 
 crucifix, or confess to a priest; and they are to be burnt alive. 
 The heretics taken in Calabria amount to sixteen hundred, all of 
 whom are condemned ; but only eighty-eight have as yet been put 
 to death. This people came originally from the valley of Angrogna, 
 near Savoy, and in Calabria are called Ultra-montani. Four other 
 places in the kingdom of Naples are inhabited by the same race 
 but I do not know that they behave ill ; for they are a simple, 
 unlettered people, entirely occupied with the spade and plough, 
 and, I am told, show themselves sufficiently religious at the hour 
 of death.'* Lest the reader should be inclined to doubt the truth 
 of such horrid atrocities, the following summary account of them, 
 by a Neapolitan historian of that age, may be added. After giving 
 some account of the Calabrian heretics, he says : ' Some had their 
 throats cut, others were sawn through the middle, and others 
 thrown from the top of a high cliff : all were cruelly but deservedly 
 put to death. It was strange to hear of their obstinacy ; for while 
 the father saw his son put to death, and the son his father, they 
 not only gave no symptoms of grief, but said joyfully, that they 
 would be angels of God: so much had the devil, to whom they had 
 given themselves up as a prey, deceived them.'| 
 
 " By the time that the persecutors were glutted with blood, it 
 was not difficult to dispose of the prisoners who remained. The 
 men were sent to the Spanish galleys ; the women and children 
 were sold for slaves ; and, with the exception of a few who re- 
 nounced their faith, the whole colony was exterminated.:^ ' Many 
 a time have they afflicted me from my youth,' may the race of the 
 Waldenses say, ' many a time have they afflicted me from my 
 youth. My blood, — the violence done to me and to ray flesh, be 
 upon Rome !' " — M'Crie's Reformation in Italy, pp. 257-266. 
 
 "■ Pantaleon, Rerum in Eccles. Gest. Hist. f. 337, 338. De Porta, ii. 309-312. 
 t Tommaso Costo, Seconda Parte del Compendio dell 'Istoria di Napoli. 
 p. 257. 
 
 J Perrin, ut supra, p. 206-7. Hist, des Mai tyrs, f 516, a. 
 
APPENDIX. 341 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 (Page 318.) 
 
 The following extract from the Address of the American Al- 
 liance will illustrate its spirit : — 
 
 " The common mind of Italy, it is believed, is gradually tending 
 towards a religious change. The abortive attempts at political revo- 
 lution which have occurred within the past twenty-five years, and 
 which have been put down immediately by Austrian bayonets, have 
 taught Italian patriotism one valuable lesson. The patriotic minds 
 of that glorious land, whether in exile or on their native soil, are 
 understood to have abandoned the hope of liberating their countr}' 
 by insurrection and the sword. They see that there can be no 
 hope of a new Italy, otherwise than by an intellectual and moral 
 revolution that shall make the people new. They see that nothing 
 desirable can be accomplished without the diffusion of new, quicken- 
 ing, and elevating ideas among the masses of their countrymen. 
 They see that Italy will have all necessary freedom whenever the 
 common people, the gay, unthinking peasantry of her villages, and 
 the mechanics and shopkeepers of her towns, begin to become in- 
 quiring, thoughtful men ; men accustomed to believe and act, not 
 implicitly according to the dictation of others, but intelligently 
 according to their own convictions. Many of them having been 
 made acquainted, by years of exile, with what it is that constitutes 
 the happiness of nations truly free, have become convinced that 
 the great charter of such happiness is the Bible, and that the ideas 
 which are to work out the true emancipation of their country, can 
 never Ije awakened in the masses, but in connexion with the teach- 
 ings of that book. With such views, movements are already or- 
 ganised by Italians themselves, to diffuse among their countrymen 
 such knowledge as will tend to that intellectual and moral renova- 
 tion, without which all political changes will be of little value. 
 
 " The Christian Alliance, for the promotion of religious freedom, 
 has originated in the attention which gentlemen of various Chris- 
 tian denominations, in the city of New York and elsewhere, have 
 recently given to the present condition of Italy, and the relations 
 between that country and the cause of religious freedom throughout 
 the world. A door is open for the access of truth to the minds of 
 the Italian people. Notwithstanding the most rigid censorship 
 over the press and the importation of books ; notwithstanding every 
 
342 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 regulation which the genius of despotism can devise to shut out 
 knowledge and to suppress inquiry ; notwithstanding the terrors 
 of Austrian artillery and the inconveniences of a police swarming 
 in every quarter ; it is ascertained that to some extent papers, 
 tracts, books, the Bible itself, can be introduced into Italy, and can 
 be placed in the hands of those who will hardly fail to read and to 
 profit by the reading. At the same time, an ample field of effort is 
 presented among the Italians out of Italy, between whom and their 
 countrymen at home there is, and notwithstanding every possible 
 regulation there must continue to be, a constant intercourse. Even 
 the slightest acquaintance with Italians in foreign countries shews 
 that they are liberally disposed and ready to receive new ideas. 
 From the Ionian Islands, from France, from Great Britain, and 
 from other countries, Italians are continually returning to Italy ; 
 and if, in the lands in which they sojourn for a season, their minds 
 receive a quickening impulse, and they learn that " the Bible with- 
 out a clasp" is the palladium of true liberty, they cannot but com- 
 municate to their countrymen around them something of the same 
 impulse." 
 
 Some days after this Lecture was delivered, the following circular 
 was received by the author. It will be seen that some of the sen- 
 timents contained in the Address were anticipated in the Lecture, 
 and the whole is here subjoined that all who love the caiise that 
 is truly catholic — the cause of souls, may be at once stimulated by 
 its arguments, and encouraged by its Christian philanthropy. 
 
 " LoKDON Italian Society, for promoting the Welfare 
 OF Italians resident in the British Empire,— The design 
 of the Society is to make provision for conducting Evangelical 
 Italian Worship in London and elsewhere ; to maintain an Asylum, 
 or Institution, where Italian Boys may receive a Christian Educa- 
 tion ; to promote the establishment of Sunday, Day, and Evening 
 Schools for any Italians that may require instruction ; and to pro- 
 mote the composition, printing, and circulation of religious Books 
 and Tracts in the Italian language. {Here folloxvs the list of Offlce" 
 Bearers). 
 
 " Address. — The Italian Nation, although depressed by civil and 
 ecclesiastical despotism, has still the talent and energy which once 
 placed the Republics of Italy at the head of European civilization. 
 
APPENDIX. 343 
 
 Deprived of the blessings of a free people under a constitutional 
 monarchy, they have neither a representative government, nor a 
 free press, nor the right of trial by jury, nor the right of petition, 
 nor the liberty to worship God according to their conscience, nor 
 the unrestricted use of the Bible, nor any of the chief rights of a 
 free people. While thus they are denied the enjoyment of civil 
 and religious liberty, their industry is loaded with innumerable 
 shackles. The best and noblest of the citizens, impatient of this 
 degradation, become objects of suspicion to the Governments, and, 
 to escape such prisons as the Piombi and the Spielberg, are obliged 
 to seek a shelter on foreign shores. 
 
 " Their moral and intellectual superiority, their love of liberty, 
 their disposition to throw off the yoke of superstition without los- 
 ing their ftiith in revelation, and their unmerited misfortunes, 
 should ensure them a hospitable welcome among us. From among 
 them will, in all probability, arise the religious reformers of Italy. 
 Christians in England ought surely to make systematic efforts to 
 direct their attention to the Gospel, and by sympathy with them, 
 recommend to them the religious truth which may sustain them 
 in their troubles, and ennoble all their efforts to benefit their 
 country. 
 
 " But besides these, whom the love of civil and religious liberty 
 has driven from the glowing sky of Italy to breathe our heavier 
 atmosphere, and who feel freedom to be better than sunshine, there 
 are many poor Italians who seek by their labours a maintenance 
 in England, which the innumerable checks to industry in their 
 own land forbid them to secure at home. Some of these retain the 
 bigoted prejudices in which they have been brought up ; others 
 have thrown off their faith together with their superstition ; and 
 all require the friendly attention of those who love the Gospel, 
 that they may be won to love it too. 
 
 " Among these poorer Italians, there is one class which especially 
 demands our pity. Hundreds of parents in Italy have been led 
 by the hope of gain, to place their children for a few years at the 
 disposal of masters who bring them to this country, furnish them 
 with organs, and send them forth to obtain what they can in the 
 streets. These boys know nothing of our language nor of our 
 laws ; they are without friends, they can neither read nor write, 
 they have no money, their passports are not in their own hands, 
 and without these passports they could not re-enter their own 
 country. They are thus completely at the mercy of their masters. 
 
344 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 Under these circumstances, how many of those masters who im- 
 ported them into this country, to make the largest possible gains 
 in the least possible time by their toil and beggary, can be expected 
 to treat them humanely ? Some of these poor boys have been used 
 most cruelly. The evidence given before various magistrates, and 
 published in the newspapers, shews that they have been starved, 
 bound, flogged, and wounded. Numbers of them have died in our 
 hospitals and elsewhere, victims of an ill treatment to which their 
 helpless ignorance could oppose no resistance, and all of them are 
 liable to similar evils. It does not become Christians, it is not 
 creditable to Englishmen, to let them suffer on without notice and 
 without protection. 
 
 " All these classes are accessible to Christian influence, and it is 
 somewhat unaccountable that they should have been so completely 
 overlooked. Many are lamenting the progress of Roman Catholic 
 doctrine in this country, and yet leave 5000 Italian Roman Catho- 
 lics in London, not unwilling to learn Protestant doctrine, unaided 
 and unnoticed. Many deplore the depressed stiite of Italy, and 
 here are 5000 Italians, among whom are political exiles of vigorous 
 understanding and good character determined to think for them- 
 selves, converted ecclesiastics, and commercial men having exten- 
 sive connexions in Italy, all of whom may exercise an important 
 influence upon Italian society, and nothing is attempted to guide 
 and to assist their energies. 
 
 " Much may obviously be done to benefit them. There should be 
 Missionaries to visit them from house to house ; Italian Bibles and 
 Testaments should be largely circulated among them ; religious 
 tracts, both practical and controversial, should be carefully prepared 
 for their use. They should be invited to evangelical worship in 
 their own language. Each new convert from any part of Italy 
 should receive a brotherly welcome among us, and a frugal main- 
 tenance, till his principles may be tested and he may be able to 
 maintain himself. A Protestant Evangelical Italian Church should 
 be organized, and its members be assisted to maintain their Minis- 
 ters. This Church should have its asylum for oppressed and 
 friendless boys ; its seminary for promising youths, who may either 
 become evangelists to their countrymen, or learn otherwise to ob- 
 tain their livelihood ; its Sunday Schools for all the children of the 
 poorer Italians, and Italian Sunday-School Teachers associated to 
 instruct them. 
 
 " In a circular lately printed by an Italian priest in London, he 
 
APPENDIX. 345 
 
 calls upon the Italians to labour for the reconversion of England 
 to the Catholic Faith ; but efforts, such as those just described, 
 would make the Pope and his Cardinals renounce the dream of 
 conquest to think only of defence. A Society organized at New 
 York to diffuse scriptural information among Italians, has already 
 created so much alarm at Rome, as to have called forth the last 
 encyclical letter of the anxious Pontiff against the unrestricted use 
 of the Scriptures, and against that Society in particular. Why 
 should not Englishmen emulate this Christian example ? Why 
 should New York, by its evangelical zeal, disturb the slumbers of 
 the Pope, and London, by its apathy, lull him again to repose ? 
 The object before English Protestants is great. Let the Italian 
 exiles, the most liberal, the most intelligent, the most virtuous, 
 the noblest part of the nation, embrace the Gospel, and Rome, and 
 Milan, and Florence, Turin, Bologna, Venice, and Naples, in spite 
 of all jealous watchfulness on the part of those who crush them, 
 would feel the healthful influence, and the papal throne would 
 totter to its foundations. For, let Italy trample on the proud pre- 
 tensions of the Pontiff, let Italy declare in the ear of Europe that 
 papal supremacy is a delusion, and pontifical sanctity a falsehood, 
 that Christ is the only Head of the Universal Church, and the 
 Scriptures its only code, and France and Germany would re-echo 
 the Evangelical creed, and ecclesiastical despotism would be extin- 
 guished. 
 
 " With these hopes the London Italian Society has been formed. 
 Its Committee is composed of members of various denominations. 
 Their fundamental rule is, that they will not dictate to their Ita- 
 lian brethren their form of Church Government, or their mode of 
 discipline. They propose to contribute largely towards the main- 
 tenance of the Asylum for poor Italian Boys, which has been opened 
 by the energy and faith of their Christian brother. Signer Feretti. 
 A room has been opened for Protestant divine worship in the Ita- 
 lian language, at which some Italians already attend ; and they wish 
 to be able to circulate Italian Bibles and Tracts as soon as the funds 
 are placed at their disposal. 
 
 " The readers of this appeal are earnestly requested to give their 
 prompt and liberal aid. Adequate funds will enable the Committee, 
 with the blessing of God, to do much good. A large sphere of use- 
 fulness is opening before them, and they earnestly request their 
 Christian brethren to enable them to enter upon it. 
 
346 ITALY AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 " Rules and Regulations. 
 
 " I. The object of this Society shall be, to aid our Italian brethren 
 in the formation of a Reformed Evangelical Italian Church, but 
 not to interfere with their church discipline, or form of worship. 
 
 " II. The business of the Society shall be conducted by a Com- 
 mittee of not less than twelve Members, of whom four shall form 
 a quorum. 
 
 " III. The President, Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, Sub-Treasurer, 
 and Secretary, shall be considered members of the Committee, ex 
 officio. 
 
 " IV. The Committee shall meet once a quarter, or more fre- 
 quently if business shall require it. 
 
 " V. Every meeting of the Committee shall be opened with 
 prayer. 
 
 " VI. The minutes of each meeting shall be read at the following 
 meeting, and when confirmed, signed by the Chairman. 
 
 " VII. All payments on account of the Society shall be made by 
 cheques on the Society's Bankers, signed in Committee by the 
 Chairman, and countersigned by the Secretary. 
 
 " VIII. The Society's year shall close on the 31st of March, when 
 the accounts shall be made up. 
 
 " IX. The design of the Asylum supported by the Society shall 
 be, to offer a refuge to Italian boys who seek security from the 
 cruel treatment of their masters. The children of indigent Ita- 
 lians, who are unable to provide the means of education for their 
 families, shall also be received. 
 
 " X. The Committee shall undertake to print religious works in 
 the Italian language, for the purpose of circulation. Each work 
 shall be examined by three members of the Committee, and adopted 
 on their recommendation. 
 
 " XI. Endeavours shall be made to form Auxiliary Associations 
 in cities or large towns in Great Britain and in Her Majesty's 
 Colonies, to further the objects of the Society in those places. 
 
 " XII. Friendly correspondence shall be maintained with Ita- 
 lians on the Continent and elsewhere, who are interested in the 
 objects of the Society, and also with all Protestant Societies who 
 are labouring to promote the same cause. 
 
 " XIII. Statements of proceedings shall be printed from time 
 to time, for circulation among the Subscribers and Friends of the 
 Society." 
 
347 
 
 LECTURE VL 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF SPAIN AT THE PE- 
 RIOD OF THE SUPPRESSION OF THE REFORMATION, 
 AND, IN PARTICULAR, THE GREAT LEADING FEA- 
 TURES AND EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF POPERY 
 IN THAT COUNTRY AT THAT PERIOD, WHEREBY 
 IT WAS ENABLED TO CRUSH THE REFORMATION. 
 
 BY THE REV. Wm. M. HETHERINGTON, LL.D. 
 
 MINISTEK OF FREE CHURCH, ST ANDREWS. 
 
 The religious condition of Spain presents several pe- 
 culiarities so very remarkable, that in order to their 
 being rightly understood, we must direct some attention 
 to the earlier periods of its history. In no country, not 
 even in Italy, have all attempts at religious reformation 
 been more completely suppressed ; and over no portion 
 of Europe does spiritual darkness more deeply brood. 
 Yet the people of Spain are in many respects a noble 
 race, and have often displayed an elevation and energy 
 of character, from which higher and brighter hopes 
 might have been entertained. At one time, Spain was 
 the mightiest monarchy in Europe, — first in military 
 fame, and scarcely less renowned for genius and learning. 
 Now she is the most abject and degraded ; so degraded 
 and so abject, as not to be ashamed of her own fallen 
 
348 RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 and debased condition. This could not have been the 
 case had true Christianity continued to exist in Spain ; 
 for a true Christian can never sink into utter degrada- 
 tion. Yet, in no country in the world are the people 
 more proud of their religion, and no nation termed 
 Christian is so loud in its boast of possessing the most 
 perfect Christianity. The Spaniard asserts that he is the 
 Christian of Christendom, — the old, genuine, and un- 
 tainted Christian ; and that his rehgion is the faith, the 
 only pure and unadulterated faith. In this respect, 
 Spain is more ultra-Roman than Rome herself. There 
 is no tolerance for diversities of religious belief in Spain. 
 Intolerance is the only point on which King and Cortes, 
 liberal and servile, are agreed. Bigotry has long, in the 
 eyes of Spain, been her glory ; in the eyes of Europe, 
 her disgrace: there every possible dissent exists except the 
 religious. It must be evident, that such a state of absolute 
 bigotry and intolerance could not have been produced 
 otherwise than by a protracted course of despotism on 
 the one hand, and subjection on the other ; and could 
 not have continued to exist, without the presence of 
 some constantly over-mastering cause, sufficient to re- 
 press all the movements of awakening intelligence. To 
 investigate that course, and trace out that steadily ope- 
 rating cause, is our task. 
 
 Christianity was early introduced into Spain, though 
 it does not very clearly appear by what direct instru- 
 mentality. Nothing of peculiar moment occurred with 
 regard to the Christian Church in Spain till the fourth 
 century, when Priscillian, a native of Grallicia, founded 
 a sect, by combining the heretical tenets of the Mani- 
 chseans and the Gnostics The Ariau heresy also pre- 
 
OF SPAIN. 349 
 
 vailed so extensively as to be in a manner the established 
 creed of the country for nearly two centuries. Various 
 other heretical opinions took possession of the Spanish 
 mind, and were with gi*eat difficulty removed. And 
 when the corruptions of Rome began to overspread the 
 church, Spain showed her spiritual independence, and 
 even her sounder faith, by some attempts to check the 
 growing apostasy. The name of Claude, bishop of Turin, 
 a native of Spain, who flourished in the ninth century, 
 deserves to be held in remembrance and respect for the 
 decided and strenuous opposition which he made to the 
 worship of images, the veneration of relics and sepulchres 
 of saints, and the arrogated supremacy of the pope, by 
 whose authority these corruptions were enforced. To 
 the claims of universal supremacy by the pope, the 
 Spanish church was not soon nor easily brought to sub- 
 mit ; nor did she acknowledge, during the first eight 
 centuries, the right of Rome to interfere with her inter- 
 nal religious affairs. For several centuries the Spanish 
 church acknowledged no other office-bearers than bishops, 
 presbyters, and deacons. It deserves to be remarked, 
 that the Council of Toledo, in 684, in condemning the 
 Monothelite heresy, which Pope Honorius I. had fa- 
 voured, stated a proposition which strikes at the very 
 foundation on which the bishops of Rome rest their 
 claims, by declaring that the rock on which the church 
 is built, is the faith of St Peter, and not his person or 
 office ; and in a subsequent Council the same proposition 
 was re-asserted and strenuously defended. Another 
 direct proof that the early Spanish church was indepen- 
 dent of Rome is found in the fact, that its liturgy, or 
 form of celebrating divine service, after several changes, 
 and in consequence of the inconvenience of different 
 
350 RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 forms being used in diflferent parts of the country, was 
 remoulded by the 4th Council of Toledo, in 633, when 
 a decree was passed, that one uniform mode should be 
 observed in all the churches of the country. This de- 
 cree led to the adoption of what has been called the 
 Gothic, and sometimes the Isidorian or Ildefonsian 
 liturgy, from Isidore and Ildefonso, archbishops of Se- 
 ville, by whom it was revised and corrected. This 
 liturgy was very different, in many important respects, 
 from the liturgy used at Rome, and sanctioned by Pope 
 Gregory himself. It thus appears, that how much so- 
 ever Spain is now the slave of Rome in religious matters, 
 she was not so from the beginning. Let us now trace 
 how she fell under the all-grasping power of papal 
 Rome. 
 
 The Gothic monarchy of Spain, as every reader of 
 history knows, was overthrown by the invasion of the 
 Moors in 711. This dreadful event involved Spain in 
 a life-and-death struggle, which continued, with little 
 intermission, for well-nigh eight centuries, ending only 
 in the conquest of Granada, and the expulsion of the 
 Moors, or rather Saracens, in 1492. During that long 
 period, the ancient Gothic race of Spain was trained to 
 the utmost degree of romantic bravery, while the influ- 
 ence of the Arabian taste and genius lent a quickening 
 stimulus to their intellectual energies and their taste. 
 At the same time, the absolute necessity which exists 
 for complete subordination in warlike operations, inured 
 the people generally to the practical despotism exercised 
 by their kings and military leaders. So long as the 
 conflict with the Arab antagonists continued, this was 
 not productive of much evil ; for if it was necessary for 
 the people to obey implicitly the commands of their 
 
OF SPAIN. 351 
 
 warlike leaders, it was equally necessary for these 
 leaders so to rule as to be not more feared than beloved. 
 There were, besides, several petty kingdoms in the 
 Peninsula, whose mutual rivalry and jealousies tended to 
 keep each other in check, and rendered it always possible 
 to escape from local tyranny without much difficulty. 
 In the eleventh century, these small dominions had 
 merged into three of considerable magnitude. Towards 
 the close of that century, Alfonso of Leon and Castile 
 obtained so much power, as to excite in his mind the 
 hope of acquiring the supremacy of all Spain. Valencia 
 had yielded to his arms, and Toledo, which had been in 
 the possession of the Moors for more than three centuries, 
 submitted to his conquering prowess. He had strength- 
 ened himself by an alliance with France, having married 
 a French princess. She instigated her husband to in- 
 troduce into Castile the Roman liturgy, to which she 
 had been accustomed ; and in this she was strenuously 
 supported by the Papal legate. The nobility, clergy, 
 and people, all resisted this innovation ; and after various 
 artifices had been used to gain or to conciliate them, a 
 compromise was framed, according to which it was de- 
 creed that both the Gothic and the Roman liturgies 
 should be used to a certain extent, — the Grothic in To- 
 ledo, and the Roman in all the other churches in the 
 kingdom. The effect was what was intended. The 
 Grothic, discountenanced by the court and the higher 
 dignitaries of the Church, sunk into disrepute, and was 
 superseded by the Roman. The introduction of the 
 Roman liturgy took place in Aragon in 1071, and in 
 Toledo in 1086. Spiritual independence was thus 
 yielded up ; and the full recognition of Papal authority 
 in Spain very soon followed the introduction of the Ro- 
 
352 RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 man liturgy. From this a very obvious, but very im- 
 portant inference may be drawn, — that the yielding up 
 of even external matters in religion to any power exte- 
 rior to the church, is equivalent to the surrender of all 
 rehgious hberty.* And another consequence speedily 
 followed in Spain, as it will do every where else, in si- 
 milar circumstances. The king of Aragon, after his 
 succession to the throne according to the laws of the 
 country, went to Rome, and was crowned by the pope, 
 taking at the same time a solemn oath that he and his 
 successors would be faithful to the Church of Rome, 
 preserve his kingdom in obedience to it, defend the Ca- 
 tholic faith, suppress heresy, and maintain inviolate the 
 liberties and immunities of the holy church. To com- 
 plete the disgraceful transaction, he dedicated all his 
 dominions to St Peter, and his successors in the pope- 
 dom, as a fief of the church, engaging to pay an annual 
 tribute as a mark of homage. Against this subjection 
 of even the civil liberty of the country to a foreign 
 power, the nobility vehemently protested, but in vain. 
 Nor was it long till the king himself had reason to re- 
 pent of his criminal folly ; for, having quarrelled with 
 the pope, he was laid under the ban of excommunication 
 for having violated his oath. Several attempts were 
 made by subsequent kings to escape from this degrading 
 vassalage, but without success. And in this manner 
 Spain was brought under the thraldom of that Romish 
 yoke and bondage, by which all Europe was so long 
 bound and oppressed. 
 
 It was not strange that Rome was anxious to obtain 
 direct influence in Spain, both because that was neces- 
 
 * From this we may see the wisdom of our forefiathers, in re- 
 sisting tlie liturgy which Charles II. sought to impose. 
 
OP SPAIN. 353 
 
 sary to her assumption of universal supremacy over 
 Christendom, and because she could not otherwise sup- 
 press the Waldenses or Albigenses. The opinions of 
 these early reformers were extensively diffused through- 
 out the southern provinces of France, by which means 
 they were readily communicated to Catalonia, Valencia, 
 and Aragon ; and as the King of Aragon was at the same 
 time Count of Provence, the intercourse between the 
 Aragonese and these southern districts of France was 
 necessarily frequent and friendly. Exposed to the most 
 severe persecution in their own country, the Albigenses 
 sought and found refuge in Spain, as early as the middle 
 of the twelfth century. Pedro II. of Aragon, notwith- 
 standing the submission which he had rendered to the 
 pope, gave countenance and help to the persecuted Albi- 
 genses, was excommunicated by the pope, joined his 
 army to that of Raymond, Count of Toulouse, and was 
 killed at the battle of Muret, in the year 1213. But 
 though the Albigenses obtained both encouragement 
 and protection in Aragon and Catalonia for a time, and 
 increased considerably, it was but a temporary cessation 
 of their troubles. The fatal connexion which had been 
 formed with Rome did its work ; and in the year 1237, 
 the influence of the pope was sufficient to kindle in Spain 
 the flames of persecution against those whom it condemned 
 as heretics. In that year fifteen persons were burned 
 alive, and eighteen disinterred bodies were cast into the 
 flames. This was a gloomy omen for Spain, and very 
 terribly was its darkest presage realised. 
 
 There were two instrumentalities by means of which 
 Poperyacquired and exercised supremeinfluence in Spain. 
 The Jirst of these was the system of Monastic Institutions. 
 During the earlier ages of Christianity in Spain, there 
 
354 RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 were but few monastic institutions in that country, and 
 they were regarded with little favour, and consequently 
 exercised little influence. But after the authority of 
 Rome was recognised, the number of convents and monks 
 increased very rapidly, from the twelfth to the fifteenth 
 century. The Dominicans received peculiar favour, in 
 consequence of their founder being himself a Spaniard ; 
 but the increase and the influence of the Franciscans 
 was also very great. In a short time these two monas- 
 tic orders became so wealthy and powerful, that they 
 werea ble to bid defiance to the commands of the sove- 
 reigns themselves ; and not even the authority of Fer- 
 dinand and Isabella, under whom Spain had been con- 
 soUdated into one monastery, was able to check the 
 abuses of these orders, except by the aid of Cardinal 
 Ximenes, himself a Franciscan friar, and chief of that 
 order in Spain. 
 
 The other great instrument by means of which the 
 papal power was firmly established in Spain, was the 
 Inquisition, — a word, the utterance of which even yet 
 is almost enough to make the blood run cold. Apostolic 
 and primitive Christianity was exposed to repeated and 
 wasting persecution from the idolatrous heathenism then 
 prevalent in the world. But no persecution by heathens 
 was ever so dreadful as the persecutions afterwards 
 urged on by a power terming itself a Christian Church, 
 and perpetrated by the hands of men who called them- 
 selves Christians. Let it be observed, that although 
 there were some instances in which Manichaeans were 
 put to death in the fourth century, the most distinguished 
 men of the period strenuously remonstrated against such 
 a mode of preserving the truth and purity of Christian 
 doctrine. Still, as the tenets of the Manichaeans were 
 
OF SPAIN. 355 
 
 regarded with peculiar abhorrence, the opposition to 
 their forcible and violent extermination was not so great 
 as it would have been in the case of parties accused of 
 less detested heresies. This may serve to explain the 
 reason why the Albigenses were accused of holding that 
 abhorred heresy, of which I am inclined to think thent 
 almost, if not entirely, guiltless. But the accusation 
 was enough to deprive them of all sympathy, and even 
 to direct against them so much detestation as to render 
 it meritorious in the eyes of many to put them to death. 
 It followed almost as a necessary consequence, that the 
 public mind became familiarized to the idea of persecu- 
 tion, and ere long even gratified with the sight of it. 
 For it is a fearful fact in human nature, that to witness 
 repeated instances of barbarity, barbarizes the mind, so 
 that even the gentle and timid can become enamoured 
 of sights of horror, from which at first they turned shud- 
 dering away. Let no man ever exclaim, with Hazael, 
 *' Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing !" 
 for if he but begins, he may find himself ere long, dog-like, 
 lapping blood with grim delight. 
 
 While this barbarizing process was going on, other 
 causes contributed to strengthen its influence. The 
 power which papal Rome claimed of pronouncing the 
 sentence of excommunication, and of giving to it civil 
 consequences, operated in the same direction. For an 
 excommunicated person was not only excluded from the 
 privileges of the church, but was also regarded as de- 
 prived of aR the rights, natural or civil, which he had 
 formerly enjoyed. He became thus an absolute outlaw, 
 bereft of Heaven's favour and protection, and exposed 
 to every human outrage, — without a country, a home, 
 or a relative, all men recoiling from him as from a thing 
 
^56 RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 accursed. To deprive such a person of his miserable 
 existence could not be regarded as a crime, — it might 
 almost be viewed as an act not only of justice but of 
 mercy. This dreadful weapon Rome wielded with re- 
 morseless energy and terrible eifect. To this may be 
 added the influence of the Crusades, by which men were 
 taught to regard all the nameless outrages of war as ab- 
 solutely meritorious, when exercised on the plea of reli- 
 gion. And it will be remembered, that after the recovery 
 of Palestine became hopeless, Rome proclaimed another 
 Crusade against the Albigenses, and thus thoroughly 
 trained the mind of papal Christendom to contemplate 
 the most hideous atrocities, under the guise of zeal for 
 the suppression of heresy. 
 
 Even thus prepared, there was still one element ne- 
 cessary, without which the Inquisition could not have 
 possessed the terrible power by which it was character- 
 ized. Reference has been already made to the condition 
 of Spain during its long struggle against its Moslem in- 
 vaders. Throughout that period it remained as a con- 
 geries of separate and independent kingdoms, somewhat 
 like the Saxon Heptarchy — with this important difie- 
 rence, that all Saxon institutions rested on a basis of 
 individual liberty and privilege, whereas all the Spanish 
 kingdoms were constructed on the principles of military 
 despotism. The marriage of Ferdinand, king of Aragon, 
 and Isabella, queen of Castile, by uniting the two most 
 powerful of those kingdoms, speedily brought the whole 
 peninsula into one great monarchy. But that monarchy 
 retained the arbitrary principles by which the separate 
 provinces had previously been governed, and remained 
 essentially despotic. There was nothing, therefore, in 
 Spain, or in Spanish institutions, to modify the Inquisi- 
 
OF SPAIN. 357 
 
 fcion. It might take any form and character which des- 
 potism ecclesiastical and despotism civil should concur 
 in giving it. 
 
 The Church of Rome had been aiming at the erection 
 of some such institution for a considerable time. As 
 early as 1198, St Dominic, the founder of the Order of 
 Dominican Friars, and two of his fraternity, had been 
 sent into France with a commission from the pope, em- 
 powering them to search for heretics ; but they were not 
 invested with any judicial power, and could only search 
 out and accuse. Subsequently, the Council of Toulouse 
 in 1229, ordained the bishops to appoint one priest and 
 two or three laymen in each parish, to search after here- 
 tics, and give information. But in the year 1233, Pope 
 Oregory IX. took from the bishops the power of dis- 
 covering and bringing to judgment the heretics that were 
 lurking in France, and committed that fearful task to 
 the Dominican Friars. This was the direct origin of the 
 Inquisition in France, and the first place in which it 
 was set up was at Toulouse. It was not till some 
 time afterwards that it was established in Spain, which, 
 at that period, was not ripe for the reception of such a 
 tribunal. 
 
 But the time arrived, promoted by the causes already 
 specified. The king of united Spain, Ferdinand, readi- 
 ly listened to the proposal made to him by the pope, 
 — a proposal in which he foresaw the means of consoli- 
 dating his own power, and filling his treasury with con- 
 fiscated property. The papal bull for establishing the 
 Inquisition in Castile was issued on the 1st of November 
 1478 ; and on the 17th September 1480, Ferdinand and 
 Isabella named the fii-st inquisitors, who commenced 
 their proceedings on the 2d of January 1481, in the 
 
358 RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 convent of St Paul at Seville. But though thus insti- 
 tuted, it did not assume a practical and permanent form 
 till after an interval of two years, when Thomas Torque- 
 mada, a Dominican Eriar, and prior of Santa Cruz in 
 the town of Segovia, was placed at its head, under the 
 designation of Inquisitor-General. Torquemada was 
 not a man to allow the powers which had been entrusted 
 to him to remain unused. He was fully qualified for 
 the organization of the dread tribunal of which he was 
 the chief. He chose assessors to himself, and erected 
 subordinate tribunals in different cities of the kingdom. 
 Over the whole was placed the Council of the Supreme, 
 consisting of the Inquisitor- General as president, and 
 three counsellors, two of whom were doctors of laws. 
 B}' this Supreme C^ouncii all the inferior tribunals were 
 regulated ; and in it the counsellors had a deliberative 
 voice in matters relating to civil law, but only a consul- 
 tative voice in those of ecclesiastical law, of which 
 Torquemada was- the sole judge. A bod}^ of laws was 
 next foiTued for the government of the new institution, 
 which was promulgated in 1484. Additions and altera- 
 tions were subsequently made ; and in 1561, it was 
 thoroughly revised by the Inquisitor-GeneralValdes, since 
 which time it remained without any material alteration. 
 A few of the leading laws in this terrific code may be 
 specified, with all possible brevity. 
 
 As the avowed object of the Inquisition was the dis- 
 covery of heresy, the an-angement for securing this result 
 demands our notice first. Combining the elements of a 
 tribunal of judgment and a court of police, every indi- 
 vidual belonging to it was charged with the duty of 
 discovering offences, of which they shall afterwards 
 judge. It had its secret spies in every part of the king- 
 
OF SPAIN. 859 
 
 dom, mingling unsuspected in all companies, listening 
 to the most unguarded conversation, and ready to detail 
 any thing that could bring suspicion on any person, of 
 whatever rank or station, from the highest to the lowest. 
 And at any time when the Inquisitor-General thought 
 proper, an edict was published in all the churches in 
 the kingdom, requiring every one who knew any person 
 suspected of heresy, to give information within six days, 
 on pain of excommunication in case of silence. At the 
 same time, the influence of the confessional was employ- 
 ed to persuade people to comply with this order. The 
 whole community were thus almost of necessity converted 
 into mutual informers, — from malice some, from super- 
 stition others, and not a few from the selfish fear of being 
 suspected of concealment. The names of the informers 
 were not revealed, nor were the witnesses confronted with 
 the accused party ; while the alleged evidence against 
 him was garbled or mutilated according to the pleasure 
 of the accusers, or rather of the judges. No means of 
 recovering the accused party from his supposed error 
 were tried ; because not amendment but conviction was 
 the object sought, since it was only by conviction that 
 the inquisitors were entitled to seize on his property. 
 It might even be regarded as in one sense a point of 
 honour to secure conviction, arising from their maxim, 
 that the holy ofl&ce of the Inquisition cannot err. 
 Every thing was conducted with impenetrable secrecy. 
 If any person had the good fortune to be released, he 
 was bound by the most awful oaths to maintain the most 
 profound silence with regard to all that he might have 
 seen, or heard, or spoken within its precincts. The 
 treatment endured by those who were committed to the 
 Inquisition was cruel beyond aU description. Before 
 
360 RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 and during their trial they were confined in narrow, 
 damp, and gloomy cells, as if already buried alive ; or 
 sometimes in the upper parts of the building, where, in 
 the summer months, the heat was like that of a furnace. 
 Plunged into these horrors, the wretched prisoner was 
 kept in a state of terrible suspense — ignorant of the 
 crime charged against him — not a friendly voice fell on 
 his ear — left in almost total solitude, or should one like 
 a fellow-prisoner be admitted, afraid to speak lest he 
 should be a spy — without a book to peruse, or light enough 
 to read it by if he had — almost hopeless of ever recover- 
 ing liberty, and certain that his character had sustained 
 an irremediable blight — thus he lay, till the inhuman 
 conclave thought him sufficiently broken in heart and 
 spirit to confess any crime of which they might choose 
 to accuse him. Or should he not then confess, the trial 
 by torture begins. There stands the miserable man or 
 woman — before him are displayed the horrid enginery 
 of torment, devised by fiendish ingenuity ; — around him 
 remorseless executioners, trained and accustomed to 
 their barbarous work ; — and at the head of the table, 
 placed in what should be the seat of justice, sits the 
 pitiless monk, plying his insidious interrogations, giving 
 directions to the torturers, and deliberately feasting his 
 cold calm eye and unheaving tranquil heart with the 
 agonies of his victim. But we cannot, even in imagina- 
 tion, dwell on the horrible process, the last scene of 
 which brings forth the victims to the celebration of an 
 auto-de-fe — an act of faith ! What faith ? The faith 
 of Rome ! — the faith of devils ! — " believe and tremble ./" 
 Clad in the san-benito, the garb of condemnation, the 
 wasted and woe-worn victims come forth, surrounded by 
 shouting crowds as the dark procession moves along to 
 
OF SPAIN. 361 
 
 the place of doom. There is hope, and joy, and heavenly 
 love in the eye of that martyr, for his weary warfare is 
 nearly closed ; but he speaks not, for his torturers have 
 gagged his mouth, lest the utterance of some living 
 words should reach the hearts of some among the mul- 
 titude. The Inquisition has done its deed, it has passed 
 its sentence on the heretic, and handed him over to the 
 secular arm, " beseeching them to treat him with pity 
 and commiseration — to break no bone and shed no 
 blood ;" and with a perfect understanding of what that 
 horrible mockery means, they bind him to the stake and 
 consume him to ashes. 
 
 Such was the Spanish Inquisition, over the gates of 
 which might well have been the inscription imagined by 
 Dante over the gates of hell — 
 
 " All hope abandon, ye who enter here." 
 
 It will be observed, that the Inquisition was completely 
 organized and in fall operation thirty-six years before 
 the commencement of the Reformation. According to 
 a moderate computation, 13,000 persons were burned 
 alive, 8700 were burned in effigy, and 169,723 were 
 condemned to penances, — making in all 191,423 persons 
 condemned by the several tribunals of the Spanish In- 
 quisition in the course of these thirty-six years. If all 
 this had taken place, when, exclusive of Jews and 
 Moors, merely the remains of the Albigenses, and some 
 of those who had adopted the opinions of WickliflPe, 
 were all that the inquisitors had to glean, we may well 
 conceive that the spirit of the nation must have been 
 almost entirely subdued before the Reformation, dis- 
 tinctively so called, began ; and that this terrible tri- 
 bunal was most thoroughly prepared to encounter and 
 
362 RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 suppress the Reformation, should it enter Spain, or to 
 seal the boundaries of that country against its possible 
 admission. 
 
 Our attention has been already directed to the des- 
 potic influence acquired by the sovereign power, when 
 Spain became one monarchy, under Ferdinand and 
 Isabella. The character of these sovereigns contributed 
 not a little towards the consolidation of that power. 
 Ferdinand was avaricious and deceitful ; Isabella was 
 superstitious, and easily led by the cunning priesthood. 
 In giving his consent to the establishment of the Inqui- 
 sition, Ferdinand had respect to the large sums of money 
 which he might thereby levy ; and Isabella was induced 
 to give it her countenance and encouragement by the 
 persuasions of her father confessor. And as the first 
 direct victims of the Inquisition were the Jews and the 
 Moors, it succeeded in driving out of Spain, or extermi- 
 nating the two most active, enterprising, and energetic 
 races that had previously inhabited that country. Be- 
 sides, as the nobles had hitherto acted almost like petty 
 kings within their own domains. Cardinal Ximenes 
 thought it necessary to reduce their influence, in which 
 he succeeded, partly by giving to the people a semblance 
 of political rights, and partly by the terrors of the dread 
 Inquisition, to which the most prominent persons stood 
 most exposed. The discovery of the great Western 
 Continent of America by Columbus, and the vast ac- 
 cession of wealth which it poured into the treasures of 
 the monarch, completed the array of pernicious influ- 
 ences. The monarch was rendered almost entirely in- 
 dependent of the resources of the country for the means 
 of carrying on the afiairs of government ; and what re- 
 mained of mental energy and enterprise in the kingdom, 
 
OF SPAIN. 363 
 
 was directed towards the acquisition of wealth and fame 
 in foreign adventure, instead of the cultivation of those 
 home resources which form the real strength of every 
 community. 
 
 The subjugation of Spain to Romish supremacy had 
 become absolute and entire before the Lutheran Refor- 
 mation began. Yet it was impossible to prevent the 
 accounts of that event itself, and also of the tenets 
 avowed by the trumpet-tongued Reformer, from being 
 known in Spain. Charles, grandson of Ferdinand and 
 Isabella, was chosen emperor of Germany, by the title 
 of Charles V, his common designation in history. His 
 elevation to the imperial dignity led necessarily to much 
 and constant intercourse between Spain and Grermany, 
 so that some of his courtiers, and even clergy, were made 
 so far acquainted with the writings of Luther ; while at 
 the same time, some of those who had espoused the opi- 
 nions of Luther, thought it their duty to avail them- 
 selves of the intercourse between Spain and Germany, 
 for the purpose of introducing the writings of the refor- 
 mer into the former country. So early as the beginning 
 of 1519, a collection of Luther's tracts, in Latin, were 
 sent to Spain. These were soon followed by a transla- 
 tion into Spanish of his commentary on Galatians, and 
 by several other translated treatises. Alfonso Valdes, 
 secretary to Charles V, sent to Spain an account of the 
 religious controversies then agitating Germany ; and 
 other Spaniards of distinction had their attention strong- 
 ly drawn to these important subjects. Even the Spanish 
 ambassador at Rome suggested to his imperial master 
 the policy of giving some countenance to Luther, with 
 the view of alarming the pope, and rendering him more 
 tractable in other matters. So far it might seem that 
 
364 RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 there was a fair prospect for the Reformation being in- 
 troduced into Spain. But when Adrian, himself a 
 Spaniard, and formerly preceptor of Charles V, was ele- 
 vated to the popedom on the death of Leo X, a dif- 
 ferent course was adopted, and the pre-existent enginery 
 of the Inquisition was put in motion. Adrian had, 
 while cardinal, charged the Inquisitors to seize all books 
 that favoured the Lutheran heresy ; but when he ob- 
 tained full power, in 1623, he repeated the command, 
 ordering every assistance to be given to the Inquisitors 
 in the execution of this duty. The Inquisitors began 
 their task boldly. Listening to the complaints of some 
 envious monks, they cast into prison the venerable Juan 
 de Avila, commonly called the Apostle of Andalusia, 
 because, rejecting the unintelligible jargon of the school- 
 men, he preached according to the simplicity of the 
 scriptures. He was saved by the interposition of Man- 
 rique, one of the mildest of the Inquisitors-general ; but 
 his works were put into the list of prohibited books. 
 The writings of Erasmus were soon afterwards con- 
 demned and prohibited. The Inquisition now be^an to 
 feel that the time of their full exercise of power was 
 come, and that their power was irresistible. They were 
 not men to leave it unemployed. 
 
 They were fully aware of the importance of suppress- 
 ing learning, that their dark kingdom might be main- 
 tained. Prosecutions were accordingly commenced 
 against some of the most learned men in the kingdom. 
 Two of the most distinguished professors were accused, 
 and fled to Paris. Other two were seized, imprisoned, 
 and constrained not only to abjure the heresies of Luther, 
 but also to submit to certain penances. Alfonso Valdes, 
 the emperor's secretary, was condemned as a suspected 
 
OF SPAIN. 365 
 
 Lutheran ; and Alfonso de Virves, the emperor's chap- 
 lain, was seized, kept in the prison of the Inquisition for 
 four years, condemned at last as a suspected heretic, 
 ordered to abjure the tenets of Luther, and sentenced to 
 confinement in a monastery for two years, and prohi- 
 bited from preaching for two years more. The course 
 was now begun, and it acquired fresh vehemence as it 
 advanced. Lq 1530, the Supreme Council of the Inqui- 
 sition emitted a circular letter, declaring that the writ- 
 ings of Luther had found their way into the country, — 
 requiring their agents to search them out everywhere, 
 — authorizing the sentence of excommunication to be 
 pronounced against all who either hindered or abstained 
 from aiding their familiars, — commanding the whole 
 clerical body to urge their people to lodge informations, 
 — and after enumerating the different articles of the 
 Lutheran heresy, requiring the infoi-mers to declare " if 
 they knew, or had heard it said, that any person had 
 taught, maintained, or entertained in his thought, any 
 of these opinions." 
 
 There is reason to believe that none of those who had 
 hitherto incurred the suspicion of the Incjuisition, had 
 really imbibed the principles of the Reformation. But 
 the next victim manifestly passed the boundaries of 
 doubt. That victim was Rodrigo de Valer, a young 
 nobleman of Librixa, near Seville. For a time he had 
 been distinguished only for his gallantries and personal 
 attractions. On a sudden he abandoned all the amuse- 
 ments of the world, betook himself to the study of the 
 Bible, and as soon as he had obtained a competent know- 
 ledge of the pure truths therein contained, returned to 
 society, and availed himself of the opportunities which 
 his birth and station gave him for the diffusion of those 
 
'MQ RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 truths. He was soon brought before the Inquisition, 
 where he ably defended himself by arguments drawn 
 from Scripture. The result was, his imprisonment for 
 life in a monastery. But he had succeeded in kindling 
 the light of sacred truth in some minds, before he was 
 plunged into the darkness of the inquisitorial dungeons. 
 The most distinguished of these was Egidius of Seville. 
 Egidius was a man of learning and eloquence, and pe- 
 culiarly distinguished as a preacher. For a time he 
 managed to avoid any direct collision with the Inquisi- 
 tors ; but they had fixed the fascination of their serpent 
 eyes upon him, and ere long their crushing coils were 
 clasped around him. He was accused, and to be accused 
 and condemned were almost equivalent terms with the 
 Inquisition. Not even the interposition of the emperor 
 could save him from his enemies. He was imprisoned 
 for three years, and commanded to abstain from writing 
 or teaching for ten years. A fever seizing his enfeebled 
 constitution soon after his release from prison, freed him 
 from further trouble. At Yalladoiid the Inquisition ob- 
 tained the opportunity of more distinctly displaying its 
 energies for evil. Francisco San-Roman, a young and 
 active merchant, had gone to Antwerp, and thence to 
 Bremen, in pursuit of his mercantile concerns. He 
 there became acquainted with the doctrines of the Re- 
 formation, and became eager to introduce them to his 
 native country. He was seized and delivered to the In- 
 quisition at Valladolid. After enduring the horrors of 
 a protracted imprisonment, during which he resisted all 
 the attempts of the friars to induce him to recant, he 
 was condemned to the flames. The fire was kindled, 
 and when the flames began to scorch him, he made an 
 involuntary movement of pain ; the friars exclaimed that 
 
OF SPAIN. 367 
 
 he was become penitent, and ordered him to be extri- 
 cated from the pile. On recovering his breath he looked 
 them calmly in the face, and said, " Did you envy me 
 my happiness ?" He was immediately thrust back into 
 the blazing pile. This martyrdom took place in the year 
 1644. 
 
 This bloody commencement was not allowed to slacken. 
 Further occasion for its exercise soon followed. Three 
 brothers of the name of Enzinas, who had been educated 
 at Louvain, became acquainted with the doctrines of the 
 Reformation, and longed to introduce the knowledge of 
 them to their benighted and enslaved countrymen. The 
 eldest of these heroic brothers perished in the flames at 
 Rome itself. Another Spaniard, who had been converted 
 by his means, was murdered by the contrivance of his 
 own brother, a bigoted papist. The second brother 
 took refuge at Antwerp, and employed himself in tran- 
 slating the Bible into the Spanish language, which was 
 pi-inted in the year 1543. He died in exile. A still 
 more distinguished victim was to be sacrificed. Con- 
 stantino Ponce de la Fuente, a man of genius, taste, wit, 
 and learning, having become acquainted with Egidius, 
 adopted his principles, and set himself to promote refor- 
 mation in a similar manner. His preaching was ex- 
 tremely popular ; and while he abstained from directly 
 attacking the errors of Popery, he exerted himself to the 
 utmost in endeavouring to diffuse spiritual truth, as it is 
 in the scriptures, both by preaching and from the press. 
 For a considerable time he escaped the snares of the In- 
 quisition, though watched by them with the most jealous 
 vigilance. About the same time Augustin Cazalla began 
 to teach the reformed doctrines at Valladolid ; and there 
 seemed to be some prospect of the Reformation obtaining 
 
368 RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 secure ground in Spain. For, as even Spanish writers 
 themselves complained, the learned men of Spain who 
 entered into controversy with the Lutherans, often ended 
 in embracing the very doctrines which they had attempted 
 to confute. From Seville and Yalladolid, the reformed 
 doctrines were spread into Old Castile, to Navarre, to 
 Toledo, to Granada, Murcia, Valencia, and Aragon. 
 The Inquisition became thoroughly alarmed, and deter- 
 mined to put forth its most vigorous efforts to extinguish 
 those sparks which were threatening to burst into a na- 
 tional flame. 
 
 The translation of the Bible, by Francisco Enzinas, 
 had been secretly introduced into Spain by Julian Her- 
 nandez. This became known to the Inquisition ; and 
 he was seized and thrown into prison. But his death 
 was not enough to satiate their vengeance ; the discovery 
 of his associates was what they chiefly sought, that, to 
 use their own words, " they might at once crush the vi- 
 per's nest." In vain, however, did they employ every 
 artifice to entrap him ; in vain did they exhaust their 
 fiend-like ingenuity in torture to subdue him, till craft 
 and cruelty could do no more. When half-carried, half- 
 dragged, from the place of torture to his dungeon, the 
 indomitable martyr chaunted, with a tone of triumph, 
 these lines : — 
 
 " Conquered return the friars, conquered return ; 
 Scattered return the wolves, scattered return." 
 
 At length the Inquisition, chiefly by means of the con- 
 fessional, obtained information of the retreats and the 
 names of the Protestants, both at Seville and at VaUa- 
 dolid. This was enough. For a time not a whisper was 
 breathed respecting their discovery. But messengers 
 were sent to every Inquisition in the kingdom with in- 
 
OF SPAIN. 
 
 369 
 
 structions ;-guards were planted in suitable places to 
 intercept all who might seek safety by flight. All was 
 ready; commands were issued simultaneously and at 
 an appointed moment almost the entire Protestant party 
 were seized at once throughout the whole kingdom 
 lerror, mtense and universal, possessed the community 
 Every person who had uttered a single word, even in 
 seemmg approbation of religious liberty and truth be- 
 came afraid of being accused, and vast numbers hastened 
 to become informers, that they might escape the danger 
 of being the victims of information,-many even infonn- 
 mg against themselves, in their frenzied terror This 
 long pent storm of persecution bui'st on Spain early in the 
 year 1558. ^ 
 
 A short whHe before this inauspicious period Charles 
 V. had resigned his crown to his son Philip II That 
 monarch surpassed his father in bigotry, and in a coldly 
 cruel and unrelenting temper. The Inquisitor-general 
 was Francisco Valdes, who to a natural ferocity of dis 
 position added the morose severity of peevish and un- 
 feeling age. And the Pope of the period was Paul IV 
 a furious persecutor, and the determined supporter of the 
 holy mquisition. There was thus a terrific combination 
 of power arrayed against the Reformation, and armed 
 with i\i^ most deadly weapons of destruction 
 
 In February 1558 the pope issued a brief, renewing 
 aU the decisions of councils and popes against heretics 
 and schismatics; declaring that this was rendered ne- 
 cessary by the information he had received of the in- 
 crease of heresy; and charging the Inquisitor-general 
 to prosecute the guUty, and inflict on them due punish- 
 ment according to such decrees, " whether they be 
 bishops, archbishops, patriarchs, cardinals, or legates - 
 
 A a 
 
370 RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 barons, counts, marquises, dukes, princes, kings, or 
 emperors." To this sweeping and comprehensive brief, 
 including all mankind but the pope himself, the king 
 gave his ready sanction ; and even added a law, threat- 
 ening with the punishment of death and confiscation of 
 property all who sold, bought, read, or possessed any 
 book prohibited by the holy office. A papal bull was 
 also issued, strictly enjoining all confessors to examine 
 their penitents, charging them to inform against all whom 
 they knew or suspected to be guilty of harbouring here- 
 tical books or opinions, on pain of excommunication, 
 which penalty impended over both confessors and peni- 
 tents in case of neglect. Again, to complete these mea- 
 sures, Philip renewed an obsolete ordinance which en- 
 titled informers to the fourth part of the property of 
 those found guilty of heresy. Thus were leagued to- 
 gether against the Reformation power unlimited, with all 
 that could excite selfish fear and sordid love of money. 
 It seemed Satanic agency let loose. There could be but 
 one addition made, and that was soon supplied. The Pope, 
 at the request of the King and the Inquisitor-general, 
 issued a final brief, authorizing the Council of the Su- 
 preme to deliver over to the secular power those who 
 had been previously convicted of having taught the Lu- 
 theran opinions, though they had not relapsed after their 
 former conviction, and were willing to repeat their re- 
 cantation. This gave to their measures a retrospective 
 action, and cut oif all hopes of escape. The dread en- 
 ginery was now complete, without repentance or hope 
 of mercy, — fatal as death, — dark as the grave, — irrevo- 
 cable as everlasting despair. 
 
 Constantino Ponce, the favourite chaplain of Charles 
 V, was seized, cast into a chill, damp, unwholesome 
 
OF SPAIN. 371 
 
 dungeon, in which he endured a lingering death of two 
 years' duration. Olmedo perished in a similar manner. 
 Women were not only cast into the dungeons, but put 
 to torture, for the purpose of wringing from agonized 
 and shrinking nature, language that might be used for 
 the conviction of themselves or others. When they had 
 thus seized sufficient numbers, and obtained what they 
 chose to regard as adequate evidence, they proceeded 
 to the last act of the horrible tragedy. They were now 
 to display before the eyes of a terrified or a brutalized 
 community their success in detecting and suppressing 
 heresy. For this purpose they prepared to celebrate 
 Autos-de-fe, under the direction of the several tribunals 
 of the Inquisition throughout the kingdom. Seville and 
 Valladolid maintained their hideous pre-emin«nce in these 
 dreadful spectacles. 
 
 Every art was used to render the Auto-de-fe as im- 
 posing as possible. It was celebrated either on a Sun- 
 day or some holiday, when multitudes could conveniently 
 assemble. Intimation was previously made in all the 
 churches and religious houses, and an indulgence of 
 forty days was proclaimed to all who shoidd witness the 
 act. On the preceding evening those of the prisoners 
 who had professed penitence, and were to receive a 
 milder sentence, were assembled together and received 
 information of their fate. At midnight a confessor 
 entered the cell of those who had been condemned to 
 the stake, informed them of their doom, and exhorted 
 them to recant and be reconciled to the church, in which 
 case they should be strangled before being exposed to 
 the devouring flames. Next morning the bells rang out 
 their warning peals, — the prisoners were collected to- 
 gether, and clad in vestments suited to their respective 
 
372 RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 sentences. The san-benito, a loose vest of yellow cloth, 
 was put on those who were condemned to death ; but if 
 tliey were to endure the mitigated sentence of being 
 strangled, the painted flames on their vestments were 
 pointed downwards, to imply that they had escaped the 
 fire, while those who were to be burned alive had their 
 garb covered with upward burning flames, through which 
 were seen the pictured shapes of hideous fiends, carrying 
 faggots, and fanning the fire. They were now ready to 
 move on in processional arrangement. First marched 
 a band of soldiers, — next priests clad in their white sur- 
 plices, — then a number of youthful students and choris- 
 ters chanting the liturgy, — then came the prisoners, 
 guarded each by two familiars of the Inquisition, and 
 attended by friars, if sentenced to die. Immediately be- 
 hind them came the local magistrates, judges, officers of 
 state, and nobility on horseback. They were followed 
 by troops of secular and monastic clergy. At an impos- 
 ing distance, with a clear space between, moved forward 
 with slow and solemn pomp, the mighty chiefs of the 
 Inquisition, their silken banner waving high, surmounted 
 by a crucifix of massive silver overlaid with gold. Be- 
 hind them came their familiars, mounted on horseback, 
 and accompanied by the principal gentry of the district. 
 The dense and closing crowds of unarranged spectators 
 brought up the rear of the procession. 
 
 Arriving at the fatal place, the Inquisitors ascended 
 their elevated platform, and the prisoners were placed 
 on one opposite and below it. A sermon was then 
 preached ; the penitents repeated their confession ; the 
 Inquisitor pronounced absolution from the crime, leav- 
 ing however the punishment to be inflicted. He then 
 administered an oath to all present, binding them to live 
 
OF SPAIN. 373 
 
 and die in the communion of the Roman Church, and 
 to defend the holy inquisition against all its adversaries, 
 while every bent knee of the vast and abject multitude 
 assented to the oath. Then came the final scene. Those 
 who had been spared from death were dragged back to 
 their dungeons, or sent to exile. Those on vihom the 
 sentence of death had been pronounced were handed 
 over to the secular power, with the hypocritical request, 
 that they might be treated with commiseration — then 
 dragged to the qnemadero, or burning-place, without 
 the walls, while shouting crowds accompanied to gaze 
 on their fiery agonies. 
 
 Such were the arguments with which the Spanish 
 Inquisition, " the Holy Ofiice," encountered the doc- 
 trines of the Reformation. Such were the Auto.-f-de-fe, 
 the acts of faith, celebrated by kings, queens, nobility, 
 clergy, and the body of the people, and in which, while 
 such were the cruel, the deluded, and the degraded 
 actors, the sufferers, often the noblest, the most beauti- 
 ful, and the best, — venerable age, lovely womanhood, 
 and tender youth, displayed indeed high and holy acts 
 of faith and heroic martyi'dom. But let me not attempt 
 to describe such scenes, — too horrible even for thought ! 
 
 From 1558 till 1570, the fires of the Inquisition 
 blazed with fierce and incessant rage. During that 
 terrific period none who were suspected escaped from 
 being accused ; and none who were accused escaped con- 
 demnation. Some were banished for life ; greater num- 
 bers were cast into dungeons, whence they never re- 
 turned ahve ; and many perished in the flames of the 
 Antos-de-fe. By the year 1570 none were to be found 
 bold enough to breathe a single whisper against the 
 Church of Rome, and its ministers of vengeance, the 
 
374 RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 Holy Inquisition. The Spanish Reformation had utterly 
 perished in the flames,— nothing, absolutely nothing of 
 it remained. Still the Inquisition continued to exist : 
 and though there were no Protestants properly so called, 
 for it to persecute, it maintained the most sleepless vigi- 
 lance over the whole kingdom, lest the slightest taints 
 of what it might deem heresy, should by possibility ap- 
 pear. It did accordingly find occasional opportunities of 
 regaling itself with the death of a heretic. There were 
 persons suspected of being Jews still to be sought out ; 
 there were others who were suspected of not being suffi- 
 ciently devoted to Rome ; and there were others whose 
 offences could not be distinctly named, but whom it was 
 judged most expedient to put out of the way in the 
 readiest manner. Thus the fires of the Inquisition were 
 not sufi"ered to be quite extinguished ; and they conti- 
 nued to terrify the people from giving any countenance 
 to opinions that might be regarded as heretical. 
 
 The following summary of the victims of the Inquisi- 
 tion, from the period of its commencement in Spain, till 
 its suppression in the year 1808, is given on the authority 
 of a recent author.* 
 
 From 1481 to 1808, there were— 
 
 Burned alive, - . . . _ 34,611 
 
 Burned in effigy, .... 18,048 
 
 Condemned to prison and the galleys, - 288,109 
 
 Total, 340,768 
 According to Llorente, 341,021. 
 
 Such was the awful sum of human sufferers by means 
 of the terrible Inquisition : — actual sufferers, — but who 
 shall attempt to state, or even to conceive, the sumles.s 
 
 * Ford's Hand-Book, vol. i, p. 279. 
 
OF SPAIN. 375 
 
 agonies of broken hearts, and violated consciences, and 
 ruined souls ? They are all recorded in Grod's dreadful 
 book, and will be known in that day when the secrets 
 of all hearts shall be revealed, and when not the sea 
 only, but also the dark and dismal dungeons of the 
 Spanish Inquisition, and death, and hell, shall yield up 
 their dead. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to ask what is now the state 
 of religion in Spain, for true religion has no existence 
 there. The effect of the Inquisition was not merely 
 to crush the Reformation, but to extinguish all free- 
 dom of inquiry and opinion on religious matters. An 
 engine of mystery, as a recent author has said, hung 
 over the nation, like the sword of Damocles ; while in- 
 visible spies, more terrible than armed men, omnipresent, 
 omniscient, omnipotent, aimed at every attribute of the 
 x\lmighty, save his justice and mercy. The dread of the 
 Inquisition, from which no secrets were hid, locked up 
 the Spanish heart, soured the sweet charities of life, and 
 prevented all that frank and social communication 
 which relieves and improves. And though the Inquisi- 
 tion has been abolished, its effects survive. Spaniards 
 still loathe the name of heresy, and tremble at the men- 
 tion of the Inquisition. Spain has fallen from her high 
 glory. When under her sovereigns of the Austrian race, 
 she was the mightiest power in Europe. She has been 
 trampled under foot by the ruthless legions of revolu- 
 tionary France. She has experienced repeated revolu- 
 tions of her own, — alternating between the extremes of 
 despotic monarchy and ultra-liberalism. But her reli- 
 gious condition has experienced no change. No king, 
 no cortes, no constitution, has ever permitted any ap- 
 proach to religious toleration. The spirit of the Inqui- 
 
376 RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 sition is still alive ; and even yet, all abhor, and regard 
 as branded with indelible infamy, the descendants of 
 those who were convicted by that terrible tribunal. Its 
 burned-in terrors are still on the heart of Spain. 
 
 Meanwhile, popish rituals and superstitions are as 
 frequent as ever. Monastic institutions still abound, 
 though they sustained great devastation from the French, 
 and not a little from the revolutionary convulsions of 
 Spain itself. There seem to be now but two aspects 
 of the Spanish mind with regard to religion; either 
 abject, unthinking superstition, or absolute infidelity. 
 All those who possess any learning are infidels ; all the 
 ignorant, which includes the mass of the nation, are the 
 slaves of the most gross and grovelling superstition. 
 But both these parties are equally intolerant of true re- 
 ligion. The superstitious hate it, for it accords not with 
 their follies and their crimes ; the infidels hate it, because 
 it wears an aspect which they cannot despise ; and all 
 politicians equally fear and hate it, because a true 
 Christian can neither be a knavish tool, nor a crouching 
 slave. The politician can use or abuse the unprincipled 
 priest ; the priest can domineer over the ignorant peo- 
 ple ; but politicians and priests alike detest and dread 
 gospel light and gospel truth, and the misguided people 
 tremble yet at the well-remembered terrors of the In- 
 quisition. 
 
 Were it necessary for me to prove that the character 
 of peninsular popery is unchanged, I need but point to 
 Madeira, — I need but lead you to the cell of Maria Joa- 
 quina, condemned to death because of her abandonment 
 of popish superstition. But I should also be constrained, 
 were I to prosecute this topic, to record the infamy of 
 Britain, and especially of that distinguished nobleman, 
 
OF SPAIN. 377 
 
 the Earl of Aberdeen, who has consented to look tamely 
 on, while a helpless woman, whom his slightest word 
 could rescue, is pining under the suspended sentence of 
 death, in the dungeon of our ancient allies, the Portu- 
 guese. I turn with shame, and sorrow, and unutterable 
 loathing, from the subject. 
 
 Is there, then, no hope for Spain ? Dark is the pros- 
 pect ; but I will not, I do not, I dare not, think it hope- 
 less. No such combination as that which exterminated 
 the Reformation is now possible. Were true scriptural 
 religion again introduced, politicians, and statesmen, 
 and priests, might fret and rave, but they could not 
 again restore the Inquisition to its former power ; and 
 without it they could not exterminate religion. Nothing 
 but a revolution could have saved the Reformation 
 from the exterminating fires of the Inquisition. But 
 it is not the will of the Redeemer that Christianity 
 should be propagated by violence, therefore he did not 
 permit a revolution then. Revolutions have since swept 
 away all those exterminating powers; and should it 
 please Him to send Christianity to Spain now, it might 
 speedily triumph even there. The dread of the Inqui- 
 sition has not indeed yet left the Spanish heart, but the 
 attempt to renew its horrors would not be now endured. 
 Even British statemen would be constrained to inter- 
 pose were that attempted. The absolute despotism of 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, or of Charles V, or of Philip II, 
 has passed away ; and though Spain does not yet under- 
 stand either civil or religious liberty, yet her aspirations 
 are beginning to tend in that direction. Formerly, the 
 patriotic merchant who introduced a cask of Bibles, in- 
 stead of far less precious goods, into his native country, 
 perished in the flames of the Inquisition. Now, Bibles 
 
378 RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 can be introduced without such peril, though still their 
 introduction is contrary to the laws of the country. 
 There are streaks of light across the darkness of the 
 Spanish horizon, — faint, indeed, and uncertain, but they 
 indicate a coming day. The circulation of the Bible, 
 appears to be the most likely method to awaken the 
 mind of Spain from its lethargy, its superstition, and its 
 empty terrors. If that be wisely and energetically pro- 
 secuted, accompanied with fervent and frequent prayers 
 to Him who alone can quicken and water the good seed 
 of the word, I would most confidently anticipate brighter 
 and better days for Spain. Not the days of chivalry, 
 when the crescent and the cross met on bloody fields, 
 as the insignia of striving armies ; not the days of am- 
 bition and avarice, dreaming of El Dorados beyond the 
 vast Atlantic ; but the days of Christian chivalry, when 
 men of peace shall go forth equipped from the armoury 
 of God to the bloodless warfare of the gospel, and when 
 heroic adventurers shall proclaim to Spain the unsearch- 
 able riches of Christ, and the everlasting inheritance in 
 the world beyond the dark, wide sea of death. 
 
 NOTES. 
 Note on Religion. Ford, Hand-Book, vol. i. p. 167. 
 " One word on religion, which pervades every part and parcel of 
 Spain and the Spaniard, and is, as the word implies, a real binding 
 power, and one of the very few, in this land, of non-amalgamation 
 and disunion; here no rival creeds, no dissents, weaken, as in 
 England, the nation's common strength ; his crowning pride is, that 
 he is the original Christian of Christendom, and that his religion, 
 la fe, the faith, is the only pure and unadulterated one. He boasts 
 to be " El Christiano viejo rancio y sin mancha, the old genuine 
 and untainted Christian, not a newly converted Jew or Moresco ; 
 
OF SPAIN. 379 
 
 these he abhors, as the Moor did those new Moslems, the Mosali- 
 mah, who deserted the cross, whose children they despised as 
 Muivallad, or Mulatt, i. e. not of pure caste, but hybrid and mulish. 
 The word CatoUco is often used as equivalent to Sj^anish, and as 
 an epithet bears the force of " excellent." In these respects Spain 
 is more ultra- Roman than Rome itself ; she stands in relation to 
 indifferent Italy, as the bigot Moor did to the laxer Ottoman ; it 
 is a remnant of the crusade preached against the invading infidel, 
 when faith was synonymous with patriotism. There is no tole- 
 rance, or in other words, indifference ; intolerance is the only point 
 on which king and cortes, liberal and servile, are agreed. Bigotry 
 has long, in the eyes of Spain, been her glory ; in the eyes of 
 Europe, her disgrace ; here every possible dissent prevails except 
 the religious." 
 
 The Worship of the Virgin Mary. Ford, vol. ii. pp. 963-4. 
 " Marianism (Mariolatry), is the religion of the great bulk of the 
 Spaniards ; and notwithstanding that some of the higher classes 
 disbelieve Avhat popes for gospel do receive, here, indeed the 
 honour and worship due to the Creator alone, is transferred to the 
 creature ; here she rules triumphantly as Empress of heaven and 
 earth, of angels and mortals ; the stem doctrine of retribution for 
 sin is melted down into a soft, easy dependence on this Esther with 
 whom the celestial kingdom is partitioned ; — nay, the Deity has all 
 but abdicted in her favour, having given to her all that he could, 
 everything, in short, save his ov/n essence. She is La Senora de 
 la Merced, the Lady of Mercy, La Senora here being used in the 
 sense of El Senor, the Lord God. She administers grace, equity, 
 and remission of sins. Thus the Almighty is robbed of his prero- 
 gative, and his sceptre rendered barren to the exclusion and dero- 
 gation of the " only one name and none other." The Virgin, as 
 Regina et Conjux, " calms the rage of her heavenly husband," and 
 tempers " an angry judge," whose only office is to pimish ; while 
 as a mother, she " commands and compels her son," to whom " she 
 is superior by reason of his humanity, and because as mother, she 
 has done more for him than he could have done for her." He saves 
 only by her intercession, for it is s?ie, who in the Roman vulgate, 
 bruises the serpent's head ; she has her rituals, litanies, creeds, 
 offices, festivals, &c. ; to her are dedicated almost all the Cathe- 
 drals of Spain ; her graven image is elevated above the high altars 
 in the place of honour, and holds the Son either as a helpless babe 
 or a dying victim, thus made subordinate, in both respects, and 
 dependent on her." 
 
380 RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 The InqiiAsition. Ford, vol. i. pp. 278-9. 
 •■ " On the flat plain outside the walls (of Seville,) was the Quema- 
 dero, or the burning-place of the Inquisition ; here the last act of 
 the tragedy of the auto-de-fe was performed by the civil power, on 
 whom the odium was cast. The spot of fire is marked by the 
 foundations of a square platform on which the faggots were piled. 
 The Spaniards are still very shy of talking about the Quemadero ; 
 sons of burnt fathers, they dread the fire. Con el Rey y la inquisi- 
 cion, chiton .' chiton ! " Hush, hush," say they, with finger on lip, 
 like the image of silence, " with king and inquisition." As the 
 swell of the Atlantic remains after the hurricane is past, so distrust 
 and seared apprehension form part of the uncommunicative 
 Spaniard in dealing with Spaniard. " How silent you are !" said 
 the Queen of Prussia to Euler. " Madam," replied he, " I have 
 lived in a country where men who speak are hanged." The burn- 
 ings of torrid Spain would have better suited the temperature of 
 Russia, The effects are, however, the same; an engine of mystery 
 hung over the nation, like the sword of Damocles; invisible spies ; 
 more terrible than armed men, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipo- 
 tent, aimed at every attribute of the Almighty, save his justice and 
 mercy. The dread of the inquisition, from which no secrets were 
 hid, locked up the Spanish hearts, soured the sweet charities of 
 life, and prevented frank and social communication, which relieves 
 and improves. Hospitality became dangerous, when confidence 
 might open the mind, and wine give utterance to long-hidden 
 thoughts. It is as well, therefore, here as elsewhere, to avoid 
 jesting or criticism on this matter. Spaniards, who, like Moslems, 
 allow themselves a wide latitude in laughing at their priests, are 
 very touchy on every subject connected with their creed, it is a 
 remnant of their loathing of heresy, and their dread of a tribunal 
 which they think sleepeth, but is dead, scotched rather than killed. 
 In the changes and chances of Spain it may be re-established, and 
 as it never forgets or forgives, it will surely revenge. No king, 
 cortes, or constitution, ever permits in Spain any approach to any 
 religious toleration ; the spirit of the Inquisition is alive ; all abhor 
 and brand with eternal infamy the descendants of those conA'icted 
 1)y this tribunal ; the stain is indelible, and the stigma, if once 
 affixed on any unfortunate family, is known in every town by the 
 very children in the street. 
 
 " The Inquisition, a tribunal of bad faith, bigotry, confiscation, 
 blood, and fire, was derived from France. It w-as imitated by St 
 Dominick, who learned his trade under Simon de Montfort, the ex- 
 
OF SPAIN. 381 
 
 terminator of the Protestant Albigenses. It was remodelled on 
 Moorish principles, the garotte and furnace being the bowstring, 
 and fire of the Moslem, who burnt the bodies of the infidel to pre- 
 vent the aslies from becoming relics. Spanish cities have contend- 
 ed for the honour of which was the first seat of this holy tribunal, 
 once the great glory and boast of Spain, and elsewhere her foul 
 disgrace. This, says Mariana, was the secret of her invincible 
 greatness, since " the instant the holy office acquired its due power 
 and authority, a new light shone over the land, and by divine favour, 
 the forces of Spain became sufficient to beat down and eradicate 
 the Moor." 
 
 " Seville was the head quarters of these bright fires. The great 
 claim put forth in 1627, for the beatification of St Ferdinand, was, 
 that he had himself carried faggots to burn heretics. But the 
 spirit of the age was then fanatically ferocious. Philip le Bel, his 
 cousin, and son of St Louis, tortured and burnt the templars by a 
 slow fire near his royal gardens. The holy tribunal was first fixedly 
 established at Seville, in 1481, by Sixtus IV., at the petition of 
 Ferdinand, who used it as an engine of finance, police, and revenge, 
 lie assigned to it the citadel of Friana. Thomas de Torquemada 
 was the first high priest. Thus were revived in his own town the 
 fire and blood of the sacrifice of Molock (Meleck, the Phoenician 
 King, Hercules). Torquemada was the willing instrument of the 
 fanatic Ximenes. The statistics of the Inquisition, or the results, 
 to use Bossuet's mild phrase, of " the holy severity of the Church 
 of Rome, which will not tolerate error," according to Moreau de 
 Jonnes, are as follows : — 
 
 From 1481 to 1808, Burned alive, . . 34,611 
 
 Burned in effigy, . . 18,048 
 
 Prison and galleys, . 288,109 
 
 Total, . 340,768 
 
 " By it too were lost to poor, uncommercial, indolent Spain, her 
 wealthy Jews, and her most industrious agriculturists, the Moors. 
 The dangerous engine, when the supply of victims was exhausted, 
 recoiled on the nation, and fitted it for that yoke, heavy and griev- 
 ous, under which, for three centuries, it has done penance ; the 
 works of Llorente have tuUy revealed the secrets of the tribunal's 
 prison-house," 
 
382 RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 The result, as stated by Llorente, is somewliat different, but not 
 less di-eadful. And though there may be slight errors in either, or 
 both, yet as they are independent witnesses, such discrepancies 
 might be expected, and even tend to confirm the general truth of 
 their respective statements. Llorente had been an inquisitor him- 
 self, and prepared his History of the Spanish Inquisition from ma- 
 terials furnished by the archives of that tribunal itself. It may be 
 expedient to state, that the offences of which the Inquisition took 
 cognisance were, — heresy in all its different forms, apostasy, Judaism, 
 mahommedanism, sorcery, unnatural ci'imes, and polygamy. It 
 was easy to fasten some one or other of these charges on any person 
 whose destruction was desired. The following is the general re- 
 sult of Llorente's statement : — 
 
 Burned alive, 31,912. 
 
 Burned in effigy, 17,659, 
 
 Subjected to rigorous pains and penances, 291,450. 
 
 Total, . 341,021. 
 It should be borne in mind, that being burned in effigy was no 
 unmeaning ceremony. Those only were burned in effigy who 
 would have been burned alive, had they not eluded the last cruelty 
 of their persecutors, some few by escape, but most by a previous 
 death, either under torture, or in consequence of pr(!tracted impri- 
 sonment and aggravated sufferings. In some of tlie cells of the 
 inquisition may still be seen the melancholy traces of the mental 
 agonies endured by the hapless victims. A few short broken sen- 
 tences written on the wall record the date of incarceration, — others 
 intimate the feelings, the hopes, the fears of the imprisoned, with 
 dates marking the duration of their long pining imprisonments, — 
 some hint darkly at the dreadful tortures endured, — an abrupt 
 line will state that the victim is to be dragged to the auto-de-fe 
 to-morrow, — and then the dread recital closes. Were the numbers 
 of all the victims immolated by the Inquisition throughout the do- 
 minions of Spain, in different parts of the world added together, it 
 would probably be found that more than half a million of human 
 beings had been condemned by this inexorable tribunal. Such was 
 Popery in its days of pride and might, — such is it still in spirit and 
 desire, — and such would it speedily prove itself to be, were its 
 power equal to its will. 
 
OF SPAIN. 383 
 
 For specimens of the Inquisition's Acts, we give tlie following 
 extracts from Dr M'Crie's History of the Suppression of the Re- 
 formation in Spain : — 
 
 " The two individuals who on this occasion had the honour to 
 endure the flames were Francisco de Vibero Cazalla, parish priest 
 of Hormigos, and Antonio Herezuelo, an advocate of Toro. Some 
 writers say that the former begged, when under the torture, to be 
 admitted to reconciliation ; but it is certain that he gave no sign 
 of weakness or a wish to recant on the day of the auto-de-fe. See- 
 ing his brother Augustine Cazalla, not at the stake, but on the 
 adjoining scaffold among the penitents, and being prevented from 
 speaking by a gag, he signified his sorrow by an expressive motion 
 of his hands ; after which he bore the fire without shrinking. Here- 
 zuelo conducted himself with surpassing intrepidity. F'rom the 
 moment of his apprehension to that of his death, he never exhibited 
 the least symptom of a wish to save his life, or to mitigate his sufi'er- 
 ings, by compromising his principles. His courage remained un- 
 shaken amidst the horrors of the torture, the ignominy of the public 
 spectacle, and the terrors of the stake. The only thing that moved 
 him, on the day of the auto-de-fe, was the sight of his wife in the 
 garb of a penitent ; and the look which he gave (for he could not 
 speak) as he passed her to go to the place of execution, seemed to 
 say, * This is hard to bear I' He listened without emotion to the 
 friars who teazed him with their importunate exhortations to re- 
 pent, as they conducted him to the stake ; but when, at their in- 
 stigation, his former associate and instructor, Doctor Cazalla, began 
 to address him in the same strain, he threw upon him a glance of 
 disdain, which froze the words on his recreant lips. ' The bachelor 
 Herezuelo (says the popish author of the Pontifical History) suffered 
 himself to be burnt alive with unparalleled hardihood. I stood so 
 near him that I had a complete view of his person, and observed all 
 his motions and gestures. He could not speak, for his mouth was 
 gagged on account of the blasphemies which he had uttered ; but 
 his whole behaviour showed him to be a most resolute and hardened 
 person, who, rather than yield to believe with his companions, was 
 determined to die in the flames. Though I marked him narrowly, 
 I could not observe the least symptom of fear or expression of pain ; 
 only, there was a sadness in his countenance bejond any thing I 
 had ever seen. It was frightful to look in his face, when one con- 
 sidered that in a moment he would be in hell with his associate and 
 master, Luther.' Enraged to see such courage in a heretic, one of 
 the guards plunged his lance into the body of Herezuelo, whose 
 
384 RELIGIOUS CONDITION 
 
 blood was licked up by the flames with which he was already en- 
 veloped. 
 
 Herezuelo and his wife, Leanorde Cisneros, were divided in their 
 death, but it was in the time of it only, not the kind or manner ; 
 and their memory must not be divided in our pages. Leaner was 
 only twenty-two years of age, when she was thrown into the In- 
 quisition ; and when we consider that, during her imprisonment, 
 she was precluded from all intercourse with her husband, kept in 
 ignorance of his resolutions, and perhaps deceived into the belief 
 that she would find him among the class of penitents in the auto, 
 we need not wonder that one of her tender sex and age should have 
 fainted in the day of trial, suffered herself to be overcome by the 
 persuasions of the monks, or, yielding to the feelings of nature, con- 
 sented to renounce with the hand that truth which she continued 
 to believe with the heart. Such assaults have shaken, and threat- 
 ened to throw to the ground, pillars in the church. But Leanor 
 was not long in recovering from the shock. The parting look of 
 her husband never departed from her eyes ; the reflection that she 
 had inflicted a pang on his heart, during the arduous conflict which 
 he had to maintain, fanned the flame of attachment to the reformed 
 religion which secretly burned in her breast ; and having resolved, 
 in dependence on that strength which is made perfect in Aveakness, 
 to emulate the example of constancy set by one in every respect so 
 dear to her, she resolutely broke off the course of penance on which 
 she had entered. The consequence of this was, that she was again 
 thrown into the secret prisons. During eight years that she was 
 kept in confinement, every effort was made in vain to induce her to 
 renew her recantation. At last she was brought out into a public 
 auto-de-fe celebrated at Valladolid ; and we have the account of 
 her behaviour from the same pen which so graphically described 
 that of her husband. ' In the year 1568, on the 26th of Septem- 
 ber, justice was executed on Leanor de Cisneros, widow of the ba- 
 chelor Herezuelo. She suffered herself to be burnt alive, notwith- 
 standing the great and repeated exertions made to bring her to a 
 conviction of her errors. Finally, she resisted, what was sufficient 
 to melt a stone, an admirable sermon preached, at the auto of that 
 day, by his excellency Don Juan Manuel, bishop of Zamora, a man 
 no less learned and eloquent in the pulpit than illustrious in blood. 
 But nothing could move the impenetrable heart of that obstinate 
 woman.' "—pp. 287-291. 
 
 " No fewer than eight females, of irreproachable character, and 
 some of them distinguished by their rank and education, suffered 
 
OF SPAIN. 385 
 
 the most cruel of deaths at tliis auto-de-fe. Among these was Maria 
 Gomez, who, having recovered from the mental disorder by which 
 she was overtaken, had been received back into the protestant fel- 
 lowship, and fell into the hands of the Inquisition. She appeared 
 on the scaffold along with her three daughters and a sister. After 
 the reading of the sentence which doomed them to the Hames, one 
 of the young women went up to her aunt, from whom she had im- 
 bibed the protestant doctrine, and, on her knees, thanked her for 
 all the religious instructions she had received from her, implored 
 her forgiveness for any offence she might have given her, and 
 begged her dying blessing. Raising her up, and assuring her that 
 she had never given her a moment's uneasiness, the old woman pro- 
 ceeded to encourage her dutiful niece, by reminding her of that 
 support which their divine Redeemer had promised them in the 
 hour of trial, and of those joys which awaited them at the termina- 
 tion of their momentary sufferings. The five friends then took 
 leave of one another with tender embraces and words of mutual 
 comfort. The interview between these devoted females was beheld 
 by the members of the Holy Tribunal with a rigid composure of 
 countenance, undisturbed even by a glance of displeasure ; and so 
 completely had superstition and habit subdued the strongest emo- 
 tions of the human breast, that not a single expression of sympathy 
 escaped from the multitude at witnessing a scene which, in other 
 circumstances, would have harrowed up the feelings of the specta- 
 tors, and driven them into mutiny." — pp. 314: -315. 
 
 " The treatment of one individual, who was pronounced innocent 
 in this auto-de-fe, affords more damning evidence against the in- 
 quisitors than that of any whom they devoted quick to the flames. 
 Dona Juana de Bohorques was a daughter of Don Pedro Garcia de 
 Xeres y Bohorques, and a wife of Don Francisco de Vargas, baron 
 of Higuera. She had been apprehended in consequence of a con- 
 fession extorted by the rack from her sister Maria de Bohorques, 
 who owned that she had conversed with her on the Lutheran tenets 
 without exciting any marks of disapprobation. Being six months 
 gone in pregnancy, Dona Juana was permitted to occupy one of the 
 public prisons until the time of her delivery ; but eight days after 
 that event the child was taken from her, and she was thrust into a 
 secret cell. A young female, who was afterwards brought to the 
 stake as a Lutheran, was confined along with her, and did every 
 thing in her power to promote her recovery. Dona Juana had 
 soon an opportunity of repaying the kind attentions of her fellow- 
 prisoner, who, having heen called before the inquisitors, was 
 
 Bb 
 
386 RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF SPAIN. 
 
 brought back into her dungeon faint and mangled. Scarcely had 
 the latter acquired suflBcient strength to rise from her bed of flags, 
 when Dona Juana was conducted in her turn to the place of torture. 
 Refusing to confess, she was put into the engine del hurro, which 
 was applied with such violence, that the cords penetrated to the 
 bones of her arms and legs ; and some of the internal vessels being 
 burst, the blood flowed in streams from her mouth and nostrils. 
 She was conveyed to her cell in a state of insensibility, and expired 
 in the course of a few days. The inquisitors would fain have con- 
 cealed the cause of her death, but it was impossible ; and they 
 thought to expiate the crime of this execrable murder, in the eyes 
 of men at least, by pronouncing Juana de Bohorques innocent on 
 the day of the auto-de-fe, vindicating her reputation, and restoring 
 her property to her heirs." — pp. 319-320. 
 
387 
 
 LECTURE VIL 
 
 THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM, 
 BY ROBERT BUCHANAN, D.D. 
 
 MINISTSB OF FEEE TRON OHOBCH, GLASGOW. 
 
 " But the end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober and watch 
 unto prayer,"—! Peter iv. 7. 
 
 There is liere an urgent call to certain important 
 duties, together with the special reason on which that 
 call is founded. The duties enjoined are sobriety, 
 watchfulness, and prayer, — and the peculiar ground on 
 which they are pressed with so much earnestness is this, 
 that " the end of all things is at hand." What did the 
 apostle mean by the end of all things ? What was the 
 impending crisis which these words contemplated ? To 
 this inquiry various answers have been given, — all of 
 them sufficiently relevant to the practical exhortation 
 which the words in question were intended to enforce. 
 The end of all things, say some, is the hour of death : 
 that solemn hour which is to us the end of all things be- 
 longing to earth and time, and the commencing point of 
 another and an eternal state of being. The end of all 
 things, say others, is the judgment-day : that great and 
 terrible day of the Lord which is to wind up the drama 
 of this world's eventful history, and when the grand pur- 
 
388 THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM. 
 
 pose for which all things now existing are maintained, 
 shall have been fully and finally accomplished. For 
 " theyi Cometh the end," when that mediatorial govern- 
 ment, which now rests upon the shoulder of the Son, 
 shall have been conducted to its glorious issue, and 
 " when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, 
 
 even the Father," " that God may be all in all," 
 
 (1 Cor. XV. 24-28). In both these senses of the ex- 
 pression in question, it is emphatically true, that the 
 period spoken of is " at hand." For what, even at the 
 longest, is our life ? " In the morning it flourisheth, 
 and groweth up ; in the evening it is cut down, and 
 withereth," (Ps. xc. 6). Or what are the centuries that 
 may have to run their course before the judgment shall 
 sit and the books shall be opened ? In relation to 
 eternity, a " thousand years are but as yesterday when 
 it is past, and as a watch in the night," (Ps. xc. 4). 
 
 But however consistent with fact these interpretations 
 may be, and however appropriate to the apostle's design, 
 there is stiU another view for which many have contended, 
 and which has undoubtedly a more direct and peculiar 
 bearing on the subject and the circumstances which the 
 present lecture is intended to embrace. If this epistle, 
 as many things in it appear to indicate, was meant es- 
 pecially for the scattered converts from Judaism, the 
 remnant, according to the election of grace, of a nation 
 that was at that very moment on the eve of being over- 
 whelmed beneath the righteous judgments of God, it 
 seems natural to conclude, that in speaking of the end 
 of aU things as being at hand, the apostle had an im- 
 mediate reference to the approaching destruction of Je- 
 rusalem, and dissolution of that whole economy under 
 which they and their fathers had lived for fifteen hundred 
 
THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM. 389 
 
 years. Our Lord himself, in foretelling the portentous 
 signs by which these days of vengeance should be 
 ushered in, had said expressly to his disciples, " Before 
 all these, they shall lay their hands on you and persecute 
 you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into 
 prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my 
 name's sake ;" and on this account, in terms closely re- 
 sembling those employed in the text, he had exhorted 
 them to " watch, therefore, and pray always, that they 
 might be counted worthy to escape all these things, that 
 shall come to pass," (Luke xxi. 12, 36). The destruction 
 of that apostate church and people which then were the 
 chief enemies of Christ and his cause, was thus to be 
 preceded by times of peculiar trial. And what end but 
 that predicted season of trouble and peril could Peter 
 have had in view, when in the same chapter to which 
 our text belongs, he so emphatically said, " the time is 
 at hand that judgment must begin at the house of God" 
 (ver. 17), and entreated those whom he addressed, as 
 having been sufficiently admonished that such things 
 were in store, to " think it not strange concerning the 
 fiery trial that was to try them, or though some strange 
 thing had happened unto them," (ver. 12). 
 
 If then, supported by such considerations as these, 
 we are to regard the text as pointing to a grand epoch 
 in the history of the church of God, an epoch, the ap- 
 proach of which demanded a more than common exercise 
 of self-restraint and prayerful vigilance, its bearing upon 
 the subject of this lecture, will at once appear. The 
 breaking up of Judaism, with all its attendant commo- 
 tions and perplexities of nations, and anxieties and suffer- 
 ings of the people of God, is not the solitary transition 
 period which belongs to the economy of grace. Geolo- 
 
390 THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM. 
 
 gists tell us of successive revolutions distinctly traceable 
 in the framework and condition of the material world, — 
 periods, so to speak, of nature's agony when she travailed 
 as in birth, and brought forth, amid the heavings of 
 some mighty convulsion, a new order of things. And 
 how at each of these periods of organic change a higher 
 condition of physical creation was evolved, — evolved 
 not by some self-operating principle or hidden law of 
 physical creation itself, but by the immediate interposi- 
 tion of the almighty power and infinite wisdom of the 
 great Creator. 
 
 Something of an analogous kind may, I apprehend, be 
 not indistinctly discerned in that wonderful economy by 
 which God is conducting His church towards her des- 
 tined perfection in glory. The antediluvian — the pa- 
 triarchal — the Mosaic — the Christian— have been so 
 many great eras in the geology of the moral and spirit- 
 ual world. Each of them has been wound up hitherto 
 by its own peculiar catastrophe, and each in its turn 
 has given place to a dispensation more advanced and 
 complete. And surely there are many prophecies which 
 not obscurely intimate that it is through the darkness 
 and disorder of another convulsion, and by the shaking 
 to the ground and utterly removing from their place of 
 many existing things, that the church is to be ushered 
 into her last and highest terrestrial state, — the state of 
 her millennial triumph. If it was through the tumult 
 and the terrors of the flood that God's cause, in the 
 person of Noah, was rescued from the atheism of the 
 antedilu^^an world ; — if it was amid the tremendous 
 plagues that desolated Egj^pt, and the devouring waters 
 that engulfed the hosts of Pharaoh, the patriarchal 
 church was delivered from the corruptions and oppres- 
 
THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM. 391 
 
 sions of idolatry, and brought into that closer and clearer 
 covenant-relation to Grod that was established at Sinai ; 
 — if it was upon the smoking ruins of Judaism that 
 Christianity was reared, the buried shadows and lifeless 
 forms of the abolished economy giving place to the glo- 
 rious substance and living realities of the gospel ; — if, 
 in a word, some great struggle has signalized every 
 one of those successive steps by which God's cause in 
 this fallen world has been lifted up to a higher and a 
 higher level in its progress towards that perfection of 
 truth and holiness, when even to the principalities and 
 powers in heavenly places shall be made known by the 
 church the manifold wisdom of God ; — even if we had 
 no definite information to guide us, it were surely no 
 extravagance to suppose that the transition from the 
 church's present condition of weakness and suffering, to 
 the jubilee of her millennial strength and joy, is to be no 
 exception to the rule, but will, on the contrary, be ef- 
 fected at the expense of trials, and amid the shock of 
 conflicts not less memorable than any which have gone 
 before. And what else but such a period of earthquake, 
 convulsion, and far reaching overthrow, is it which 
 many prophecies, pointing to the very times in question, 
 so vividly and impressively describe ? " And I saw," says 
 the apostle John, " an angel standing in the sun ; and 
 he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that 
 fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves 
 together unto the supper of the great God : that ye may 
 eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the 
 flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them 
 that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and 
 bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and 
 the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered toge- 
 
392 THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM. 
 
 ther to make war against him that sat on the horse, and 
 against his army," (Rev. xix. 17-19). Such is the fierce 
 array, through whose embattled ranks, and over whose 
 routed and scattered legions, Christ's long oppressed and 
 afflicted kingdom is to emerge into the sunshine of vic- 
 tory, when the kingdoms of this world shall become uni- 
 versally the kingdoms of our Lord. And if it indeed be 
 so, as is undoubtedly the prevailing belief among the 
 interpreters of scripture prophecy, that this eventful 
 epoch is drawing nigh, — if such things as these be " at 
 hand," — what need is there for this urgent and solemn 
 call to the people of God everywhere ; " Be ye therefore 
 sober, and watch unto prayer." 
 
 If the views which these general observations embody, 
 have any solid foundation in truth, they will be found 
 so far to indicate the prospects of Christendom as sufl&- 
 ciently to justify the application now made to them of 
 the words of our text. If an army of limited numbers 
 and resources were encamped in an enemy's country, 
 and if, after a long respite of comparative quiescence 
 and inactivity, hostile musterings and movements were 
 appearing on every hand ; if confederacies were evidently 
 forming among parties hitherto divided ; if posts were 
 in the course of being seized, manned, and fortified, 
 which formerly had been neglected or abandoned ; if a 
 spirit of new life, energy, and confidence, were seen to 
 be animating and combining the gathering hosts of the 
 adversary ; if, instead of maintaining as at other times, 
 and that but languidly, an attitude of defence, they were 
 now assuming the position of a bold and vigorous assail- 
 ing force, attacking outposts, cutting off supplies, and 
 making threatening and alarming demonstrations against 
 the main body and central stronghold of the invading 
 
THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM. 39B 
 
 power, — what would we expect the leader of such a be- 
 leaguered army, as he passed through the lines, to be re- 
 peating at every turn, and enjoining earnestly upon all, 
 but just such an exhortation to strictest sobriety and vi- 
 gilance as our text contains ? And if, moreover, in ad- 
 dition to all these external dangers, dissension and dis- 
 affection were found to be lamentably prevalent within, 
 — daily desertions to the enemy, or attempts traitorously 
 to display the enemy's banner, in one portion of the 
 camp, and fatal divisions and enmities paralyzing an- 
 other, — would not these painful circumvStances be expected 
 only to necessitate on the part of all who were truly faith- 
 ful, a still more rigid self-command, and a still more sleep- 
 less watchfulness ? And this, brethren, let me say, without 
 any figure, is, I fear, at this moment the literal condition 
 of the Church of Christ, — everywhere menaced by the 
 augmenting influence of popery and political infidelity, 
 in some quarters leaguing with these hostile powers, and 
 at the same time fatally weakened and dishonoured by 
 prevailing and long-cherished discords and alienations 
 among its friends. I apprehend it is by taking a some- 
 what closer review of the state of things at which I have 
 thus briefly glanced, that we shall best be enabled to 
 form something like an intelligent opinion on the subject 
 of this lecture, — the present prospects of Christendom. 
 And here it may be necessary to say, in order to 
 guard myself against the appearance of rashness and 
 presumption, which the very attempt to handle such a 
 subject may involve, that I am deeply sensible both of 
 my own insufficiency for a task imposed upon me by 
 others, and also that, from its very nature, it is a task, 
 in prosecutiug which even the most comprehensive mind 
 and the most penetrating foresight may be so easily de- 
 
394 THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM. 
 
 ceived. If, however, the statements on the subject 
 which I am enabled to make, shall be blessed to stir up 
 among any of the people of God a spirit of greater so- 
 briety, of more constant watchfulness, and of more ear- 
 nest prayer, they will not have been submitted in vain. 
 
 In casting our eyes abroad over Christendom, at the 
 present day, there are certain things, great moral phe- 
 nomena, as they may well be called, which can hardly 
 fail to strike and arrest even the most careless mind. 
 
 I. The first, and not the least remarkable, of these 
 phenomena, is, that almost all existing institutions, both 
 religious and political, appear to be in a state of disso- 
 lution. Uncertainty and change have become the order 
 of the day. And to such an extent is this the case, that 
 hardly anything that now occurs in the hurrying course 
 of events, however startling in its own nature, and how- 
 ever pregnant with consequences, has power to stir or 
 to fix the public mind. From whatever eminence, as 
 our point of observation, we look down on the vast field 
 of public afiairs, illustrations of this state of things crowd 
 upon the eye. On social and political movements it is 
 not my province to expatiate. It is impossible, however, 
 for any thoughtful on-looker not to be amazed at the 
 suddenness and the greatness of those changes which in 
 this department are constantly presenting themselves to 
 our view. Revolutions of opinion, and of consequent 
 social and political action, which formerly were the work 
 of a century, are in these days developed and consummated 
 in a few months. Enterprizes, too, of surprising magni- 
 tude, destined, to a great extent, to alter the condition 
 and relations of society and of the world, — enterprizes, 
 for example, like those connected with our railroad 
 system, which the skill, and the capital, and the labour 
 
THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM. 395 
 
 of a whole age, would in other times have been deemed 
 insufficient to achieve, — are now accomplished as if with 
 the touch of a magician's wand. Old party names, which 
 had come down to us embalmed in all the clear and 
 well-established associations of history, have almost 
 ceased to mean any thing, — or any thing at least which 
 they meant before. Political men hardly know what 
 designation to assume, or what leader to follow, — all the 
 ancient landmarks which were wont to define and re- 
 gulate their course having been swept away. It is as if 
 two mighty armies had broken up their encampment 
 simultaneously at the dead of night, and in the confu- 
 sion and darkness had become so helplessly intermingled, 
 that when the day dawned no man could tell under what 
 banner he was marching, or against what foes. 
 
 But without extending this class of observations, 
 for which, let me only remark in passing, materials 
 might be found in almost every other country nearly as 
 abundant as in our own, I turn, as to a more familiar 
 and congenial region, to glance at religious institutions. 
 In them, too, what shakings are taking place, what dis- 
 locations, what dismemberments ! From the one side of 
 Europe to the other religious questions are agitating 
 the public mind. In all directions they are crossing 
 the path, and perplexing the cabinets of secular states- 
 men. Truth and conscience — words which to such men 
 are utterly incomprehensible — are everywhere asserting 
 the claims of the Church of Christ and of its members, 
 at the expense of hazards and losses, which as much 
 baffle the calculations as they disturb the plans of the 
 politicians of this world. It is as if some new and 
 strange element were now mingling in human affairs — 
 an element which, while it is insoluble itself by any 
 
396 THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM. 
 
 chemistry known to courts and parliaments, operates to 
 their dismay like a universal solvent in the midst of their 
 wisest and wiliest schemes. That this is no idle ima- 
 gination, but a living and widely operative reality, how 
 many things have recently occurred, and are at this mo- 
 ment taking place, to testify. Witness the great events 
 in our own country, which have rent in sunder, as with 
 the shock of an earthquake, what all were agreed to re- 
 gard as the most efficient, the best constituted, and 
 therefore, morally speaking, the strongest and securest 
 national religious establishment in existence. And who 
 can doubt, that the same blow which shook that institu- 
 tion to its very foundations, and has left it the weakened 
 and dishonoured thing that it now is, by breaking down 
 its spiritual independence, and compelling it to give into 
 the hands of Cassar the things of God — has at the same 
 time loosened the foundations of every other national 
 church in Great Britain and throughout the world. 
 Witness, to the same effect, the recent convulsion in the 
 Canton de Vaud, where similar causes, operating upon 
 the mind and conscience of a church instructed and ani- 
 mated by the example of Scotland, have accomplished 
 precisely similar results : and where, as we fondly hope 
 and believe, evangelism, springing up like another phoenix 
 from the ashes of that fire of persecution in which it is 
 meant to be consumed, will be found soaring aloft with 
 renovated wing, and diffusing its blessed spirit over the 
 whole length and breadth of that magnificent alpine 
 region, in which Zwingle and Farel built for it an habi- 
 tation three hundred years ago. Witness, once more, 
 the reeling to and fro of the churches of Germany — the 
 attempts to bind together by the coercive power of a 
 regal ordinance the Lutheran and Calvinistic branches 
 
THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM. 6\) i 
 
 of the reformation — the felt pressure of the galling yoke 
 of Erastian domination, and the consequent struggles 
 and longings after spiritual liberty — the frequent con- 
 ferences now taking place, with a view to some better 
 organization and some new development — all these ex- 
 pressively indicative of the complete breaking up of old 
 ideas and associations, and unequivocally portending 
 the approach of some new order of things. Nay, as if 
 nothing whatever connected with the existing state of 
 religious institutions could withstand the influences 
 which are now at work, casting all things as it were into 
 another mould; even Judaism itself, stereotyped though 
 it has been in all the rigidity of its ancient ritualism for 
 eighteen centuries, is melting down into new shapes, and 
 preparing, as we trust, to receive other and more glorious 
 impressions. The Talmud on the one side, and the Old 
 Testament scriptures on the other, are fast becoming 
 the rallying points of a vehement controversy, which 
 everywhere is dividing the rabbis and the synagogues, 
 and shaking with an unwonted commotion the dry bones 
 of the house of Israel. 
 
 Nor is it by any means within the limits of Christen- 
 dom alone, that religion and its institutions are exhi- 
 biting these symptoms of a powerful and prevailing ten- 
 dency towards some new evolution of their principles 
 or adjustment of their claims. The great systems of 
 false religion which hitherto have reigned supreme in 
 many a wide region of the earth, appear to be sinking 
 under the paralysis of age — waxing old, as if ready to 
 vanish away. Mahometanism, which once carried the 
 lies of the false prophet on the point of its bloody scimitar 
 over half the world, has shrunk into an efl'ete and en- 
 feebled superstition : the Euphrates is drying up. The 
 
398 THE PROSPECTS OP CHRISTENDOM. 
 
 gigantic system of idolatry which has so long reigned 
 paramount among the millions of Hindhusthan, is yield- 
 ing before the advancing tide of European science and 
 missionary zeal, giving promise that those magnificent 
 plains which are now re-echoing to the battles of the war- 
 rior, with their confused noise and garments rolled in 
 blood, shall yet hear the glad sound of the gospel of 
 peace, and become rich in the blessings of that king- 
 dom which is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the 
 Holy Ghost. Even China, so long hermetically sealed, 
 has been suddenly thrown open, not to commerce alone, 
 but to the word of God ! In a word, turn to what 
 quarter you will, there is a sound of coming change. 
 The snows and the stillness of a long winter of spiritual 
 desolation and death are feeling the breath of spring ; 
 an'd though it may be the terrific rending of the icefields, 
 and the hollow thunder of the falling avalanche, and 
 the threatening floods of the swollen and turbid river, 
 that are destined to herald its approach, the genial sum- 
 mer and the appointed weeks of harvest sliall come, 
 when " the earth shall yield her increase ; and God, even 
 our own God, shall bless us." For then shall " His way 
 be known upon the earth, and his saving health among 
 all nations," (Psal. Ixvii. 6, 2). 
 
 II. ^¥hen Saul, in the extremity of his afiairs, went 
 down to Endor to inquire of the woman that had a fa- 
 miliar spirit, there was seen ascending and emerging 
 from amid the smoke and darkness of her incantations, 
 an awful form that struck the beholder with terror. 
 Assuredly there is a form more real, and not less alarm- 
 ing, coming forth at this moment, swelling into gigantic 
 proportions, and frowning ominously upon the cause of 
 
THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM. 399 
 
 God, from amid the disorder and confusion of those dis- 
 solving institutions which I have endeavoured to describe. 
 For when we fix our eye and look steadily through the 
 mist of those manifold changes which are passing so ra- 
 pidly, in these eventful times, on the whole framework 
 and condition of the churches and nations of the earth, 
 what do we discern? What institution among those 
 called religious is it, that is gathering new strength and 
 fresh resources when others are losing them — that is be- 
 coming more compact and finn when others are broken 
 by violence or yielding to decay — that is maintaining 
 and extending its unity when others are rending in 
 pieces — that is arming itself with the weapons and sur- 
 rounding itself with the buttresses of political power, when 
 others are forfeiting the countenance or encountering 
 the enmity of the State ? If change, all-pervading change 
 and dissolution, be the first of those moral phenomena, 
 of those signs of the times which now strike the observ- 
 ing mind — unquestionably the rise and growth of a re- 
 invigorated Popery, in the midst of that change and dis- 
 solution, is the second. Look at the position it has al- 
 ready attained in these kingdoms of our own ! By what 
 sudden and unexpected strides has it risen up from its 
 comparatively recent condition of lifeless impotence, to 
 the prominence and influence of a chief estate of the 
 realm. Emancipated from the political exclusion and 
 disability which its own misdeeds had imposed, it now 
 lifts its head in courts and parliaments. In deference to 
 its authority, the Legislature is fast effacing from the 
 British Constitution every trace of that deep and deserved 
 condemnation of it which a people, rescued from its 
 tyranny and its soul-destroying delusions, had unani- 
 mously pronounced. And not contented with such con- 
 
400 THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM. 
 
 cessions as these, it claims to be re-invested, in Ireland 
 at least, with that place of ascendency from which the 
 Reformation threw it down. Nay, as if even in the 
 most enlightened of the nations men were once more 
 given over to strong delusion that they should believe 
 a lie, we behold the Protestant Church and Universities 
 of England daily sending forth crowds of their clergy and 
 their graduates to embrace the very errors which these 
 institutions were designed to expose and condemn. 
 
 Nor is it in this country alone that the Romish apos- 
 tasy, which the wise men of this world had imagined to 
 be obsolete and dead, is regaining its last ground and 
 endangering once more the cause of the gospel and the 
 civil and religious liberties of mankind. Jesuitism, 
 which is Rome's right hand, recovered from the palsy 
 under which during last century it had shrunk and 
 withered, is again everywhere secretly at work. Like 
 the assassin who skulks in the dark, or slips stealthily 
 through the crowd with his stiletto in his sleeve, it is 
 incessantly prosecuting its insidious efforts to destroy 
 truth and freedom, and whatever is adverse to Rome. 
 We behold it by its successful machinations consigning 
 Spain to a new career of degradation and darkness, re- 
 storing those monastic institutions and that priestly 
 tyranny which have kept one of the finest populations 
 in Europe for centuries in a state of barbarism and 
 bondage. In the high Alps, we find it arming a brave 
 but superstitious peasantry, and inciting them to deeds 
 of violence and blood in defence of the very system 
 which robs them of the gospel of salvation. In France, 
 we see it grasping at the seats of learning and at all the 
 educational institutions of the kingdom, and compelling 
 science and statesmen to give way to its usurpations, 
 
THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM. 401 
 
 that it may stop every avenue that would let in the light 
 of heaven upon the youthful mind. In Madeira, it is 
 stifling the little flock of Christ in dungeons ; and in 
 Tahiti, exterminating the blessed fruits of missionary 
 labour with fire and sword. And finally, that all may 
 see and know how anti-christ feels himself strengthened 
 by the busy agency of this mysterious malignant power, 
 he begins as of old to disjDlay his lying signs and wonders, 
 and to speak with new boldness and blasphemy, as if 
 his were the voice of God. 
 
 But furthermore, and what is perhaps the most re- 
 markable circumstance of all in connection with this 
 returning ascendency of Rome, the kings of the earth 
 are, so to speak, making over anew their power to the 
 beast. Spain, that was till recently in a state of politi- 
 cal rebellion against the pope, has once more cast its 
 crown at his feet. France, the jealous inheritor of the 
 Gi-allican liberties, has succumbed, in the vital question 
 of the Jesuits, to his decision. Even Prussia has com- 
 promised the ground which she took on the question of 
 marriages. The sending of a British envoy to the papal 
 court and receiving a nuncio from it in return, a traf- 
 ficking with anti-christ which our country has repudiated 
 for centuries, is now evidently with our statesmen only a 
 question of time. Nay, stranger and more striking than all, 
 the head of the Greek Church, the representative of the 
 most ancient schism that disputed the supremacy of the 
 Roman See. has recently appeared in the Vatican in the 
 person of the imperial autocrat of all the Russias, do- 
 ing homage to his hereditary antagonist. The Russian 
 Emperor, who domineers, as the very embodiment of 
 the Erastian principle, over the Greek or Eastern Church, 
 and the Pope, who lords it in the opposite extreme of 
 
 c c 
 
402 THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM. 
 
 spiritual despotism over the Latin or Western Church, 
 have met and shaken hands. The leaguing of such per- 
 sonages, whatever else it may have meant to accomplish, 
 cannot, any more than the friendship of Pontius Pilate 
 and Herod, have been designed for any good to the 
 cause or the people of God. But of this at least it is 
 undoubtedly a very pregnant indication and example, 
 that the time seems again to have come when in mat- 
 ters of religion, not Christ but anti-christ is to look for 
 the favours of the civil power. 
 
 III. But, blessed be God, in estimating the prospects 
 of Christendom, there are yet other elements to be taken 
 into account besides those which we have thus surveyed. 
 If nothing were to be descried in the field of vision 
 which Christendom presents, save the growing power 
 and prevalence of popery, rising and spreading itself 
 abroad among the dislocated, and scattered, and broken 
 institutions of Protestantism, the future would be dark 
 indeed. But it is not so. On the contrary, there is a 
 bud of precious promise and of ultimate prosperity in 
 many of those very events, which in themselves, and for 
 the present, may seem to be the most discouraging. 
 It is returning life that is begetting so many commotions. 
 It is the attractive power of love to Christ that has been 
 rupturing the many bonds that would have kept the 
 churches at a distance froni,-their glorious Lord. It is 
 an increasing sense of the absolute necessity, and the 
 infinite worth of His blessing, that has been causing them 
 willingly to leave so many other things behind ; things, 
 such as worldly goods, civil status, state protection or 
 favour, not unimportant in themselves or in their own 
 place, but to be cast away with abhorrence when ten- 
 
THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM. 403 
 
 dered as the price of disloyalty to the king of Zion. 
 Who that knows any thing of the hidden springs and ac- 
 tual history of our own disruption, can hesitate for a 
 moment to trace it up to such causes as these ! And 
 who that is even moderately conversant with the religious 
 movements of the Continent, the secessions in Holland, 
 the increasing difl&culties of Protestantism in France, 
 the demissions and consequent persecutions of the pastors 
 in Switzerland, the agitations of the church in Germany, 
 can need to be told that they are all of them springing 
 from a similar source. Nay, if we only search with a 
 spiritual eye either into the unwonted activity and en- 
 ergy of popery on the one hand, or into the growing 
 aversion and disfavour shewn by the civil power to the 
 claims and the principles of Christ's church on the other, 
 it will be found that to a great extent the same expla- 
 nation has still to be given. It is revived evangelical 
 Protestantism, with its earnest preaching of justification 
 by faith alone, with its widely circulating Bible, its mis- 
 sionary spirit, and its many busy agencies, that have been 
 sounding a loud note of alarm through the dominions of 
 the Ptoman antichrist, and calling forth into new vigour 
 the long dormant energies of the mystery of iniquity. 
 
 And even so it is, because the church of Christ has 
 been leaning less upon politics and more upon the word 
 of God, has been becoming less secular, and therefore less 
 accommodating — more spiritual, and therefore more 
 strict and unyielding in its claims on conscience and its 
 calls to duty ; therefore it is that, crossing the world's 
 path and reproving the world's ways, it is coming to ex- 
 perience the unchanging truth of that saying of our 
 Lord, " If ye were of the world, the world would love 
 his own : but because ye are not of the world, but I 
 
404 THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM. 
 
 have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world 
 hateth you," (John xv. 19). 
 
 And once more still, the very same cause, this closer 
 union to Christ, into which so many of the various de- 
 tached and seemingly broken and scattered fragments 
 of the one church catholic, have thus been mercifully 
 brought ; this it is that chiefly has been sending a deepen- 
 ing thrill of sympathetic feeling from one end of Christen- 
 dom to the other, and giving birth to those longings for 
 Christian union, which are beginning to breathe like notes 
 of heavenly peace and concord over the long-estranged 
 and divided families of the children of God. 
 
 These also are signs of the times, signs that streak 
 the darkening heavens like the bow in the cloud, tell- 
 ing us that big with tempest as the gathering elements of 
 mischief may be, they shall not become a flood to destroy 
 the Redeemer's cause, but only prove as a passing storm, 
 first purifying the house of God, then shattering with its 
 thunderbolts the seat of the beast and the kingdom of 
 the devil, and finally breaking away into the glorious 
 sunshine of the universal reign of Christ. 
 
 IV. It is upon such considerations as these that the 
 Christian may perhaps venture to found some views of 
 the prospects of Christendom. If these considerations be 
 not an idle dream, — if they have any sufficient basis in the 
 course of passing events, and the existing order of things, 
 then are the prospects of Christendom of a kind that 
 will try every man's work of what sort it is. It belongs 
 to the prophet, and not to the preacher, to unveil the 
 future ; for even into those things that must shortly come 
 to pass the eye of inspiration alone can penetrate. I pre- 
 sume not to meddle with such an inquiry. This much, 
 
THE PROSPECTS OP CHRISTENDOM. 405 
 
 explicit prophecy and the very nature of things appear 
 most plainly to intimate, that it is no holiday period of 
 indolent enjoyment and undisturbed tranquillity that is 
 awaiting the Church of Christ. It will not be a time 
 for planting vineyards and being at ease in Zion, — but 
 rather a time for Christians to gird up the loins of their 
 mind, to quit themselves like men and be strong ; in a 
 word, a time, and that by way of eminence, " to be sober, 
 and to watch unto prayer." 
 
 In an early part of this discourse I took occasion to 
 observe, what I trust is now sufficiently established, that 
 no duties could be more appropriate or indispensable in 
 the present circumstances of the people of God, than 
 those which our text enjoins, " sobriety, watchfulness, 
 and prayer." 
 
 " Be ye therefore sober." — That is, as the original 
 plainly intimates, sober-minded. Sobriety, simply in 
 the sense of being free from animal excesses, is but a 
 low attainment for any man. It deserves not the name 
 of an attainment in the case of a Christian. " I say, 
 through the grace given unto me, to every that is among 
 you," observes the apostle Paul, " not to think of him- 
 self more highly than he ought to think, but to think 
 soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the 
 measure of faith," (Rom. xii. 3). In this higher sense, 
 sobriety implies the forming a modest and humble esti- 
 mate of our own position, qualifications, and charac- 
 ter, on the one hand ; and a fair and candid estimate of 
 the character, qualifications, and position of our neigh- 
 bour, on the other. In a word, it implies that chastened, 
 well-regulated state of mind, that sees all things in the 
 light of truth, and values them at their proper worth. 
 The calmness, the self-command, the equanimity, which 
 
406 THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM. 
 
 are the characteristics of such a habit of mind, are pe- 
 culiarly needed in times of excitement, perplexity, and 
 peril. Never are individual Christians, or the church in 
 general, in greater danger of being betrayed into errors 
 or extravagances of opinion, feeling, and action, than 
 when new and agitating events are working and unset- 
 tling the existing order of things. It is just then that we 
 are most in danger of being hurried into the adoption of 
 crude notions, and ill- digested measures, and thus in 
 seeking to escape from one class of evils to plunge 
 hastily into another. How often have great and pro- 
 mising movements towards reformation in the Church 
 of Christ been ruined, or at least extensively injured, by 
 causes like these. And just because such movements 
 are at this moment almost everywhere in progress, while 
 at the same time adverse influences are multiplying on 
 every hand, the caU should come home with all the 
 greater urgency and solemnity, "be ye therefore sober." 
 And " watch unto prayer." — The watchfulness that 
 does not carry us often to the throne of grace will be of 
 little avail. If we think to watch to any good purpose 
 in our own might and prudence, we shall be miserably 
 disappointed. The good soldier of Jesus Christ is never 
 in so favourable a position for descrying danger, or dis- 
 covering the course of duty, as upon his knees. If we 
 would maintain a truly wakeful and wary spirit, whether 
 in reference to the interests of our own souls or to the 
 welfare of the Church of Christ at large, our eye must 
 be often anointed with the unction of the Holy One. 
 And what need for this prayerful vigilance have we now ! 
 what need to watch for opportunities of doing good, — 
 for those doors of usefulness which God is at this mo- 
 ment so wonderfully and so widely opening, and which. 
 
THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM. 407 
 
 sooner than we dream of, may be suddenly and effec- 
 tually closed. Never in modem times, or perhaps in any 
 times whatever, were such facilities given in the provi- 
 dence of God for carrying the glorious gospel into all the 
 earth ; for preaching it to every creature- Let the peo- 
 ple of God arouse themselves to meet and improve so 
 precious a season. Let the Churches of Christ shake 
 off the spirit of slumber to which they have so long and 
 so sinfully given way, and let them know the time of 
 their visitation. Let them cultivate a closer inter- 
 course with one another, and with their great common 
 Lord. Let them watch, not for each other's halting, — 
 but for each other's good. Let them labour to edify one 
 another in love. Let them strive together for the faith 
 of the gospel. And for this end let them pray always, 
 with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit ! 
 
 THE END. 
 
 EJJlxNBLEGH : PKINT£D BY JOHN GBEIG.